Maggie Sellers On Why She Got a Breast Augmentation—And What No One Tells Ambitious Women About Surgery, Recovery & Self-Confidence

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1:03in case you missed it you're allowed to be hot smart and rich so let's get into it hi angels welcome back to another episode of hot smart rich so i'm here with katie who flew in from toronto we have a really big weekend of my family meeting courtney's side of the family and so katie flew in here a few days earlier to do some work and we have just made it to film at the Spotify studios. Are you freaking out? I am kind of freaking out. Like we got to the front door and I was like, oh my God, like we're at Spotify. This is intense. Also, doesn't it like kind of bring back old corporate life for you?

1:38It did. Yeah. As soon as I walked in and there was like the iPad where you had to like punch in and you're waiting for someone to come and the receptionist is like, they will be with you now. I'm going to message them on Slack and Maggie and I are like, um, we have like 50 WhatsApp channels that we can't keep straight. I felt like a total throwback because I don't remember the last time I, well, Salesforce was honestly kind of the last time I was in this structured of an environment. But they have this like really cool pod set up. So huge announcement is that we are officially managed by the Spotify Creator podcast program, which is so freaking cool.

2:13So freaking cool. And so with that, we get to use the Spotify studios. So not that we'll record here every single time, but obviously I had to take advantage of it when we were invited yeah so they have this like really cool what's it called pod station they call it pod city pod city which i said we're like entering love is blind going into the pods i can't relate because i don't really watch reality tv but like it's it's a very interesting little it is a little city you know there's like 12 rooms here there's an engineer sam shout out sam he's been amazing yeah and then we got to meet with our account manager and a few other people at Spotify and it feels like a dream come true.

2:50And this is why it's so cool working with your family because you get to celebrate huge milestones with your sister. Yeah. There's just like nothing like celebrating something with someone who we know for the rest of our life, we'll be able to talk about it and celebrate it versus like major milestones at work with other people. Well, even like driving here, you were like, remember last year, a year ago, we were driving to Expo and the Tesla and self-driving like drove of a different way. And I like grabbed the steering wheel trying to like, those are memories that like, yes, it's work events that we're doing or whatever, but it's also like you're with your family.

3:23And it's just like life. It's life. So we're here. I'm having a matcha with dairy milk, full dairy. Katie's having a hopefully 10 shots of espresso. She's a little tired. I'm having a vanilla latte. But we are, we've made it. And so now that we've made it, I'm just kidding. Now that we've made it, we are going to talk about something that people don't talk about, which is my NFTBA experience. Do you know what an NFTBA is, Katie? Well, through spending time with you, I'm aware that it is a natural fat transfer breast augmentation. So I have officially coined the term NFTBA because nobody talks about this surgery.

4:09I had nobody to go to. And now that I'm three weeks post-op, I want to spill the tea. And I want to talk about everything from cost to the surgeon, to why I did it, to the pressure of plastic surgery, to my experience down to like what the aftercare is like. Also what it's like working when you are getting work done. Nobody talks about the ramifications of the working girl that's doing these procedures. Like we actually have to go to investor meetings and go to company meetings and be running investments. And it's like, it was a huge impact on our business that we were not expecting. So I feel like we need to touch on that towards the end.

4:51I also want to talk a little bit about some problems that I noticed in this space that like are actually areas for people to start businesses in. Those on like the practitioner side and also on the consumer side. Yeah. But I just really wanted to be as transparent as possible because I think that is what I lacked when I was making this decision. And to start with my why, I have always had a small chest, especially for my frame. Like I'm 5 '7", which people always say they're like shocked by. They're like, I thought you were so much like, I don't know, either people in person say that they think I'm shorter or taller.

5:24I forget which one. No, I feel like when you say I'm 5 '7", they're like, what? I feel like you're shorter. Yeah, that means that they think I'm like flump plumper but actually just to dive right into that it that's been one of the hardest things about getting surgery especially this surgery because we'll talk about how inflamed you get is like I this is the first day I'm wearing jeans in three weeks yeah I live my life by working out and not being able to have the flexibility to go work out and like stretch my legs and feel like I don't fit into my clothes has been a side effect that nobody warned me about and has actually been the hardest on my mental health.

