Theodore Kapanjie

Theodore J. Kapanjie, DO is a well-known family medicine physician in the St. Louis, MO area. He is best known as the successful office manager of St. Louis Skin Solutions, located on Manchester Road, where he leverages more than 20 years of medical experience to help clients of all backgrounds.

St. Louis Skin Solutions has become one of the top options available for patients looking for help with a variety of skin issues. Under Ted Kapanjie’s guidance, St. Louis Skin Solutions has expanded the services it provides to its patients. Now, St. Louis Skin Solutions offers PRP therapy, microneedling, laser treatments, and dermal fillers, with options available from some of the leading brands in the world. He has helped bring the latest technology platforms to St. Louis Skin Solutions.

His time at St. Louis Skin Solutions has made him an exceptional manager of people. While he spends a lot of time leveraging his medical knowledge for the benefit of St. Louis Skin Solutions and its clients, he also manages the people who work at St. Louis Skin Solutions. It is his job to make sure that he puts his staff members and colleagues in a position to maximize their strengths for the benefit of the clinic and its patients. His time at St. Louis Skin Solutions has allowed him to build skills that serve him well as a family medicine physician.

During his time at St. Louis Skin Solutions, Theodore Kapanjie, DO has put his aesthetic medicine skills to use, helping patients look and feel their best. This gives people more self-confidence and a much higher level of self-esteem when they exit the door of St. Louis Skin Solutions.

Furthermore, Theodore Kapanjie, DO has helped St. Louis Skin Solutions stay up to date on the latest research in the field, making sure that they are consistently advocating for the best interests of the patient. This commitment to always placing the needs of the patient first is reflected in the glowing reviews St. Louis Skin Solutions receives.

Where did the idea for your career come from?

In 2003, Amy K Miler MD a family doctor and our founder was frustrated with the care that her patients were getting from specialists in the field of dermatology. Often there was more of a focus on medical issues or conditions and not so much on aesthetic qualities of treatments and outcomes. This is entirely understandable given that the medical profession is primarily focused on acute and episodic care and not necessarily aesthetics. She was also frustrated by all of the low-quality products sold to the public that were ineffective. She wanted to offer a solution to her prospective patients, blending her medical knowledge and her passion for skincare. She opened St. Louis Skin Solutions, with the goal of helping her clients discover their inner beauty by bringing together high-quality medical treatments and skincare products.

What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?

The team at St Louis Skin Solutions meets together at the start of the day. We review the schedule and prepare for our valued clients. Throughout the day I deal with human issues and finances. In the afternoon the team will do event planning.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I like to bring ideas to life by discussing with my teammates my vision and then I see how they react listening to their suggestions for refinement. We spend a lot of time developing advertising campaigns and promotional services and events. I like to outline the picture and have the group help color in the details.

What’s one trend that excites you?

People are getting more and more interested in their personal appearance. Covid has caused rising use of internet meetings and made people more aware of their appearance. In Aesthetic Medicine, which continues to grow year after year, this is great news. Getting treatments done nowadays is much easier than in the past and much more acceptable even for men. Technology keeps advancing. We can offer better treatments that are less painful and more effective.

What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?

I like to follow through on ideas and think critically about the pros and cons of ideas and how they overall will affect our company. I like to keep the big picture in mind. I also encourage my coworkers to contribute their own suggestions so that we can all intellectually “own” the idea which results in better execution and follow-through.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I think I would tell myself that I shouldn’t take myself and others too seriously. I would also tell my younger self to get out and do more backpacking!

Tell us something that’s true that almost nobody agrees with you on.

I believe it is very easy to read a person’s body language if you are attuned to it. The subtle clues are almost always present if you know what to look for.

As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?

I believe one successful quality of an entrepreneur is getting to know your clients and connecting with them on a personal level. This brings a lot more satisfaction to myself and my clients.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business?

