00:00:06:16 – 00:00:35:08

Mara Shorr

Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. I’m your host, Mara Shorr. I’m a partner in the cosmetic and aesthetic medical practice management consulting company. Yes, Shorr Solutions. Listen up as I chat, converse, strategize and commiserate with special guests, influencers, friends, and colleagues who are all in the cosmetic and aesthetic medical space too. It’s time to listen, learn, and get inspired. Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast

00:00:46:02 – 00:02:25:03

Mara Shorr

Welcome, everybody to the latest episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. And with this episode we have one of just these glorious human being. Paula Di Marco Young and I have known Paula for years and years now. Paula is not only a colleague of mine, when we all serve on the faculty for the Aesthetic Show together, but Paula is a registered nurse, certified laser operator, the director of public relations and marketing for Young Medical Spa.

Wait, I’m not done. She’s the CEO of VSpot Philadelphia and the director of global education with MyFaceMyBody. Paula has an extensive amount of experience in our aesthetic industry. She has won so many awards, both for her podcast. It’s a Young Thing if you haven’t subscribed to it already. I highly, highly encourage. It’s one of the first aesthetic podcasts I started listening to years ago.

And so she also has a Top Nurses award. She has a Rising Star award. She has been a finalist with for the Tag You’re It! Award at the Aesthetics Show in Las Vegas. She also has a previous career with Johnson & Johnson when it comes to medical devices. And we’re going to go into how it is that she came into this industry in the course of our conversation today.

Paula has been interviewed for and by The Wall Street Journal and MedEsthetics magazine, just to name a few. But with that, I would like to introduce not only my colleague and my fellow faculty member, but one of my good friends is Paula Di Marco Young.

00:02:25:19 – 00:02:30:22

Paula Di Marco Young

Well, hello, Mara. Thank you so much for having me.

00:02:30:24 – 00:02:44:20

Mara Shorr

Thank you so much for taking time out of your morning today to actually have a conversation with our listeners. And I know this is a little bit different for you because you’re normally the host of the podcast interview.

00:02:44:20 – 00:03:03:19

Paula Di Marco Young

Typically. But, you know, I have nothing but time right now. I’m just trying to figure out how to fill my day right now is a little bit challenging. So I’m so used to running from this thing to that thing. And now I find that I have a lot of downtime. So this is great. I like to catch up with old friends that I haven’t seen in a long time and hopefully I get to see you in the next few months.

00:03:03:24 – 00:03:20:12

Mara Shorr

That’s what we’re hoping. That is certainly what we’re hoping. I know we always enjoy spending time together when we’re in Las Vegas every year at The Aesthetics show and catching up personally and professionally and just hearing who’s doing what and what exciting things are going on. And of course, we always get to share a drink. So that’s always a good thing too.

00:03:20:13 – 00:03:21:19

Paula Di Marco Young

Absolutely.

00:03:21:21 – 00:03:38:02

Mara Shorr

So tell me a little bit more, Paula, about not just me, but I think all of our listeners, how it is that you got started in the aesthetic industry and how you made the transition years ago to become the force to be reckoned with that you are now.

00:03:38:04 – 00:05:07:22

Paula Di Marco Young

Wow. Do you know that it’s so long ago my husband and I were just talking about the other day. We’re trying to figure out how many years it’s been, but I think it’s been at least 16 years ago because my son is 14 and a half. So we’re thinking about 16 years ago, I was still working with Johnson & Johnson.

And at that time I was I was working in the CRM platform. I was launching a CRM software to four J&J companies. So we were looking at the role that medicine was taking and my husband had his own practice and he was just struggling. I just saw him struggling to make ends meet because these local hospitals were growing bigger and bigger and bigger and like a sponge, they were sucking up all the small doc offices in the valley.

And if you didn’t belong to a large hospital organization, you were pretty much getting shut out of medicine. And I was starting to see that take effect in his practice. And it was getting to the point where you could not even afford to pay your staff to call in prior authorizations or referrals or to sit there and call in med refills.

And it was just getting to the point that it was crazy. And I had resigned from Johnson and Johnson to go through multiple IVF procedures to finally get our son, which has been my, you know, my shining star. That was a great thing for me to do, to just kind of quit work and fully spend time to be a mom.

00:05:07:22 – 00:05:11:19

Mara Shorr

And you always have stars in your eyes when you when you talk about it. I’m like, if there is…

00:05:11:19 – 00:05:12:15

Paula Di Marco Young

A love it!

00:05:12:15 – 00:05:21:21

Mara Shorr

If you are not the epitome of the heart-eye emoji, when you talk about your family, it’s always amazing to see.

00:05:22:00 – 00:06:36:15

Paula Di Marco Young

He’s he’s one out of 32. We call him a little egg that could, you know, he is he’s my my joy. So, you know when that all happened and I was leaving Johnson and Johnson, I looked at my husband and I said, you know, we have so much experience in medicine. And I also have a cosmetology license with the state of Pennsylvania.

