Episode 15: Allie McAllister

Pretty Powerful Podcast Episode 15 - Allie McCallister

Welcome to the Pretty Powerful Podcast. Where powerful women are interviewed every week. To share real inspiring stories and incredible insight to help women or anyone break the barriers be a part of innovation, shatter the glass ceiling and dominate to the top of their sports industry or life's mission. Join us as we celebrate exceptional women and step into our power. And now here's your host, Angela Gennari.

Angela Gennari: Hello, welcome to the pretty powerful podcast. I'm your host, Angela Gennari. Today, we are speaking with Allie McAllister, from the Atlanta injector. Thank you, Allie, for joining us today.

Allie McCallister: Thank you for having me.

Angela Gennari: So, Allie McAllister, is an Atlanta-based dermatology certified nurse practitioner with nearly a decade of experience in plastic surgery and cosmetic dermatology, and was recently named 2022 top 100 best aesthetic injectors in America. That's amazing.

Allie McCallister: Thank you.

Angela Gennari: So, known as the Atlanta injector, Allie has a bustling aesthetics practice where she specializes in timeless procedures and she is also the co-founder of cult aesthetics. An advanced injector conference that sells out across the country each year. That is amazing.

Allie McCallister: Yes!

Angela Gennari: So, thank you so much for joining us.

Allie McCallister: Thank you for having me.

Angela Gennari: So, tell me, what was it that made you decide on this career path?

Allie McCallister: So, back when I was little, I always loved magazines. If you would've asked me when I was like, I don't know, seven or eight, I remember flipping through my mom's magazine. So, I was always attracted to wellness, beauty, and women's daily, all of that was my thing. So, I always thought I'd work for a magazine and it turns out that I think my Instagram was my magazine.

Angela Gennari: Right.

Allie McCallister: But I was also fascinated by the medical component. So, I think I found a way to kind of forge the two together.

Angela Gennari: Oh, that's amazing. I love it.

Allie McCallister: Yeah.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. So, when you started going into injecting. What was your initial attraction to that particular? Because I mean, becoming really highly specialized at something takes incredible focus.

Allie McCallister: It does. So, in nursing school, I loved trauma, I loved pediatrics, neither of which I do anymore, but I wasn't a pediatric ICU nurse, and I loved that inpatient.

Angela Gennari:: Yes.

Allie McCallister: But I also thought, okay, long term, what do I want my career to look like?

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: And going back to that beauty and that feminine aspect I really loved dermatology so I started out working for a plastic surgeon and I was kind of forced into the injecting component.

Angela Gennari: Okay.

Allie McCallister: He also had a dermatology practice and that's where I started out. I then left and went and joined a medical dermatology practice.

Angela Gennari: Okay.

Allie McCallister: There, I thought my focus would be completely medical derma.

Angela Gennari: Ah.

Allie McCallister: But all my aesthetic patients followed me. So, it’s kind of I loved it and then it found me, right?

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: And I finally said, okay, like I give up this is it.

Angela Gennari: Right.

Allie McCallister: And then you have to focus into it. As nurse practitioners, we don't, and even as physicians, you're not trained to do injectables in school so you have to seek out that specialized training.

Angela Gennari: Okay.

Allie McCallister: I love school.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: I've been to school for a long time. So, it's something that comes naturally to me. So, continue education now I own a training conference. It's one of those things that if I decide I'm going to do something, I'm going to make sure I'm really good at it.

Angela Gennari: That's awesome.

Allie McCallister: So, I've kind of, it's been my focus for almost a decade now.

Angela McCallister: That's so cool. So, you're a big conference and I used to... I spent 20 years in the meetings and events industry, so I understand conferences pretty well. It's a lot of work to put on a conference.

Allie McCallister: Yeah, it is. I think ignorance was BLIS when we started...

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: Cold aesthetics. We were so I co-own it with another injector.

Angela Gennari: Okay.

Allie McCallister: Her name's Jem Palate. She's based out of Dallas.

