Welcome to today’s episode of True to Form, with your host, President and co-founder of Crystal Clear, highly regarded speaker and two-time Inc. 500 entrepreneur Tim Sawyer.
True to From is a podcast that highlights leaders making headway in the aesthetic, anti-aging and elective medical industry. Learn from the experts to discover the secrets of success and pitfalls to avoid when growing all aspects of your elective medical practice.
This week’s episode is brought to you by TouchMD, the all-in-one aesthetic technology hub that educates your captive audience in the waiting room and consult room, consistently captures and manages photos, provides digital charting and consents, and allows patients to take their experience home to share what they learned with friends and family via the practice’s patient app.
Please join me in welcoming your host, the authentic, the transparent, Tim Sawyer.
Hello, welcome to True to Form, the podcast that connects 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 week’s sponsor, TouchMD, the leading all-in-one aesthetic technology hub.
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 the last episode, we spoke to the CEO of the Aesthetic Center, John Wheeler, who shared why culture and leadership play such a vital role in the long-term success of your practice, especially now, more than ever, during the COVID-19 crisis we are all facing today. If you missed it, you need to check it out.
With all that said, I have been waiting 50 episodes to get the next gentleman we have today on the podcast, and he has finally agreed. He’s got a little bit of time tonight. I’m so grateful to have him on the program. Dr. Thomas Jeneby of the Plastic and Cosmetic Center of South Texas has had an illustrious career as a plastic and cosmetic surgeon. He was recently named Top Doctor of Texas by Cosmopolitan Magazine, and is currently an expert plastic surgeon on RealSelf, a website that features consumer reviews, discussions, and stories on aesthetic procedures. He has been named a top doctor in several other publications throughout his career, and is a specialist in makeover plastic surgery. In addition to creating dynamic results for cosmetic procedures of the face, breast and body, Dr. Jeneby is also a national and international speaker on a wide range of topics, and he is highly respected in his field.
He holds medical board licenses in multiple states. If you’re looking for a plastic surgeon in San Antonio, got to check this guy out. Choose Dr. Jeneby and our experienced medical team at Plastic Cosmetic Center of South Texas for your cosmetic and plastic surgery needs, and most importantly, he’s my friend; so Dr. Jeneby, welcome to the program.
Always, always a pleasure, man, talking to you and Audrey, always.
Well, we’re grateful to have you here today, and I’ve got a lot to cover. We could probably do this podcast for three hours if we wanted to, and people would stay and listen, because you’re one of the coolest-
They would.
They would. The coolest and most unique humans on the planet.
I’ve got to ask you. You’ve got this big, bold personality that people love, but what was your inspiration? At what point in your life do you say, “You know, I think I want to be a plastic surgeon.” What was that journey like?
Well, I grew up a poor kid on a… pretty much in D.C., with just a mom and a sister. She came in this country with 400 bucks in her pocket and two kids; so, you’ve got to kind of live in the dirt to enjoy the air, you know what I mean?
[crosstalk 00:04:05]
I know you know because we’ve talked about this. My mom was a Ph.D.; transplant immunology from Georgetown; and my dad was an OB, so medicine was in my blood, and several relatives are medical professionals; all doctors, about 18 of them in that uncle and aunt group.
Wow.
Throughout medical school, I always wanted to be a surgeon, but I didn’t know what type. My first love was neurosurgery, but as I got through neurosurgery, I realized, “Holy crap, you’ve got to be in the hospital a lot and there’s a lot of sick people,” and I didn’t know if I really wanted to do that. Then came cardiac surgery, which I really loved, but even then, the writing was on the wall for cardiac surgeons, that the cardiologists were taking over; so, I had a really brilliant mentor named Dr. Isaac Wornom at Medical College of Virginia, who, as a third year medical student took me under his wing and said, “Have you ever thought about plastic surgery?” He said, “Join me on my service,” and I did, and the first day, we did an ear repair, a breast augmentation, and then a breast reconstruction all in one day, and I thought, “Man, this is pretty cool.” That’s how I started.
Wow. You’ve got healthcare in your blood.
Yep.
It’s interesting how many folks we get on the program that that dynamic exists, first or second generation health practitioners. You went into it in a different direction. Now, I’ve often heard, when we talk to plastic surgeons, that part of being a plastic surgeon, it feeds this creative need that many people have, much like… and not to minimize, but like a sculptor or a potter or a painter, except your canvas is the human body.