And so I was always interested in the beauty aspects In my past life. I had a Merle Norman cosmetic franchise. I had a chain of tanning salons before they were pooh-poohed upon, and I was always interested in that. I had a full service hair and nail salon and I wanted to combine that with medicine, and I talked my husband into starting to go aesthetic.

And we basically just started with some Botox, our very first Palomar Star Lux 300 laser, which is two hand pieces doing hair removal and rosacea. And we just started doing that. And I’ll tell you what, it blew up after two years of just treating our current patient load, we literally discharged our internal medicine practice and we have been solely aesthetic cosmetic medicine for the past 13 years.

00:06:36:17 – 00:07:04:23

Mara Shorr

And you’re so your husband, Dr. Thomas Young, is actually so he’s the medical director for Young Medical Spa at this point. And you guys replicate it. And I mean, not at this point. He always he has been. And you’re located right around the corner from where I grew up. You have a location in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and then you actually have another well, let’s put it this way.

Young Medical Spa has another location in Pennsylvania, and then VSpot is now in Philadelphia as well.

00:07:05:00 – 00:07:32:10

Paula Di Marco Young

Well, we actually have three office locations for Young Medical Spa. One is in Lansdale, which is in Montgomery County Bucks County area. The second one, our main office is in Center Valley, which is in the Lehigh Valley, like Allentown, Bethlehem region. And our third location is up in the coal region up around Wilkes-Barre. So we do have three young medical spa locations and then VSpot as a separate business that we have, which is in Center City, Philadelphia.

00:07:32:12 – 00:07:46:19

Mara Shorr

And I actually I didn’t grow up in Center City, Philadelphia. My grandmother lived she lived in Rittenhouse Square. She lived under the Ben Franklin Bridge. She lived in a couple of different areas. So I grew up spending a lot of time in Center City.

00:07:46:21 – 00:07:48:17

Paula Di Marco Young

Oh good, yeah. We’re right in Rittenhouse Square.

00:07:48:18 – 00:09:07:05

Mara Shorr

Yes, I love I love that area. So as a fellow Pennsylvania gal, I get it. I get the appeal. And so what? You’ve done so many amazing things with Young Medical Spa. I feel like we could go on and on about not only the the pro bono work that you guys have done and how important it is for you guys to give back.

But what I’ve also learned from you over the years is that you don’t have to choose just one thing when you have multiple passions. It doesn’t have to be that I’m only going to do this one thing for the rest of my life. And I’ve watched as you have taken your passion, not just your passion as a nurse, but your passion for the medical aesthetics industry.

Your passion for marketing, your passion as an entrepreneur. And you have shifted it so that there’s always a really great innovative new something that you have that continues to drive the industry forward and continues to drive the practice forward. But you don’t necessarily say, Oh, because I’m going to shift gears, I’m going to give up on this previous something that I had.

You, you have this funny way of always adding into it a different way. So with all of these passions, can you talk a little bit more about how you channel each of them to lead to success?

00:09:07:07 – 00:10:06:24

Paula Di Marco Young

I think the reason why I enjoy it so much, first of all, a lot of things interests me. And this the most important thing is, is I avoid burnout that way when I’m not focusing on doing one thing. Yeah, really? I mean, you do the same thing every day. Every day. Every day you get to a point. Sometimes you just get burned out.

You know, I just don’t want to do this anymore. But when I call myself a cross-functional person, I like to go from being a mom to being a podcast or being a nurse, to being a CEO, to being a marketer, to be you know. Just different things. You know, planner of educational programs. I enjoy it because I learn not only that you avoid burnout, but when I spread myself thin like this, with so many different channels, I learn from other people.

I’m learning new things. As I get brought on to a new industry, I’m learning new things about that industry and it’s like, Wow, this is fantastic. And then I end up inspiring others. Give you an example. Simple Things, Podcasting, Simple things.

00:10:07:02 – 00:10:07:14

Mara Shorr

Yes.

00:10:07:14 – 00:10:27:07

Paula Di Marco Young

I was a guest on a podcast, Two ladies. A friend of mine had me on their show and my topic was they had me talking about change because my last title with Johnson and Johnson, I was a senior manager for Change Management. That’s a nobody likes change but you know, a baby. So they had me on talking about…

00:10:27:07 – 00:10:30:05

Mara Shorr

I love that! That is so insanely true. No one likes change.

00:10:30:09 – 00:11:42:06

Paula Di Marco Young

And it’s, and I went well, this is a great platform. I learned something. This is a great platform. I’m so excited. I think I want to adopt this for our patients, for young medical spas, because people are so confused about something as simple as a neural modulator versus a dermal filter product. They’re so confused because they see what’s happening in the media.

I’m like, This is a great way to educate patients. So I started the podcast and it just took off. And then I ended up being the official podcaster for the Plastic Surgery Network on Apple TV. So it got grew and grew and grew. Then my one friend who has a local film production company in town, she said, I inspired her to start a podcast.

I’m like, So, see, there you go. Somebody inspired me. I learned something. I learned from them. I learned from the expert. I learned from my producer how to make a quality podcast. And then I inspired others to do the same thing. And it’s almost like passing the torch and you’re learning the whole way. You’re learning how to grow, but you’re learning how to inspire.