Ange: Awesome.

Allie McCallister: And we were at training together. We were in the pool, we were having a margarita, maybe two, and we were like, you know what all of these conferences are put on by old white, 60-year-old surgeons.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: None of which are actually injecting day in and day out.

Angela Gennari: Right.

Allie McCallister: And we were like, we're going to change that.

Ange: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: We need to do a conference that's put on by us.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: The injectors that are doing this all the time and her fiancé, my husband at the time were like, okay, girls.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: And then we're like, and we're going to name it cold. And they were like, you're not naming your conference cold and now we own a conference called Cold Aesthetics.

Angela Gennari: I love it. That's fantastic. Okay. So, tell me, why do you think the injector market has taken off so much? Because it really has.

Allie McCallister: Oh my God yes.

Angela Gennari: So, much.

Allie McCallister: It's huge, and it's as far as medicine goes, aesthetics is still in its infancy, which is really cool. I mean, what I do now as an injector versus what I did seven, eight years ago, is completely different.

Angela Gennari: Really?

Allie McCallister: Yeah. Even from what, less than a decade.

Angela Gennari: Right.

Allie McCallister: What do we know about the anatomy of the face? What we know about injectables? What's available to us on the market? All of it has exploded, which is really cool.

Angela Gennari: Right.

Allie McCallister: I think the rise of social media has helped it be a little more acceptable. I think that females now get to decide, I mean, females still dominate the market. They're the majority of my patients. Now, we get to decide if we want to have aesthetics done. Which is really cool. We've kind of taken ownership of that. And it's not so taboo. I still hear daily I don't want to look like a real housewife. Shamed, any real Housewives. I know a lot of them they are all beautiful. But I think women are owning their own choice now, and they're seeing it as something that's empowering as opposed to, I need to fix this about myself.

Angela Gennari: Right. And I feel like in the past, perhaps what they were doing it for other people to stay attractive for their spouse, to kind of move up in the corporate ladder. But now I think women are doing it just because they want to feel good about themselves, and it's an inner thing as much as it is an outer thing.

Allie McCallister: A hundred percent. So, I spend 30 to 45 minutes with each of my patients. And they're in the chair and it becomes a therapy session usually. It's really intimate. So, they're telling me about their life, I'm sharing about mine and yes, they leave and I hope they feel the best they've ever felt, but it's not just your face, it's not less wrinkles and more volume and plumbing, it's I want them to leave and feel like bad asses.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Allie McCallister: And most of my patients are bad asses. So, it's pretty cool.

Angela Gennari: That's awesome. So, tell me about a little bit more about what you have seen in the marketplace as far as women in leadership and executive roles in this industry. Because when you're talking about injectors and you're talking about this conference, you're really elevating the status of women in the industry. I would imagine

Allie McCallister: A hundred percent. So, traditionally it's been, plastic surgeons. Which was male-dominated. When you're talking about injectors, it's female-dominated, which is pretty cool, and most injectors or nurse practitioners some are physicians' assistants, some states their RNs, and a majority of them are female. Our second conference is happening this weekend and we have yet to have a male attendee. So, when we sold out twice. So, it's pretty cool. Now, we welcome the first male injector that wants to elevate his education and his skills, and we've tried really hard to make sure that our speakers and educators are at least the majority female.

Angela Gennari: That's awesome. Because I think when women are learning from other women and empowering other women, that's when you really see a step into that power and own that. So, I think that's fantastic. Well, good. So, what obstacles and challenges have you had in building this business?

Allie McCallister: So, I mean the biggest one is that I went to school to be a nurse and then a nurse practitioner. I have no business training at all. I never took an economics class, I admittedly am horrible at math, and I don't know how to use Excel. So, all of the things that you need to start a business, I didn't know how to do. So, I think back to the day we got this idea and luckily, we were both Jen and I. My partner were established enough in our careers that the industry trusted us. Our representatives, primarily female backed us up, pushed us up, gave us the sponsorship that we needed, and we had a vision. We had a vision that didn't exist. There were plenty of conferences. Very few of them are retreat style owned by females.

