The Daily Rituals That Keep JECT Founder Gabby Garritano Grounded

Behind every seemingly effortless success story is a routine that takes a little maintenance. In The Zoe Report’s Well-Maintained series, we tap the founders and tastemakers we admire to share the wellness rituals in their calendar that help them show up for their businesses and themselves.

Gabby Garritano knows how to make an appearance. The founder of modern medical spa JECT emerges from her Miami Beach kitchen wearing a crisp white button-down, blue denim, and an apricot poodle in tow. “Can I get you a Poppi?” Garritano offers as I get cozy on her white cloud couch, a massive print of an African safari as our backdrop. As much as aesthetics are Garritano’s bread and butter, she begins to tell me how wellness and confidence are the foundation of her beauty business. “After my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, when I was studying premed at University of Missouri, I spent time with plastic surgeons and became obsessed with the industry,” Garritano shares.

Fast-forward to age 22, the graduate moved to NYC where she began knocking on the gold-plated doors of the Upper East Side’s cosmetic surgeon elite, offering to work nights and weekends as a physician’s assistant. “I landed a position at an office on 75th and Park Ave., and it was super high-end. I remember working Memorial Day Weekend, and that Saturday a lady came in and bought a facelift for her sister for Mother’s Day. She handed me a check for $120,000 and I just thought to myself — I’m from Missouri, this is insane... and a real business opportunity,” Garritano says. Over the years working in private practices, it became clear to the JECT CEO that the patient’s experience was akin to that of a doctor’s appointment: impersonal and uninviting, and that there was an opportunity to create a medical environment that was as approachable as it was chic.

Meanwhile, Garritano’s personal client roster grew each time a woman left her office, where her best-in-class marketing was word of mouth. “I was developing the business while I was still working in surgery,” she says of her earliest med spa days. “I would operate from 8 to 4, and then I would host my own patients at the office from 5 to 8 by myself; checking people in, preparing the Botox, and doing the treatments, of course. One day, the primary plastic surgeon came into the office and the whole waiting room was full, and he said, ‘I’m going to start charging you rent,’ and it was astronomical. It was the best thing that ever happened to me because it made me say, ‘OK, it’s time to find my own space.’”

Garritano’s side hustle eventually became JECT West Village, the first of 10 locations across New York, Florida, and California. The brand launched in 2019 with $50K in funding and barn wood floors she preferred not to paint. “I couldn’t afford an architect to pull permits and the budget was the budget — that’s it,” the founder recalls of bootstrapping the beauty business.

These days, Garritano’s schedule as a founder, CEO, and active practitioner requires a well-maintained aesthetic of a different kind: from prioritizing breakfast and boundaries, to a nighttime routine she’s willing to ditch a fancy dinner party for. Ahead, Gabby Garritano walks TZR through the rituals that help her take care of business and herself.

What is the first wellness ritual you integrate for a successful day ahead?

I’m up at 6:30 a.m. and it’s coffee and water before I leave the house. I make a colostrum coffee with illy beans in my espresso machine while [my fiancé] takes the dog out. I fill up a water bottle before my workout at 7:15 a.m., and then calls start at 9.

What’s the one wellness or mindfulness habit that directly makes you better at your job as a founder, not just happier?

Consistency is peak wellness. I feel like when my routine gets thrown off I’m not my best professionally or personally.

What have you cut out in the name of performance?

Staying up late and intermittent fasting — it makes me feel jittery in the morning. Now I eat a clean breakfast and it helps ease anxiety: something like egg whites or a shake with almond milk. I feel more at ease.

How do you protect your energy when your business depends on being “on”?

My token advice is to know when to leave the party. It’s important to put yourself, your wellness, and your business first at times. Recently, we committed to a dinner event at 7 p.m. By 7:30, they still hadn’t served dinner. The bartender said dinner would be at 8 p.m., and I said, ‘We’re getting the hell out of here!’ I went to Pura Vida for a chicken bowl and was home in bed by 9:30 p.m. with no regrets.

How do you handle the first hour of chaos — emails, Slack, texts — without frying your nervous system?

Exercise. I have two trainers — one is a boxing trainer and we lift heavy weights, and the other is at DBC in Miami. It’s intense but the vibes are right, we listen to R&B.

What are the most productive hours of your day?

My best working hours are between 9 a.m. and noon. I try to save a lot of my calls for the afternoon because then I can just go on a walk and be more casual or have time to properly review a financial model or floor plan. If it’s something that needs a lot of attention to detail, that’s happening in the morning.

What’s your version of a reset button in the middle of a workday? Be specific.

We have a sauna at home and I love that or a swim in the pool to step away from the screens and recalibrate. Walking [my dog] Posey in our neighborhood is a nice reset too.

What does your evening routine look like when you’ve had a particularly stressful workday?

At 8 p.m., I put my laptop away — and then it’s straight into skin care before bed. Just like you go to the dentist for a routine cleaning, I prioritize medical-grade skin care and being consistent every single day. I have a deck of products in my rotation: retinol, glycolic, salicylic, and hyaluronic acids. Sunscreen, too, of course.

As the founder of a modern med spa, what aesthetic treatments do you maintain?

I do wrinkle reducer treatments about every four months in my upper face, lower face, neck bands, and — just recently — a bit in my shoulders, which felt bulky to me due to weight lifting.

If your calendar is a reflection of your values, what does yours say right now?

That my business is my baby. I love JECT. It brings me so much joy. Even when I get into bed with my fiancé, we talk about work — it’s really hard to turn off.

I tell people, don’t start a business unless you really love what you do because you’re going to be doing it. I’m grateful that I do.