New U Women’s Clinic & Aesthetics is a premier women’s health and wellness concept that bridges the gap between traditional medical care and luxury aesthetics. Founded in February 2020, the brand delivers a holistic, “inside-out” model that includes skin care, injectables, body wellness programs and comprehensive women’s health services. 

At the center of it all is founder and CEO Dr. Rachel Fidino, a double board-certified APRN with over 12 years of clinical expertise in women’s health and advanced genetics. A two-time cancer survivor who experienced early menopause and pregnancy loss, Fidino built New U around the kind of care she couldn’t find for herself — evidence-based medicine delivered with a Four Seasons-level experience and a relentless focus on relationships over transactions.

In a recent episode of the “Meet the Franchise” podcast, Fidino sat down with 1851 Franchise Publisher Nick Powills to discuss how she “accidentally” found franchising, what makes New U different in a crowded med spa market and why she’s more interested in the person than the number when it comes to franchise growth.

A transcript of Fidino’s interview with Powills has been provided below. It has been lightly edited for clarity and style.

Nick Powills: All right, Rachel. First of all, I love your story. I know your story. So it’s going to be weird that I have to now ask you to retell your story.

But what I want to start off with is your accidental franchise story. How did you accidentally fall into franchising? Give me the backdrop on who you are and how you got to this place.

Dr. Rachel Fidino: Franchising wasn’t something that, when I opened New U, I thought I was going to do.

I came into a position where I had something not planned for happen to me — my business documents were taken and a competitor started right down the road. And so I was just kind of thinking, you know, I think as a business owner, you kind of want that control, right? You’re just like, “I don’t want everybody to have my documents.” You built this baby from the ground up.

But for me, it kind of turned on a light in my head of, “Why not allow other people to have a franchise, to be a franchisee and have that opportunity to open up their own New U location?”

There’s only one of me. That was also another component of it. If I could clone myself at 300 locations, I would, but that’s just impossible. And so I think as a CEO of a corporation, you have to realize: I can touch more people and have more impact if I can just get the right owners in here to be able to have a New U location so we can touch more lives and help more people on their journey.

Powills: If anyone were to read reviews on the business, they’re going to see a consistency of transformation — deep, deep reactions to what you’ve been able to do in their lives.

How are you going to protect that as you evaluate franchisees coming in? How do you make sure that same love and care for customers exists when you bring someone else in? How are you preparing for that?

Fidino: It’s definitely about finding the right owners. We’re looking for quality over quantity.

For me, it’s making sure we get the right owners, and then we train them — and we train them at the heart and the mission of having that New U location. I think that’s the trickle-down. You can have a really good owner who starts with one location, and then, as they’re following the direction of the ship — they don’t want to start their own ship, they just want to follow in the direction we’ve created — they can have multiple units, multiple locations.

So for me, it’s making sure that from the get-go we’re getting the right owners. We’re kind of a ground-up model. We’re not, at this point, looking at acquiring a bunch of existing med spas. Potentially, we’ll be looking at acquiring other med spas down the road, but right now we’re trying to find people who want to have that New U model but want to start something from the ground up with us and just go in that direction. I think that’s really important.

Acquiring a med spa that’s already out of the 1.0 phase would be a lot harder just for the fact that there’s going to be a little bit more cleanup and training of how to potentially run an operation successfully. So for us, it’s making sure that when we’re … I always say, at least in my business, I’m slow to hire, quick to fire. Same exact scenario when it comes to a franchisee.

I’ll be slow at bringing in these franchisees because I’m really looking for the person. We can teach everything else, but you can’t teach how somebody is going to follow the direction of the ship.

Powills: So what I hear out of that is “protect the house.” Protect the culture — that’s going to be essential to who you let in.

I would imagine that’s part of the magic of how you were able to create a point of differentiation in the marketplace. You and I have talked about it — there are many med spas, so technically your competition is quite wide. But when you look at unit performance — and we’re not going to get deep into the financials until the FDD is completely final — the success is clearly there in what the performance of the business is.

How did you take this different approach in culture? How did you create a point of differentiation? How did you stand out in a marketplace that had competition in it?

Fidino: I think I went about it in a little bit of a different way.

