Live at MSS 2026

Shannon Blake

When you drive a lead to your practice, to your website, they're texting you, however they're reaching you, we want to be your partner in converting that lead fast and keeping them on your books.

Max Baybak

We're here in Vegas at the Med Spa Show 2026, and I'm sitting down with Shannon Blake from Podium, who's become in this kind of past year, uh, a good friend, and I'm excited to catch up because you're doing a lot, Shannon. So, let's get into it. But first of all, thank you for being here.

Shannon Blake

Thank you so much for having us, Max. This is quite the setup y'all have here. You put a lot of thought into it. It's very clear.

Max Baybak

I appreciate that. We did. And we wanted to really celebrate the launch of this new platform we're doing, and it's been so fun. So, thank you. Thank you.

Shannon Blake

Absolutely.

Max Baybak

And thank you for coming here to do this. Um, yeah. So, so, so your, your title at Podium is Director of Aesthetic Partnerships. Is that correct?

Shannon Blake

You got it.

Max Baybak

Okay. And we first met because I— I was actually— we met because you came and you did Dr. Steven's podcast that we produced together, that we created with him, The Technology of Beauty.

Shannon Blake

That's right. Yes. We had just partnered up with The Aesthetic Society, and one of the first things they— some of the folks at The Aesthetic Society were like, "You need to go get on the podcast and talk about the cool stuff that y'all are building at Podium."

Max Baybak

Yeah, it was cool. And I got to hear about it a little before it was like ready for broad public consumption, which was really cool.

Shannon Blake

Yes. I had to talk a little bit inconspicuously about what we were building because it wasn't out in the world yet, but—

Max Baybak

I was under embargo. But it was really cool, and I was frankly, like, very impressed and excited because I've seen Podium around forever, but not really making a commitment to aesthetics. And then you kind of told me the backstory of how you really championed for the company to put focus on aesthetics, and I think it's really smart personally. And, and, and since then I've seen you everywhere in aesthetics. So you're— you're killing it in terms of your mandate there to bring Podium really firmly into aesthetics.

Shannon Blake

Thank you. Yeah, the initial decision to go into aesthetics was because we already had a good product-market fit with being able to bring all client communication, including phones, texting, social media messaging, all into one place, as well as all of your leads, your Google ads, your Facebook ads, your Instagram ads—you all know a thing or two about that—into one platform, and then be able to help them win in speed to lead by building an AI employee who can get back to every single lead in two minutes or less. Answer questions, send out booking links. But we quickly realized two things. One, the technology in this industry is honestly a little bit outdated and, and just old and antiquated, especially for a modern industry.

Max Baybak

Yes.

Shannon Blake

And as well as, we wanted our AI employee to have a superpower and do more for our clients. And without access to things like the scheduler that sat inside the EMR, she could only do so much. And so we saw this big vision of, we need to go out and build the whole damn thing ourselves so that this AI employee can have oversight and insight and access to every single detail about every client that's been in your practice, every lead that's come through. And there's some pretty exciting stuff we can talk about that's going to be coming out that we're calling revenue mining.

Max Baybak

Revenue mining. I get it already. Like, on the surface, very quickly, and I love it. And I could see how, how a CRM would really help you do that. And I know you're more than a CRM, but I just think, yeah, I could definitely see that.

Um, I— we think about it a lot the same way. The con— the, the interoperability of these systems, or lack thereof, has a lot to do with how seamless of an experience you can create from marketing all the way through to patient experience. We can have all these cool AI tools, AI assistants, but what they have access to and where they have walled gardens makes a big difference. So you have an AI assistant, and essentially— and you guys are calling it— there's an EMR product. Is that right?

Shannon Blake

Yeah, we say EMR because people resonate, they understand what those three letters mean, right? But we're calling our platform an AI operating system, because for us an EMR is looked at as a data storage. It's a place where you put your charting notes, you have your scheduling, you have your client profiles, but it's not driving you any revenue. And in this industry, it's become so saturated, so competitive. We thought, why in the world, with all of the access that we have to this AI, these AI capabilities through learning language models, would we not turn this old idea of an EMR into a profitability driver, a revenue driver? So—

Max Baybak

Makes a lot of sense.

Shannon Blake

Full EMR, scheduling. Um, you've got your charts, your forms, your membership, your point of sale, literally everything an EMR has. Long are the days of fragmented tech. You need— I literally just got out of a, a panel, actually, and one of our clients— it was funny. They asked these owners, "What's your tech stack look like?" And one of them was like, "We use Patient Now, we have Go High Level, we use Line," like, listed out five different systems. And then they asked our client, "What do you use?" And they're like, "We use Podium." And it was just like mic drop.

Max Baybak

That's the ad right there.

Shannon Blake

Literally it. And I was like, yes.

