Things No One Tells You About Selling Your Med Spa
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Shawna Chrisman, nurse practitioner and founder of Destination Aesthetics, didn’t set out to become a med spa mogul, but that’s exactly what happened.
Her entrepreneurial journey started with a residential care facility, but a chance encounter with Latisse sparked her interest in aesthetics. Long before med spas were mainstream, Shawna launched Destination Aesthetics. She’s since grown it to five locations and recently sold the business to Advanced MedAesthetics Partners.
Shawna reflects on building her brand and the emotional decision to sell—calling the conversation with her team one of the hardest she’s ever had. She shares what she’d do differently and why honesty from the start matters more than trying to ease the message.
For those looking to scale or sell a med spa, Shawna offers clear advice: know your “why,” stay grounded in your values, and be ready for the emotional side of the journey.
Plus, she shares the treatment and skincare brand she swears by, and why the future of aesthetics is all about personalization.
About Shawna Chrisman
Shawna is the founder of Destination Aesthetics Medical Spa, which she launched in 2011 and expanded into five locations, becoming a top 10 Allergan account in just a decade. A leader in the aesthetics industry, she has been an AMI trainer for over seven years, a national SkinMedica speaker, and a featured expert on Spark by Allergan Aesthetics.
Recognized for her business acumen, she was named a "Woman Who Means Business" by the Sacramento Business Journal and one of Sacramento Magazine’s 100 Notable Business Leaders. Shawna is also a managing partner at Advanced MedAesthetics Partners.
Learn more about Destination Aesthetics Medical Spa
Follow Shawna on Instagram @botox.girl
Connect with Shawna on LinkedIn
Guest
Shawna Chrisman, Founder
Destination Aesthetics
Host
Tyler Terry, Director of Sales, MedSpa
Nextech
Transcript
Announcer (00:06):
You are listening to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech.
Tyler (00:11):
Hey guys, welcome back to the Aesthetically Speaking podcast presented by Nextech. I'm your host, Tyler Terry, and we are coming to you live from beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada at the Med Spa Show here, presented by AMSPA. Today I have an incredibly special guest. Her name is Shawna Chrisman. She is the founder of Destination Aesthetics from Northern California. Shawna is honestly not just a KOL in this industry. She is a trailblazer. She's somebody that I've got to say probably thousands of people look up to and have heard. She's a top injector and she's somebody that I consider a good friend and very much look up to. Shawna, welcome to the podcast.
Shawna (00:57):
Thanks Tyler for having me.
Tyler (00:59):
Oh my gosh.
Shawna (00:59):
Being here at the AMSPA show, it's full circle for me, it means so much. So being here at the podcast at AMSPA is extra special, and the reason is because of my connection to AMSPA and meeting Alex Thiersch for the very first time, gosh, when he started his business 11 years ago, I think it is now, maybe 12 years ago, which is around the same time that I started Destination Aesthetics.
Tyler (01:22):
Oh, that's crazy.
Shawna (01:22):
One of the very first things that I did is I went to an AMSPA bootcamp to learn about compliance. And from a very early stage, I saw his intention of what he was trying to do with AMSPA in making compliance cool. You're welcome for that plug.
Tyler (01:38):
Compliance is cool.
Shawna (01:39):
Compliance is cool. But what he really, really was trying to do is professionalize the medical spa industry. Because when I first opened Destination Aesthetics, I was almost embarrassed to say that we were a medical spa, that I was a nurse practitioner, I wasn't a core physician, I wasn't a dermatologist, I wasn't a plastic surgeon, and he was trying to make it a safe, professional environment where we could proudly now say that we're a medical spa. And so I love Alex for his intention, and now look at what he has built and his team, and it's just an incredible manifestation of what he did.
Tyler (02:15):
And I mean, this show, it's getting bigger every year.
Shawna (02:18):
It's so big.
Tyler (02:19):
The booths are getting bigger, the hall is getting larger, the energy. So back in the day, it used to be all about for plastic surgery is all about asaps or The American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Anyways, that was the show and had the energy. This has taken over. This has the buzz, this has the energy.
Shawna (02:40):
Absolutely.
Tyler (02:41):
So many people, I mean, I was actually had somebody come up to the booth earlier and I couldn't find anybody to help 'em out. I mean, all of the booths are busy. So shout out to AmSpa.
Shawna (02:50):
Yeah, thank you so much. Yes, it's all good.
Tyler (02:53):
So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Shawna (02:58):
Okay, so I am a nurse practitioner and I'm married to my high school sweetheart. I've been together with him since I was 15, and we are going to be married 26 years this year.
