The Daria Hamrah Podcast
Do you want to change or simply improve your life? Take your business or your personal relationships to the next level? Have you ever thought why change is so difficult? Ever wondered how people become successful and we just call them "lucky". The Daria Hamrah Podcast gives you Dr. Hamrah's personal insights and pathways to his successes and what he calls "true happiness". Featuring interviews with some of the most successful entrepreneurs, authors and experts in their field, he shares their insights into what he calls the "Secret of Life".
The Daria Hamrah Podcast
Behind the Scalpel Crafting Beauty and Balance - with Dr. Armando Retana
When Dr. Armando Ratana speaks of his journey, it's not just a tale of geographical relocation from Costa Rica to the U.S.—it's an exploration of the transformative power of relentless hard work and dedication. His story, rooted in the sacrifices made by his parents, is a testament to the values that have carried him through a sterling career in oral maxillofacial and cosmetic surgery. In our engaging conversation, Armando doesn't just recount his professional evolution; he opens up about the challenges of balancing a demanding medical profession with a fulfilling family life, ensuring that the latter always remains a cherished priority.
Armando's insight into the impact of social media on the business of cosmetic surgery is as sharp and precise as his surgical skills. He has harnessed the power of platforms like Instagram to not only showcase his work but also to educate and engage with a broader audience. With every shared post-operative photo and every piece of educational content, Armando sees social media not as a trend but as an instrumental tool in building trust with patients and fostering a global clientele. The conversation veers into the importance of adaptability—how the volatility of online spaces necessitates a diversified approach to promotion, including ventures into television exposure and educational dissemination.
As we navigate the intricacies of Armando's field, the discussion touches upon the future of cosmetic surgery, ethical practice, and the crucial role of patient education. Armando's candid thoughts on body dysmorphia and the surgeon’s responsibility in recognizing and managing it are eye-opening, emphasizing the fine line between enhancing one's body and respecting its limits. Wrapping up, we challenge common misconceptions about cosmetic procedures and look eagerly toward the trends and innovations poised to shape the industry in the coming years. Armando's story, rich in both personal and professional achievements, serves as an inspiration for anyone striving in the medical field, or indeed any field, where passion and perseverance are the cornerstones of success.
Dr. Armando Retana IG: @lovethatbodydc
Tweet me @realdrhamrah
IG @drhamrah
All right, everyone, welcome to another episode of the Dario Hammer podcast. Today I have a good friend and colleague of mine from Washington DC, from Capital Center for Cosmetic Surgery, dr Armando Ratana. He's a native of Costa Rica. Armando Ratana, he's a native of Costa Rica. He grew up after he immigrated to Maryland, here in the United States, and pursued a career in oral maxillofacial surgery, first went to dental school at Columbia University in New York and then to University of Florida, jacksonville Medical School, as well as residency, and then decided to pursue a career in cosmetic surgery and further continued his journey, his academic journey in cosmetic surgery in Tulsa, oklahoma, and trained with the one and only Angelo Cusilaina.
Speaker 1:Welcome and welcome, armando, really excited to have you here. You know we share kind of a similar journey, similar mantra. You know, being an immigrant, with having a chip on the shoulder and having to prove yourself every step of the way, what was the drive that took you to this point? I want to start right off the bat with our conversation and then kind of come back a little bit, talk about your journey and your early childhood towards your career. So, first of all, welcome. And hey, man. So what is it with you? What motivated you to do all of this stuff and have such a successful career so early in your career?
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, dario, for having me on here. It's an honor. I think my motivation comes from from home, from from family, you know, just seeing my parents, you know, struggle and sacrifice and do what they did to put us in a position where we can be successful. I'm talking about myself and my, my siblings. You know, moving from Costa Rica to here was a big, a big challenge and a big sacrifice on both my father and my mother. So that was that's basically when I think about. My main motivation is them.
Speaker 2:You know, those days when you, you know, when you're feeling lazy and you want, you need to study for a test or you need to do something, but you don't want to get up and you just don't have the energy to do it, the first person that comes into mind is like you know, know what your parents have sacrificed way too much for you to not get up and not get this done and study for that chemistry final. Study for the biochemistry final. Go, take that test, the admission test for, you know, for professional school. So that's my main drive.
Speaker 1:So it sounds to me like it's a typical immigrant story hardworking, no excuses, there's no such thing as I'm too tired. Now, what is the difference between that and, let's say, your children now growing up here? I mean they see you working hard. I mean you work hard, right, you don't take any excuses, you put in the reps. So what do you feel the difference is going to be for your children now growing up, having basically everything put out on a silver plate, and what do you think their motivation is going to be? The reason why I'm asking you this question? Because I'm asking myself that question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a question I think that we all have. I just went on a trip for my 40th birthday with a lot of my friends Happy birthday, by the way.
Speaker 1:Thank you, appreciate it. That's a big landmark.
Speaker 2:And that was a big conversation while we were just sitting by the resort, by the pool, and talking to ourselves about that, how we all made it to where we are now. But then our children they have everything, like you said, on a silver platter and I think again, it just goes back to the principles of family values, just teaching them that you know things, that money doesn't grow on trees, that you know, yeah, we do. Well, but it doesn't mean that you know, we're going to spoil them, Like I don't spoil my kids. I try to tell them hey, you guys want to earn money, let's go to the office. I have books to stack up, I have papers to shred, I have things you can inventory at the office and I will pay you for it. That's going to be your money.
Speaker 2:So now when they go to the store, they're like hey, daddy, I want these shoes. Okay, you want those shoes. Do you have shoes at home? Yes, I do. Oh, you want the Jordans. Okay, how much are the Jordans? $200. So for instance, I'll give you an example I pay my children 50 bucks a day, a per diem of 50 bucks when they show up to the office. So they're like so those shoes are worth four days worth of work. Yes, sir, that's not worth it to me. Okay, great. So now they make that decision of like okay, those shoes are $200. That means I got to show up to the office four days. That means Labor Day, Memorial Day day and two days in the summer for me to get those shoes right. So the value of money I'm trying to teach him, that, me and my wife, um, beyond that also like yeah, my kids don't like.
Speaker 1:My kids won't love to listen to this podcast. Man, why not you?
Speaker 2:there's no, yeah, because that's a great.
Speaker 1:No, that's a great. I'm going to introduce that man, oh there you go Like today.
Speaker 2:There you go. Yeah, I decided to do that and they really appreciate that per diem that they get. And they start planning ahead and they're like you know what? I want to get the fancy AirPods that are $400. They're like all right, we'll plan for that, you can buy them yourself. I'll give you everything you need in this life. You want something fancy? Go ahead, work for it, just like you and me. It's like everybody did. How old are your kids? My kids are 16 and 13.
Speaker 1:16-year-old boy 13-year-old girl yeah, that's exactly my kid's age, I think to introduce them to that concept that nothing comes for free, nothing grows up on trees and nothing comes from nothing. I mean, you got to put in the work. Now what inspired you to become a doctor? Now I understand. None of your parents were doctors, correct?
