Ever wondered how Botox gets delivered to your doorstep? Dr. Leo Damasco and Phoebe Gutierrez chat with Nick Krus, CEO of June Skin, about launching a concierge aesthetics platform that puts clinicians first. From music to health tech, hear how Nick built a compliant, nurse-focused telemedicine empire.
This episode is sponsored by: Set For Life Insurance
Set For Life Insurance helps doctors safeguard their future with True Own Occupational Disability Insurance. A single injury or illness can change everything, but the best physicians plan ahead. Protect your income and secure your future before life makes the choice for you. Your career deserves protection—act now at https://www.doctorpodcastnetwork.co/setforlife
____________
In this episode, Dr. Leo Damasco and Phoebe Gutierrez interview Nick Krus, CEO and founder of June Skin, about his unexpected journey from the music industry to launching a concierge aesthetics platform—and the surprising lessons he brought with him.
Nick shares his journey of creating a clinician-first telemedicine company that delivers Botox to clients’ homes while prioritizing nurse training, compliance, and provider satisfaction.
Nick discusses the challenges and rewards of scaling a niche telehealth business, from developing a custom EHR tailored to nurses’ needs to navigating complex regulations across nearly 40 states. He also highlights the importance of transparency with medical directors and the pivot from weight loss drugs back to June Skin’s core Botox business. A must-listen for physicians and nurses interested in telemedicine entrepreneurship.
Three Actionable Takeaways:
About the Show:
Telemedicine Talks explores the evolving world of digital health, helping physicians navigate new opportunities, regulatory challenges, and career transitions in telemedicine.
About the Guest:
Nicholas Krus is the President and founder of June Skin, a concierge aesthetics platform launched in 2023 that delivers in-home cosmetic treatments. Before entering the beauty tech space, Krus built a notable career in the music industry. He was Vice President of Marketing at TuneCore, a digital music distribution company, where he led initiatives like TuneCore Rewards and TuneCore Certified digital awards.
Website: https://www.bookjune.com
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholaskrus
About the Hosts:
● Dr. Leo Damasco – Pediatrician and emergency medicine doctor turned telemedicine advocate, helping physicians transition to digital health.
● Phoebe Gutierrez – Former state regulator turned telehealth executive, specializing in compliance and sustainable virtual care models.
Connect with Phoebe Gutierrez
: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pkgutierrez/
phoebe@telemedicinetalks.com
TELEMED KRUS ===
phoebe: ~All right. Ready? Yep. ~[00:00:00]
All right everyone. Welcome back to telemedicine Talks today. So I am really excited and honored to have the CEO and founder of June Skin Nick Cruz, who's actually become one of my really good. Friends and clients in the compliance world. So we're super excited to have him here today to share how he launched June Skin some, ways that he works with physicians and,
leo: Really just to hear his story.
Yeah, thank you so much for coming on as well too. So I'm
krus: excited to hear your story. Awesome. It's so great to be here and chat about everything. June, skin and compliance. I know it's not always the sexiest of topics, but somehow I've been roped into it quite substantially over the past couple years.
~Been~
phoebe: super fun. I. So Nick, ~I think~ I think you have an interesting background, right? So it was like, I'm prepping for this. I'm like, okay. Like me and Nick have been working together for, gosh, I don't know, six months or so. And I'm like, oh, like music industry. [00:01:00] Oh, marketing. Oh, that's why June skin's website looks so great.
Oh, that's why like I'm like, oh my gosh, my brain was exploding. I was like, it all makes so much sense now. So I dunno, like how did you get from. You're, I don't know, I guess like college days to like now where you're at, like leading,
krus: Botox at home. Of course. I would tell you if I was in college and said I would be leading Botox at home I would be shocked.
I have done a lot of things, but there's really a common through line of just solving problems. I've always been someone who looks at a challenge, wants to figure it out, wants to figure out how to make something better. Started in music, actually played in bands and all that crazy stuff for a while.
But then I got tapped actually to do hotels first, just to do marketing over there. They found out I was good at math, so I did pricing algorithms. Then that co-founder went off and did health tech and I was like, cool, another problem, another thing to solve. So I was actually worked in autism care for a little while particularly within schools.
