We recently connected with Jessie Pollastrini and have shared our conversation below.

Jessie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you in your professional career?

I’m never NOT learning lessons, but I’d have to say the most important one in my career thus far has been this; find your team, tribe, support system, whatever you want to call it, and accept their help when you need it.

I started my career in Medical Aesthetics at your standard med spa. This clinic was a ‘turn and burn’ type environment, where it didn’t matter about the patient’s safety, outcomes, or experience, and only about the dollars coming in. This med spa was owned by a person who had quite the reputation in this industry, and she had her hands in everything there. I observed her struggling to let go of the reins and trust her employees, and it’s hard when there’s only one person who holds the answers to everything. Even seasoned employees were never empowered to use their critical thinking skills or trust their intuition and expertise. I noticed how vacations for owners weren’t common in this industry, and that they seemed to always work extremely long hours (first one to arrive, last one to leave right?!). Even the stress of owning and operating a med spa can show in your appearance and demeanor. I thought that this owner’s experience was singular, but this is an industry norm at this point.

Staff didn’t last long there, and when my eventual time came to leave, I jumped at the opportunity. I went on to open a single room med spa with a Nurse Practitioner (she is still one of my best friends to this day) under a plastic surgeon as our MD. We were going at it alone, just the two of us, without much insight into operating a med spa, and without much support either. We had to implement our own operational processes and grow our own resources from the ground up. Man was it tough! I saw firsthand how hard it was to turn a profit at a smaller med spa like that. And what a difference it was from my previous med spa. I was able to see both side of the spectrum and neither of them were ideal.

But something that really was evident to me at both practices was how much injectors are the backbones of the business. They are the ones building a loyal clientele by fostering relationships, practically offering free therapy to some of their patients on a weekly basis. They are continually perfecting their outcomes by going to additional trainings (ex: cadaver courses, round tables, aesthetic conferences), which are most of the time not paid for by their employer, so the injector is coming out of their pocket for these. It was so apparent to me how much responsibility that these injectors shoulder but aren’t always given the credit they deserve or are even financially compensated fairly for.

For so many of these injectors that have reached their cap at these med spas, they yearn for a chance to go out on their own. They dream of owning their own med spa one day, however, for most of these injectors, they don’t even know where to begin. They could go at it alone, as I once did, but would be clawing their way out of the red for years and years. There’s nothing like starting at square one and having absolutely no clue where your next steps should be. Trust me, I’ve been there.

This is exactly why our platform, ALUMA Medical Aesthetics, thrives. Once I came on board with ALUMA and I saw not only the continual support that was made available to these injectors going out on their own, but the amount of take home that they can make, I was in absolute awe! In so many ways, we’ve eliminated that square one starting place and allowed them to skip right to the good part, to being profitable. No injector aching to go out on their own must go at it alone under ALUMA.

And my absolute favorite part? That they have me and a whole entire team to lean on when they need help or advice. There isn’t one person that holds all the answers. Because let’s face it, there’s no way to scale or grow when you are the go-to person for everything. There’s also no gate keeping here either. We share our successes and pain points, so the people that come after us can benefit as well. It’s such a beautiful thing. All these injectors must do is take the leap of faith and know that we will be there to catch them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Jessie and I am the Director of Business Development for ALUMA Medical Aesthetics. ALUMA is a management platform for aesthetic injectors, by aesthetic injectors. Our Supervising Physician, Dr. Michael Lafkas, is an Allergan trainer and aesthetic injector himself. Dr Lafkas along with our two other co-founders, Lyndsay Hakker and Tracy Dugan, recognized the need for healthy collaboration within the medical aesthetics community, and along came the best company in the whole wide world, ALUMA.

We have 20 Providers under our umbrella, and are quickly growing in the San Diego, Inland Empire, Orange County and Los Angeles area. My role within ALUMA is to help each of our injectors to grow their practice, while offering unconditional support and unlimited resources. Each injector and their location are so unique, but we’ve managed to create a space for like-minded entrepreneurial women to come together to learn and grow with one another.

ALUMA is so essential to aesthetic injectors looking to go out on their own. Most smaller med spas have insane overhead, horrible cost and profit margins, and no immediate take home. And not to mention, the amount of liability on someone that is so in the dark as to being a new employer in the state of CA can be daunting. With ALUMA, we shoulder so much of those fears and can very quickly launch these smaller clinics into new heights that they’ve only dreamed of.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I hear often that ALUMA’s reputation is incredible in this industry, which makes me feel so proud. We have always touted ourselves on empowering others, while foster a healthy community of like-minded entrepreneurs to feel like they too can share a seat at the table. And I think that shows up in more ways than one. The smiling faces that I see or the ‘pinch me’ moments that I hear daily. The unwavering external support we receive from our reps. Even the impressive and steady growth of our platform.

But if I can try to pinpoint what I think built that, I’d have to say it was staying trustworthy, transparent, and always doing right by our team and Providers. These are ALUMA’s North Star. We have never, nor will we ever, veer away from this.

For my own reputation, I can speak to quite a bit of what I’ve done to grow that in this industry. For starters, I immersed myself in the aesthetic community, and often attended round tables and trainings side by side with injectors and office managers. I just wanted to keep getting face to face with people in this industry who cared to continue growing their skillsets just as much as I did. And once an injector came onboard with ALUMA, I continued to show them what a reliable and experienced resource I was to them. Actions always speak louder than words to me.

But most importantly, I’d say to always stay true to yourself. Find your niche and stick with that. Don’t compare yourself to others, as everyone is good at something, and there’s so much room here for everyone to succeed.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

The best advice I can give for managing a team would be to make sure you have clear communication, and established guidelines for training in place. Without clearly stated expectations and benchmarks in place, everything would be chaos. Always be sure to reward behaviors like when staff go above and beyond. And it also doesn’t hurt to pay your staff well and respect their time off. At ALUMA, we also love to host group events and encourage community outreach, so our staff members and injectors are pillars in their community.

Hiring the right team is so important as well. I think a thorough vetting process when bringing someone on, especially within management, ensures that the company/ management team aligns with the ethos of the company culture. These all can lead to high moral and ultimately, longer employment and commitments from staff.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alumamedicalaesthetics.com/
• Instagram: aluma_aesthetics
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aluma-medical-aesthetics/
• Youtube: @aluma_aesthetics

Image Credits

Studio 1208/ Maria Bentley