Dr. Muneeb Shah: Founder of REMEDY & Dermatologist

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be you just want to make sure you will get knocked down but just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin show. So excited to have my next guest. Here we have Dr. Muneeb Shaw, who is the founder of REMEDY a dermatologic developed skincare brand designed to simplify skincare routines with science back treatments, but also, maybe first or I should say very much first, before he decided to start REMEDY he became a double board certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon. He is known as the DERM doctor on social media. I had been following him for a while now and was just obsessed with some of the stuff that he had been talking about and educating not only me, but roughly like 22 million other people on various platforms across social media, pretty impressive. But he co founded the aesthetic skin lab in New York City and has become one of the most influential voices in dermatology today with, like I said, an impressive social media following. And he has brilliantly extended his medical expertise into the skincare industry pioneering an incredible skincare brand called REMEDY that you must must must get your hands on and you are going to be so excited to learn so much more about it. I’m so excited to learn so much more about it. So without further ado, welcome Dr. Shah. So nice to finally meet you.

Dr. Muneeb Shah 2:14
Yeah, thank you. I mean, that was to kind of an introduction. But thank you for having me on. And I’m glad to talk about all things REMEDY and building the business. You know, I think this is the behind the scenes, a lot of people don’t see they see the outcome, they see where the brand is, maybe they see an ad for the brand. Or maybe they see a video I do about the products, but we don’t really talk much about what it took to get here. So happy to be on today.

Kara Goldin 2:38
I love that you didn’t stop at just being a double board certified doctor. I mean, you just decided okay, now I’m gonna go become an entrepreneur, can you start by sharing initially? Like, what drew you into medicine?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 2:54
That’s a good question. You know, I think when I was young, I had a very strong passion for the science of it all. And that was really my jump point. It was the subject I liked learning the most about it was actually the human body. I found it fascinating. I was actually really fascinated also in human behavior. So I majored in neuroscience and psychology when I was an undergrad. And I was really just fascinated by that aspect. And then I got really into biology, I was like, This really makes sense. Maybe I should be a doctor, I really didn’t go from the angle of I want to help people because I didn’t know what that felt like until I was actually in training. And that’s when I really found that passion for helping people and seeing a difference in people’s life. And it kind of broke the matrix. For me it was this is an opportunity to really make a difference beyond yourself. And it’s those individual interactions that really propelled me forward from there. And I didn’t realize that I had a passion for that until far into medicine. So I think a lot of people start at different points, but to me, it was the science. And then it was the people that came afterwards.

Kara Goldin 3:53
So you are a dermatologist and also you specialize in Mohs surgery. Can you talk a little bit about your practice? You’re in New York City? Yeah,

Dr. Muneeb Shah 4:04
so New York Hudson Yards, we see a wide range. I had just I just moved here actually from I grew up in New York and then basically had a homecoming now that I’m back in New York, but I was practicing North Carolina for a while where the patient population is actually quite different. In New York, we do everything you know, we do cosmetic procedures, lasers, the latest and greatest stuff we have. We do general dermatology people come in with acne hide retinitis suppurativa, psoriasis, all the different conditions, rare disorders, rashes, young kids come in with different rashes. So I treat a wide variety of ages from you know, babies all the way to people that are 90 100 years old and Mohs surgery is a process where it’s a very precise skin cancer removal procedure where you get a better 99% cure rate. It’s where you remove it in the office. You look at it underneath the microscope, you make sure that you have clearance of the tumor right there in the office, if you don’t you remove more if you if you have clearance, you sew it up. And when you do that you can confidently say that the patient is cured when they leave the door, which is an amazing thing. So, like I said about a 99% cure rate for So for anybody who likes to see results with their work, it’s a very gratifying field to be in.

Kara Goldin 5:19
That’s just changed significantly, because I think most surgery used to be like, I mean, not that it isn’t scary, right? You’ve got skin cancer, if you are getting some Mohs surgery, but to have 99% effectiveness, I mean, that is with remove. I mean, that’s incredible.

