This is Medical Millionaire, the podcast helping your metspot increase in status, visibility
and profitability. Join your host is he dispels miss shares trends, and gives
you actionable steps today that we'll take your medical practice to the next level.
Here's your host, expert marketer and founder of Growth ninety nine, Cameron Hemphill.
Hey, everybody, Cameron Hemphill here your host for Medical Millionaire. Hey.
First off, thank you guys so much taking the time to tune into
the podcast. Our goal is given credible value and insight into the medical,
aesthetics and cosmetic industry. So throughout this journey together, obviously you guys have
been on other episodes and publications that we've done. We have a speaker and
we have a guest. We have a good friend client. I want to
welcome doctor Gregory Buford. He's from Beauty by Buford. This this guy has
a tremendous background. I was taking the time to do as much research as
I could. Obviously we've gotten to know each other over the years since we've
done some stuff together. But I didn't know that you have published a book.
I didn't know that you were a speaker. I didn't know that.
You know, you have been at this since what two thousand and one,
two thousand and one, Yeah, and going strong. Awesome, Well,
welcome to the show. I really appreciate you taking the time. Thank you.
No, I'm on or I've I've actually been following your podcast for a
while, and so when you asked me to participate, I was like,
why not, I'd love to be on the side. So yeah, absolutely
So, So what what got you into into medicine early? Like, like,
was it inspirational or was it something that was in the family or talk
to talk to us about that. Okay, so here's a crazy story and
this is the God's on Us truth. And I actually so a couple of
years ago, I had the opportunity of giving the commencement address in my mom
will moterate UC San Diego big shout out to ucsd UM and I actually I
actually started out with this old story. So at the age of four,
gods On's Truth. Age of four, I told my mother to stop call
me Greg. It was I was doctor Bill, my lunch shocks was was
my medicine kid. And I was going to become a doctor. And so
you know, obnoxiously anyone that we'd run to in the store and soever they
say, well, what's your name, little boy, I'd say doctor Bill.
I had no one else in the family that was a physician. I
have no idea what the aha moment was, but I just decided the ripe
old age of four that I was going to become a doctor. Now here's
a crazy thing. I really didn't like blood. So how in the world
did I ever become a surgeon? Well, you know, as time went
on, you know, I got into this old medical gig. I did
a number of rotations and then I did a surgical rotation. I'll say,
it's it's like car lovers. What's the first thing that a car lover does.
They lift the hood and they look at the engine. They want to
they want to see what's under the hood. A surgeon as we do that
every day and I and I literally just fell in love with it. So,
you know, I have a huge interest in anatomy and you know,
in physiology how the body functions. But it literally just started off when I
was four. So that's that's the true story. It sounds crazy, but
I had no relatives that were that were actually physicians. I just had this
crazy, crazy idea that kind of you know, dropped down the sky on
like Newton's Apple, and uh, I decided I went from there. Plus,
my modeling career never worked out, and you know, I'm afraid of
I so astronaut was was out, so I thought this fall back and this
plastic surgery thing. So oh man, I love it so early on at
age four, doctor Bill, I love it so that. I mean,
you knew your mission from very early on, and you've done a great job
of of conquering that. So well, that's that's crazy. I think like
as a as a boy, you know, we you know, hey,
I'm gonna be a fireman, I'm gonna I'm gonna be a policeman, like
like we always have, like we have those dreams like I want to be
a superhero, right and so um and a lot of people obviously have no
idea what they want to do. I think like a lot of people are
so confused because there's there's so many different things to do. But congratulations amount
on having such like a clear vision at an early age and just knowing it's
what you wanted, and then having the ability of the discipline and the accountability
to just get after it. That's really cool. Thank you, thank you.
So let's talk it like fast forward. You obviously achieve that mission,
you're passionate about it. I know that you have a very successful practice.
Talk to us about the practice, the location, and and really like how
you've been able to not only create a practice, but run your practice like
like a business, right, and kind of the story from hey, I'm
going to become a doctor to like, you know, blood anatomy. Totally
get it. But at the end of the day, clinics are also businesses
that produce revenues and you have to run it like like a business owner,
as an entrepreneur. So I'd love to hear I'd love to hear story behind
that. So I'll start off with a quote I always I always tell people,
if you don't run your business, your business runs you. And the
craziest thing is is whether you're an MDDO, R, a mpp PA,
you know anything. Within medicine, none of us get taught how to run
a business. It's so asinine, it's so ridiculous. I mean, it
blows me away every time I talk to a medical school and say, you
know, why are you not teaching the business and medicine, well, doctor
Viewford, Medicine is not a business, and I laugh. Medicine is a
business. I mean, if you look at it, they're all paying clients.
We're just developed, We're just delivering different deliverables. Okay, I'm not
selling cars. I'm selling expectations. I'm selling a new lease on you know,
how you look, how you appear. I'm giving helping people really achieve
their dreams and that, you know, it's it's really really fulfilling. But
at the end of the day, I'm running a business, and so if
I don't pay attention to how my business is doing, then I mean it's
essentially similar to getting behind the will of your car, putting a blindfold on
and just driving. It makes no sense at all. I mean, you
might, you might get to where you want to go despite yourself, but
I think, you know, the fight thing is for a number of years,
and I've really done a deep dive in fact, in the last couple
of years and in my business because I was successful. But I mean I
was really successful despite myself, you know. I mean I was literally kind
of cruising through the night and getting to different places, getting to different endpoints,
you know, it's been my three year, my five year, my
ten year goals. But what I've looked at really now is I really drilled
down my deep dive into everything that I do. Why am I offering this
service? Well? Why am I working with a specific type of patient?
You know, you really really need to identify that. Somebody was very very
interesting. I had my first publicist. I don't have a publicist anymore,
but I had, I've had several. And my first publicist, you know,
said, she sat me down and says, well, doctor baby,
so you know, tell me about what your goals are and so forth,
you know, and tell me tell me what you want to accomplish it.