Tyler (03:08):
Whoa, congrats. It's huge.
Shawna (03:10):
Thank you. We have a 20-year-old and a 21-year-old, and I started my career in nursing and found out that I think I wanted to become a nurse practitioner to just have a little bit more autonomy. And I was working as a nurse practitioner in the critical care units in Sacramento, both for Kaiser and Sutter. And basically I was a scribe for the intensivist during that time because physician associates and nurse practitioners weren't really a thing in acute care settings back then. And so I didn't realize that I had this entrepreneurial spirit or drive in me back then at all. I had no business classes, no experience running a business, but I decided to end up opening a residential care facility for the elderly out of a house in Carmichael. And in doing that, I realized that wow, running a business is challenging and it's exciting, but all of the things that you don't find maybe just working a nine to five.
(04:14):
And so there are good things, there are challenging themes, there are things that it comes with all of that, but I didn't realize that I had that in me. And then during that time, I was kind of trying to navigate away from taking call in the hospital and working weekends. And so there was a physician assistant who opened up a medical spa that I was introduced to, and I asked her if she sold lattice for your eyelashes. And I was able to make that. I say we did the drug deal in the hospital, but I got my lattice and it grew my eyelashes longer, thicker, darker. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is honestly transformative for me. And it just gave me so much more confidence just by actually having eyelashes because I didn't have 'em before. And I was like, oh, let me look into these medical aesthetics.
(04:58):
And so then I started doing Botox parties. I know it sounds terribly cliche now, but that's where I got the name of Destination Aesthetics because it was a concierge service in the beginning. And that's kind of how I got my start into aesthetics. And then I kind of scaled down on my other jobs because my husband was like, what are you doing with your life and our life? And we had two kids at the time, and I just said, I'm not sure, but here we go. And so I had to scale down on my other jobs while I grew Destination Aesthetics intentionally, just from kind of putting all my eggs in one basket and saving my marriage.
Tyler (05:35):
So for those of you listening, I moved to Northern California Folsom right outside of Sacramento in 2014. And I've been in this industry since 2012. But I remember working with a couple different plastic surgeons, and they had asked me if I knew of Destination Aesthetics, which I didn't. And so I remember checking out the website and taking a look, and I scheduled an appointment and I got a HydraFacial. But my point here is when I walked in, I was blown away by the experience. Obviously the customer service was amazing, but just the amount of attention to detail with the chandeliers that you have and the drapes that you have up, and it was next level, it reminded me of one of my good friends, Dr. Calobrese in Louisville,
Shawna (06:22):
A mouthful.
Tyler (06:22):
The Calo Spa that has rain coming down in the practice.
Shawna (06:28):
Oh my gosh,
Tyler (06:28):
Beautiful. And I would put your practice in that. There's probably 10 of my favorite. And yours is in that realm. It was amazing. I don't know what to tell you here.
Shawna (06:40):
Patient testimonial Tyler Terrry.
Tyler (06:42):
Yeah, no, it was incredible. But the other thing I want to say is, well, of course, number one, back then it wasn't really cool to have a med spa, like you said. And when I would even ask practices in my probing questions, do you guys offer Botox? And the surgeons would kind of scoff at it like Botox, I hate to say it, but almost beneath me a little bit.
Shawna (07:04):
Totally, yeah.
Tyler (07:05):
It's kind of like that. It took a while until right before COVID, I feel like is when it became a little more normalized. There was that, and then the other part was five locations. That was also for me, unheard of like, wait, they have five locations, what do we do with that?
Shawna (07:20):
Yeah, I mean, it just really happened organically. I wish I said that I intentionally wanted to scale and it didn't happen that way. So my very first location was a 10 by 12 room. My medical director was a medicinal marijuana consultant and wrote prescriptions for weed basically.
Tyler (07:36):
Of course.
Shawna (07:37):
Right next door to me. We shared a waiting room, and I like to say it was very fruitful and colorful with funny smells sometimes.
Tyler (07:44):
You had the munchies, a little section.
Shawna (07:46):
You got a little bit of everything over there.
Tyler (07:48):
Perfect.
Shawna (07:48):
I will say I didn't really get any referrals from him.
Tyler (07:52):
You're like, it wasn't a great. The cross-selling didn't really happen.