And during that time I [00:02:00] really found out just how different the healthcare industry is, where I. It's more about the provider and the care that's given than the end customer. In so many other industries, it's always about the client, the customer acquisition costs. It's never about the individuals providing the service.
And in healthcare in particular, I just found such a, I. Lack of focus on it. We, a lot of people, especially in venture capital, kind of view providers as a number. It's oh, here's this like unit thing that we can now make a widget and have them provide the care and maximize their hours and ~util ~utilization rates.
But really just seeing all the. Shit with a better word that nurses go through on a daily basis into autism care. Extremely hard industry. There's BCBAs, rbs and that's where I actually met one of my co-founders, Alina. She's always been into aesthetics which is a much, puts a lot more smiles on individual's faces which is lovely.
Better smile you might say. And with that we really just saw all the nurses that [00:03:00] wanted to get into aesthetics, the. How much it was growing. And all these burnt out nurses that are like, I just want to get a job in aesthetics. I don't know how, I can't break in. I'm very burnt out.
I want another option. So that's really where we thought, okay, can we provide a provider first experience and get these people the ability to break through? So that's really where June
phoebe: started.
Awesome. ~Awesome.~ Yeah, no, I think it's really interesting. I know, so like at June, ~how did you, ~how did you come up with that concept? I think that's super interesting. ~I think one of the things I, I. With my other company. ~I work a lot with NPS and PAs, and I think one of the reasons that, ~or one of the things that I thought was really interesting about ~so many nurses doing the aesthetic space was exactly what you said.
Like being a normal bedside nurse, you're ~with ~dealing with disgruntled patients and like in Botox it's like ~it ~cash pay. Like people wanna see you, they wanna talk, they're so excited. I've asked you questions like, what do I do here and what do I do there? But ~you're all ~to me, ~it's it is, ~it's a completely different experience ~that.~
Like you had said, the patients are gonna leave happy. The providers are just feeling appreciated and get the warm and fuzzies. And [00:04:00] then, ~like I, ~I think that ultimately changes
krus: Like both of their perspectives. Totally. And getting back to your point, like how did it start? ~Like we actually, I.~
Interested in Botox, the concept of it growing industry. We had some anecdotal feedback about nurses wanting to get in. But the first thing that me and my co-founder did was we actually talked like 50 nurses. We did unit user interviews.com, did hundreds of surveys, and just basically started to formulate, okay, what is actually missing?
I won't pretend to know what nurses go through every day, right? But if I can talk to as many as I possibly can. I'll start to get an idea, I can start piecing together what are the things they're looking for, how hard is it to break in? What kind of training do they need? And that's really what we focused on a lot and how we built our platform.
We developed our EHR from the ground up using exactly that. It was like, all right, nurse, what do you do? Step one, step two, step three. What are the things that suck with your current EHR that we don't want to do? What are the things that would be lovely to have? And just really bringing in that.
Again, the provider first [00:05:00] feedback through the entire experience rather than just slapping on another EHR that they're gonna hate and not know how to use and forget to half the functionality. We really made sure to keep it simple, streamlined. All the things that you normally don't see
phoebe: in healthcare technology.
That's super interesting. Yeah, no I love behind the scenes I get to see the hr I love it, ~but I also like, ~I even said, I think when, the first thing when I looked at your HR was like, oh my, this is so different, but it's so much better than anything I ever saw. And when you told me that you built it, I was like, oh, ~it makes sense.~
It makes sense. ~'cause to me like.~ Getting that user feedback and having them drive it a little bit more, you're, it's gonna be better versus a third party company coming
leo: in and telling you what to do. So that's, were you looking at EHRs to, there's definitely off the market EHRs and, I've talked to different businesses that are like, yeah, I really don't want to deal with the logistics with the in-house EHR building.
You get that a lot from these startups. And it's funny that I hear that from you. The opposite is oh yeah we are definitely gonna create our own EHR, which I think it's great, especially in a niche market [00:06:00] like this as a provider, you could build ~to your, to, ~to your specs.
I've been on healthy, I've been on Athena, and they're okay EHRs, but they're very, particular sometimes, or just hard to navigate. So it, this is interesting to me listening to that. Yeah. It was just no brainer. We're building our own EHR.
krus: Sure. When our first investor ~I ~told us like, oh, we're to build the R itself.
