Live at The Aesthetic Meet 2025

Brad Adatto

The shift that happened in 2019, 2020, 21 as the weight loss drugs started accelerating, and now to where we are now, and to see how the FDA is playing with it, and now different states are starting to step in. So that's been a huge amplifier of this industry in general.

Max Baybak

Welcome back everyone. I'm sitting here with my good friend Brad Adatto, who has become a friend throughout uh colleagues that we have in the industry. As you'll hear in a minute, he and his business partner are prominently known lawyers in the aesthetic arena, med spas, plastic surgeons. Brad, thanks for sitting down with us.

Brad Adatto

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I appreciate it. We've been having a blast hanging out with you and Mike this whole trip.

Brad Adatto

Yeah.

Max Baybak

And I'm glad we got a second to sit down. Let's start off by just having you tell us a little bit about what your firm does, what you focus on.

Brad Adatto

Yeah. So, we are a business law firm, but over the years, we have been really well known for working with plastic surgeons and other aesthetic practices. My background actually is my father is a retired orthopedic surgeon. So, we do work with all types of doctors, but it just happens to be we're at the at the trade show right now, but a lot of our clients are here, so it's great to be here uh and getting some time to see them all.

Max Baybak

Yeah, it's always productive and I think the show has been exceptional.

Brad Adatto

Yeah. Uh just last year was great, and I feel like it's built on it even better this year. Great energy.

Max Baybak

That's — and compared to even last year which was beautiful. By the way, Vancouver is amazing, but this has been really special.

Brad Adatto

Agreed. Agreed.

Max Baybak

And you drove in because you and your — and you and Michael are are based in Dallas, Texas.

Brad Adatto

But we also have a Chicago office. So my — our partner Alex Thiersch was supposed to be here, but uh at the last minute he couldn't make it cuz I guess driving from Chicago would be too far.

Max Baybak

I guess he could fly though, right?

Brad Adatto

I guess he could. He's probably a little tied up with a with a little show that he does called uh the Med Spa Show, right?

Max Baybak

The Med Spa Show. Yeah. Coming up weeks. Yeah. Cool. Uh so you know this is a — our podcast, we try to focus on marketing. So, a lot of times I ask people about uh kind of what — where they — what marketing channels they focus on. I'm actually curious because I'm usually asking industry —

Brad Adatto

Yeah.

Max Baybak

— this question, but you're — you guys are a little bit of a different type of business than we're normally interviewing. How do you go about acquiring new clients or meeting new clients for the most part? What are the sort of the top channels you utilize?

Brad Adatto

You know, one of the things that we've been blessed with is we're really passionate about education and a lot of these conferences that are doctor driven like this have been kind enough to invite us to come speak and kind of give them. So, that's one of our platforms of of way of reaching out and being at the actual show and and educating individuals and we see that as a long-term marketing play. Um, I always tell people, you know, if you're thinking that showing up and speaking you're going to get run over with people the next day, it's it's it's not that way.

The other way is that we we spend a lot of time on putting out great content that is important to the industry. So, we write a lot of articles. Uh Michael and I started our own podcast, The Legal 123s, with ByrdAdatto, uh several years ago. And that seems to be another way of educating individuals um to make sure they they're keeping up with what's going on in the industry.

And then the last piece is just um really just still word of mouth. It's uh some of our biggest clients come from um somebody said, "Hey, I worked with Brad or Michael and really enjoyed that conversation. And you should meet Dr. you know, so-and-so over here."

Max Baybak

Yeah, word of mouth goes a long way. But what I'm hearing is focus on creating value, but then have a long timeline in terms of the expectation of return, just because that's the same for us. We just keep showing up, showing up, creating content, being at the conference. I talked to others who say, you know, that conference wasn't great, I didn't get many sales from it. And I go, this may be a little bit uh — you might be thinking about it on too small of a timeline versus just once you're here and you're a figure, which ByrdAdatto most certainly is a figure in the industry, then then people start to — there's a lot of trust.

Brad Adatto

Yeah.

Max Baybak

There's a lot of consistency that goes a long way, right?

Brad Adatto

Yeah. I always tell people I gave a speech in San Diego and this gentleman took my card and I never heard from him. And three years later, he said, "I'm ready to hire you," and became one of our biggest clients in LA because he — he wasn't ready at the time to do what he wanted to do and but he knew we were the firm because of that presentation. And that's — you don't know what's going to happen. So that's why it's always a marathon to me. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon.

Max Baybak

I agree. I love that story. Um and and by the way he's — their content is excellent. He mentioned their podcast, their blog or articles that they put out. And I was just talking to my colleague the other day about what what ByrdAdatto puts out is excellent content. Super super valuable. It's like free free legal advice, right? And it's so uh specialized, the fact that you do specialize. We know because we deal with clients in nearly every state in aesthetics and we know that it's real challenge to keep up with all those rules and regs across all those states. You guys give a lot of value away in your content.

