Behind the CXO Title: Driving Value Through Progress with Preethi Menon

Anderson Williams: Welcome to Bigger. Stronger. Faster. the podcast exploring how Shore Capital Partners brings billion-dollar resources to the lower middle market space. In this episode, I talk with Preethi Menon, the Senior Vice President of Integrations and Partnerships at Empower Aesthetic and a member of the Shore Capital CXO Fellows Program. Preethi explains why after a highly successful decade in consulting and with a clear career path in front of her, she made the jump to the CXO Fellows Program and Empower.

She talks about building chairs for their first office and the experience of building a company from the earliest days with tons of opportunity, but no momentum and the feeling of pride and ownership for having her fingerprints on nearly every part of the business.

Preethi offers important wisdom from a career of high achievement about the challenges of overcoming perfectionism in herself and her work for the sake of speed and value creation in a rapidly changing company.

Finally, she talks about the importance of relationships, humility, and continuing to learn from and lean on her colleagues at Empower and in the CXO Fellows Program to expedite our own growth. To strengthen her team performance and to optimize value creation.

To get started, will you just introduce yourself, say your name, what you do, and where you do it.

Preethi Menon: I’m Preethi Menon. I’m the Senior Vice President of Integrations and Partnerships at Empower Aesthetics. We are a med spa platform, so think Botox and filler clinics, and we’re based out of Austin and we also have members in Chicago. So kind of two cities.

Anderson Williams: And your background includes some McKinsey time, some Accenture time, so got some big names and big experiences.

What brought you to the CXO Program and specifically perhaps to Empower.

Preethi Menon: I, um, basically grew up in consulting, almost a decade there. What brought me to Empower was I was in consulting, kind of minding my own business, thought this was gonna be my path, and then the opportunity of CXOs came up on the radar in LinkedIn.

And at that point I really had this like fork in the road, whether to continue in the consulting path and go through the engagement manager, associate partner, partner route, or go into CXO. And what I will say for anybody who has, kind of, a foot in either area or has opportunities in both. One, congrats, that’s huge. Um, you’re clearly very smart and intelligent, and two, it depends on where you see yourself in the next five years.

So that’s the advice I had received from someone that was like, what do you want to do? What brings you joy and what drains you? In the consulting world, you build skill sets and I feel like I had tools in my toolbox to now be able to go into the CXO Program or Shore or microcap or private equity to build something beyond me.

This is further from a project that’s just kind of implemented where you are focused on, Hey, let’s deliver what, whatever is in the statement of work. You are here building something that’s greater involving people. Employing people. You’re able to put people to work and you know, give them a livelihood. So that was kind of mainly my decision.

Anderson Williams: And that sounds fantastic.

Preethi Menon: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: But having been in consulting for 10 years, you were giving up a lot. It wasn’t that you were in consulting for two years.

Preethi Menon: Sure.

Anderson Williams: You had a career journey and there was pretty well a path mapped out in front of you. That was probably a pretty nice life to look ahead of. Talk about giving that up as much as what you were running toward. How did you think about it? How did you process? What did your family think?

Preethi Menon: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: In giving up that kind of a career.

Preethi Menon: Yeah, that’s a great question. So to answer that better, I’ll have to take a step back and probably talk about what I did. To show you what I kind of had to give up.

Anderson Williams: Yeah.

Preethi Menon: And so at Accenture, I joined in 2015, and this was the time when the Obama administration was basically putting a push towards the adoption of electronic medical records and electronic health records. So there was a really big enforcement for payers and providers to get on these electronic systems and resources.

So I was selected to be a part of Kaiser Permanente transformation, which is a payer and provider in the West Coast and Blue Cross Blue Shield’s transformation. So they had Epic, which is an EMR implementation software. And so we were implementing Epic in every single Kaiser Permanente hospital and payer system along with Blue Cross Blue Shield.

