As Haute Beauty continues its “Chat with Haute Beauty Leaders” series, Haute Media Group Cofounder Seth Semilof hosted a discussion with Dr. Ami Shah Vira, a representative of the Haute Beauty Network from the Austin market.

The interview fostered discussions surrounding Dr. Shah’s college highlights, career ambitions, and the efforts to juggle a career and family.

Dr. Shah is an eyelid and oculoplastics expert, board-certified in ophthalmology, and fellowship-trained in oculoplastics. She specializes in all facets of oculoplastic surgery including upper and lower blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), brow lifts, mid-face lifts, cosmetic injectables such as Botox Cosmetic, and Xeomin, and more.

Here are some of the questions and answers from the exclusive interview with Dr. Shah:

Seth Semilof: You went to different schools throughout medical school. How did those choices get you to where you are today?

Dr. Ami Shah Vira: After med school, I wanted to move back home. I was born and raised in Arizona. I took the opportunity to go back home to do my training. I thought I was going to stop at ophthalmology and be a generalized surgeon but during my residency, I fell in love with eyelid surgery. I liked the realm of being a cosmetic surgeon and doing cosmetic surgery to doing reconstructive surgery. I left Arizona and bounced across the country to Ohio State for fellowship training to get some more focused training and expertise in that field.

SS: After doing 12 years of schooling, you moved to Austin. How did you set up your business?

DASV: When we first moved out here, I was pretty naive straight out of training. No one teaches you about practices so I joined a small group. It wasn’t the right fit. During that practice, I had my first kid. Trying to balance building your whole practice and being a new mom wasn’t the right fit for that practice. I moved into a second practice, it wasn’t the right fit either with how much time I could focus on the work-life balance, so the last two years, I actually opened my own practice. It has been great tailoring it to focus on my patients and my expertise.

SS: Tell us a little about what you learned and some advice you could give to someone that’s in the same shoes looking to make a similar decision.

DASV: I was pretty much thrown into it. I was 35 weeks pregnant and I wasn’t going to get maternity leave for more than 2 weeks. For anyone that’s a mom or who has had a baby, man or woman, 2 weeks is definitely not enough to come back from leave. I made the decision to walk out, I came home and told my husband that I didn’t have a job. I was debating these options, I was like should I start my own practice or should I just wait it out? My husband said I think you need to start your own practice, people like you, and your referring doctors are looking for you. That week off, we put together a business plan and just started it. I built this practice during the pandemic. It’s been great but definitely a learning experience. My biggest takeaway is to be a good person, be a good doctor, and people will look through loopholes that aren’t working perfectly in your business.

Watch the interview below: