We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Carissa Alinat recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Carissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a time you helped a customer really get an amazing result through their work with you.
Event though our Medical Spa has made its reputation on anti-aging injectables (Botox, dermal fillers, etc…) and we have helped thousands of patients feel their best, enhance their natural beauty, and reach their goals, I feel that the biggest success stories occur with our Hormone Replacement Therapy, especially for women experiencing menopause.
We’ve literally had women in their late 40s / early 50s cry on our shoulders. First because of the symptoms they’re often experiencing, sometimes all of a sudden: weight gain, brittle nails, dry hair, vaginal dryness, loss of libido, mood swings, feeling depressed, and of course hot flashes…. Symptoms they are actually hardly prepared to handle, and often misunderstood by their loved ones.
And second, they end up happy crying on our shoulders once we manage their hormones and they see some or most of their symptoms disappear. It changes their life for sure, and we couldn’t be happier for them.
Dr. Carissa, 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 stick needles in people’s faces for a living.
But it’s much more glamorous than that, actually. Aging sucks. No one likes it. So I fight off wrinkles for my patients. And while it may sounds vain, we actually do a lot to help people feel more confident, more comfortable with their aging process, and achieve self-love. It’s quite extraordinary what Botox can do for people. Feeling self-confident again help our patients with their personal life, at work, and of course with their own appreciation of who they are and are becoming.
When your aging appearance bothers you, finding an injector who knows how to responsibly enhance your natural beauty is important.
We are growing with 4 medical spa locations in Tampa Bay, with more to come. We have stellar injectors and caring medical professionals providing weight loss, hormone replacement therapy, and other anti-aging treatments.
We are proud of the local business we have built. If you look at the 800+ Google reviews we have across all locations, our patients always mention the same thing: our incredible staff, how clean and modern our facilities are, and how talented our providers are.
How’d you meet your business partner?
This actually is a story that changed my life forever. I met my business partner Katie Kaffai about 6 years ago. She hired me as a part-time medical provider as I was finishing my PhD at USF. We hit it off right away.
Three months later, completely unexpectedly, she offered me the Palm Harbor location. I barely knew this business, and certainly wasn’t prepared to be a business owner. But I talked to my husband and I accepted her offer. It’s been such a fantastic, productive, really successful partnership ever since.
Katie is a serious businesswoman. She created Living Young Center 17 years ago, when Med Spas weren’t what they are today. She was a pioneer in Tampa Bay and created a remarkable brand.
Today we are business partners and are opening several more locations in the near future. We have also became great friends and take vacations together with our families. I owe her so much.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I didn’t have an Instagram account for many years. I now have 72K followers, and I’m not even sure how I pulled that off!
About 5 years ago I created my injector account. And I started posting just about anything. Once or twice a day. A post, a story. About my work or my life. Just me.
When you post regularly, when you understand how the algorithm work, when you just create content naturally as you go through your day… people tend to follow you and come back to your page. Then the first milestones hit: 1000 followers, then 10,000, and now 72,000.
But it’s not about your followers. It’s about posting quality content day in and day out.
Today, about 30% of our business at the Palm Harbor location comes from Instagram!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.livingyoungcenter.com
- Instagram: @tampa_aesthetic_injector
- Facebook: @livingyoungcenter