And I just find it all very fascinating. I don’t think you can get bored when you’re offered an opportunity like that.

00:11:42:08 – 00:12:16:16

Mara Shorr

How? And I think, you know, just so you know, you inspired me as well to start this podcast and you’ve actually been the one saying, Mara, you really need to do that. And I laugh because not only that, you would text me a link to an upcoming conference and say, Hey, FYI this is going to be happening in your neck of the woods in Orlando or this is a great group.

I think you should join for Facebook, a Facebook group for podcasters. And so suddenly over the past year or so, you’ve been sending me all of the tools but also serving as the inspiration. So it’s just.

00:12:16:20 – 00:12:17:06

Paula Di Marco Young

Oh, thank you! I love that!

00:12:19:05 – 00:13:09:20

Mara Shorr

Absolutely, absolutely. And I think one of the questions I have for you, too, and I think a lot of people would they want to do more, but they think I’m going to get burned out or they’re already tired and exhausted and the project that they’re currently working on. So because what I’ve noticed, like I said before with you, is that you don’t necessarily give up and let go of the previous thing to move on to the next thing.

So it’s not that. For example, when you started the podcast, you then decided, I’m no longer going to do anything with Young Medical Spa. And it’s not that when you then started to serve as the CEO of VSpot Philadelphia, you said, Oh, I’m going to let it’s a Young thing podcast fall to the wayside and never mind, I’m done recording episodes.

You pick up the next thing and the next thing. So how do you avoid burnout?

00:13:09:22 – 00:14:30:12

Paula Di Marco Young

I just shift the energy from one topic to the other. Sometimes when I get a little frustrated, say I can’t really come up with a podcast topic, it’s like, okay, well I I’ve got a lot of material out there. Let me shift focus onto something else right now. Let me focus my attention on another thing. It’s almost like reading a book and you’re kind of getting tired of the book.

So you maybe you play video games on your phone. I just shift my mind and just shift focus because if I if I find myself struggling with something, I end up feeling very negative about that particular job that I’m doing. I don’t want to feel that way. So if I’m starting to feel frustrated, it’s like, put it aside, just walk away, put it aside, and clarity usually does come.

But when I’m really stuck on something like that, I just beat myself up. And then you start feeling negatively towards that job or towards that chore. So I’ll just refocus. I go over here and I’ll do something over here and I’ll focus on this for a while, and I just basically rotate myself around. But I must say there are some situations where importance takes precedence.

I mean, something will come up and you’re like, okay, everything has to stop. I need to take care of this right now. Right now, everything’s got to stop. I have to put everything on hold. So you have to manage the priorities. But it’s everything is running smoothly, which lately I don’t think anybody can say that’s the case.

00:14:30:18 – 00:14:34:11

Mara Shorr

Yeah, not in the midst of Covid 19, that’s for sure.

00:14:34:11 – 00:15:51:07

Paula Di Marco Young

Yeah, everything’s a crisis now, you know, every everything, every facet of your life is a crisis at this point. So because everything’s at the same level intensity, I just make sure I’m rotating myself around because if I spread myself too thin, I do a little here, a little here, a little here, a little here. I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything.

And I start feeling down on myself. So I’ll just kind of push things to a side and focus. Maybe today on this, tomorrow on this, the next day on this. So that way I have my full attention and I can really focus and do the things I need to do. And I’m not skimping on what I need to do.

And then tomorrow will be the next job’s turn to do that. So tomorrow, social media posts. Today I’m going to record podcasts and sign up more guests for my show. Thursday, I’m going to treat my medical patients right at VSpot. I’ve got a couple of patients that I’m still permitted to treat, so I’m going to finish their treatments and help these women that are suffering.

And this day I’m going to do homework and a painting project with my son. So I just, you know, you just have to you just have to kind of give yourself time to do one thing well before you move to the next thing. If you run around like you’re chasing a piece of cheese, then you never really get to that cheese.

00:15:51:07 – 00:16:21:02

Mara Shorr

Yeah, no, I think it makes a lot of sense, and I think that way it helps your passion. I know you’ve always spoken really highly about the team that you have behind you as well. And so even before this, you and I were talking about different team members, you know, with different parts of whether it’s the podcast, your podcast producer that you have.

So you have somebody on your side there as well, or you’re talking about the team members with Young Medical Spa etc., and you always say, I’m so lucky to have these great people.

00:16:21:03 – 00:17:19:16

Paula Di Marco Young

Yeah. Once you start feeling you’re superior to the people that you’re working with, then all of a sudden you lose a lot of respect for them and they lose respect for you. And I never like to think of myself as a CEO or as a boss. I like to think of myself as part of the team. So when I’m at an example, when I’m at Young Medical Spa working or when I’m at VSpot working, I’m wearing the same scrubs as everybody on my team.

I dress like them, I work with them, or they’ll say, Oh, you’re my boss. But no, I’m not your boss. I’m your I’m your team worker. Yeah, I’m the team leader on the team leader. But we’re a team. I’m not your boss. And that attitude just. Just you have more of a cohesive work force when you work together as a team.