Speaker 2:No, no, my mom went to school for business administration. She became has a master's degree in business. She was always a hospital administrator, so her her job always involved hospital administration and so she was always around doctors and nurses and a lot of people that would come to the to our house, so we would get invited to doctor's houses. Throughout my life my mom befriended a lot of doctors and she always said Armando does well in school, he likes math and science. I think he's going to become a doctor.
Speaker 2:At the time I could have been 10, 9, whatever. I'm like I don't know, mom, I'm just going through the motions. At this point in my life I just like watching soccer, playing soccer, and yeah, I do like learning. I do have a like I like to know how things work. Like if I have a question in my brain, I'm like how can I find out how? I don't know how the moon faces work or how, how photosynthesis happens or whatever, right. So I always had that, but I just as as the years progressed, I just sort of migrated to the sciences and the maths and one day I met, actually an oral maxillofacial surgeon who did surgery on my father, put a lot of implants on him and bone grafting and sinus lifts and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So my dad like kind of explained what the surgery was and I said, oh my God, that sounds like a major operation. Like what kind of surgeon does that? And he goes oh, you know what? This is interesting. This guy has an MD and a DDS and at the time I was trying to figure out dental school, medical school what do I do? I actually went and met this guy. His name is John Weiss. He practiced, he used to practice in Frederick Maryland. So I took my father to the post-op appointment with dr weiss and dr weiss was the coolest guy ever man he was.
Speaker 1:He was a guitar player, soccer coach, uh, you know, good, dad had kids I kind of feel all all oral maxillofacial surgeons are cool, are cool, I agree and I think because of that I said I want to be this guy one day, a cool, cool surgeon like this guy. How old?
Speaker 2:were you then? That's amazing. I was in college, so I must have been 20 years old, wow.
Speaker 1:Isn't that amazing. Like one experience in your life can change the entire trajectory. I mean one inspiration, like we want to emulate the ones that we look up to, and then that just paves the path not of our career but our entire life. And how cool is that? And I really am passionate about. Anytime young students come and residents come, I'm always excited for the opportunity to inspire them. And then, if not, that's great. At least they know they're not going to do that, they're going to have to do something else.
Speaker 1:But you got to know it's so hard to find out early in life. Like I asked my kids what they want to do, they don't know. Fair enough, they're 17 and 14. I don't expect a teenager to know exactly to figure out their lives. But once you get in college, once you get exposed to different things, I think that's where you have enough context to get inspired, just like you did. And at that point it's just. I guess your drive and your passion will continue Now. So you had it all planned. So you knew exactly you want to be an oral maxillofacial surgeon and you did that. So why did your career take a 180? How did you end up being to me the best body sculptor in the DMV area hands down. It's not even a competition amongst all plastic and cosmetic surgeons in the DMV, which means obviously you're talented. Obviously you're super passionate about it. Obviously, you did more training than you had to. You went to Mexico, I know you went to, like South America, colombia trained with the best, even after your fellowship training and you're still out there.
Speaker 2:I'm still eager to learn more.
Speaker 1:Just improving your craft, like all of us do. But what inspired you at that point in your career to take a 180 and go to below the neck?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the main things that attracted me to maxillofacial surgery was the diversity of procedures that maxillofacial surgeons perform. It is, yes, a head and neck sort of region, but it's so diverse the trauma, the reconstructive surgery, the oncology, the cosmetic stuff, the TMJ reconstruction, the orthodontic surgery, like all of those things. And you know, when I was looking at the specialty and when I was going through residency, I said you know what attracts me the most? The cancer reconstruction, the cancer resection, the, you know. And then it was always like the cosmetic stuff came up, the cosmetic and the orthodontic surgery, cosmetic orthodontic surgery. Oh, and also I forgot to mention the pediatric component to it, the cleft lip and palates and that kind of thing. Right, but I was always drawn to the cosmetic side.
Speaker 2:So, dr Tirbat Fatahi, who was my chairman, I did a ton of rhinoplasty with him, a ton of facelifts with him, eyelid surgeries with him, and I just kept migrating to that kind of stuff. And then one day I talked to Vitaly and I said, hey, boss, I don't know, man, I have this spark, I have this thing where, like, I want to do full body stuff, man, like I really love the aesthetics of stuff and I'm like, and the face is good, but sort of in my head it's not. It's not like good enough for me, like I want to do more body sculpting. I've always had a thing for the body and he's like hey, man, I have a great friend, angelo, you should go visit him, angelo Cosalina, in Oklahoma.
Speaker 2:I think you should go early on in your residency and spend some time with him and see if it's really what you want to do, right, like go see, rule it in or rule it out. So I did early on Like it was, I think my second or third year of my residency I went out there to visit him and I fell in love with everything he was doing and I said, fatahi, this is it man I need to. I need to just line everything up so I can be a strong candidate for that, for that fellowship I think it is the strongest fellowship in the nation after looking at all the other ones that's available and I think him and I would match really well to what I need to learn for what my vision. Is that what I want to do after I graduate fellowship?
Speaker 1:Very nice and then. So the rest is. History Was once you were there were things different than what you expected. How was it? Once you were there Because it's hard to I know you went and visited first and shadowed during the interview process. But how would you judge your fellowship year after the fact? What and how has it contributed to your career now and the path you've chosen? I?
Speaker 2:think it was exactly what I expected. Actually, it definitely actually exceeded my expectations, because I wanted to go to a fellowship that taught me that had high volume, and with high volume comes amazing cases that you're like, wow, we made a significant change in this person. And with high volume also comes complications. Right Like it doesn't matter how good of a surgeon you are, you are going to get complications. And if you have, if you're high volume, there's a percentage of them that they can get complicated, and I wanted to see that and be able to manage complications, because once you're on your own, you are on your own, and so I wanted to see as many of those things as possible, and I also.
Speaker 2:The other thing is that I also wanted it to be just cosmetic heavy. I didn't want to do anything else besides cosmetics. In Jacksonville we did a lot of reconstructive surgery. We did free fibula flaps, we did forearm flaps, we did pectoralis major flaps, we did a lot of body work to reconstruct the head and neck and to me that was an invaluable training, that was the best and that prepared me really well for my fellowship. So I didn't want any reconstructive stuff in my fellowship. I wanted a full-on cosmetic experience and high volume, and I got it. It was really good.
Speaker 1:I think you're dead on there. I mean, without a strong training in reconstructive surgery, you will never learn the anatomy, you will never learn how to manage those complications, because with reconstructive surgery, of course, the rate of complications is much higher. And when you can manage those, managing complications in cosmetic surgery is almost like a mini version of the complications in reconstructive surgery, and I think that's where the basis and all the foundation comes, and I think that's where people get confused between plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery, where plastic surgery is actually more reconstructive and cosmetic surgery is more about aesthetics. Some people call it aesthetic surgery so, but at the end of the day they all do the same. Now, today. Now how many years have you been now in practice since?
Speaker 2:2017. So I've been out for seven years.