Understanding social media is critically important nowadays whereas in past decades we dealt with more traditional avenues of media and advertising. Investing in a good search engine optimization company can pay dividends for just about any business. The public wants information right now and not 2 hours from now. Being available immediately with information is critical for engaging today’s consumers. There are many ways to achieve this from a robust web page design to chat rooms with boots to answer frequently asked questions. Being available on Omni dimensional platforms is important. There are so many areas to go look for information today you have to be available on most of them for successful client engagement.

What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?

In the past, we did go with one line of product that was not successful. We had to eat the cost of the product when it expired. To avoid this from happening again and in the future we started doing more client surveys of their interests and needs. This has helped us to offer new products and services that are in demand. We don’t necessarily have to go with our gut feeling about a product or service anymore. This has led to better and more engaging campaigns with clients and prospective clients. This has increased our ROI on advertising.

What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?

The aesthetic medicine field continues to grow. We see many clinics come and go over the years. If you want to start an aesthetics medical practice that is around year after year makes sure that your providers have sufficient training and are of the correct type. Know your state medical board’s law and guidelines about which licensees can fire a laser and who can inject. Pay attention to changing state laws and the political buzz about the industry. Also, stay away from expending too much capital at startup. Do not be wooed by the fancy slick laser sales pieces and salespeople from the device companies. Be very suspect about case studies detailing the ROI on devices as they almost always do not work out in real life. Lasers are extremely expensive and buying them used can save a lot of money and allow a nascent company to survive its first and second years. Be aware of the warranties that are offered by laser companies. It is understandable that you may want to spend 15k a year on a warranty for a device that you just purchased for 150k but this will eat up your profit. Many of these so-called “warranties” do not even include routine maintenance. Try to find and partner with a local independent repair person or company.

What is the best $100 you recently spent? What and why?

I recently got into home brewing and spent at least $100 on a new all-electric brewing system. I find home brewing relaxing, fun, and challenging. You can learn so much on YouTube nowadays and you can become razor-focused on learning new brewing skills. It’s a fun hobby with tasty rewards. It has gotten so much easier in the last ten years to brew high-quality beer because of industry engagement with the end-users (clients). It is a great success story. People who homebrew are a special breed and will spend a lot of time talking about their hobby with people that are just getting started. We want everyone to succeed. I always make sure that I share my homebrew with family and friends.

What is one piece of software or a web service that helps you be productive?

I believe our Search Engine Optimization company has made us a more successful company than previously. We have a great reputation, top-notch providers but previously lacked a presence on the internet. This changed quickly once we had a dedicated SEO company with business increasing 20-40%. We use our SEO company to bring our ideas of what we want on Social media and our web pages to fruition. I never went to school to learn about web page design and I am grateful to have professionals help me.

What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?

This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works by John Brockman. This book delves into the elegant solutions and thinking of a field of experts from all different disciplines and fields. What I find most refreshing is not necessarily the bottom line answers but the thinking and thought processes that go into their explanations. It is a wonderful way to get a glimpse into someone’s genius and refine our own skills in storytelling and critical thinking about issues. It shows us that not everything is as it appears.

What is your favorite quote?

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” – Henry David Thoreau. To me, this means simply that I am not so focused on catching fish but enjoying my time outside in nature and the state of deep relaxation I achieve. Fish are a secondary concern.

Key Learnings:

• Be realistic about budgets and expenditures for equipment for your company. Avoid falling victim to buying too much to start with and then getting crushed with overwhelming payments in the following years.
• Enjoy those around you and let them contribute to the overall goals of your organization. Think about moving forward and achieving goals as a team effort.
• Most salespeople in your field are not your friends and want to sell you something. Realize this and accept it. Treat them fairly.
• No one is more an expert about your business than you are. Be aware of the “consultants”, ask yourself why they call themselves consultants and what led them down this path.
• Beauty is not just an external appearance but a unified concept about health and a person’s self-image. People can have their lives changed in a positive manner when they have aesthetic medicine procedures done.