6:02And that's why they say there's like literal post-surgery depression. But to go back to my why, I have always felt really, not embarrassed, but just like really lacking and really like something was missing from my body. And I think you guys have always joked, what did you call me growing up? The little mosquito bites. My mom and my sister, like they are not bullies, but like they would call my breasts mosquito bites and I would say going into the surgery I was a really like pushing a small b barely yeah barely yeah like just to be transparent I when I got fitted at stores was a 32 b yeah and I had kind of heard through the grapevine when I would talk about breast augmentations that there was like maybe something that you could do that It wasn't an implant, but there was no research online.

6:58No one. Yeah. No one. And so I started to look into it and found three doctors across America. So one in Miami, Dr. Kraft, one in North Carolina, Dr. B-something. And then through the grapevine, the celebrity grapevine, I heard that this doctor is the best at this specific surgery, which is the NFTBA, Natural Fat Transfer Breast Augmentation. consultation so obviously I wanted to do consultations with everybody but I was like I'm gonna go to the person in LA first yeah so I ended up walking into his office and immediately felt so comfortable and the thing that they don't tell you about this surgery that is different from an implant obviously they tell you but they don't tell you that like the extreme of it is that you are going to get fat literally liposuctioned out of your body mixed around and then re-injected into your breasts.

7:49If you don't know people that have had liposuction, you do not understand what that means. Like I thought that was going to be the easy part and the breasts were going to be the hard part. Yeah. Inverse that. We'll get into that later. But I went in for a consultation, not really sure if I was fully going to do it. I was just exploring. Yeah. Obviously, plastic surgeons, they see probably so many people that don't actually have intent to purchase. So they have a consultation fee. I believe his was 250 or 500, which you can put towards your surgery. so I paid that this was back almost a year ago that I did this consultation this was a long time ago because it took me so long to even get to the point of actually doing it yeah so we go he's like you are a candidate there is enough fat if we take it from eight different areas but like you definitely don't need this surgery and that's the first thing I loved about him his name is Dr.

8:36Teitelbaum he did not make me feel like it was something that I needed yeah he was very much like we actually can't take it from your stomach because like you don't have enough fat there and like it will look like it will wrinkle and it will have lumps and all the things that you don't want when you hear about liposuction. So I left the consultation being like, okay, I'm not really sure because there was no before and after pictures at his office. That was the craziest part. He had books and books and books of like before and afters of implants. There was one photo and it wasn't in a book. It was like you had to ask them to print it out and it was a very moderate change.

9:17The breasts looked fuller. The shape was a little different, but you are not going from like an A cup to a D cup. No. That was not what I wanted though. Yeah. And I, as a low B, wanted to get to like a full C. Yeah. That is exactly what I have three weeks post-op. Yeah. So I left that consultation always in the back of my mind. Like I had thought about it. I went in for another consultation about six months later. With him still. With him still. Because I was like, I still have questions. Like there was just so much unknown still. Yeah. I didn't pay a second consultation fee, but that's when I found out or the first time I went in, I found out the price of the surgery and he quoted me almost$17 ,000.

10:00So I, obviously that's a huge number. You're like, how am I going to be able to do this? Like I also have a job, but I wasn't even thinking about the post-op care that's the craziest part yeah yeah so six months in I go back he kind of says the same thing like that he had already said and he was actually very much like swaying me away from the surgery and was like if you are looking for a like a subtle improvement this will work but if you're not like this is not for you like you need to go in a different direction yeah so finally I decided when I was in I think it was like towards the end of the fall I was like I I'm going to do this.

10:39And he is a really in demand surgeon. So like he books up crazy amounts in advance. They had an opening.

10:49And we had the busiest end to the year, which was like the coolest thing ever was December, like the launch of my nude sticks campaign. We were doing our HSR suite, our holiday event meet up for the first time, our Bravo toast event. It's also the holidays. I was going to Bali, going to Taiwan. And they're like, we have an opening next week on Tuesday. And I call my sister and I'm like, I booked my surgery for next week. Katie literally almost threw a fit. She goes, Maggie, do you not remember what you looked like when you got your wisdom teeth taken out? You get so swollen from general anesthetic and surgeries.