Speaker 1:Seven years. So where do you see yourself in your career? Because you're already doing amazing work. And it's hard to know because I look at myself, you know, seven, eight, 10 years into my practice I had no idea. I didn't know anything. I know now, looking back, as to how tall the sky is, you know where the limits are. Now I understand there's basically no limits in what we can learn and I'm actually excited.
Speaker 1:I got to a point where I kind of was bored and where I thought I learned everything I could have learned. And now I'm just kind of going to work and until I decided to attend more meetings and then that's where I learned new stuff. That's when I saw people doing things differently and which not necessarily me doing it the way they are doing it. But I came up with my own ideas, just being inspired by some new ideas, and all of a sudden I realized, man, you know, this is like an endless opportunity where we can advance the field. We can even contribute to it. We don't have to, just like we did in training, just read out of books or just copy what our mentor did. We actually have the potential and capacity to become the frontier, to be at the frontier and to develop new techniques that others might have not thought of, and be the engineer of a new technique. And so where in your career, in your development, do you see yourself now and where do you see your own future?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's important to highlight what you're saying. Like, I always see myself as a combination, like the way I operate. It's a combination of all my mentors and I see it. I see Dr Fatahi train me, dr Fernandez and Jacksonville train me. I've been to Mexico with my colleagues in Mexico, my guys in Costa Rica, my guys in Colombia and I've picked up little techniques my colleagues in Mexico, my guys in Costa Rica, my guys in Colombia and I've picked up little techniques here and there from people. And then it becomes like the blend of all those techniques is my technique right, because no one else has the same exact training as I had.
Speaker 2:And also, you know, obviously Dr Cozalina taught me a lot of the basics of what I do today. Dr Cozalina taught me a lot of the basics of what I do today. So so yeah, I, I I'm at the point of my career where I I'm still eager to learn so many new things, new techniques. There are surgeons in Brazil I want to go shadow. There are surgeons in in Columbia, still that I want to go shadow and just collaborate. And a lot of times I go and shadow let's say I'm shadowing like surgical techniques or surgical things and I come back, actually, with a couple of surgical things, but I come back with a bunch of like systems that I can implement in my office. I've talked to you about systems and I love the systems you've implemented in your office, which I'm trying to see how I can implement them in my office as well.
Speaker 2:So I think it's just I'm at the point where I'm still building as a surgeon and as a business owner. The other thing I have to be aware is, you know family, you know staying, staying grounded, and make sure that you, that I'm present for my wife, that I'm present for my kids, because that's the other component of our life that we have to, we have to watch out for, yeah, I don't want to be the surgeon that's, uh, yeah, super successful for 30 years, and and not, uh, you know not, and my children say you know, you were never there, or my wife, like you know, would say you were never there. So that's another thing that we we have to work on, um, as we, as we grow. I think.
Speaker 1:I think, um, you touched on a very important topic, which many call work-life balance, that is. I think no one can give one another advice on that, because everybody, I feel, has to figure out themselves for themselves how to balance that, because we have different values. Different things are important. Everybody's efficiency in what they do is different. It's like you can spend one hour of quality time with your family versus 10 hours or a week of non-quality time. Compare whether they work from home or how many days they go to the office or how many hours they spend with their kids is that's where it gets lost a little bit. It's lacking context where we should be talking about quality time when we talk about time, and I think everybody has to figure that out for themselves.
Speaker 1:I myself have been almost like feeling guilty about not spending enough time with my family all these years just because everybody talks about work than at home.
Speaker 1:All my life, you know, when we were, from the time we were students, residents, and then starting our careers and now grinding it.
Speaker 1:You know you feel like you know you kind of feel guilty, but then how else are you going to be the best at what you do?
Speaker 1:Like you can't be good at what you do if you don't put in the work, but then, well then, where does the family come in? And I think that's the part that you can't guilt yourself. You just have to make sure that the time you spend with your family it's quality time, because you can't just ignore that. I have actually done just actually this tomorrow, which is Monday, is the first Monday of the Mondays I'm taking off, because I've decided to take off every other Monday to give myself and my family a three-day weekend, at least twice a month, and then hopefully putting it into transitioning into every week week, and so I'm really excited for that, and I think you're absolutely right you can't forget about life. I think that is what balances us, so we can actually perform better at our work and at our jobs, and so I think everybody has to figure out for themselves, and the last thing anyone should do is to guilt themselves.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And also I mean in my case, like I also thank my wife for everything that she does for the family when I'm at work, because even though she's not a stay-at-home mom, she actually works in my office as well. She's a nurse injector, a nurse practitioner, and I appreciate everything she does for the family. That way it frees me up to do what I need to do at work. Like you said, to continue to improve in our craft, we have to do repetition and repetition and repetition. Look at the greats like Kobe Bryant, michael Jordan. What do they do? They just repetition, repetition, repetition. And who is behind them was a great wife who's raising the kids and all of that. But also, you can't just be like, okay, you do that and I do this, no, we have to parent together, but we got to give them you know a lot I think there has to be an understanding.
Speaker 1:there has to be an understanding and chemistry from both sides. I mean, if someone doesn't appreciate what you do, uh, no matter what, they're not going to understand what you're doing and they're going to resent you for that and that's you know. I guess, since your wife is in the same business and she has probably a better understanding because she understands what's going into all of this, you know how much work it is, because the other side of what we do is what is the business aspect? Many forget that. You know, I didn't, for myself, I didn't realize the, the amount of time, effort and expertise required to actually run the business around.
Speaker 1:What we're passionate about, which is being in the operating room, because without a, without a being able to run a business or having a business, you can't, at least as a business owner or having your own service center, you're not going to be in the operating room, because where's the business going to come from? And that's the part that we weren't taught at all. I mean, mean, I was taught during my fellowship, that's uh, I learned it there, uh, because it was a private practice environment, and I assume you as well. But yeah, where was for you the challenge, uh? Where was for you the rude awakening like, oh shit, you know, that's, that's, uh, that's a lot of stuff that I don't know, and how am I going to do this? And so walk us through your journey how you got acquainted to the business aspect of running a practice and how you got into it and how you're managing it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well early on in my fellowship I understood that social media was going to be very important for me to get patients. I understood that very early on. So in my fellowship I started trying to get content for my social media.
Speaker 1:How did you learn that? Because did the birdie tell you? I mean, how did you know that?
Speaker 2:You just have to watch the world. You have to see where the world is going.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what my question is Can you bring us to watch the world? You have to see where the world is going, right, Like well. That's why my that's what my question is how, what did you, can you like, bring us to that moment?
Speaker 2:Sure, the moment was my aha moment was Dr Miami. Dr Miami is a plastic surgeon in Miami who started doing Snapchatting, snapchat's videos of his surgery, his tummyucks, his bbls and all of this, and everybody was talking about this guy. Didn't matter if you wanted plastic surgery, you didn't want a plastic surgery. The the thing they would say would be have you seen that guy that's showing like all this crazy stuff on snapchat? And I'm like, oh, let me see then. Oh wow, oh wow, he, he takes you into the operating room.
