Live from ABAM 2023 - Pt. 2

Ep. 67 - Live from ABAM 2023 - Pt. 2

Dr. Grant Stevens

Hi everybody. Dr. Grant Stevens here from the Technology of Beauty. I'm here in beautiful Park City, Utah, home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting, and we're here in Park City at the meeting, as you can see, and we're gonna go interview various vendors and doctors here at the show.

This show happens every year, and this is the 15th anniversary of ABAM. It's a fantastic opportunity to learn from experts from all around the world. We literally have experts from all around the world here at the American Brazilian meeting, and we have the very best in the aesthetic industry. So come on, let's go see who's here this year.

Hi everyone. Dr. Grant Stevens here at Park City, at the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting. And we're filming here the technology of Beauty. I want to share with you our next meeting where we're gonna be filming, and that's April 19th in Miami at the Aesthetic Innovation Summit. This will be our fourth meeting of ais S and we're gonna have a terrific time.

The schedule is packed with experts from around the country and actually even around the world. So I encourage all of you to go ahead and register for AIS 2023 in Miami, Florida. See you there.

Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Grant Stevens, and I'm back here at the Technology of Beauty where we're filming here in Park City, Utah at ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting.

And today I have the opportunity to interview Dr. Foad Nahai. Hello, Dr. Nahai. It's so great to have you. Now this is Dr. Nahai's, I think third time on the technology of beauty. Once in the studio once last year at ABAM and then now, and it's such a rare opportunity to be able to talk to you, he's not just a plastic surgeon.

He's my dear friend, and I first met him when I was a medical student in the seventies, if you can believe it, at Washington University in St. Louis when he was a young plastic surgeon, surgeon, just out of residency with he and Steve Mathis. A little known fact that will come out actually later.

In any event, Dr. Nahai is a professor of surgery at Emory University in Atlanta. He's also presently the editor-in-chief of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal. He has held numerous. Titles and so forth. He's the only, no. He is one of only two people to be the president of the American Society and the International Society Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon, the only other person being Renato Saltz who's the host of this meeting.

In any event, today we have Dr. Nahai and I have the chance to ask him about the present and the future and what he sees for aesthetic plastic surgery and aesthetic medicine. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Neha. So wonderful to have you.

Dr. Foad Nahai

It's good to be here. Good to be back in Park City. The sun is shining. The slopes look great. And you and I are sitting here chatting. This is an exciting time for aesthetics in general, for aesthetic surgery, and particularly for those of us who have an interest in facial rejuvenation. Which isn't just facelift it. It does include cosmetic medicine. The reason I say it's exciting is because facelift has made a comeback over the past 10, 15 years with the meteoric rise of the injectables.

People either felt they didn't need a facelift, that injectables were a substitute or wanted to postpone. The facelift and the injectables are affordable, effective, and at least in the short run, very cost effective. So it's exciting for me to see that surgery has come back because I had always maintained as good as the non invasives are.

In some patients, the results can match what you and I can do surgically. But in others, it left a lot to be desired. And one of the areas where I felt it was my responsibility was to tell a patient, yes, I'm happy to inject you, I'm happy to recommend non invasives, in the long run, the result of the facelift would be better.

It'll last longer and. Over the eight to 10 years that the facelift would last, it'd be more cost effective. But it, there were issues. It was the question of the economy or the question of, do I have the time? Do I have the time to recover? So it's exciting to see that facelift is back because a lot of those patients were settling for what I felt was second best.

Now, there was a group, and still is a group who come in and I have no doubt that the non invasives are best for them at their age, at the stage of the aging of their face. So that's one of the exciting things for me as a surgeon to see that facelift is back for me, as someone who's interested in the entire package, it's very good to see that we now have.

The refinements and improvements in the fillers. When I tried to talk to our fellow, I have to pull out a list and show him how many variety of HA fillers we have and try to explain where each is best suited for, what the differences are and where they perform best. Daxi is out. It's very exciting to be able to offer our patients something that's gonna last longer than the neuromodulators that we were used to.

So this is another exciting development. I've always had some concerns about what I call the skin tightening technology in the early days in the pioneering days. The results were not consistent. And definitely maybe even today, the results don't match surgery. But it was a good technology to, to have and have it available for those patients who either were not candidates for surgery, surgery or the state of health was such that a four, five or even a six hour facelift was contraindicated.

So the, I just call them, the collagen inducing technologies are emerging, we just don't have one type of technology. Now we're having several new and more exciting, and I'd like to think, or at least I hope, more effective technology for those patients who opt for it. So it's a very exciting time. What do I see for the future?

Even, even with the downturn in facelifts, I used to teach my fellows, don't hang up your knife yet. You will need to know how to do a good facelift, but equally, learn how to be a good injector. Learn everything you can about the non invasives and know exactly which patient, which modality works for best.

So I think we'll see more of that. I also feel that we're going to see a younger group of individuals coming forward for surgery. So do you do a deep plane facelift on everyone who comes into your office? I know some do and I have gone round lecturing nationally and internationally on what I call a bespoke or a custom facelift.

So we don't do the same facelift on everyone because not everyone ages the same. Not everyone has the same volume loss. It's like walking walking into a, into a fashion store and you want a custom made suit. They take your measurements. You don't just get something off the rack, one side fits all. So I think we're now getting to that stage where,

Most of our trainees and a lot of the younger plastic surgeons realize that there is no one size fits all for facelifts. You have to. Customize the incision you make, how far you undermine what you do with this mass. And probably now most important of all the ancillary procedures, the resurfacing, the lip lift, the ear lobe reductions.

Lip lift has become very much in vogue, and I'm happy to see that. There's several different ways of doing it. And in the right patient and in the right hands, each is the right procedure to, to undertake. I'll mention buckle fat pads. I've been working on the buckle fat pad for over 35 years.

Yet there's a boom. It's a, it's a, I won't say it's a fad because I happen to believe that it's effective in re reshaping andour the face, but so I think lip lift, I think. Buckle fat pad excision will continue to remain the remain popular. So in terms of the future, more refinement of our fillers, as, as we've seen with taxi a longer lasting neuromodulator, we're gonna see different fillers.

We're gonna see them last a lot longer. We're, we've already mentioned, the collagen inducing technologies resurfacing technologies are, are emerging. Dare I say, we're gonna see some do-it-yourself technologies come into my office. Exactly. Come, come pick up this and go home and treat yourself.

You, you will rejuvenate your own face. So those are what I see. But long, long term I see a bright future for us as plastic surgeons. Bright future for us as aesthetic surgeons doing facial rejuvenation. Facelift will always be there. Other areas of the, the body breast surgery, the emergence of the scaffolds and the options to support a breast when you lift it.