11:23I was like, this is literally the biggest month of our life. You need to move the surgery. I, if I had done it then, I would have been so mad at myself. So mad. Going in, okay, so here's what happened. I didn't do enough research of what the surgery was like. I was so fixated on the breasts. Like I was so - And the outcome of - The outcome of what they would be versus the recovery and like what your body goes through to get the fat to put into your breast to inject. Like that is what I hope to share on today's podcast because it was like on anything I've ever experienced in my entire life. So December comes.

12:05I like tell Katie I've put the deposit down. I'm getting the surgery. It is like 10 days before our biggest events. Not even. It was like a week before. A week before. Yeah. And she convinces me that this is the worst decision in the world because as a woman with a career, you have to think about things. exactly like you can't just be like oh I can go into hiding for three weeks which is essentially what I should have done yeah um but like we had to execute and like we are a startup so we were the ones actually until 11 p.m at night like putting everything together waking up at 6 a.m transferring things over like I still can't even lift doors or like do anything yeah like getting out of the car today you're like can you take my bag yeah yeah so okay thank god Katie was like the voice of reason and was like, you are not doing the surgery in December.

12:52So that day we then were like, let's use the deposit to put down for February. So I knew that I was going to be away in January, which was my time to go skiing, which also like a huge mistake that I made was I thought that I should gain a bunch of weight before the surgery because I was like, then they'll have more fat to take to put into my breasts with the liposuction. What that has ultimately done is like now I'm at a place where I want to get back to like my trim ideal body because I do feel so much bigger than normal and swollen and inflamed. And it's like the mental health post-surgery depression that I have is so real that like I actually think what I would have done is just stayed the exact same because the doctor had cleared me to have enough fat to transfer to my breasts regardless.

13:39Like I shouldn't have tried to put on weight. I was skiing every single day. So I was like eating twice the amount that I normally would because I was working out so much. And I think if I could do it over again, or for anybody that's listening that ends up doing this, it's like, do not try to gain weight, because you are going to want to lose that. And then the problem with this surgery is like, it can then get lost from your breasts. Yeah. So now what I'm doing is like, I'm trying to have to like lift a bunch of weight versus like lose weight. I'm just trying to transfer the fat into muscle.

14:11So we decided to push my surgery to February, January, amazing month was able to go to ski every single day. February comes and I start having panic attacks because I have gone under general anesthesia for my wisdom teeth and for my appendix, which is an emergency surgery. I've never gone under for a cosmetic procedure. and leading up with the business on a roll, things happening, podcasts secured. Like my boyfriend and I deciding to move in together and have all these amazing life moments and all these exciting announcements that are to come. I kept just thinking to myself, like, what am I doing?

14:51Like I value my life so much more than I value the size of my breasts. Like why am I putting myself through the potential risks of this surgery? I didn't do my diligence to find out like what are the the the potential side effects of your life going into a liposuction surgery versus normal general anesthesia. And so because I've been under general anesthesia so many times, I've gotten multiple colonoscopies because of my celiac disease. You didn't even say that before. No. Wisdom teeth like appendix. I didn't think it was going to be a big deal. And then when I started doing research, I was like, oh my God, this is actually like not, it's not a risky surgery, but I have never chosen to do a surgery where there could be a complication.

15:37and so I start having panic attacks like going into the surgery and I have to shout out my boyfriend because not only did he take care of me which we'll get into the aftercare but he was and you were such a voice of calmness for me during that where I would be in a business meeting and I'd be texting Katie being like I think I'm going to cancel cancel because I can't do this like I can't put myself into the position of potentially having something happen to me and And I said, raise the rudders, raise the sails, raise the sails. Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching over. Roger. Wait, is that an enterprise sales solution?

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17:35It'll be the best$17 ,000 you ever spent will be canceling the surgery. I remember that. Because you will not live with any regrets of like, if you're not mentally ready for it, you shouldn't do it. So that was something that happened like the week before I went. The weekend I was going to go. Because no one talks about this, because I had nobody to look to, I was like, what am I doing? And I had already paid the full amount. So like that's a lot of money. Yeah. And I said to Katie like I need to cancel like but I'm such an idiot. I already paid this. Like I don't have like$17 ,000 like hanging around.