Max Baybak

Wow, that's cool. Yeah, that's the dream, and it's been the dream for us kind of— we talk about the holy grail of the unified system, and then being able— the real holy grail from a marketing perspective is being able to attribute ad dollars all the way back to the initial point of contact. Hard to do, not just for technical reasons, also because how much do you weight each touch point? But that's the holy grail. And, and I love that you guys are leading the charge in, in bringing all of this tech under one umbrella.

Shannon Blake

Yes, 'cause Max, like, literally think about it. Like, if your AI employee has access to all of your clients' purchase history—what treatments have they done? What treatments are they interested in?—they— your AI employee will have access to all your phone conversations, all the text conversations, that she know— your, your AI employee knows. Are they members of your med spa? Have you discussed with them about being a member? Why didn't they sign up?

Literally, your AI employee now will have access to all of that information to be able to go out, and you can literally say, "Hey, Avery, I want to grow my revenue this month by 15%, and I want to do it through growing my memberships." And then Avery goes out and she has all of that information at her fingertips to be able to start text messages with leads or clients based on all of the past history that she knows about that person. And the end goal is get them on your membership, get them on your calendar.

Max Baybak

Yeah, the, the promise is very exciting when it's— all those things start working together. It has all this information because it has, obviously, any notes that you've added in there. It has email and, and text communication records, right?

Shannon Blake

Social media conversations. If somebody's DMing you on social, did somebody reply to your text marketing campaign that you sent out with Podium? Did someone reply to your email marketing campaign that you sent out with Podium? Did they take advantage of an offer? What was it? What was that treatment they were interested in? Did they ever book that treatment?

Max Baybak

Right. Oh, of course. Transaction history, as you mentioned, or treatment history.

Shannon Blake

Yes.

Max Baybak

How about phone records? Is that a thing? I mean—

Shannon Blake

Oh, yeah.

Max Baybak

Actual recordings.

Shannon Blake

Yep. Podium.

Max Baybak

All of that information.

Shannon Blake

Yep.

Max Baybak

Because that's kind of a core— at the core of Podium, right?

Shannon Blake

It is. Yeah. That's a unique thing about Podium is our phone system is integrated with our platform. So, when you look up a single client or lead, you can scroll up just like on your phones with a text thread, but you're going to see social media conversations, phone conversations, texting, your text marketing, all of it in one place.

Max Baybak

That's really powerful.

Shannon Blake

Yeah. Now, if somebody's buying a retail product that you know is a 30-day supply of that skincare, Avery knows that, oh, that person's g— I'm going to text that person in 28 days and say, "Hey, Amanda, I think you're probably running low on your X skincare. We've got it in stock here at True Medical Spa. Pop in when you have a second and we'll have it ready for you."

It's that kind of stuff that— now there's no way employees can do that today with how busy they are. The front desk, A, is maybe not as engaged as the practice wants. Like, they're not an owner, right?

Max Baybak

In some cases. Yes.

Shannon Blake

Yeah. In some cases you've got anomalies.

Max Baybak

Well, they're not owners. What I mean is, in some cases they're more engaged, some cases less. Yes.

Shannon Blake

Exactly. But to be able to have an AI employee whose end goal is schedule more appointments, make you more money, make you more profitable, drive up revenue.

Max Baybak

Yeah. Also, I think one of the, the biggest ways to disillusion your front desk employees and kind of have them be less engaged is to unrealistically assign a workload to them that it's just— just kind of drives them into despair and apathy. They can't— it's unrealistic, and oftentimes we over— underestimate how much effort that is as business owners, and we say do it all, and then it's just—

Shannon Blake

It's burnout.

Max Baybak

It's burnout. That's the word I was looking for. And then they kind of just are coping. And so it's not that— actually, I think you can get a lot of— I think a lot of your team members really do care and want to be passionate, but it's hard when they're burnt out and when they've been unrealistically assigned to a certain amount of task workload.

Shannon Blake

Yes. And what's cool is, think about— you, you've probably thought a lot about this, Max, because I feel like you're very philosophical and you think deeply. But, like, AI— we are all— this is going to get out of control pretty quickly in, like, fun ways and also scary ways.

Max Baybak

Yes.

Shannon Blake

But we are all going to become very hungry for personal human connection. I think everyone understands the power in human connection, but we are going to become thirsty and starving for it when AI starts taking over more and more. So now if you think about, okay, what can I hand over to AI that's task-focused so that everyone that works for me can be so present and just focus on that human connection while people are in the practice? That should be the only thing your employees should have to do. AI will very quickly be able to do literally anything task-focused. They won't need— you won't even need your front desk to be distracted by picking up phone conversations. So, it will— it's going to play out nicely for the practices, just to be able to surprise and delight and do human touch, um, stuff while they're in the practice.

Max Baybak

You're so very right, including the fact that I have thought about this extremely deeply. Had some great conversations here today with people about this. The task focus, the transactional versus the relationship. Someone else said that, and I love that. Relationship-oriented or transaction-oriented, also task-oriented, and replacing tasks versus replacing humans. And, you know, you can replace tasks. You might even replace a lot of what a human does today, but you will not— there, you will not replace the human. And that, in— in other words, it means that there will always be something that a human can do to add value.