Those are gonna continue to grow. And as we've already seen at this meeting, the refinements not only in the equipment that's available to us, but the techniques that are available for body contouring have, I've always said liposuction, the, the myths of liposuction several, one of them is that it's easy.

I'd say yes, it's easy to push a cannula in and out, but it's very difficult to reshape and recontour a body. So a lot of exciting things going on in the aesthetic field.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Yes indeed. Now, let's go back to the face and would you comment on the periocular and brow area, which is to say they're around the eyes and the forehead.

Dr. Foad Nahai

Oh, around the eyes and forehead. I have seen so much evolvement from the days when the only option we had, Was it incision from the top of one ear to the other to reshape and reposition the brow, then came along the endoscopic method, the where you made three or four tiny incisions instead of a cut all the way across.

But the problem with that was you needed a lot of equipment, there was a learning curve, and then along came the neuromodulators along came bottle line toxin. And to this day, and, and this is a surgeon saying this, the most effective way to reposition and elevate the brow and reshape it is still with the injectable bottle line toxin.

Now, there are some other. Less invasive methods of elevating the lateral brow. We call it a temporal brow lift, modifying the frown muscles through the upper eyelid. The area that we have seen most change is on the lower eyelid. The lower eyelid. We had several options, but the best was to cut the skin, cut the muscle under the lower lid, and then work deep to it.

Then came along a procedure where instead of making a skin incision, the incision was made inside the eyelid to remove the fat or to Redd drape the fat. And then the biggest disruptor of all. And probably one of the most significant advances in facial rejuvenation was fat grafting. So I'm not doing as many years the of the cut under the eyelid, cut through the muscle and skin.

We're doing it through the inside of the lid. We're adding fat instead of removing it. So that's totally changed.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And wouldn't you say the same is true with the upper lid? Are you removing less fat now from the upper lid than you did 20 years ago?

Dr. Foad Nahai

Exactly. In fact, we used to say you do upper lid lift isn't just take taking the skin, it's working deep to the skin, working on the fat.

Whereas frankly, right now, most of the time all I do is j just remove the excess skin that's hanging down. Very rarely remove. Remove a little of the fat near the noses.

Dr. Grant Stevens

So you mentioned the body and I'm particularly interested in as we've coined it now, beauty below the belt in particular, cellulite and skin laxity and contouring.

You mentioned that. I agree with you, liposuction looks easy, but to do great job, a lycos liposuction requires artistry and and, and the ability to see the body you want to create, especially when you add fat transfer to fat removal. So what are your thoughts about this emphasis on beauty below the belt or, or aesthetics from the waist down?

Dr. Foad Nahai

It's certainly something that's become very, very topical. We're all interested in it and the reason something all of a sudden gains in popularity. Is because the results have improved. As we talked earlier with liposuction, there was just what we called spot removal. I don't like my muff muffin top.

It was removed. Now the procedures are so refined, and I'll add the word patience to what you just said. It takes time and patience to recontour below the belt and it's become popular because the results are worth it. Patients can see a difference rather than, oh just that little area of excess fat was removed.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Right. I apologize. The group is practicing for tonight's cowboy night here at the ABAM American Brazilian. Party is tonight and it's the cowboy night. So we have the group practicing right next door. So you get to listen to the group at the same time as listening to Dr. Nahai.

Dr. Foad Nahai

Oh, it's good. It's, it's good to have some background.

Dr. Grant Stevens

A little background music. Keep this technology of beauty lively. We've not had this before, so I agree with you. The technology are much better, much more reproducible. I know we have a new cellulite technology that is has long term follow up, that's been published recently in your journal. In our journal. And we're very excited about that and other approaches to skin laxity and body conting.

So I know how close you are to the Aesthetic Society as well as the international society. We have a big international meeting coming up. I know this summer in Athens. Will you be going to that?

Dr. Foad Nahai

I was planning to, but plans have changed if plans change again. We were there in Istanbul last September.

Right. For a world class. Event, world class scientific presentations and Athens will probably be the same. And who knows, baby things will change and I'll be there.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And I know you're gonna be in Miami this April for the Aesthetic Society. Oh, absolutely. You would miss that. Neither would I.

Dr. Foad Nahai

No, we, we, we never missed that.

We're looking forward to it. Miami's a great place to go to. April is gonna be a great time.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Right. That's April 19th through the 23rd. And you can register at the Aesthetic Society or surgery.org to go and join Dr. Neha and myself. And before it starts, we have the Aesthetic Innovation Summit, or ais, which is always a fun day.

And then hot topics, which is always so exciting.

Dr. Foad Nahai

You, you mentioned your paper on basically Subsid Precision for cellulite. I'm gonna backtrack. I am in the fifth decade of my practice. I've completed four decades. And I've had to tell patients that I don't know of anything that consistently works on cellulite.

Now we have something that consistently works, and your paper has long-term results. And by the way, the print April Print contains your paper in it, and that's the one that we call the annual meeting edition of A S J.

Dr. Grant Stevens

I'm so excited. I thank you so much myself and the other seven investigators, so there're eight of us who use this controlled precision, which is a unique proprietary device and that allows us to identify and verify, and that's the key.

We identify and verify, release and myself and my seven authors, we have a one year follow up. And the patient satisfaction is higher than I've ever seen. I don't have quite as long as you do, but I have 34 years of experience in telling patients very similar thanks. We don't have a great approach, and now I don't say that.

And now I say we do have a wonderful, easy, reproducible way to relieve you of the dimple cellulite. Now, one of the challenges is separating out dimple cellulite from skin laxity. Oftentimes, some patients will think that they have cellulite and they may have some, but actually they have skin laxity, and that therein lies a whole other topic.

Absolutely separating. And then within cellulite, you say cellulite. I say cellulite. We can't even agree what to call it, and thus, I don't believe we can agree what it is, because some people have wavy and they call that cellulite. Other people have ice picks, and they call it cellulite or cellulite. This technology is great.

For ice picks and dimples, not for wavy. Wavy is closer to skin laxity and so forth, as you well know. But absolutely, that's important. Patient expectations and your expectations. If you're a patient who wants to have a smoother bottom or thighs we don't want you to be disappointed. And that's key.

And that's key for the doctors, key for the patients, don't you think?

Dr. Foad Nahai

Exactly. Exactly. The, the patients that are happiest are the ones who know what to expect, who can be given a reasonable idea of their final result and are aware of the things that can go wrong. But fortunately, those are rare. The patients that are disappointed are those with unrealistic expectations.

And those who sadly may be misled by their provider that this technique or this procedure is a panacea, it's gonna take all care of all your concerns. You'll have a perfectly shaped body, tight skin.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Yep. That's it. Managing expectations. Exactly. Being honest and real with the patient. Well listen, we could talk for hours.

