Julie Thorne, DNP, FNP-BC - Aesthetic Nurse Injector in Canton & Milton, Georgia

Eva Sheie (00:03):
Whether you're trying injectables for the first time or making a change to a new provider, the more you can learn about who your injector is before you're in the chair, the better that appointment will be. You are listening to Meet the Injector. Welcome back to Meet the Injector. My guest today is Julie Thorne. She's a nurse injector. And what town are you in? Julie, tell me where you are.

Julie Thorne (00:26):
We are in Canton and Milton, Georgia. They're very close proximity to one another.

Eva Sheie (00:31):
And are those like Atlanta area?

Julie Thorne (00:33):
Yes, about an hour north of Atlanta, outside the suburbs of Atlanta.

Eva Sheie (00:38):
How did you land there?

Julie Thorne (00:40):
So we actually moved from Orlando. We started our journey. I grew up in South Florida. We moved to Orlando and we followed my husband's parents here and just fell in love with North Georgia. We're right at the cusp of the mountains. There's still much to do here. We just fell in love with it. It's been a great place to raise our family.

Eva Sheie (00:57):
And did you get into aesthetics before you moved or when you were still in Florida or after?

Julie Thorne (01:03):
Nope, after. So I actually got my start in aesthetics through my path of regenerative medicine. I worked in the regenerative space for about eight years and it just transformed into aesthetics and I have been doing it ever since and I absolutely love it.

Eva Sheie (01:19):
That's actually a pretty rare prep path to follow because regenerative medicine is so new.

Julie Thorne (01:27):
Yes.

Eva Sheie (01:28):
Is there anything that you've brought with you from that experience into what you're doing now?

Julie Thorne (01:33):
I think a lot of the regenerative is now coming into aesthetics. I did a lot of orthopedic work in the regenerative space and now it's transformed into aesthetics, which has been awesome because I have so much knowledge in the collagen and restoration and natural ways to do things that I think it has helped me tremendously kind of guide my patients as aesthetics takes the turn into that regenerative space. People want to look natural, they want to stimulate their body's own collagen, and it's been amazing to see what has come even into the aesthetic space even since I've been doing it in the last five to six years in aesthetics. It's been awesome.

Eva Sheie (02:12):
What's one example that is maybe relatable that we could hang on to there?

Julie Thorne (02:17):
So think about how I actually very first got introduced to doing anything in the face was the PRT facials with microneedling. That was my first kind of dipping my toe into aesthetics probably like eight to nine years ago. And that was kind of new even then. And don't ask me who decided we should draw blood, spin it down and put it on our face and it gives these amazing results. But who knew? Here we are doing it and loving it. So even since I've started PRP, it's not extinct yet, but it's kind of going to the wayside and it's being replaced with products like platelet derived growth factor that we're able to concentrate, get a pure potent sample that's sterile, we know exactly what we're getting in it. So that's been really helpful and probably one of my most exciting products that I've used in the last few years that has come to the market and just had amazing results.

Eva Sheie (03:10):
What other kinds of things do you do every day?

Julie Thorne (03:12):
So we do injectables, so Botox, hyaluronic acid fillers, a lot of lasers. Now's not so much laser season, but in the fall, winter and early spring months here in Georgia, it's pretty hot. So laser season tends to be the end and beginning of the year, a lot of microneedling. And it's very fascinating how all of these things kind of work together. People are like, what do you like to do the best? And I'm like, I like to do all of them because you kind of need to do all of them to give a full complimentary assessment and a full game plan for a patient to do to make their skin healthy and natural looking.

Eva Sheie (03:51):
One thing that I think historically has been hard to find is someone who can actually synthesize all those things and then look at your face and say, here's what I think we should do. And it's not just one thing.

Julie Thorne (04:04):
So one of the things we really pride ourselves on doing here is calendarizing out your treatment plan. It's easy to be like, oh my gosh, you need this and this and this. And a lot of patients just get overwhelmed. They're like, I just want to try Botox and see if I like it. But if you really can think about doing Botox for maybe wrinkle reduction, maybe you need fillers for facial balancing, maybe you still have to take care of your skin, either one of those or skincare. So you still need something that's going to stimulate collagen. And my rule of thumb is do something healthy for your skin once a quarter. That way it's not so overwhelming. Something, a peel, microneedling, laser, something that's going to help your skin quality and integrity in addition to a great home regimen.