18:10Like I can't just like throw that down the drain. Yeah. And you said the best thing to me when you said it will be the most – the best$17 ,000 you will ever spend will be canceling it if that's what you decide to do. Yeah. And if you are planning on getting surgery, you need people around you like that. Yeah. Because there's actually an entire section in Dr. Teitelbaum's book where he gives you like a full play-by-play of everything to expect. A month out, two weeks out, a week out, aftercare, family and friends. And they do talk about this post-surgery depression that you can enter into and like the impact of your friends and family around you.

18:47Not even to mention your colleagues or your work. Like that's a whole other thing. Which we are going to get into as like the people that run the business and then also employers and like people that have managed people. if they were also going through this. So once you said that, I felt like I got control back. And once I felt like I had control, that's when I was like, okay, I need to go into the depths of the internet and like research this. And I, disclaimer, have never been on Reddit before this weekend. I found this plastic surgery Reddit thread and I was like, this is Reddit. Like I understand Reddit now.

19:21I just thought Reddit was this place where people would like hate on people. But it's actually this amazing community of people that are there like helping each other. I was seeing before and afters for the first time, like write-ups of like, this is what my experiences was. I'm a year post-op. I'm this. And I was like, oh my God, like why is this on the dark web of the internet? Why can't this be like in Cosmopolitan or on TikTok or like on a podcast? So throughout the weekend, I started feeling like, okay, I am much more comfortable doing this surgery. Yeah. So I remember the night before the surgery.

19:56I and Courtney and I had like the most beautiful moment of just like pure love with each other. And it made me just feel so comfortable going into it. You were texting me the morning of being like, are you still doing this? Because when I said literally, we had the conversation where I was like, it'll be the best money you've ever spent canceling it. Then just like dead silence for like days. And I was having anxiety. I was like, is this happening or not? Like, I don't know what's going on. okay so I shut out people when I'm going through really bad times you know that about me and then what ended up happening is like Courtney was obviously like Courtney my god he is the best that's ever happened to me he was so there for me like through the mood swings of yes no yes no yeah and then the night before your surgery the anesthesiologist calls you okay and that is the person that is like meant to keep you alive during the surgery she had been with my doctor Dr.

20:47Teitelbaum for I think over 20 years she was like this is exactly what you can expect she answered every single question she made me feel so confident so calm she was just like no bullshit like no like HR answers or like whatever she just was like this is the real thing this is what you're going to come into and I was like okay I'm ready yeah and I think having the doctor the anesthesiologist call you the night before you just feel better for sure so it's like 6 a.m you wake up no food no water you go there and cordy and i had this like really well he didn't cry but i was like crying in his car and we walk in he's there throughout the whole thing like holding my hand we're filling out forms and then every detail of the experience with dr title bomb was like to a level that makes you feel so comfortable that i didn't experience any anxiety when i was there so like you meet with the nurse that's actually like i think it's like the attending nurse in the OR.

21:44They answer every single question. They're not rushing you through. They even give you like little nice robes to put over top of your surgical gown. So you don't feel like you're in this like surgery that reminded me of my appendix bursting or like all the like horrible surgeries that I've had. And then the anesthesiologist comes in. They answer all of your questions. They go over all of your health history to make sure that like they know exactly how much anesthesia to be giving you. and then Dr. T enters the room. Dr. T. Dr. T and I will say I think I chose Dr. T as my surgeon because he doesn't have social media.

22:20Yeah. I do not want the doctor that is doing TikTok trends to be cutting me open and putting something in my body. Yeah. However why I feel so inclined to share Dr. T's information and my process and my experience is like, he is the best at breasts. Yeah. If you want your breasts done, this is the doctor that you need to go to. He doesn't use social media. So how are you supposed to find out about him? It's patients like me who are brave enough to honestly be open about their surgeries that need to put these surgeons on the map. So he walks into the room. He has such a presence and such an aura.