They were like, why are you doing this? It was just like completely slammed me down. But. Honestly, we have a great developer who is one of our founding members. He is absolutely amazing. I wouldn't have attempted this otherwise. But it really came down to what you were saying was like, okay, there's all these other EHRs, aesthetic Record Boulevard.
They work in the different settings. You could customize it to what you need, but in reality, like we are in a niche. We're not only aesthetics, which has its own. Differences, right? All cash pay, very different types of procedures. And we're also concierge, right? So this person has to do it on their phone, right?
Business wise, we're not applying laptops and having them carry them into their [00:07:00] client's homes, right? So we really needed something that was specific to them and a lot. And the reality is too, for a lot of our nurses, this is sidekicks, right? They're not using this EHR eight hours a day and are gonna become masters at it.
So ~we need to.~ We knew it was something where Hey, if I haven't done this in a couple weeks, I can pick this back up. It'll be a, second nature to me. So while I would say I don't regret doing our own EHR, I would say make sure you have the right individuals around you to make sure it happens.
And there are great options if you do, depending on what vertical you're in. But a lot of times it really is
leo: at least for us, was a good move. No, that's awesome to hear. 'cause one of the biggest things is burnout in any kind of provider list. Top three, top one maybe even is documentation, right?
So that's awesome. Pull it out on the phone and that's it.
phoebe: That's great. Exactly. And yeah, ~and ~changing direction a little bit is, so I think one thing ~that, ~that I thought was really interesting in working with you was like. How does this work? ~I, before, ~before you I didn't know you could order [00:08:00] Botox at home, I had no idea that these were services that could be delivered to your doorstep.
~That something was, so to me, ~traditionally, you're gonna go to your local med spa, you're gonna have to go through those hoops and really being introduced to ~like ~your model, how. At what point did you realize that you wanted to change it up and bring the product to the consumer versus, doing what ~kind of ~other companies do, which is like, all right, let's go franchise, a bunch of med spas and
krus: ~let's go, do that.~
It came out a lot from, in addition to the PR research, we also did consumer, and we first started with the provider said, okay, how can we actually get it so that a nurse can come to us and we can. Basically give them the opportunity to inject, right? We think about how do I maximize that reach? How do I reach a hundred thousand nurses, right?
I don't wanna just employ a hundred or a thousand. I want this really to be something that can change a lot of nurses' lives. That brick and mortar location really is something that ~limited ~limits it. So if I have to put up a brick and mortar location every half an hour pinpoints around the map, I'm doing [00:09:00] thousands of locations, that's not really feasible.
It's reach the scale that we were looking for. Of course, you start talking around, you hear about concierge aesthetics. You're like, okay, this. Could be a really great option. You then think, okay, is this safe? Is this something that I can do? Which goes down the whole world of compliance, which Phoebe, thank you for all your additional help there as well.
Not easy. We started in New York. I remember I've read, I. ~I don't know, ~thousands of pages of laws in New York. 'cause I was like, I don't know where to start. All right, let me just Google every single possible law on Botox, collaborating physicians. How does RN versus NPS work? I was very in the dark, but honestly, just doing the grid of saying, okay, you know what?
I could go and try to find someone who can give me a half-baked answer ~or for this very. ~Starting of it, I'm gonna have to start to understand it, right? And I'm gonna understand that language so I can communicate to people when we do get bigger, start hiring individuals like you to help us out, how can I make sure that I'm not just like some, have no idea what's going on and just go with the flow.
[00:10:00] I really wanted to make sure that I understood what was going on and that we were compliant and I could ~under ~really make sure that as every step along the way we were
phoebe: doing it safely and right. Yeah. And I think that's one of the reasons why I have respected you so much as a CEO because there are not too many that are made the way that you are.
I'm a CEO that's like you too. Whereas like I'll outsource stuff, but like, how do you even know what questions to ask if you haven't done the research and you haven't dug in? And so to me ~it was like,~ I think that was like our first meeting. ~It was like you knew exactly.~ You knew exactly like the gaps that you had.
So you were very pointed in these are the things we need support on. This is what we have covered. And I think again, like that also just layered into all the due diligence that you did to get June to like where it's at today. And as it continues to grow.