So, we had that going for us. But how to build a website? What the heck is SEO? You want to sell products online. That's cool. Did you know that for everybody that buys a product, you need to have a different tax code for them? I had no idea. So, all of that, I mean, it was a huge learning curve. I spent a year and a half kind of hunkered down, figuring it out, and I think I sacrificed a lot of my other aspects. My social life for sure.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Allie McCallister: You knows this. You've started several companies. It can be a little lonely.

Angela Gennari: Very lonely. Which is one of the reasons I started the podcast because I feel like we need a little tribe.

Allie McCallister: You have to have someone that understands and I've had the best support for my friends, but it's hard. I've watched every YouTube, I have Googled, and I've listened to podcasts. And then also hired the right people. Was a huge learning.

Angela Gennari: That's important. That is really important. Sometimes getting out of your own way and saying, I can do this. If I spend X amount of money and X amount of dollars and X amount of this to teach myself or I can do what I'm good at and then hire the people who are good at that part.

Allie McCallister: A hundred percent. I mean, it's, and sometimes it takes, like you said, getting out of your own way. My husband has said to me, you're spending a lot of time packing your own product and shipping it out. it might be time to do a three PL. Things like that.

Angela Gennari: But that's stuff we don't really know. When we're building a business and I mean, with my businesses in the beginning. I did everything myself and it was like, well, I'm just going to save money, I'm going to save money, but in the long run, you kill yourself.

Allie McCallister: I'm not. I could have been making money doing what I was good at, instead of trying to learn how to do web design. Which I'm not good at. I mean, I have sat trying to figure out, you know, web design on one page for hours. Yeah. You know, until one or two in the morning and that's not valuable for anybody.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. And there's so many great, talented people out there that you can outsource too. I mean, even if you're going to a Fiverr or a gig site or whatever.

Allie McCallister: We've used Fiverr to help with our website to revamp it.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Allie McCallister: Before each conference, we're still new. Our second conference is happening this weekend. So, we have so many things that we want to improve on, but getting the right help and getting out of our own way, like you said, has been huge. Running into your own talents, spending your time doing what you're good at, and some of it's fun to like, get a great team together.

Angela Gennari: It really is. Well, and when you trust what somebody else's vision can be for your vision, it's almost like the most euphoric feeling, because you're like, oh my gosh, somebody else understands [cross talking 11:19] And you get in my head.

Allie McCallister: Yes, somebody else gets it.

Angela Gennari: Somebody else understands it. This is not just an entity that's living in my head and I'm envisioning something that can't happen. Like they get it.

Allie McCallister: They totally get it and they're going to help me get there. And then you see that product and you're like, that was the best money I've ever spent.

Angela Gennari: Exactly. So, have you had any mentors to kind of lead you through this process?

Allie McCallister: A little bit. I would say as far as entrepreneurs go; I have no entrepreneurs in my family. My mom was a school teacher. She's the first person in my family to go to college, she's a huge inspiration, but she'll probably listen to this you're not good at technology mom. So, she's been very little help with that. But as far as mentors go, my business partner, Jen was an entrepreneur before I even thought about being an entrepreneur as an injector.

Angela Gennari: Awesome.

Allie McCallister: Now, the conference was new to both of us but as far as building my own aesthetic career and injectables in Atlanta, she has been a huge asset, and the thing that she's done is freely give information with no fear that it's going to cannibalize her business. Which is so hard to find.

Angela Gennari: It's very hard to find because I feel like this happens more with women than it does with men is that we become very protective of what we know. And we think if we tell people what we know they're going to come and steal my business from me. We're more protective, and I don't know what that is. I don't know if it's because there's fewer women in executive level positions and they feel the need to protect that spot or if it's that mentality of we can't give information away because I can't have anyone competing it's women are competitive with each other. When we get dressed up in, you know, at night...