You know, well I want to be busy blah blah blah blah blah.
And she's like, so tell me about your actual patient. And I was
like, okay, well they're a plastic surgery patient. She's like, well
you're pretty much an idiot. She's like, if you don't know who your
patient is, how in the hell are you going to ever find that patient
to get him in your office? And you know what, that was an
AHA moment because and I always speak to that when I when I talk to
other medical practitioners. If you don't know who you're looking for, how are
you How in the world are you going to get them? You know,
who is she? How old is she? Um? You know, what
is she like? What voice does she like to? You know, does
she like you to speak with? So, for example, if you're working
with millennials gen zs versus baby boomers, it's a whole different language. It's
a whole different approach. It's a whole different I mean, you know,
think about what you do in websites, you know, I mean, think
about digital marketing. If you're usually marketing to a fifty five year old,
you're going to speak a very different language than when when you're marketing to some
of those twenty five It's very very different. It's a very very different approach.
And so you know, what's been really really exciting for me is when
you dissect out and you really you know, you really examine the business of
medicine, which I've really done. You know. I started earlier with a
book back and uh twy ten called Beauty in the Business, you know,
And why did I write it? Because I couldn't find any good books on
business for medicine, and so I was like, well, I'm somewhat smart,
but I mean, you know what's funny is I have no business training.
So fast forward, I had another just amazing moment. I'm just sitting
in a classroom at a Kellogue which is the business school of Northwestern University,
and the professor actually starts quoting from my book in the MBA class and I'm
like, oh man, I'm sitting in the front row. I mean,
I think I turned a bright shade of red. I'm like, the hell.
I'm like, I'm like, You're like, you're a really smart profession
I'm like, couldn't you find someone else to quote? I'm like, I'm
an idiot. I'm I'm here as a student. I don't know what I'm
doing. She came over and said, you know, she goes, doctor
beer. She goes, that was a wonderful book. She goes, you
know, you don't have your NBA y like that. But there were some
very insightful things. But you know what I've done is over the years,
I looked at the practice of medicine and I've dissected it and really evaluated what
it is to run a business, but run a very customer centric business where
the customers your primary focus. I grew up in uh like us. We
go Orgon, just outside of Portland. I was surrounded by a couple of
businesses. You know, you guys might have heard of the They're very customer
centric. Starbucks, you know this little coffee shop, Nordstrums, you know
the you know this, this this little clothing shop. My mom actually worked
for the Nordstroom brothers. They had a shoe store. Oh wow, So,
I mean, you know, so she knew him, she knew him
very very well. But what's crazy about it? You know? And I
always say this when I speak about the business of medicine. I ask everyone
in the room raise your hand. If you go to Starbucks to buy a
coffee. You know, everyone's like, oh yeah, yeah, that's why
I go to Starbucks. I buy coffee. I say, no, you
don't. No one buys coffee at Starbucks. Guess what you're buying at Starbucks.
You're buying an experience. They're buying a branded experience. You know.
It's the same thing when you wear Nike shoes. Okay, it's getting a
little white boil like me, And where's Ian? All of a sudden,
he thinks he's Michael Jordan. Okay, just do it. I mean,
tell me another brand slogan that's better. Just do it. I mean,
it's get off your butt and just do it. It's one of those brilliant
slogans I've ever heard. But it's really you know, dissecting all those things
not only makes your business run better, but it also creates joy, creates
more fun because if you know where you're going, it's more fun. One.
You're not just bumbling through the night. You're not just bumping into walls.
You know. I say a lot of business owners were like pinballs.
They're just kind of bouncing off the wall and you know, doing this,
doing this. Now. What I would say, though, is business owners
need to be able to pivot. Okay, they need to be able to
successfully pivot. What does that mean? It means think about Amazon. Okay,
Jeff Bezos didn't start at saying, you know, I don't really want
to build this, you know this, this this huge goliath called Amazon.
No, he actually wanted to sell his wife's books online. So he created
a online garage sale for books. That's it, I mean, that's it.
So he went from A to B and then it B said, you
know I'm gonna go to be prime. I'm gonna pivot now, I'm gonna
go from be prime to See. Then I'm gonna go to See to see
prime. And the most successful businesses have all done that, They've all pivoted.
Now, it doesn't mean that, you know, pivoting is a bad
thing. In fact, pivoting is being flexible. It's being flexible and understanding
that business is very much like a dance, okay, And you have to
be nimble, you have to be agile. You have to be able to
respond to changing market conditions, changing consumers, changing consumer trends, Millennials,
gen zs now. I mean, how you market to those groups you know
and do it in a respectful manner is completely different than how you market to
baby boomers. It's completely different. And so I think, you know,
for me, it brings me joy to actually be able to understand my business,
learn more and more about the business of medicine, I mean, and
actually see it evolved, and be able to actually have a really nice three
year, five year, seven year, ten year plan and have that forecast
and say at those time intervals, this is what I want to accomplish.
Now, do I ever change those you better believe it. Yeah, change
all the time. I mean, I pivot, you know. But what
I'm doing is I have big guardrails, you know, So I'm pivoting within
those guard rails. I'm not saying, well, maybe maybe next week I'm
going to become a facial plastic surgeon, you know, or this week I'll
do tummy tucks. I'm very resolute what I do. But I'm very very
focused. But I do allow myself a little bit of room for creativity.
But that you know. But again, I think those of us in medicine,
you know that really really run our businesses, I wouldn't say that we're
really necessarily business owners. We're more entrepreneurs. And that's a word that I
really embrace. In fact, I'm a little shameless plugged with one of the
businesses that i'm building out, or I'm built out along with my two co
founders, we're building an entrepreneurship summit, okay, and it's for med spas.