Everybody knows their job, and everybody needs to do it. You do it well. But when you start throwing out superiority here and there, then you start getting all that poison that starts coming into relationships that right now there’s no place for that in today’s workplace.

00:17:19:22 – 00:17:50:04

Mara Shorr

I agree. You know, and that’s where you and I always use that word team. So and I think some of the more successful leaders that I know and the successful business owners and practice owners that I know, we use that word team. So I don’t say to my staff, I don’t say my employees. I always call our Shorr Solutions.

Right? So we have Shorr Solutions and we always call everybody at work. They’re my team. That’s who they are. So I am just so grateful to have them because they allow they allow me to do what I love. And your team allows you to do what you love.

00:17:50:04 – 00:18:06:09

Paula Di Marco Young

So you know, you always need somebody to steer the ship. You need somebody to plan the course, You need somebody to fire up the engines. You need somebody to steer the rudder. You you can’t you can’t sail a ship with just one person in charge. You have to have a cohesive force.

00:18:06:09 – 00:19:20:05

Mara Shorr

I Oh, I wholeheartedly agree. And so I want to talk a little bit about your newest, your newest venture as CEO of VSpot Philadelphia. And there is and I want you to talk a little bit, number one, about what these Philadelphia is and then also talk a little bit about you deciding you wanted to really be a huge part of and service CEO and start this business, which is a medical practice truly startup practice in a business focused on something that is to the general public seemingly sometimes people say it’s controversial or it’s hush hush or it’s something, you know, feminine health is something we don’t talk about, right?

And it’s this like breasts or nipples used to be, right? Decades ago. It’s we didn’t talk about body parts and anatomy and now breast augmentations are so a part of the everyday conversation with most people. But feminine health still remains something that is more hush hush. So I would love to hear why you decided that you wanted to really do this and start this about Philadelphia with everything that, you know.

00:19:20:07 – 00:22:42:18

Paula Di Marco Young

Oh, well, the VSpot Medi Spa was founded by Real Housewives of New York, Cindy Barshop and renowned world gynecologist Carolyn DeLucia. And together they founded VSpot Medi Spa. And it’s based on Madison Avenue in New York City. And it’s been open for at least four years now, going on five. And we know them very well. Dr. Young and I, my husband and I.

And their concept was just so fabulous. And I think the biggest reason why we wanted to jump on board and bring this to Pennsylvania was the fact I’m 58 years old. I’m going to be 59. And these type of women that we are treating, the majority of them are my peeps. You know, they’re in my my age range.

Right? And over the last 16 years of having a medical spa, you see all these women coming in and they want to physically look good with the Botox, the fillers, the smart lipo, the cool sculpting. They, you know, the light, the laser hair removal. They want the skin resurfacing. They they want to look good. But as you get to know these women and you do repeat treatments on them and you really get to know them and their lives, they open up, you’re almost like a bartender where they really start confiding in you and letting you know these women were suffering.

But these women were looking great on the outside, and some of them were doing it to overcompensate. How horrible, horrible they felt on the inside. These are women that have severe, you know, mild to severe urinary incontinence. These are women who have an inability to orgasm. These are women who are going through menopause, having pelvic pain. They might have Diastasis Recti after difficult childbirth.

These are women that are suffering, truly suffering. And so imagine the woman I said, you know, my girlfriends, imagine yourself, you know, you’re out on the dating scene. You know, you’ve had a couple of children in your, you know, recently single, and you’re trying to get back into dating again. And you have urinary incontinence and you’re wearing protection undergarments.

So you’re going out on this date and you do your hair, you do your makeup. It’s like, oh, you have to make sure you have a dry undergarment on and then you go out to dinner with this thing. You’re on a date. Imagine yourself. You have to watch how much you drink. You have to watch how many times you’re running to the bathroom.

You have to make sure that you’re wearing dark and it’s clothes that if you leak, you don’t see a spot. You have to make sure you have something maybe to tie around your waist in case you do leak. It’s how much stress does that put on that relationship. Now, take a woman who is married with her significant other.

Imagine that they they don’t feel anything during sex or they may feel pain during sex. They may have dryness, they may have tearing, they may have absolutely no ability to orgasm at all. What does that do to a relationship? It’s far more than physical, but if a spouse is hurting their wife during a sexual experience. How does that make them feel?

I don’t want to hurt my wife. I don’t want to hurt my wife. That’s and it’s like all of a sudden now, intimacy is an issue. Your relationships fall apart, it starts becoming mental. And then they start getting depressed. I mean, it affects more than just a woman’s vagina. And I’m sorry.

00:22:42:18 – 00:22:50:21

Mara Shorr

It’s emotional and it’s mental. It’s psychological. It’s not just a matter of one physical body part.

00:22:50:21 – 00:23:10:11

Paula Di Marco Young

It is! This goes far beyond orgasm. I mean, how many times do you sit down? We are watching football and you see TV ads for erectile dysfunction. That’s fine. Okay. Oh, it’s fine. Let’s talk about men not being able to get erections. Oh, yeah, that’s perfectly fine. But you know what? Women are allowed to have orgasms, too. I’m sorry.