Eva Sheie (04:52):
Your calendar planning is actually pretty rare and I

Julie Thorne (04:57):
Oh, really?

Eva Sheie (04:58):
Appreciate. Oh yeah.

Julie Thorne (04:59):
Love it.

Eva Sheie (05:01):
Yeah. And I imagine that sets you and your team apart a little bit because not everybody thinks like that. You guys think it's normal, it's really special.

Julie Thorne (05:12):
Yeah. Oh, well, I'm glad to hear that. We've spent a lot of time, we joke that we're on version 200 of our little roadmap we call it. So when a patient comes in, they get a full facial consultation and we do this thing called a roadmap so they can expect to come in and fill out a cosmetic interest questionnaire, which just gives us a highlight of what is most important to them. I can look at a face and think like, oh, they need this and maybe they're like, I look in the mirror and never thought that that was a problem. So I really try to pride myself on focusing on what the patient's goals are first. I'm always happy to lend recommendations if I see something and they're interested in hearing that. But I also respect the fact that people want to come in and pay for something that they see as a problem that bothers them. And it may not be something that would bother me, but if it bothers them, we should absolutely start there.

Eva Sheie (06:01):
I call this the wishlist.

Julie Thorne (06:02):
Yes, exactly.

Eva Sheie (06:03):
Because everybody has one and you have no idea what order somebody's wishlist is in.

Julie Thorne (06:09):
And yours and mine might be completely different, even looking at the same person's face.

Eva Sheie (06:15):
Yeah, well said. Maybe this might be a question you don't like or don't want to answer. And if that's the case, then we will skip it. But often I think what sets people apart along with things like planning and synthesizing treatments is knowing what to do when something doesn't go the way it's planned.

Julie Thorne (06:41):
Oh my gosh, absolutely. So recently, I can share a little tidbit of an experience we had where we actually help manage complications for other injectors. They'll call us, and we have a lot of technology in the office like ultrasound capabilities. The most common really adverse event that might happen, it's very, very rare, but things can go wrong and things can happen. And it's not scary if you're in the hands of somebody who knows what to do. Most everything is pretty fixable. It's just knowing what to do and having the right equipment and resources and a game plan in place when things do go wrong. So we do serve as a complication center because we do have ultrasounds in both of our locations. All of our providers are trained in it. And that's one of the things is knowing how to manage a complication. I'm a very much against the Botox parties and the people's backyards. I know people love those and the hair salons and things like that, and I'm certainly not knocking those business models, but just make sure you have somewhere to go to follow up that has the resources, that has the technology to handle a complication. If it arises, it's more important than basically anything that will take precedence over convenience or, oh, it's fun, my friend's throwing it super. You guys come throw a party at the office where I have everything here in the environment that I can handle anything that goes wrong.

Eva Sheie (08:05):
The place you work is pretty unique. And it started actually in a barn. Do you want to tell that story briefly?

Julie Thorne (08:12):
Yes. So Dr. Amy and I, we had been longtime friends. Our boys grew up together, so we both were injectors and had knowledge in this space, and we kind of started on accident. We didn't ever really want to run a business. Some days we still don't want to run a business, but we basically were like, Hey, wouldn't it be great if we could start our own account? It'd be awesome if we could just buy our own stuff and inject each other. And so they were like, perfect, send us pictures of your storefront to set up your account. We were like, oh, we don't really have a storefront, but Amazon and Hobby Lobby can create you anything in about 24 hours. So we kind of stole a room off of her husband's racketball barn, which was affectionately known as the blue ball barn by her three teenage boys because of course, because racquetballs are blue, that's the reason why, nevermind three teenage boys. And so we actually were like, oh, great. We'll call it the Botox barn. Well, I mean you can't call something a trademark name. I mean, we know that we were kind of joking. So in five minutes we decided we were going to call it the Beauty Barn, and this crazy business was born.

(09:20):
We literally started in this racquetball room, a very small little space, which was pretty cool. And we were able to grow that business only by word of mouth. We literally hired a marketer about a year and a half ago, and this started in December of 2020. So I mean really grew by word of mouth. And then we kind of had a crazy story of growing into, we built out the garage, then we built a bigger barn, then we had some zoning issues and had to move. And then we opened a second location in Milton, and now we're back in the original barn that we built. So it's been a very fun and eclectic ride of our Beauty barn experience, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We've learned so many things and met so many amazing people along the way. It's been actually an awesome gift.