Dr. Muneeb Shah 5:38
It’s absolutely incredible. And some of the procedures are what I would say quote unquote simple where it’s just one layer, and you’re done. But then sometimes the tumor is actually much larger than what meets the eye. And it can go 789 layers. And actually, you can get to the point where you can’t clear it in the office, and you have to take someone to an operating room. Now that’s extremely rare, but skin cancer is is can be a lot more aggressive than a lot of people can imagine. And so depending on what type of skin cancer you’re treating, you may end up in a situation didn’t expect when you actually start the case.

Kara Goldin 6:13
So interesting. So when did you actually start thinking about going into your own skincare line? Because I think, you know, obviously, anybody who’s been into dermatology office has seen different products, but not so many of them actually have products that are developed by the doctor themselves. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 6:35
Yeah, for sure. So I started creating content. I mean, I think that’s probably the best starting point. You know, I have expertise in dermatology and I have expertise in what type of ingredients are going to solve different people’s skin conditions. But really the start point for the brand has to be my social media presence and what I learned from my audience on social media, so I started creating content about four years ago, started on Tik Tok spread to YouTube, Instagram, and we dabble in all kinds of things. I have, you know, Snapchat, show that I do. So there’s there’s a million things now that it started, we started with tick tock, and I am really I really listen to the audience. You know, I don’t read every comment that comes in. But I read a majority of them, I’m getting a general sense for what people are feeling what people are needing where, where my recommendations are falling short. And so when we do these education videos, especially on YouTube, on how to treat a specific conditions, I was learning where people what people found to be too expensive. What people found, was not effective enough what people were looking for as far as ingredients and tolerability. And I was really learning from the audience. And I still felt that some of the recommendations I was making were falling short, like, oh, it has this one ingredient I don’t like but it’s the best thing that’s there, or it has, it’s missing a few things, but it’s probably the best thing on the market. And then I realized like, why don’t I just make the products I think are going to help the audience the best and what is going to help my patients the best. So the same conversations I was having in the in the office where the same conversations I was having online with people. And I still felt that there was this whitespace truly this problem solving whitespace where you could take a specific skin condition, let’s say it’s dark spots, and instead of buying four or five products that are going to solve it, could we put that into one formula and simplify people’s routine because that’s what most people want. Most people are not beauty enthusiast that want to stand 10 Step skincare routine. Most people just want better skin and they want one product or maybe two products that are going to accomplish that for them. So I took the problem that people were having. And I created basically all in one solutions for them. And so it was really the audience in all the feedback I was getting from the audience that informed the creation of the brand.

Kara Goldin 8:46
So you launched REMEDY How long ago did did you actually develop it?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 8:53
So we’ve been working on the brand for over two years. And we started really with products. So before I had the brand name REMEDY or a website or anything we actually started we went right to a lab in California and we started working directly with some of the best chemists in the industry. So we had products before we had even a brand name or a brand website or even how we were going to sell the products. So that was started over two years ago. And then we launched the brand only two and a half months ago and it’s been one of the craziest wild rides of my life and one of the one of the best learning experiences of my life as well. That’s

Kara Goldin 9:26
awesome. So what is the what was the first product that you launch with or products that you launch with?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 9:32
We launched with three products a lot of people launched with a routine I felt like there was a lot of cleansers and moisturizers and sunscreens out there that do a good job. I couldn’t confidently say that I had the best moisturizer on earth but we started with all treatments so we started with REMEDY for dark spots which is this nine ingredient in one solution nine like active ingredients you know it would be it would otherwise at another brand be maybe eight or nine products and Then we have REMEDY for pore size, this is something that helps with texture and minimizing the appearance of pores. And then we have a REMEDY for dry lips. And so the products are all named for what they do. Because I do think that most people just like I said, they want somebody, they just want better skin, they want to solve their issue, and they have to comb through so much marketing lingo to try to find the products are looking for. So I thought, not only would it make the products simple, because of how much it’s in them, and it can simplify the routine. But we’d also need to have the nomenclature of the products be simple so people could understand what they did.

Kara Goldin 10:28
It’s so interesting that you talk about dry lips, because I think so many people have it. And I’m convinced it’s so many different ingredients, like in a lot of these lipsticks. And, you know, what is it that is causing so many of these problems? For because it just doesn’t seem like as many people had these issues? Obviously you don’t, you know, you only grow older ones. So maybe it’s it’s part that but I just feel like it’s almost every age of people that I talked to, and particularly if you’re wearing any type of lipstick, that it is, or lip gloss, it seems to be a big problem.