It's time for you to go do your dancing in the other room, I think. Exactly. I'm pretty sure I have.

Dr. Foad Nahai

I have to rehearse for tonight.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Yes, you are. And I want to see you on that mechanical bull Absolutely. With your cowboy hat and everything. And I hope you bring my girlfriend, his wife down to the party also.

She won't miss it. Great.

Dr. Foad Nahai

Thank you very much. But we'll miss yours.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Dr. Nahai. Yes, we will. Unfortunately. Thanks. Thank you.

Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Grant Stevens. And I'm here in beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. Home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting. And with us tonight is Herluf Lund. He who is a plastic surgeon, the past president of the Aesthetic Society, a friend of mine for many years.

In fact, when I was a resident, he was a medical student. Isn't that true?

Dr. Herluf Lund

I was your medical student. And my job was to basically keep you out of trouble and keep you be outta trouble. And I think we both did it.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, Herluf has graciously offered to come and talk to us.

We are here, as I mentioned, at ABAM. We're getting ready to go to the Western Night. And we're gonna be riding the mechanical bulls, but before we do that, let's learn a little bit about her lift.

Dr. Herluf Lund

Now it's good you catch me before the bull because otherwise it would be concussion post-concussion.

Dr. Grant Stevens

No, I've seen you ride that bull before.

Dr. Herluf Lund

Oh, no, no. I get bull, but I don't do right, so.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, you're from St. Louis.

Dr. Herluf Lund

St. Louis. Born and raised there.

Dr. Grant Stevens

You come from a long line of physicians.

Dr. Herluf Lund

I do. My whole family is basically all doctors and many of 'em are surgeons. A number of urologists along the way. But one of the greatest influences was my uncle, who was a general surgeon, did a lot of breast surgery, breast cancer surgery, and that led to me being interested in breast cancer reconstruction.

And that led in eventually into the world of plastic surgery, where I eventually met this guy.

Dr. Grant Stevens

150 years ago.

Dr. Herluf Lund

No, let's not exaggerate.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Then you finished your re residency in plastics. At Washington University. With the same boss that you had Dr. Weeks and, and Dr. Leray Young. My hero, yes, indeed.

And then you, you joined the practice there in St. Louis.

Dr. Herluf Lund

I started out solo at first, and for the first 10 years I was with my, by myself. And then I kept finding myself moving more and more into the world of aesthetics. And as I moved into aesthetics, I was approached by the largest aesthetic group in St. Louis, led by Bruce White at the time. And it just happened to be a right synergy, right place, right time. And then I made the jump and it's been 20 some odd years. And I'm still there.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And you're a leader of that group now?

Dr. Herluf Lund

Well, I think if you hang out there long enough, they eventually make you the president of this thing.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And that's where you are now. President of St. Louis Cosmetic Surgery. So tell me, how's it going? What, what, what are you primarily doing nowadays?

Dr. Herluf Lund

Well, it's actually business is booming. St. Louis is, despite people thinking that sometimes nothing happens in St. Louis. Actually, we have a very active plastic surgical community.

Its history's quite strong. Our practice is doing quite well. We brought in a new young partner, Dr. Sahadi, and she's amazing and everyone should check out her. She's just booming with great ideas and great skills. I like to say my practice is still going very actively. And so far I have no complaints.

I have found some things along the way that I was just talking to a good friend of ours today, Monty Eves. And I have to credit even old dogs can learn new tricks and Marty has invented a device that I have been, I was literally telling him I can't, I don't think I could envision doing surgery these days without his toy.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That's great. And why don't you tell the audience what the name of that toy is?

Dr. Herluf Lund

It's called Bridget and I, in full disclosure, I do have an investment in it, but I. It's minimal, but it's a little device that you put on the wound and it, it basically adjusts the tension and takes the tension off the edge of the wound and moves the tension backwards.

Therefore, the blood supply is very robust at the edge of the wound and therefore the wound has much better chance of healing in, in an optimal way and less chance of breakdown infection. It, it's not just for surgery, but I can sit there and I've already seen it being adapted in ERs. Now some the places have it.

You, a little little kid gets to the cut instead of having to come in, be anesthetized, all that, they just basically walk in, go clean it up a little bit, squeeze it slightly together, put three of those things on. See ya. Bye.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Fantastic. Well, you're the past president of the Aesthetic Society. And I know you're a trustee.

The morning trustees and we just interviewed Sue Dykema yesterday. And we're gonna be losing Sue. I know as our executive. And we're looking for a replacement. And I know you're on that committee looking and as a trustee, you're very interested. Do you have any comments about the Aesthetic Society or Sue's replacement?

Dr. Herluf Lund

Well, first of all, losing Sue is a, is a absolute heartache. And one of the things before I became president of the Society is I made sure I negotiated an extension of two years on her contract, which just happened to get her past my presidency. And that the society's in an interesting position right now, and there's a, this is a, it, it is a loss when you lose a great leader like Sue, but it's a huge opportunity for us and there's opportunity for us to bring in either outside or even recruit from inside to find and to look at.

the things that we've done in the past may no longer fit, it may no longer work, and we live in a changing world. Look what we're doing right now. Can you imagine doing this? 20 years ago when you and I were used to attend the meeting, we'd have films sitting out there and we were carrying carousels of slide decks around.

So, this is a huge opportunity in the leaders going of the aesthetic Society is going to be directing that society in through these changes in the future. So it's critical that tru the board of trustees such as yourself in that and, and the the current leadership choose well. This is a time to, to really, I almost say, to say you have to move all, almost all your emotion out of it and an, and step out and analyze it from a different view than because we know almost all the people who are trying to, to get into be in this position. We have to find the right person.

Dr. Grant Stevens

I agree. Absolutely. It's imperative. Our beloved society.

Dr. Herluf Lund

Oh, you, this is the aesthetic Society to me is I'm going to borrow from past president. Jim Dr. Jim. Jim Stuzin. He called it his family. This is my family. And I know it's yours too. So, which is why we get to be brothers without.

Dr. Grant Stevens

With different mother. We interviewed, Renato, we interviewed Foad, yourself. A number of past presidents have been on this program, and I wanna thank you. My pleasure. Appearing on the technology of beauty once again. It's great to have everybody. Now let's go to the Cowboy Party.

Hi everybody. Dr. Grant Stevens here at the technology of Beauty in Beautiful Park City, Utah, home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting.

And I was able to get for us to interview Lou Scafuri, who's from Soft Wave. And Lou, it's great to see you back here. Thanks for spending some time with us before you hit the slope. Lou's here at the ABAM meeting, and he's also just came off of stage where we had a presentation of soft wave right here, a beautiful technology that he's gonna tell you about non-surgical technology.

