How to Carve Your Niche in the Aesthetics Industry with Leo Beltran

Join us on today's Les Encres Thread podcast as we welcome Leo Beltran, owner of Touching Glow Med Spa in Glendale, Arizona. With over 20 years of nursing experience and more than eight years in the aesthetics industry, Leo shares his journey from hospital work to owning a successful family-run med spa. Learn about the challenges he faced, the strategies that set his practice apart, and how he keeps up with the latest trends and technologies. Don't miss Leo's valuable advice for new injectors and his insights on the rapid advancements in the aesthetics field. Follow Touching Glow Med Spa on social media and discover what makes their personalized patient care unique.

Transcript

Touch and Glo

Welcome Leo to our Les Encres Injector Thread Podcast. You are out in Arizona and I know a little bit about you, but why don't you go ahead and tell the audience about yourself? Yeah, my name is Leo Beltran. I have a med spa practice in Glendale, Arizona. I've been in the aesthetics industry for a little over eight years, but I have a very [00:01:00] extensive medical background as well.

With over 20 plus years of nursing career. So I've done pretty much everything from, hospital work to case management to like a small clinic setting. This is what my baby is now, and I really enjoy it. Excellent. So how did you make the jump from the hospital arena to the aesthetics field? 

I think, I've always tried to find something within the nursing industry that, that sort of helps me express my artistic side and this kind of just landed on my lap a couple years ago. I was tired of working in a hospital setting and I couldn't find my niche as a nurse.

I'm sure a lot of nurses go through that. I decided to dive into the aesthetics industry so I started taking classes. I started getting more informed about aesthetics, and then I just it just, things just started clicking, I started gravitating a little bit more my [00:02:00] injecting skills developed more, and so it just came really naturally to me, and so I became really good at it

and we decided to open a small little med spa. So I started on my own at first with my wife overseeing my little spot that I had and then about two years later, she decided to join me. So we left our core nursing careers and just dove into aesthetics and that's how we ended up where we're at right now. You really, truly must have found your niche because y'all have become wildly successful in such a short period of time and being a husband and wife duo. It has its challenges. Yeah, and it does have its challenges. Of course, working with your spouse is always a challenge, but I think we found our places, and so we stay out of each other's ways now.

Yeah. So what do the two of you do together as a team within your organization to set you guys apart from your competitors out there? We have over a combined, experience of 30 years in the [00:03:00] medical and aesthetic industry. So I think what sets us apart and what people gravitate to is that we're family owned.

We have our daughters working with us as well. One of them is an esthetician. The other one helps out doing front office work and then we built her like a little spray tan booth as well where people can get organic spray tans and then we have another esthetician, she's like our work daughter as well so everyone just has adapted to that.

 I think our clients really gravitate that we're a small sort of family owned business and that they enjoy coming here because they're treated like family as well. We consistently provide good quality services to them. So it's reflective of what our sort of our identity has been all along. 

Our employees like a small setting, we don't really try to hire a bunch of people just because we don't want that. We want to keep that distinct branding that has come to become touching little med spa.[00:04:00] 

Love that. How do you guys keep up on all the latest technology and trends? How do you guys navigate learning about what's next out there? That's always a hard thing just because we're always busy and my wife especially reads a lot of peer reviewed journals. She stays up to date on what the latest safety protocols are, things like that. We go to a lot of conferences and workshops and now online webinars and so do our estheticians. So that's how we stay updated on the latest protocols and techniques.

 Then obviously we get information from the regulatory bodies as well and the professional societies that are always keeping us informed as well. Yeah, education is key. That's for sure. What is the biggest challenge in this industry that you believe we face over the next five to 10 years? I think today really currently the challenges that we face today [00:05:00] are I think people want that quick fix.

So sometimes safety gets compromised quite a bit. Also, a lot of new nurses are coming into the industry now and so I don't feel like they're necessarily as trained or well informed as to, patient safety and things like that. I think they just dive into it and they don't really do the research.