Dr. Muneeb Shah 11:10
I think you’re asking the right questions. So the real question is what causes this issue. And if you can understand what causes it, you can either prevent it or you could try to treat it. And that’s that’s basically the basis of the brand. And so, when it comes to dry lips, the reason why we’re seeing this more and more frequently, it could be your toothpaste, right, you could be using a toothpaste that has an ingredient in it that your lips just don’t tolerate. But what I’m finding actually a lot and what we’re finding a lot in dermatology offices, and what a lot of the research papers are showing is that a lot of times when people have lip dermatitis or lip irritation and lip dryness, it’s usually an ingredient in your lip product that’s causing that problem. And so what we have here is on the market a lot of products with flavors, fragrances, essential oils that are known to be very common lip allergens, and they cause a very low level of inflammation to the lips. And what ends up happening is you you apply the lip product and irritates your lips just a little bit. And then you want to apply it more because you want to try to mask that sensation that you’re getting. And so it’s actually a lot of times the lip products that are sending you in this cycle. Now it’s even worse if you’re if your lip product is flavored, because then you lick your lips, because you’re like, oh, this tastes good, you start to develop a habit of licking your lips. And the saliva the enzymes in the saliva actually break down the lip and irritate your lip even more. So that’s why our products are formulated no fragrance, no essential oils, no common allergens in our lip product, because they’re trying to solve I guess, a lot of problem that potentially the industry even created, right. In fact, you know that the entire skincare industry started with soap and hygiene. So, so soap was the first skincare product ever created. And it was created because people were like, You need to wash your hands to prevent diseases. And what ended up happening was people started to use these beauty bars all over the body. And because those soaps at the time were very harsh, they would dry out the skin. And so because people had dry skin, they started to need toners and moisturizers. And so the skincare industry was born out of soap. And so a lot of times we still see this issue today where a lot of the products are causing the problems, that new products that need to come in and solve.

Kara Goldin 13:11
So interesting. So what are some of the common misconceptions about skincare? A you’ve, I’ve seen many of your videos, that you’ve talked about this, but I love how you’re not only making education entertaining, but engaging, right? Where people want to stay for a long time, I would guess that your engagement is more than five seconds per video because people are interested in this information. And so can you give us like some things that you’ve talked about about some of the common myths, misconceptions that are out there around skincare? Yeah,

Dr. Muneeb Shah 13:49
there’s a lot of you know, bogus trends and bogus marketing that occurs and we try to stomp them out in real time as they’re happening. So that could be just, I don’t know, people right now are using beef tallow, or they’re trying to make their own sunscreens at home. You know, there’s there’s a lot of stuff like that that comes up. And as they come up in the trend cycle, we try to do our best to dispel those myths, I think probably overwhelming the in the skincare industry, though. Some of the common myths are, your products need to be expensive, the more expensive the product is, the more effective it’s going to be. Oh, you know, it’s a $400 moisturizer, it must somehow be better than the $20 moisturizer that you’re going to find at Target. And it’s just not true. And it’s even more untrue. Now that I know after formulating my brand, I know how much it costs to formulate. I know how much these ingredients cost. I know exactly how much it cost to fill per ounce. I know what the packaging costs. And when you look at all of that, you know for a fact that there is no reason a product should ever be that expensive. So I think that’s one thing I’d really like to dispel. I think there’s so many marketing terms that are meant to confuse and convince you or either product is safer or better. For exam But one very common phrase is medical grade skincare, you know, there’s no definition of the medical grade, I could have called my products, medical grade skincare, but they would be no better than they currently are. And so, you know, a lot of these terms that we see are meant to convince you a product is better, safer, and they’re just not true. So I think people really need to lean into like, what what is the ingredients in this formula? What what is this product even going to do for my skin? And I think then people will make better decisions for this skin health. So those are things that we’re always like constantly as a theme trying to debunk

Kara Goldin 15:31
so interesting. Yeah, I developed a product called hint water and, and many years ago, and it’s I’ve definitely seen that over the years. I mean, words like natural even, you know, we don’t use this term but but I had been fooled by the word diet for years that diet was supposed to be healthier. Any products that called themselves diet, so I know that even in the skincare world that it’s the exact same thing, there’s just these tricky tricky words that are out there. What is a common word today that many people are using? That are kind of ingredients that you think seem like they’re very Oh, yeah, this must be a big one that I need to get on my skin that really is not as as useful for people as they might think.