I had a team in Accenture, internal onshore. I had a team, Accenture offshore in India, and I had a team onshore Kaiser Permanente. So I had a team of 20 people to kind of make this happen. And in my early twenties, I was managing a team of 20 people. That was huge, my parents were like, this is incredible. We thought the only outcome of higher education was being a doctor or lawyer, this is so cool what you’re able to do. And I really cared about the impact.

So from an early age, I realized I didn’t want to just do a strategy, recommend something as an unbiased person and be like, here you go. I want to handhold people. I want to motivate people. I want to engage with people to make an impact and make a difference. And so I did that at Accenture, then moved to McKinsey.

At McKinsey, I was involved in the public sector and the private sector for payer and provider strategy. So in the public sector, think we’re in Tennessee right now. State of Tennessee has X number of funds and they wanna implement public health initiatives, which is actually my background.

I’m actually an epidemiologist by training before my MBA in my business world. So I got to tap into that, which was really exciting. But if Tennessee has X number of funds and they wanna implement public healthcare initiatives, we need to look at Tennessean cities. Do we wanna implement nutrition initiatives? Because maybe it’s a food desert and we can help youth and young adults. Do we wanna implement community impacts? Because cardiovascular incidents and prevalence is high, right?

So those kind of works in the public sector and in the private sector. How is doing M&A, corporate M&A, so think large pharma company buying a smaller pharma company, what is the future gonna look like for them? What is the path forward for them?

So incredible impact, incredible work that I’m doing. And I, in my mind, was really set. I was at McKinsey at that point, so I wanted to be an engagement manager, associate partner, partner. I had a team. I knew my tribe. And McKinsey has a saying that says, make your own McKinsey. And I felt like I’d really mastered that. I was like, okay, these are my people. These are my tribe, these are my resources and I’m gonna make my career what I want it to be.

At that point, Connor from Shore had slid in my LinkedIn DM. Oh, with an opportunity and said, Hey, this is based out of Austin. This is really cool. It’s a med spa platform that we can build. And the CEO is this person, the team is this person, just come and meet. We would just love to have you be open to this experience.

My parents have always told me, never say no to any window. You never know what could happen and so open myself up to that and that’s where I was really struggling. You can ask anybody at Shore and they will say I was probably the hardest person to convert into a yes. Because I really did see myself in these both trajectories having a career. Anybody who is in that position, I would say know that certain companies like McKinsey, Accenture, they are always gonna be there. They are tried and true. They’re excellent, and they are the best and the best for a reason.

Opportunities in the portfolio world are so rare. After I said yes to this, Shore Capital Partners has invested in so many other cool verticals and so many other cool industries within healthcare; veterinary, orthodontics.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If it doesn’t pan out, that’s okay. I tried, right, and I gave it my all. Worst case, I would apply to Accenture again. I would apply to McKinsey again. I have my tribe, I have my resources, and if that network is true, then those opportunities will be there in the future. But this is something I just had to take a shot at.

Anderson Williams: I love it. So now you’re at Empower.

Preethi Menon: Now I’m at Empower.

Anderson Williams: Tell us a little bit about Empower, and you gave a little bit of an overview of what you do just as a med spa, but give us a sense of the stage of the company in terms of size and growth and that kind of thing, so that we understand the environment you’re living in these days.

Preethi Menon: Yeah, of course. So I came on to Empower over two years ago. So it was 2023 and at that point we had one platform practice, four locations, and I was employee number three or four. So pretty early on and we had a med spa platform practice, basically four locations in the northeast that we had partnered with, we were excited about, and I came on as the integrations head.

So, integrations is kind of used everywhere, very vague. In our world. In microcap private equity integrations is when you find a clinic or a med spa practice that you want to integrate. You want to M&A into your roll-up platform. You are basically a fabric and you’re trying to weave this practice into the fabric.

And so that’s my role, making sure once we close our partnership, so closing a partnership is almost like closing a deal on a home, right? So once we close the partnership and we’ve officially completed M&A, how do we make sure the bank has been transitioned and it’s all coming out of Empower? The payroll, the team is getting their paychecks from Empower Aesthetics. Marketing engine we are using our resources through a centralized marketing promotion and discount strategy plan rollout.