I think one thing also that's like really interesting that I have appreciated just being, ~I guess ~insider at June skin. ~But~ it's like how you work with like your physicians. I think it's like really different than how most companies do. And so I don't know, maybe if you wanted to [00:11:00] share a little bit about like how you work with like
krus: your PC owner and like medical director.
Yeah. Honestly, ~I,~ they're really partners for me. I need to make sure that I put on the physician hat when I talk to them and coach them into how to put on the business hat when they talk to me as well. I think the biggest thing for that is the transparency, right? A business holder might try to push a medical director in a certain direction that's just gonna cause friction and headache.
At the end of the day, I like to lay out and say, okay, here's where the business is. Here's the things, the questions that we have. This is how you can help us, and I want to give you all the information so that we can find the best solution that. Isn't just your knee jerk reaction from a medical perspective, but something that works with the business, works for the clients, works for the patient.
I think a lot of times physician can say, okay, what's this black and white? ~Wrong, or, ~and the reality is that there is ~a. There's this~ a spectrum, of options that exist sometimes. And obviously the medical has the final say in everything especially in our business, but it's about really [00:12:00] working together and having us both on the same page that we can come to the best decision together rather than just one person
leo: ~barking orders at the other.~
No, that's important because it's art of medicine, right? It's not necessarily the science per se. So there is definitely a spectrum ~like, ~like that. And it's interesting. ~It, I, ~it's very refreshing to hear that. 'cause a lot of these businesses and I've going into telemedicine a lot of.
Owners, CEOs, they definitely harp and focus on the business side, but can forget, yeah, ~there, ~there is a kind of a medical side. But then on the other hand too, being doctors coming in and getting into the startup business, most of us don't know that, right? Most of us just go practice for ~this bigger ~this bigger medical conglomerate or just start their own practice, but not necessarily a consumer practice like this.
And we don't know, what the priorities are and there's definitely gonna be times when there's conflicting priorities. So what's the best way, let's say you get a doctor and they're looking, Hey, I wanna be PC owner and being a medical director, what's the best way to approach this and [00:13:00] how to approach, you as a CEO.
Or the business side. One, to really get into the position and two, ~the best way ~the methods that you found that works
krus: best to work with each other. I would say first ask questions. Learn, right? Understand what the business is, understand from my perspective, I need to understand the medical director, right?
I unfortunately know a lot about facial anatomy now. I did not think I ever would, but I know a lot about facial anatomy. I've taken so many courses on Botox. I could probably, be an expert at this point. Never inject, never would. But on the other side, for the physician, don't just have that first meeting and be like, great.
~Who do you have? What, give me X, Y, Z like checklist. ~Get to know the business, get to understand what they're working towards. What are their goals? What are they trying to understand? If you don't understand what A CPA is or what LTV is ask, right? A lot of these founders are very happy to. Chat. That's I guess, one thing that founders are very talk about their business, talk about how everything that they do, so ask questions, learn, understand, get into [00:14:00] their mindset so you can understand how to help them best, right? Creating that partnership rather than just a, Hey, I'm an employee of yours.
Let me check all my boxes and, leave it at that. Which maybe some owners want that and that's the relationship, but there's gonna be a disagreement at some point if that is the case, right? And I don't think that's good through the end outcome. So really, kind sense silly but partner, understand each other, work together ask those questions, dig in and really figure out what
leo: ~is those best solutions.~
No that's awesome to know. 'cause a lot of our listeners there, that's one of the bigger questions that they have with people going into telemedicine. It's like how do I approach this and Yeah. This was not a med school class that I know I didn't take, I dunno if anybody else took it.
Yeah.
phoebe: No, thank you. Of course. ~Sorry, let me go back to the script. My bad. We will edit this out. Okay. Okay. ~Okay. So Nick you said this kind of took like. A pivot there. You got into health tech. ~I think one thing that I always, ~you know, and I grew up in healthcare, so to me, like I knew it was complicated from day one because as much as I have 12 years, like on the regulator side, like I still only know like a [00:15:00] sliver or a portion of it.
But maybe walk us through what were some of the biggest like eye-opening things as you launched June? What were some of those oh my gosh, like I can't believe I got into this thing and what
krus: the heck do we have ahead of us? I think just the scope of legal documents, changing regulatory environment, just like everything that you have to know is just so different.