Lou, tell us a little bit about Soft Wave.

Lou Scafuri

So, soft Wave is a company that provides non evasive devices for the purpose of skin lifting, the treatment of fine lines and wrinkles. And most recently it's been FDA cleared for reduction of cellulite.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And Jennifer Walden, the president of the Aesthetic Society, just gave a beautiful presentation here at ABAM and it was well attended.

How are patients doing and what are you hearing from the doctors?

Lou Scafuri

I would say the most important thing is having a doctor like Dr. Walden be able to go up there, talk about the technology, share her experiences for both her patient as well as her. As well as the fact that she's a fan of having the treatments done.

That's, that's somebody in the know, somebody that has access to any technology, any other physician in the world who strongly believes that this technology has improved her practice and has exceptional amount of patient satisfaction. What's, what's interesting about our technology, it was initially cleared for one and done one treatment per year.

And what we're finding is in every practice uses a bit differently. We're finding that the patients like it so much just seeing results, whether it just be for a neck treatment to get rid of the necklace lines, that they're coming back and we're requesting a, a full face treatment as well as the neck.

So we think we're in the early days in terms of really understanding how far this technology will advance. Coming here to ABAM yesterday we had an advisory meeting from top with top plastic surgeons from all over the world. And we have many, many ideas. Of other indications and other applications of the devices that hope we, hopefully we'll be able to provide as an adjunct to the existing device in the near future.

Dr. Grant Stevens

So can this be combined with other existing technologies? Absolutely. And what might come to mind, what might a practitioner or a patient have combined with this? Well, I think today we have people,

Lou Scafuri

Combining it with fillers. In some cases they're using things like a hy, a hyper dilute sculpture or something like that.

And they're doing it both in the same day. The first they're treating the patient with soft wave and then they're going ahead and combining it with a filler. They're also combining it in some cases with color correction devices where someone, 'em, wants that immediate pop where they wanna see something because it does take anywhere from two weeks to see some initial results with optimal results by seeing 12 weeks out to see, to see the benefits of the technology.

And you know how you know better than anyone that patients want to see results now. Absolutely. So yes, it can be safely combined with fillers, toxins other energy applications as, as well as exosomes or anything else that physicians feel are appropriate.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That's fantastic. Well, we're excited to see just where you're gonna take this company.

Thank you very much for sharing your time with us today, Lou, and good luck.

Lou Scafuri

Thank you so much, Grant. You're welcome very much. Take care.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Thank you. Hi there, Dr. Grant Stevens here and beautiful Park City, Utah. Home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting. And with me today on this special episode of the Technology of Beauty is Brad Calobrace, my dear friend and world class plastic surgeon.

Brad, welcome to the program. Thank you so much.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

Thank you. Grant, I see myself in sweaters as you, so I'm somewhere cold. So we're in Park City. I'm glad to be here. It's my first time to be at the American Brazilian meeting, so I'm really happy to, and I'll be talking about one of the popular subjects, fat Grafting, and it's become so popular in plastic surgery.

And so I get the opportunity to share some of my experiences.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That's wonderful.I'm gonna point out, this is our 15th year of ABAM, and this is your first, this is our 15th year anniversary. I hope you have so much fun. You'll come for the next 15 years. Also, we have international representatives. You're gonna see so many of your international friends.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

That's what I've done. So when I got here, all of a sudden it. Just knowing everybody from all of our other meetings we go to and stuff. So I didn't know you guys came to this. So it really, this meeting, you can tell is an international meeting.

Yes. And that's what's great. And Renato does a great job of leading this meeting and stuff. So I was really happy to come and be here and be part of it.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And I am so happy that you're spending this time because you're about to go on stage, you're gonna go do a costume change, jump on stage, you're gonna talk about Sientra's new fat grafting device. Do you wanna tell us a little bit about it now? What's behind the curtain?

Dr. Brad Calobrace

A little, a little behind the curtain. I would, I think this is the deal. Fat graftings become super popular and different areas of the body, we process the fat differently.

But maybe the most important place for me especially, is in the breast. Not because I do a lot of breast, but because in that area we have to worry about breast cancer, surveillance, et cetera. So you want really, really good fat. You wanna know what you put in there, that it's gonna stay, and you're not gonna have problems like oil, cysts and nodules.

So I was really negative about this system when I first saw it, because I, it was an open technique. There's so many techniques out there with other devices. But then when I started using it, Especially with the power of P 180 8, there's, or cleanse, the virality system really delivers something unique.

So we did a multi-site clinical trial to actually look at this particular fat grafting and see if it is what we say this low complications but high retention of fat. And actually in our six month data, which is still early, we, I will report an 85 to 90% retention of the fat, which is really high. Cause I think if we say anything above 70% is really great.

Yes, we used to say 50% was what we expected. 50 60, 50, 60. So it's really, really good. So I'm just really glad to share it. And I think like all devices, they've modernized the device, they've changed a little bit to make it more user friendly. And I think that's really good too.

Dr. Grant Stevens

So is this a capital expenditure? Is it a reusable, is it one-time use? What does this look like to this surgeon?

Dr. Brad Calobrace

Yeah, so it's a one-time use device. I don't know how much it is, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna be assured it's gonna be about the same as the other cost of the other devices. What I think is unique about it not, not only the retention and the low complication rates, but is that you can do multiple volumes.

It can go all the way up to 1,050 ccs. Cuz one of the limitations of one of the products I used before would be about 250 to 300 ccs about all I could get outta the device, which sometimes wasn't quite enough. So to run the device a second time Sure. So having a system that could handle enough or possibly even use it.

Glu, buttocks augmentation with that too, because it has enough volume would also be helpful. So I think it just gives some utility to have more volume.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And what's the name of it?

Dr. Brad Calobrace

Viality. Like Vitality. But it's Viality.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And it's by Sientra.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

It's by Sientra. Yeah, this came out of Harvard. So this is outta Jay's work in Harvard and Dan with the concept of P 180 8.

It's a cleanser of the fat, but not only does it take out the blood and the, and cleanse it, it actually increases the lubricity of it. So it becomes very slick. So when you're, when you're injecting the fat, It smoothly goes into the area so you can lay down very smooth layers of fat so you know exactly what you're doing.

And I think that's probably the magic of the product.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That sounds terrific. So I really love it. Moving on. So thank you very much for that. Sure. Tell us a little bit about your practice.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

So, and you know a lot about my practice, so what I wanted, the audience I wanted or guess. So I think that my practice, I would love to tell you that it was all planned and I, my vision was, was realized.

And I've always said in lectures that you gotta know the end to know what the beginning should be of where you're going. I knew I wanted to grow something more special. But I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, and so I do say all the time if I could do it in Louisville, Kentucky, you can do it anywhere.