Dr. Muneeb Shah 16:27
A lot of I mean, right now, you know, snail mucin is is hot, you know, it’s an ingredient out of South Korea. I like it, you know, it’s a moisturizing ingredients going to do as well as your glycerin or hyaluronic acid moisturizer. But, you know, is it a miracle? I’ve seen people say it’s curing their acne scars. And you know, it’s, I think one of the, probably probably what ends up happening nowadays, because there’s a lot of good information more than ever before out there is that people take something that’s good, and then they exaggerate what it can do. So, so that’s, that’s mostly what’s happening right now is you take an ingredient, snail mucin. I like it really good for moisturizing. And then they’ll say, Oh, it’s great for acne, or it’s great for acne scars. And it’s just not right. It’s just not going to do anything for those conditions. So it’s usually right now, like overhype, right, Vitamin C is a great, great one, right? Because Vitamin C is great for kind of discoloration is great for anti aging, but it’s not a miracle. And people claim it does all these incredible things. It just doesn’t do right. So it’s great to have in your routine. But I think if your expectation is so high, it’s going to always underperform. And I think that’s probably more than misinformation is happening now then people making up things that just don’t do anything at all, even though we do see it, we see that happening. But it’s usually at a smaller scale. I’ve seen

Kara Goldin 17:48
some of your videos, talk about products outside of the REMEDY line, which I love to you’re not just about, you’re still first and foremost a doctor and you’re going to try and help your patience and and that has expanded with social media to be a, you know, you’ve got a global audience where tons of people are listening to but you’ve talked a lot about some of the Korean products that are out there, it seems like you really like the way that a lot of us are formulated. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 18:22
Yeah, you know, South Korea has a really booming skincare industry. So a lot of the advancements product development, some of the newest, latest and greatest stuff comes from South Korea, even as somebody who’s created a brand, sometimes we’re sourcing stuff from South Korea, you know, just because they make the best of something, right? They’re they’re better at, you know, certain packaging design or they’re better at certain formulations. And even one of the labs we work with, has has a branch here in the US and they also have a branch in South Korea. So So yeah, so I mean, I think that they just drive a lot of the innovation, especially in sunscreen, they have some incredible sunscreens, they’re just not approved in the US, you actually can’t even technically sell Korean sunscreens in the US because the filters just aren’t approved by the FDA. And sunscreens are regulated as a drug. So this is a whole nother much longer conversation but but not everything can translate really well. But people love the Korean sunscreen. So I mean, for me, it’s really you know, where’s the science, you know, what products look and feel the best I’ve tried hundreds of products and actually the Korean and South Korean products actually are really affordable. And so that’s another thing is you can get pretty affordable products that are quite good and those brands are growing really really rapidly and they’ve been quick adopters of technology as well for their growth. So a lot of the a lot of the Korean brands have leaned in to Tech Talk Shop and other forms of marketing them help them compete with some of the US brands even though they’re not located here.