So that’s what integrations is. And I was brought on because we were gonna be a heavy M&A platform, so we were going to find med spa practices that hit our criteria based on geography, based on size, based on team, based on compliance, to integrate them into our platform and to grow them year-over-year. So that’s how we started off.

Two years ago we had four locations, and now two years later, we have nine to 10 brands and it’s at 19 locations now. So it’s incredible what the growth has been. And when I first started out, I had been involved in corporate M&A, so I knew what M&A looks like. When a large pharmaceutical company buys a small pharmaceutical company, so you have two HRs, two sales, how do we figure out the path forward?

Here this was completely foreign and at McKinsey, at Accenture. Another thing I wanna add is you have so many resources through a library. Accenture has their library that you can pull decks from. McKinsey has their library in the CXO world and the Shore world, our resources are humans and our resources are truly human capital.

So with the CXO Program, what I loved is. You have the opportunity to meet the best of the best in every single area. The best of the best in integrations, best of the best in M&A and BD, and you’re able to learn their lessons and where they hit pitfalls and where they improved. So McKinsey says, make your own McKinsey. You can build your own adventure and your career here.

At the CXO Program, you start out as kind of a generalist, figuring out which platform you’re gonna be assigned to. Once you’re assigned, you’re learning the practice and you’re, again, jack of all trades, right? So if you come from a consulting background, it’s a perfect transition.

You’re putting your hat in the HR world, in the finance world, in the accounting world, and you can see, hey, these things spark joy and really, really make me happy. These things drain me. So in the future, there are some people who love accounting. They wanna count day in, day out. I am not that girly, but gimme a PowerPoint and a fizzy drink on a Saturday night. I am so happy.

So, you know, whatever makes you happy and brings that joy into you. Trying to understand how you can then build your specialization based on those activities. And so I think the CXO Program really gave me that chance.

Anderson Williams: When you think about that, and you’ve got the network of people around you in the CXO Program, but it’s still a big transition.

Preethi Menon: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: What has been your biggest learning curve? Getting down into operations being number three or number four in an early stage, going from four to 19 locations. That’s a lot in a short period of time. Yeah. After a pretty stable career. Prior, what’s been your biggest learning curve?

Preethi Menon: Sure. The biggest learning curve was probably two areas.

Accountability and understanding that 80% is good enough. So coming from McKinsey and consulting, you are drilled perfection into your brain at a very young age. And so in that world, you’re on version 96, version 97, and to move to version 98, I need the approval of the engagement manager, associate partner, partner, and the client team right?

So it takes a lot to get a document to final stage here in this company and any company in microcap, especially with the talent we have and the CEOs we have, 80% is good enough. The time to go from 80% to a 100% is so much effort. And at this point, every document I make, every document anyone makes on the team moves shareholder value incredibly.

Meanwhile, a document going from version 97 to version 99, probably not as impactful. So that was a huge mental shift that it’s okay if it’s not perfect. I really struggled with it and I remember my CEO being like, Preethi, this is good enough. This is great. Send it out, ship it. I’ve approved it. And I’m like, yeah, but the graphics, let me make it prettier.

It’s good enough, right? We need the content out.

Anderson Williams: It’s an interesting distinction that you’re making there because I think most people would hear 80% is good enough and think that somehow that’s lowering the bar. And I just want to double down on something you just said is that actually 80% is delivering more value because it’s 80% now, and that reality of microcap space is that’s how you deliver the value that getting to 100%. You have diminishing returns anyway.

Preethi Menon: Yeah, right.

Anderson Williams: Right? Like in this space, because the teams are so lean and things are moving so fast and changing so quickly, that 80% is actually more valuable in some ways than 100%.

Preethi Menon: Exactly. I’m actually really glad you picked that point, because even in emails, we’ll be traveling.

