I actually withdrew my 401k to start perfect dose and I was making great mone...
So my family was like, "What are you doing? Why are you doing this? I just knew I could do it.
“Failure is really not an option for me." So I was like, "You know what?”
I'm gonna make this happen. It wasn't easy. It was a grind every single day. It was tight to do it all with $30,000." But I did it. Kristen Herzog is the founder and CEO of Perfect Dose, a luxury medical aesthetics brand based in Scottsdale, Arizona. What started in a small salon suite has grown into a multi-location med spa business offering injectables, skincare, regenerative aesthetics, and wellness treatments with the brand now entering its next stage of expansion. People don't understand they think
you know, filler fixes everything or botox fixes everything and that's not true because we age in our skin, our muscle, our bone, and our fat. So it makes sense if we age four layers. I know! We have to do multiple things in order to get natural results.
“What are the changes in the bone structure? It's like so, facial bone structure changes as well?”
Yes, our bone actually fits and it loses its structure. I'm learning all the time. I know! There are so many things and so it spans the goal. Like a super high school, internet helpers. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. It's not over! I'm telling how weird! The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy.
Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy podcast. I'm your host again, Jason Langen, and we have the privilege to talk to some of the best entrepreneurs, the taste makers, disruptors, and the women in power like we have here today. And so we have a special guest here at the top of a game in the beauty industry and the aesthetics industry. So why don't you have an introduce yourself? What's your name? Where you from? And what's your
business? Hi! I'm so excited to be here today. So my name is Chris and her dog. I am from Scottsdale, Arizona. I own a luxury meds fall called the Perfect Ghost. You have three locations and we are expanding nationwide. Awesome! Like the Perfect Ghost, that's the perfect name. Yes, it is! I saw your logo also and I mean, yeah, the branding's great. I saw the locations on your Instagram, the locations look amazing. How many locations do you have? Thank you. So we have three locations.
Our brand is very luxury. It's bougie, Chanel vibe. So that when you walk in, you feel luxury. And it's also worth an inviting. It's welcoming. So it's not scary or stiff. It's like you're walking into your best friend's house, but leaving with Louis Vuitton back. Yeah, perfect. That's the kind of Perfect feel that you want when you walk into an aesthetic's place, right? Yes. So Scottsdale, Arizona, right? How big of a city is that? So Scottsdale's huge actually. I'm not quite sure exactly
how big it is, but in big. All right. I've never been, right? So you're talking dry heat over here.
We've got the humidity, right? And so you kind of tackle that. You don't have that Miami humidity, like humidity, puffiness going on. Oh my gosh. You know what? I had glam this morning. And they sprayed my hair with lots of broth to keep it looking good for the day. Well, they did a good job. You know, because yeah, some people, they come here and they're just like, oh my god, I got to tame my hair with this, you know, with this humidity, right? So a little tip out there, you know,
plan for the humidity with your hair, right? But yeah, I mean, so you scaled this right
“with kind of nothing. You bootstrapped the whole business. So what's that look like?”
Yeah. So over the last six years, we have scaled to three locations over five million dollars
of revenue. Hey, congratulations. Thank you. It was very small humble beginning. I started in a little salon suite, marketed myself on Instagram because I didn't have an ad budget and kept telling people, tell your friends about me, my husband and I passed out our business cards at them all. So humble beginnings. And when you do that over years and years, it works. And it's grown. It's evolved. And here we are. Yeah. And so how was it kind of taking that entrepreneurial leap and
betting on yourself, right? What was that story like? So people thought I was crazy. I actually withdrew my 401k to start perfect gifts. And I was making great money as a nurse and the ER.
My family was like, what are you doing?
