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Meet Ali Wagstaff of Elite Medical & Aesthetics in South Denver

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Ali Wagstaff.

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Ali. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and since my teenage years I knew I wanted to start a business some day.

I grew up in a family of intelligent and hard-working people but none of them had gone to college. In fact, due to some tough circumstances, none of the women in my family had even graduated high school; I was the first.

I found myself in an interesting position of knowing that I wanted to go to college and get an education but also being financially motivated to make sure I could provide for a family someday and give my children more than I had. 

I had a talent in art but I didn’t want to limit my career choices and I knew I could still do art without getting a degree in it. I was also really into science and ultimately decided on the medical field. I figured that the medical field could also leave the door open for me to own my own practice someday. 

I started out studying Sports Medicine and was “pre-med” thinking I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. After shadowing a few surgeons I realized that not only did I not enjoy the specialty but I didn’t want to be a surgeon at all. I liked interacting with people way too much to be stuck in O.R. all day with unconscious patients. 

In the end, I fell in love with nursing, particularly the role of the Nurse Practitioner (NP). They had the best bedside manner and were the perfect combination of the caring nurse and the clinical physician. I knew right away that I wanted to be a NP someday.

I was in my 3rd year of school at that point so I completed my degree and then went right back to nursing school to obtain my BSN. I graduated in the heart of The Great Recession and so a lot of my plans were derailed. I had to just get a job and make ends meet for awhile. Plus I knew I had to get some experience before I could apply to NP school anyway.

I decided to work in the hospital environment and I found my niche in critical care nursing. I loved the complex medicine and adrenaline that every shift brought. I did this for seven years, including while I went back to graduate school to obtain a double masters for my Nurse Practitioner (NP). 

After I got my NP, which was the ultimate goal, I continued to work in acute care (hospital) medicine and then got back into Critical Care. I was elated at first and then I started to feel kind of depressed. I reached a life-long goal and then thought, now what? Is this it or will I still start a business someday?

I had completed 7-years of college, some of which required student loans, so leaving a stable high-paying job to start a business suddenly seemed unrealistic and irresponsible. 

Plus my husband had just launched his tech business and it was not the right time for us to both be taking a risk but I needed a change of scenery.

I kept working at the hospital but started dabbling in aesthetic medicine. I was very interested in aesthetics as a blend of art and science, 2 of my passions since childhood. I started shadowing a few friends that worked in the specialty and then moved on to education and training events. I felt rejuvenated and like I was moving closer to my purpose. 

About a year later when my husband’s business was thriving, and my student loans had been paid off, we decided it was time for me to finally pursue my dream of starting my own business. 

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been easy but I keep telling myself that if it was easy everyone would do it. 

I took lead from my husband’s tech company and “boot-strapped” my Medical Aesthetics practice; which isn’t very common in medicine and I had no guidance as far as how to make it happen. This means that I funded my business myself without taking outside loans or investors. 

So the first year and a half in business, I continued to work full time at the hospital to help fund my start-up. I took $5000 from my hospital earnings to start and then put everything I earned after that back into the business. 

This was tough to juggle at times. On the days I worked at the hospital I did 12-hr shifts and then would meet clients after work, these easily turned into 16 hours days. 

On top of that, I had to learn how to build a website (with guidance) and was a diligent student learning marketing, SEO, social media and more. I couldn’t believe how much there was to do. I rarely took days off and I was consistently doing 70-80 hour workweeks. 

Shockingly that was the easy part. Once I got through that phase then I had to figure out how to bring in new clients and turn it into a sustainable business so that I could eventually quit my hospital job.

I remained motivated but I also had a lot of periods of self-doubt and frequently felt near burn out. I was reading, or listening to audiobooks, for business and self-growth on a regular basis to help me navigate the ups and downs. A lot of those books also helped me learn about being a business owner. I’m still figuring it out honestly.

Last Fall, I transitioned to part-time at the hospital and this January I finally quit. I went full time into my business in February and took a huge step to purchase a laser and hire my 1st employee. Just in time for the COVID-19 shut-down in March ironically. 

Now I’m learning how to pivot and am offering online services. I’m collaborating with other businesses and getting creative. I even wrote an e-book about how to start a medical spa with an emphasis on boot-strapping. 

Please tell us about Elite Medical & Aesthetics.
I like to say that Elite Medical & Aesthetics is more than a Medical Spa. With my extensive Acute Care/ Critical Care experience Elite is run with the standards of a hospital but results from an artist.

I take a holistic approach to aesthetic procedures; which is more about balancing features and enhancing the beauty someone already has rather than changing their appearance. 

Some “flaws” are beautiful and unique and should be cherished rather than “fixed”. A holistic approach also means taking care of the whole person. It should feel empowering to come in and do a procedure or treatment for self-care. I am constantly evaluating that what we are doing in the treatment room is a positive experience for clients and that they feel confident rather than feeding into an insecurity they may have.

Right now, I am the sole injector and am known for facial balancing and sculpting. I also do a lot of lip injections. As above, I take a holistic approach for a natural result to enhance the client’s natural beauty so the goal is always a natural appearing result. Even if someone wants to really enhance an area, like their lips, my rule is that it has to fit their face and look as though they could have been born with it.  

As above, I also just hired an aesthetician and she is a specialist in all things skin-care. She will be doing facials and peels when we are allowed to re-open after the current COVID-19 shut-downs.

Our menu also includes:
– Anti-wrinkle injections: Botox, Xeomin
– Dermal fillers for fine lines, wrinkles and facial sculpting
– Kybella/Deoxycholic acid for fat modification (i.e. double chin)
– IPL photo facial for pigment issues, redness, acne, etc.
– Fractional laser (resurFX) for skin texture, collagen production, wrinkles
– Microneedling for skin texture, acne scars
– Sclerotherapy for spider veins and reticular veins
– Skin tightening injections
– Facials, peels

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I have so many great childhood memories. I grew up in the country where we could just go outside and explore all day long. 

I used to love wandering out into the fields of grass before haying season. The grass was so long that when I sat down no one could see me at all. Usually one of the animals would find me first, typically a dog or a horse. Sometimes they would just hang out there with me and I remember one time falling asleep on my horse’s side.

I have memories of “gold-mining” in the mountains by our house, where we mostly just found coal. I did actually find what I thought was gold at one point but it turns out it was fool’s gold my sister had planted there for me to find. 

Other days we would walk over to a junkyard about a mile away that was filled with old cars. We would try to find lost treasures on the ground and get into the cars and pretend we were going somewhere magical.

I remember one time my mom had a “mud-mask” on her face before bed and then next day it rained and my sister and I went outside and covered ourselves in mud from head to toe. My mom wasn’t too happy about that one when we tried to come in the house, despite my explanation that it was good for our skin (as she had said the prior evening). We had to hose off in the back yard with the freezing water. 

I also used to collect coins and then we would bike about 5-miles into town and go buy candy. That’s one of my favorite memories because it always got me thinking about how to earn money. I think it definitely sparked the young entrepreneur in me. 

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