00:23:10:20 – 00:23:14:08

Mara Shorr

I would like to think so. I would like to think that’s something we’re allowed to do. Yes!

00:23:14:08 – 00:24:24:15

Paula Di Marco Young

It’s not taboo anymore. It should not be taboo anymore. Women should not be suffering with pelvic pain and pelvic dysfunction and inability to climax or inability to even hold their bladder, hold their urine in. And I mean, it should just not be that way. And VSpot New York and VSpot Philadelphia. We offer this women the ability to empower themselves.

Hey, you have a safe place you can go. Those offices have a all female staff. We are completely open to any type of complication or problems women have. It’s a very warm, loving, compassionate, welcoming place. Everybody that walks in our door has one sort of a problem or another. Sometimes it’s just physical. Sometimes it’s so physical. It reaches to the depths of mental and and intimacy types of issues with relationship issues.

And we’re here to help them be. I see so many of my girlfriends who I’ve known for years, Mara for years, and all of a sudden since I opened up this business, this clinic, all of a sudden now they’re talking to me how they’ve been suffering for years.

00:24:24:15 – 00:25:48:17

Mara Shorr

Yeah, it’s amazing how especially when it comes to conversations that we do and don’t have with our with our closest girlfriends. Right? And the second that you start talking about this is a problem, either this is a problem that I have or I think you and I do a lot of we talk a lot in the industry and we’re out in conferences and we will bring back knowledge and say just in casual conversation or maybe over a drink or a cup of coffee to a friend.

This is this is something that I’m seeing now. This is a new trend. And they go, wait a minute. And at first it’s this preposterous. Who would ever need that? But then they hear, Wait a minute, you’re telling me I can fix these symptoms? I had no idea I could fix these symptoms. I was talking with a friend of mine.

I was out with my nephews one day about a year ago, and we went to like one of those trampoline gyms. Right. So we were we were jumping around and I was talking to a friend of mine and she said, Oh, now, ever since I had kids, I could never do. I can’t do that. There’s going to be too much leakage.

I could never go to do something like that. She has two small kids, and I think that to know there are options when you talk about bladder and you talk about urinary incontinence and you talk about the difference, especially the sexual side effects and the intimacy. So knowing that there are marriages that have certainly ended because it snowballs and one thing leads to another and nobody wants to talk about it.

00:25:48:19 – 00:27:51:08

Paula Di Marco Young

Yes, I said it’s not taboo anymore. There’s so many different there’s so many different things that we treat. And in lots of times it takes a combination of therapies that we have or treatments that we have or devices we have. Products that we have to help a woman. It really does depend upon how severe her symptoms are. But we do work in conjunction with a lot of gynecologists that will send us their patients.

A lot of times we we have to turn patients away because they are either surgical patients and it’s more advanced than what we can treat. So we do refer out to gynecologists and gynecologists in turn refer into us and urologist they refer to. Oh yeah, they yeah, there’s a lot of collaboration between the two because we help them.

They help us put together we’re helping patients. And I absolutely love that collaborative effort. I’ll tell you, since we opened up in Rittenhouse Square, we have received such an overwhelming response of welcome there and acceptance and joy. There are so many women’s groups and organizations that have just embraced us and our mission of empowering women to take control of their bodies.

You can do something. Why do you need to suffer in silence? You don’t have to suffer in silence any longer. We’re here and we’re going to listen and we’re going to help. And we have been I’m just overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed that it’s been, like you said, a snowball effect. Everybody’s like, oh, did you hear about this new business that opened?

They’re helping women go there and oh, my gosh, I might be able to get off of my protection undergarments. There might be help for me. I might be able to go on a trampoline with my kids. Exactly. There’s hope for me. And it’s wonderful. We even had this is amazing. This is what really got me. We’ve even had husbands calling in scheduling appointments for their wives because their wives are suffering and in pain and they want to help them.

Boy, was that beautiful. When we started getting phone calls from husbands, I think it’s great!

00:27:53:03 – 00:28:49:22

Mara Shorr

It is because it’s a and it’s not a I need you to fix my wife in a macho way but it is a I know my wife is suffering and I want to be able to help her because I know that she’s suffering. And I think that’s that’s a true that’s a true partnership. So I love that! How, from a marketing perspective, so when you have topics like this, how are you getting the word out about a topic that people like you?

And I said, you know, it might take a glass or two of wine and a group of close girlfriends to have these conversations. So how are you marketing and getting the word out to the public? Has it been mostly word of mouth. Has it been you going out and shaking hands and dropping off? Thank you. Packages to local gynecologists.

What have you done that you’ve seen that has really strengthened and built this in a market from a marketing perspective?

00:28:49:24 – 00:29:39:04

Paula Di Marco Young

Well, you you and I both know that the Google God’s rule, what is put on Google AdWords or any kind of flows on Google. So you can’t put things like you really want to orgasm and things like that. Exactly. I really can’t put words like that, that are PRP anymore. You can’t put any of that stuff in Google AdWords.