I work very very closely in the med spas space, and it's really
identifying the entrepreneurship necessary, the steps necessary to take one of these grow it,
create vitality in it, thrive and then position for a possible it down
the road. Does none of us want to do this forever? You know?
I mean I don't plan to retire anytime soon. I'll probably be working
until the day I die, right, I really the crazy thing is I
actually really do enjoy what I do. But being an entrepreneur is a great
quote. It's been attributed to Ray Bradbury, and Ray Bradbury, the science
fiction writer, supposedly once said that being an entrepreneur is like jumping off a
cliff and building your wings on the way down. I mean, it's just
it's mind numbingly scary. You don't know what the hell you're doing. You're
flying off a cliff and you're building your wings as you're plunging. But I'll
tell you if you talk to most business owners and you know how this is,
that's what we do every day. I mean half the stuff that we
get done. I mean people will ask if they're like you launch this,
and you launch this, They're like, how the hell did you do that?
I'm like, well either. I mean I had a lot of blind
faith, you know, I had a lot of guts, a lot of
hoodspa. But you know, some of it was like, well, you
know what, no one else is done, and I think I might as
well try and have I failed? Good Lord, I mean, Cameron,
I mean I failed so many times. I have fallen in my face and
made the dumbest mistakes events that turned out bad. I was right, you
know. I've had a couple of book ideas you know, that I got
into when I was writing them, and then halfway through I'm like this is
really sup and boring. I'm like, okay, I'm shelving this. I'm
not going to do this, you know, and people would be like,
oh, you're a total failure. Now, if you talk to most successful
people, most successful people that are honest will tell you they've all failed.
You know, they've all failed, They've gone, they've pivoted, you know,
they pivot, they've learned from their failures. Okay, But I'll tell
you, though, if you're going to invest in the company, look at
the sea level management. You'll look at those people and look at what they've
done before. And the people that have failed before. Let them make the
mistakes on another company, not on the company that you're investing, right,
you know, now, we don't I don't talk to Patience about failure.
I mean that would stake And I said, yeah, you know, I
get a ton of complication. But you know, man, I'm really good.
Now you don't That's not what you want to hear your surgeons say.
But what I do say, though, is I'm constantly learning and I'm constantly
debriefing when I do anything, whether it's you know, it's a it's an
event, it's a you know, it's a new part of the business,
what have you. I'm constantly asking for feedback. I'm constantly asking for feedback
for my staff, from from my patients, my clients, because it's really
really important. There's a there's an old proverb that goes, there's a reason
why you have two years in one mouth, because essentially you should be listening
twice as much as you're talking. So I do listen a lot. I
read a lot. I'm a voracious reader. I could probably even read a
little bit more. But I think it's it's very, very important to immerse
yourself into business. And the more you're immersed and the more educated you are
about what you do, the more fun it is and patience. Patients will
see that, your clients will see that. I mean, if you really
hate what you're doing. It's all over your face. I mean it's people
will look at you, go, God, you're you look miserable. You
don't even want to be here, do you. Whereas people coming in they're
like, all right, all right, doctor, you do this, you
do this, do this. They're like, they're like, how in the
world you find the time. I'm like, well, I make the time.
I make the time. So that's that's my long my long story short
about the business and being a physician entrepreneur. No, I love it,
well said. I mean when I just I mean I sit back and just
listen right based on what you were just talking about, and I like your
point. You know, we have two ears in one mouth. I can
learn so much from you. I mean, we need to spend more time
together. But it's interesting when I hear you talk, I hear more about
entrepreneurship, business. I read a lot. I'm excited about my failures because
I know what you know, know how to not do that in the future
and really have the mindset to say, hey, look like you know,
did I have I made mistakes? If I screwed up, for sure,
And it comes down to saying you have to do that in order to know
like where you're going, right, you have to jump over those hurdles and
you have to fall on your face because if you don't, and if you
don't have really the desire or the ability, or you just don't believe in
yourself to do that, you're never going to find out right. And so
as I look at you know, your business, your practice, everything that
you've done, it all starts, you know, out with saying, hey,
you know what, this is what I'm gonna do. I have the
confidence to do it. I may, you know, drive blind, but
I'm going to figure it out. And it comes down to taking action.
And I think there's people in this world, specially right now, that they
are just they think too much versus just getting to work right. Getting to
work, take action, make the phone calls, send the emails, go
to the networking events like connect with people, and fall on your face right
and fail because right past those failures, the people that don't give up and
have the discipline, just like you, continue to find success right, and
success finds people like that continuously push the envelope and push the needle to say,
hey, like I'm gonna go do it right? You you wrote a
book. You couldn't find anything that was business for medicine, and you like
went and quote and then you're in class and the and the professor quotes you.
That is so good, by the way, UM, I love that.
But then like another point that I want to I want to talk about,
so you know, two thousand and one is when you open your practice,
right, And when we're recorded this again, you guys like we're you
know, we're in two thousand and twenty three, right, And so obviously
he's had the practice for a long time. I think there's a lot of
medical aesthetics practices that have opened up very recently. We've seen this massive you
know, um expansion in the marketplace over the pas last few years. But
let's talk about a business that's been in place for for longevity, has success.
Have probably had great years, not great years, fantastic years maybe you
know, just horrible years, right, but continuing to push. But one
thing I want to talk about is you have you have continued to obviously stay
motivated and enjoy what you what you do, but attach yourself to the existing
And what I mean by that is you have the practice and then you found
other ways withinside the business, on ways to inspire people, on ways to
generate revenue, and in ways to help others, like grow their practice or
grow whether even where they're at within from a business standpoint or entrepreneurial standpoint.
