We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Hicks. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.

Amy , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I have come to understand that everyone is only as successful as their team – not in one single epiphany, but rather in several key moments in my training and career.

My great-aunt, Katherine Pope, was a nurse and inspired me to pursue nursing at a very early age. She set the first example to me that hard work does pay off and illustrated the profound importance of everyone’s interdependence both in calling me to help the vulnerable and in demonstrating how I can best do so with the right hard-working team members.

My first validation of this was upon being awarded the Nursing Excellence Award in undergrad. To make the biggest difference and get the most challenging experiences, I obtained a position in one of the most intense and challenging environments available in the region: as an ER nurse at Grady Memorial Hospital. Grady is the tenth-largest public hospital in the United States and one of the busiest “Level I” trauma centers in the country. In my time there, I was recognized as “ER Nurse of The Year” which only reaffirmed that hard work creates success when coupled with team members motivated by similar levels of dedication.

After investing six years of intense hours into the ER and pouring a substantial amount of myself into this high-stakes environment, I only further appreciated that life is extraordinarily precious and transient. This understanding prompted me to seek further education to become a Certified Nurse Practitioner for more autonomy and to maximize the limited time I do have with my loved ones and the effect I have on the people around me. While finishing my last semester of this additional education, I encountered an entrepreneur and physician who said the right things and seemed align with what type of environment I sought. He even became my mentor and preceptor.

Recognizing the growing aesthetic industry, I proposed adding this new area to my treatment portfolio. To facilitate this new direction, my mentor and I decided to open a medspa in an equal business partnership. Equipped with the example of my great-aunt and the lessons of my education and time at Grady, I jumped in full steam. The business quickly took off and was progressing well for several years.

Yet, I would soon learn my most important lesson to date in this new venture. That is, you must listen to your intuition and never let personal relationships be used to distract from a disparity of efforts put into the team. Otherwise people and the business will suffer. While you are only as good as your team and hard work is generally rewarded, it still requires that same level of dedication from everyone involved. You have to be able to trust your efforts will be reciprocated by the colleagues you and your patients or customers depend upon. However, as that business became progressively more successful and my efforts resulted in more goals coming to fruition, it also became equally clear that personal influences were being used to cover the disparity in efforts invested into the business and hide certain warning signs. While the business was doing extremely well, the partnership eventually took a very dramatic turn which forced me to set out to truly stand on my own two feet and avoid such an issue from happening again by applying these lessons to assemble the best team of hard-working individuals I know I can depend upon.

I may never recover the efforts and finances I invested in this first venture, but I made the most of the experience by using it and the valuable lessons learned to pragmatically approach my next venture, MedSpa Downtown, with my eyes wide open to my team’s alignment with my core values. As a founding partner of MedSpa Downtown (i.e. the trade name of Downtown Medical, LLC), I associated with a physician who I truly may rely upon and my standards for my staff are equal to those I impose on myself. In only a matter of months, these efforts and applied experiences paid dividends when MedSpa Downtown quickly took off. So again, it has been repeatedly driven home to me that life is short and precious but to make the most of it, one must find their passion and enjoy giving it their all the while remembering that their associates will have a determinative effect on any results.

Amy , 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?

In addition to my other answers, just to summarize I want to note that MedSpa Downtown was co-founded by myself, Amy Hicks, NP-C, and Dr. Katherine Wiegman. Our desire to offer quality expert-level aesthetic services in a rural setting became our mandate for MedSpa Downtown. We wanted to provide these quality services while simultaneously providing a vehicle for our patrons to support their community by bringing their business to a locally-owned and operated medspa offering results one would generally have to travel to a major metropolitan area, like Atlanta, to otherwise obtain. MedSpa Downtown is currently based in Carrollton, Georgia (although we have plans for additional locations soon).

MedSpa Downtown has quickly grown to be one of West Georgia’s and East Alabama’s most sought after places for injectables, evidence based skincare treatments, PDO Threads, laser services, and medical grade skincare. MedSpa Downtown is female owned and operated, rooted in science, staffed with board certified providers, and offers convenient online booking.

We take pride in the highly specialized knowledge and training our staff receive to provide the best results for our patients and customers. Our staff members have received detailed anatomy training via cadaver labs, conferences, and private training with many of the top providers in the aesthetic industry nationwide. Our providers are not just well experienced, but also have multiple mentors that they rely on for continuing advice. Continuing education, training, and further perfection of our internally-developed techniques are all a top priority for our staff. In addition to our focus on our relationships with our patrons, we also encourage our staff to pursue those treatments and areas where they are passionate because intrinsic interest always yields a personal motivation much greater than anything extrinsic.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

In this technological era, I am struck by how word of mouth remains the greatest driver of business in my experience. My approach is not new, but often neglected by others: we treat our patients and customers the way we would want to be treated if seeking the same services while ensuring we build personal relationships with each. We would rather be judged on our merit and substance rather than the superficial — which consequently means we do not need to invest heavily in branding or advertising when those we serve are happy with their results and independently want to tell the world about it. While social media does facilitate this word of mouth, the local buzz in the community created by our patients and customers personally discussing their experiences at MedSpa Downtown, with those who trust their opinions, has consistently (and foreseeably) led to our fastest and greatest growth.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Again, fostering personal relationships with patients and customers who always know they are respected and heard, coupled with hard work and a great team, has profoundly furthered my reputation and that of MedSpa Downtown within the market.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.medspadowntown.com
• Instagram: @yourexpertinjector @medspadowntown
• Facebook: MedSpa Downtown