23:00he is no bullshit he's very experienced he makes you feel like the most important thing as he should and answers everything then it's like just little things that you pick up from somebody like that where it's like even though he's seen my breasts a million times when we're sitting and talking after I've had to take off my surgical gown for something he's like oh you can you can cover up now before we keep chatting he's not like keep your shirt off you know like he's there to make you feel comfortable yeah so then once we had all signed off it's me Courtney the attending nurse the anesthesiologist the doctor he's like okay Meg you and I are going to go take your pictures now and like this is the first time that I'm being marked up like yeah I knew where the fat was going to come from but like seeing the pen actually get onto my skin was the first time that this became it's like a whoa this is like this is happening like I'm getting surgery for the first time like this.

23:53So he marks me up. He then takes a bunch of photos. He then for the first time, actually like showed me like a potential of what it could look like. And I think that was something that there isn't again, alternative before and afters. You're kind of trusting the process. The thing for me was that I didn't want to change the shape of my breasts. I love my breasts. Yeah, they were just mosquito bites. So they needed to be like three X. Yeah, juicy mangoes. So he shows me what it's going to be like. I'm in love. And then you immediately are like, okay, let's do this. The next thing I knew, I'm going into the OR, I'm getting onto the table and you have a little small talk with the anesthesiologist and then you're out.

24:38And when I woke up, I was in the recovery room. Courtney's there. And the first thing I say is Dr. T, you look so young. that's the first thing i said i was literally like you i don't know why he just looked to me like 20 years younger i don't i don't know why so you're drugged up the first day was the best day post-surgery because you can't feel or think or really remember anything but like you have to get home but that didn't hurt yet two days later i like was holding my breath as we're going over the bumps you realize how bad the la like roads are when you're getting a surge like that you're just in so much pain but the first day was honestly you just don't remember you have to wear compression garments that they put on you and I'm still wearing them you wear like post surgical ones the day of with like foam in it because you actually like leak a lot and this this is the thing that like again I didn't do my research with liposuction yeah like I didn't even want to say that I was getting liposuction because to me it's like I would never get liposuction if it wasn't for the natural fat transfer breast augmentation.

25:49It's not even really branded as liposuction. It's like it's natural fat transfer. But yeah, you have to get liposuction. It's liposuction. Like I have had liposuction. Yeah, that's intense. And honestly, like this is the thing. Did you know that liposuction was such a hard recovery? No. Well, like I think that's to your point. People don't want to talk about the fact that they've had liposuction if they have had it like it definitely I don't know anyone who if they've had it has ever said I've had liposuction so like all right well anybody that's listening to this like liposuction is the hardest thing and the most painful thing you will ever go through I think it is so worth it now like three weeks post-op I am thrilled but like they're really good they're really good like for the four days following I would say to Courtney I'm an idiot why did I do this I'm in horrible yeah and then day five I'm like I'm thrilled this is amazing like I feel like a woman for the first time and long story short like the liposuction is just a level of pain that you are not prepared for and I don't know as a mom like when I deliver my first child I will be able to tell what is worse compare but like it is so I got the fat taken from the back of my arms my bra bulge that existed without wearing a bra that always really bothered me my outer thighs and my lower back so essentially my entire body minus my stomach and my inner thighs which are other places that people do it so like I couldn't get in and out of bed by myself for three or four days like Courtney is literally lifting me out of bed to get out of bed to go to the bathroom it was the best part of my days were standing and working the craziest part is the day i came home from surgery i edited a video trailer for the podcast podcast yeah which did amazing wasn't that christine's yeah it was christine's that one is like one of the best trailers we've done so the drugs worked yeah um the second day i actually did a few calls and i remember i just had to stand for them because the sitting down was the worst.

28:04And then that was the best position I could be in was just being vertical versus horizontal. Like your legs have to be elevated. I wore the same pair of pants. These were not the everyday pants that everyone has loved from Enza Costa. This was like sweatpants for the first week. Like you just are not okay. I had scheduled like an entire weekend of plans. So I got the surgery on a Tuesday. I was going to like my boyfriend's sister's birthday party. I was going to do a dinner with my friends. Like I was not prepared for what this was because I was told that it was like going to feel as if it was a hard workout.