Kara Goldin 19:50
And how do you think REMEDY will really change the way people approach skincare when you think about your brand and what excited you to do this obvious So you, you wouldn’t launch these products if you didn’t believe in them. You talked a little bit about the science behind them. But there’s a lot. And so what do you hope to be able to accomplish with this line?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 20:16
No, I want to if we’re talking about like, high level vision, you know, I want to put sort of the skincare industry to a higher standard, you know, like, what are you actually putting in your products? Where are they coming from the ingredients? And what concentration and percentages are these at, you know, we’ve disclosed the percentages of all our relevant actives. The reason why is because there’s studies that show that that, you know, tranexamic acid is beneficial are done at two to 3%. So, if you put tranexamic acid on the ingredient list, I want to know what concentration that’s at, because it’s what’s been shown to be effective. And so, you know, I think we’re trying to raise the bar on on what people are going to get for their skincare, I think people will, my hope for the brand is that people will look at it as like, this is like the go to source for products that are truly efficacious, you know, we didn’t really go with like, it’s not a beauty brand, you know, I really look at it as like a brand that restores skin health. And so we’re really tackling skin problems and creating solutions for them and trying to maintain skin health throughout someone’s life. I really would like the skincare industry to be more like the longevity industry in a way where people are focusing on, you know, what’s, what’s in things, and also what’s not in things, thinking about how do I prolong the health of my skin over the course of my life, not so that I have the most beautiful skin and I’m not the tightest and don’t have a single wrinkle ever on my skin. That’s not the goal of the brand. It’s really just to have healthy skin and healthy skin is imperfect skin as well. So that’s the objective of the brand. But my hope is that, you know, we kind of hold the industry to a higher standard. So it drives innovation for the entire industry. I think that’s better for the consumer in the end, right, they get better products and will hold us like, you know, if REMEDY for dark spots is no longer the best dark spot product, and it’s going to force us to work harder to make better products.

Kara Goldin 22:08
Yeah, exactly. So what trends in skincare Are you currently super excited about that you feel like are, you know, kind of the hottest things that are out there.

Dr. Muneeb Shah 22:19
I think sunscreen has really exploded over the last four years, you know, people weren’t talking about sunscreen in this capacity. Now, anytime you see something explode like this, you know, you end up seeing like people who are like sunscreens on safe. And you know, that’s just not true. There are there are things I would avoid in certain sunscreens. But that’s, you know, beyond the scope of this conversation. So I am excited about, you know, the sunscreen use and the utility and the explosion of different sunscreen brands out there. I think that’s a lift for the entire dermatology world. One of the things I seen that I haven’t loved is, you know, we have a lot of teens, now, you know, tweens, you know, 1214, using really complicated skincare routines with exfoliating acids and retinols, when they really don’t have any skin issues that they need to be treating. So, you know, with the boom of the skincare industry and the boom of sunscreen, we’re also seeing like probably people who are overusing things. So it’s kind of like a balancing act. I think people are moving more towards skin embolism which I really liked this idea of using simpler routines. I think during the pandemic, a lot of people bought a lot of products, and they were using a lot of products at the same time and finding that maybe it was irritating the skin more than they hoped. So we’re seeing now people are really focusing on what works and trying to get to more of that three or four step skincare routine, which I love, because that’s the foundation of our brand. But also, that’s what we recommend in the office. That’s what every Dermatol no dermatologist has in the office, recommending you know, 910 Step skincare routines.

Kara Goldin 23:42
Yeah, definitely. And I see that a lot, too. I think more and more people are trying to go into less is more just because they just don’t want to be having all of these different steps. But I think also certainly, you know, the expense of it, too, is is a lot when you’re starting to put all of these different things together. So can you share a patient’s story, maybe a patient or somebody that you’ve just met on social media that has says, Oh my gosh, Dr. Shah, you’ve just changed my life. I mean, how, like, how does that make you feel as a I should say, not just as a doctor, but as an entrepreneur?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 24:23
As you probably know, best feeling in the world, right? When you create something or you do something that impacts people and in fact, like when we were building the brand and even on social you know I would I have a folder of screenshots on my my Google Drive of just feedback that I’ve gotten from people that really meant a lot to me. So a lot of people you know, they they look at the content Oh, this content is helping me but a lot of these people are helping me to you know, the feedback I get it gives me purpose truly and it’s literally the thing that drives this it is the core value You have everything I’ve done over the last four years from building social media platform to everything that I’ve done in the office to everything that we’ve built with the brand. It’s really it’s really to, to have that outcome is to have that feedback. And so, you know, I had somebody who, who wrote me a long email, no, I think it was a DM on Instagram, I have a good screenshot of it where he was like, I am not a typical skincare demographic, you know, I’m a millennial male, you know, I am not into beauty saw your content, I somehow become became interested in it. And I have this spot that looked unusual to me. And you know, I just this nagging feeling and all the content that you were making, I went in to see a dermatologist ended up being skin cancer, it got removed super early, I would have never went to the doctor if it wasn’t for your videos. Fashion Week, I was walking in New York, a model stopped me a male model. And he said, I started using Trent No, and because of your videos, and my skin got better. And it’s the only reason I had the confidence to audition. And now I’m walking Fashion Week. So I look at the brand. You know, I look at the reviews the before and afters. People are posting of their skin. I’m like, Are we true? We’re truly making a difference. I think if I ever move off of that central campus, then we’ve lost it. We’ve lost the vision. So a hunt that I mean, right question, because, because that’s what drives everything. So there’s there’s millions of interactions, but there’s so many that there’s so many, there’s a few that just really stuck out to me over the years. And they they drive everything that I do and say from there. So yeah.