For example, I traveled here to Nashville. There are emails that went out while I was on the flight. By tonight. If I don’t get to those emails and if I’m like, Hey, on Friday after all these CXO events, I will have time to thoughtfully sit down and respond to those emails. Those emails become obsolete because it has literally gone through so much conversation.

Because speed is so important when you’re building a company ground up and it’s not speed where, hey, this is just rash. We’re putting on, you know, wings on a plane, and just trying to take off. Speed in that we have to be cognizant of competitors in the world. We have to be cognizant that time kills all deals.

And so in this world, perfection. Yeah, I would love. To pause time and have no one move. Everybody frozen and me just sit there being thoughtful as much as possible. Being mindful there’s a time and place for that but when you’re in this world, you really have to be flexible. You have to be okay with doing as great of a job with highest accuracy at the 80% mark and being okay to ship it out.

And the second piece of accountability. With consulting, you are hired onto a project, sometimes you don’t really get a chance to choose. Depending on demand, sometimes you do, right? But let’s say you are on a project of your dreams, you’re doing the work. You may implement and offer recommendations and a strategy to the client and be like, Hey, based on my unbiased third party eyes, this is what I think you should do.

And they may say, politely, I would like you to kick rocks and I don’t really like that strategy. And so you’re like, okay, that’s okay. I did what was told in my statement of work. I gave it to you. I’m calling it a day. Take whatever you want. And I can’t wait to potentially be on a project in the future with you.

Here it’s not like that. So there is an accountability where I have true ownership. Whoever I hire onto my team, if anybody sends an email, it comes back to me if there’s a mistake. If a partner is upset with how integrations went, or a team member heard something that was really hurtful, at the end of the day, it comes back to me and I need to sit and own it.

And it’s not just, oh, it’s a six week project. I’m in it two years now, so, that’s a hundred plus weeks, and we still need to kind of grind and make sure those relationships of our old partners still stay strong as we bring in new partners, right? So the closet can never delete files in your mental brain. You’re just constantly adding more things and bolstering that ownership.

Anderson Williams: Yeah, those longitudinal relationships, it’s different than a transactional kind of relationship. Like you’re gonna have to live with whatever misfired email or miscommunicated message to a team member, or otherwise you don’t walk away from anything.

Preethi Menon: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: It’s all still there.

Preethi Menon: Yep.

Anderson Williams: And as such, they can’t be perfect.

Preethi Menon: They can’t be perfect a 100%. So I always joke about this. I have such a unique relationship with each partner. So to zoom out, when we select a partner, they like us. I always call it the dating phase, right?

We’re wooing each other. I’m trying to show them, Hey, this is why empower’s awesome. You should really consider a partnership with us. And my role actually expanded from SVP of Integrations to SVP of Integrations and Partnerships. So being brought in earlier in the process of integrations, integrations basically sits right between business development, where we find the practice and operations where you kind of work on stabilizing and improving year-over-year growth.

And so in the business development world, we’re dating the med spa partner or clinic or practice showing them, Hey, this is how we can grow the practice. And they’re also showing how great their clinic is, right? Because we’re also selective. And so once we kind of cross that border and we look to close, that’s where the change happens.

And change is scary. And now you’re part of something bigger. You’re part of Empower Aesthetics. And during that process I get really vulnerable with each one of them and they get really vulnerable with me. They’re like, Hey Preethi, I have to do bank transitions and this is really stressful. ’cause my team right now is asking questions and we’re like, that’s okay. We’ll come on the ground. Let’s work through everything.

But I have a unique relationship with each one of them. Now when we bring all of them in a room together at a partner summit. I’ve told each one of them, they’re amazing, beautiful, and special, and they truly are. But when you see them all together, how do you make each one still feel that specialness, even though they’re part of this whole room of others and they’re part of something bigger and you want them to feel motivated and you want them to feel engaged.