 I've seen a lot of small med spas fail because of that because they think that just by taking a few simple courses or can just get into the business and and does truly does compromise patient care. But I think in the next 10 years, there's definitely going to be a lot of challenges just because technologies are changing, treatments are changing just I think in general, just trying to keep up with everything, just, everything is constantly changing, and new treatments, new techniques, new procedures, and so learning how to safely administer those treatments and also [00:06:00] maintaining a high level of care is going to be, something that is probably going to be a little bit challenging in the future. Couldn't agree with you more. We anytime we have a team meeting or a sales meeting with all of our folks together, I often say to them, account selection to us is patient selection to an injector. Absolutely. We don't have trusted, educated, responsible injectors out there that have integrity and take pride in what they're doing and like you say, start off a little slowly in the beginning. Do you really know what you're doing? Get that technique down. We don't want you as a customer, because it's just, It's not the direction we want to head in. So I was glad to hear you say that because that is a very important key out there in the industry, especially like you mentioned with the influx of all the new injectors in the marketplace.

Is there anything after, 20 or 30 years that you've been in, the business, anything that surprises you [00:07:00] lately about the aesthetics industry? Oh, there must be something, cause that was a good smile. I think what surprises me is just, How quickly, it's advancing and how quickly there's pop up med spas everywhere.

I think everyone wants to get into the industry so it really does surprise me like we started this a little over nine years ago and now there's a med spa in every corner, especially here in Arizona. It does surprise me that People start and like when I started in this industry, we started doing like dermal fillers and, neurotoxins and stuff like that and now everyone just like dives right into PDO threads and you have people who have been in this industry for, a little under a year and they're already doing threads or they're like, teaching people how to do threads or, it's just, I was always taught by my mentors to go slow, to first, develop your craft with fillers and other [00:08:00] things before you can advance into more, more advanced treatments.

That, that's the one thing that really surprises me. Would you say is the most important lesson you've learned in your career? I know that's a vague question, but I always love getting people's response on that one. I think the most important lesson that I've learned is that this business is very different than, starting like a pool business or, some other type of business.

I've learned a lot from my wife because she manages also a lot of the backend stuff with the books and, things like that and so I never really thought that I'd be learning about the financial aspect of the business or even like the safety protocols or, all the back end stuff, but just simply that this business just takes a lot of work to get going.

You have to basically put your life and passion into it in order for it to work. Otherwise, it doesn't work truly to be [00:09:00] successful. You've got to understand every facet of the business. Yep. You don't want to learn about yeah, and there's things that I've been really resistant but you know that my wife's no, you have to learn how to do this you have to learn how to read the books and things like that. There's always so much more that goes into it. Absolutely. Yeah. When you're working with your patients and they come in for a consult, what do you do different? Or how do you really try and understand their aesthetic goals to meet their needs? I think, that's a really good question because a lot of, new injectors that we've met have asked us what do we do different for new consultations or how do we approach our consultations?

I think a lot of it has to do with with trust. I think the first thing to do is to develop trust with your clients and then always try to develop a robust plan for them and so that they know that you're confident about the plan that you're going to give them, not just.[00:10:00] 

I'm reading off a script and this is what you're going to get and this filler is going to go here. Everything is about, diving in about what their interests are, what they want to fix, what can be fixed, without sugarcoating anything and also setting realistic expectations.

I think that's really key to the way we approach our consultations and people really like the trust building part and the fact that we're honest with them about, not just saying, Oh yeah, this treatment is going to do this, and that, and then not.

Or the treatment not being a good treatment for them, not just doing it more for the money, which a lot of people are like, oh, no, I want to make money in this industry too but but making sure that those treatments are adequate for them and that they're going to work.

Exactly. What are some of your favorite treatments to do? The things that I have really come to, like my passion now is like biostimulators. I think that's in a, that's an [00:11:00] evolving treatment and threads. I love to do threads. PDO threads.

Not because I'm biased or anything but you can really do a lot of things with threads and people really like the results with that trick. If you had a crystal ball where do you see yourself in five years with your practice? I really like education, so my goal, and maybe it's three years, maybe it's four years, but I think if I had to pick five year mark, I'd really like to establish like a center for aesthetic excellence.

Where we can train people, different treatments, but mostly just, treat them about the industry as a whole, I think it's important, like I see all these courses about, Oh, your technique, this, and we can enhance your techniques doing this, but I think a lot of people really do need to know about the backend stuff, I think in order to be successful, because if you just have really good skills, but don't have good business skills, then you're not going to [00:12:00] make it in this business.

Yeah. It's one of the things that we really try and have our sales partners in the field work with accounts on is understanding how to calculate the return on investment because so many injectors are just watching the money go out the door without having the full understanding of how much money they really could be holding on to.