So I'm in my 26th year of practice. We have three locations. I have 85 employees. We have a large organization. It's 65% of my business is Medi Spa business. So that's building that. No, what many patients are willing to do, which is non-surgical. It's extremely important.

It is important that I do great surgery, but that's only for a select patient population. We have to deliver great results for everybody and for people who aren't comfortable or who are not good candidates for surgery. So as you well know, because you have a huge middle, many spot, maybe if I fashion my me spot out of anyone, it's Marina plastic Surgery than what you were able to do with bringing in devices and technology being cutting edge being an early adopter and really embracing technology cuz you believed in good technology that it could deliver something important for our patients.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And the icing on the cake for our surgery patients.

And to your point, it is some people are candidates for surgery either because of the time off work or they're underlying health concerns or any number of things, cost and so forth.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

And then main, and then when they do have surgery, maintenance, maintenance of what we're doing. We don't just do this surgery, but we do this surgery and bring them in a program.

For lifelong care for them for our patients.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And you believe in patients for life. Absolutely. I know you do. I know it. They take great care of your patients and they come from all over the world.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

So it's a very big practice. It's called CaloSpa. And then my practice is called CaloAesthetics.

And so we just try to take care of good care of patients and, and be leaders in the field and then go back and share everything I do. Like you, we share with our colleagues. I don't, I don't do trademarking and registering. I just share it, write about it, publish it and try to, cuz I think when I do that patient care is improved.

You know, I can only treat so many people. You can only do surgery on so many people. But the more of the young people, I can educate. You have a fellowship, I hadda fellowship but also just out lecturing and teaching. We're sharing our ideas, our concepts, the things we've developed that serve patients and really serve patients.

We're doing some good beyond our own practice and our own development in our own cities, but around the world. So that's why I do it.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Absolutely. I couldn't agree with you more. We're very much a like that. We all do. Like we're having the same dreams or whatever.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

Yeah, exactly. So we're always, and we're always, nobody's asking me what my future goals are.

They're always ask asks me you, we just dealt with this. What's your exit strategy? How much longer are you gonna practice? And I think that you and I both agree and you just said it, nobody's retiring, nobody's pricing. It's, it may evolve into other things.And, and all the other ways to be involved in it. And you and I are so involved.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And it's so exciting and we love it. We're passionate about it.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

And now you have more time. And I'm getting to have more time to really contribute more. Because when you're not stuck in your office operating all the time it does the op give you the opportunity to get involved in many things and you can really change things then.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Yeah. You're traveling internationally, you're lecturing all that, you're teaching, you're writing involved in a bunch of companies and so forth. Yep, exactly. I'm curious, do you have other surgeons who work in CaloSpa?

Dr. Brad Calobrace

And always looking for new, always looking for new talent.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, there you go. You wanna work with this champion right here?

Dr. Brad Calobrace

Actually come visit me. So I just interviewed two people this actual week to add surgeons but I'm looking for world class surgeons who can come in and really deliver great things for our patients in Louisville.

And go from there. So yeah, always fantastic, always, always building on that brand and on people that I think should I have a friend who I'm gonna probably bring into the practice who's a plastic surgeon. Sometimes people just aren't great business people, but they're really great surgeons.

And then sometimes how you can help them is say, don't do the business anymore. You're not good at it, but you're a great surgeon. Let's make make you busy and not worry about it.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And so that's, I see it all the time with my fellows and my fellowship. They're a lot of great surgeons. But they're not business minded or they're not inclined to do the management side.

So far. That's why certain rollups like the one I'm involved in right now. Phoenix, I think resonates with a lot of people who want to spend time in the or. They don't want to worry about the management. They love doing aesthetic surgery, aesthetic medicine, and they want someone to take the burden of the other stuff off their shoulders.

They weren't trained to do it, you have a natural knack for it. It comes to you naturally and you love to do it, and you're very good at it. Most of us do not have that skillset.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

And I'm tired though, so, so you get tired and there is something there's gonna be said for building it and then being able to pass on something that's really healthy.

Still be part of the management of it, but not have all the burden and responsibility of it because you do have that burden and it weighs on you. I have a sur, a fellow surgeon in Louisville who I'm covering for while he's gone to India teaching Jerry O'Daniel. He said we, but he, Jerry said just yesterday I was talking to him and he said we have a lot of mouths to feed.

He said, so when I go to ski events, I don't ski cuz I just can't be injured. It's that responsibility. I'm not skiing at this trip either, because there's that sense that we have a lot of people that depend upon us, depend on you. And I have surgery scheduled this week and they depend upon me to be there.

So you do have a little bit of a burden that you have to navigate.Let's say to make sure you take care of yourself, but you also there for your patients, and your staff.

Dr. Grant Stevens

I agree. Well listen. I want to send you up to your room. You can get dressed for the panel for what you're doing, and then I'm hosting the co-chairing the panel afterwards.

So I look forward to seeing you. And then I wanna see you on the mechanical bull with your cowboy hat on.

Dr. Brad Calobrace

Oh, I knew you were gonna say that. I saw a picture of you out there with that, except great to see you Grant. Thank you for having me on. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. All you do for plastic surgery.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Thank you, Brad.

Hello everyone. Dr. Grant Stevens here in Beautiful Park City, Utah, home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting. And I'm here with Dr. de la Peña from México City.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

You pronounce it perfectly. México.

Dr. Grant Stevens

México. ¡Sí, cómo no!

Dr. Abel de la Peña

¡Sí, cómo no! Los tacos.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Dígame. No, for my guests. For my guests, let's speak only English. Well, thank you so much for joining us and for being at ABAM again. And you've got your ski clothes on.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

Yes, of course. And I was just telling you that probably one of the great things about doing this meetings, is that we have the opportunity to have science and sports basically ski, that we do not have it in Mexico.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That's wonderful. You can do both.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

Yes, we can do both.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Certainly this meeting is, is family friendly also with children coming and, and wives and husbands and so forth. Did your wife come?

Dr. Abel de la Peña

Yes, of course. My wife always comes to the meetings because she's the one that you help me do all the presentations.

I basically go to the meetings when they have to present, so I see. And so she helped me a lot in all the present.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Excellent, excellent. Are you enjoying the meeting?

Dr. Abel de la Peña

Oh yes, certainly. I think this is a great setting and I know that Renato that is making all these things with Lavia, they do a great job organizing this in Mexico.

I had the opportunity to organize a lot of meetings, and you work a lot when you try to get the, the people that feel comfortable in the meeting. And so that the social things that you do that are helpful for the meeting as well.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Renato and Flavi do an exceptional job. Tonight is the western night, the, the cowboy party party, the cowboy party always the favorite with the mechanical bull and all the cowboy clothes.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

And I'm sure everybody's looking forward to it. To see their customs with cowboys and everything.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Absolutely. So what's going on in México in terms of aesthetic surgery and aesthetic medicine? What's the latest?