Allie McCallister: That's not for the boys.

Angela Gennari: That's never for the guys.

Allie McCallister: I didn't wear the pink jumpsuit. No, for you.

Angela Gennari: It is a hundred percent for other women.

Allie McCallister: Yes. A hundred percent.

Angela Gennari: So, I think more people understand that, but I also think that with women, we have to learn how to empower each other, and that's the hardest thing to do sometimes because you want to make sure that you're empowering people who are going to rise up and make you proud.

Allie McCallister: Well, I mean, and that's kind of the reward, right? Is paying it forward a little bit. I've never seen anybody who mentored others fall behind.

Angela Gennari: Never. You're right.

Allie McCallister: I mean, I've only seen that build people's careers up. I can think of a couple of injectors in the community one's Erica Berry. She's a fabulous injector. She's kind of the godmother. She spreads her knowledge, she invites people into her clinic to watch her inject, she has been an educator before it was cool to be an educator. I don't think it's hurt her career at all, I think it's done nothing but the opposite. So, I hope that more females will start leading with wanting to help other women just because I think it's going to help their own careers too. It's a win-win.

Angela Gennari: Yes, absolutely. Well, and I always feel like whenever you light somebody, else's fire your fire doesn't diminish.

Allie McCallister: It burn fighter.

Angela Gennari: It always helps. And then you have people when you do have those down moments because we all go through them, life is a roller coaster. Then those are the first people to step up and help you.

Allie McCallister: And cheer you on. For sure. You have to have that. It's not going to always be an upward trajectory, but I think like you said, building your tribe is huge.

Angela Gennari: So, important. So, what do you as women, we give our power away a lot. So, I feel like we give our power away. It's like when you're in a corporate environment, oh the team helped me to get here. We won this award because everybody else helped, and even if they did 90% of the work, they're giving all the credit to somebody else. So, tell me about a time that you, that you gave your power away, and tell me about another time that you stepped into your power, and what was the difference between them?

Allie McCallister: So, I think, you know, let me just say this. I probably still give my power away on a daily basis. Anytime somebody gives me a compliment or congratulates our conference or my business, my first instinct unfortunately is still to say, oh this is a temporary location or they say, I don't know how you do it all, and I'm like, oh, I don't do it all. And it's a bunch of crap. I do a lot. I'm doing it. I do it all.

Angela Gennari: And then some

Allie McCallister: So, I want to say that I still fail at this. I've worked for, for a couple of practices, and I will say that when I left to go out on my own, I let my boss kind of let me know that I probably wouldn't be successful and that I would eventually, well that pretty soon I'd want to have a family and that would really interfere with what I was visioning for my life. First off politely you have no clue if I would like to have children and that's also my choice. So, I think back to those moments, when I think, okay, I let them kind of run all over me. But then the counter to that is I was leaving that practice to start my own. And so, I let him take my power a little bit and then I feel like I brought it back and I think when I talk about my conference, I own that power. It's something I'm extremely proud of. I'm passionate about it. I think anytime that gets brought up I'm not going to shy away and say, it wasn't, we didn't do this. We definitely did the whole conference.

Angela Gennari: Awesome. Yeah. And I think that's really, it's really important to do that because when you're taking on new things and you're empowering others to say, hey look, yes, we're doing this amazing conference and everybody should come, and that's how it gets built and that's how you inspire others. So, I think that's awesome. So, tell me a little bit more about the mentors that you had in your life because I know that you had talked about your mother being a mentor and some other women in your industry. So, tell me a little bit more about the guidance that you've sought out as a woman rising up through your industry.

Allie McCallister: What am I attracted to? I think that when I think, who do I want my... what do I want my career to look like? Who do I want to kind of take little Ted bits of knowledge from? I want someone who is competent, who's owned their career, who's kind of paved their way. Speaking about my mom. I grew up with a single mother, she worked several jobs. And I think back to a lot of which I was kind of embarrassed about that financial upbringing or our status, and I just think how great of her to not give a crap that her Bray teenager was upset and still work at the mall or sweep the hair off the hairdresser floor, whatever she had to do.