You talk about, I was in music at first. The only thing I had to do was prevent against copyright law. ~Like it was like talk about like legal. ~It was like very small part of my world. And you get into healthcare and you're like, okay, every state has differences. Every insurance company has differences in what you can bill or not Bill.
Alright, now we're doing it with like, how many permutations of this state, this insurance company, this, medical, ~pr ~procedure. It really, it blows up from that perspective and it can feel super overwhelming. We recently went through a interesting pivot on our side where we ~went. ~Got into weight loss drugs.
So compounding medication, very great [00:16:00] business to be in while lasted. But unfortunately, as we all probably know at this point that's going away, right? The shortages are over and what was a huge part of our business just a couple months ago is just gonna be gone. And that's all due to these regulatory changes that happen so fast.
But. We knew it was coming, right? ~We, ~everyone did. How do we prepare for it? How do we make sure that we can pivot at that point? That's not something that I saw in hotels, music, ~anything, ~other industries where it's like, all right, there's gonna be this big, massive regulatory change that's gonna change everything.
And I know, every year Botox laws change, right? We have to make sure we stay on top of it for every single state. So this is something where ~it's. ~It becomes such a larger portion of your day to day. With the weight loss portion in particular, it was scary. I remember you texting me with a chain too.
I was like, shit, all this not like I knew was coming. We like, let's, all right, this is the moment now. We had 10 individuals on the weight loss side. But fortunately about ~I would say ~November, December last year, [00:17:00] were like, all right. We see somewhere on the walls, right? Tirzepatide was self-declared as being out, out of shortages.
There was some writing on the walls of things happening. So how could we change it? I don't wanna fire anyone if I don't have to. ~I don't, ~how do I keep the business going? Keep things moving. And with that, we really said, okay, let's pause on the weight loss. Let's stop spending ad spend there. And let's focus on what we do best, what's gonna stick around, which is our Botox business.
It was a very. Easy thing to be like, let's jump on the bandwagon with weight loss. Great while it lasted. But knowing that, we had to continue to do what we set out to do from the first place. And with that, hit up Phoebe saying, Hey, how can I get into 30 more states tomorrow?
Like, how do I expand this as quickly as I possibly can so that I can do right by not just the providers, but also my staff, right? Making sure that everyone that was working on weight loss can now work on the Botox side. Happy to say that I think we have six training locations live now.
Hoping to have about six [00:18:00] more all across the country. Probably the fastest I've ever done anything in my life, but that's being in a startup. So I have to say, ~but ~there's like a ~highway ~multitude, ~highways ~of different roads and paths that, this healthcare can take you down and just being ready for as many as possible which is not easy, but
phoebe: ~trying to do as best as I can.~
Yeah. No, and I think ~like ~one of the things that ~I think again, ~has been great, and I'll be very honest, very refreshing. Because as I said in my text, I had a lot of clients that were like, we don't think that weight loss is gonna go away. ~We think we are~
krus: perfectly fun. And I'm like.
phoebe: ~Just wait.~
And ~they didn't have a, ~they didn't have a pivot. ~They didn't have, they, ~they didn't have a primary line of business and started doing weight. They were primarily weight loss. And I'm like. You guys are stressing me out. And so to me, like I think like you having the plan, the foresight to know yes, it's great while it lasts, but we are going to, again, go back to our core competency.
Really think about what's gonna drive the business forward. Really play it smart. I think again, just [00:19:00] really shows like your strategic leadership that you know you're
krus: really leading June in the right way. I appreciate that. Fingers crossed. It continues. ~It's going so ~
phoebe: ~far. ~Your compliance looks great.
~Your compliance ~
krus: ~looks great.~ How many states are you guys in right now? So almost 40. Oh wow. And we hope to be in, I think about 44 I think can do Botox at home, somewhere in that ballpark. So
leo: talk compliance. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's fun. Gosh. Yeah. And speaking of compliance, right? We've been talking about it.
What's your number one, takeaway from that? People that are getting into any kind of telehealth, telemedicine across state lines. What did you learn about compliance? 'cause
krus: that's super important, right? Always keep digging in right there. You're gonna get a first answer and then you're gonna have to dig in further and find the second answer, third answer 'cause.