Dr. Abel de la Peña

That one of the great things about working in Latin America is that we had the opportunity to start working with a new technology because I know that the restrictions here in the states in Canada are, are bigger than it is in Latin America.

So we started using all the new technologies, like for example, I just presented yesterday, what can we do with a laser in order to raise the, the, the flap for a facelift? So I was telling all everybody yesterday that we start lifting faces since more than 50 years ago. But we haven't done anything in northern to produce more collagen and Alastin.

And we age because we're lack production of collage. So now that we are doing the procedure with the laser. So we stimulate the production of collagen. And so the results are just the masic, because you can still doing the same facelift that you do, working with the muscles and everything, but at the same time, you're stimulating the production of collagen.

So the quality of the skin, when you finish the procedure for the next 18 months, it's gonna be amazing.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That's fantastic. It is fantastic. You have that rare opportunity in Latin American, and particularly in Mego to do that. You're, you're ahead of the curve. Oh. And that's why a number of the studies are done there.

And a lot of those companies send them to Mego for studies. I know for, I've worked with a number of them for studies. That's fantastic. You're very lucky.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

I, we are very lucky, you know I have tried to do this. I put in Mexico, I introduced in Mexico a lot of the brands that we use today. And for example, working with Botulinum Toxin, for example.

Yeah, probably Mexico is one of the countries that the same amount is sell with plastic surgeons than dermatologists. Because when we introduced the, the, the bottle and toxins in the market, I tried to split it so that I tried to certify every single plastic surgeon all over Mexico in order that they can use it the same way that the dermatologist does.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Fantastic. Well, good for you.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

Yeah. Strong work. I think it's very interesting. No, because technology is advancing very. Very intense and we have to keep on on technology because we can have better results and less

Dr. Grant Stevens

invasive. Yes, and more safety. Well, thank you very much Dr. Depen and enjoy the meeting and enjoy the skiing this afternoon.

I look forward to seeing you in your cowboy outfit tonight.

Dr. Abel de la Peña

Of course, you will see me. Thank you very much.

Dr. Grant Stevens

You're welcome.

Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Grant Stevens and I'm here in Beautiful Park City, Utah, home of ABAM, American Brazilian aesthetic medicine meeting. We've been here all day at the technology of beauty, filming the movers and shakers and industry and aesthetic medicine and aesthetic surgery.

And with me today right here is Max Baybak, the co-founder of Influx Marketing, my producer, my director, the co-founder of the Technology Beauty, along with myself. And I was able to finally wrestle him down here and have an interview with him before he goes on to the cowboy night. We're having a special Western night tonight at ABAM.

That's why he's got all this Western attire on. Welcome. Thanks for being on your show.

Max Baybak

Yeah, it's fine. I don't get to be on this side of the camera too much, but.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well you have a face for radio. It's fantastic. That's what we always say in the studio. Thank you. So tell us a little bit about yourself first of all.

Max Baybak

Oh, well, so as you mentioned, I'm one of the co-founders of Influx Marketing. We're also exhibiting here at ABAM, we love supporting the ABAM I started along with Adam, who I think interviewed last year. Yes, yes, he did. My business partner, our CEO, and, and with two other partners. We started coming up on almost 10 years ago.

We worked in a number of medical specialties, helping the private practice at the private practice level. to acquire patients. And we worked for, we also worked at other, for many other industries, but after a while we said we saw, we saw something here in aesthetics and we decided to really focus and buckle down.

And that's what Influx does. And we consider ourselves the, the digital agency for patient acquisition for aesthetic practices. And that's really our niche that we've found a lot of success in being very laser focused.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, you are very successful and I started working with you initially with Marin Plastic Surgery.

How many years ago? When you designed my first website.

Max Baybak

Coming up on five years ago, if I'm not mistaken.

Dr. Grant Stevens

It's gotta be more than that.

Max Baybak

It feels like, I was looking at it recently. Maybe it's just over five. I was looking at it recently and it feels like a long time. But it also feels like an instant, you know how it is.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Yeah, absolutely. And you've done, you've done such a great job both for my colleagues, myself, and industry. You've done a lot of nice things for industry and then along came the technology of beauty.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I remember, I actually remember where we were. You had Marina plastic surgery, had won the best of the West Side Award.

For the gazillionth year in a row there in the marina. And I came down with my wife to, to celebrate and congratulate you. And you were there with Aaron and we were, we started talking about we should do a podcast. And I remember that was where the idea, the seed was planted, but it, it grew.

It obviously your network is everything in, in making this possible. But I I, there was a time when I was kicking around should we do podcasting as a service? There's a lot of challenges in scaling that, but we started this and I, and it's just something I was, became addicted to. And so I decided we're gonna focus on this podcast and didn't know, as you and I talk about all the time, I didn't know where it was gonna go.

I still don't know where it's gonna go, I learned something so much, I learned so much in every room when I get to sit and I like to sit behind the soundboard and mess with the dials.

But I like to listen and I can't tell you the, the nuances of the dynamics of the industry, of the upstream, of the innovation of the people who are behind the scenes bringing the future of aesthetics in terms of product innovation, and you're bringing that together.

Renato always, Dr. Saltz is always congratulating you for being forward thinking and bringing these two universes together of the, of industry and of the surgeons, of, of the tire aesthetics world.

And I'm just, I, I just sit back, like fly on the wall and I love to soak it all up.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, it's been a lot of fun, there's no question. We've talked about moving on with the same show, but going, if you will, marketing to providers more, not just industry especially injectors and so forth, people, the med spa business. I know that's one of the things we talked about this weekend.

Max Baybak

Well, I think there's a tremendous opportunity. We definitely have those listeners. I, I try to look at as best we can and try to understand who our listenership is, who the audience is. We know industry likes to listen. They like to see what everyone else is doing.

Right. We see newcomers to the space learning all about aesthetics, which is awesome. We see startups, we, big major companies and, and so many people from that world industry side, big and small, listening to the show, we do have some more of the forward thinking, doctors, surgeons, providers, but I think there's, there's a great opportunity to reach a larger audience there.

Because I don't know, I'm the kind of person who, if I'm into something, I wanna understand, as I said, upstream, what's coming tomorrow, but get a sneak peek at it. Clearly, that's the kind of person you are.

Dr. Grant Stevens

How, how putting companies together.

Max Baybak

Well, you're, you're even, you're even further up, you're at the birth of these companies, but, but people who wanna understand what might be in their practices tomorrow or figuratively speaking tomorrow, what the, what the patients might be asking about if they want to get ahead of the curve on that.