I think that's really inspiring. And then when I think about now in my career, who do I look to? I look to the females who are, you know, deciding what they want their life to look like and going after that. Whether you think it's manifesting or praying or whatever it is to you. I do think that we're in charge of our life and yeah, you have to work really hard to build this life that you want, but I hear women say, oh, I wish I could do that and I'm like, so go do it.

Angela Gennari: Yeah.

Allie McCallister: Yeah. So, I'm attracted to leaders and females who are doing a lot of that. I listen to a ton of podcasts and a lot of them are entrepreneurs because I find that common thread through most entrepreneurs and I find it really attractive.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. Yeah. I'm the same way I have some, you know, the CEO group I was telling you about before the podcast, that's a really big integral part of my life because it inspires me. It gives me that tribe of people that get it. They get what I'm going through, but it's also the people in the room, whether we're going through tough times or great times, it inspires me.

Allie McCallister: It's motivating.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Like I learn more from people's struggle stories, than their success stories. Because listen, we've all struggled. Every single human being has struggled, we haven't all reached a level of success that we want to go and promote to the world, but we've all struggled. And so, that's our common denominator. And so, when we can bring it down to that like we're all human, we've all struggled. And I was also raised by a single mom working many jobs. So, I totally get that, and I was the same way. I was like, why don't you just get one job that pays you a whole lot of money?

Allie McCallister: Why can't I buy the clothes that all of my other friends are... you know, why are we shopping at goodies? No offense to Goodies, but yeah. And it's hard when you're a teenager.

Angela Gennari: It is because you have your own image to maintain and you're like, nobody gets it, you know like I'm trying to be amazing.

Allie McCallister: You were never a teenager clearly.

Angela Gennari: So, my mom had a thing where she would say, I'm going to give you $10 or whatever for shoes. And if you want these name-brand shoes, you've got to go buy them on your own, and honestly, it was the best lesson ever because I was working since, I was 13. I would go, she was waitressing at a restaurant and I would go and bus tables at that restaurant to get tipped out from the servers so that I could then go buy kids or whatever shoes, whatever that I wanted. So, Nikes or whatever so that I could have the image I wanted, but I knew that that had a cost to it.

Allie McCallister: It wasn't given to you.

Angela Gennari: No, nothing was given.

Allie McCallister: That's I wouldn't trade it obviously.

Angela Gennari:: No, and I think that work ethic is what trans... it just translates into what we're doing now.

Allie McCallister: It's contagious.

Angela Gennari: It's that tenacity that you learn at a young age that translates into yes. I'm going to succeed. Watch me.

Allie McCallister: And please tell me I can't do it.

Angela Gennari: I know. I love to hear that.

Allie McCallister: Nothing, but make me do it and do it quicker and probably better.

Angela Gennari: That's right. Exactly. So, what advice would you give to other women who are trying to come up through the industry?

Allie McCallister: Yeah. So, I get messages on Instagram all the time asking. How'd I become an injector? I think that the number one thing to know is that it's an amazing career. I wouldn't trade this for anything but you don't see the hard work that comes behind it. So, my first job out of school was part-time because that's all I could get. I applied to every job within like an hour of driving radius. So, I took something part-time as I nanny, so, here I was in debt to my eyeballs from school. I'm a nurse practitioner and now I'm doing basically facials and a little bit of injecting, and I'm also nannying and I did that for a year to make ends meet and then I moved on to another job.