Eva Sheie (10:12):
Have you ever been able to pinpoint what drove all that growth and that, I mean, really, I hear enthusiasm.

Julie Thorne (10:22):
Oh yes, we're very enthusiastic here. All of us are like this.

Eva Sheie (10:27):
That's great. What caused it? What drove that forward for you?

Julie Thorne (10:33):
So I've spent a lot of time, I've worked in the insurance side of things. I've had a very eclectic nursing, nurse practitioner, doctorate of nursing practice kind of background and growth. So I think one of the things when we were like, if we're going to do this, we're going to do it how we want. We don't want it to be about money. We don't want it to be, we have always made it about the patient and just being kind to people and always, always our biggest mantra is just doing right by people. And when we first started, we were like, you know what? This is going to be our way to give back to our community in the way of growth, in the way of donations, in the way of supporting different sports and clubs and groups. And I think inherently just being nice and taking out, her and I have both have worked for places where everything is about bottom line, bottom line.

(11:23):
You can't do this if it doesn't promote the bottom line. And we were like, if we're doing a business, we are not abiding by that. And it's worked out, obviously now we have a couple barns and a lot of staff, so of course you have to pay the bills and you have to give people paychecks, but it's just done right by us by just being authentic, genuine people and really sticking to it, always doing right by the patient, being kind to them and treating everyone like friends and family. I mean, I know other businesses say that, but we truly, truly adopt that as our mantra here.

Eva Sheie (11:58):
I don't know how you could take yourselves too seriously when you work in a barn.

Julie Thorne (12:02):
Seriously. Oh, I have to tell you though, we did have a lady call once and ask if she was going to be near the horses in the barn because she was allergic. True story. And it was a serious question.

Eva Sheie (12:16):
That is literal.

Julie Thorne (12:18):
Oh, it was literal. She's like, I was just wondering how close proximity the horses are because I'm very allergic to horses. So if they're going to be nearby, I'm not going to be able to come to my appointment.

Eva Sheie (12:30):
Did you take that call?

Julie Thorne (12:31):
No. The girls literally put her on hold and they're like, Julia, I think she's serious. And I'm like, please, I have to talk to this woman, she was genuinely concerned that she was going to have allergic reaction because we were in a barn. It was hilarious. And it's one of my favorite phone call stories ever.

Eva Sheie (12:51):
If she had had an allergic reaction, you'd have been able to handle that too.

Julie Thorne (12:55):
True. That's true.

Eva Sheie (12:56):
Yeah. Wow. Okay. So you mentioned earlier that you're a trainer, is that right?

Julie Thorne (13:06):
Yes, for Allergan Medical Institute, which is the makers of Botox and cosmetic and Juvederm collection of fillers. So this has been a recent thing, and let me tell you, it is a very long process to become one. I've spent over a year in countless interviews shot they come and shadow You meet with no short of a dozen people to get to this role. They do a phenomenal job in handpicking the trainers. So I do applaud them on that. But good Lord, it has been a process and, a fun one, but it's interesting to see kind of behind the scenes, we've always had trainers come to the barn and we're like, oh, perfect. Allergan's sending us an Allergan Medical Institute trainer. That's amazing. And it's so fascinating to actually learn all that they go through before you even get released to train. It's amazing.

Eva Sheie (13:59):
Was there anything that really surprised you about learning the process?

Julie Thorne (14:05):
Just that they really have their act together. I learned on a call last night, constant education, constantly supporting with new resources and making sure that you have everything at your fingertips to be able to teach and instruct and mentor. And I learned last night that Allergan hosts about 40,000 trainings a year, and the next closest competing company hosts about 4,000, which I was like, holy cow, that's a pretty impressive number. So I'm so proud to be part of a team and a company that prides themselves on patient safety. That is one of their hallmark pillars is patient safety, knowing what to do in any situation and really mentoring injectors in this space.

Eva Sheie (14:48):
So when you're training, are you going out to other practices and working with people?

