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When listing houses, my favorite clients were always those who'd first hired another Realtor who did not sell it.

By the time they call me, they've had enough of the double-speak, smokey mirrors, and lousy marketing that's so common in the real estate business.

When Julia started her medical aesthetics practice, I knew little about what she did. But when I took a closer look at the industry, I predicted that Botox would become a commodity within a decade.

"You wait," I said, "in ten years, they'll have a kiosk at the mall beside the Starbucks where you can get your Botox while you're shopping."

I was right about the future, but I underestimated the timeline. By 2019, like so many fast food restaurants, drive-through Botox joints were opening along with the mall kiosks.

Nowadays, of course, there's a Botox joint on every corner.

I can't drive through Charlotte without seeing a dozen signs reading, "Today only! Botox for $10/unit!" Never mind that most folks don't understand what a unit of Botox is.

Doctors, nurses, and even dentists have gotten in on the game. And while there are those who have taken the time to learn the art (some from taking Julia's training classes), a great many have done little more than order the supplies.

I'll put it plainly: in the world of Botox, there are a lot of hacks.

Fortunately, Botox wears off quickly relative to other dermal injections and is often correctable by a highly skilled injector.

Not so much with other facial injections.

Dermal fillers, used to treat volume loss, can last for many years. And, while some can be instantly dissolved, others are semi-permanent and remain for years until they naturally break down.

And as with Botox, there are nurses, doctors, and anyone else with minimal training on syringes and needles (flu shot, anyone?) jumping on the filler bandwagon, often with disastrous results.

I know this because they come to Julia to get it fixed.

This is not surprising, of course. In every profession, some genuinely care about their work and are highly skilled.

And some who are only chasing the dollar by putting in minimal effort.

I've talked about this for years in the real estate sector, where most Realtors have laughably minimal training and focus far more on acquiring clients than delivering stellar results to the ones they have.

For a while, Julia and I looked at this situation very differently.

Say I wanted to open a gas station. I'd find a busy intersection with only one gas station and put mine on the opposite corner. I'd make it nicer, cleaner, and stocked with more stuff inside to draw people in.

Then, because it was nicer, cleaner, and better stocked - I'd charge more.

Customers would pay, and gladly so.

Secretly, I'd thank the guy on the opposite corner for the free advertising and contributing to my success.

On the other hand, Julia would tend towards building her gas station out in the desert along a back road where the next closest gas station was a million miles away.

So when everybody and their brother started offering dermal filler at discount pricing, she got a little worried.

"Relax," I told her, "this will be great for your business."

She was unconvinced.

But over the last two years, we've had a steadily increasing line of folks coming in to have her remove and redo the work they had done at a pop-up clinic or a Friday Night Filler Party.

Like the commoditization of Botox, my hunch was correct - it's been great for her business.

In business, do not fear the competition.

If you've taken the time to perfect your craft, there's no better source of new business than those who want to compete with you but have yet to do the same.

You might even want to send them a thank you letter.