Live at The Aesthetic Meet 2025

Dr. Johnny Franco

100% we've seen a lot of changes from the weight loss. It's almost this Ozempification of aesthetics that has developed. I think facelifts are going to explode. We've seen so much body contouring from like circumferential lifts, arm lifts, thigh lifts because you're seeing these mature issues in really young patients. So, super exciting time. Definitely a lot of challenges.

Max Baybak

We're here at The Aesthetic Meet 2025 and I'm sitting down with the one and only Dr. Johnny Franco, and we are here on his home turf in Austin, Texas. Dr. Franco, thanks for joining me.

Dr. Johnny Franco

No, super excited. As I told you, I drove a whole mile to get here to the meeting. So, you know, was a rough stoplight, but it was great. Made it.

Max Baybak

Well, we really appreciate you taking some time. I know you've been busy running around. I've seen you going back and forth here. I know you're doing a lot of presentations, and appreciate you taking the time to sit down for a few minutes with us. And I have some questions for you, but first I'd love to — I think, you know, many people know who you are, your reputation precedes you, but I would love for you to tell us just a little bit about your practice and what you're focused on these days, if you don't mind.

Dr. Johnny Franco

Yeah, you know, my practice started with mostly body contouring, a lot of breast, a lot of liposuction, little BBL action since I came from Miami before coming to Austin. But weight loss has been huge. It's been a personal passion of mine, as a lot of people know. I've lost about 90 pounds over the last two and a half years, and you know, it's been such a huge change for me that wanted to share my journey with all of our patients.

And so at this point we see about 1,500 weight loss patients in our practice, and now has even evolved to the entire journey. So not just weight loss, but now what do they do about some of the Ozempic face, body, butt stuff going on.

Max Baybak

Yeah. So, I think we've all heard a lot of that at this show and recent shows, the way that the GLP-1s and the weight management programs are feeding into all the other offerings that you have. But you're seeing that really — I was talking to Erica the other day, she told me that you were saying that that's really come true in your practice, where the kind of latent effect of all of those weight loss patients has —

Dr. Johnny Franco

100% we've seen a lot of changes from the weight loss. It's almost this Ozempification of aesthetics that is developed. I think us getting it early on, we're seeing what's going to happen in the rest of the aesthetic industry for the next six to nine months. And so, usually once people are about six months into that weight loss journey, they start doing some of the med spa stuff such as the skin tightening, the energy devices, the biostimulants.

And then now we're seeing a huge change in our surgical practices. I think facelifts are going to explode. We've seen so much body contouring from like circumferential lifts, arm lifts, thigh lifts because you're seeing these mature issues in really young patients. So, super exciting time. Definitely a lot of challenges.

Max Baybak

Yeah. And we can talk about that, some of those challenges. We have limited time today, but I want to ask you about a different effect that I've noticed and see if it rings true for you. Obviously Ozempic face, these terms we've heard, are driving more facial procedures, and that's been true for a while. Another thing I've noticed, I know from people that I know personally that were considering body contouring procedures for a long time and they were able to actually get to their goal weight in order to do it. And I think that's here to stay.

If you think about that — that's not, so there's an overhang right now of people who want to do certain treatments because of the weight loss they've experienced. But now we can also talk about it as GLP-1s as a way for people to get to their surgical weight faster, almost as a permanent new enhancement in prep for surgery that I think will drive more surgery in perpetuity.

Dr. Johnny Franco

Well, I think not just a prep for surgery, but even driving this concept of aesthetic naive patients into the industry because, you know, they're thinking about this — you know, now once you start to feel good, you want to look good, and it kind of goes hand in hand. So, we've seen a lot of new patients driving into the market.

I think the lower extremity is going to completely continue to explode because people are being athletic, they're being super fit, and they've seen these changes in the lower body. So 100% I think it's going to have a ripple effect, and I think you're going to see the second cosmetic wave coming into the industry, you know, really towards the end of the year.

Max Baybak

Yeah. Really fascinating. Okay. So you were an early — very clearly, you know, one of the early adopters, and you built the playbook really on this weight management, on the weight loss programs. How are you navigating, and what are any quick thoughts, because I know we probably don't have time to unpack it all now, the changes that are happening right now? How are you pivoting based on some of the recent —

Dr. Johnny Franco

Yeah, some of the FDA changes have definitely made things a little bit more challenging for anybody that was just doing compounding medications. You know, we knew this was coming. You knew that these things were going to change. I'll be honest, the whole weight loss arena is going to be a roller coaster ride probably for like the next 10 years. There's 120, you know, or so medications in clinical trials currently.

There's a new medication that's nicknamed the triple G that'll probably hit the market at the end of the year, early next year, that there'll be even more rapid weight loss. For us it's a couple things. One, you know, it doesn't mean that you can't get a compounded medication. People just need to have a reason that they don't need the name brand stuff. So, you know, for people that have unique needs, I think there's still going to be options.

I'll tell you some of the industries like Eli Lilly and Novo actually have some great cash pay options for people that don't fall into the insurance arena. And then the second part of this, and one of the things that I've really talked a lot about to try and help my colleagues, is that there's a lot of spots along the, you know, Ozempic journey, if you will, that we can participate in the aesthetic arena, and doesn't necessarily have to be prescribing these medications because the Ozempic face, body stuff. So I do think that, you know, every practice needs to think about where along this journey do they want to help patients and intervene. So I think there's some really unique opportunities right now.