Speaker 1:That was very early on, right, that was what 2012?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was 2012, 2011,. I think so.
Speaker 1:I mean, back then he was a complete outlier by doing that. I mean, look at today this plastic surgeon, dr Roxy, whatever her name is who lost her license of dancing in the operating room. This happened now we're talking about 12 years ago which he was the only one. How did you not cringe or frown on that, on him doing that, and how did you adopt it? Because I feel I had adopted it that early. I just didn't because I wasn't even on social media back then, so I missed that, I missed out.
Speaker 2:So when I first saw that, when I first saw that, I said this guy is a genius. This guy's a genius. He is cracking the code. He's taking people into the operating room, whether you like it or not. If you like blood, you're like me Wow, this is amazing. If you don't like it, like oh my God, this is disgusting. But either one of those reactions gets you talking about it, and because it gets you talking about it, it gets you more and more popularity, and that's it.
Speaker 1:So I said you know, this makes you. You know this makes you a genius. Right by recognizing, by recognizing another genius. This makes you a genius because many didn't recognize that. There you go.
Speaker 2:Well, i't recognize that. There you go. Well, I just saw that. I said, yeah, that guy's a genius. I need to figure out how I can do something like this. And I was far from going into fellowship, far from going into private practice, but I said I need to figure out between now and when I go into practice. My business has to implement social media in it for me to be successful and have patients. So in my fellowship I started, I asked my fellowship director hey, is there a way where we can end the consent that we can have patients sign where I can post maybe something for an afters and things like that, maybe not identifiable features of their body and things like that? And then he let me implement it. And so I took some of that content into private practice and I was able to, from scratch, start building.
Speaker 2:And then, once you start operating on people, I think it's just when people trust you and you treat them well, they'll give you permission to post and things like that.
Speaker 2:And they understand that this is, they understand that you're an artist Like this is work, that you have a talent that other people don't have and, especially in this region, they also appreciate that there's someone who speaks Spanish, who speaks their language. A lot of times, a lot of my patients do speak Spanish, although I have all kinds of ethnicities in my practice, the people just want to. That's the way of saying thank you. You know, they used to bring us cookies. They used to bring us cookies, they used to bring us donuts, but now they're like you know what, dr ratana, go ahead and post that stuff. Man, you, you, you, you deserve, uh, to show how much of an artist you are, and that's why they consent. I, I think I only post 50 of the work that I actually do, because the other 50 of people are private and I respect that and I that's fine, and I'm thankful and grateful for all the people that allowed me to post their results, because I do want to show what we can do with different body types.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the one myth that I wish I had and that's why sometimes you just can't listen to naysayers, man I mean, the one myth that kept me from jumping onto that ingenious idea was that people telling me that first of all it's a terrible idea online or on social media, which led me not even to ask the question until I was like man. I realized the importance of social media and I realized and I saw others doing it I'm like man, like how are they doing it? Let me just ask my patients, until I realized, like literally I would say, 70% of my patients, if not 80, they actually agree, and then another five to 10%. At first they don't agree. After they see the results, they're so excited, they're so grateful, they're so proud, they're like you know what? I didn't want you to share them initially, but you know, because I wasn't sure how I'm going to look. But you can absolutely share them, I love it and thank you so much. And then in hindsight, they release their photos and I think it goes back to what they say they're grateful, they're appreciative, they want to give back and some of them even say well, that's how I found you. So if I can help someone else find you through my pictures. Absolutely, here you go, and I think people are more generous than we think and I wish I hadn't listened to naysayers early on. So that's what makes you a genius and I respect you for that.
Speaker 1:Now, when you now having said all of that, how much of your business do you attribute to social media? Now, when we talk about social media, we talk about organic, which means it's really for free. It's just your time of posting what people don't realize. People always. I see all my plastic surgery colleagues. They're like oh, instagram has shadow banned me and this, and that I'm like maybe because your content is not that interesting and maybe you should make different content because there's so many others that don't get shadow banned and so change your content, bring more value and, plus, why are you complaining? It's for free, so what are you complaining about? So my question now to you again, going back, how much of your business do you attribute to social media, to the organic which is free?
Speaker 2:So 100% of my patients come from social media.
Speaker 1:Here you have it. Guys and gals, Did you guys listen how much?
Speaker 2:100% of my patients come from social media.
Speaker 1:I think we can end the podcast here. Look, I'm going crazy. I think we can end the podcast here. Look, I'm going crazy. Like I'm like trying to convince people or talk to people about the importance of it, and everybody, like, when I go on talks they're like, hey, I'm struggling getting in business to growing. I'm like where's? I look at their social media, they just posted what, like they had pizza yesterday and like, happy Thanksgiving, that's their post. I'm like why would anybody like how does anybody actually know what you do or how good you are? I mean, that's showcasing.
Speaker 1:You know, I compare it to our before and afters back in the old days that we had on our website. So that's pretty much obsolete. I mean, I think unless you're 70 or 80 years old, you're not going on anybody's website. You're on social media. There's not enough time in a day now to. I mean, no one even has a laptop anymore. You know, I have my laptop here. That's from 2015. I haven't even upgraded it because I don't need a new laptop. I'm rarely on it. The only time I use this laptop is when I'm doing a podcast. Yeah, and so, um, so 100 percent. And, and that's amazing. Now, how many followers did you start with when?
Speaker 1:you open up your social media account, like the first day you signed up. So how many followers did you have? So this is what.
Speaker 2:I did so. I had Instagram when Instagram opened up when 2000.
Speaker 1:Well, same yeah.
Speaker 2:Is it 2010 or 2011,. 2012?
Speaker 1:Yeah, very early.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had it. I even I downloaded that app, thinking it was a photo editing app.
Speaker 1:Which it was. It was actually a photo posting app. That's what it was?
Speaker 2:it was actually a photo posting app, that's what it was, and I just thought it was cool the whole, all the filters that you could do with it I'm always pretty cool black and white and whatever right. I had that. So I opened that account then and I just, you know, fought, you know, just like facebook, followed friends, friends follow me back, family members, all of that. When I'm going into fellowship and I'm realizing that I need to brand myself, I switch my personal account that same one that I've always had and I switch it into a business account and so basically, the people that are following me are just my cousins, my family and my friends, that's it, and I just start posting content of what I'm doing. I start educating people Breast implants let's talk about breast implants.
Speaker 2:Just start posting content of what I'm doing. I start educating people about breast implants. Let's talk about breast implants. Silicone versus saline Did you guys know the difference?
Speaker 2:No, so just giving educational value to those people who are looking at it. And what I find is that those people they're just your friends, but they have different sets of friends and different sets of family members, right? So there's all this network of people that right, that you think is like oh, my friends are not going to come to me to get surgery. Or my mom is like you know, or maybe they will maybe, yes, maybe they won't that their friends and their family members will. So if you give them value and let's say you said you that example I just gave breast implants silicone versus saline and you explain it well, in a very, very basic way that everybody can understand.