And it's also nice to put a face to the name, so to speak, and I understand who the people are behind the scenes. You the brand names, but who are the real movers as shakers of the beauty business decision makers? It's really nice to see. So I, I, I encourage everyone in all aspects and all facets of aesthetics.

To, to listen to the show. I, I sit on the marketing side of it. And I find it absolutely fascinating which I could unpack forever. But regardless, I think there's a lot of, a lot of benefit.

Dr. Grant Stevens

I know a lot of people go to YouTube and they go to the technology of Beauty at YouTube. Where else can they find the podcast?

Max Baybak

So really, what I always say, just simplified is it's everywhere where you would listen to podcasts. It's on Spotify, it's on Apple Podcasts, it's on Google Podcasts. And if you just Google technology of beauty podcasts, you'll find it. But if, if you listen to podcasts, you're probably listening on one of those few platforms.

And it's there, it's on a number of others too, the smaller, lesser known ones.

Dr. Grant Stevens

But, and we have an Instagram site.

Max Baybak

Instagram, it's on LinkedIn, it's on YouTube. There's even a little, few TikTok posts, but we'll get someone, we'll get someone helping us there soon more. But it's everywhere you listen to podcasts. That's what I tell people.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Terrific. Anything else you'd like to tell us?

Max Baybak

You know, we, we love being at ABAM. Dr. Saltz is just such a gentleman. And, and I've seen him here. I've seen him all weekend running around, and I, and as you've mentioned when you had him on here, this is all for charity and it's, it's so we really feel special being a part of it.

Supporting the real leaders in the surgeons in the aesthetic space. I will mention Adam and I are gonna be speaking on a panel, actually we're doing a workshop on Monday, on how you can grow your practice in a recessionary environment. We don't know, it's still everyone is wondering, are we gonna, are we going to be heading into a recession here?

We're officially not as of now, but we'll be doing that on Monday. I've been really looking forward to bringing some value to, to the audience here, less about promoting ourselves, just what can we tell people from what can we glean from our, the the hundreds of practices we work with across the country to, to package those insights up and help people here.

So that's what we're really passionate about and that's what we're doing on Monday.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Excellent. I love it. Well, I look forward to seeing you tonight at the party. You're welcome. Thank you for all your help with my practice, with the technology of beauty and for helping all my colleagues. You and Adam and your crew at Influx Marketing have done a wonderful job.

Thank you very much.

Max Baybak

Well, thank you, Grant.

Dr. Grant Stevens

You're welcome. All righty.

Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Grant Stevens and I'm here in Beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah, home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine show. And I'm here with Buffy Clark, who lives in Salt Lake City and she works with and for Alastin, my favorite skincare line.

Welcome. Thank you.

Buffy Clark

It's a pleasure to be here.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, it's so great to have you on the technology of where we interview the movers and the shakers of the beauty business. And you're certainly working for the best skincare line that I've ever dealt with, Alastin. So first of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

What do you do for Alastin?

Buffy Clark

So, I'm the account manager and for the Salt Lake City territory I have, I am a mover and shaker in this industry. Yes, because I've been in the industry for 25 years, so working back in the day for a cosmetic dermatologist and running a practice and then wanting to get on on the sales side of things.

And I've been with Alastin now for two years.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Fantastic. Well that's great. Now you have some new products and some established products. When I've put 'em here, we've put 'em here. Let's first talk about what I call r and r.

Buffy Clark

That's what I call it too.

Dr. Grant Stevens

It is, tell us all about r and r.

Buffy Clark

R and r. It's such an amazing product because really before an r and r came to market, there really wasn't anything to fill that need for that space. A plastic surgeon to go to, to say, Hey, what are the best products to pre-treat the skin and be able to use post before we use For the body. For the body.

So before, we're using our antibiotic cream and those things are all great too, but what's really pre-treating the skin and getting it healthy prior to surgery and also our patented chromate technology we have that's specifically targeting bruising really changes the outcome for the patient and really proves to reduce the downtime, which is huge.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Absolutely no question about it. And we put it on all of our liposuction patients, all of our nonsurgical such as cool sculpting bity, body conting patients, as you mentioned, it helps accelerate resolution of fat as well as bruising and swelling and it accelerates recovery, period. No question. Yes, it is absolutely effective.

Papers have been written peer reviewed and published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal. By Lori, Dr. Lori Cassis and others. It's a fantastic product.

Buffy Clark

We launched a year ago and, and really targeting a lot of these plastic surgeons here in the Salt Lake City area. And really now the plastic surgeons that brought it on when we first launched January, They've had a whole year of using their product and the feedback just really has been amazing saying, holy cow, your scar looks amazing.

Right? You're healing so fast. The patient experience of the feedback that they're getting from the patients, oh my gosh, I'm healing faster. And that's what they want. Anybody that's spending X amount on surgery and then to say, I'm healing faster. We all want that. Right? And the scar looks better and the scar looks better.

So it's great for the practice, but then also it's amazing for the patient too. So it's really, really a win-win.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Perfect. And you can buy it online also. You don't have to buy it necessarily in the surgeon's office.

Buffy Clark

Yeah, and and to your point too, the clinical studies in the clinical data is, is huge.

And that's always what has set Alastin apart is our white papers and our clinical studies.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Based in science, trihex peptide.

Buffy Clark

Based on science.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Thank you Alan. Well the next product here next to me is the latest product. It's the most recent product. Very new. The polish, if you know.

And that's the formal name of it too, isn't it?

Buffy Clark

It absolutely is.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Now here it, you can see it's purple, it's granular, it's a scrub, if you will, or a Polish one. Don't you tell everybody about it. I have it in my shower. I have it on my sink. I absolutely love it. I've waited over a year for it. It's a fantastic product.

It also moisturizes when you take it off, it leaves your skin feeling not just abraded, like everyone likes with a scrub, but there's a certain moisturizing effect that it has. And I love this stuff, so tell everybody about it.

Buffy Clark

Those, those are those triglycerides. And, and I've been selling this product to all my accounts here in Utah and it's been a really easy sell because people try it and immediately they fall in love with it.

But what's so great about it is that physical exfoliation, but also we do have a little bit of glycolic in there too, so getting the chemical exfoliation as well. So we want them to exfoliate. But then to your point They don't, their skin doesn't feel dry afterwards. It's, it's leaves this beautiful glow and it's also super, super hydrating as well. And who doesn't want a purple scrub?

Dr. Grant Stevens

Absolutely. Purple is power.

Buffy Clark

Purple is power

Dr. Grant Stevens

It preps my skin for this product which is for my hyperpigmentation. I can only do so many BBLs and so many halos. I love Sciton. But this is now my daily regimen that I put on after this. Why don't you tell us a little bit about this Magic Spot Cream?