Shawna (07:54):
The cross-selling didn't happen, but that's okay. But yeah, I went there for my one room. Then we went to Salon Suites where we had two rooms, that's where I bought my first laser. We brought on body sculpting, and then we moved to our current flagship location in Sacramento right now where we had eight locations. And the day we opened, I looked at my practice manager's eyes and I looked at her and I said, this location is too small, because there was so much demand of people wanting to come in and our books were getting instantly filled with the providers that we had at the time. And then we just started booking out one to two months. And I'm like, oh my gosh, we don't have capacity to meet the demand of our existing base, let alone take new patients. Because even
Tyler (08:34):
Right from the start, you need
Shawna (08:35):
Right from the start, it was a gut feeling of just how many phone calls we were getting and how many referrals we were getting from our, and we just instantly filled up. But it was a different time. Back then there weren't as many med spas. And like you said, there weren't a lot of places that really truly focused on cosmetic injectables, and that really was our forefront service. And so we just said, Hey, we're going to look and see where these patients are coming from. And that's what pointed us to Folsom, and that's why we chose Folsom for our second location. And then that happened in Folsom, same thing. Then we went to Elk Grove, then we went to Roosevelt, and then we went to El Dorado Hills ultimately. So yeah, it was definitely a journey. I say now that if I intentionally wanted to scale, it would be so exciting to do that, but I don't have the energy in it in me anymore to do that. I think we had a great run at five, but I learned a lot along the way of what to do, what not to do. But I guess that's what the beautiful thing of in this life is just continuing to learn, pick yourself up and try something new.
Tyler (09:40):
A lot of people that are listening, they own a med spa, they're potentially looking to open a med spa. They're getting to the spot where they're thinking about when they might want to exit potentially or scale. You sold your practice now. It's been two years.
Shawna (09:55):
It's been two years, a little over two years. It's crazy. It goes so fast.
Tyler (09:58):
Two years. Well, first off, congratulations.
Shawna (10:00):
Thank you.
Tyler (10:00):
And second, my question is, if you could talk to yourself, if you were listening to this show and you're one of our listeners who hasn't sold their practice, what advice would you give them? If you could go back and do it again, what advice would you give yourself?
Shawna (10:19):
Well, I would ask the why. What are your intentions? Do you want to scale to get maximum return on investment and grow your EBITDA to get multiples? What are your goals? Or are you wanting to do it because you truly want to make a brand footprint? The why kind of helps me navigate the conversation because it's a lot of work. It's very emotional, and transacting is extremely emotional. I spoke a lot last year on mergers and acquisitions and kind of my experience, and it brah almost brought me to tears every single time. It's ripping that bandaid off about talking about selling your baby. I mean, it's very difficult. And I read, or maybe it was a post, someone talked about all this m and a activity going on right now, and it's kind of like they were alluding it to people doing it as sellouts. And it was like I wanted to almost make it my mission to say, no, it's not a sellout. There are a lot of reasons why people do sell their businesses. For me, there are a lot of personal reasons. I had lost my friend in a tragic plane accident. My daughter was suffering from mental health problems. I found a biological sister on ancestry.com that I had no idea even existed.
Tyler (11:35):
I saw that on your social, and that is so cool.
Shawna (11:38):
It was crazy. And I wanted to elevate destination aesthetics and pick a partner who would give them something that I couldn't even provide in the power of collaboration from private equity. And so there were so many things beyond just the face of just being a sellout and
Tyler (11:58):
Making money.
Shawna (11:59):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so many people in this industry, and that kind of goes back to the why of why are you scaling? Are you wanting just for purely financial? And if that's the case, then that's fine, but everyone has a different reason and purpose for it. So my kind of sweet spot was around three locations, but that's because our fourth location opened up right before the whole world shut down with COVID. And so that's kind of, I think why I was like three was great before COVID, and then we decided to open up another one. But it's been a journey. But I think a lot of people get excited about the multiples they feel people are getting, but not taking into consideration the impact on their life and their relationships and their time, and literally mental wellbeing. And so it's a lot, but I mean, it's a journey that I'm so grateful for and so many people in my life have helped me basically finalize this process. And it's still not over because I'm still in working as an employee now at Destination Aesthetics, basically doing all of the same things that I did. But I don't have the keep me up at night type situation. I do still, I care, but I'm not the responsible party at the end of the day, sole responsible party. So there's comfort in that. But yeah, definitely.
Tyler (13:19):
What is your role, per se now? Are you still in charge of most things?
Shawna (13:25):
Yes, totally. The responsible parent of this destination aesthetic still. So I'm responsible for growth. I'm responsible for profitability, expense control, management, operations, marketing, all of those things that I did before. And I'm now actually a managing partner with the parent company that we partnered with Advanced Metastatic Partners. And so now I'm responsible for basically the growth and opportunity for other of our brand locations. I think we have over, I don't know, I can't keep track anymore, but there are over 60 brands that we're involved with. And so it's exciting. It's actually renewed a lot of my spirit because I get to go in and actually provide best practices for them and watch it be implemented and watch them literally move the needle on a lot of things and becoming higher revenue generators and all of those things. So it's actually been very exciting.