And so that was kind of daunting in the beginning. But the people relationships that I’ve learned through consulting in client services has always carried through, and that’s been my thread throughout my career. Anything I deliver, whether it’s an email, whether it’s a PowerPoint, or even a talk or discussion, yes, it may be 80%, but it’ll have a 100% of my heart in it.

I will truly make sure I have done the best I can do to make sure I deliver that. And so when I see them all together, it is so easy when the partners we chose and the partners who chose us are such high caliber and they see beyond just themselves. That ego is missing, that humility is present. That’s what really brings me to the table every day and makes me so grateful to be part of Empower Aesthetics.

Anderson Williams: Yeah, and Shore talks a lot and has been recognized for being founder friendly and your role and what you’re doing is exactly why, right? It is a combination. It is a relationship thing where we are seeking the right founders and the founders are seeking the right investment partner and when that happens, it’s pretty extraordinary.

Preethi Menon: Sure.

Anderson Williams: Right?

Preethi Menon: A 100%.

Anderson Williams: And so it becomes. Not to diminish anybody becomes a lot easier to be founder friendly when you find great founders.

Preethi Menon: Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. When people ask, what’s the secret to recruiting, or what’s the secret to your great team? It all starts with recruiting, right?

If you find the right people, you attract the right people, and so finding the right people also means that you attract the right people because you have brand recognition. Now, I think two years into it, we have a little bit of swagger where when we go to these aesthetic conferences, people are like, oh yeah, have you heard about Empower Aesthetics?

When year one, I had to, you know, beg, kick, and scream to be like, hi, I’m Empower. Do you wanna hear about me?

Anderson Williams: You’re who?

Preethi Menon: Yeah, exactly.

Anderson Williams: Yeah. That’s the amazing part of an early stage company is when you’ve experienced that complete lack of inertia.

Preethi Menon: Yes. Right.

Anderson Williams: You’re just having to build it.

Preethi Menon: Yes. And the J curve that’s always talked about, right? Yeah. So imagine the letter J I’m like using my finger, but I know this is a podcast.

In the beginning, you’re just putting in effort, energy, resources, time, and you might even dip a little bit. But once you hit that velocity, that speed that you can kind of go up, it’s truly exponential that growth. And I think we’re at the cusp of it, which is really exciting to see.

And in the consulting world, you will always have that opportunity as well, but things are more stable, so it’s more of a Y equals MX plus B growth versus an exponential like logarithmic growth.

Anderson Williams: And there is that energy of the risk.

Preethi Menon: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: Of the everyday figuring things out. That is, on the flip side, if that environment is for you, is part of the reward as well.

Going back to what you described as you made the career shift of going and building something.

Preethi Menon: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Anderson Williams: There’s nothing like building something.

Preethi Menon: A 100%. Seriously. I remember when I was first hired on, we came in my first day I saw the space. They had just signed that space maybe a week ago.

My first day was actually in a WeWork. We hadn’t gotten the space. The next week we got the space, but that day I remember I literally built chairs for us to sit in. We didn’t have anywhere else to sit other than the floor. So first day was like building the chairs. Ordering the furniture, truly building the company.

What is the entity like, name? You know, anything you can think of? Credentialing, making sure our payroll names are set up for us to get paid ourselves. Checking the numbers and being like, is that the right paycheck amount? Because you don’t have an HR team to rely on. You have people just kind of trying to build the plane as it’s flying.

Anderson Williams: Well, and then your fingerprints are on all of that.

Preethi Menon: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: You’ve been in, in those decisions and you know what made it and what didn’t, and you know what mistakes you made and where you really excelled at. It’s that feedback loop is so tight. Yeah. In these companies that it can be really energizing if you can navigate the intensity and the risk of it.

Preethi Menon: Oh my God, that is so true because when you have bad days, you are gonna have bad days. A 100%. I truly believe it’s like a marriage, right? Like a marriage will have great years and difficult months or difficult weeks. But there are days that are hard and I always go back to my why and I’m so sticky in the company myself, and by sticky, I mean I have so much attachment to the company.