Right. So, like you made a comment about the Amazon. You know
when when Bezo started out, he was going to do a bookstore for his
wife had to sell books online. Now look at it, like the majority
of their revenue is through Amazon Web services, right, Like they're an IT
company. Um, but you've you've done a great job of that. So
so you you've opened up let's say you have chorrosthetics training institute. That's a
consulting uh gig that you have right for that specific vertical. But what inspired
that was the all the going all the way back to age four. I
want to be a doctor, and then you became one, and then you
have a practice and then you're like, you know what, I want to
help others do this, Right, So, so talk to me about that,
because when you continuously attach yourself to be existing, you find new ways
of in areas of opportunity that are in the practice to grow streams of revenue
and in service others. Right, Yeah, I love. The thing is,
I'm a perpetual reader, but I'm also a perpetual Educatorum, I love
being on the podium. Uman you kind of see it here. I mean,
you know, you can't usually can't give me to shut up, get
a little bit of the gift of gab, so to speak as my initials.
But I really enjoy when I'm teaching someone and that light bulb goes off
and you can see that would Oprah caause them the aha moment you see that
sparkling or either like they're like, oh my god, that's how you do
it. So I love doing it. And the other thing is well too.
When you're an educator, you can't be a bullshitter, you know,
when you're up on you when you're up teaching people, I mean they're gonna
It's kind of like when you're with kids. Okay, children always ask,
you know, the craziest questions, but they'll call you on the nonsense.
I mean, if you just say, well, you know, why is
this guy blue? All of it's because it's always been that way. No,
why is it really blue? I mean, tell me why it's blue?
You know. So you really have to know your stuff. And so
becoming an educator or being an educator makes me better at what I do,
and it also creates credibility as well too. But it pushes me to always
stay on the cutting edge of what I do and always keep everything fresh.
And I think part of it as well too, is, you know,
I'm a passionate learner of a passionate I think. I don't mean this to
sound arrogantor anything like that, but um, you know, I've got the
I've got the creative mindset. People will talk about, you know, creators,
executors and so forth, But I not only create, but I also
too, I make sure I execute because there's a lot of dreamers out there
to say, you know, this is what I'm gonna do someday. You
know, I'm as crazy as going through a college. I was actually an
English major. I was a literature major in emphasis of writing, so essentially
an English major, you know. So I could have said, well,
I'm gonna I'm gonna write the great American novel. Well I didn't write.
I haven't written that yet. That's I mean, that'll you know someday,
so stay tun But being able to publish my first book, I mean,
I was like that was such a great thing for me. I mean because
now I still get people I uh, you know, for all over the
world saying I read your book and that was so good. You know,
it really changed me. I had a great, great, a little story
here. There was a dermatology conference, um I forgot, which I think
it was like eighty year or something like that, a couple of years ago
here in Denver, Colorado. So right before it I got I got this
email from a Chinese dermatologist is saying, you don't have any idea who I
am. You know, I'm doctor so and so. I you know,
I practice I think in Beijing. But I read your book. He's like,
I read your book and I would be so honored. Could you sign
your book for me? I'm like, are you kidding me? I'm like,
you read my book. I'm like, hell yeah. So I dragged
myself down to the conference, you know, got through, met this guy
signed the book. I mean, it was the most exhilarating moment, and
it was so cool because his comment was, I actually did a bunch of
the things in the book that you recommended, and it's really transformed how I
do my practice. And I'm like, wow, that's really really neat to
know that you've it's all about legacy. Let's just say that it's all about
legacy if you know that you can create a change, you know, if
you can affect change in a very positive way. You know, people always
talk about leave the world better than it was for you know, all that
kind of nonsense whatever, But I mean it really is true. I mean,
I don't want to just be here sucking at boxygen. Okay, when
I pass, I want people to say, you know what, he actually
left a mark. I mean, he left an indelible mark that you know
that the world is a little bit different, you know, and we all
have that opportunity. And whatever way you do it, I mean it's you
know, people do it in all different ways, shapes and form and so
forth. From mine, it's really education. And I'm so proud when I
when I run the training Institute, it's the we call it Katie course.
That's training Stude. So we run Katie and you know, we have always
newbies are coming through, you know, when it's we're teaching and all of
a sudden, you know, you see the lightbulb go off and they're like,
oh my god, that's what it is. I mean, it's really
really neat, you know, and here're hearing other people. I mean,
we've grown this institute just literally organically, just word of mouth. I mean,
and now we're we're a national name, which is really really it's a
lot of fun. So I think all those things you got to keep life
fresh, You got to find a passion because you know, ultimately, that's
why I don't really want to retire. I see a lot of people retire.
They you know, they I play golf, not very well. I
don't know if you'd call it playing golf. It's hitting balls around and in
various areas. That's my golf. But I don't want to do that every
day. You know. I want to do a lot of things in life,
and this is one of the one of the many. But for me,
it's always keeping life fresh, always keeping life fresh, always doing something
different, um, you know, exploring, learning new things. Um you
know, I've got I've got one of my things on the bucket list.
Two things. Actually is I'm gonna when I when I do start slowing down,
I want to travel. I do a lot of photography, so I
want to travel with National Geographic all over the world and like really remote places.
You know, I wanted to be like sleeping on the ground and you
know in some some village and in Africa, you know, hanging out with
a mosside tribe and ken you're doing something just crazy whacky. I mean,
I mean that's the kind of thing that really are kind of gets me up
in the morning. The second thing two is I'm with my lovely fiance,
not because of obviously my charming good looks, which I don't have, but
it's because I can. I can cook, so that's how I stole her
heart. So I'm gonna The other thing I'm gonna do too is I want
to do a boot camp at the Court on Blue in Paris. That's top
of my dream list. So I'm going to learn how to make those sauces
and yelled at by the French people, and hopefully make some good stuff at
home. Thank you for listening to Medical Millionaire. I wanted to take just
a few short moments and tell you all about Growth ninety nine University. Naturally,
if you're listening to Medical Millionaire, the success of your med spot is
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Growth ninety nine University. Ranging from online education courses all the way to the
full suite of marketing and web services. Growth ninety nine has your MEDSPA covered.