Yes.
Did you have any creative outlets prior to becoming a plastic surgeon?
If you want me to be completely honest, I really suck at drawings and I suck at paintings, and I’m really terrible at sculpting, but what I liked about plastic surgery was that, depending on the patient population and depending on your skill level, you can make a lot of people happy very quickly.
Right, and that’s a big [crosstalk 00:06:49].
Yeah, I mean, who doesn’t want to feel that they’ve accomplished something in that person’s life? Who doesn’t want to feel that? You don’t have to be exceptionally good at art; matter of fact, I pretty much suck at it. I just draw little doodles if I have to, but I pretty much stink at it. That doesn’t mean that you’re a bad plastic surgeon; that means that you just are bad at art.
From what I know, what I read, and my experience is you’re an exceptional plastic surgeon, so clearly, you’ve debunked one of those myths.
Right!
One of the things we’ve got to talk about for time’s sake, given the period of time that we’re in… we’ve got a little volatility going on in the U.S. right now, and I don’t want to minimize it. How are you, as a practice, staying busy? How are you keeping the team focused and moving forward, and not just falling into weird thinking, right?
First of all… and I’m blessed, because I’m in my 15th-plus year; I’m in the 18s, so plastic surgeons have lifespans, right? Zero to five, five to 10, 10 to 15, and 15-plus. The ones that are 15-plus can absorb a shock like this and still be relatively liquid enough to be able to maintain some type of team coherence.
Zero to five is going to be real rough, so my heart goes out to them. And as the ex-society president here for two years, I’m friendly with all the plastic surgeons in this town. If they need anything, I’m always there. I always disseminate information, I loan them gases for their anesthesia machine, I loan them breasts, I loan them fillers; I’m not a person that has a bad bone like that, and some people are, and that’s not okay.
The way I’m doing it is, I’m keeping a very tight-knit group of salaried employees that have seniority, that have been with me a lot, that are multi-talented. If anyone’s hearing this, and they’re working in an office, don’t be singularly talented. Be able to jump into anything that we need at this point.
Right. How do you find those people?
You make them. I know your organization has wonderful people that are so talented, and you’ve made them. You’ve done an incredible job at Crystal Clear, and I’ve watched you guys grow, and you just make them. As the ex-head of GE used to say, he was like, the top 10 percent of your workforce are your stars, the next 70 percent run the company, and the bottom 20 percent shouldn’t be there. It’s clearly that you pick your top 10 percent and those are your stars that can be multi-talented, and that can be used in any situation; so, that’s what I have. I have cultivated a good group of stars.
Yeah, well, and that speaks to who you are as a human, because you are naturally, I think, a leader. They call them KOLs now. You’re a natural key opinion leader and people value what you have to say, and I think you’ve got-
Thanks.
It was interesting, I was talking with someone earlier today, and without probably stating it, you actually walk it out. He had three values that personify what he is trying to do. It was humble, hungry, and honor, and I really do think you personify a lot of that, and you could hear it in the first few minutes together. There’s a lot of humility and you’re grateful.
Thanks, man. Oh, yeah. I still drive a Jeep Wrangler with 37-inch tires. I’ve turned into a Texas redneck, even though I’m a Yankee. You’ve just got to show your staff that you’re not somebody that’s taking advantage of the situation, but they’re employed by you, and if you can show them that, you’re going to have loyal people.
One of my attorney buddies, he drives his Lamborghini into work every day. I’m like, “Dude, aren’t you scared that the spaghetti is going to hit the fan?” He doesn’t care. I love him to death, but I’m not made like that, and definitely you and Adam don’t cultivate a culture like that, so I guess birds of a feather, bro.
Yeah, we have to have some [inaudible 00:11:43], but we have to be hungry, too. Let’s shift topics for a minute.
Sure.
You’re very hungry, and you’re also… I’ve been watching your career now for six years, going on seven years, and you are hungry and you’re an aggressive marketing guy. Talk a little bit about some of the marketing strategies that you’re using right now. Medicine; what’s effective? What’s junk? Talk about that.
Well, marketing is by area, so I can’t speak to everyone. I would say that in general, digital trumps any prints. Digital trumps most movie theaters. I’ve done all of these, by the way. Digital trumps most mail-outs. Digital trumps most val-ad envelopes, Valpak. You stay digital, but the one thing people want you to do is be authentic. They will spot the difference in your demeanor immediately, the ones that know you; so, if you’re a really expressive person and then you get real serious on your digital presence, whether it be Instagram, social media, a paper-click campaign or whatever, it all has to match.
