Making Aging Optional: Inside the Medical Spa Revolution with Dominiques Waples

Brent Peterson (00:02.318)
Welcome to this episode of Uncharted Entrepreneurship. Today I have Dominique Waples She is the CEO of Restore Medical Spas. Dominique, go ahead, do an introduction for yourself. Tell us your day-to-day role and something exciting that you're doing in business this year.

Dominique Waples (00:19.542)
gosh, okay, well, as you mentioned, I am the CEO of Restore Medical Spa and we are making aging optional through medical aesthetics and functional medicine. So I love my job, let me start with that. I love what I get to do on a day-to-day basis because my primary role is growing this company and that means trying to look out to the horizon and see what's coming next and figure out where we're going.

Brent Peterson (00:48.012)
And, go ahead, sorry. What were you gonna, what do you think that's exciting for you in business this coming year?

Dominique Waples (00:49.664)
Go ahead.

Dominique Waples (00:55.734)
I well we're opening a couple of new locations so I'm excited to do that probably during our session. It's kind of a joke kind of not. I am just I'm excited where the medicine is going it really is changing so quickly and things are possible now that were not possible when we founded the business 13 years ago and just just the speed the speed of our growth is really accelerating.

excited about both of those things.

Brent Peterson (01:27.008)
Awesome. And outside of business, do you have any particular passions that you do have?

Dominique Waples (01:32.342)
Well, yeah, a couple of years ago, I started running and I would always say I am not a runner. I am not a runner, but next thing you know, I have a group of girlfriends in Montana. We talked about Montana a little bit in the intro here. I started running some half marathons with them. so now, now I'm...

I'm I don't know. I'm doing some longer trail running and I really enjoy it. You have really it's like meditation for me It's like less about the goal because a lot of things I do in my life I'm you know, it's really about the goal and I I try to let this be about Just I'm not scrolling Just sort of meditating and I'm out there

Brent Peterson (02:17.806)
Well, we could do a whole episode on that. And by the way, there's the Bridger Ridge Run. It's in August. It's you run up on top of in Bozeman you run across a ridge for about 20 miles and you come down. And my dad's done it twice and it's now it's a lottery to get in, but it's a great trail run in Montana. So if you want to, if you want a good one, it's not a marathon, but it's difficult.

Dominique Waples (02:26.432)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Dominique Waples (02:36.022)
It's so interesting. my gosh.

Okay, well, look, we pick races every year and we go up and do various things,

Brent Peterson (02:48.206)
Awesome! before we start, and I'm also a runner, so we'll have to do this offline, but I'm going to tell you a joke, and it's called the Free Joke Project. You just have to me a rating, 8 through 13. And I actually made this joke up today, so I'm kind of excited about it. So here we go. I can still remember my grandpa's last words before he died. Stop shaking the ladder!

Dominique Waples (02:54.39)
Okay. Okay. Okay.

Dominique Waples (03:02.358)
Any.

Dominique Waples (03:15.478)
Okay, uh, uh, let's see. I'll give you a, how about an 11? I'll give you an 11. I laughed. was a legitimate laugh. There you go.

Brent Peterson (03:22.378)
Alright, thank you. That's great. Yes. It wasn't that funny, but anyways. Alright, good. So tell us a little bit about how you started what you're doing and how you got into it.

Dominique Waples (03:36.864)
Well, I, in my first career, my first life, if you will, I was a practicing attorney.

So couldn't have been more different from what I'm doing now. My sister, who is my business partner, was a emergency medicine physician. to say that both of us, you know, it doesn't sound like those are two careers that could create a lot of boredom in a person's life, but you know, it just depends on who you are, I guess. we, both of us just sort of at the same time, realized that there was this incredible thing happening in medical aesthetics. I will never forget.

The first time I got Botox I was like, I don't know, 32 or something. get, and the way it works is you get the injections and then nothing happens at first and then seven days later all your wrinkles go away and it's like, you know, the clouds have parted, like the angels are singing. And I just, I thought, my God, like this is going to be incredible. Like this is going to, this is a really big deal. Hey Flora, you want to?

quit your job and go up in a med spy. And so effectively that's what we did. Yeah, we just knew nothing about it, you kind of like your standard story. You know, we had no idea how hard it was going to be. We had no idea what we're getting into. We just thought it sounded fun and exciting and we were a little bored and so we did. We opened it up.

Brent Peterson (05:05.23)
Okay, you know, fast forward to the point in which you somehow you got introduced to EO. What intrigued you or what made you go to that first dinner or lunch or whatever it was that kind of got you introduced to it and then why ultimately did you decide to join?

