Remembering Janee

Often, the voice you’re hearing in our blogs belongs to me, Mara Shorr. I’m not only the vice president of marketing and business development, but also Jay Shorr’s daughter. Jay is my father, managing partner, and the founder of Shorr Solutions; we’re a proud father-daughter team. In the meantime, we have also have found other fantastic father-daughter teams to work with such as the fine folks at MedResults and Epionce.

However, today we are taking a moment to think about the third member of our team who lost her battle with cancer five years ago. My stepmother (Jay’s wife of nearly nine years), was Dr. Janee Sternberg. She was a brilliant dermatologist who left us too soon. (Her full story can be found in one of our first blog posts here.)

In honor of Janee, we wanted to offer three tips of how to run your practice from how she lived her life:

1. Be “Outrageous.” Understand this was one of her favorite adjectives and was how she lived life. Be impressive. Show all your patients that you care. Flaunt your successful work. Do it even if that means press clippings, beautiful advertisements, an office that showcases your personality, or a staff that brags about your accomplishments. Show your personality in your office and let your patients see YOU, not a sterile office.
2. “Age is a number, and mine is unlisted.” Janee loved this phrase. As a grown woman, men rarely asked about her age. However, women were in amazement. She was a tribute to her own work and the work of her staff. She looked about 10-15 years younger than she was. Don’t be afraid to let your patients know exactly which procedures you’ve had done, when, where, and why. It makes you relatable and a walking billboard for your practice.
3. Be sure to maintain a work-life balance. My stepmother loved her practice. She would come home at the end of the day and continue to discuss the events of her day with my father after dinner ended. (He served as the practice administrator and vice president of operations for nearly a decade.) Henceforth, her passion for life outside the office made her more lovable to her patients. She was a women’s poker champion, golfer, scuba diver, and lover of cruises. All of these things gave her something to connect with patients during the work day. Additionally, let’s be honest, she picked up quite a few new patients at the poker table over the years as well.

And so with that, here’s to you, Dr. Janee Steinberg, the Laser Queen.