I always say there’s determination, discipline and delegation — those are my three Ds that I follow and used when I crafted the business. But I also looked at the business in a different regard. Instead of “everybody on the corner has a med spa,” I went with a wellness approach. I went with a health approach.

If you look at the female in particular — we primarily take care of women — if you treat her on the women’s health side — you treat her hormones, you focus on her weight, you focus on her inner beauty — her outer beauty is going to follow second.

So I took a different approach. Now in the industry, five years later from when I opened, that’s commonplace. When I started five years ago, a lot of people weren’t utilizing this concept. They might have had a med spa, but they weren’t really thinking on the women’s health side or the holistic side or the weight side of things. I’d been doing that for several years, so I was ahead of the game as far as — our slogan is “Where wellness meets beauty.”

I always focused on the inner beauty, knowing that I could internally market those patients without having to go out and look for new patients and spend marketing dollars. I could look internally at my own patient demographic and then target them for our med spa services. It was just very easy to do.

That’s essentially how I differentiated myself quickly. But then I also made sure I had a really good team around me right out of the gate to help me be successful. For example, I’m not a bookkeeper, I’m not a CPA, I’m not an accountant, so I’m not going to take that on. I made sure I got the team around me that was going to take that on and help me with the consulting piece and make sure that I’m following the rules.

There were things that were not in my wheelhouse, and I made sure I had a really good team around me that would help propel me to that next level a lot quicker.

Powills: As an outsider looking at the business, I think the big statement you just made is: you took an inside-out approach.

That’s level one. We’ll get into the business operation in a second. But I think most, if not all, med spas take an outside-in approach. Maybe they get to the inside eventually, but they almost focus on everything on the outside. That doesn’t solve the core challenges that a female is going through — that’s my perception.

That approach, whether you’re a franchise or not, helped you create such stickiness with your customer base and with your staff because it was a different way of looking at: How do you sell a service or product that’s going to cost money to a population?

My question is: Why do you think, even today, your competitors may not fully understand what it means to understand a female from the inside out? I think they still index on outside in. Why do you think that is?

Fidino: Because it’s a transactional relationship. It’s an easy answer.

People are focused on the transaction. I’m focused on relationships, and that’s what this business is built on. If you really pay attention to your patients and you really focus on the relationship aspect, everything else is going to be the trickle-down effect.

They’re going to trust you. They’re going to respect you. They’re going to know that this is way more than a transactional relationship. I’m not out there to get the sale for just today. I’m looking for a lifetime patient.

I’m looking for somebody where I want to treat the sister, the mom, the entire family. That is how I built New U — one patient referral at a time. That is the best compliment I can get as a business owner: that I’m taking care of generations. That says something.

I think that’s the big differentiator between me and potentially other businesses that are out there, whether they’re in the franchise space or not.

We are kind of the first to market when it comes to looking at a women’s health practice that’s franchising. That’s very unique, because that’s not been done to date. So for us, we decided that I can touch way more people. If I ingrain in these franchises to focus on the patient, focus on the relationship — if you can build that out of the gate, you will be successful because they’re going to trust you and they’re going to tell all their friends and family to come and see you.

I pay attention to the details. The money is in the details in a lot of regards. I pay attention to: What do my patients drink when they come in? Do they want spa water? Do they want bottled water? What music do they want to listen to?

We offer them a comfort menu. This is a Four Seasons-type approach. When they come in, it’s very unique from that initial encounter. Patients pay attention to that because, frankly, there is really not a lot of great customer service out there.

So when you come in and you get pampered — even for a GYN appointment, you’re getting a hand paraffin when you’re getting your Pap done — who the hell does that, you know? For us, it’s a different approach. But patients know that in the details, they’re choosing to spend money to come and see us because they’re getting all of these other services that we’re really not charging for.

I don’t charge for a comfort menu. It’s just part of coming to New U. That’s the unique experience.

Powills: I think you’re in a unique position because, one, in franchise brands, I don’t think there are a lot of leaders who are actually female who lead the businesses. The business is so good that a guy can come in here and say, “I’m going to operate this thing,” but you being in tune with these micro details ends up being so important.