Buffy Clark

It is a magic spot Cream. So Illuminate again, is such an amazing products too. We wanted something that was a non hydroquinone, non retinal formula, non irritating, something that they can be on forever. We also wanted a product that a patient walks through the door and we can look and see if they have any type of discoloration.

And it doesn't matter how that discoloration got there, because we're going to fix it, it doesn't matter if it's PIH or melasma or UV induced pigment. This, this product is going to work on it. So doing the research and all those things, we say, there's so many cells that are tied to those different types of discolorations.

So we're going down, we're targeting all the cells. And they can be on it forever. So it's such an amazing product. And everybody needs it. When you put this product on too, you can pump it on your hand. And not only is it a brown bronze bottle, but when you put it on, I don't know if you'll be able to tell from here, but your skin does look illuminated and really just glowy and doing beautiful too, which you wouldn't expect from a pigment product.

But that's where Alastin's great, because really we check the box on the science and all the things, but really the cosmetic elegance of our products as well too. Agreed. PE people have to like the way it feels and all those things.

And you think a pigment product, yes, it's corrective product, but when you put it on, it's, look at my hand, it's glowing. It almost looks like it has gold sparkles in it. So it's, it's an amazing product.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And then next to you is the HA product, the hyaluronic acid product, which was introduced. What, a year and a half, two years ago, something maybe not even quite that far.

Buffy Clark

Well, it was last March, well, last end of February, so almost exactly a year ago.

Dr. Grant Stevens

So, and I follow this with either the nectar and then this.But go ahead. Tell us about the HA.

Buffy Clark

So HA again, different than any other HA on the product. I remember when we first launched, ha, I was a little bit nervous because one thing that's super saturated in our market is hyaluronic acids.

So I kept thinking, come on to lastin, this gotta be good cause, because I've gotta go up against a lot of HA sitting on the market. And so but as soon as I, I was educated on this product, my mind was just blown saying yes, this is completely different than any other HA product on the market and why everything is high molecular hyaluronic acid.

So we're applying high molecular on the surface. We have our patented Octa peptide 45 goes directly down to that fibroblasts and tells your body to produce and make its own high molecular HA.

Dr. Grant Stevens

So. Fantastic. Amazing. Well, you mentioned earlier, I wanna reiterate that this company is founded on and based on science.

And histology and research. It's not a marketing company, it's a science company. And And now it's owned by Galderma. The largest derm skincare company in the world.So thank you very much for being on my show. You're welcome. And you're dressed appropriately to go to the Cowboy night tonight.

Buffy Clark

I'm ready to party.

Dr. Grant Stevens

I'll join you there. Good. We're gonna have a great time and hopefully I'll see you on the mechanical bull. I'll meet you there. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Hello everyone. I'm Dr. Grant Stevens. And I'm here in beautiful Park City, Utah, home of ABAM, the American Brazilian Aesthetic Medicine meeting.

And with us is Alicia Marett from ZO. Thank you. And she's a local gal. She's here from Salt Lake City. And you work for ZO, one of the best skincare lines in the whole aesthetic business.

Alicia Marett

I would say the best.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, absolutely. One of the best, in my opinion. It's, it is one of the best. We're talking about the Holy Trinity, about skincare, but that's all right.

I love the skincare line. Tell us a little bit about yourself first, not about ZO. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Alicia Marett

Well, I'm a big fan of yours and your podcast, so I feel very honored to be on it. Thank you so much.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, it's great to have you.

Alicia Marett

Thank you. So, I've been in the aesthetics industry since 1997. So even before we had licensing.

Dr. Grant Stevens

you were in preschool?

Alicia Marett

I was. I was, you got that. I was just a fresh 12 at the time. So yeah, my, my background is in marketing and in aesthetics. So I got into aesthetics before we even had licensing. Skin is my passion. I had horrific acne growing up and couldn't find anything to correct it.

Saw doctors and tried everything on the infomercials. And it wasn't until I saw an esthetician who cleared my skin. That was it. That was my calling. So I've devoted my entire career to helping other patients with their skin.

Dr. Grant Stevens

That's so cool. I love it.

Alicia Marett

It's been fantastic. It's been so great.

Dr. Grant Stevens

So the labor of love. And you were personally infected by acne. So how long have you worked Forze?

Alicia Marett

Four years.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And before that, where did you work?

Alicia Marett

So I've always had my own private practice as a master esthetician. And I've worked for a few other skincare companies as. Along the lines, I've had my own private consulting business helping other spas and salons and med spas grow. That's also a passion project of mine, is really helping my partners.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Well, we'll get to that. Have you always lived in Salt Lake?

Alicia Marett

Pretty much. I've bounced around as a grownup. Southern California, Northern Cal, Phoenix, but Utah's home.

Dr. Grant Stevens

And you're a master esthetician. Did you ever use HydraFacial?

Alicia Marett

Yes, of course.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Okay, I just got curious cuz the ZO line is part of the serums that are infused.Among other things like Alastin and so forth. So tell us about practice management. What can you share with med spa owners or people that wanna start med spas?

Alicia Marett

So someone that wants to start a med spa, I would say really focus on what you love and what you want to do in your practice.

All too often I see surgeons injectors, estheticians, and they just wanna do what they love. They don't wanna do the bookkeeping, they don't wanna hire and fire, they don't want to do the marketing. So find someone great, hire out and focus on what you're, what you're passionate about. Otherwise, those things really fall on by the wayside.

I see too often amazing practitioners who their businesses tend to fail because they're just trying to do everything at once. They spread themselves too thin. So just do what you're good at, do what you're passionate about, and hire out the rest.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Sounds like great advice for all of us. Myself included. Well, for all of us. Stick to what we do best. And what we're passionate about. How, how are you liking the show?

Alicia Marett

Oh my goodness. It's been so inspirational to, to be around these surgeons from all around the world. I'm so fortunate to work with Dr. Saltz and his incredible team, both in Salt Lake and Park City, and it's been so fun. I'm such a skin nerd.

I've listed dermatology radio, plastic surgery, radio. I follow you guys. I read your journals. So I'm really in just like a big fan girl geeking out over there in my, in my blue corner. It's really fun.

Dr. Grant Stevens

I love it. Well, tonight we have the western night, the cowboy cowgirl night to look forward to. And you're dressed appropriately.

Alicia Marett

I'm dressed. I got the blue fringe.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Cowgirl. You gonna ride that mechanical bull.

Alicia Marett

Ooh, Dr. Stevens, my mechanical bull days have been gone for about 20 years. But who knows? Definitely line dancing.

Dr. Grant Stevens

Save a dance for me. I'd love to. It's great talking to you. All the best. Thanks for supporting ABAM and take care.