Dominique Waples (05:24.17)
Well, as I mentioned a second ago, you know, it's like, it sounds fun and exciting, and it is for the first couple of months, and then it gets harder, and then it gets even harder, you know, the first year or so. I started, why did I join EO, or why was I introduced and interested in it? I was interested in it because I...

did not know how to run a business. And I didn't know how, and I was lonely in entrepreneurship. That was something I hadn't anticipated. I didn't understand what it was going to be like going from an office of, you know, there's attorneys all around the place. Everybody, everyone around you, you're an expert. It's like, you just have this built in community. And I did not have that as an entrepreneur. And

I just, I don't know, I needed to find my people. I was originally introduced to it through, we happened to have, we had some commercial real estate and actually my broker at the time was E &O and he said to me, he's like, you need to do this. You really need to do this. And so I didn't mention this. When we opened Restore, the month we opened Restore, I gave birth to my first child.

That was very very hard. I had no idea how hard that was gonna be and when I joined EO I was actually pregnant with my second and I thought there has got to be an easier way to do all these things I'm doing, you know, I'm kind of drowning so that's that's How I how I joined and I actually initially I joined accelerator

And that was instrumental as well to really helping me understand some of the basics so that I could grow my business to the place where we joined EO and beyond.

Brent Peterson (07:20.738)
Yeah. So just to help out everybody else, I also joined an accelerator. And I was in the mindset of I could do everything on my own and I don't need anybody help. And then suddenly got introduced to this group of people. I went to a quarterly day, I don't remember if it was people or cash. And they kind of laid things out in a way that I could leave with things to do in my business.

Dominique Waples (07:48.502)
Mm-hmm.

Brent Peterson (07:48.503)
And I'm like, wow, this is fantastic. And this is just what I get for, mean, at the time the fee wasn't very large either for accelerator. Actually accelerator is still very affordable. And it was for me, it was a no-brainer. think that mindset of me switching from I can do it all by myself to I need some help was the impetus that helped me to join. Talk a little bit about the, yeah, go ahead, sorry.

Dominique Waples (08:13.238)
Can I just before we One thing so you mentioned that people day and the cash day I distinctly remember both of those as well Because to this day we I don't know if you used it at the time But the who hiring method, you know solve your number one problem We follow that hiring process because we learned I learned it in accelerator. We follow it like to the T and cash

I don't know if you used it, but the Simple Numbers Big Profit, Greg Crabtree, okay, we hired that company and that, not at the time, because we couldn't afford it, but we did, you now, and it has been such an incredible game changer. mean, shout out to CRI now, I believe they've consolidated with another company, but they're incredible. So, I hear you on both of those things.

Brent Peterson (09:03.778)
Yeah, I I think that the bottom line is you just get tools that help you to improve your business. And in, so Accelerator, you'll get a coach that you meet with every month. And in EO, we have a forum that we meet with. And one of the differentiators between EO and other networking organizations is we aren't a networking organization. Nobody gives you advice as we say, we're never gonna "should" on you. And we don't even...

Dominique Waples (09:13.494)
you

Brent Peterson (09:31.054)
necessarily, I mean, it's changing, but we don't, resonate with what you're saying. We, we share our own experience. Talk a little bit about how you, did you have to shift your mindset and, and I think as an attorney, you're automatically giving people advice, right? Is that, am I kind of going, is it, was it a change in how you had to think?

Dominique Waples (09:52.607)
Well...

Well, in some ways, mean, hmm, just being a business owner was such a change. EO was, honestly, everything about it really felt right. I mean, that's what surprised me more than anything. All of a sudden, there were all these people who were, they thought like I did, in many, many ways.

Dominique Waples (10:29.35)
I think the fact that EO is its peers, we aren't networking, we're not trying to sell each other things, that is so important. I think that's what allows us to get value without worrying about whether or not somebody's got an ulterior motive, you know? And I will say that as an attorney, the one thing I did bring with me into the business world was a lot of suspicion and being able to put that aside and...

just trust that the people in my forum really wanted the best for me and were sharing their experiences with me for that reason and that reason only. that's the same, and I shared from that same perspective. That's what, that's where the value really came from me.

Brent Peterson (11:15.352)
Yeah, so talk a little, you know, I did kind of want to allude to the fact that nobody's going to sell anything to you. And once you remove that selling idea, then you do maybe get more authentic sharing, right? How has that helped you grow your business? So, you know, you've moved from Accelerator to EO and now you're in a peer forum. Have you found

Dominique Waples (11:27.766)
Absolutely.

Brent Peterson (11:44.396)
the experiences from your formates that have helped you in your business grow what you're trying to do.

Dominique Waples (11:50.522)
So much. mean, I just don't, I ugh, just so much. It's been such a transformational experience for me. When I came into EO, even when I was in Accelerator and then when I first transitioned to EO, I really thought, as I think many people do when they first join, they think, well, I need business help, right? Like.

I need somebody to show me how to look at a balance sheet or whatever it is, you know, like, and you come and you really think that's what you need. You need somebody to give you the playbook for hiring. And what I've noticed and certainly my experience has been the longer I've been in EO, the more I realized nothing about that. It really is about personal growth because

The constraint in most of our businesses is not that we don't have the hiring playbook. It's us. And it's the things that we are carrying and bringing along with us. Cause it's not like you take all your baggage and you put it up, you know, take the backpack off in the morning and put it by the front door and then you go to work. That's not what happens. You bring it right on in the front door with you and until you can, you know, deal with some of your own things, you're probably not going to be able to grow your business. And so my, I mean,

That's, think, the most important thing that I've learned in EO is really, it's all about, it's all about, well, forum is for you, right? That's what they always say, forum should be for you. And forum being for you means really digging into the personal side. So that's what my forums helped me with. And it's been incredible.