Julie Thorne (14:53):
Yes. So we go for the AMI training. We actually go onsite to their office and it's usually a four six hour small group hands-on training. We also have our own training academy. It's called lilac. It is for more advanced training and for things that maybe they can't get in those small group things, we offer a mentorship program where they can come in and mentor with one of our injectors here at the Beauty Barn. And it's been a fascinating road, and it's something that we learned as we brought on new injectors and trained them up just how little training was available out there for them. So we just kind of organically grew this because we were like, oh my gosh, people just need this. And the better we elevate and support the injectors in the industry, the better the industry is because you get people out there that are delivering not so amazing results.

(15:49):
It affects everybody. With the advent of social media, one bad result can get a million posts or a million likes, and it hurts the industry. So people ask me all the time, they're like, don't you feel like you're training the competition? Because most of my trainings are local within a 20 mile radius of our clinic, and we just don't feel like that here. We actually feel like supporting and elevating the industry is way more important than someone maybe choosing to go to that spot over this spot. There's plenty of faces out there that are looking to be refreshed, rejuvenated, and look less tired that we can fill up all the med spas in the Atlanta area with no problem.

Eva Sheie (16:33):
I really like how you're thinking about it, and I wonder how you and your team have thought about loyalty, because that's really what it comes down to is if you're valuing the people who are coming to see you right now, they're going to refer their friends and their family, they're going to come back over and over again. And I have a gripe where I usually go, which is that I've been going there for a decade. They're my friends. They have never done anything to reward my loyalty for any reason.

Julie Thorne (17:07):
So we launched a reward program, piggyback Allergan launched a reward program last September, and then they had some speed bumps getting it rolled out completely. So they kind of retracted it in January. And the Beauty Barn adopted to keep it. We thought it was actually truly patient-centric and truly rewarded the patient for brand loyalty. So we kept it at the Beauty Barn and patients have loved it. So it allows them to utilize their Alle points to earn additional actual free products. And I tell my patients, this isn't girl math, because in aesthetics, we're all very good at justifying girl math, but this is actual good math. You actually get free Botox, free filler, and those come with price values, $600, $700. So the loyalty program that we've had success with in the last six months has really been amazing. And patients are so excited. Kind of like you, they're like, oh my god, I've been getting Botox for 15 years. I've never had anybody give me free Botox. I've never had anybody give me free filler. So it's been really fun to see. We call it the surprise and delight face. We're like, guess what today is? It's free Botox day. And they're like, what? They're so stoked about it.

Eva Sheie (18:30):
The whole treatment is free?

Julie Thorne (18:31):
Up to 50 units.

Eva Sheie (18:34):
For a lot of people, that's a whole treatment.

Julie Thorne (18:36):
It can be up to a whole treatment. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been a really great, and again, it just goes back to doing right by the patient. They are coming in every four months and getting their Botox with us. They're buying skincare products, they're doing cool sculpting, they are doing facials. And all those things are, they have plenty of choices to go elsewhere to do all of those services. So the fact that they're picking us and trusting us, and some people are driving across town passing probably 50 med spas to come here. So that's really special. And we feel very honored to be able to provide those rewards to them because not a lot of places do it. Like you said, you've going somewhere, and I'm sure they haven't said, Hey, you want a 50 unit Botox treatment for free today?

Eva Sheie (19:20):
No. Well, the reality is they probably want to do it, but it's always been so hard to do and you have so many other things to do that it just falls by the way. And it's not like they're over there saying, we're not going to reward our patients for coming back.

Julie Thorne (19:36):
Of course. Yes. And I mean, I feel their pain, and especially in our earlier, younger days, it's hard. We were busting our butts working, we were working our regular day jobs, working, seeing patients at night. The thought back then of being like, okay, we're going to give you 50 units away for free, would've been like, I don't think we can do it. So I understand from the perspective of being a small business provider, you do still have to keep the lights on. So we feel very honored. We've gotten to the point of being able to provide that reward to patients and make it work. And it really has been amazing to see the look on their faces when they're able to redeem it.

Eva Sheie (20:21):
Love it. You guys, it's clear that you know what your priorities are.

Julie Thorne (20:28):
Yes. Which is, yeah, it's people. It's a relationship with people. It's doing right by people. It's making, listening to what they want and hopefully delivering their exact desired outcome.