Brad Adatto

And and we do that because we we want to help the industry in general. And you know, I I once had somebody — we wrote, we wrote several ebooks and someone said, "You're giving me this ebook for free." I said, "Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You can do it." He goes, "Well, I can just give this to my own attorney and you just told us what to do." I said, "Sure. You can hire the attorney that read my book or you can hire the attorney that wrote it. It's up to you." By the way, he did hire me.

Max Baybak

Yeah. Perfect. That's great. Okay. Are there any industry trends you're seeing emerge in 2025 over the last year or so, good or bad, that that are kind of — you're keeping an eye on?

Brad Adatto

Yeah, I mean, so there's there's probably two big things that are happening right now. One is just general with the weight loss drugs and the FDA and, you know, for those keeping up, it every five minutes it changes the rules. So that has been um the the shift that happened in 2019, 2020, 21 as the weight loss drugs started accelerating and now to where we are now and to see how the FDA is playing with it and now different states are starting to step in. So that's been a huge uh amplifier of this industry in general.

And then the other thing is just keeping up with certain states. Uh as we sit here in the state of Texas, state of Texas is about to introduce a a new law that can radically shift um how med spa services are being performed. And they have some good reasons as to why they're trying to do it. But uh so those are the two huge things. And when I say in Texas, I have clients in other states that know about this law because they're worried that if this law passes, it's — could start impacting other states.

Max Baybak

It'll set a precedent that other states may adopt.

Brad Adatto

Correct.

Max Baybak

Okay. So reach out to to ByrdAdatto to hear more about that. Um, have you seen — from I'm curious from your vantage point if you see AI being utilized either in your — in your business or in the aesthetic space in general. What what do you —

Brad Adatto

Absolutely. I mean AI is just another tool. Um, it's not going to replace your — well, it shouldn't replace your lawyers. It shouldn't replace your doctors and and you have to figure out how to utilize that tool. And I know for us as a firm, we are — we are spending a lot of time and effort understanding we have a ton of of content that we have built over the years and a ton of research and we're trying to find a way instead of it being in a matrix that you have to go through, how do I put that into a lock box of AI that it can help pull that information from us faster. And so that's been a big big part of ours.

I know with my physician clients, they're either doing it from thinking about from marketing perspective, but they're also thinking about from a patient uh care perspective of what are the things I can do to replace, you know, Sally or whoever and have an AI to help generate referrals or bring them in. So, there's — it's been very interesting to watch. The one big comment I have for everyone and no matter if you're a lawyer or a doctor is remember at the end of the day, you have to be the decision maker. You can't let AI make those decisions.

Max Baybak

Yeah. I think it allows people to elevate up to the tasks that are maybe more art than science.

Brad Adatto

Correct.

Max Baybak

And and there's a lot of that in law, right?

Brad Adatto

Yeah.

Max Baybak

For better, for worse, that that's a factor. There's a lot of that in marketing. There's a lot of that in Sally's job, too, right? There's the things that that it would actually be great if they could be — the mundane repetitive task that they could be taken away.

Brad Adatto

Absolutely. And we've used that on our own uh processes in the firm where we we lost an employee because she went off to law school and we were able to replace her with an AI tool.

Max Baybak

Wow.

Brad Adatto

Um, so, so her job of scheduling and all the things that took, we were able to get an AI tool that that can work with the clients and getting in faster 24/7. So, it was — it was a nice way of us to rethink, do we just hire another person or can we think of something else?

Max Baybak

That's awesome. Okay, last question because I know you're busy, you have people to see here, clients to see. What do you see in the future for the aesthetic space? It's sort of a broad open-ended question here.

Brad Adatto

But it — so I've been in this space — I mean, I started practicing over 25 years ago, but I've been in this space at these conferences for over a decade now. And it's fascinating to see how much has changed and the accelerant of all the different services that a plastic surgeon or cosmetic surgeon, depending how you you categorize yourself, have gotten themselves uh into. Because when I first started practicing, the surgeons were only focused on the invasive side, the surgery itself. And now they're realizing there's this entire avenue of the non-invasive service, the lasers, the Botox, the fillers, the um — and now the weight loss. And I feel like that's just the the tip. And each time there's a new technology, how do I utilize that for my patients? So, it's been fascinating to watch that growth of the model.

Max Baybak

I mean, if you could pan around, there are a bunch of different places that didn't exist just a few years ago that are here that people think they need — and or, and they might, and they name — they probably do need it.

Brad Adatto

Yeah.

Max Baybak

Yeah. I think it's only going to continue to trend in that direction.

Brad Adatto

Yeah.

Max Baybak

So, very cool. Brad, thank you so much for your time.

Brad Adatto

Thanks for having me.

Max Baybak

Yeah. We'll let you get on with the rest of the show and and maybe we'll see you at one of the parties tonight or something.

Brad Adatto

Maybe. Okay.

Max Baybak

All right. Take care.