Tyler (14:15):
So you're kind of sharing what has made DA Destination Aesthetics a success?
Shawna (14:20):
Yes, exactly.
Tyler (14:21):
That's amazing. Replicating success
Shawna (14:23):
And stealing their best practices as well. And so that's amazing about this industry because I do fully believe there's a lot of community over competition, and there are so many playbooks now and resources that we all have. And I mean, look at what ams spa's delivering and trying to give us the education that we need to help elevate our practices to the next level.
Tyler (14:42):
So when you went through the transaction, and you obviously are super close with your team and you love your team, they're very important to you. Do you have any tips on how to deliver the message that you decided to sell? Or how did you prepare them for the news? How did you potentially retain them to keep them here two years later?
Shawna (15:06):
Yeah, that's a really hard question because I think people would advise you on so many different ways, but at the end of the day, I really think that honesty is key. And I think that there were some gray areas that I used because I didn't want to just flat out say, I sold my business and now you're going to be working for a new company, even though I'm still going to be here. There were maybe perceptions that I felt the team was going to feel just no matter how I spun it. And I used the word partnering instead of selling. And then they were just like, is it an acquisition or not? Did you sell? Are you selling your business? What is it? Just tell us how it really is. So we know. And I think going back, I would've done that. I would've been a little bit more transparent with that, but my attention of maybe the gray words was that I didn't want them to be scared. I didn't want them to be upset. But all of those things were legitimate feelings that they felt anyway, and so would've probably just been straightforward with them and then told them my why, my personal reasons why. And then also my intentions of who I partnered with. It's to really give them more opportunity. So one of the examples is a continuing education budget for a full-time employee for an injector at Destination Aesthetics. We gave them $2,500 a year after two years, but now they get 10,000. Wow. So that's just one example. But when you're trying to tell them those things, I didn't have all of those details from the very beginning because Amp Advanced Metastatic Partners was new at that time. They didn't have all of these offerings a hundred percent baked in. And so I was giving 'em a lot of pie in the sky without, here it is in writing type situation, I am going to carve it into my arm.
(16:50):
And so there was a lot of uncertainty. And you know what? There was uncertainty on my end too, because life happens and look at the economy and how businesses have had to pivot just over the past two years. And so I would've changed some things for sure. And we're still, it's in transition.
Tyler (17:07):
Yeah. We're human. We're always trying to get better.
Shawna (17:09):
Absolutely.
Tyler (17:10):
I still think you handled it great and nobody really prepares you for that.
Shawna (17:14):
Yeah. It's literally probably one of the hardest conversations that I had with my team. For sure.
Tyler (17:21):
So just shifting gears a little bit, you're a member of the Thought Leadership group with CareCredit. What is that all about?
Shawna (17:26):
Yeah, it's a great group of all kinds of different roles in the aesthetic space. So it's practice managers from plastic surgery centers, it's providers from medical spas. It's someone like me who has visibility on a global entity, not global, a national entity. I'm thinking amps going global. They're not, but national entity with private equity. So we have a lot of amazing perspectives of what truly is happening in your practices and how are people transacting? How are people navigating the conversation around filler sentiment right now? How are people handling the tariffs? Are people scared financially? Is it affecting the wallet? And what about leveraging financing? Obviously that's one of their biggest drivers, but it's really just like how can we help each other grow the industry comprehensively, collaboratively, cohesively with the best intention of providing great outcomes and experiences for our patients? And so I love it. I think it's just a great group of masterminds of giving real time data on what's happening in our practices.
Tyler (18:36):
So how has the availability of flexible payment plans changed the accessibility of cosmetic treatments?
Shawna (18:43):
Oh my gosh. I could sit here all day long. Well, I can tell you that patient financing, especially in this market right now, is essential. And it should be something that's offered to patients. It doesn't matter what your wallet size is because sometimes it's a cashflow thing, and sometimes you don't want to think of financing for patients who can't afford it. It's like everyone wants convenient financing now, and I heard that even DoorDash is going to start allowing patients to finance DoorDash deliveries. And I'm like,
Tyler (19:19):
I saw that.
Shawna (19:21):
That is insane. But is
Tyler (19:23):
It making a burrito $30 instead of 10? But yeah,
Shawna (19:26):
Exactly. That's a whole nother conversation. But I love the flexibility because as a provider, we want to provide the best outcomes for patients, and a lot of times it doesn't match up with a wallet. And so now we can do that hopefully and have an easier conversation, but I think it should just be accessible for everybody, and it's something that they can keep in their back pocket and trigger it when needed. And so hopefully patients still can get the treatments that they want and not feel that it's not achievable because of their current financial status or ability to pay.