Eva Sheie (20:40):
Let's pivot a little bit and let's talk about Julie outside the office.

Julie Thorne (20:45):
Okay.

Eva Sheie (20:47):
What do you like to do? Where do you spend your time when you're not working? The little amount of time that, that probably.

Julie Thorne (20:54):
Little amount of time that that happens. We love to camp. We have a camper, and you'll find us every holiday weekend in the camper on, we call it our rented lakefront property because you can get a campsite for 30 bucks a night. So we take our camper to the lake. We love boating. We have two kids. So now you can add to our regimen. We we're about six weeks from being complete empty nesters. So my son is in the Air Force in Seattle, so I've already gone to visit him a couple of times. And my daughter is going to flight school in San Diego, so both of them are moving to the opposite side of the country. So you can add to my list of hobbies, we'll be traversing across the country to visit them.

Eva Sheie (21:38):
And two really good places to visit too.

Julie Thorne (21:41):
Yes, good places to visit. Exactly.

Eva Sheie (21:44):
Okay. Is there anything you want to tell us that we have not covered?

Julie Thorne (21:50):
Just that anybody who's thinking about doing aesthetics, sometimes it's scary for people who don't really know what to expect, find an injector, go to consult to a couple places, find an injector that really hears you, that listens to you. Don't hesitate to ask what products they're using. Don't hesitate to ask what are their credentials, find out what their expertise is. Don't hesitate to ask, what would you do if a complication arose? What's your policy for fixing things? I just encourage people to be empowered and be able to go into a place, and we're honored if you ask us that because then we get to brag about all of our cool training we've been to and all of our cool trinkets that we have to help us be the best injectors that we can be. So I just encourage anybody who may be on the fence, go to a consultation, ask the questions, make sure it's someone you feel comfortable with and dip your toe in.

(22:49):
I promise you, you will not look back and regret it. There's a lot of fear mongering out there. Social media tends to easily, you can get down a rabbit hole of bad outcomes or things that those are very rare. And if you're seeing an injector that is competent and knows what they're doing, they can explain a lot of those outcomes. And a lot of the pictures you see of people with distorted looking faces, everybody's the number one reason people don't actually get injected or try injectables is the fear of looking unnatural. And for the most part, you are our billboard. I tell people all the time, I also don't want you looking scary. You are my masterpiece that I'm sending out as a walking billboard. So trust me, I also don't want you to look unnatural. So really just go in with that expectation of telling the injector that that's what you want. And if they're comfortable delivering that and you're comfortable with them, take the plunge. You're not going to look back and regret it. Aesthetics is such a fun industry and such a fun space to be in.

Eva Sheie (23:53):
There's nothing like the first time too.

Julie Thorne (23:55):
I know.

Eva Sheie (23:56):
Just the best. I wish I could go back and do it over and over, so good.

Julie Thorne (24:03):
Wow. Is the first time you do Botox. So the first time

Eva Sheie (24:06):
I'm driving home with the rear view mirror on my face the whole time. Wow.

Julie Thorne (24:14):
That's awesome.

Eva Sheie (24:16):
Where can we find you online? Follow you? Where should we look for you?

Julie Thorne (24:20):
Yes. So on Instagram, it's at Julie Thorne fnp, like family nurse practitioner. And then you can also follow the Beauty Barn at TBB Med Spa. And we hope that you guys come and visit us and visit our page and like what you see and get a good feel for who we are and what we're all about here.

Eva Sheie (24:43):
And if I'm an injector and I'm interested in training, is it the same or somewhere else?

Julie Thorne (24:48):
So I do have a website for injectors. It's called train with dr julie.com that you can visit there and drop me a line in that, and I'm happy to go over some options and things like that. That's available through Lilac and then also through Allergan Medical Institute.

Eva Sheie (25:04):
Wonderful. Thank you, Julie.

Julie Thorne (25:06):
Oh, thank you so much. This was so fun.

Eva Sheie (25:09):
There's no substitute for an in-person appointment, but we hope this comes close. If you're considering an appointment with this provider, be sure you let them know you heard them on the Meet the Injector podcast. Check the show notes for links including the injector's website and Instagram to learn more. Are you an aesthetic injector or do you know one? You can be a guest on Meet the Injector. Book your free recording session at meettheinjector.com. Meet The Injector is Made with Love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.