I’d imagine for you to get to this point — how you really approach customer service — it has to be built on your life story. You were missing these things in your life, and you’re like, “Why can’t a business give this back in a category that is really, really sensitive?”

Can you talk about that?

Fidino: Right. I developed cervical cancer at a very young age. I went through menopause at 32, and I’m going to be 43 here in a few months.

For me, it was finding this void in health care where hormones were not discussed. Nobody would put me on hormones until I found the right clinician who would do that. I gained 40 pounds, and I was like, “My hormones aren’t being addressed. I gained 40 pounds. I feel horrible.” I was aging at a very fast pace. I thought, “Oh my gosh, I don’t want to look like I’m 90 years old and I’m in my 30s. This is insane.”

I really had to find and craft this model that could take care of the whole patient, because this didn’t exist when I started New U.

It was very interesting when I started it because I was on hormone therapy and I didn’t know what would happen. It was very hard to find lending because this hadn’t been done before. Going to a bank and asking for a loan for something that hadn’t been designed before was very, very hard. I got a lot of nos.

I don’t care if somebody gives me a no. Somebody’s going to give me a yes, because I’m not going to give up until I get my yes. I found the right team and I was able to launch this.

It was because I wasn’t having this done for me. I was done with the “cattle approach” in health care — running women through, just “on to the next, on to the next,” and not spending time with your patient. I knew if I followed my own approach and never moved my moral compass, the business would be just fine.

Powills: This is an inside-out personal question, but do you ever give yourself permission to pinch yourself about how far this has come? Obviously, you have a whole new chapter that’s going to be written in franchising, but do you give yourself permission to pinch yourself on what you’ve accomplished?

Fidino: It’s super interesting. Actually, it’s one of my weaknesses.

I feel like there are different price tags on people, right? And I feel like, number one, I don’t have a price tag. That’s why I didn’t sell out to private equity — because if you don’t have a price tag, nobody can buy you, right? That was one of my biggest things: I don’t have to move my moral compass.

But when it comes to accomplishing things … For example, I passed legislation a few years ago in our state for breast MRI for women. It took me a few years to get that across the finish line. I got the news, I got the call that it was signed into law — and I had a patient to see a few minutes later, right?

So I went out to dinner with a few close friends. I think that I just … When you keep driving forward, sometimes I don’t give myself that moment of, “Well, that was pretty cool what you just accomplished.”

But I feel like my time on this earth — because I’ve had cancer twice — I know it’s limited. Everybody’s number is going to be called at a different point. So I have work to do. I have a legacy to build and a legacy to leave behind when my time is up.

I can guarantee you one thing: I’m not going to stop. I have my faith, I have courage and I have a lot of determination and grit. I’m not going to stop until I finally feel that my work on this earth is done, and whenever that might be, I’m going to keep pushing hard.

Powills: I’m glad you gave that answer because when we’ve polled franchisees after they’ve made a decision to buy, we ask, “What pushed you over the edge?” There’s a primary and a secondary. Primary is culture, and secondary is the business model.

On the culture side, it’s believing that the person or the team you’re investing your life savings into is going to truly have your back. What we just heard from your answer — when you’re talking about legacy, being grateful for the shortness of life — it means the decisions you make are with a North Star that comes with that moral compass.

Which means, above franchising — which technically, in many situations, could be seen as a “dirty” business — we’re establishing to the buyer: you’re buying from Rachel. Yes, New U exists. Yes, there’s going to be a business model. But you’re buying because Rachel’s North Star has built it to this point and she’s ready to share what she’s built with you.

I think that’s awesome.

I think the other component of that is: Long-term franchising is its own entity, its own business. It’s the biggest beast you’ll ever have — and you’ve accepted that. But that’s also part of the strategy of: “I do not want to be an operator as much as I want to be an owner.”

Can you talk about that — shifting from operator to owner and how you’ve systematized the business?

Fidino: That is the biggest thing that needs to differentiate me. I’ve been seeing patients. I can see that aspect of it.

But my long-term approach is to be focused on these franchises and building this out, and focusing more on being the owner, less the operator. That is why we systematized this business from the time we opened, knowing that if people have the playbook, if people know what they’re doing, if we have an incredible manual that can guide them beautifully, then they’re going to be able to execute very nicely.