Kara Goldin 26:32
So if you had a 30 year old come in with, let’s say, barely some wrinkles, what would the number one thing you say to a 30 year old? I don’t know if it makes a difference whether it’s male or female? But like, what would you tell them, you need to start doing X? Yeah,

Dr. Muneeb Shah 26:53
I would give them three steps, I would say cleanse, get a sunscreen that moisturizes do that everyday, you’re gonna be better off than 90% of people. If you really want to take it up another level, get them get a retinol to use at night. retinoids have the best data over time. They’re good for anti aging, texture, even maybe maybe even skin cancer prevention, you know, it’s kind of hit or miss with the data there. So I would say that would be retinal sunscreen, a cleanser, and you’ve pretty much are good to go.

Kara Goldin 27:26
So lasers, and I mean, there’s a million of them out there. It seems like there probably isn’t. But it seems like there’s all different kinds and lots of new ones developing, which ones are you most excited about? Lasers

Dr. Muneeb Shah 27:39
are super interesting to me. And, you know, I actually looking to make more content on this because I think there’s a huge opportunity to demystify the laser industry because I think that’s super confusing. When you walk into your DERM office or even you’re going to a med spa, you’re gonna get recommendations from that professional and you want to know whether or not that’s the right thing for your skin. Is it worth the money? What is it going to do for me a huge space there to demystify, but you’re probably right, probably not, maybe not a million, but 1000s of different types of lasers. I mean, I really like you know, the lasers are a tool, they’re a tool to accomplish a goal. So, there are many lasers that do many things. If you told me you know, you have some, you know, hyperpigmentation you know, I really like Clear and Brilliant if you had you wanted to tighten the skin I really like co2 and erbium and Halo and Fraxel. So there it depends on what you know, the goal is but lasers are incredible tools to achieve really outsized results compared to a lot of things. So I do look at skincare almost like it it is it is this, this this graph where you’re eventually going to plateau with skincare alone. And it really is the procedures in the office, these lasers usually that are going to help you break through those plateaus and that that came from my colleague, Dr. Maxfield, so I have to give him credit for that.

Kara Goldin 28:59
When you think about Botox and fillers, and I’m sure you get a lot of patients coming in and talking to you about this, do you has your opinion, what is your opinion and has that changed over time?

Dr. Muneeb Shah 29:13
Yeah, again, you know, I think patients need to be educated on it that needs to be done by the provider who’s doing these on what these are going to do for you. It’s interesting in my office, I mean, I don’t know it’s I think it’s different around the country and a different based on the demographic that you come and see your office. In my office. I’m seeing a lot less people interested in filler. You know, I think a lot of celebrities have dissolved their filler and I think people have seen filler and not like the way that it looks. I think filler again isn’t a great tool to replace lost volume. I just do less of it. It’s I usually focus a little bit more on lasers. Personally, I I feel like I can give people the results that they truly want with lasers where with filler I always feel like people are not always as satisfied as I’d like them to be. I do like I do like neuroimage letters like Botox and Dysport and Xeomin, in jeuveau, to really accomplish the the removal of, I guess, wrinkles on the upper face. But again, it’s a tool, you know, I think it can make people look unnatural if not done properly. I think if you have no movement and no expression, then some people don’t like that look. And so you need to know like, what these, what these tools are going to get for you and whether or not you want that result. The good thing, the best thing probably about Botox in general is that it only lasts three months, if you truly hate it. I always tell patients like this is one of the procedures I feel. If you did it like and you hated it, it would, it would, you know, there’s not really long term very rare long term consequences of it. So it’s almost like you could try it and if you hate it, then you don’t do it. And for me, like I get Botox done probably once a year. You’re supposed to get it done every three months supposed to get it done every three months, if you don’t want to ever have a crease on your face, but I liked the natural look. And I think if you do it once a year, you really prevent wrinkles, but you can still get the movement that makes you look unnatural. That’s my opinion. I think everyone has their own tastes when it comes to cosmetics. I’m a less is more guy. If you’re learning one thing, do you