No matter the challenges that you're facing, we are ready and able to
help you achieve your next level in business, profit and freedom. To inquire
about all of our support services and products, please visit Growth ninety nine dot
com and while you're there, click the university link and check out the companion
course to this very podcast. Back to the show. That's awesome, man,
I love it, Like, um, you're an inspiration dude, and
and you know, I think that you know, there's there's I mean,
you said it, well, there's there's so many things that that we can
do while we're on this this planet and why we're you know, why we're
here, and and like you know, we're not just here to suck oxygen,
right we I mean, and I think most of the world, you
know, unfortunately does that, right, But really every one of us has
a gift and if that gift is really not pushed out in the universe.
Step to help service others and whatever that may be. If it's writing a
book, if it's practicing medicine, you know, if it's helping grow businesses,
if it's somebody that gets anything out of this this specific episode today,
right, just being through inspired by somebody that's done so much, like you
have to you have to serve others. And you know when you when you
realize like serving others actually brings fulfillment because you're changing things and you're helping somebody
get past wherever they're at in their their practice, their business, whatever it
is, Like you're leaving an impact. And I agree with you one hundred
percent, Like legacy is extremely important. I think that that spreads outside of
the family um really just through like if it's the industry you service or whichever.
So I agree with you. So that's really quick when it comes to
the when it comes to CORE, right, if I was like, who's
the ideal person that should go through Core? Is this is this somebody that
is thinking about getting into the industry or is it somebody like talk to us
about that. I'm curious to learn more about. I know the audiences.
Yeah. So CORE, Um, we I do a lot of like double
entendres and all these kind of fun fun players on course. So CORE stands
for conscious subjective, real world education. Um, so that's how it started.
That's that's core. CORE also started off. It was a spin on
the CORE four. You know, essentially a dermatology, facial plastics, plastics
and oculoplastics, you know, people kind of with within the esthetic realm.
But really what it's become is it's it's the core knowledge that you need to
succeed. Okay, the core I'm gonna have to use that one. Um,
it's a more information that you need. I mean, we we distill
out all the essential stuff, the essence so to speak, of what you
need to get started within the field. That's our level one. But what
we've done now is we've actually created this diagram, the zend diagram. You
know, the Zen diagram when you have you have a circle over here,
you have a circle over here. You know, there's there's a there's overlap.
So the other circle that we just recently created was for the more mature
business. Oller. You know, so you've got the you have the injector
over here, you have a Level one where they're just getting into it.
Many of these people are the typical, Uh it's a er nurse. She's
been doing it for a while, she's totally burned out. She's got a
couple of kids. She wants some more time with them and not come home
angry every night because she's so exhausted. She wants a new lifestyle. She
wants to be able to control our lifestyle, and we're able to give that
to her, were able to teach her how to actually execute, how to
enter into the esthetic marketplace, so to speak, you know, and all
those things. We also have Level twos are Level twos are for the people
that have taken the level ones obviously and now they want to learn a little
bit more. We have a very highly successful lip course. We've got another
one around the eyes. Its periordal rejuvenation more advanced. We have a condaver
course that's coming up actually a couple of weeks. I mean, there's so
much excitement around it. But the new circle we're building out is for the
entrepreneurs. That's concise, objective, real world entrepreneurship, you know. So
that's another core aspect of core. So we're looking at people that essentially want
to take your businesses to the next level. They want to know what are
the blind spots? You know? The problem is what we don't Well,
it's not what you know. Often it's not knowing what you don't know.
You know. So in other words, there's a lot of blind spots.
And that was something I learned from business school, is you know, what
are the main blind spots because a lot of times we're doing things that are
actually impediments to success, you know, but we don't we don't understand what
those are because our ego says, well, you know, you run a
release successful business, or you're you're making all this money and so forth,
so therefore you must be doing everything right. Yeah. The most the most
intelligent people are the ones that are inward looking. Okay, the most intelligent
people and the most forward thinking ones are the ones that are always challenging themselves
and they don't accept the fact. Well, you know, people tell me
I'm successful all the time. Well, so what what does that? I
mean? What does that mean? I also keep in mind too, um
I'll say something. This is on a little different note. I watched a
wonderful specially of the night on Arnold Schwartzeyer. Okay, everyone always thinks,
you know, a b bach um Austrian guy. Arnold couldn't be farther from
that. I mean, you know, if you haven't watched, I don't
have it. I don't get any royalties from this. But it was a
brilliant look at his life, you know. And one thing that really resonated
with me is he he was talking about how he was honored he received an
a war I mean, I can't remember what the award was for, but
you know they talked about, well, Arnold, I mean, you're a
self made man. You're a self made man. Amazing. I mean,
you're a self made man. And he said, that's his bullshit. You
know, he said, I am not a self bade man. He goes,
I didn't make myself he goes, He goes, I am where I
am now because if everyone around me, you know, I got a leg
up. And that's one thing that I always try to teach people is I'm
very much into strategic alliances, and I'm very much into, you know,
figuring out how you can create these alliances and how you can create win win
scenarios. And I've worked with the industry very closely over the years, you
know. And I'll tell you right now, I'm not where I am right
now alone. I am not where I am right now alone. I am
right now where I am because I had quoting the Beatles with a little help
from my friends. Okay, I mean it's I mean, that was that's
the smartest saying. I mean, you know, none of us are successful
on our own we started, but you know, a lot of people gave
me the leg up. And I was, I was talking to one of
our potential hires in the day. She's she's doing our fellowship and I said,
you know, I said, one important thing to remember is on your
way up, grab a few people with you and bring them up with you.
