We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa McMillan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents, especially my mother, raised me as a very independent and resilient person. My mother always said I can do anything I set my mind to, and while most parents tell their children the same, I really felt that she meant it. I took it to heart. She also set a strong example of getting things in life she really wanted. She was tremendously tenacious at certain things. I have taken that example of tenacity and applied it to many things in my life that were at first discouraged or presented road blocks. The other thing my parents taught me from a young age, was to deal with my problems myself and solve them independently. Maybe that was laziness on their part, but they never intervened, or fought my battles. It was hard as a young person to deal with older people, adults, often in authority. However, it was a great lesson in how to navigate the real world.

Lisa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in the cornfields of Indiana, running around barefoot until my parents called me inside at dusk. I graduated from Indiana University, and worked as a nurse in the Neonatal ICU for 5 years. I was a travel nurse and worked in Chicago, San Francisco, and Phoenix, before going back to school to become a nurse practitioner. I had decided that I wanted to help prevent sickness in the babies I worked with in the NICU by treating their mothers as a women’s health nurse practitioner. I trained in Chicago and worked at Planned Parenthood for a while before I moved to Cincinnati, OH with my husband in 1994. I then worked for an OB/GYN in Cincinnati, helping women in an underserved, undereducated population, for 23 years. Helping women has been the highlight of my entire career. Teaching, mentoring, and empowering women has always been my north star. When I decided to move into aesthetics, I continued to follow that north star, helping my clients to feel more confident regardless of whether or not we perform any treatments. The 3 tenets of Livio Med Spa are Trust, Comfort, and Simplicity. I really want all our clients to feel like they can ask questions, speak openly and safely about their insecurities, take their time, and not have their experience feel confusing. That is empowerment.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

In the field of aesthetics, I believe the most important thing for success is understanding what your client wants and needs. You must listen very carefully to what your clients are telling you, even if they struggle to put it into words. You listen to their body language, their facial expressions, and you must pay close attention to how they are describing what they want. If a patient is nervous or self conscious about themselves or how they look, sometimes it is important to be slow and gentle with your treatment plan. In this field, trust is everything. And building a trusting relationship builds success.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

For Livio, we have grown the most through word of mouth. It is really gratifying to see clients who are sent to us by other satisfied clients. We take such pride in our work, our medical outcomes, and our patient satisfaction. It is our most important metric. We build strong relationships with our clients; we know their friends and family, we know what their kids are up to. And when patients send in other people they care about, we take that as the ultimate compliment.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.liviospa.com
• Instagram: @liviomedspa
• Facebook: liviomedspa
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mcmillan-9667aba5/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCofDz35pQ9WaqIUsi9vGH2A

Image Credits
Jaime Koller Ross Van Pelt