You’re so right, have fingerprints on everything. I just look at the building. I just look at my office, I look at my friends in the company, and we are all so involved and so woven, and I’ve touched every little thing involved where even in consulting, they say you are two bad projects away from leaving the company because you don’t have that ownership. You often are at the mercy of the partner and the client sponsor, and so you’re just trying to do what’s written in the statement of work, what’s written in the RFP and what’s being dictated by the partner.

Here if things aren’t working out the way I would like to see or the way the team would like to see. Of course my CEO will, you know, it’s her vision and her mission for the company that really pushes us forward. But my work stream, at the end of the day, she really gives us independence. She gives us the guardrails to grow, but we have the independence to build it, what it needs to be. And so I have resources in the CXO world to capture information. And I’ll say year one. I wouldn’t be where our work stream is at without the help from Southern Orthodontics Partners and listening to Lisa Love who came during the CXO and talked about integrations. This is what best looks like. And I was like, that’s what best looks like. I’m gonna copy that. We’re gonna be best, you know?

And now year two, I’m able to mentor somebody in the CXO Program. We have a longevity platform. And so I’m able to connect with her and talk about, Hey, this is what I’m doing for integrations. In case any of those nuggets of knowledge are helpful to you. So that full circle, being able to pay it forward, that’s really beautiful.

Anderson Williams: It really is, and it speaks to the power of having a cohort of young people that are all in these early stage companies, but have also been around long enough to have evolved out of, in many cases, some of the really challenging early stage to have picked up some inertia. To give you some context, some perspective, and some very specifics.

You’re doing a CRM integration, here’s some. Best practices kinds of things, right?

Preethi Menon: Mm-hmm.

Anderson Williams: So it’s like both practical and like emotional. Not like that’s not practical, but it’s all right. You’re gonna be fine. Right? So what’s something that, when you think about your time with Empower, what’s something that you’ve learned in being in this stage of a company that you could have only learned? By being in this stage of a company?

Preethi Menon: Yeah, that’s a great question. I would say over time it’s being okay to fail and being okay to execute. I think I am somebody who really values perfection. If I’m gonna put anything out in the universe, I want it to be the best piece of content or material that anyone’s ever seen.

And so I get stuck in analysis paralysis. I’m just sitting there being like. What if I took an extra day? Maybe it’ll be better. Or what if I did it this way and then I have this impediment with this person, so I need to connect with them and they’re not in office. And so I’ll sit on things sometimes, especially in the beginning and even if you told me when I joined 2023 Preethi and was like, Hey girl, you just got to implement it. Just execute. Just call it a day. And if you fail, there are people to catch you. You’re gonna be okay. But fail forward.

I would’ve been like, Hmm, you can do that. I’m good. I’m going to do it my way. So I really had to learn through experience because whenever I did fail forward in the company for whatever reason, hey, we adjusted integrations to allow these things and this was a mission critical item that I didn’t think was mission critical. So I let it go one week, and that ended up being something difficult and we need to now manage moving forward. It made my process so much stronger. It made my team so aware of things to look at so this doesn’t happen again, and it taught other work streams, what to keep an eye out for.

So that’s something you’re only gonna learn through swimming and being thrown in the deep end and trying to get to the shore. And consulting again, gives you all those resources in a playbook where they’re like literally rinse and repeat.

Sometimes you can’t. I’m not trying to make it seem like you have this clear blueprint, but here there is zero blueprint. There is nothing other than me calling people in the CXO Program or seeing people and saying, Hey, what did you do? You know, behind the curtains without anybody there. Can I just ask you a question so I don’t sound dumb? What should I do?

And I have always been in a room with so much gratitude. I say this. And I’m very grateful to say this, but I’ve always been in a room filled with smart people and I’ve always pushed myself to be one of the dumbest people in the smartest rooms. And I was nervous when I came to private equity.

