Catherine Maley Logo
Get the Audit

PODCASTS

Book a Growth Strategy Review Today

Share This Post

The Real Cost of “Playing It Safe” in Private Practice — Ramsen Azizi, MD (Ep. 344)

Ramsen Azizi, MD, of Chicago, Illinois, explains the real cost of “playing it safe” in a private cosmetic surgery practice.

Indeed, welcome to “Beauty and the Biz,” where we’ll discuss the business and marketing side of plastic surgery.

As always, I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of “Your Aesthetic Practice – What Your Patients Are Saying.” and consultant to plastic surgeons, helping them get more patients and more profits.

The Real Cost of “Playing It Safe” in Private Practice

Lessons from building a practice with no safety net

In “The Real Cost of ‘Playing It Safe’ in Private Practice” podcast, I sit down with Dr. Ramsen Azizi. Specifically, he is a board-certified plastic surgeon and the founder of RAM Plastic Surgery in Chicago.

Before entering medicine, Dr. Azizi spent more than two decades as a professional music producer. As a result, that creative and independent background shaped how he approached private practice. From the beginning, it influenced how he made decisions and assessed risk.

As a result, this episode explores a side of private practice growth most surgeons are not prepared for. More importantly, it focuses on the real trade-offs between safety and autonomy.

⬇️ Click below to hear “The Real Cost of “Playing It Safe” in Private Practice — Ramsen Azizi, MD.“

Specifically in this conversation, you’ll learn:

  • Why starting private practice immediately forced better decisions
  • How keeping overhead painfully low early on created long-term freedom
  • What surgeons underestimate about building their own surgical facility
  • Why control of your OR, schedule, and environment changes everything

Throughout “The Real Cost of ‘Playing It Safe’ in Private Practice,” Dr. Azizi shares candid lessons from taking financial risk. Additionally, he discusses navigating volatile growth cycles. Ultimately, he explains why he chose autonomy over perceived security.

Importantly, this is not a “do this one tactic” episode.

Instead, it offers a grounded look at what it takes to build something durable. More broadly, it shows why private practice success is less about perfection and more about resilience.

If you’ve ever thought, “There has to be a better way than this,” this episode will challenge how you think about control. At the same time, it may change how you view risk and long-term freedom.

Visit Dr. Azizi’s website

P.S. January is the best time to get an objective second set of eyes on how your practice is really operating. Especially then, this matters before habits harden and the year fills up.

If you want clarity on where structure, conversion, or accountability could improve results, you can request a Practice Growth Strategy Review here:

Plastic Surgeon Consultant Call

Practice Growth Resources:

👁 DON’T MISS THESE EPISODES 👁

Plastic surgeon Marketing Consultant

#cosmeticsurgeonpodcast #plasticsurgeonpodcast #aestheticpracticemarketing #cosmeticpracticestafftraining #cosmeticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #plasticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #strategiesforsurgeons #morepatientsmoreprofits #aestheticsurgeonbusinesscoaching #medspabusinesscoaching #medspamarketinghelp #cosmeticsurgeonmarketinghelp #howtogetmorepatients #plasticsurgeonmarketinghelp #aestheticpracticemarketinghelp #beautyandthebiz #podcastforplasticsurgeons #podcastforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonideas #plasticsurgeonagency #plasticsurgeonconsultant #plasticsurgeonstrategies #plasticsurgeonservices #plasticsurgeontrends #plasticsurgerymarketing #marketingplasticsurgeons #marketingplasticsurgery #cosmeticsurgeondigitalmarketing #cosmeticsurgeonmarketing #howtopromotecosmeticsurgery #socialmediamarketingforplasticsurgeons #socialmediamarketingforcosmeticsurgeons #plasticsurgeonsocialmediaideas #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtofindcosmeticpatients #howtoattractcosmeticpatients #howtoconvertcosmeticpatients #howtoretaincosmeticpatients #cosmeticpatientadvertisingideas #cosmeticpatientstrategies #cosmeticpatientconsultant #cosmeticpatientservices #cosmeticsurgeonads #digitalmarketingforplasticsurgeons #consultanttoplasticsurgeons #consultanttocosmeticsurgeons #seoforplasticsurgeonsusingai #onlinereputationmanagementforplasticsurgeons #leadgenerationforplasticsurgeons #cosmeticpatientreferralmarketing #brandingforplasticsurgeons

#coordinatortraining #howtogetmorepatients #convertmoreconsultations

Picture of Catherine Maley

Catherine Maley

BEAUTY AND THE BIZ

Beauty and the Biz is for Plastic Surgeons who know they don’t know everything and are open to discovering the pearls to grow and scale a sellable asset when they’re ready to exit.