Tyler (19:57):
Yeah. So you've probably been asked this question before, but I'll ask it. Where do you see the aesthetic industry heading?
Shawna (20:05):
Oh my gosh. I see the aesthetic industry just continuing to explode, and we're not maybe running the numbers that everyone was used to in the prior years, but the interest is there. The technology is there, the education is there. Allergan is opening up three first class training institutes in Atlanta and in Orange County and in Scottsdale. And I mean, it's because there is such a growing demand and need for experienced and credentialed providers who are going to deliver safe treatments to patients, and they're trying to match that need, there's going to be a huge mismatch at some point because of the rate that the market's growing. And so what love about that is that we're trying to elevate education for everyone and give people opportunity to continue to grow the industry, but in a responsible way. And I mean, every single time I come to a meeting like this, they're like, the market's going to double in the next five years. And we've been saying that over the past three to five years, and it literally is happening.
Tyler (21:07):
It's doubling
Shawna (21:08):
And it's insane. So I am very excited. I think there's a lot coming down the pipeline with ai, and it's going to be in a lot of more competitive landscape with injectables, with the neurotoxin and the filler market and the bio stem genre and regeneration regenerative medicine rather. And I think sky's the limits.
Tyler (21:31):
I love it. I love it. Okay, last question. What is your favorite service or procedure and what's your favorite skincare?
Shawna (21:38):
I mean, I don't want to be biased, but my favorite service, honestly, is Botox. It is simple. It's easy if you do it, obviously the satisfaction rate is through the roof, and it's just something that I honestly can't live without.
Tyler (21:55):
Love it. Love it. Okay. And then skincare.
Shawna (21:57):
So skincare. I love Skin Medica. Skin Medica only because, well, there are a lot of reasons, but the science behind SkinMedica is unparalleled. So the number of clinical studies and the research that they do with our research and development team, it's unparalleled to other brands out there. And I just have so much confidence knowing that it's backed by the science and the people that are behind the discovery and the innovation of these products. I tell people, I'm going to be 50 this year, and as
Tyler (22:27):
You look like you're my age, what's going on here?
Shawna (22:30):
Well, thank you. I mean, we have to represent, but I tell people that 50% of my anti-aging regimen is all of the things that we do. If it's laser, microneedling, Botox, Sculptra, Juvederm, whatever it is, and then 50% of it is skincare. Literally, that's how much I attribute skincare to my overall aesthetic outcome currently. So it really makes a difference on what you do put on your face. And so yeah, invest in really good skincare people and wear sunscreen.
Tyler (23:00):
And wear sunscreen. Super important.
Shawna (23:02):
Yeah.
Tyler (23:03):
Okay. Final thoughts?
Shawna (23:04):
Final thoughts for me, I'm just excited. I'm excited for our industry. I'm excited for my journey too, and what this looks like. And part of that, we talked about the transaction and about the acquisition and about what I'm doing now, but part of that is kind of like a metamorphosis. It's like I still want to work with destination aesthetics. I still want to help elevate our industry. I want to help other people to build their practices. So I'm just really excited about what are the next steps for not just the aesthetics industry, but for me personally and our destination aesthetics. I just see so much opportunity.
Tyler (23:43):
It really is
Shawna (23:43):
Out there, and it's inspiring. So inspiring.
Tyler (23:46):
Yeah. I mean, if you could just those listening be in this room, you would see the energy, the buzz. It's crazy. I just want to thank you again for your friendship, for your leadership, for your entrepreneurialship. Very grateful for you. Grateful to have you.
Shawna (24:00):
Thank you.
Tyler (24:01):
In my corner as a friend,
Shawna (24:02):
Always. Yeah.
Tyler (24:03):
Yeah. I would love to have you back on the show, so absolutely. Thank you again for your time.
Shawna (24:06):
Thank you.
Tyler (24:07):
For those of you that are listening, be sure to check out the show notes to follow Shauna and to connect with her, whether it's on LinkedIn or Instagram, and to follow her journey with Destination Aesthetics. Until next time, thank you again, Shawna
Shawna (24:21):
Thank you, Tyler.
Announcer (24:23):
Thanks for listening to Aesthetically Speaking, the podcast where beauty meets business, presented by Nextech. Follow and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Links to the resources mentioned on this podcast or available in your show notes. For more information about Nextech, visit nextech.com, or to learn more about TouchMD, go to touchmd.com. Aesthetically Speaking is a production of The Axis.
