What unique challenges have you faced as a woman entrepreneur and how did you overcome them?
So for us I think that we’re really lucky that we work in an industry that really focuses on… It’s a female lead industry. This industry has really created so many female entrepreneurs and I think that you know while all entrepreneurs face many challenges you know every gender alike right? I think we are so lucky to work in an industry that really empowers women to be business owners and collaborate with each other and find new and unique ways to you know force our industry forward.
What inspired you to start your business and what was your journey like?
I’ll start. So what inspired me was same thing that kind of inspires me to do anything. I love to empower people. I’ve always had a passion for it even when I was young like in high school. I always wanted to do things and create things to help people just become better and strive for more. So I was in cosmetic dentistry prior to this and I saw how transformations really impact people’s confidence and ability to strive for things greater than what they potentially could be doing at the moment. So I felt that aesthetic medicine was a natural segue for that in order to give people that confidence and inspire them and empower them and have them reach for things that they might not otherwise have reached for.
What sets your business apart from others in your field?
I think that the main thing that I would say is just how much we truly care about the people that we are serving. You know, Leah and I kind of sat down and put together our general mission and our general why—why we’re in business—and you know we decided we’re in business to empower people and we’re here to empower both the patients that come through our door and our staff and just you know make everybody’s day a little bit better, even for the delivery people that come and you know bring our supplies and things like that. So I think our energy of empowerment and our you know desire to make people the best version of themselves, whether that be our patients or our team members, kind of transcends through our interactions and that, in my opinion, sets us apart.
I agree. One of my favorite times being in business was recently when Diana put together this survey that kind of surveyed our patients and people in general about why do you come to a medical spa. It was so interesting to me. I thought people were going to say things such as, “Oh, I come to a medical spa to get a facial” or “I come to a medical spa to get Botox,” but more than 70 percent of the responses in that survey was, “I come to a medical spa to feel better, to feel empowered, for you know to take care of myself so that I feel more confident.” It was just so reassuring that it’s like we are doing this to help people and to empower people. It’s not just a cosmetic experience, right? It’s really like helping another woman feel more confident to go interview for that job that she never thought that she could get because she has a little bit more; she can stand up a little bit taller. And it’s not just a vanity thing; it’s like I’m doing something for myself to really care for myself, so that was really cool.
I think women are amazing, right? We do so many things every day— we’re mothers, we’re daughters, we’re caretakers, we’re friends, we’re sisters. Women can take over the world. And what I love so much about being a part of this industry and working with another female, you know, empowering entrepreneurs such as Diana, is that we can do anything, right? This industry is just scratching the surface. And I’m so excited to be a part of a group of collaborative women who are moving an entire sector, an entire, you know, industry forward and really kind of shaping it together.
Yeah, for sure. I think that the industry has changed from when we first got into it. We started in 2013, and, you know, it was a lot of like basement Botox and the Caboodle, and, you know, a lot of like, you know, people that weren’t looked at as professionals sometimes, right? What we’ve seen, even in the last 12 years that we’ve been in business, is a massive shift. There’s so much interest in this industry. There’s so much research and development. There are so many doctors and nurse practitioners that are, you know, publishing white papers, doing studies, and flying internationally to teach techniques. I just see this industry gaining more and more clout and more and more respect from the medical community.
I think that women are a huge part of that because obviously, it’s a predominantly women-led industry. Women receive these treatments, give these treatments, and can see the outcomes. And, you know, like I said before, there are more men joining, so there are male doctors and, you know, male nurse practitioners that are kind of joining in as well. But I think the big shift that we’ll see and continue to see is just more professionalism and this becoming like a real industry versus like Botox and a Caboodle kind of thing.
Are there any women who have inspired or mentored you along the way?
For sure. So I always, my biggest mentor and person that I’m always inspired by is my mom. She is an entrepreneur and has started a few businesses herself. She’s very hard-working, has a lot of self-discipline, and is always doing things thoroughly and to the fullest. She’s very successful, so she’s always taught me well.
Her mother actually was a pretty big boss as well. She ran the Latvian Conservatory, which in Latvia is a big deal because it’s a very predominant classical music country. There’s a lot of focus on classical music. If you’re a musician in Latvia, it’s like a prestigious thing. So she ran the Latvian Conservatory and she was a big boss, which was also really cool because it was during a time in our world that women weren’t big bosses, right? We’re talking about the 50s. And you think of women in the 50s as like homemakers. But in my family, the women have always been out there creating and working and doing and inspiring and teaching. So I draw my inspiration a lot from my family that way.
I agree. I was raised by a single mother who was born into a family where her mother was a homemaker, so she didn’t really have that. She didn’t get to see what it was like. But my mom was a very young mother and she was a single mother. She has made an exceptionally successful career for herself. Just seeing the way that she has been able to balance taking care of myself and my brother, growing our family, being an exceptional family member and exceptional mother, and also being able to manage working in the corporate world and being a real professional, while showing up for everyone in her life, is really inspirational to me. And I hope to do her proud.
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