Like I’ve always said, I think you guys do a great job at matching your personality. You have to match all the way around, and you’re going to get some people who don’t like the way you handle things, and that’s fine, but you didn’t ask their permission to be in business.
I think what you need to do is match your personality, avoid… in my area, in Texas, I avoid any print; movie theaters; Valpak; things like that. Another thing, I did find that being extrovert and getting out in the community and going out to dinner, and shaking people’s hand, and answering questions at a bar or a restaurant, and not being a complete prick… I hope I can say that-
Yeah, of course.
If you can manage that, then you have to go out at least once or twice a week to just kind of shake hands with the masses. I’ve been word-of-mouth for a long time, but a lot of people know me, and they’re like, “Wow, you’re a cool dude. I didn’t think a plastic surgeon could be cool.” We’ve got to spread this sort of attitude that, yeah, we’re approachable and everything’s cool, and come say hi to us.
I want to talk about marketing more, but as an aside, I do think, when you talk about authenticity and getting out in the community, and spending time and being willing to listen to people… you’ve got a little minor celebrity following; not minor, you’ve got a celebrity following in San Antonio. Talk about how you’ve curated that over time.
Again, I went to every… especially people in their zero to five years, but I still do it; I go to most galas and balls. I give to charity a lot. I give out those gift baskets, and I go to wedding fairs, and I go to women’s fairs, and I actually stay the whole time. I try to stay as much as I can. You’d be surprised; people want to take pictures with you or they just want to shake your hand.
They’ve already made their mind up about you; they just want to make sure you’re not a prick, and I’m going to use that because I like to use those words. They just want to make sure you’re kind of a normal-ish person, that they would be comfortable with you, totally, throughout the whole contact with you.
Yeah, that human element.
Yes, absolutely.
The human element, but I want to ask you this: it shines through, and I have a saying that I use a lot, that the click experience, to your point, needs to equal the brick experience. What they see online has to be consistent with what you see in you as a human.
I also know that, from a marketing standpoint, you’re one of those people who… I just popped on your Facebook, you’re at almost 40,000 people who like you on Facebook. That’s a lot of people, man. It’s not like you’re making movies; you’re a plastic surgeon.
First of all, what happened in your brain where you said, “You know what? I think Facebook, and then over time, Instagram”… obviously, I know you’re curating a lot of followers on that. At what point did you say, “You know what? I think this is going to be a good medium.” Three-part question: when did you realize it was going to be a good medium? What are the things you did early on, and what are the things you’re doing now to leverage that very powerful medium?
May 2, 2010… don’t give me the exact date… Facebook allowed ads to boost yourself in news feeds, and at that point, I had 100 followers. By the end of May, with my ads, I had 2,000 followers, and that was when Facebook news feeds actually counted, and being popular on news feed didn’t mean you had to buy your way in.
That was like that until… and you can let me know if I’m talking wrong, Tim… but I think pay-to-play on Facebook occurred in the last two years.
Yes.
News feeds were organic. I used to get a million eyeballs on some of my surgeries, with about 100,000 views. Now, Facebook has become pay-to-play, much like Google.
The moment I saw that you could augment people’s eyeballs on you was May 2, 2010, and of course, since then we’ve had Snapchat, Instagram, and now TikTok, which I haven’t explored yet but I know it’s a medium. It’s crazy. It’s great.
No, I know you’re being somewhat cool. You’ve killed it with Facebook, better than most, if not… you’re in that less than one percent in terms of success on the positive side.
You do something that’s controversial for some, I think some… I don’t mean older in age, but older in thinking… want to kind of pooh-pooh and discourage, and that is the use of live streams, doing live procedures on social mediums. People think that is just whatever, and you’ve done it successfully, and people seem to love it. When did it occur to you to do that, and how is that going?
Oh, yeah. Well, simply put, live streaming surgeries is the number one way that I get business, beside word-of-mouth; translating that over to Instagram, as well. I would say 30 to 40 percent of my income comes from Facebook and Instagram videos, especially live streaming, because what has happened is, people not only want to use those as a way to know who I am, but they’re using it as educational. A lot of people will come in, and my verbiage is these days is, “Have you seen my videos? Do I have to explain the procedure?” They’re like, “No, Dr. J. I have been stalking you for three years.” Those are the words I hear. “I’ve been watching your videos, and I want you to film mine.” My consult time has gone down from 10, 20 minutes to roughly five minutes at this point because they’ve already made their mind up.
