Check Out Kayli Krasnow’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kayli Krasnow. 

Hi Kayli, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have a little bit of a storied past…not that it’s dramatic…I’ve just done a lot! I grew up wanting to do everything, and I feel like I’m well on my way. I also just learned that I am an enneagram 3, which means I often make choices based on what will make others proud at the expense of my own joy…which I have also done my whole life. My lifelong passion has been helping others, and I feel that I’ve done just that, but I have also always felt like I have to carry the weight of everyone’s problems on my shoulders. I have been a research tech in the transplant immunology lab at UTSW, an elementary school science teacher, a cardiopulmonary ICU nurse, a nurse practitioner with the Vanderbilt Heart Transplant team, and a primary care nurse practitioner. I am now an aesthetic nurse practitioner…and for the past few months since opening Hi, Finch, I have never been happier! A little bit about my path to where I am now as an aesthetic provider: I started getting botox when I was 26, but I went a few times with my mom while she was having treatments done, and I saw what a positive impact aesthetic treatments can have on your confidence. As a primary care nurse practitioner, I wanted to add some artistic creativity to my days, so I spent a year studying and training, and I started providing botox and fillers to the staff at our office. Through all of my studies, I realized that aesthetic medicine is much more than making people look pretty. It is a complicated, artistic, scientific, and challenging field to be in, and while my days are spent performing “aesthetic medical procedures,” I still spend a lot of time caring for patients’ overall health and wellness, and sometimes mental health is at the forefront of our appointments. 

In March 2020, my husband, Chad, and I were having one of our Sunday morning admin brunches at a local coffee shop (Sundays are our mornings to catch up on household business, upcoming plans, fantasizing about retirement, budgeting [ew…haha], travel, etc.), and we started talking about opening our own business. We thought about my experience as a nurse practitioner, his experience in corporate management, what type of business environment we’d like to create, who our target market could be, and that’s when Hi, Finch was born! Chad and I are both lifelong athletes, and in all of our experience with training and racing, we have not seen much marketing toward the fitness or endurance athlete community. We know that athletes are concerned with their overall health, but sometimes skincare falls outside of their priorities, so we wanted to create a fun space for this demographic to further their healthcare and healthy lifestyles. We also wanted to ensure that our office is a welcoming space for all genders, ethnicities, and ages because we know this type of environment feels like it only caters to certain genders and demographics. We focus on providing education for our patients to show that aesthetic treatments are not just beauty-related; they can improve your mental health and confidence, slow the aging process, and even potentially prevent skin cancer by reversing sun damage! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think that the road has been relatively smooth for a new medical practice opening during a pandemic! Creating Hi, Finch was a full-time job outside of my regular full-time position as a primary care NP. Our process included working very closely with Robbi Grayson, our business finance contact at Terri Ross Consulting, to develop our business plan and pro forma, scouting Nashville office space (which was quite tough in one of America’s top real estate markets…), applying for an SBA loan, and studying aesthetic medicine several hours per week, and attending trainings (I’m tired just thinking back on this). We signed LOIs on 3 different spaces and started the business loan process on each of these spaces, and they all fell through, which became disheartening, BUT Chad and Robbi kept me staying positive by saying “everything happens for a reason…” and now we have a FABULOUS office space in an up-and-coming area in west Nashville! The SBA loan is also not a quick process – we completed the process in about 8 weeks, but we have heard horror stories of the process taking well over a year! And, despite supply chain disruption, our contractors at Jasper Builds worked with us on every detail to ensure not only that our office was completed on time, but that the vision for our space came together just how we imagined! 

All in all, the process of opening a business is a lot more complicated than we ever could have imagined, so we tried our best to be patient and not rush anything (it took us 10 months just to come up with a name!). We have also been very fortunate to have the best team working alongside us, including our business consultants, contractors, vendors, and new staff. It is imperative to surround your people who believe in the success of your business as much as you do! 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a family nurse practitioner and have been training in aesthetic medicine for almost 3 years. I think that my drive, thirst for knowledge, and empathy make me a good aesthetic provider, as I take the entire patient into account when performing my assessments and executing my treatment plans. Confidence and self-esteem are not exclusive to certain demographics, so we are very passionate about providing treatments and skincare for all genders and ethnicities. We also take pride in providing natural-looking results to enhance your evolutionary features, not distort them (which is part of how we came up with our name, Hi, Finch – Darwin’s theory of evolution!). 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
We learned patience from the COVID-19 crisis. When starting a business, you have to work with a long list of people: consultants, banks, accountants, realtors, brokers, contractors, construction teams, interior designers, local retailers, suppliers, etc., and their jobs also depend on others in the supply chain, so having a great team of people to work with and being more empathetic is very important because the pandemic is a global issue, affecting not only people’s health but global supply chains as well. We hosted our grand opening party almost 2 months after our official opening as we were waiting on furniture and art to arrive (take a look at some behind-the-scenes photos of the grand opening in the photos)! Planning ahead (for anything) is also another key takeaway for anyone out there managing, running, or starting a business during this pandemic. Anyone out there reading this who knows me personally has heard about my travel itineraries, so you can imagine the diligence we have put into planning ahead with a new business. It’s not just hiking on a rainy day – not only do we have rent and bills to pay, but we now have employees that we are taking care of as well, and that weighs very heavily on our shoulders. We are prepared for possible shutdowns or worsening outbreaks with alternative ways of conducting appointments to protect the health and safety our team and patients, and ensuring that we can continue to keep our team employed! 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.hifinch.com
• Instagram: @hi_finch
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HiFinchMedSpa/
• Twitter: @hi_finch

Image Credits
Gabrielle von Heyking
Nolan Knight