So I mean, you could put benign Google ads out to just kind of hint around women’s feminine issues because it’s still taboo. Even on Google, you can say you can say erectile dysfunction on Google, but you can’t say anything about a woman’s orgasm on Google. So what we really the first thing that we did as we hit the pavement, we made packages up of our services of free trial cards for the Emsella chair that we have what we call the Kegel throne.

I love the Kegel throne.

00:29:39:08 – 00:29:44:01

Mara Shorr

And I love on Instagram that you’ll actually have photos of you guys on the Kegel throne.

00:29:44:01 – 00:29:47:01

Paula Di Marco Young

I love it too. So yeah, it’s awesome. It’s awesome.

 

00:29:47:01 – 00:30:17:21

Mara Shorr

Look how comfortable this is. So in anyone that’s ever tried it before, you realize it is not it’s not invasive, it is not uncomfortable. It is something that is just absolutely. I mean, I recommend checking this out, whether it’s as a piece of equipment for your practice or as a treatment. If you are a prospective patient listening to this, know that this is not something to be scared of.

And I love that your team isn’t afraid to put that out there and to say.

00:30:17:22 – 00:30:19:16

Paula Di Marco Young

Oh, now we try everything.

00:30:19:18 – 00:30:40:23

Mara Shorr

And I love that. But that’s what as a practice owner and as a practice team member, people shouldn’t be afraid to say this. These are the treatments I have done. If they’re good enough for my patients and they are certainly good enough for me. So let me talk about my experience. So I love that. So utilizing social media, obviously with the Kegel Throne as well.

00:30:41:00 – 00:32:52:09

Paula Di Marco Young

Yes, social media helps a lot. Instagram predominantly right now, Facebook. I know like this Friday, my physician assistant and I are doing a question and answer session on Instagram live. And we have people messaging us and emailing us their questions so we can address them. So we’re using this downtime to educate our patients and potential patients on the Internet.

So that’s one thing that we’re doing now. But when we were allowed out before the proverbial COVID hit the fan and we were going and visiting lash bars, brow bars, nail salons, day spas, resorts spas, we were gynecologist’s office, we were just really visiting saying, Look, we’re here. This is what we do. Come try our Kegel Throne, come talk to us.

We had an open house and we invited local media and local businesses and women’s groups to come to our open house, our grand opening. And like I said, I was very surprised with Philadelphia culture that there are so many powerful women’s groups, magazines and organizations that are supporting us and getting the word out for us, doing articles on us, promoting us.

There’s a lot of different women meetings coming up in Philadelphia that we are sponsoring or either speaking at or we have a booth at. So it gets us face to face in front of people to deliver our message. So there’s a lot of that going on down there. It was very, very surprising, was very easy to find our target audience because there are so many women that are there just, I don’t know, it’s something about Philadelphia women where they are strong, they are powerful.

They are just a take control kind of their own destiny kind of woman and boy. Once they found out we were down there and what we do, they were like, Yes. And then they started passing the word around about us. Hey, did you hear about the V spot that opened up in Rittenhouse Square? And you could go there and you can treat your urinary incontinence.

And it was just amazing. It just it’s the whole culture. It’s amazing.

00:32:52:09 – 00:34:53:22

Mara Shorr

It’s women helping women. And I know it’s I grew up outside of Philadelphia and so I know that there’s something about a strong Philly woman. There really is. So we are we are a strong breed. And I also would I want to pick up on something that you said, which is target audience. And a lot of times what I see is that people don’t take the time to pinpoint who exactly their target demographic is.

So even down to obviously the geographic. So you know that you are looking for somebody in Philadelphia, you’re not looking for somebody that is coming in from California. You’re not interested in necessarily that aspect of it. You are really making a name for yourself locally because that’s where your patient base is coming from. And then obviously this is very women focused, female focused, but then you even said a couple minutes ago about age, she said, look, I’m 58.

These women, these are my peeps, these are my this is the age group that I’m targeting and maybe a little bit younger, too, obviously, because I know I know women in their in their thirties, in their forties, in their fifties and sixties that are all suffering from this. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be one age group, but you’re not looking to talk with the women and connect with the the young ladies and the young women that are on Snapchat, for instance, that 18 to 24 demographic is not where your patient base is coming from.

And so you what I’ve always seen you do too, and we always suggest to our clients is to know exactly who your demographic is and both their age, their gender, their geographic, what are their hobbies, where are they participating? Like you said, strong women leaders. And so let’s look at the women’s groups in the area and knowing all of these things and pulling together that prototype of a patient is going to help you get hyper focused on your marketing, which is exactly what you’ve done.

00:34:53:24 – 00:35:07:21

Paula Di Marco Young

And actually too. You have to pick the right area to do a certain business. You have to make sure that the geographical area has the population to support your vision, because if you don’t, you’re you’re just shooting yourself in the foot.

00:35:07:23 – 00:36:51:19

Mara Shorr

Exactly. I’ve seen people that don’t do so whenever we have a client that comes to us, a new prospective client, that they say, Well, I could be in, you know, if we talk about Pennsylvania of our existence and they say, well, I, I don’t know if I want to be in Wilkes-Barre. I don’t know if I want to be in Center City.