Okay, always do that. You know. I'm always looking for new
and emerging talent, and I'm trying to make them successful because you know what,
most of them never forget that you gave them a chance. And I
never forget the chance, you know, the chances that everybody else gave me
as well too, And I try to pay that forward. But it's really
really cool because on the way up, what are you doing. You're building
your alliances. If you build bring people up there. I mean, there's
a lot of people that get up by stepping on people's backs. Those are
the climbers. Thomas Rolf Bonfire of the Vanities, great book. He talked
about the social climbers, you know, discussing little rats that basically or just
use social affairs, you know, to mindlessly get to us a place in
society. Don't be the social climber, okay, be someone that actually elevates
those around him, because otherwise is pretty lonely at the top if you're all
there along, you know, so create those alliances and at the at the
base of it as well too, how fun with it as well? You
can tell I'm very very passionate about what I do. I mean, you
know, I'm constantly challenged myself. The other thing I would say as well
too, when you're in business, don't take yourself so seriously. A lot
of people will you know, see these I mean, I've got all these
fancy titles. You know, I'm at one of my business is I'm a
CEO, I'm a president, blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, who
cares? Seriously, I mean, who cares At the end of the day,
I'm just some crazy skinny white dude that you know, made some made
more positive decisions and negative decisions. Got to a place there. You know,
he's pretty happy. But I'll tell you what I mean, I've learned
a lot from others. Learn a lot from others. Yeah, well said,
I mean, dude, I I love talking to you and just in
just hearing it, because that's what I tell. You know, everybody at
our company, you know, because I'm the CEO of of of our company,
and you know, like a lot of people that work here, you
know, they look at me is the big dude in town. Um,
and I'm like, whoever gave me that funny CEO title? Like I just
uh, you know, and and hey, I guess you know, you
have to have title, you have to have leadership, you have to have
you know, C level whatever. I totally I totally get it. But
end in a day like you know, not taking yourself so seriously and really
being down to earth and and helping your team and bringing them up. It's
it's so important. Like you know, there are so many people in our
business that you know started out just not as a content writer, right,
they just you know, and now like they have moved up in management because
you know, we've helped inspire these people and say, hey, look what
you're doing, Like you don't want to write, you don't want to be
content for forever? Like what do you really want to do? Um?
You know you need to have those conversations with people because look, there's always
an expiration date, you know, like the people that you bring along with
you, like your staff, like they may not be there next year the
year after. You may have all these staff who knows And I hope like
as people level up, and this is a good point, like if you
bring them with you and level them up, one day, they're going to
have their own practice, right like hopefully that you know, people are going
to have their own company. And I want that, like we want that
right because it makes you feel like, wow, I didn't just they didn't
just work here and we exchange time for money, like we actually inspired them
to want to do this themselves and be successful and just and root them on.
So I appreciate you saying that because that means a lot to me and
I you know, other leaders like need to run their businesses this way.
You know, one thing I'm going to add to that whenever we hire someone
if you ask any of our any of our team members. And I also
call them team. Now, I don't call them employees or anything like that.
I mean, I think we're staff. Whatever I think. I think
that's a little meeting. I call them a team because it is. I
mean, you know, we're we're we're essentially a big team. What I
tell them, though, is when I hire him, I said, my
goal is that you outgrow your role. My goals at your outgrow your role.
You know, there's no glass ceiling here. I mean, if you
want to. And what's crazy is my practice manager right now. She has
been with me literally since the day she started or since I'm sorry day I
started twenty one years ago. She was at the front desk, and now
she's running she's running my practice. Okay, my digital marketing director now has
her own digital marketing company. Okay, so she's getting other clients. M
My pa just went and got her her doctorate, you know. And I
was looking at going to entrepreneurship at Stanford U s here my ma is getting
she's going actually going to nursing school right now. I mean it goes on
and on and on. I mean, all these people I think I'm creating
monster some way. But you know it's it's really cool because I'd like to
think that I inspired him, because I don't want people to think small.
I mean, I'm all about stretch goals. You know, what are the
things that you think you can accomplish, And tell me why you can't accomplish
it, you know, because if you think you can't do it, you're
always right. You're always right. If you tell your says you can't do
it, yeah you can't, you won't be able to do it. But
if you say, you know what, hey, if you know, let
me, I want to do this. And if you know, why not
me? Why not me? I mean, why can't I do this?
I mean look at the Schwartzeneator's store. I mean he was up, you
know, he was you know, he came from Austria. You know he
left you know when he was when he was young, he wanted something a
little different. And then you know, amazingly he he was what governor of
California. I mean you know, he could barely speak English when he came
over here. I mean still has a strong accent, but very very smart
person. You know, So if you think you can do something you might
be able to do it. I mean, there's the whole CEO thing.
I used to be so intimidated when I talk to CEOs. Now I realize
they're just like all the rest of us. I mean, they really are.
This have a couple other you know, they have a little bit few
a few more mouse to feeds, so to speak. I mean a little
bit more responsibility than some of their people. But at the end of the
day, I mean, this is why I love working with the industry,
for example, because I mean I don't I don't really get awe struck by
all the titles and so forth. I just treat people like human beings,
just human beings. They all have basic needs. They don't want to be
ripped off. They want to they want strategic alliances that are that are musually
beneficial. And when you look at people like that in all their aspects of
your life, I mean, it's it's a it's a win win. It's
always a win win. One thing I learned to Kellogg as well too,
the art of negotiation. If there's anything left on the table, give it
to the other person, you know. And I never thought about it because
I was always like, well, when I negotiate. I want to win,
you know, I want to I always want to get a little bit
more. And they said, you know what that is A that's that's a
that's a that's a very short sighted, very myopic way to look at things.