Since not everyone has a background in X, Y, Z, what is that gonna be like? I’m so grateful that my eyes were open to meeting people of different backgrounds. In the company I’m in right now, I have the best of the best in HR. I have the best of the best in BD and sales, and somebody who’s done e-commerce. Somebody who’s done marketing beyond anything I can imagine.

So I have the ability to connect with them at my fingertips, not only in the work stream world, but in the personal world. So back to your question, I think one thing I would’ve never learned before was fail forward and it’s okay to try to implement again, making sure your management team and your CEO.

Agree with your path forward, but if they do, why not? What’s the worst that could happen? And that’s what I’ve constantly told myself. What’s the worst that could happen? And two, it’s okay to be the dumbest person in the room. I know that’s not what consulting or your degree or college tells you, but that’s the only way you grow instead of being a drop of water in an ocean, you know?

Anderson Williams: Yeah. I have to go back on that and ask you, how does epidemiology play in your thinking? Is there something you learned in epidemiology? In that study that helps you frame things that way.

Preethi Menon: Sure.

Anderson Williams: I didn’t wanna leave that ’cause you dropped that at the beginning and I hadn’t gotten back to it, so I’m just coming back to, and we can delete this if we need to.

No, that’s okay. But is there something in epidemiology that has helped frame some of this?

Preethi Menon: For sure. I became an epidemiologist before anybody knew what that was back in 2013. So no COVID, no other things. And back then my epidemiology focus was electronic cigarettes. So, and especially in Texas, there was no regulation on electronic cigarettes.

And so my specific focus, I was working with the FDA and NIH on a sponsored study for nicotine use on the brains of youth and young adults. That was my research area. And so we worked on kind of public policy to see how we could raise the age in Texas because a 12-year-old could use a nicotine product thinking it’s a bubblegum flavored cool e-cigarette doesn’t have tobacco in it, so it’s not as harmful, right? No rat poison, all those things.

But it’s still alters your brain, affects your lungs and still causes side effects. So what I learned that’s actually very similar to our world of med spa is the regulation space. There was no regulation in that world there. So we were constantly proactively thinking, Hey, if regulation comes in this angle, what is our contingency plan?

If regulation doesn’t get adopted, what research can we have to support that? In the med spa industry, there is a lot of lack of regulation, and because of that regulation can spring up overnight, that can completely change our business model. So we have to constantly now think, what is a contingency plan? How do we manage that with this regulation? What if the regulation goes away? What will our revenue look like? How will our providers not only just revenue, how will our providers react? What services can we provide?

So one, always being cognizant of the regulatory world. I would’ve never been as aware of that before my public health training. And two, the research world. So translating that into this world is when you have no data and you need to kind of figure out the path forward, and it’s super ambiguous and super vague. One, sitting down and having stakeholder conversations, whether stakeholder is the CXO, whether it’s stakeholders, the med spa, usually a conversation will always kind of get you to uncover new information that you didn’t know before that gets you closer to the answer.

And two, what are similarities current state that I can either track what are resources I can pull from, what are little puzzle pieces that I can kind of scotch tape together to make some sort of picture that I can then model a projection or model a decision that’ll forecast the future. So we have the equipment to kind of make whatever choice we can make.

So those are my two areas at a young age. Being in epidemiology, it still carries over. And I will say I have a risk averse piece. When building a company, I think you need to be bold, but I think you need to always be risk averse. You don’t wanna be so bold and make certain decisions that could impact the company negatively.

Anderson Williams: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure and check out our Bigger. Stronger. Faster. episodes. Specifically highlighting the CXO Fellows Program, as well as other CXO fellows profiles at www.shocp.university/podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts. This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners and recorded in the Andrew Malone podcast Studio with story and narration by Anderson Williams. Recording and editing by Austin Johnson. Editing by Reel Audiobooks. Sound design, mixing, and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Special thanks to Preethi Menon.

This podcast is the Property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC. See none of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the Terms of Use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.