A lot of med spas haven’t done that. They haven’t systematized. It’s the Wild West out there. If you go to social media, it’s like, “Holy cow, what’s the latest trend?”

For me, it’s all SOPs and operations. I don’t take credit for all of that. I call it the “Swiss cheese” approach, which we use in our business. If it gets to me, the buck stops with me. If it’s come to me, now we have to address it. But there should be so many systems and policies and procedures in place that I’m the final solution.

If there’s a problem that’s now come down to me, I’m going to be fixing it, but there should be all these other layers in the business. If you systematize it, there should be few and far between that I’m catching.

I have a team that does that for me because, like I said, I love to delegate. I don’t like to do things that I just don’t have a passion for. I don’t have a passion for SOPs. Somebody else in my business does.

Powills: The magic of what you just said is you’ve operationalized the med spa. We’ve hit on the emotional side, but the operational side means that when a franchisee buys in, there are playbooks and structures they can follow.

In this industry, historically, the SOP is built around a product you’re buying from a manufacturer — a laser for hair removal, Botox, whatever — and most of the industry has leaned into, “We bought this tool, and that’s the SOP.”

You said, “No, let’s build a process underneath it.” It’s the inside-out approach. And, honestly, I don’t think a lot of businesses — forget about med spas — even approach it that way. I think your approach is tremendous.

On that front, I think that’s going to be the magic on the franchise side. If that’s the governor of how you qualify franchisees — most franchisors qualify outside in: “How much cash do you have? How fast will you grow?”

If you go the reverse — “Let’s look at your grit and hustle. Let’s look at your moral compass. Let’s look at your dreams and aspirations and see if we align” — all that becomes currency for the right people. It changes the profile of who can come in with this inside-out approach.

What are you seeing already with early franchise interest?

Fidino: It’s very interesting. We haven’t really done any marketing. We’re just out of the gate, right? We have two potential franchisees who just know who I am.

One, I’ve never met her before. We’ve had conversations since she reached out for an inquiry, but she’s made it very clear: “I just want to be part of this brand. This brand is so incredible. I don’t want my own ship. I want to follow and just keep recreating this.”

They’re serial business owners. They know the business side. But once again, it falls back to: I’m looking for the person. As long as you get the right people — and that’s the same thing when we hire our team here.

When we have open positions, I put people on the bench. We’re always hiring. I’m benching a lot of people, and I might move them up to the major leagues at some point to join us on our team. But out of the gate, we’re always looking for top talent.

I’m never going to fill a position here with a warm body. I refuse to do so because it’s all about culture at the end of the day. One bad egg can destroy it for any business. Those people come and go very quickly in our business.

Even at the reception level, people don’t realize a receptionist can make or break your business. That’s who’s answering the phone before they even get to the back with us. It’s really making sure you recruit top talent from the franchisee all the way through to the reception level.

Powills: With all these great foundational pieces you’ve talked about, what’s the dream? Where does this go? Where do you want it to go?

Fidino: I have really, really big dreams as far as a five-year plan. I only look at life in five-year increments because otherwise it’s just too cloudy for me.

I’m a visionary. I like to look ahead. I believe the universe will move how it needs to move based on how I’m thinking and what I’m putting out there.

Once again, I really think it falls back on getting the right franchisees and seeing what can come of it. I know some of the biggest competitors in the med spa space, and I think our approach is just unique and different.

When I look at a five-year plan of how many locations I want to have, I’ve had dreams about how many locations I want to have and how many franchises we want and how many locations they will eventually have. Three hundred was that five-year number that I wanted. I had a dream about it.

Will that happen? Maybe yes, maybe no. Some people might say, “You’re effing crazy, there’s no way.” I’m fine with that. But you know what? I’m not going to just chase a number. I’m chasing a person.

That is the biggest thing this falls back on. Wherever we are in five years, I’ll know I’ve done it the right way. I’ve been in business for five years, and I just don’t move my moral compass. As long as I can go to sleep at night, have my integrity and know I’ve run this business ethically and morally sound, we’re going to get the right people.

Powills: I think if you can hold on to what you’ve done before franchising — the things we’ve talked about: hire slow, fire fast, protect from the inside out, protect the culture, don’t let toxic get into the system — if you apply all those things you used to build a tremendous business at the corporate level to franchising, whether it’s 300 or three, you’re going to build tremendous success.