I don’t know if I want to be in Montgomery County. So You’re talking suburbs city. You know, we have clients that say, oh, maybe something more world because it is less expensive. It’s the further out we go as far as rent, etc.. Yes, but the patient base might not be there. And so we always when those prospects come, they might say, I’m considering five different zip codes or three different cities.

And we say, let’s do a geographic and demographic study on all of them before we even contact a realtor, because that is going to make all the difference, because you might realize that it could be a, you know, a more transient population in one place, and therefore you’re not going to get the repeat business if you have people that come, they stay for work for six months and then they leave again.

Or it could be a student population that you’re going to have zero business over the summer because 50,000 people leave. And you thought that there were more people embedded in the community. And those are obviously extreme examples, but you need to know what is the disposable income, because most of the time the treatments we’re talking about aren’t covered by insurance.

So they need to have that disposable income and. Is this a population that’s going to keep things more hush hush or is this a population that will tell their friends how their their sisters, their cousins, their parents, their their siblings, etc.? So knowing all those things at a time is really important.

00:36:51:21 – 00:37:42:21

Paula Di Marco Young

And we do have you know, what’s interesting is we do have a lot of treatments that our younger patients really enjoy, like the 24 carat gold wax, the vaginal steaming, the vaginal lightning. There are a lot of really nice treatments and services for our younger patient population and even a lot of our younger patients who are contemplating having children someday, they’re actually using the Emsella chair to strengthen their pelvic floor to get ready for childbearing years.

We also have the sculpt machine. They’re working on their abs, their glutes and their work, maybe their calves or their arms. So we do the emsculpt as well, and they’re just tightening up their whole pelvic core. So we do have quite a variety of treatments and procedures that we can offer.

00:37:42:21 – 00:38:12:04

Mara Shorr

Yeah, and it’s specific messaging to specific people. So it may be the same exact price, but you’re talking about certain relief of symptoms to one demographic and another relief of, you know, relief of another set of symptoms to another demographic. So even for the same exact device in your marketing, you might have two separate images because the women that would use them look different and you might have two completely sets of different sets of marketing copy for the same exact device.

00:38:12:06 – 00:38:14:09

Paula Di Marco Young

Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yep.

00:38:14:15 – 00:38:50:16

Mara Shorr

So, Paula, this is as we start to wind down our time together, there are three things that I always like to ask every guest. And I know you and I talked a little bit about those three things beforehand, so it’s not a surprise. Those three things are and you can answer these in any order. What is one thing that you’ve learned along the way in your career that you want to share with our guests?

What is one thing you would do differently in your career if you had to do it all over again? And what are you most proud of? And that is either personally or professionally.

 

00:38:50:18 – 00:40:01:09

Paula Di Marco Young

I think what I learned along the way through so many years of just working for other people and then finally working for myself and working for my patients is I always have learned to keep your ears open more than your mouth. I learned so much by listening to other people or even listening to somebody else’s conversation if they happened to be around.

And you just always learn so much more. Sometimes people will open up their mouth too fast. They put their foot in their mouth or they don’t know who else is listening and you end up shooting yourself in the foot. So I say, keep your ears open more than your mouth. Just learn to listen more. Learn to be patient, listen more.

And not only just with your ears, Listen with your eyes. Look, observe. Take the time to really look into someone’s eyes when they’re speaking. So a lot of times you can see more than what you hear. So I’d say that is my first thing. The second thing, what am I most proud of? I have to say, my son, are you kidding me?

Almost every mom is probably going to say that.

00:40:01:10 – 00:40:02:16

Mara Shorr

Going back to the heart-eye emoji, right?

00:40:02:21 – 00:41:04:17

Paula Di Marco Young

I mean, you really I mean, four and a half years, three IVF attempts, donor eggs, lots of needles, lots of hormonal ups and downs, a lot of trials and tribulations. And you look at that little face, you know, when you when that little face is first born to this tragic delivery I had, even that’s my greatest accomplishment in life.

That’s the one thing. Mara, I never, ever thought that I could achieve a college degree. Sure. Easy job. Yep. Easy awards. Okay, There’s awards here and there. But you know what? To be a mom, to have the ability to be a mom when you’re struggling, you have all the fibroid tumors and everything. I struggled with my whole life, the infertility issues.

I had to finally be a mom. Whether you adopt, whether you have donor eggs, whatever, to finally be a mom was the greatest accomplishment of my entire life. And that’s that’s what I’m really most proud of. What was the other question, the one thing I could do over?

00:41:04:19 – 00:41:10:14

Mara Shorr

One thing you could do different. What you would do differently in your career if you could do one thing differently.

00:41:10:16 – 00:41:53:00

Paula Di Marco Young

Well, I got accepted to medical school when I was younger and I couldn’t afford it. My brother passed away from a terminal illness and really we had no money. And I should have fought harder to be able to find a way to pay for med school. I’m always very just kind of disappointed in myself that it didn’t. I always found a way to do everything else.