They’ve seen you, they know your personality, they like you, and they see your work, and they say to me something really interesting, is, “You’ve got a lot of balls to put your stuff out there live, because anything can happen.”
Yeah.
I like that. I think it speaks soundly, and haters going to hate. Marilyn Manson used to say, he doesn’t judge success on how many people that like him, but you judge success by how many people hate you, as well. It doesn’t really affect me like it used to when I was younger.
It’s funny, because I’ve said kind of the corollary to that, similar to that, is most people who are doing great… in this case, you… that if you’re a boat, they have a wake behind them; the people on the left are all in, the people on the right? “Ah, that freaking guy.”
How are the societies and the associate… I know you’re a national, international speaker. When you get up there and talk about your marketing best practices and the use of live video streams and that type of thing, how is that received? Is that becoming more common now?
I’d say two years ago, I was more like a pariah, but as it stands now, it’s really almost mandatory to be able to stream something that you do, that you like; whether it be something on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook. The reason I use Facebook a lot in San Antonio is it has the wealthier population in general. Instagram tends to be second, and then Snap third, so I still use Facebook.
Another thing which is really interesting is that I do a lot of the Hispanic population and they’re mostly on Facebook. They haven’t really pushed themselves over. Matter of fact, the people who don’t speak English… I have a lot who don’t speak English who come for me for surgery, have surgery, but they don’t use Instagram; they say Facebook. About 20 to 30 percent of the people I operate on don’t speak any English.
And [crosstalk 00:22:17] about that, Dr. Jeneby, is… I get people telling me now, “Oh, Tim, I’m not worried about a blended digital marketing strategy. I’m building my whole practice on Instagram.” I think to myself, “That can’t be sustainable, right?” To your point, Facebook is still a very viable medium, and people try to minimize that now.
I was talking to someone today I was interviewing, and in terms of part of his digital marketing strategy, Facebook was number one. He was like, “Running my Facebook ads is the number”… because of the filters they provide and that type of thing.
I give you a ton of credit… obviously, as you know, I’m a huge fan. You were at the forefront of this long before people, and history of plastic surgeons in time will tell that, yeah, there were these group of plastic surgeons who adopted the mentality, the mindset, that you’re talking about in terms of social media, and killed it as a result, positively killed it.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, I know
Then, the late adopters kind of… the posers and the OGs, that’s how I would put it.
Yeah, and now we started our Tuesday nights, 7:30 to 8:00, because my wife was like… it’s called Q&A with Dr. J. It’s basically a V-log, and I do segments like breast augmentation and tummies, and I answer questions and I show results, and I talk about procedures. A lot of people, even throughout this COVID-19 problem we’ve had, love that I can get on and talk about something else. They are so excited to join me from 7:30 to 8:00 on Tuesdays.
I stream it to all three sites; well, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. I know people think Twitter is weird, but the reason I use Twitter is because I’m on a nationally syndicated radio show, and the host is mainly on Twitter.
[crosstalk 00:24:31]
It’s called KISS 99.5 FM, The Billy Madison Show, and it’s syndicated in seven states, so I’m on probably in front of two or three million people every week, and 500,000 San Antonians. I do that every week, and it doesn’t hurt that I’m extra friends with the DJ. We’re best friends, like you and me. I enjoy it.
Look, in the end, you have to enjoy this. You have to call Crystal Clear, call the guys, say like, “This isn’t good enough. Help me out. Let me figure this out.” You’ve got to call your radio people, “I didn’t get it. I don’t understand why I’m going low.” You have to watch; can’t just leave it up to some person. If you’re the head of the office, you have to kind of enjoy marketing or you’re not going to get it. That’s how I think about it.
Let me ask you this, and I want to move on to another topic. When you say, “You have to get it and you have to pay attention,” what are you paying attention to, typically, in terms of your marketing efforts?
Well, every Tuesday, we have a two hour marketing meeting, and I know which machine brings in what for the week. I know the service goals of each girl, the retail goals; I know everything that you’ve ever preached; probably not every metric, because that would be a lot and I would probably not be operating. I’d have to actually do everything you wanted me to do.
[crosstalk 00:26:04] Fundamentally, prior to them even getting there, I know you pay attention to website metrics. I know you pay attention to conversion rates.