Speaker 2:You're not talking to your doctor friends, you're talking to your mother or your sisters, right, or your cousins that don't know medicine, and you explain it in a good way. Now, next time they're at a brunch with their friends and that topic comes on, they're going to have something to say, something to contribute to the conversation because of you. And now they're going to say where'd you hear that? Oh, my cousin is actually a surgeon. Let me show you his page. Boom, boom, boom. Oh, now you just gained 10 followers at brunch, 10 followers that you have no idea, you would have never connected with unless you made the educational post. That's the power of social media. And then, exponentially, it grows.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, how many followers did you start off with day one?
Speaker 2:a thousand probably, just no the first day.
Speaker 1:You just open it up, you just signed in your account oh yeah, zero, zero followers.
Speaker 1:thank you so to all the listeners. We all started with zero, because there's not an event where I talk about the importance of it and then you know what the other person says. Well, it's easy for you to say you have hundreds of followers, hundreds, thousands of followers, okay, and like your point, like how many did we start with? It's like no one wants to put the reps in. You look at Mr Olympia and you're like, well, you know, it's easy for you to say you have all these muscles, like no one talks about how he got there. Yeah, you know, and it's because people, how many hours?
Speaker 2:people are comparing, like you're like. This is not your end result yeah, but this is not your day one, their day, they on day zero. They haven't even put in the work to say this is my day one of social media, but they're talking to Dr Hemra, who's day number 4,000 on social media.
Speaker 1:Almost 2,000 now.
Speaker 2:There you go. So you have all these days of work and content and stuff, and they're like, oh yeah, it's easy for you to say because you have so many. Yeah, but we started with nothing. We started with friends and family members just following us out of courtesy of knowing us, and then you grow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I talk about when I talk in front of the audience and try to inspire people. The first thing I talk about is you know, to be successful in anything you do, you need to bring in three things to the table Passion, consistency and hard work. Okay, without those three, I'm sorry. I mean, like you said, nothing grows on trees. One more Discipline, discipline, discipline. I actually talk about that as well. Discipline goes synonymous with hard work. I mean, in order to be a hard worker, you have to be disciplined Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And to all the young folks that are listening, as well as all the older folks that are listening and complaining that their business has been slowing down, all the older folks that are listening and complaining that their business has been slowing down, look at which one of these three points you're not contributing to and then you will have the answer.
Speaker 1:And I love the fact that you can bullshit others, but at the end of the day, you can't bullshit yourself when you put your head on a pillow at night. All those demons are going to come and you're going to have to face them, and so there's many now, I think, from the older generation in specific, poo-pooing social media and demonizing it. And look at Congress now is trying to ban TikTok, which they're probably going to do. It's because they don't understand it. They just don't understand it, like, they just don't understand it. And people that vote for that, you know they're the older people, you know they're the ones that actually go vote, because the younger people, they really don't care, you know, and it's unfortunate. I think more of the younger people need to be active and, you know, raise their voice and have a say, or else, you know, we're just going to go back in time again. I agree.
Speaker 2:I agree, you know there's older politicians. They don't even know how to use TikTok right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course that's what it is here. Chinese are, it's owned by Chinese and we're being infiltrated. Being infiltrated and it's like, well, why don't you change your infrastructure? Uh, so the chinese can't come and like lock out the pipelines or I'll shut down our electricity. You know, you know, if you look at the it infrastructure of the government, it's, it's, it's terrible. You know, I have people that are consultants for the government. The stuff that they tell me that's going on with the infrastructure is shocking. It's like we're talking they're behind 15 years. So, of course, you know all the enemies. They can go, and you know, someone can just shut off the electricity of a whole city. It's, it's like they laugh at us and now they want to ban tiktok, thinking like that will solve the problem and so. But so let's assume they ban tiktok. You know, let's next. Uh, tomorrow you wake up. No more tiktok. What are you going to do? Are you going to care? I'm not going to care.
Speaker 2:My most of my business is run through instagram what if they close instagram tomorrow?
Speaker 1:what are you?
Speaker 2:going to do Exactly. You know what I'm reading a book right now that talks about what are your next five moves when something very, very critical happens.
Speaker 1:Okay, instagram shuts down, tiktok shuts down. What are you going to do? You read that book. What are you going to do? You?
Speaker 2:know right now, I don't have those next five moves thought out. What are you going to do? You read that book. What are you going to do? You know, right now I don't have those next five moves thought out. I need to sit down and envision what I'm going to do. If that happens, I'll tell you what I think, but I'm going to do something. I'm not going to sit here and cry about it. I'm going to do something.
Speaker 1:Well, what do all these platforms have in common? What do they bring to the table in common? What do they? What do they bring to the table? Attention, right, people's attention. So if your attention has been on tiktok and instagram, they shut, shut down instagram and tiktok. Where's the attention gonna go? I don't know, youtube maybe, but somewhere it's gonna go somewhere else. Yeah, so if it goes somewhere else, we're gonna go somewhere else.
Speaker 1:It's like going into a, to a, to a club or a party. You know you go out at night. You know you go to your favorite club. You realize, oh shoot, they're closed. You're gonna go to the. Probably all the people that wanted to go to that club with you, they realize the the same thing. So they're going to go somewhere else. So you're just going to go where somewhere else is. So I'm not. So you know, I really don't care if they close tomorrow, because I know that the attention is going to go somewhere else and I'm just going to be there where the attention is at that time. So I think we don't have to push the panic button. We just have to go where the attention is, and these platforms are all attention platforms, that's all there are. You know A hundred percent, so that's my take. So are you doing anything else other than social media to promote your business?
Speaker 2:No, Like we don't. We, when I started, we used Like newsletters, blogs um mailers.
Speaker 1:What?
Speaker 2:not. You know, we are not like what I'm doing these days. I'm getting some tv attention like, uh, there's some spanish, uh, some spanish uh stations like telemundo univision, both of those have. Telemundo already did a couple of things with us. They did a four-episode series on cosmetic surgery, post-op massages, things like that my biography. They also highlighted on there, I saw that.
Speaker 2:So that was pretty cool and that's rolling out right now as we speak. Then I had Univision. A representative of Univision also saw that on Telemundo. They thought it was interesting. They want to take a different sort of approach and I like their approach because that's the approach I've always wanted to do, actually, and it's an educational approach.
Speaker 2:The reason why we want to do an educational approach about cosmetic surgery in this area in the DMV is because and maybe take it national, because Univision is national it's about educating people on these procedures because there's a lot of corporate or there's a lot of corporate people getting into the aesthetic surgery aesthetic world. They know spas are profitable, lipo 360s and BBLs are profitable. So all these hedge fund people and all this, like all these people want to get involved but they don't care about the ethics of the whole business and so a lot of people are getting botched and they're getting bad results. Some people are dying because it's not being done properly, and who suffers a lot of time are the low socioeconomic status individuals who are. They don't educate themselves enough on who's performing this procedure.