Failure is really not an option for me. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to make this happen. It wasn't easy. It was a grind every single day. And so how much did you have going into your business? You said you took out your 401k, right? And now you're betting it all on yourself, right? How much were you were you putting into it initially that you had? So I didn't have a lot in my 401k. Yeah. I want to glare by that. I took out what I had, which was like $30,000. And I used that to
get certified. So to learn how to inject Botox and fillers, I paid my first month rent with that, went to TJ Maxx. So we were decorating on a dime. Yeah. And I decorated. I had a place my opening order plus get supplies. It was tight to do it all with $30,000. But I didn't. Yeah. That sounds amazing. I mean, that sounds like, you know, people might use credit cards to go in there. You use your 401k. You emptied it out, right? And it's a little nerve-wracking,
but when you don't have the option for failure, right? What's that due to you?
It makes you hustle hard. So I was, I've always been a hustler. So that's kind of been
ingrained in me. But when you don't have the option for failure, what I say is it's not like you're
“not going to fail. You're going to mess up. You're going to make mistakes. But you have to get back”
up and keep putting yourself out there and show up every single day. And that's what I did. So some days were better than others, but I still kept going and that grit. That's a differentiator. That's where you see entrepreneurs that are successful. It's because they're consistent and they keep pursuing and they keep going and then it works. Yeah. Do you still have that first location that original place or you've expanded since then? We've expanded since then. I started a little
salon suite. Oh my gosh, it's probably the size of the bathroom at my location now. Okay. So like the salon suite, those are like, I don't know, like a place that has like many different small suites that you rent out and they're kind of quite small. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So I literally rented out a little suite. It was in a last studio. Yeah. So I started there then. And those aren't that bad. They're kind of nice. It was great. It was small. You had to like find where my room was.
And then I graduated to a hair salon. So I moved my little suite to a hair salon. Nice. From there, it's now or in a 3,500 square foot location and we're actually outgrowing that. Okay. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. And that brings kind of foot traffic. And you know, people are getting the hair done. They're looking at, you know, what else can I get, right? It's either there's like nails there, the aesthetics like yours, right? But that was a good stepping zone. Would you recommend that to others that are kind
of just jumping into this world? Oh, yeah. You know what? It was how I built myself. I was literally knocking on other people's doors in the building. And I was like, hey, I'm Kristen. Nice me too. Come. You vote Jackson Miller with me. And when people come in to get their hair done, I would stand up in the front, introduce myself, give them my business card. So it gave me the opportunity
to put myself in front of so many people. And that was instrumental in building my business. Amazing.
So going to your first big location, right? From your small little bathroom size stall, right? Yeah. How how do that feel to re-gamble on yourself? I mean, because there's a lot more expenses.
“There's a lot more kind of, I guess, marketing that you have to fill more seats and more time, right?”
How was that jump? It was scary. And was it harder than the initial jump? You know, I would say, yes and no, different kinds of hard, right? Because initially you're like, oh my gosh, is this going to work, right? You don't know what's going to work. And then it starts to work. And this expansion, what it really does, what's scary about it is you have a lot more overhead. And the beginning you're able to actually make more money because you don't have as much overhead. So it was scary.
And we did it over maternity leave. So I literally had my first baby Jack. And that was when we decided to expand and do a build-out and entire location. So I remember walking through and doing
the plans with my husband and my baby strapped on me. Yeah. So that's kind of amazing. Like,
it's kind of like good problems to have, right? But there's still problems, right? It's like,
“okay, yes we're expanding, right? But it comes with a whole another list of issues that you have to”
deal with, right? And you're still learning on the way as you build and grow. Yeah, it's the behind the scenes, right? Everybody sees the highlight reel, the Instagram, like walking through
Carrying the baby.
that we had to put in in order to do that, the sacrifice, the loss of sleep. Like, I took a six-week
maternity leave and six weeks from not injecting, but I was still working the entire time. So it doesn't come without a price. And so with that growth, you're now hiring staff, right? What were your first hire's? So this is so funny. Actually, my first hire ever was my husband's best friend's girlfriend. I hired her to come work the front desk. So I really had no idea what I was doing. And now he is your husband's best friend's girlfriend and are they still dating? No,
they're not. Especially doesn't work it for me. Are they still best for? Oh, okay, okay, okay. She's no longer with a business, but he's actually still in our life. So that's great. It's Mary now.