Max Baybak

That's interesting. Well, I'd love to have you on another time to unpack some of these things more, but let me — I'm going to move on to my next question. I have so much more to ask about that, but for now, I'll move on to my next question, which is, outside of these procedural trends we're talking about, are there any other trends you see kind of in 2025, industry-wise, or let's say over the last 12 months, whether they're good or bad? Is there anything you're paying attention to trend-wise?

Dr. Johnny Franco

Yeah, I mean, we're definitely seeing, you know, more surgical procedures at a young age, and I think, you know, that's obviously from the GLP stuff. You definitely have seen much more of this movement to this fitness, or the overfilling stuff has definitely faded away really quickly. You know, we're seeing more of the talk about this regenerative medicine and so forth.

I think, you know, that's not a new topic, but I think there's now been some good evidence, some clinical data that actually supports some of these treatments, which I think is huge and has been the biggest hesitation for a lot of plastic surgeons to offer it. Is they don't want to offer something that they can't look at somebody straight in the face and be like, "This has been shown to help people." And so, I think that's huge.

One of the products I think is the hottest for 2025 is something called AlloClae. It's an allograft that comes in a larger volume, 12 1/2, 25 cc's. We've never had a filler designed specifically for the body before, especially with the timing of the, you know, weight loss and revolution stuff. You're going to see a ton of that. So, I think that's going to be one of the hottest projects to watch out for.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I agree. Okay. And then another trend, and I don't know, I guess I would be curious to know how you're thinking about AI. Is it something you're trying to incorporate in your practice? How has it possibly changed your practice to date, or if at all?

Dr. Johnny Franco

One, I think if you're not at least playing with AI, even if you're just using it for your favorite recipes, barbecuing, you know, just questions on the go, I think you're missing out. I think right now we're where, you know, social media was taking off and you saw practices that incorporated exploded and leapfrogged a lot of people. I think AI, you know, is still a little struggling to completely integrate into the practice, I think, for most people, but if you're at least playing with it, you're going to be up to date.

You know, for us, we've incorporated it in a couple things. I mean, no question, from a business development, I'll dictate blogs, articles, use AI to clean it up. Makes my work a lot easier. And the content creation, there's a lot of AI tools out there that make some of the stuff that maybe us that aren't as tech-savvy, super easy, super efficient to create content that's still genuine and your own. I would be really, really surprised if at this meeting next year I don't come to you and tell you that I have two or three AI agents employed by us.

Max Baybak

Yeah, I think so too. And I'm curious to ask some of these same questions a year from now. It's becoming sort of the tradition, is that we're going to kind of check in here and see where people are at another year gone by. Where are we at now? And I tend to agree that we're going to see actual AI agents really being deployed, and but to what exact effect, I don't know yet. So, it'll be interesting.

Dr. Johnny Franco

And there's already a few teams that we're working with and playing, and I think there's still a little tweaking to be done, but I just don't think we're that far away from most of the stuff. Because if you think about it, some of the arduous tasks in your office, you know, that you're almost like trying to coach your team to do a little bit better, some of these would just truly be automated and set. So, I think it's going to not only help the practice flow better, but honestly, I think some of these things can make a better experience for the patients.

Max Baybak

Yes, that's a very good point. I think aesthetic practices are a ripe grounds for AI because there's so much that you have to juggle. There's so much you have to juggle. It's just not your traditional business structure. And so I think that that help could really come in handy.

On the other hand, I think that — and rightfully so, as just like you were talking about with regenerative medicine — this industry also wants to make sure that something is really ready for adoption, especially if it starts to get contact with patient data and those things. We really want to be measured and careful about it. So, it's an interesting balance that we have to strike.

Dr. Johnny Franco

Yeah. You know what's going to be interesting with AI, because you see so much — and not to go off on a tangent, but you see so much private equity and other kind of big companies, and the reason they come in and, you know, are helpful is that they're like, well, we can bring our very efficient machine in, you know, and help your practice be super efficient. If you think about it, you know, AI could be the great equalizer, right? Because a lot of the things that they're doing in mass and being able to get cost down — imagine if you could do that with some of these AI agents. So now smaller practices could be competitive with some of these larger groups. So super interesting from a business perspective.

Max Baybak

That's a really interesting take as well. Okay, this is my final question for you, and it's a little bit open-ended, but what do you see for the future of aesthetics for our audience, you know, from your vantage point? Where do you see us going in the next few years? What's the future look like?

Dr. Johnny Franco

Well, I think one of the hottest procedures that from a surgical aspect that you're going to see — rib remodeling has been a huge, huge topic. I think it fits right into this more kind of fit and shaping. You know, we used to say that we couldn't change the body frame. That's not true anymore. I think no question all these new GLP medications, and you see it's not just the weight loss. You know, now AbbVie has jumped into the scene and signed a large licensing agreement.

So I don't see how that doesn't roll into some of the aesthetic world in the future, but some of these unique medications that are muscle preserving, designer in terms of things. So, I mean, you want to talk about regenerative or, you know, truly, you know, body sculpting — imagine being able to change it from a level like that. So, I think that's going to be probably not this year, but over the next, you know, four or five years, you're going to see some of those things really changing how we see our overall body and how we treat this in terms of like targeting weight loss, targeting muscle building in a completely different way that doesn't have anything to do with surgery.

Max Baybak

Oh, it's really going to get interesting. It's going to be wild. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Franco. I appreciate your time, your insight. Very, very valuable. Very interesting. We'll have to do a longer form interview at one point, but thank you again for taking the time.

Dr. Johnny Franco

Awesome. No, super fun. Appreciate it. Thanks again.