When Patients Assume I Have No Experience Because I Look Too Young

Andrea (00:04):
Well, hi there. I am Andrea Watkins, and if you're listening to this, while juggling three patient calls, checking in a couple patients, taking a payment, selling skincare, and trying to catch your doctor in between procedures, you might be working in an aesthetic practice.

Blake (00:18):
And I'm Blake Lucas, and this is Practiceland. This is not Your Doctor's podcast. Welcome back to Practiceland. Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, please make sure you're sharing Practiceland with your friends and colleagues, coworkers, everyone, just not your doctor, but we are so excited. I couldn't help myself, I had to invite Jenna Henig back onto the show. There was one question was dying to ask. So Jenna, thank you so much again for joining us.

Jenna (00:45):
Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

Blake (00:48):
Absolutely. So often in aesthetic practices people look much younger than they are. I think that's the goal, right? So both of both you and your colleague Heather, look very young. I have a unique opportunity here to ask you, does anyone ever ask you how old you are and how do you handle that?

Jenna (01:10):
Oh my gosh, all the time. This is, I get asked this, gosh, at least once a day and it used to bother me. I have to say, not because I mind telling people how old I am. I am still very young and I used to get nervous. I'm like, if I tell you that I'm young, are you going to still trust my expertise?

Blake (01:29):
To judge you or just instantly discounts your experience?

Jenna (01:34):
Exactly, and it's either how old are you or how long have you been doing this? Right, and so typically the way that I handle it, it used to kind of put me off guard and I felt like I had to defend myself and I just, last week I had a patient tell me, she was like, because you look really young, you look like a baby. You can't have been doing this for very long. And I was like, like, well, actually I just started kind of explaining my background if I started Women's Health, I did that for a few years. I came over here, this is my pathway, and I told her I've actually been injecting for about two and a half years at this point, and I give them sort of my little pitch and spiel. I'm actually a national trainer for many aesthetic procedures.

(02:14):
I have really invested in my training and essentially I've become a lot more confident in being able to tell them, especially this is the key one, this is where it really comes into play. There's a lot of treatments that I recommend. Very often I tell 'em, this is one of the top treatments that I perform and one of my most common procedures, and so that really helps validate, even if you haven't been doing it for a very long time, you're telling them, this is the procedure I do very often and using that social proof aspect of, would you like to see some pictures of my real patients who have gotten results from this treatment? That way you're able to showcase your expertise and validate yourself without having to feel like you're really sitting there and on the defense stand, what really did it for me? When you think about it, if you have somebody who's been injecting for 25 years and they're seeing five patients a day and you're busting your butt and you're seeing 30, 40 patients a day, who really is more experienced, it's really not about the number of years you've been doing it, right?

Blake (03:14):
Absolutely. This happens a lot, right. To surgeons also too and early in their career. Is this something that you're proactively bringing up in conversations to hopefully avoid that type of conversation?

Jenna (03:27):
Not necessarily. I also don't want to place a thought in their head that they didn't have initially, and I think it is super common that people are like, I can't really tell how old you are. You could be 40 and you look like you're 20. I don't know.

Blake (03:39):
Yeah, right.

Jenna (03:40):
But also a lot of times patients ask because of whatever you're doing, I want to do it if you look young, so it should be taken as a compliment and just let that imposter syndrome go and just know that you invest in yourself. You are a well-trained provider and really speak to your success and have that little elevator pitch ready in your mind to tell them like, Hey, this is why I'm an expert and this is why I'm the best provider to be able to meet your goals is because I truly know what your emotional driver is. I'm going to get you to your goal and this is exactly how we're going to do it.

Blake (04:09):
What happens if you get in that situation and someone says, I want someone else, or I want a different surgeon. You're just too young and I want someone older. How do you respond to that?

Jenna (04:21):
I wouldn't say this out loud, but I'm like, go for it, because the last thing I want you to do is not go with me if you're uncomfortable. My goal is for you to be comfortable with the provider and the treatment plan that is going to be treating you. If you feel like I'm too young just from the basis of my age or the way that I look, then I am not the right provider for you. If that so factor is going to put a little nugget in the back of your mind that you may not get the best result, I can tell you, I usually will say, I can completely understand. I want to make sure that you feel comfortable moving forward. I'm happy to get you with our surgeon to discuss treatment options with him. This is one of the most common procedures that I do, and typically as an aesthetic nurse, I actually do about 10 times the number of these injections that the surgeon does. Just a little bit of a plug if it's a filler or something like that, but I am never going to pressure someone to have me treat them if they're not comfortable, and that's totally okay. Everybody has their thing, and if that makes you uncomfortable, there is no offense that I take to that whatsoever. I know my expertise and then that's okay.

Blake (05:23):
Yeah, and being confident in that, having that self-esteem to say like, yeah, no, I don't need you. We can move on.

Jenna (05:29):
Yeah. I want you to be comfortable and I want to make sure you have a good result and you're happy.

Blake (05:33):
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I love this. Thank you so much for jumping back on with us. If there's one thing that one of our listeners can take away from this conversation, what would you want that to be?

Jenna (05:44):
Everybody has imposter syndrome. Everybody know your worth, know your expertise and continue your education and just continue doing what you love.

Blake (05:54):
Beautiful. That's well said. Jenna, you again, where can we follow you online if we want to learn more?

Jenna (06:00):
I am on Instagram at Austin Beauty Boss and on LinkedIn at Jenna Hennig.

Blake (06:07):
Beautiful, and listeners, if you've got a question for Jenna you want her to answer, send us a message at practicelandpodcast.com. Thank you again for joining us in Practiceland. Stay fabulous, and we'll see you next time. Take care. Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation? Send us a message or voicemail. If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise no cheap swag here.

Andrea (06:31):
Are you one of us? Subscribe for new episode notifications and more at practicelandpodcast.com. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and everywhere you can listen to podcasts.