“It's got a baby on the way. And that's why they're homies. Exactly. We broke up, right? I got”
you're going to do something for my homie, right? No, it just shows my hiring process then to now
was so different. And that's why we have a team of incredible people now. We have a whole
vetting process, full interviews, we call references. I didn't do that at all in the beginning. So things have definitely grown and evolved. Amazing. And with that growth and involvement, right? You now put in a lot of systems, right? And kind of grown that way as well, like the back end, because you're getting ready for franchising, right? Yes. So that has been actually one of the most exciting things. It was very hard. I had to think, okay, I can't just do anymore. I have to
put this on paper so that other people can do. So I spent my whole second maternity leave with my son Lincoln building the blueprint. So we really put together a system for everything. Like as far as how to answer the phone, people don't realize it's not as simple as just picking up the phone and saying thanks for calling for videos. There is a system that actually gets the call to book and then there's the follow through and follow up. So we've created this entire blueprint so that
anybody who wants to open a medspa can do it. So yeah, it's like hey, perfect, you know, perfect dose here, right? It's your funnel system, right? So there's different ways that you funnel
“people into kind of booking a spot or going into a package and becoming repeat customers, right?”
It's that like friendliness. And you got to say, if this person leaves, right? Let's say my husband's best friend gets a new girlfriend and we got it. We got to have her in the company now, right? Which I've been correct. So, you know, the many that he's got, but she's got to answer, you know, one girlfriend has to give those papers to another girlfriend and they got to answer that phone correctly, right? What are their kind of systems that you haven't placed? Yeah, so there's a system
an SOP standard operating procedure for everything, even for how to post on social media, right? Yeah. What kind of content we put out are system for greeting our patients? So all of the little details that you don't think about, there is a system in place for that and that allows us to not only scale corporate side, which is now we have three locations, but to then allow
“others to do the same thing with the franchise and it gives our employees a way to follow the”
perfectos way. So for example, when we hire a provider, an injector, we have a SOP, a protocol for how that person's onboarding, what training they receive, how they are trained, how they greet patients, how they talk to them, how they inject them procedures for everything. So you can ensure that when you come to perfectos, you are getting injected the perfectos way. Yeah, also it allows you more freedom, right? Yes. Because you don't have to kind of sit there, micro-manage, or tell
people how it is. You just say, "Yeah, check out the SOPs." Yeah, there's, yep, we have a system and
then you hire people to implement those systems. So I have an incredible operator, that's an
incredible people manager, and she is able to put the systems that I've created into play so that I don't have to. And that's allowed me to, you would say, like, I can now breathe and relax. It's like, yes, but I also can grow my business more efficiently and faster because I'm not doing the day to day. I'm now focusing on the brand, the vision. Amazing. So I ask everyone, kind of, what are you most excited about? You're right, either at the forefront of your industry, or what
you got cooking in the background? What's that with you? I am so excited for expanding perspectives to be franchising is incredible. I didn't quite understand what franchising was, because you think, okay, McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, these are franchises. What does that look like for a med spa? And really, like, the St. Regis hotel, you have the St. Regis hotel, right?
Everybody knows what that is?
crazy. So we are going to be able to... It's also a brand. Yes, you know. That's what we're doing.
We're taking our brand. We're taking perspectives, and we are bringing it to all communities. And what it does is it allows for tight brand control. So I still own 100% of perfect dose. A lot of med spa's right now are selling to private equity. So a bunch of businessmen are taking over and looking at P&Ls and everything's on a Excel spreadsheet, right? Yeah. But perfect dose by franchising, we stay mom and pop. It's still me making the decisions and
running the brand. So I'm really excited for this era of expansion without losing what makes us perfect dose. Yeah. So you're giving people in the franchise is a perfect blueprint. Exactly.
“Right? And next day too. Yeah. They too can give people the perfect dose. Right?”
Well, that's amazing. What's going on in the aesthetics industry right now? That is new.