You read these laws, they're not black and white, right? ~Especially if you're doing something just slightly. ~Even telemedicine from a law perspective is still new, right? There's still a lot of gray area, a lot of interpretation. That's not perfect. When I was working at my [00:20:00] last healthcare company for autism care, we had a whole legal compliance team.
Probably about half of what I heard was wrong. I had to dig into there's a lot of misinformation out there. You Google home Botox, you're gonna get a whole plethora of different. Opinions and thoughts and whether it is allowed, not allowed, and just like going to the source, continuing to read in, and just being ready to, for a different interpretation or a different understanding of something.
I remember we first thought that Maryland was gonna be good to go, and then it was like, oh shit, we dug in deeper. This is no go. I was gonna launch a training center. It's like, all right, just gonna have to close it down, right? Just pivot, work with it. Understand what has to happen, but just be ready because any law can pass at any point.
But, just keep your eye on
phoebe: ~it.~
Yeah, I know I'm sure you're aware of the Texas changes that are proposed, which I think we're all like, oh God no. Like they're saying, ~Leo, just, ~since I'm a nerd about all this stuff Texas is trying to propose some rules, basically saying [00:21:00] for any injections a physician has to be on site.
I think there's some other things too where like physicians have to be, ~be~ a little bit more involved, but for what? To me, again, like it's just, it's extra barriers. Like it's, you wanna mandate extra training or something. Sure. But it's just gonna make it, again, policy decisions that, might
krus: not think about the operational side of it.
Or even just like the safety part of it too. You look at statistics of how many people have had serious complications from Botox, right? Like you're talking about one of the safest procedures out there, right? It's been tried and tested. You're gonna worry about, increasing the oversight on something like that is, there's so many other incentives at play when it comes to stuff like that.
Anyways. I won't get too worked up on it.
phoebe: And in
krus: Your next job you could be a lobbyist. Yes, exactly . Making sure I lobby for what I actually believe in ~rather than~
phoebe: what some of these lobbyists are for. Yeah. I think that's like the interesting thing too, and I will be like the first person to say I made tons of mistakes as a regulator, and you are trained, you're a public servant.
You [00:22:00] go, you're like, okay, I'm gonna write this policy, I'm gonna use these very specific words. That's how I can interpret it. Something says must versus may. That is a huge difference guys. A huge difference. So like I, and then now, taking the switch to the startup world after all of that.
I feel horrible. Like a lot of the policies I wrote, like they still stand some of the stuff in telehealth in California that I'm like, there's no way to operationalize that. There's no way to actually meet that requirement. And like I didn't have the operational mindset at that point. I. As the regulator, and so that's the thing, like it's this really weird balance where you hear startups like, I don't know what the hell this means. And I'm like they also don't know what the hell you guys are doing. It's just people dunno how to talk. ~It's ~it's that there's nobody to translate, and I think that's what's been like interesting working with so many startups, being able to like. Guide some of that stuff, figure out the pivot, figure out really like what, how you can build a, an operational structure around some of these very weird requirements so that if you do get audited, like you're still good.
Like Nick, like we did [00:23:00] talk like Marilyn, ~we could, you, ~you could do Marilyn, but it's like we're gonna have to build like these really interesting workflows and, we'll figure it out. But it's those kinds of things I think that are very interesting when it comes to this, regulatory world.
So that's my soapbox of I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry for some of the
krus: stuff I did in my past. I had to say one thing for all the regulators out there, just don't make a hundred page documents. If you could make 'em into 10, that's the only thing I will ask. 'cause I am out here reading. Pages and pages of literature for, anyways
leo: I'll stop now on my soapbox as well.
And I'm sure the a hundred pages is clear and clean cut. And it's it's either A or B. ~It's not what if and or, yeah. Just~
phoebe: like everything. And it's definitely not like the a hundred page document's not gonna conflict with the state law either. ~Yeah. ~Or the federal law or some other policy document that you found.
krus: I'll call out Marilyn for having conflicting documents as well, which not fun at all. 'cause you're like, okay, which one's supersedes what? ~Or it's oh man.~ Yeah. So
leo: how'd you muddle through the waters then? ~After reading a hundred pages like. ~
krus: You turn to Phoebe and be like, Hey, pH.