Speaker 2:Are these clinics certified or not certified, like right, and a lot of times it is the Latino community or the African-American community, or just like the low socioeconomic status people who don't educate themselves. So educating people on hey, these are the things to watch out for. These are the things to look out for. Please do your research. Don't just give that one body that you have. It's not like you have three bodies that you can change into. You have one. Make sure you go to the right person.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great idea because, like you said, most often the low-hanging fruit they get, you know, become victims of botched, and it's the same in facial cosmetic surgery. Most of them are the ones that are trying to avoid what should be done and then get basically suckered into what sounds too good to be true, until they realize that that was a bad idea. And now they have to undo the damage to get to what they should have had in the first place. And I think education is always key. I think the best way for us to contribute and to make sure things are done safely and also be proud of ourselves is not just to educate ourselves, but also to educate our community.
Speaker 1:Even if someone doesn't come to you for surgery, at least they watch your videos and they can learn about it. And if they have it somewhere else done, at least they're educated enough to ask the proper question, because someone might be in a different geographic or demographic area, they might not want to come and travel even though a lot of patients come and travel to you but at least they get the benefit of your education. I think that's a great thing. I think all doctors should educate, primarily because you know first, do no harm right. And so how has your practice evolved? From a local to now a national and international practice practice? Walk us through that evolution of your practice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, yeah, the first couple years, you know, my practice was very just a local practice. You know, dmv only maryland dc, virginia kind of clientele, but with the power of social media and the word of mouth that that that creates, uh, creates, uh, yeah, I've had patients from Japan, germany, uh, england, uh, several, several areas of the world, and then also from um, from, from Florida, from Texas, from California, from, uh Washington state, everywhere, uh, new York city. So it is, it is beautiful to see that. But I also know what that means too, because you know I, for instance, I have rules that I that I stick to and I'm strictly about those rules. And they say, dr Ratana, can I come there for two, three days? You do my surgery and I leave.
Speaker 2:I said no, absolutely not. You need to stay here for two weeks. That's my rule 14, give me 14 days, I operate on you, let me follow you for 14 days and let me send you back to Japan, knowing that you, that we're mostly good, we're 90% there, right, and even then, you know like things can arise later on, things that I can't control. But at least give me 14 days of control so that I can sleep at night, so that you can sleep at night so that you can say that you made the right decision, that you chose the right person that cares about your results. Like I care about every single person I touch, I care about the results, probably more than they care about the results. I tell people listen, it's your body, it's my reputation. We both have something at stake here, so please let's team up and get an amazing result together.
Speaker 1:And how do you, how do you set up these consultations? So do you? I assume you're doing a virtual consultation first. How do they kind of find you and how do you set the process, uh, start the process kind of, for those who are interested in seeing you kind of walk us through that process yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's all done to through. You know, the first contact, the first point of contact is social media, right? So they send a DM and say hey, Dr Ratana, I like your work. How do I set up a consult? So there's a link in my bio with a bunch it's like a link tree with a lot of links in it and one of them is just request a virtual consultation or request a consultation in the office. So if you're from the area, you click on the area that says I want to request an in-person consult. If you live outside this area, then you click on I want a virtual consult and we do it through Zoom, mainly. That's the app that we use. So we set you up there.
Speaker 2:So basically, what they do is they send a consultation request, because I also want to filter out people who are not surgical candidates. Right, the main thing is safety, right, and the main thing is that someone needs to be healthy enough to have surgery. So I have BMI requirements, I have age requirements, I have medical history requirements or things that can get them out of out of being a surgical candidate. So they fill out the whole questionnaire name, phone number, everything right and medical history and there's something there that's a red flag. That, for instance, a BMI.
Speaker 2:If their BMI, their body mass index, is over 32 for me, then they are not a surgical candidate in my office. They might be a surgical candidate with another surgeon with a different setup. In my outpatient surgery center it's 32 or below to be able to have surgery with me. So, yeah, after they go through that process and send photos, then we can send a link to them and say, yeah, you do qualify to have surgery with Dr Retana. This is the fee and this is how you book an available date. They can all do it online. They don't have to call anyone and talk to a human being. They can just do it all online.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. I think streamlining things and setting up system is key for efficiency. As it is, it's already hard for a patient to travel across country, continent or state wherever. I think that's a great idea to streamline this, and I think so in your mind, where is the future of cosmetic surgery going? You know, seeing these like what you just said, seven, eight years ago was unthinkable. I mean, we had maybe one or two patients a year. Now it's like almost half of our patients come from out of town, out of country.
Speaker 1:Now, given this trend and the possibility because of advancement of technology, where do you see the future of cosmetic surgery? Do you see yourself opening up or practicing in multiple locations, or staying in one central location and taking advantage of what you just said? Because people are traveling to us and many patients ask me online hey, are you coming to Dubai, are you coming to Barcelona, or it's like no, I'm just one person. I can't like split myself in five. You know many patients. If they really want our services, they come and travel to us. So where do you see the future?
Speaker 2:I mean, I see many things in the future, but in terms of me, what I want to do is I want to maximize the potential of my office, my mothership, continue to maximize this potential and yet have people come to come to us. Because you know, one thing is to do surgery here with my staff. I call it, like you know, when you think about like a sports teams, like you know you have your home arena or your home stadium. So playing a game in that home stadium is like amazing. You have your home crowd, you have everything you need there. I like that analogy. And then if you take it, then if you go play away in Dubai, you go play away in Colombia, like you don't have your staff, you don't have your favorite lead assistant that's there that knows exactly everything you need at what time you need it. You don't have your favorite anesthetist. You know all of that, that the materials could be different, everything is different. So performance surgeries out there can they be done, sure, but you probably do a better job doing it at home. So that's what patients should realize like, hey, I do want to go see dr hammer, I do want to go see dr retana at their home stadium I'm because they're gonna they're gonna slam dunk my case every single time, like I've seen it for many, many times in their social media. So I think I see that.
Speaker 2:I do see that the market is endless. The market now with social media, it is endless. People are coming from everywhere in the world and I think that's beautiful. But as surgeons, we all got to be careful with those out-of-town patients. Those are the ones that worry me the most, because I know I only have 14 days to watch them and then obviously, I follow up with them through virtual channels to make sure they're doing well and usually, you know we have a good network of surgeons throughout the country that we can be like. You know you're close to Oklahoma, I have some friends there. You're in Boston, I have other friends there that can see you. They'll do a favor for me and they can see you. So because we go to conference, because we continue to network with people, I believe that we can also help each other out in that regard if we ever need to. So collaborations are key.
Speaker 2:So, Daria, I think we're having an audio issue here. I can't hear you.
Speaker 1:Can you hear me?
Speaker 2:Hold on.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm back. So you know everybody knows by now is familiar with what's called body dysmorphia or body dysmorphic disorder. How do you, and statistically about, based on what study you cite anywhere between 10 to 15% of anybody walking through outdoors has some degree of body dysmorphic disorder. How do you screen for that? And then how do you handle that with the patient? How do you bring it up? How do you I assume you decide not to perform surgery on some of these patients and how do you first of all screen these patients? And how do you first of all screen for that?