Kara Goldin 31:12
see more and more men getting it done? Yes,

Dr. Muneeb Shah 31:15
we do. You know, the male cosmetic industry is growing rapidly. It’s still such a small subset. So there’s a lot of opportunity to grow right with with women, I think you’re gonna get marginal increases, right. But with men, there’s this huge space right untapped in cosmetics. Men are very interested in having better skin, men are very interested in looking more youthful usually starts with their hair, I find that they come in the first thing they notice is that they’re losing hair. Second thing I probably get from men is like under eye bags or dark circles. And so they usually come in with a particular problem that starts to bother them when they look in the mirror. The thing with men, though, is that they don’t like to share that they got anything done. It’s like they feel like it’s probably not socially acceptable yet. So when they come in the office, they’re like, oh, I don’t want to I don’t want anyone. And we don’t tell me because it’s HIPAA compliance anyway, so suddenly, we can tell you who’s visited the office, but they’re really about like, I don’t want people to know, I’ve gotten things done. And so I think once more men start opening up about it, more men will feel like, okay, I have these issues, I want to treat them. And now I know how to treat them. And then they’ll pursue paths. But I’ve actually had men bring in their wives because they found my content. And they both come in as like a family to get things done. So it’s actually been pretty cool. I think content makes it so that anyone can view the content and find the things that they like, I

Kara Goldin 32:36
love it. So are they bringing their kids with them too? Or? No, no, no,

Dr. Muneeb Shah 32:39
yes, we have, yes, we have kids that come in with a you know, we’ll have a whole family will come in, we’ll be like Mom, Dad, you know, two kids, and they’ll all get checked out. And you know, they found me on social, it’s pretty cool.

Kara Goldin 32:51
I love it. So best piece of advice you’ve received along the way and starting starting a business, obviously, you have a business, you have a practice that you’ve been growing very nicely over the years with your with your medical side of of your world, but now you’re in the physical goods, the skincare industry, what was kind of the best piece of advice that anyone told you? Oh,

Dr. Muneeb Shah 33:22
this is a good cloud, you know, best piece of advice, always hard to come up with like a best of something. But you know, I had a friend tell me, it’s easier to stick to your values 100% of the time, than 98% of the time. I think that’s very true. I think when you start compromising a little bit on what’s important to you, and what’s important to the brand, and what you really want to stand for, then you don’t know where to draw the line. Like which time are you going to break the rules, right? So I think sticking to your values, and like really doing it the right way helps you make decisions faster, in fact, because you know, like, you’re gonna stick to your core values, no matter what, there’s not this like weird gray area. So I think that was really good advice for me too. Because, you know, when you’re manufacturing products, there’s always ways to be faster. There’s always ways to be cheaper. There’s always ways to save money. So I think when you when you stick to your values, it’s easier to make decisions, in fact, so that’s, that’s probably the best advice I’ve gotten so far. I love it.

Kara Goldin 34:23
So Dr. Shah, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate you joining us and sharing your wisdom and we’ll have all the info for REMEDY and also for your practice in the show notes but appreciate you coming on and everybody should definitely check out the DERM Doctor all over social media to such great content. So so nice to finally meet you.

Dr. Muneeb Shah 34:48
Thank you for having me on and congrats on everything you built. Now as somebody who’s only three months or two and a half months into this company launch. I have an appreciation for the work that goes into launching something like what You built with him. So, congrats on everything. I think it’s an inspiration to everybody.

Kara Goldin 35:03
Thank you so much. All right. Well have a great rest of the week, everyone and thanks again, Dr. Shah. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit and of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book undaunted, where I share more about my journey including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and good bye for now.