You know, if you've already gotten what you need, give the rest
of someone else. Because guess what. It's called a favor bang. You
know, you stulf man deposits in the favor bang down the road. You'd
be surprised how many people come back and say, we know what, doctor,
I remember when you did this, you know, when you took care
of me. Well, guess what might take care of you. I've got
an opportunity right now. And it's and that's and that's how how everything spins
around. We don't got in this bubble all alone. No, And that's
right, I mean, that's that's the giver's gain mentality, right, and
so like as you continuously give and as you continuously help others, like,
it does come full circle, right, and as you expand that through helping
as many people as you possibly can, you know, there's those alliances really
really do take effect. And that's that's again, that's what's going to give
that that legacy and really put yourself in a position to really you know,
continuously grow and scale as a person and continuously you know, getting comfortable being
uncomfortab right if you will. So quick question question for you, Um,
what does a what does a morning, a Monday morning look like for you?
Like or like what what time do you wake up? Talk to us
about like your daily regiment and um meetings and stuff like that. So Monday
morning, Um, I was up at about five fifteen, UM to the
gym at about five forty five. I've got my butt handed to me about
my wonderful trainer, I would say, a former UFC fighter, So who
you can't really say no too, so that you know, that's I always
told people that's my that's my anti depressor right there. I mean, I
get all my I get all my anxiety, my my aggression and so forth
out you know, early, Um, come back and shower and then I'm
back in the office. You're starting around about it all right about eight in
the morning or so. UM. I try to essentially that's my free time
that I don't want my staff bother me unless it's I just you know,
kind of kind of have a running motto that you know, unless things are
burning down, that I need to really isolate just because I need that time
for flow. So I go through you know, I try to clean things
up, prepare myself for the week, and you know that I organize meetings
like this I had. I've already had three zoom calls for the meeting,
getting speakers lined up, and then I do this until about noon. I've
got to I've got a facial rejuvenation procedure. I've got several patients. After
that, I've got another zoom call, then at about five another meeting.
I think from like six to six thirty, and then I'll probably head home
around seven or so. I mean, I have long days, but I
mean I'm very, very, very productive. But one thing I've done,
though, is I used to bring a lot of this work home. I
try not anymore. I try to when I go home, I try to
really kind of unwind because if your go go, go, go go,
those are the people that have the heart attacks early on. And I've got
way too much of my agenda to do that, okay, I mean,
and I have way too many boxes I want to check, and it's not
even I shouldn't say, boxes, but I have way too many things.
I'm very curious and so there's a lot of things that I need to do
in life. But having you know, being busy is not is not the
goal. It's being productive. So you asked me about my day is I
mean, I'll have days that are not as not as filled, but I'll
just I'll take those items that I know, you know, the ones that
you say, well, I'll put that off for a little while. I'll
dive in head first of those. I mean, I just I'm one of
those guys. I try to get it cleared off to play because it's like
a problem if you have. If you have a problem, you know you
need to take care of and you just let it fester, it's only going
to get bigger and bigger. You know. I lean into that and try
to take care of it. And then once you get it off and it's
like, oh, now that feels a lot better. Now now I have
a little more breathing room. But you know, it sounds like a long
hours, a lot of work and so forth. But you know the reality
is if you like what you're doing, if you're creating fun, if you're
creating something that you're really proud of. You know, I would encourage anybody,
and you know, anybody in all walks of life where there is medicine,
law, business, what have you try to carve out some blue ocean.
You know, create something totally whacky. Be the person that creates an
extort, dice lay or some something weirdness like that. Be like you know
Elon Musk, who has a vision for going to Mars. I mean,
you know, I love it. They told Elon, oh, you're gonna
build an electric car. Really everyone else has tried. You can't do that?
Oh really? I guess what actually dry? I guess I'm a tree
ugger now because I drive an electric cars and it's a blast and I'm a
huge car efficionado. But you know, make the naysayers wrong and whatever you
do, prove people wrong, and it's a lot of fun when people say,
you know what, you're not gonna have enough time to go back and
get your MBA, do it, dood or you know, if you've always
thought medicine was amazing, go get your nurse and degree, get your PA,
get your get your MD, whatever whatever route you think is great,
just do it. I mean, life is short. I mean, life
is short. I mean, I'm I'm fifty six, and good god,
I mean I used to think people in their fifties were old. You know.
I'm not saying any rocking chair anytimes, you know. Oh yeah,
So yeah, so that enjoy life and just I mean, just have fun.
It goes by it really quick. I mean, it's uh so,
I follow a ton of entrepreneurs. I've I've studied the wealthy, I've studied
the ultra success. I've studied um, you know, lots of lots of
like Elon Boss right, Jeff Bezos, a lot of these guys that have
built these empires, and Warren Buffett and and and a lot of others,
you know. And so I've read a lot of their books and and um,
gone to some of their their their courses and stuff like that. So
the reason why I asked you that is because I think I already knew the
answer was a waking up early, right, And most of like most successful
people wake up early, you know, and it's like, hey, the
early bird's gonna get the where I'm like, I think there's obviously some truth
to that, you know, but waking up early is how you create that
time, right, and so I think a lot of people, you know,
they'll sleep into you know, I mean, I'm I get up very
early, and I'm very disciplined about my morning, Like extremely disciplined when it
comes to wellness, health, fitness, like goal you know, setting,
Like I do a lot of these things. And I realized, like almost
every successful person does that. They get up early, they beat the sun
up, and they start moving. There's a tremendous amount of activity, whether
it's working out, or it's thinking, or it's breathwork, or it's goal
setting or whatever it is. But like and then they attack their day with
the plan. Right. So, like you made a good point, Like
no one talks me or a certain time because I'm preparing, right, I'm
I actually I'm building a plan and I'm going to go execute this plan,
and no one's going to stop me. Um. You know, in a
lot of people, a lot of people do that that that have achieved success.