Speaker 2:and how do you diagnose that? Um, I've had a few encounters with that kind of stuff and I mean, in my training I actually saw it. It was, it was pretty obvious. Um, I think my approach is always honesty, um, in terms of dealing with it. But diagnosing it it's just just. I mean just listening to the patient, looking at their surgical history.
Speaker 2:You know when, when, like you have a very beautiful patient in front of you with an amazing body, who's talking about every time I look in the mirror I see a monster, or I see like all this stuff is like out of proportion. Or you know, you're just like when you're like, doing this, I need Botox, by the way, but when I'm frowning and I'm like, wait, I don't see what she's seeing, I don't see what she's seeing. And then you have that feeling and you're like you know what I need to talk to this patient about. I'm like, first of all, you look amazing. Give yourself some credit. And, number two, look at all the surgeries you've had. It looks like you've been having I'm just thinking about this one patient I had recently. I'm like you've had a surgery like almost every year for the past like six years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is it that you're trying to achieve. How can I help you achieve that? If I see your vision, if your vision is, I can envision your vision, then we are good. We're good to go. Let's go to the OR. But if I cannot visualize what you're trying to achieve, I'm the wrong guy for you. And I don't know if you can find somebody that could get you there, because you already look amazing right. Or when somebody's had so many surgeries that they're already, their body's just not, you know, it's just botched or it's just disproportionate or something. Again, I approach it always with honesty. I say listen, this is what I see and I don't see how I can help you. That's how I end the conversation. I'm not the right person for you.
Speaker 1:Do you ever get those patients that we see on the show botched come to you? Those extreme cases have you ever encountered? What's the craziest case or patient you've ever encountered?
Speaker 2:Yeah, like one or two that I've seen that I just you know I what is? I think what I told her was like I said something like you know, I do a lot of revision surgery in terms of body and BBLs and things like that, and there and the revision surgeries that I do take on is because, again, I think I can help those people get a better result. But when I see that the damage has been done beyond repair in my hands, then I just don't engage, I can't, I'm not going to take your money to do nothing or to not improve it to the level that you want it. So that's how I approach those cases too.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's a couple aside. It's a very hard conversation to have, you know, I have you know. For me it's always difficult. It's a very because it's a sensitive issue. You don't want to minimize their concern, but at the same time someone has to tell them, like, look, this direction you're going is not a good one, and just because I'm not going to do your surgery or I don't think you need a surgery or whatever treatment, that doesn't mean you should go and seek it from someone else. That's what I'm always worried about that they don't understand why I rejected it and that they go and get botched somewhere else. So I always make them aware of that and get botched somewhere else. So I always make them aware of that. So we're going to have some to round and finish things up. I love that account. I can't believe we've been talking for an hour already. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Some rapid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know some rapid fire questions. Okay, let's see what we get through. So what's one common myth about cosmetic surgery? You like to debunk One myth that's floating out there?
Speaker 2:that people do BBLs to make their booty look bigger. That's a myth. People do BBLs because they want to change the shape and maybe the volume of their booty, but not necessarily. People associate BBLs with volume, not necessarily.
Speaker 1:That's very, very informative and I think that has to do also with some trends that came and went. Quickly name the procedure you find most rewarding to perform.
Speaker 2:Lipo 360 BBL with abdominal etching. I love that procedure. It's very rewarding to me your results.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm getting goosebumps just talking about it. So, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, just uh, um, just check out his social media instagram. Um, if you uh wanna, um, I'll post the handles of the social media accounts at the caption for all of you, um, and so just go check out his. I wouldn't call it work, I would call it art. So you will know what, why. He just said that. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received from anyone?
Speaker 2:Follow your dreams and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, don't, you can't like. Just dream big, dream big and go get. Go get your dreams. I mean and and it's not going to be easy, the journey is going to be you're going to fall and scrape your knees and scrape your face and scrape your elbows and everything. But that journey is beautiful because once you get to the, to where you want to be, it's, it's. It's just that much, it just means that much to you everybody hear that.
Speaker 1:Everybody hear that. That's it, that's all there is to it early bird or night owl, which one describes you best?
Speaker 2:I, yeah, probably night night owl. I'm not an early bird, but I, with our profession, we have to get up early, which I don't mind, but uh, I do like to stay up at night, uh, yeah all right.
Speaker 1:One surgical trend you see rising in 2024 natural results, natural results, 100.
Speaker 2:Most more and more people are just looking for natural. You know, I feel like 100, 90s, I feel like back in the night. When I think of 90s I'm like, okay, pamela anderson, fake breasts, very large breasts, everybody went with that trend. Then you go into the 2000s with the kim kardashians and their booties being oversized and everybody went that way and now everybody's getting actually bbl reductions. They want the bbls to be reduced because everybody wants to look natural. So, and I love it, the natural results are the best in the face and the body everywhere and I'm 100 with you on that one I've seen actually there's.
Speaker 1:That's why in why in my field, in facial cosmetic surgery, there's been a significant incline and increase in deep plane facelifts because it yields the most natural results and most people are hunkering down, saving their money, trying to avoid gimmicks and save their money to eventually get that facelift and save their money to eventually get that facelift and that trend. I think last year there was almost a 20% rise in facelift surgery because people want more natural results. What's your go-to relaxation activity after a long day in the OR doing your 360, bbl etching and all this stuff which takes a lot of physical work and hard work? What's your go-to relaxation activity after a long day of work?
Speaker 2:my go-to is the gym. I love going to the gym and getting at least an hour, hour and a half, of exercising after.
Speaker 1:Even though you're tired, you're exhausted.
Speaker 2:Your back is hurting, your arm is hurting the thing is yes, yes, like you know, yeah, like I do a lot of you know it is physically intensive to do lipos and fat transfers and tummy tucks and all of that. And it's also mentally draining, right, because you're performing at a high level where you have to pay attention to every single little detail. So I'm actually more drained mentally than I am physically when I perform surgery and I feel like going to the gym allows me to basically not think and just like it's like it's mental health. Basically, I think I'm treating my mental health at the gym more than I am my physical health, uh, or maybe both at this, like at the same time, at the same level. I just this is one of my happy places.
Speaker 2:The or is my happy place. The gym is my other happy place, and then one hobby that I have that also sort of sets me free it's golfing. I like golfing. I've been, I picked it up in my residency, nice, uh, and now I'm picking it up again. It's a very stimulating game, it relaxes me, it allows me to be in my other happy place, which is outside, in the sun, with, with, with fresh air, with, and sunscreen, all of that. Man, absolutely yes. My wife, my wife would lather uh sunscreen on my face all the time. I'm actually, I'm actually not that good about that.
Speaker 1:I need to be better about yeah, once you see like your skin getting thinner and, uh, these age spots coming up, you're like, oh shit, you know I should. I should do that because when you're young and you don't see the damage, you feel like, yeah, it's not gonna happen to be, I'm invincible when you get older.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you see the wrinkles creeping up, you see the skin and the tissues starting to thin. You're like, wait a second, you know? So I think, uh, sunscreen is the most underrated anti-aging uh thing because of what we just talked about. So maybe something for you to look after. Um, one innovation you hope to see in the field of cosmetic surgery in the next decade, because you're you're going to be practicing for a long time yeah, more and more guided procedures, guided surgery.