Yes. Yes.
Where did the business acumen come from, because that’s not common?
I think you know this, but I’m sort of a computer geek at heart, and I used to program for Atari back when I was 13. I don’t know what it is, but I kind of enjoy the kill and the hunt, and I think in marketing, you have to say, “Well, okay, I can see this guy is trying to outspend me but I have 34 percent of the eyeballs on this paper click, because maybe I put the words se habla espanol,” and you do testing.
Matter of fact, on the cover of HBR this month, which I suggest everyone read every month, is Build a Culture of Experimentation.
What is it? [crosstalk 00:27:01] Hold on.
Harvard Business Review. HBR.
For those of us [crosstalk 00:27:06]…
Yeah, I’ve had that for… yeah. It’s called Building a Culture that… the lead page, front page, Building a Culture Experimentation. I know you’re going to read it now because I told you to, but really, you have to experiment. You have to do like Mark Zuckerberg says, move fast and break things. You have to maybe shake things up a little bit, how you do it, and you don’t have to apologize to your staff or anyone for doing it. You shouldn’t have to apologize to anyone.
The other part I love about what you’re doing, and again, you and I have spoken a few times… that you have a great insight, almost like a military general, in a positive way, not just in terms of discipline but motivation in your practice. Where does that come from?
I started reading leadership books about four or five years ago. I read the greats like Hannibal and Caesar, Alexander, and one thing you got to remember is, when Hannibal attacked Rome, he came over the Alps. He only had 12,000 troops left after crossing the Alps from 16. He had about 8,000 cavalry from 12,000, and he only three or four elephants from 60, and he still whooped Rome’s butt. The reason he whooped Rome’s butt… at every major battle, he would get off his horse and be on the ground, and be center of the center. He would sit there exposed, not on a horse, not looking from way up top.
I always tell the girls, if I’m taking out trash from the operating room and I take out trash, and I sweep the floors, and I look them right in the eye when I do it, and you have to sometimes do that. You have to be the center of the center of the line, and that’s how these great generals were loved by their troops. They’re not loved because you’re sitting in your office. You’re not loved from that. You’re just a rich doctor. You have to be center of the center.
Amen. All right, now we’ve got to talk about one more thing, and then I want to talk about the book. Again, you’re unique in the sense that you’ve gone ahead and… tons of accreditation, built your own surgical center. What was the strategic thinking behind that?
When I was hired by Baptist Medical Center in 2003, which was a downtown here in San Antonio, I was given a stipend for one year, and I was made their cosmetic and their plastic guy on call, and I built their cosmetic program and had it for three years; and then what happened was the hospital came in and tried to raise the rates for cosmetics.
I jumped ship from that hospital; went to a second hospital; was there for exactly three years. The CFO came to me and said we’re raising your rates, and I said, “You know what? F this, I’m going to build my own,” and that’s really how it started. Matter of fact, the guy that made me start is now one of the heads of a big hospital in Dallas, and I send him a card every year for kicking my butt. I’m like, “You know what? If it hadn’t been for your stupid letter, I would still be operating and worrying about stuff.” I still send him stuff, even though I hated him, and [crosstalk 00:30:49]
[crosstalk 00:30:51]. You went through another certification with that, right?
Yes, [crosstalk 00:30:55]
[crosstalk 00:30:57] Congratulations.
Hard to get, hard to keep.
I know. You’re doing all the right things.
Another question I have for you before we get the last one, I promise; I could talk to you all night, you know that.
No, I know. We could talk all night, man, and we do at the meetings.
What are you doing around… because now, it’s a bigger issue than it was a month ago or two months ago… around tele-medicine, in terms of conference calls for consults? Are you doing any of that now, and how do you view that?
Oh yeah, we have a robust system where we use a website… I don’t have any financial interest in it, but can I name it, or you don’t want me to name it?
Absolutely. No, no, I do.
Doxy.me. I don’t have any financial interest, nothing to disclose, but D-O-X-Y dot M-E. I pay 35 a month, and you can share files and the tip is secure. They actually have a free version, as well.
We’ve been doing Doxy consults for the last 30 Q&As with Dr. J. I’ll get like four consults after I’m done at night, and I’ll just do them. I’ll do quick, call them, peek and shrieks, and I’ll be like, “Okay, that looks good. This is what we’re going to do. Let’s get you set up.” Yeah, I’ve been doing tele-medicine for quite some time now.