I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t find a way to be able to fund medical school when I had the opportunity to go, and I’m still kind of kicking myself when I had that great opportunity to go to med school. So that’s I think that’s what I would do differently. You know.

00:41:53:00 – 00:42:12:24

Mara Shorr

What’s interesting is that my dad says that said the very same thing. So he was the first podcast interview that I did because I couldn’t not interview him as the very first person. So, you know, Jay Shorr, my business partner and my pops. And that was the very, very similar. And it was the same answer that he gave actually, is.

00:42:13:01 – 00:42:13:09

Paula Di Marco Young

No kidding!

00:42:13:11 – 00:42:41:04

Mara Shorr

It was money related. Obviously, he didn’t have the funding back then. And what’s interesting is that his father, who I mean, my grandfather passed away years ago, but that was one of my grandfather’s biggest regrets, too. And so it’s yeah, that’s an interesting thing to feel and an interesting pattern to see. But I think that things always turn out the way that they’re that they’re meant to, although I think he would have would have been an absolutely phenomenal physician.

00:42:41:04 – 00:43:03:18

Paula Di Marco Young

I just think it would have given me a better platform to help more people than what I’m able to do now. I mean, that’s why I think I’m striving so hard with everything else I do, just just to help more people. I could have helped more people as a physician, I believe I could have done more. So I think that’s why I am spreading myself so thin, trying to help people in different areas of my life.

00:43:03:22 – 00:43:33:01

Mara Shorr

I you know, I think that you’ve helped so many people in so many different ways. And and I know privately all of the things that you’ve done and the things you’ve instituted in the practice that are which, you know, is a whole separate thing and a whole, you know, it it it’s fairly private, too, to a certain degree.

But I see all the people you’ve helped along the way and so many different different facets. And even if it didn’t have a, you know, an ICD9 or an ICD10 code attached to it, you have helped so many people. And so I think that’s definitely something for you to be to be proud of.

00:43:33:03 – 00:43:34:00

Paula Di Marco Young

Well, thank you Mara.

00:43:34:02 – 00:43:59:08

Mara Shorr

So I think the last the last thing I always want is tell people if they have if they have questions for you about how you got started or how they can come and find you if they are interested in seeking a treatment for one of the many practices or if they want to find the podcast, all of that good stuff.

And you have a pretty long list. How can people find you after listening to this podcast?

00:43:59:10 – 00:44:29:10

Paula Di Marco Young

Well, I have a different email address for pretty much everything, but the one email address that I can use that would encompass either Young Medical Spa or podcasting or VSpot Philadelphia is just my Gmail email, which is paulayoungrn@gmail.com. People send me emails all the time. I work with the students over at Lincoln Technical Institute and their medical assistant program and they’re practicing this program.

00:44:29:12 – 00:44:30:11

Mara Shorr

Yes, you do! How did I forget. Of course, you do!

00:44:30:13 – 00:45:25:04

Paula Di Marco Young

You know, and you can always reach out to me. I have a profile. Paula Di Marco Young on LinkedIn or Facebook. And people reach out to me in different formats and any of those things will work. But paulayoungrn@gmail.com is my direct email address. I do help if I can answer a question and help somebody or give somebody a little guidance, I will.

But if I can’t, I’ll be honest and let you know. But I just think that you have to take your time out of the day to just think about somebody else in the path that somebody else is taking or the struggles that somebody else is taking. Just just if you just did that once a day, if you just helped one person a day just think of the footprint that you’re going to be leaving.

And that’s kind of my goal. My motto is just just help one person every day if I can.

00:45:25:06 – 00:45:36:08

Mara Shorr

I love that. I absolutely love that. Thank you so much for being with us on today’s podcast. And it’s always a pleasure to speak with you. Absolutely. Always.

00:45:36:10 – 00:46:15:24

Paula Di Marco Young

And that is likewise, my dear. I so look forward to the Aesthetics Show this year, just so we can sit and hang and talk and catch up. And because I think that’s one of the things we’ve learned in our industry is, you know, there’s colleagues, but you get to a point where you’re just friends and you’re just so happy to see one another.

Yeah, and I really love that about our organization that we have is our enterprise, that we have the aesthetic world of medicine is just so welcoming and helpful and loving. And thank you for having me on your show. Say hi to your dad for me. Tell him I miss him. I hope I get to see you guys in person where I’m able to give you a big hug.

00:46:16:05 – 00:46:28:18

Mara Shorr

I am hoping that hugs will be back in trend to come July. I know I miss that. My husband’s getting a lot of hugs lately from me, but that’s just about it. So I certainly hope they’re back. So, thank you so much. Paula.

00:46:34:23 -00:47:08:01

Mara Shorr

That wraps up today’s episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. We hope that you’ve gotten as much out of this episode as we have.

And if you have, I’d like for you to like us, rate us and share this episode with your friends, colleagues, and the rest of your team. Yes, I said, Team, if you aren’t yet on our e-newsletter list, now’s the time to join at www.shorrsolutions.com and click on the e-newsletter button in the top right hand corner.

We’ll see you next time. And remember, subscribe to our podcast and leave a review. Thanks so much.