I mean, you got people out there and social media talk about look maxing, right? Which do you know, there's a spectrum of it, right? But I mean, there's so much out there in it's just popping up in the algorithm everywhere, right? Between peptides, look maxing, injecting this and that, right? It can be all overwhelming, right? But what's exciting for you in that chatter and how can people kind of enter this world? Yeah. I love that you ask out because
now everybody is understanding the treatment possibilities. There is aesthetics and wellness. I think the future of aesthetics is marrying the two. So what we're doing is we're entering this
regenerative medicine space in aesthetics and what that means is, for example, we now have products
“like sculpture. That's what it's called. Where you inject it to stimulate your body's own”
natural collagen. So how cool is that? It's not just, you know, a filler where we're using it to put something in and enhance and your structure, but we're creating change in your body. And so aesthetics is going to continue to evolve and grow in that direction. And what we're doing is we're taking all of these different treatment options and we're creating custom plants. So when you say like look maxing, facial balancing, people are hearing these terms and what it is is it's taking the
person and developing a treatment plan that is custom to them based on their unique goals and their individual anatomy. And we're taking some peptides, we're taking some skilled draw some fillers and Botox, like a little bit of everything to harmonize the face and keep us well on the inside and the outside. I like that harmonize the the mind body and soul. Yes. aesthetics is also in the confidence and just kind of knowing the rounded treatment plan. It's not just
“one one syringe is going to cure all, right? Yes. It's kind of getting a rounded treatment, right?”
So what do you kind of some of your favorites? Treatments out there? Yeah. So I really want to touch on that because people don't understand they think, you know, filler fixes everything or Botox fixes everything. And that's not true because we age in our skin, our muscle, our bone, and our fat. So it makes sense if we age four layers. I know we have to do multiple things in order to get natural results. So it's not, you know, it's harmony, but it's natural. You don't want people.
So it's like that it's like the fat loss, it's the skin, the less the elasticity and what was the other one? Yes. And the changes in our bone structure. Ah, okay. Yeah. What are the changes in the bone structure? It's like so facial bone structure changes as well. Yes. So just like in your body, how your bone density changes and your skin's get thinner. Same thing happens at our face. We lose out structure. So think when you're young, you have this chiseled jawline like hockey stick.
Yeah. As we age, it becomes less chiseled, almost wavy. And is that because of the fat or like your skin kind of like sinking and the elasticity and the fat or bone density using? Yeah, also bone density are bone actually things. Ah, okay. This is the structure. I'm learning all the time. I know. There's so many things. And so we develop a treatment plan that meets all of these. So filler for fat loss and structure loss. I like that bone density changes. We have the
sculptor for collagen simulation. Yeah. And since we have muscle changes, that's where Botox comes in. So think like your brow lets smooth forehead lines. So we just make custom treatment plans that have a little bit of everything. So you look natural. Mm. A little bit of everything for your goals. Yes. Perfect. It catered to you. It catered to you. And it's not cookie cutter. It's not a one-size-fits-all. So that's something that's really important. You may hear about Botox
from your friend, right? And we will call your friends Karen. So Karen's like, okay, I get 40 units from my face. Mm. That sounds like a lot. It's not actually okay. That sounds like a lot. It's not that much.
It's not that much.
But my point of that is this. Karen's a little relaxed. So Karen's a little relaxed. 40. Yes. You may need more.
You may need less. So it doesn't matter what your ages, we really dosed on muscle strength.
You gotcha, gotcha. Well, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show and also to dear session.
“You had an amazing session, right? But how do people find you and how can they follow you?”
Yeah. So follow me on Instagram. It's at the Perfect Dose. You can go to our website
www.ThePerfectDose.com. You're also on TikTok and YouTube all under the Perfect Dose. Amazing.
Amazing. So yeah, I mean, thank you for joining us. And thank you guys for joining us as well.
“And if you want to kind of learn more about her growing by having two kids growing her family,”
growing her business, but also growing into the next phase of her business with the franchising. And honestly, the Perfect Dose, it's such a memorable brand. We had such a good talk.
“But I would totally tune into her episode and start following her because she knows her”
Shea, right? But yeah, thank you. And thank you guys. We'll see you next time. Cheers, everyone.