Yeah, I figured that. It’s like anything I ask you, what feels new to the world is kind of Fred Flintstone to you. I totally get that.
Man, I’m going to get you some drinks next time we see each other. I love you this much.
Yeah, we’ve got to have some fun. I’m a huge fan, you know that, and I’m grateful, and I think anyone listening is. It’s a really cool blueprint. Again, little bit of humility; you’ve got to be hungry. You have to have honor.
Honor is good.
You’ve got to go do things that feel a little uncomfortable at first, but pay huge dividends in the long run. I mean, at the end of the day…
Talk about the book. You’ve got this really cool book. I haven’t read the whole thing, full disclosure; I read half of it. I need to get back to it.
Shame on you!
I know, I’m terrible. What was the inspiration behind that?
My grandfather was a Ph.D. in law, and he was a diplomat. He used to tell me, “A man is not a man until he writes a book, plants a tree, and sires a son,” and I think he got that… somebody else’s quote, but I planted a tree and still working on a son, maybe, but writing a book is easier. I wanted to also give back to the community, so 20 percent of the proceeds of the book all go to family violence, which I operate on for free, anyway.
I think it’s done very well. It’s become number one on Amazon in three different categories.
Yeah, amen.
I’m blessed. I didn’t really write it to make money. I wrote it because I wanted to write the book, sire a son, and plant a tree. I mean, that’s really why I did it.
Have you watched Marco Polo on Netflix?
No, no.
You’ve got to. It’s all about the Mongol Empire from.
Oh, it’s on Netflix. I’m going to go home and start to binge it right now. You know that.
It’s absolutely unbelievable. These guys were animals, and you would have been a great Mongol, or a Khan, a Khan!
Oh, sounds like it.
You could have been a Khan.
By the way, do you know how Genghis Khan used to get his troops to love him, right?
No.
He used to form a battle line five miles long, and they would make a lot of noise, and they would herd animals into the middle; the animals didn’t fare well, but it was a huge bonding experience because those guys would herd tigers and elephants, whatever, and they would all have to help each other with this. He knew how to take care of his people. He was a great general, great leader.
Yeah, I read a fair amount about that, and I love that, and you remind me of that.
You’ve got the going, you’ve got the Surgical Center; you’ve been accredited again for the fourth time, which is amazing. You’ve got your marketing stuff under control. It sounds like you’ve got a plan for COVID.
Let me ask you this, actually; probably the best way to start to wind this down. Based on your journey, and a lot of people have tried to get to where you’re at; some successfully, some not. What are some of the life’s lessons that you’ve learned along the way that you want to share with our listeners?
One of the things I learned from you, actually, about five years ago, is get your business ready to sell it when you make it.
At some point, you don’t want to just snarf out of existence and then have all your assets just lingering, so start to make a plan now to sell your business. The way to sell your business is to make it you-proof. Maybe create a [inaudible 00:36:56] that’s bringing in its own income, but that’s one of the big lessons, is that I wish I could have… I would have started this journey a couple years ago, because I’m doing it now.
I would say the moment you open your doors is the moment you think about how are you going to sell.
Yeah.
That’s a huge one.
The other thing I would say is-
Oh. The other thing I would say is, read a lot of leadership books before and during the opening of your business, because I really didn’t, so I was kind of an animal and I lost a lot of staff; really didn’t know that smoke does better than fire in most instances. That’s number two.
Number three, no response is a response. You don’t have to respond to everybody about everything they ask you. You don’t owe anybody an explanation. Those are the big three, I think.
I’ll put you on the spot a little bit. We get through COVID a month from now, six weeks from now, whenever that is. What do you think… [inaudible 00:38:09], ways of doing business, whatever it is… what do you think won’t come back?
I would say people who are… are you talking about businesses, or life, or anything?
Anything that you think. What’s not… society? Thinking? Porn? Whatever it is. What’s not going to come back in fashion that was in fashion before that?
Buying a ton of equipment and being over-leveraged. I think this taught a lot of people not to regard equipment or debt as something lightly.
Yeah.
I would say over-leveraging yourself and buying equipment that you can’t afford because some representative told you you’re going to make a billion dollars on it, which never works, is the main thing that’s shutting everybody down.
Yeah. Again, I was talking to someone today on the program, and he was frustrated by the social shaming that’s going on, by other people saying, “You should close your practice and stop doing this because of things,” and it’s broad-based thinking. It’s the same, quite frankly, idiots who use words like “everyone,” “everything,” “the world,” which is freaking ridiculous.