So, you have to be willing to do things that other people aren't willing to do. Which is the case for most successful things in life.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Allie McCallister: You're not going to walk into a job where you work four days a week making these big bucks. You think it just doesn't work that way. So, my advice is that find out why you want to do it. If you want to do it because you think that you were like pretty clothes and heels all day. It's the wrong job. A lot of times I'm sweaty and I have stuff all over me by the end of the day, but why do you want to do it? And if you decide that you want to do it, then make it happen like I said, apply everywhere. This is what I tell everybody. I'm like apply to every job. Know that your first job is not going to be your dream job. And then make those connections and the true connections. Don't just try to buddy up to think you're going to get a job, try to network and actually add some value to somebody else's office.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely.

Allie McCallister: So, that's how you get in, how do you stay in? You continue your education. You have to keep learning; you have to stay on top of it.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. You have to be better than everybody else.

Allie McCallister: You have to do something that somebody else isn't doing.

Angela Gennari: Well, and I find that there's a baseline of people who are willing to do a baseline level of work. And so, if you can rise yourself above that baseline, you'll always have a job, and you'll always continue to be successful because the baseline it's the average. I always...

Allie McCallister: The status quote.

Angela Gennari: People always say, what are you afraid of? And I used to say, since I was a teenager, I'm deathly afraid of being average.

Allie McCallister: Yeah. You're as type as I am. You must be the oldest I'm yeah. I feel that to my core or disappointing somebody, and most importantly, myself. If I ever do something wrong, I tell everyone I'm like, you don't have to be upset. I promise you; I will beat myself up for the best.

Angela Gennari: Oh yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. So, what advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?

Allie McCallister: So, that's actually.

Angela Gennari: That's it.

Allie McCallister: That's it? Yeah. Because I'm an only child, but I'm also a perfectionist. I'm very typing, and I'm extremely hard on myself, which served me well in school, my mom will say, she never asked me how to do my homework, because I usually had it done before I got home. That's awesome. But it's to ease up and it's still my advice to myself. Life is short, right? Time is all we have, and I think that my best self is usually when I'm on vacation and I've forgotten about the to-do list. So, I'm trying really hard this year, especially to incorporate that into my day-to-day life of don't sweat, the small stuff it gets done. Try to pick your top three things you need to get done for the day and then stop beating yourself up that you didn't do a hundred things. We talked about this before...

Angela Gennari: Oh gosh.

Allie McCallister: You started.

Angela Gennari: My to-do list is ridiculous.

Allie McCallister: It never ends.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. Well, and I've noticed that a to-do list, like I, can just add a billion things on there, and it just grows and grows and grows, and I feel like I'm so unproductive. Meanwhile, I've knocked 12 things off the to-do list but I'm so unproductive because it wasn't a hundred.

Allie McCallister: Your self-worth cannot. We have to stop tying it to what did we get done that day. Or what task was left undone, and we talked about this too. The busier you get, the more you have to hire people that will help you. We can't do it all.

Angela Gennari: We cannot.

Allie McCallister: We can do a lot.

Angela Gennari: Nor are we the best at doing it all, and I think that's where we get in our way. I'm not the best one to do every part of this? It's like why we have this podcast studio because a stone is great at this, and I am terrible at this start.

Allie McCallister: We need to help. So, I would tell her to, you know, I think first off, I had a lot of fun. Let's be very clear. I was type A, but I was a fun 18-year-old and I would encourage her to maybe have a little more fun. Stay out and eat the pizza with your girlfriends. But also, to just lighten up, you know don't sweat it so much.

Angela Gennari: I a hundred percent agree with that. So, who inspires you?

Allie McCallister: I was thinking about this on the way over here. I think it's other entrepreneurs or where I really feel that inspiration. It's usually my peers, it's other injectors that I see innovating and doing great, great things, it's usually female based, but it could be a male entrepreneur too. But I'm inspired by people that are paving their own way.

Angela Gennari: Oh, me too. I just want to cheer them on so much. There's so many people on LinkedIn that I follow just because I love their posts. They're out there crushing it every day and they lift up my day in the morning when I'm reading through these posts.