Also, bit of a detour here, but as a side hustle, really a passion project, I have this coffee roasting business. I started it out as fun because I love— I just love coffee. The goal was to have a shop and maybe multiple shops, but I started with a friend and we do roasting. I do the marketing, the branding; he does the roasting. It's very much on the side at the moment, but I do really want to grow this into a real business.

I didn't start it for this reason, but I started going, hm, wow, actually, I think I'm really well positioned, because you know what people are going to be craving? You know what is going to be at such— there will be such demand for and such a gap— is human connection. And for whatever reason, we do that over coffee. We love to go to a place and congregate over coffee, or, or drinks, you know, at the watering hole in one way or the other. Coffee is so about human connection.

So, I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to be kind of doing the digital thing here with Influx." And if I can— I, I have had no time for— that's a fun project I'll get to later because I'm, I'm so focused on this. But, it's funny. I found myself thinking, "Wow, I'm, I'm actually well positioned here because I think that's going to be the case."

Shannon Blake

You really are. I will anticipate that there will be more and more just, like, human hangout spots for people just to come work, connect, talk, engage. And, like, what better than a coffee shop? Like, you've nailed it.

Max Baybak

Yeah. And we're going to have real good specialty coffee. Anyway, I want to talk about coffee. We did— we did do a coffee brand that I designed with the friend who I do all our packaging, all of our branding with for my coffee company, and he helped me develop this brand, Cafe Stack, for Growth Stack. Um, for the Growth Stack launch. Just for this launch, we created an entire coffee brand for the coffee cart around the corner here. So, that was fun.

Shannon Blake

Leave it up to the marketing company to create the, like, most fun, engaging, like, party space. You guys are so creative.

Max Baybak

Thank you, Shannon. I really appreciate that. We— we put a lot of work into it. So, it means a lot to me that you're saying that.

Um, you built this in Podium for aesthetics. And just a couple more things here, and I'll let you go because I'm sure you have places to be. Uh, you built it for aesthetics. I think of aesthetics as two— broadly two categories, which actually the longer I've been in this business, like 15 years now, I see med spa and plastic surgery as so different, but of course a lot of shared attributes. Um, is it more focused towards one or equally towards both of those?

Shannon Blake

Such a good question. So, um, right now medical spas is what we are absolutely hyperfocused on and nailing. Um, we are a couple features away from pla— it being a perfect fit for plastic surgeons. Um, for example, lab integrations we're finding is, like, a wishlist item for, you know, blood results, hormone testing, like anything surgical. Just lab integrations with some of the key players is something that they have been asking for for a while. So, we're working on some very specific, uh, features for plastics. We're anticipating around August will be a full-blown amazing solution for plastic surgery.

Max Baybak

Okay, good. That's good for us to know too, because that's really our— at the very sort of core, the seed of Influx was planted with plastic surgery, and it's grown as plastic surgeons added on med spas over the last decade or more, and then as med spas became— really came into their own as its own industry, not just an add-on to plastic surgery or to dermatology practices or whatever it might be. Um, but it— you know, I still firmly believe in, in staying true to our core, which is plastic surgeons, and, and bringing them products and services.

Uh, last question for you. Uh, what do you— what do you— what are you seeing? This is somewhat self-serving question, but I'm curious, as you're pushing this product out into the world— we talked about this a few months ago and you were just kind of getting launched maybe six months ago. I'm curious now what you're seeing on the marketing side. What— what are your med spa clients that are adopting your product? Are they asking you for help with marketing? What are they— what pain points are they having with marketing? Because you guys do so much that is— you could call it marketing, and it is marketing, and it's really close to the front of the funnel, right? Or do you actually— are you doing more on the front of the funnel too? I know there was goals to do that. I don't know where you're at.

Shannon Blake

Yeah. No, we have no plans to build websites and put out social media marketing. We want to be hyperfocused on: when you drive a lead to your practice, to your website, they're texting you, however they're reaching you, we want to be your partner in converting that lead fast and keeping them on your books, right? So yeah, no— no, no plans for us to step into the world that you guys exist in. That's why we love being partners with y'all. Like, that's what you're good at.

Max Baybak

I appreciate that.

Shannon Blake

So you guys are, drive the lead, and we are, convert it and keep on longtime clients.

Max Baybak

Cool. Cool. Well, thank you so much, Shannon, for— for your time and, um— uh, I've been wanting to do this since we first talked, like, kind of sit down and document.

Shannon Blake

Just jam out.

Max Baybak

Yeah, jam out. That's— you said it best. That's what this is all about for me. I can't take it too seriously. Just sit down with friends and jam out, and then we always have really great thought-provoking conversations. So, thank you so much.

Shannon Blake

You're so welcome, Max. Thanks for having me.

Max Baybak

Of course. Take care, all.

Shannon Blake

Bye.