I think that's actually, you're on to something there, especially out in Arizona. You'd have a never ending supply of new customers coming in your door for that course. Definitely, yes. This is one of my favorite questions to ask. Whether it's from a patient or an injector standpoint, what is one thing you believe people should start doing and people should stop doing?

I feel like one thing that people should stop doing are over, overemphasizing the quick fix and superficial results just because it just sets a lot of unrealistic expectations for clients and instead we should just be [00:13:00] prioritizing thorough patient education and maybe long term care.

I think those would be, those are the goals. Every injector should have just because everyone thinks that, just coming in for one treatment is going to be the one and done treatment, but it's not, it just does not happen that way. Now what would you say, other than new injectors without a lot of experience in the market right now. What would be one of the biggest challenges that you're facing in your industry with your business and how are you tackling it? I think it, the biggest challenge that we're facing right now is just keeping up with everything that's rapidly changing in the industry and making sure that that our personalized care and safety standards still remain, uncompromised. 

We're always trying to find ways to engage in education opportunities and provide team training, things like that. Because I think if you don't, then you're going to fall behind, definitely, this business. Yeah, that's one of the things that's really hard [00:14:00] because we're so busy.

Just keeping up with all the educational stuff. Pivotal. It's very pivotal. I am speaking of the pace of how things are changing. I'll never forget it. I was out at IMCAS over in Paris, probably three years ago now, and sat in on a panel of dermatologists that were presenting to other dermatologists and other field people as well and one of the dermatologists on the panel said, Hey, everybody in this room I hope you have good hobbies because in about five years, you won't have a job anymore in your field. And I remember thinking, in the, what was she talking about? And she was beginning the conversation of AI and how AI is going to really wean out a lot of dermatologists because people will self diagnose and self treat and so forth and it was a fascinating conversation. I remember leaving thinking, That's Jetson stuff. That's not going to happen anytime soon. Three [00:15:00] years later, here we are and maybe not to the point where dermatologists are losing their job, but the AI has taken over so quickly that it just really does make you scratch your head and wonder Oh, what's next for this industry?

 Thank goodness we've got the hands on skills to really connect with people and deliver on those services. Cause. Don't mark my words, but I would imagine a robot can't inject the way that a human can. Yeah. We, you would hope not. Otherwise we're in trouble. We're all in trouble then.

If you're sitting next to a leading expert in the aesthetic field, What would you ask them? I'd probably ask them oh, he or she maintains like personalized, patient-focused approaches, to staying up ahead of the trends. I'm always curious to hear how. People are doing that and how they're still able to maintain a practice, just again, because it's, we're so busy and all we want to do at the end of the day is, finish up our last client and go [00:16:00] home. There's even like a meme now that, during Christmas where we're so busy and tired that we, we look like we've never done anything to our faces. That's how we, feel.

That's how I feel sometimes. Yeah, interesting. You seem to me to be someone who has received mentorship, like you mentioned, but you come across me as someone who'd be a very good mentor as well. What advice would you give someone new starting out in the aesthetic field? Do your research.

It's always good to have a mentor, if you can find somebody who you gravitate to and you mesh with. That can lead you and that's not hard to find just because there's so much competition out there. And I think it's difficult to find that one person that you can rely on to guide you through the whole thing.

But do we do your research. Find places where you'll get really good training and then go slow, that's the best [00:17:00] advice I can give people is go really slow, don't buy a bunch of equipment all at once. Don't start offering a multitude of services that you're not trained to, to perform.

Start with small stuff, develop your craft and then once you do that, then you can move on to the next thing. Very good advice. Leo, share with us where people can find you and your practice out on social media. Sure. We're on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok under Touching Glow Med Spa.

And then I have my own personal one at the Lip Dude. The Lip Dude. Oh, I love it. I love it. You held out that information to the very end. I love it. What is your favorite area to treat? Lips? You would think so, right? Because of the lip dude handle, but no, actually I, that's how I started.

I started with lips. That became one of the things that I did the most in the beginning and so I became really good at it and I have a slightly different technique that I do with lips. That is unique, but [00:18:00] no, I like to do cheeks, a lot of chins and a lot of jawlines. That, that, those are the areas that I like to do the most, which PDO threads are very well versed in those arenas. So that makes perfect sense. Thanks for your time tonight, Leo. Of course. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Absolutely.