They’re not really teaching that… okay, what do you want me to close my practice for three months? How many people… and I don’t mean you; you’re a smart guy… how many elective medical practices, medical spas, do you think could go two, three months with no income and still be fine? None!
Less than four percent, I would say.
Yeah, right? The crazy social shaming that’s going on, I think you’ve got to forge ahead, and we’ve all got to be positive. I think… again, to your point, those folks are over-leveraged need to re-think. I think, also, that we’ve been riding the longest bull market ever, right?
Yes.
You’ve got low unemployment, and so I think that covered a lot of sins for people.
It did.
And those folks [crosstalk 00:40:50]. I know it’s not popular for me to say this on my show, but those folks are going to get exposed.
Yeah, and I think you’ve got to remember the one thing that actually makes money are nice people in your office.
Yeah.
Nice people make money. A laser doesn’t make money, unless the nice person is doing it.
No, I agree, and not the fact that you’re… again, you’re operating in faith, not in fear, and you’re one of those guys that forges ahead, and I [inaudible 00:41:24]. Great message.
First of all, what’s the name of the book and where can somebody find it?
It’s called Confessions of a Plastic Surgeon: Shocking Stories of Booms, Butt and Beauty, and it can be found on Amazon. I’m about to do the audio book because people have asked me to do an audio book, and I’m going to narrate it myself, because why the heck not? Why should I pay somebody to say what I want to say?
We have it on Kindle and all the major formats. I’ve been saying 20 percent goes to it; I’m pretty much giving all of it anyway, so it all goes to family violence.
I know that you do a ton of pro bono work in your community, women who have been impacted.
Yes.
As we wind down, let’s close with this: number one, what are your social mediums that people can find you, because they’re going to definitely, after listening to this, want to check you out?
Sure.
The website is…
The website from you guys is www.drjenebyplasticsurgery.com, and the spa website is spablack.com.
Okay.
The names of the other sites, the Instagram is @drjeneby, or @spablackmedspa. The Facebook is a little different. It’s Thomas G. Jeneby, M.D. and Spa Black.
Okay.
Snapchat is @drjeneby, and Twitter is @drjeneby, and TikTok is pending. God damn. [crosstalk 00:43:20]
I love you, man. You’re the best. You’re one of those guys who leaves no stone unturned.
No stone unturned. Maybe they’ll call the next one Leafy Green. We’re going to get a Leafy Green account. Who cares?
I love that. This should be the name of the podcast. No Stone Unturned. Lessons from a [crosstalk 00:43:40]. I love it. I’ve been waiting for this for a year, you know that. I’m super grateful.
I know, I know. I was supposed to be on your fourth one, and I… you got so busy, and I’m like, “Dang, ugh.”
You’re an animal.
Oh, one other thing that COVID did, and don’t forget what COVID did, it made us all have to hang out with each other and call each other, and love each other again; kind of weird.
Listen, it’s been great. It’s been great, and I appreciate the time.
Yeah.
For those of you interested in checking out Dr. Jeneby, he gave you all his social medium handles; gave you the website. Truly a pioneer in the industry; a leader, a leader among men, and a leader among plastic surgeons; and a humble, honorable human in his community. He’s doing great work in San Antonio; encourage everyone to check out the book, Confessions of a Plastic Surgeon. You can get it on Amazon. Dr. Jeneby, I want to thank you for coming on the program today. I’m obviously going to hound you to the end of the Earth to get you to come back again.
I want to say thank you to everyone for listening, and for those of you who enjoyed the program and are interested in learning more about Crystal Clear, go to crystalcleardm.com. That’s crystalcleardm.com. Check out some of the amazing special that we have right now to kind of help folks navigate. The last thing we want people to do is lose their digital presence when it’s probably now more important than ever. We don’t want to do that.
Give the boys a call. We’d love to talk to you and share the [inaudible 00:45:17]. Dr. Jeneby, thanks for coming. Guys, we’ll see you next week.
Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of True to From, brought to you by TouchMD, the all-in-one aesthetic technology hub. To learn more about your podcast sponsor, visit TouchMD.com, and to learn more about your podcast provider, Crystal Clear, visit crystalcleardm.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to the show on all your favorite music apps, including iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, and TuneIn to stay up-to-date with the newest episodes. Thank you for listening.