I turn to Phoebe for one. And she gives me the, [00:24:00] also you get down to there is a side of compliance, which is like, what is the spirit of it? What are they trying to do? When I see these two different laws, which one was for a second? There's a level of intuition, understanding that you're trying to get through, the auditor is gonna be a human on the other side at the end of the day too. But when it comes to something like Marilyn, it was like the risk is not worth the reward. It was not a case where I thought, yes we could play in what we thought was the right waters, the amount of red tape that it was around, it was just, okay, let's move on to other opportunities.
leo: Sorry, Marilyn. You're gonna have a lot more wrinkles. ~Exactly.~
krus: Blame. I'm from, and now I'm just like shitting on it. So
phoebe: anyways, whatever. Yeah. Nobody from Maryland's gonna listen to this podcast.
krus: Like you're not gonna influence all the regulators in Maryland to change all the
phoebe: laws. ~Yeah. They're gonna make~
leo: it more restrictive.
~Exactly. ~
phoebe: ~For you. ~No, but I think that's the interesting angle too. I think one of the things that I've always struggled with, like physicians and Leo, you've heard me say this, is I think physicians and sometimes even startup, when you're thinking about like how to build the operations, how to do something compliantly, it's like [00:25:00] nothing is black and white.
Yeah, it's gray. Everything is gray. So it's like this weird risk assessment process of we could, what's the ROI? Does it make sense? All those things. And a lot of times nick, you've always heard me say if I were you yeah, this sounds okay, or this sounds about right, it's again, like you have to, you gotta determine like what makes the most sense for your business and how you wanna lead it.
And again, like I think it's been interesting because you're like the first. ~First, ~CEOI should give you a trophy that actually has done the due diligence to try and understand the regulation side. And so you get the risk assessment process. Whereas so many other startups just, they come to me and they're like, is it, can I do it or not?
And I'm like.
leo: Maybe. ~Yeah. ~And people hate that answer, and especially the people
phoebe: are
leo: Very concrete. Yeah, same with doctors, right? There's some ~that have, ~that are way more risk averse versus not. And they're like, Hey, just give me the answer. There really isn't one.
Yeah. Being flexible and understanding the risk assessment process
phoebe: ~is key. ~Yeah. So what's been like your overall, just like [00:26:00] favorite part of this part of your life journey, right? ~Build, ~building this thing. What has been, I don't know, I don't wanna say the most rewarding, 'cause it sounds cordy, but like really like it's it has to be cool to look back and see it.
It started as an idea, you got your co-founder, I mean you did
krus: This is, it's amazing. ~ It's super,~ I mean like the, all the little warm and fuzzies when you get I had a trainee text, one of our trainers being like, I want to be you when I grow up. This was the best possible training I ever could have.
Seeing the nurses go out and, we pay them well, we pay a hundred dollars per treatment. That's better than anywhere else that within our scope. So I don't know, it just those little nice moments where you see someone happy I know a lot of people think of aesthetics and they think of it's vain, but if someone doesn't have wrinkles on their forehead, that can change the ~way they, the~ confidence they have, right?
How they feel. And seeing someone love the end result. And knowing that, that was part of what we were able to bring. That's the more touching parts of it. Maybe on the business side of things, like just oh shit, we have a website, we have an [00:27:00] app. We have this working machine of things that have I dunno, I love accomplishing, building things.
Especially when I can, don't have a boss telling me exactly what to do and I can do however I want is always a huge
phoebe: ~plus. ~And I don't know, like I just love your branding. ~Like I just I don't know. ~I love everything. I just think ~it's I don't know.~
~It's, it is ~it's really cool to see that you guys got to build it from the ground up. And, I'm the same way. ~I'm just, ~I'm all about progress. It's like this weird thing where it's like I just, I gotta do one little thing extra a day ~and ~and then yeah, you look back and it's oh my gosh, this
krus: whole thing's been built great.
Yeah. You're like, I actually put 10,000 hours into this. Oh my God. It's it actually
phoebe: is here. So ~what, ~what do you think is ~like~ next for you, next for June? ~Where,~ what are you guys thinking? Like it's early 2025. Weight loss is, off the menu. Yep.
krus: Yeah. What are you thinking?