Speaker 2:What do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:Like, I like the movement that's that the bbl has started with um, with using the use of ultrasound technology.
Speaker 2:Because of all the adverse events that happen in Florida with fat transfer, you know the surgeons down there, at least in Florida, are required to use an ultrasound machine to know exactly where their cannula is at all times so they don't get to the deep veins in the gluteal area which can potentially end up with fat embolisms. I do like that, I do anything that's guided. It just gives more sense of security, more sense of safety to the patient and to the surgeon. Especially, yeah, especially good for training to, like you know, you train surgeons. We've been trained and it is nice to be able to see what your mentor is explaining to you, uh, with an image, and so I think, more and more and more guided technology and ultrasound technology in the field of aesthetics, with injectables, like my wife does and me, with fat transfers and same for the face and everything. I think, uh, I like to see that safety increase so that patients are more confident that we're being safer 100%.
Speaker 1:And I in my practice use ultrasound-guided guidance for facial not for surgery, but for a lot of patients that come with filler injections, or if I want to diagnose the facial pockets. If I do fat grafting, you know those are invaluable. They make me so much better, more precise. I think use of technology is very underrated in the surgical arena and I think we're learning more about it, which is very exciting. If you weren't a surgeon, armando, what? What would you be doing? Um, that, what was the one thing. Did you have a plan b ever? Or let's assume, even if you didn't have a plan b, if someone told you, hey, you can't be a surgeon anymore, what would you be doing for the rest of your life?
Speaker 2:you know, that's a great question. You know, my kids, my kids asked me that question a couple of times.
Speaker 2:And the first thing that comes to mind is the one thing that I wanted to be growing up my entire life. I always my math teacher. I had a really good math teacher and I said like again, I just respected him a lot and I thought the the guy was super smart and he was able to explain things really, really well and math came very natural to me. I said, maybe one day I'll be a math teacher. That sounds like a great idea. And then I scratched it after a while. But maybe I'll be. I would be a teacher. I like teaching, so I would be some kind of teacher. I would you're already teaching on social media.
Speaker 2:You're teaching your patients, we're teaching our patients in our consultations.
Speaker 1:That's maybe why they can relate well to you, because you're teaching and you come from a point of wanting to help someone understand something. You know what, what sometimes we forget. We're teaching every day, that's what you're doing. We teach every day and that's what that's the are.
Speaker 2:We teach every day and that's what that's amazing I love about our profession. Like when I was on vacation last week, right, I told you I kind of missed the whole interaction with patients, teaching them things, talking them through things. Uh, so I would. I would be some kind of teacher I don't know what kind of you can still do it through here and that's right and I love it.
Speaker 2:And you know, the other thing I enjoy is like helping my kids with their homework. I love it. Well, it takes me back to middle school, high school days, where I am able to teach things like that that I still somehow have in my brain.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool well, maybe one day you're going to have your own fellowship training program and you can teach other surgeons. You know, for me, picking that up is probably the best decision I made for my career, which brought this breeze of fresh air into not just my practice, just my life, and I think you'd make a great, great teacher and I think anyone could greatly benefit from your expertise.
Speaker 2:So it's something you might consider in the future yeah and the and the, the few times I've gotten. You know I also consider getting on the podium and teaching your techniques or your experience with other people. Uh, or reviewing the literature is also a great moment of teaching. But when you're teaching and I'm like you know what, out of that process of teaching this course or teaching this lecture, I learned a ton, Like I learned more than I taught, kind of thing you know. So that aspect of teaching I enjoy as well, just being able to learn more.
Speaker 1:Love it, so I'll see you on the podium more often now, correct? Yes, sir, I'll see you on the podium more often now, correct, yes, sir? Good Last question. Is there a question that I should have?
Speaker 2:asked you and I didn't ask you.
Speaker 2:I like to ask that in closing. I don't know, I think we covered a lot of stuff. You asked me the one that I like to answer. That answer that you know, like, what would you? What would you tell? What would you tell people? Um, the other thing is something we talked about earlier. Um, I also I feel the need to pay it forward, right, someone you know. When I asked the surgeon, hey, can I come shadow you? I want to see what you do on a daily basis? And he said, yeah, of course, come on by. And he changed my life.
Speaker 2:After me shadowing him for a couple of weeks, I made the decision that I'm going to pursue that career. I'm going to become a surgeon and I always tell people, no matter where you are in your training high school, college, beyond college, professional school but if what we do sparks an interest for you and you want to come shadow us in the office, dm me, send me an email. We have ways of getting people in, especially in the summertime. The number of interns, or the number of people that are interning with us this summer, has grown exponentially, which I love. Hopefully, we spark a couple of people to become surgeons or to become nurses or CRNAs. We've had a couple that came to see our CRNAs who are now in CRNA school. Wow, and so and they you know the gratification is they start DM. Dr Rattan, I got into my CRNA school at Georgetown. Thank you for allowing me to shallow your CRNAs and all of that. So to me, knowing that that I'm paying it forward and where I came from, I just enjoy that kind of stuff for sure, love it.
Speaker 1:Love it. Armando, thank you as a friend and colleague. I want to thank you for coming on on the show and you are to me. You're the rising star in the field and keep being inspired and keep inspiring, and I can't wait to see great things and be on the podium together and teach together and learn from each other, and I'm so grateful to have you here in the DMV area, which is a very lonely area to be in in our profession. It's because we're certainly not in Beverly Hills or Miami and where those hubs are. So it's good to have someone like-minded and as talented as yourself, and I think I'm really grateful also for our friendship growing not just the collegial relationship but also our friendship, and I'm really excited to witness your journey. And, dude, thanks for coming on and I love your work. And for anyone that wants to get in touch with you, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
Speaker 2:My social media. My Instagram lovebodydc is my handle DM me. I still run my social media. I'm the only one responding to DMs on there, so if you DM me, you'll definitely get a message back. I want to tell you guys that the way me and this amazing surgeon connected was through social media. It was just, yeah, liking our posts, liking each other's posts.
Speaker 2:I'm like, wow, this guy does some amazing facial procedures, true, and that's the thing. Like I, I refer all my facelifts and rhinoplasty to him because, thank you, because it's the same sort of philosophy natural results look good today and they're gonna look good ages from now. So we yeah, we became friends on social media. Look, we are doing a podcast. We've got conferences together. We're probably gonna we still need to do dinner one of these days with the wife. Yes, I mean all that stuff.
Speaker 1:We'll do that. Well, we're still young, I like. I like to believe and I know you. I got 10 years on you, but I feel like I'm 40. So we're still young. So the night is young, the day is young. So I'm looking forward to it. Thank you, my friend, thanks for coming on and thanks for everybody tuning in. And if you're interested to get in touch with Dr Ratana at lovethatbodybc on Instagram and all the links to his other handles will be posted down below. Thanks everybody, until next time. Bye, thank you.