Building Your Aesthetic Leadership Pipeline: Develop the next layer of leaders inside your practice

Don Adeesha (Host) Don Adeesha (Host)

So… Bring it in… Alright, welcome, Chelsea. Welcome, Christina.

Rotten, great. Let everyone join in, and as you do, I'll get things started here.

Right.

So, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the business of aesthetics.

I am Don Adisha, and I'm very glad to have you here with us tonight. We're going to be talking about building your aesthetic leadership pipeline, how to develop the next layer of leaders inside your practice before you need them. So, tonight is about one of the, perhaps.

biggest growth constraints in aesthetic practices. When every important decision, relationship, or even standard, Still depends on the owner.

We're going to talk about how to spot that dependency early on, how to identify leadership potential inside your team, and of course, how to build capacity before a crisis forces the issue. Now, a few quick housekeeping notes before we begin. We are recording, and you will receive a replay link after the session in your email, so you can share it along with your colleagues and partners.

However, do not let that make you passive. The real value is happening here, right now.

live. Use the Q&A button for panelist questions, and use the chat for conversations and quick reflections. I'll have my eyes on both the feeds, so please participate as we go along.

Right, so tonight's panel is proudly sponsored by ECHO Marketing. ECHO is the marketing growth partner trusted by more than 500 healthcare practices and industry leaders across North America and beyond.

Their work focuses on three areas that matters a lot to a growing practice, SEO and visibility, conversion-based websites, and of course, content and the social authority to back it up. So, in simple terms, they help practices get found, get trusted, and of course, get chosen.

They are trusted across the USA, Canada, the UK, and we are truly grateful for their support in tonight's conversation. Now, we will hear more from ECWA a little later in the program.

Right. But before we… get into the main, session here. We do have a quick

Tip from our partners at ECWA. Now, this slide here on your screen frames something important tonight. Your leadership capacity gives you the room to grow. Predictable patient demand gives your team room to lead.

Now, as you build the next layer of leaders inside your practice, your online presence also has to support growth beyond the owner.

ECHO helps practices strength and visibility, trust, and conversion so that new patient demand does not depend on one person doing everything. So, as we talk about internal leadership tonight.

keep the external demand in mind, too. Be found, be trusted, and be chosen. And we do have a special resource for everyone here, so stick around to find out more.

Right then. Here's how we're going to structure our evening. First, the hidden leadership gap. Why growth stalls with every decision, relationship, and standard, along with the owner.

Then second, how to spot leadership potential, how to identify people who are already showing that ownership, judgment, and influence inside your team.

Thirdly, how to develop leaders practically. So, what to delegate, how to coach, and how to turn leadership into a repeatable working system.

And of course, last but not least, how to create that leadership culture where accountability, decision making, and initiative are expected across the practice. Now, let's get to know our panelists, and then let's get to work.

So, first up, I'm very happy to welcome Sarah Schichtman. Sarah is the founder and managing attorney of Lingea Law, a national healthcare law firm focused on regulatory, transactional, and strategic matters for medical aesthetics, medical, and, of course, wellness and telehealth businesses as well.

Now, she helps practices trink…

Think through MSO structures, corporate practice of medicine compliance, multi-state expansion, and partnerships. Sarah brings a very practical lens to tonight because she understands both the legal structure and the real operating pressure inside growing aesthetic businesses. Sarah, welcome to the panel.

Sara Shikhman, Esq Sara Shikhman, Esq

Thank you so much! Happy to be here.

Don Adeesha (Host) Don Adeesha (Host)

Great, happy to have you here, Sarah.

And… next. I'm,

Excited to welcome Annie Robertson Hockey. Annie is the president of Skytail Group, a leading investment banking, management consulting, and private capital firm serving healthcare consumer businesses. Her work sits right at the intersection of strategy, operations, growth, and practice value. Tonight, Annie will help us look at leadership capacity

Not just as a management issue, but as a real driver of enterprise value and owner

Optionality. Annie, welcome to the panel.

Thank you for having me. It's a treat to be here.

Don Adeesha (Host) Don Adeesha (Host)

That's great. It's great to have you here, Annie.

And then, last but not least, we are also joined by Samara Bell, Senior Associate at Lynnea Law. Samara works on healthcare, transactional, and strategic matters, including mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships for medical providers.

She brings a clear, practical perspective on what needs to be documented before owners truly transfer decision authority, and of course, how practices can protect both the business and the patient experience as they grow.

Alright, Samara, welcome to the panel.

SB

Hi, thanks for having me.

Don Adeesha (Host) Don Adeesha (Host)

Absolutely, Samara. Now, I'm going to stop sharing the slide, so we can…

begin our conversation. But of course, with that being said, I do want to make that quick reminder

Use the Q&A button or the chat box below to keep, you know, asking your questions or leaving us your thoughts, because that'll really make this session much more engaging and valuable to you.

Right. That being said, My first question goes out to you, Annie.

Now, most aesthetic practice owners don't recognize their leadership gap until a crisis forces it. What makes that buying,

Sorry, blind spots so persistent, and how can owners recognize it before it becomes urgent?

Over to you, Annie.

Thank you. It's such a… it's such a great question, and as a former founder, you know, co-founder, co-CEO of what's now a pretty significantly sized firm prior to Skytail, this is something I so relate to. Turns out I'd never started a company before. And, you know, I think…

For, for most practice owners that we're, that we're working with,

you know, I think the first problem is they're doing several jobs at once, right? They're running accounting and finance, their chief technical officer, right? They're vetting and implementing new technology, their HR, they're hiring, they're training, they're, you know, dealing with any personnel issues, not to mention the fact that many are still practicing the primary revenue earner for their practice. And so, you know.

I'd say, for many of these practice owners, blind spots are candidly out of necessity because they're sprinting, right? And don't have any time to look back. And again, for most of the practices that we're working with, it's their first time building a growing enterprise, and that is something that you learn a lot of hard and oxalong.

Along the way.

Now, that's, you know, a problem statement, and I don't love to have problem statements without potential sort of solutions, if you will, as well. And, you know, I recommend that really every leader, surrounds themselves with what I call a personal board.

That is a combination of advisors, right? Lawyers, consultants, accountants, folks that have pattern recognition, and their job really is to, you know, spot your blind spots and let you know in advance where those are.

You know, that's mentors, folks who you collect along the way, who have built You know.

great teams or companies, families, what have you. And then also peers, right? Making sure that you are in contact with other folks who are sort of, you know, can relate, maybe, to your day-to-day, and

I will say I have a personal board. It is something that I rely on often, and, you know, has shared… spared me, I think, many, many bumps along the way. And then finally, the last thing I'll offer is ask your team.

Right? You know, create forums for feedback, whether that is a monthly open office hour, or one-on-one check-ins, or even anonymous online surveys. Your team is wise, they're there for a reason, and they see a lot, so, you know.

most times I have one-on-ones, it's what can I be doing better? You know…

in this call, what do you think could have gone differently, right? And making sure that that's a safe and open dialogue for your team, because again, you can learn so, so much from them.

Don Adeesha (Host) Don Adeesha (Host)

check. So, really, to find that leadership gap, what you would recommend is

getting that personal board, right? And then, of course, perhaps, conversating with your peers, and then, of course, last but not least, asking your team.

what are the gaps that you're seeing right on the floor? Right, that's a great place to start. Thank you very much for that opener, Annie. Now, Sarah, practices with 3 to 10 employees are often too big to run casually, but too small for formal HR. What does

Poor leadership usually look like in that stage?

Sara Shikhman, Esq Sara Shikhman, Esq