~I. ~Honestly, I think first is aesthetics. For us. ~We wanna at the end of the day, ~we wanna get back to exactly what we started the company. Just like I want to help providers have a better life, right? Give them something they love to do, give them a better career path give them all the tools they need to be [00:28:00] successful.
~Start an aesthetics. ~I wanna do a hundred thousand nurses, let's say. I want them to be on the platform injecting, whether it's full-time, part-time but just providing extra benefit to their life, whether it's monetary or, through an enjoyable part of their career. Past that, I think there's a lot of opportunity to give additional.
Freedom and independence to practitioners and more largely you think about autism care, BCBAs being able to do their own practices. You think about ~mps, the, ~the growing level of independence that they have and the scope of basically being able to start their own practices in so many states.
But you go down the street, it's all doctor's offices. It's not NPS offices, right? I think there's gonna be a huge switch in that, ~but. ~Starting your own medical practice is not easy, right? So like how do we empower all these nps, with all of this extra independence that they have to do more, right?
Especially with all the changing regulation with telemedicine. How can you blend that with in [00:29:00] person? How can you really create a full income stream that, allows you to be your own boss? 'cause I hate having a boss, hopefully more people can
phoebe: be in that boat as well.~ Yeah. ~Yeah. I too hate having a boss.
That's why I'm the boss of this podcast.
krus: Oh, I might have to leave if you're the boss now.
phoebe: Oh.
No, that's awesome. Again I think ~I am, ~I'm very, ~my, ~my philosophy on it is ~like ~very similar. I think ~like ~with ~like ~my other, ~like ~side. Company or project, ~but ~same thing, right? Giving nps the ability to, work with doctors, expand care. ~I am, ~to me ~it's just there, ~there's not enough doctors in this world and ~I think also just ~there's such a bad burnout problem.
~And the ~we need more care. We ~need more, I ~need more Botox. So I don't have to wear so much concealer. You guys can't see it. ~I think that's, and ~I think it's awesome that you are ~just a comp ~a clinician first company. ~Because ~so often, like you ~had ~said, they don't care about the clinicians, they don't prioritize compliance.
They are totally fine. It's not their licenses. ~It's, and ~I think ~that ~is ~just it's ~so cool to hear a company that is so
krus: clinician forward. [00:30:00] That's the goal. Hopefully to your point, like just happier physicians mean also more care. I think that was a really good point you put in, which is sometimes you think of oh, a burnt out ER doctor wants to just do you know something else.
~Like it doesn't mean that they don't have to provide additional care. ~Telemedicine opens up so many opportunities. Giving the independence to NPS opens up so much opportunity for them to. Provide that extra care. Doing so much more than they do today. And hopefully the technology can just be a catalyst for allowing
phoebe: that to happen.
Yeah, totally. We're getting close to time, so any last parting
krus: thoughts, Nick? It's fun in a startup, fun probably being a collaborating physician. Sometimes it really sucks. So just have the mental stamina to get through those lows. But you'll have amazing highs and lots of fun. And use Phoebe.
She's great. ~Last statement. ~
leo: ~Drop the mic after that.~ And on your end wanting get to know more about June skin, your business. Get rid of those wrinkles, my aunties, if you're listening to [00:31:00] this, ~it's, ~they're in California as well. So ~how do we, ~how do people look up
krus: your company and get your services so forth and on book june.com.
You can go right there. Or if you just Google June skin it'll come up. We'll come right to your house. We'll inject you. You'll have certified medical professionals that are completely compliant and above board, that have been well trained and can give you all the units you need to feel refreshed and amazing,
leo: From the comfort of your home.
Awesome, awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your story and giving us insight. Of course. Yeah, no. Thank you everyone for joining. Again check us out. Check out June Skin, check out telemedicine talks at.com. And if you wanna leave an email for myself or Phoebe, it's phoebe@telemedicinetalks.com, aka ~a ~the boss, or leo@telemedicinedots.com or just go info telemedicine.com or telemedicine talks.com for general questions.
Thank you again so much for being here and everybody else. We'll see you next time.
phoebe: ~Thanks.
~
leo: ~Cool. Awesome. Thank ~
phoebe: ~you so much. Cool. That was so ~
leo: ~good. Yeah. That was so good.~