An interview with Dr. Cosentino about his life, passion, and business.
I was fortunate to see first‑hand the successes of my father and uncle, both physicians, blessed with excellent clinical skills. What I believe they lacked — and what physicians and allied healthcare practitioners in Aesthetics and Anti‑Aging Medicine today also lack — is modern business skills: everything from strategy to execution to leveraging today’s marketing and business development best practices. This desire to combine the best of the science and art of medicine with business know‑how was the impetus for starting Empire Medical Training. As Malcolm Gladwell says, “The visionary starts with a clean sheet of paper and reimagines the world.” That sums up my inspiration for founding Empire.
I work hard, I play hard, and I dream hard. I live the words of Emerson, who challenges us to dare to live the life we dream for ourselves. I embrace the new and continue to learn and explore. As a voracious reader of non‑fiction, I believe the more we know, the more we realize we don’t know — and this humbling reality spurs me to learn and explore even more.
And yes, I play hard, too. I am a self‑taught recreational pianist. I enjoy sports, bodybuilding, and bicycling, and I take on exhilarating pursuits like boating — I am a boat captain. I am a car and drone hobbyist, I enjoy photography, and I collect hand‑crafted custom knives and vintage toys. One of my dreams was to become a helicopter pilot — so I worked hard, and perhaps played hard too, at earning my commercial pilot’s license.
The answer lies within the question itself: the training is not the same. The barrier to entry is relatively low — a practitioner can take a course (many times an Empire course) and the next day find a web designer to put together a nice‑looking website. We see many trainers who literally copy and paste content from our information. The reason we continue to lead our field is that our focus is dedicated entirely to providing the highest quality education and training. We aim to be the best, and that is hard to copy.
A leader ignites the energy, creativity, and professionalism in others. I do not believe a leader can do it all. I believe in finding the best talent with the core values I live by, then devoting my time, energy, and experience to help them achieve more than they dreamt possible. President Adams said that if your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader. That is what helped me leapfrog from a single‑educator shop to today’s Empire Medical Training organization.
When I started, Empire was a one‑man show. Over the years I realized one doctor, one teacher, cannot do it all — I would be doing my students a huge disservice. I vetted the best of the best physician educators, and through dedication to leadership excellence, we created a world‑renowned organization.
My ambition comes from a combination of creativity, vision, and an unwavering desire to stay at the top of my field in this hyper‑competitive, anti‑aging marketplace. It helps me think better, broader, and beyond what is possible. I started training physicians in Aesthetics and Anti‑Aging Medicine, and today Empire Medical Training is also a premier source of training for hospitals, hospital systems, and medical schools — and the Florida Dental Association’s preferred trainer for its member dentists. Without ambition I would not just be stagnant, I could become irrelevant — and that is never going to be an option. Without ambition one starts nothing; without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
For me, family is the essence of happiness. I am a fortunate man to have an amazing wife — my partner for life — and our son Max, who reminds me daily of the importance of happiness. The key is ensuring balance between work and family. I am extremely high energy, and the same goes for my wife; she is from Peru, and South American families are extremely family‑oriented, which is one of the things that attracted me to her.
In business it is important to identify, focus on, and advance your organization’s unique selling proposition. Staying focused on what Empire Medical Training does best is imperative. Among our differentiators: a two‑year curriculum rather than a one‑time workshop; a highly credentialed Physician Advisory Board; a membership model that helps practitioners attend more courses; specialized business consultants in marketing and digital media; and carefully selected vendor partners through the Empire Marketplace.
Success is not a wait‑and‑see game of chance — it is a strategic imperative. I persevere with continual goal‑setting aligned with my core values. Success is about staying ahead of practitioners’ needs so they can best serve their patients. In the words of Helen Keller, “You will succeed if you persevere, and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles, and delight in climbing rugged paths.” That captures the essence of my success as a physician, educator, and founder of Empire Medical Training.
The honest answer is that no other organization offers the high‑value training Empire provides. I work very hard to find the best trainers — interview them, spend time with them, learn from them the newest and best techniques — before deciding to offer training to our doctors. We are also deeply academically oriented: we want to provide the best training along with different perspectives from all of our top trainers.
Yes — some of the nation’s best medical schools now work with us. We began working with medical schools in 2019 as a key component of our growth, partnering with renowned institutions such as Columbia, UCLA, UCI, and UC Riverside. Empire Medical Training is also a premier source of training and education for hospitals and hospital systems.