Allie McCallister: And if it's someone who's chosen a path, that's a little unconventional. That's like bonus points for me. I think we think it has to look a certain way in a certain timeline, and I get inspired by people who I'm like, wow, that is so cool that they take a month off and live in Europe every year. Why can't we do that?

Angela Gennari: Yeah. And I am inspired by people who I know are doing their very best, despite some crazy circumstances.

Allie McCallister: And doing it with a positive attitude. I have patients like that. That's encounter different personalities throughout the day. I have a couple that comes in and they're just always positive and they leave I'm in a better mood and it's just a reminder that it's a mindset we're in control of the way we feel and the way our emotions.

Angela Gennari: A hundred percent, you're always in control of how you react to whatever it is that's happening. So, what's next for you?

Allie McCallister: So, this weekend we're heading to Nashville for our [cross talking 27:14] Conference. Which will be amazing. We have our second conference this year in San Diego. So, that'll be our third. I feel like the first one, we were like fingers crossed. Let's not mess this up the second. One's a little bit more like we got to prove ourselves. For the third one, the lineup is amazing.

Angela Gennari: So, fantastic.

Allie McCallister: We're launching those tickets soon and we're finishing our build-out in Atlanta. So, our aesthetic office will open in early July.

Angela Gennari: Where's it going to be located?

Allie McCallister: It's in Dunwoody, and it's called Lemon Avenue. We partnered with a practice out of Dallas to bring it to Atlanta. So, we'll have to have you by

Angela Gennari: Very cool. I'd love to. And where can people find you?

Allie McCallister: So, Instagram is my main social media. Platform right now. It's the Atlanta injector. I'm also on TikTok. At the Atlanta injector.

Angela Gennari: Yeah. I'm still threatening to transition to TikTok. I haven't done it yet.

Allie McCallister: Really you want to take that on?

Angela Gennari: I know, right? So, it's a struggle. I don't know that I'm talented enough, but thankfully I've got...

Allie McCallister: I have some people I can introduce you to that have helped me. I won't even pretend like I run my own TikTok.

Angela Gennari: I love it. So, the last question. What do you wish more people knew?

Allie McCallister: If we want to talk aesthetics for this. I wish more people knew that Instagram is fake. What you're seeing, what you're comparing yourself to every day is not real life. I try really hard to never post with filters but the editing apps are so good and I have patients bringing in photos first off of themselves and I'm like, delete that bad angle. Just delete it. But I want them to know that Instagram is not real life.

Angela Gennari: Good.

Allie McCallister: And I think that's the number one.

Angela Gennari: I think that's important. Yeah, absolutely.

Allie McCallister: I do amazing work. My patients still don't look like they have a filter. They still have pores we're moving our face because we're alive and we're human and that's good. And then if you want to take it away from aesthetics, I think kind of what we touched on is that you're in charge of what your life looks like in five years. So, if you want to become an aesthetic injector, if you want to start your own company you know, do it.

Angela Gennari: Yeah, and work hard. Because there's no entitlement in entrepreneurialism.

Allie McCallister: No.

Angela Gennari: You get what you work for.

Allie McCallister: Exactly. Decide you want to do it. You got to really love it and then go for it.

Angela Gennari: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. This has been really enjoyable. I really enjoy our time.

Allie McCallister: Thank you for having me.

Angela Gennari: So, our time has come to an end, but I just want to thank you so much for being here today and I wish you so much luck.

Allie McCallister: Thank you.

Angela Gennari: And have fun in Nashville. Take some time during the conference to go and enjoy Broadway a little bit.

Allie McCallister: Soak it all up. Maybe get some cowboy boots. Yeah.

Angela Gennari: Maybe grab some cowboy boots and have a good time in Nashville.

Allie McCallister: I will. Thank you for having me.

Angela Gennari: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you for joining our guests on the pretty powerful podcast and we hope you've gained new insight and learned from exceptional women. Remember to subscribe or check out this and all episodes on prettypowerfulpodcast.com visit us next time and until then step into your own power.