Brent Peterson (13:34.319)
One of the things that I learned, and I was at moderator training in January, was the idea of giving advice and we would sometimes say, hey, I'm open to advice, just tell me what I should do. It is a way of you then moving the responsibility or the accountability to somebody else. suddenly, hey, this didn't work because Dominique said I should do this.

And now I'm not accountable for my decision or action. think that that's an important part that I didn't really take or grasp that concept until even this year of not doing advice and why that's important and how taking that for yourself, like you said, it's for ourselves and then taking the responsibility for ourselves. What have you found in your forum that has been the most helpful in helping you as a...

Dominique Waples (14:02.186)
right.

Dominique Waples (14:09.75)
you

Brent Peterson (14:31.416)
business person as an entrepreneur get through some of those hard times.

Dominique Waples (14:40.704)
Well, I will say during COVID, for example, we went from meeting monthly to we just we were meeting every week because we just needed each other. I mean, we're all going through this time where as a group, we were responsible for other people and we just were holding it together all week, right? And then we could come to EO and actually and talk about some of those things that were going on for us.

If I was gonna, so that was so important. That was so important. I think, I mean, deep dives are definitely probably the most powerful piece of growth in form. I never wanna do them. And then when I do them, it's just cathartic. I think making space to, like, how should I put this? So much of EO, like, let's say you're preparing your...

you know, just your update for the month. I find the process of sitting down and giving myself an hour to prepare my update.

allows my mind to reflect on the month. We all have 24 hours in a day. We all have time to do this, but we don't, right? So when I'm writing my update and I have, and I give myself permission to take one hour and just think about the prior month and everything that happened and what was really good and what was really bad and what was significant, right? Like EO gives me that even though I'm not in forum when I do it. And similarly, deep dives are the same way. Like what's the biggest thing I'm struggling

with. Great. Like now I'm gonna take more than an hour. I'm gonna take multiple hours and time with a coach and time in front of other people to say the things that I am most scared of and just the process of getting it out and getting it on paper and going through it two or three times and then talking about it in public because that's, you know, the forum is still a public sphere in some ways.

Dominique Waples (16:41.116)
often I can just, I'm ready to receive those experience shares, I'm ready to kind of move on and let something go and grow in a different direction. So I would say, honestly, would say updates and deep dives and not just those, but preparation for them has been what has helped me grow most in EO.

Brent Peterson (17:03.17)
Yeah, we have a few minutes left. So tell us a little bit about, so you're in EO, Colorado. Tell us a little bit about your business and kind of that, your day-to-day role and what you're doing every day and what you're solving.

Dominique Waples (17:15.438)
Yeah, so as I said, Restore Medical Spa, we're making aging optional and primarily for women. And one of the things that I am most excited about right now is when we began Restore,

the focus was almost entirely aesthetic. And there's a very good reason for that. Functional medicine and wellness and hormones and nutrition wasn't really developed in the way that it needed to be for us to bring it to our clients. But what we have done is we have gone from

most you know almost almost entirely women right making women feel confident in the way that they're appearing to the world and that's that's how they look right but we've gone from that to saying okay you know what you look great but like i want you to feel as good as you look

And that's what we're able to do for our patients, especially it's becoming more common to talk about now, but it used to be really quite taboo is what happens to women as they move through perimenopause and menopause and the kinds of changes that happen and how kind of just awful life can be for five, 10 years. And we can really help women with that. You just don't have to go through that anymore. So that's what we do at Restore.

Yeah, if you want to come see us, just come find us at restoremedicalspa.com. There's no E on the end of restore. And if you're in Colorado, we'd love to see you. We've got three locations currently and we're opening up two more in South Denver.

Brent Peterson (18:55.01)
That's awesome. So Dominique, as I do close out, I give everybody a chance to do a shameless plug. Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah, thank you. What would you say to anybody that's seeking something like EO? would you... Well, I'll just tell you, the biggest thing I hear is, don't have time. But what do you say when somebody says, I don't have time for a group like EO?

Dominique Waples (19:02.738)
I just did it. I just did it.

Dominique Waples (19:18.112)
else.

Dominique Waples (19:22.09)
Well, the first thing I say is everybody's got 24 hours in a day. That's just because, you know, we have time for the things that are important. And so if growing your business is important, if growing as a person, as a spouse, as a parent, if any of those things are important, then you should join EO for yourself.

Brent Peterson (19:43.106)
That's perfect. Dominique Wapels. Wapels, I got your last name correct? Yes, yeah. CEO of Restore Medical Spas. Thank you so much for being here today.