You’re going to get people in who listen to you because you are the expert and say, “How can I be part of this?” Like the candidate who said, “I just want to be part of this club.” You’re going to build something super valuable. I’m very excited to see where that goes.

On that same front, talk about the flip side of the dream: what keeps you up at night right now?

Fidino: Well, there are a few things that keep me up at night, but staffing is one thing that always keeps me up at night.

I’m internally different from a lot of people who want control over their staff. I am all about personal staff growth. What keeps me up at night is: We meet with all of our team by the end of the year, and for us it’s really looking at, “Where do you want to go?”

I want people to travel from all over the country because my nurse injector is here — not because Rachel is here to inject you. It’s trying to build them out.

So for me, staffing is one of those things I always think about. I always think about culture and, “Am I…?” I try to know my staff’s love language — what makes them feel fulfilled — and make sure we’re doing those little things.

As we grow — we’re in a lot bigger space now, we’re more separated from each other — I always fall back on making sure my staff is taken care of, that their needs are met, that their growth is met, that we’re hiring the right people and looking for top talent.

That’s what wakes me up in the middle of the night. And if I get these wild ideas in the middle of the night, I’ll jot them down just to remind myself in the morning. But that’s one of those things that always keeps you up: making sure your team is taken care of.

Powills: It’s not a secret in business: When you take care of your team, they take care of your client. And when they take care of your client, your client spends more money. That’s just good business.

Yes, it starts with taking care of people, but good creates more good. I love that. That’s another great foundation. Again, not to sound like a broken record, but I think the work you’ve put in to build a foundation that came from the challenges and fuel of your life story has now positioned this so that, if I’m a franchise buyer, yes, I’m going to look at what it costs to get in. Yes, I’m going to look at how much I could potentially make.

But I’m also going to look at the depth of the founder. Will this founder absolutely have my back in the structure? Clearly, you’ve showcased that in our discussion.

What I want to close with is just final words. If there is a candidate watching this right now, what do you want them to know about New U?

Fidino: I think the biggest thing is, like you said, “Where wellness meets beauty.”

We are looking for the right franchisee who’s looking to take care of the entire patient. A lot of people are tired of the medical community. They’re tired of that runaround — how patients are being treated.

From us, whether you’re looking at it from a business perspective, from profitability and where you can go, or from the standpoint of bridging that gap of caring for patients and knowing that the profit is going to follow if you just do the right thing — that’s what this is.

We have an inquiry form on our New U Women’s Clinic website where they can go in, put their information in and some of their financials, but we also have questions like, “Why do you want a New U? Why do you want to be part of New U?” That helps us go through that process with them and then bring them in for private conversations to see: Is this really the right person, the right fit for us?

If it’s not, that’s not somebody we’re willing to wager on. It’s just too important.

So I think if it’s somebody who wants to be part of something really, really special, who wants to make a big difference wherever they may be, this is absolutely the right choice. This isn’t a watered-down med spa. This is very much about caring for the whole patient and looking at a premier, Four Seasons–style approach with a relationship at stake.

Powills: I’m going to add one other element because I saw it with my own eyes, and I’m trying to create a visual for anybody who might be watching this from the outside.

You can see there are a lot of great things happening. You can listen to a conversation like this. It’s almost like looking at a resort in Mexico — you’re like, “It’s pretty, it looks like it’s on the beach,” but the pictures just don’t do it justice.

Then you walk in and you’re like, “Holy cow, I’m really at a retreat. I’m going to de-stress.” That’s the feeling you get when you walk into the building you built and the culture you built. You can see it and you can feel the good juju that’s in there.

So to someone looking at this space, I think getting to see your unit is going to be essential to them being able to compare apples to apples if they’re looking at another business — to see just how special and meticulous you’ve been in the details to build something awesome.

Rachel, I’m grateful that you gave me some of your time and told some of your story. Thanks for doing this.

Fidino: Hey, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Powills: I’m Nick. This was another episode of “Meet the Franchise.”

Watch the full interview here.

For more information, visit: https://www.newuwomensclinic.com/franchise-locations/.