[quote style=”boxed”]Most people know that I’m a really focused, goal orientated person. What they don’t know is that my focus stems from the fact that I hate leaving a project unfinished. I’m not sure why, it just bothers me.[/quote]
Dr. Nwe is a diplomat of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and is passionate about her work as a weight loss physician. She is also a practicing primary care physician and board certified in Internal Medicine.
She is the founder of Ace Medical Weight Loss Center, a successful physician supervised weight loss practice in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She advocates behavioral change in the diet as important as the initial weight loss strategies. Dr. Nwe does not recommend gimmicky weight loss diets or medicines without proven track results or long-term sustainability.
She has structured and refined her weight loss techniques using portion control, initial intensive counseling and use of body fat analysis to guide further weight loss strategies. Her primary interest and area of research is various portion control aids and their use to induce behavioral changes for long-term success. She has been intensely involved in development of weight loss techniques and aids – which are easy to use by patients. Through her research, she has invented the SlimPlate System.
In her practice, Dr. Nwe is attentively listens to her patients’ successes and challenges, in maintaining a healthy weight, while counseling patients on obesity and healthy lifestyle. Her patients’ challenges become her own and that gives her motivation to find a solution for them. She also concentrates on myths related to weight loss and gives lectures and presentations to the local community. In her spare time she likes to play chess, racquetball and travel.
What are you working on right now?
I am continuing to work on the SlimPlate System, my step portion control kit.
Where did the idea for SlimPlate System come from?
The idea for the SlimPlate System came from my practice of obesity medicine. Talking with my patients, coaching them on the healthy ways to lose weight and watching their challenges along the way lead me to create something easy for them to use.
How do you make money?
I am a practicing physician, so seeing patients is a big part of my business. The second half of my earnings comes from retail sales of the SlimPlate System and the group weight loss classes based on its teachings.
What does your typical day look like?
Being a physician means every day is different, but a “typical day” could go something like this…
Usually I wake up at 7:30 am, go to the hospital and make rounds until 9am.
Then head to my clinic for Internal Medicine until 3 pm. After 3pm my weight loss patients start. I mostly see the weight loss patients in group of 8-12, based on demand.
That is the most fun of the day. The patients share their experience and success from last month, I give a short lecture and trouble shoot the challenges they.
During the last hour of the day, I meet with the SlimPlate System team. We plan future marketing campaigns. We brainstorm new social media content and I personally fact check all the articles in the queue. See being an obesity doctor, I take pride in sharing information which is full of scientific facts yet simple enough to keep the consumer engaged. I want to make sure that we always create content based on the facts.
How do you bring ideas to life?
It is easy to bring an idea to life when you strongly believe in it. I strongly believe in long-term success when a portion control method is used in weight loss. My patients’ prove this to me every day.
It started as a portion control kit prototype. We used it in the clinic, collected feedback from our patients, modified it several times and the final product is now in the market. We did clinical research study and the data collected from 2009 till 2012 was presented during the ASBP annual meeting.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The “lose weight right” trend is my favorite, both from a physician stand point and as the creator of a portion control kit. More consumers are choosing safe weight loss solutions over the quick success of dangerous pills and powders. This makes me excited because these safe solutions cause a change in lifestyle/ alter your current habits, which is more maintainable in the long run.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
There are some challenges along the way with the timely correction. Like we needed a manufacturer changes for better quality, marketing plan changes, but they were timely corrected.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
We wasted a lot of time, about a year actually, with the first manufacturer we paired with. The product quality just wasn’t there and the price was really high but I didn’t listen to my gut. If I had to do everything over again, I would have looked into more manufacturers.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
This might sound corny, as a doctor I take my patients success to heart. When they lose the weight we all succeed. So I really internalize that processes that help them reach their goals and suggest that everyone else do the same no matter what industry you are in.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
Like I said before, initially we were unhappy with the prototype from the first manufacturer. We just didn’t like the quality of the product. It took us about a year and a lot of wasted time, but we did not want to use a low quality product. So we scratched the plan to continue with them.
I attended the world largest ceramic manufacturing trade show and chose ten manufacturers. Then I sat down with all ten. I even visited each factory. Finally, I was able to choose one, that I thought would give us the highest quality at the most competitive price. All the hard work really paid off because we are still very pleased with them. The overall quality is so much better than the first company. Even the content of raw material is better (SlimPlate System is a bone china quality without using actual bone in it) which gives us another amazing benefit to help differentiate us.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Without giving away everything, I am able to tell you we are about to launch a sister product to the SlimPlate System. We call it the Physician Partner Program. The weight loss industry is a $13 billion business and our new program will let physicians of any specialty get in on the action without decreasing the quality of care that they provide.
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you go about it?
If I could one thing I would want the world to be a healthier place. I would want more people to maintain a healthy weight and stop smoking. I feel like my dream is starting to come true every time I see a new patient.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
Most people know that I’m a really focused, goal orientated person. What they don’t know is that my focus stems from the fact that I hate leaving a project unfinished. I’m not sure why, it just bothers me.
What are your three favorite online tools or resources and what do you love about them?
Google Analytics- This is the one-stop shop for everything web traffic related. Who doesn’t love Google Analytics?
Alexa – I love Alexa because it allows me to track my web site progress and compare to my competitors.
Facebook- I love Facebook both personally and professionally. FB insights offer tons of detailed data about my customers.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Dementia Express: Lose Your Memory in 100 Ways. It’s not a business related book however it is a fun read. It puts a humorous spin on getting older and is filled with brain busters that everyone can benefit from. Come to think of it I might be a little bias; I am married to the author.
Three people we should follow on Twitter and why?
@weightloss Everyday Health
@goodhealth Health magazine
You might not be in the health industry but medical news affects us all and these are both great reference sources.
@thelemonbowl The Lemon Bowl
I love Liz from The Lemon Bowl. She produces great recipes that are fun and easy to make even for the most novice chef like me.
Who is your hero?
My nieces are my heroes. They both think and act without limitations, which inspirers me to do the same.
Connect:
SlimPlate System on Facebook:
SlimPlate System on Twitter: @SlimPlate
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.