And so if you're just driving around with with not knowing where you're going,
you know, the chances are you're not gonna be you know, driving
the car very long, like you're gonna hit it, You're gonna hit a
wall, right, And so it's it's I like as asking that question because
um, there's so much you know, camaraderie when along the the same ecosystem,
when you look at successful entrepreneurs, I couldn't agree more. I think
it's you know, it's all about focus. It really comes down to that.
I mean, you know, figure out what you want to do.
You'll figure out. I see a lot of people that are very successful and
people that are that are less successful, you know, and people will say,
well, how do you know, how do you get successful? First
of all, that's whole another podcast. I mean, you know, in
terms of what you know, what is success the whole that's the whole death
of the salesman, you know, book play, what have you? You
know, what is truly success? You know? For me, it's it's
um, it's executing. It's executing and it's being able to you know,
look back and see that I've accomplished things. And what's funny too, is
money is great. I mean, but do what you want to do.
If you've got the passion to drive, you know, and the ability to
execute, that money will come. You know, make sure you enjoy what
you're doing because the problem with a lot of people is they make a ton
of money, but they don't like what they're doing, and so ultimately they
come home they're miserable and so forth. I mean, great, you drive
a fancy car, you have a big house, and maybe a nice watch
what have you. But are you really happy? I actually really do.
People people always tell me that they're like, you really seem like you enjoy
what you're doing, and I do. I mean, I really enjoy what
I what I do, and I like I like knowing that. Um,
you know, when when I'm on panels with people that are just far more
qualified than me. I mean, I've been on panels with, you know,
with like former ace APPS presidents, people that are like who've written thirty
books and so forth, and they're looking They're like, Beauford, why the
hell are you on this panel? I'm like, I don't know. I
don't know you had an extra seat or extra I don't know, But I
mean I think that, you know. The thing is is I try to
work ten times harder than my competition. Okay, I just I'm persevering and
I don't take no for an answer, you know, And I don't because
a lot of people just say, well, you know, I mean,
I'm not I'm not smart enough. You know, I'm not good looking enough,
and so forth. There's always someone smarter, better looking, and richer
than you. Always always, unless you're Jeff Basos, and there's not a
lot of that's not He's the exception, right, all right, So,
um, you're wrapping up here, but I wanted to ask you one more
thing. So I know that you're having this this event that's coming up,
and I think it would doing the audience a disservice if we didn't tell them
about it. So I want to if you could talk to us about the
event, the purpose behind it, what the plan is, and and you
know, so people like me can come have fun there Asluly. Yeah.
So it's going to be the Core Entrepreneurship Summit, and we uh, you
know, we're actually still working on the final name and tagline all that kind
of you know, that kind of fancy marketing stuff. But the key take
home for this UM it's, first of all, it's the first part of
February. It's gonna be a Denver, Colorado, and an area called Cherry
Create. It's a beautiful little boutique community. Um. But it's going to
be a two and a half day event where you're gonna come and you're gonna
take your men's spot to the next level. You're gonna figure out all the
blind spots. Um, you know, all the sticking points, all the
things that are keeping you from being super super super successful, and also too,
the things that may be frustrating you, the things that you know that
are that are that are creating you know, tripping points that are not allowing
you to span, to grow or what have you, or just be able
to accomplish what you want. And they will also be talking about excess as
well too, because that's a big thing in the in the medspot space.
It's a billion dollar industry and it's it's nowhere near uh it's maturity. It's
very much in its infancy early stages. Private equity is actively looking for purchases.
So, you know, how do you value your business? Um,
you know, most importantly, how do you make your business look pretty?
So when private equity comes calling that you already have your ducks in a row,
you know you've already you've already brushed your teeth and you know, and
you you've combed your hair and people look you go you've got your stuff together,
you know, you're ready to go. That's what we're going new.
Most importantly, we're getting some of the best speakers that around. Okay,
there's a few other meetings that are similar to this, but they're not as
they're not as hands on. You're gonna be able to actually be introduced to
and interact with leaders in this space, leaders who are literally change what you
do and why you do it, so encourage you to join. Ticket sales
are actually going to be starting in the next couple of weeks. We have
the agenda almost completely formalized, and again when you look at who's going to
be speaking, it's it's the best, the best. So we look forward
to seeing everyone there and thanks for the chance to give that shout out.
Yeah, of course, of course. And if somebody's interested, where where
can they find out more? Yeah, So it's you want to actually reach
out to us at chorasts training dot com and on the website. Will be
building a landing page there very verse. So also to follow us actually on
social media. Our Instagram handle is chorstetx training. You can see all of
our courses coming up. It's free obviously Instagram is free, so yeah,
that's probably the best way to do it. If anybody has a personal question
about it, honestly, just email me directly. I'll give you my my
email addresses. Dr Buford. That's doctor Buford at Beauty Bybeuford dot com.
So it's Dr Beauford at Beauty Bybewford dot com. That is my personal email.
You got it, and just reach out to me and say, hey,
I want mon information on this. I'm passionate. I want you to
get the right, right content, and I want to What I want to
do is is this is my my selfish goal. Is I want to hear
from people in the next couple of years who come back after having taken the
course and say, you know what, doctor b you were completely wrong.
You said I was going to actually double my revenues. I tripled my revenues.
You're way off. You're way off. I would love to be wrong
in that, because my goal ultimately is is floating all boats. I will
love education, but the more you educate, and that's what great leaders will
tell you is that great leaders don't hold on to this information. They share
it because the more educated, the better more successful the people are around them,
the better they are so so come join us and the most importantly,
have some fun. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Thank you so
much for joining the show and coming on and really just being an inspiration to
everybody in this industry outside the industry, being a practice owner, you know,
launching a course, having an event, writing books. You're an inspiration
man, and I appreciate it. I definitely want to spend more time with
you. We will definitely be coming to the event and honor to finally shake
your hand and help give value to the industry in the marketplace. So thank
you so much. Amorous, not a pleasure. Absolutely picture