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Don’t try an be an Instagram celebrity — so many of the photos we see on social media are completely filtered and doctored so that people appear to have perfect bodies, skin, hair, etc. Don’t try and hold yourself to this level of beauty as it’s not realistic, nor authentic.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Ari Katz. Ari is the Owner and Managing Partner of Sperling Dermatology, a multi-location NJ-based Dermatology practice. Sperling Dermatology was recently recognized as the #1 CoolSculpting Provider in the USA, as well as the #1 EMSCULPT provider in New Jersey, and is proud of their over 1,000 FIVE STAR patient reviews. Ari oversees all sales, marketing, and operations at the 3 office locations, and manages its 30+ staff members.

Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

That’s easy; I married a Dermatologist! In all seriousness though, I never would have imagined I’d be running one of the fastest growing and highest grossing spas in the USA — we were recently recognized as the #1 CoolSculpting provider in the country out of more than 4,000 providers! As a natural born salesman, I spent the first 10 years of my career focused on selling enterprise marketing and technology solutions into small businesses across the country. This really gave me the knowledge and experience to help my wife grow her Dermatology practice using the same digital marketing and sales strategies I had been utilizing for other small businesses for many years.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Honestly, it might seem a bit cliché to say (because it’s so recent and current), but trying to manage and transform a business amidst a pandemic has probably been the most interesting experience of my career. From the early months of trying to limit all expenses and conserve cash, to the very difficult experience of having to temporarily furlough almost 30 employees, to the current challenges of trying to restart a business in a totally new environment, I have learned and experienced more in the last 3 months than I could have ever imagined.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

Truthfully, the tipping point for me was when I learned that listening was way more important than talking. The more I listened, the more I learned about what my customers wanted, and the more able I was to custom tailor a solution to their problems.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I have been extremely fortunate to have had incredible leaders, role models, and mentors throughout my career. One of the greatest was John Berkowitz (current CEO of Ojo Labs in Austin, Texas). John is one of the best business leaders (and people) I know, and what I always admired about him was even when he made decisions that not all of us agreed with, we never questioned his integrity or fairness, and in the end, almost all of his decisions turned out to be the right ones. It’s incredibly important to have a leader whom you trust, and someone who can see the big picture even when you can’t.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

That’s a great question. Honestly, I always kind of laugh when people refer to me or my company as “marketing geniuses” because truthfully, we really aren’t doing anything that special. It only looks special when you compare it to the rest of the beauty industry. We use a combination of traditional digital marketing, like advertising on Google, Facebook, and Instagram, in order to drive leads for our business. Once someone submits their info to us (name/phone/email), we have a team of WFH women who are passionate about our brand, business, and services, who follow up with the leads, and help them book an in-person (or virtual, in COVID times) consultation. We also leverage a combination of email and text message marketing in order to help nurture our customers along their journey with us. And finally, the last piece of the puzzle for us is our Ecommerce strategy. We were one of the first companies in our space to offer patients the ability to purchase their cosmetic treatments online and last Black Friday we did almost $300K in sales.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

I think in general, ensuring privacy on all pieces of customer data is the biggest concern as marketing technologies continues to evolve. Making sure to always abide by HIPPA laws, and taking all necessary measures to protect personal data has to be a top priority for any business. It’s pretty crazy how much some of the biggest companies out there like Google, Amazon, and Facebook know about us.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?

1) I love how many NON-INVASIVE bodysculpting treatments are coming to market recently. Treatments like CoolSculpting, CoolTone, EMSCULPT, EMTONE and EVOKE are some great examples. Not having to deal with needles, surgery or downtime and still getting incredible results is an absolute game changer for our industry!

2) I love how much our KOL’s (Key Opinion Leaders) are willing to share with the rest of the industry about their learnings and experiences. The more we share with each other, the better our industry will be as a whole.

3) I am excited about the ability for patients to give true and authentic testimonials of their experiences with various cosmetic treatments and providers. Websites like RealSelf and HealthGrades allow patients to share their own before and after pictures, and share their entire cosmetic journey — the good, bad and ugly — with others. The more info like this we can share, the more informed our patients will be, and hopefully it will lead to having more realistic treatment expectations, and better patient outcomes.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

1) Providers who set bad expectations for patients is probably one of the biggest threats to our industry. Telling someone they will go from a size 6 to a chiseled 6-pack after one round of CoolSculpting is the best way to guarantee the next “CoolSculpting doesn’t work” post. We need to set better expectations for our patients and it starts with authentic, un-doctored before and after pictures.

2) Providers who violate various treatment MAP (minimum advertised pricing) policies are also a threat to the industry as (a) they cheapen the overall perceived value of the treatment and (b) they force the rest of their local competitors to follow suit in order to stay competitive. Providers need to respect the MAP policies of their treatment partners as they are put in place for good reason!

3) In general, bad patient outcomes are always a concern. Providers need to follow best practices, and always abide by FDA guidelines on all treatments.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — don’t worry about what you think “beautiful” is supposed to look like, worry about you yourself feeling beautiful both inside and out. Your perception is your reality!

2) Get a good night’s sleep every night and drink lots of water. When you feel your best, you will look your best, and sleep and hydration are a big part of that.

3) Don’t try an be an Instagram celebrity — so many of the photos we see on social media are completely filtered and doctored so that people appear to have perfect bodies, skin, hair, etc. Don’t try and hold yourself to this level of beauty as it’s not realistic, nor authentic.

4) Be yourself, and be proud of who you are. Confidence is key, and no matter what you look like, you are beautiful in your own way. Never forget that.

5) Write down 5 things that you consider to be beautiful traits that have nothing to do with looks — things like being a good, honest, loving and caring person — and then ask yourself if those are ways people would describe you. If you don’t say yes to all of them, then work on those things. The more you work on being beautiful in a non-physical, non-visual way, the more beautiful you will become all around.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. ðŸ™‚

I would love for the whole idea of money to disappear. As a father of 3 small children, it is very depressing sometimes thinking about how much time I am missing with my children in order to work because I need to make money to provide for them. If I didn’t have to worry about work or money, I would literally spend all day every day exploring the National Parks, riding horses, boating in lakes, and traveling the world with my family. Then again, with no money, I’m not sure how I’d be able to afford to do all that… oh, well.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My father always tells me: In the end, it will all be good… and if it’s not all good, then it’s not the end. I just love that quote!

How can our readers follow you online?

www.SperlingDermatology.com
www.Instagram.com/SperlingDermatology

Thank you so much for all of these great insights!


Ari Katz of Sperling Dermatology: Why You Should Not Aim to Look Like an Instagram Celebrity was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.