Listen in as Catherine interviews surgeons who talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery and listen to Catherine’s pearls from consulting with plastic surgeons since Year 2000.

SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST

TESTIMONIALS

Rated 5 out of 5
"Catherine outlined a plan that put key metrics in place, gave us a clear plan to follow throughout the year and trained our staff to increase their conversions by at least 10%. Since engaging with Catherine, I’m happy to report that revenues are up 15% over the last three months - 22% in the last month alone! I highly recommend Catherine’s consulting services to any practice looking for “best practice” additions to their operation."
Robert Sigal, MD
Robert Sigal, MD
"I have finally tapped into the most efficient way to grow my cosmetic practice and that is to “fish in the pond of my own patients”. When patients return to my practice, over 85% will purchase another service, product, or procedure. Not only was it worth over $200,000 in revenues this past year, it also reminds my patients I’m still around so they don’t wander off to my competitors. Catherine’s group has far exceeded our expectations and goals we had set up for them to achieve."
Victor Ferrari, MD
Victor Ferrari, MD
"Our consult conversions were running at 40-50%. Then we attended Catherine’s online training and implemented her strategies. They immediately increased conversion rates to 75-80%."
Anthony Corrado, MD
Anthony Corrado, MD
"I know how to run a profitable practice; however, it was not without major staff issues, inefficiencies and unproductive drama. With Catherine's guidance, I reorganized staff, set up processes for them to carry more of the workload and hold them accountable so I have more time to focus on patient care. The changes we put in place and the staff training to convert more callers and consultations will easily increase my revenues by 15% as well as save us time, money and costly mistakes. "
Evan Sorokin, MD
Evan Sorokin, MD
"Working with Catherine and her team has been very profitable. We’re only half way through the year and I’m up $200K and I’m booked out for the next 2 months even though we typically go into our slow summer months now. Her recent promotion brought in an extra $63,782 with more surgeries scheduled. I never realized how much money was sitting in my patient list but I’m a believer now!"
Robert Langdon, MD
Robert Langdon, MD
"Catherine Maley has one of the best Marketing Minds in the aesthetic industry, bar none. She understands the aesthetic patient and she also understands the challenges and frustrations we face as aesthetic surgeons. You will benefit from Catherine's tools whether you are new in practice or a seasoned professional.Turn to Catherine for guidance - she knows what she's talking about."
Edwin Williams, MD
Edwin Williams, MD
“Catherine’s Cosmetic Patient Marketing Service has been a great addition to our practice-building overall plan. While we still invest in our online presence, we also found immense value in the internal marketing efforts. We especially like that all results are tracked so we know we are getting a great return ... last year it was 1,148% and no staff time was used. That’s a much easier way to grow my cosmetic practice.”
Mark Mason, MD
Mark Mason, MD
"Catherine Maley turned our practice around. We converted more consultations in one week than we did in an entire month. Our practice went from a painful 50% no show rate to a remarkable 85% show rate. Even more impressive was our close ratio - from 35% to 80% and still increasing. We would recommend her to any practice that’s looking to not only increase their profits today, but sustain a healthy flow of income for many years to come. Thanks Catherine!"
Sam Assassa, MD
Sam Assassa, MD
"Catherine found me the best patient care coordinator I could have asked for. She worked out a payment plan that was fair to me and motivating to my coordinator. She also provided training tools to help my coordinator convert better, even though she was already experienced. The results have been phenomenal. So good, in fact, that my income increased 250% and I’m booked out for 3 months. Don’t waste any more time or money doing it yourself. Outsource to someone you trust!"
Andrew Lofman, MD
Andrew Lofman, MD
"Since we’ve been working with Catherine and her team for the past 5 months, we’ve brought in $79K in surgeries and have booked an additional 17 surgical procedures and 20 non-invasive body procedures since then. This does not include the additional new patient referrals and revenues we are seeing from the on-going nurturing of my current patient database."
Verne Weisberg, MD
Verne Weisberg, MD
"I had given my staff the goal to convert at least $35K per week in surgeries AND I gave them the tools to help which was Catherine’s Online Learning Center at More Patients Academy. They watched Catherine’s modules and implemented her strategies and converted $80K! That equaled a 2,550% ROI. Nice!"
Adam Stein, MD
Adam Stein, MD
READ MORE

More To Explore