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Transcript

The Truth About DPC Growth: Why You Might Get Zero Patients (and Why It's Still Worth It) · DPC Life: Direct Primary Care Podcast

• 0:00
  And so why are we continuing to rehash this if y'all are just
• 0:03
  going to tell us how it is? Like you should have just sent
• 0:05
  the e-mail. If I was starting all over
• 0:09
  again, I would have started collecting my patients emails or
• 0:17
  encouraging them to follow me on social media the minute I
• 0:20
  decided that I was going to leave.
• 0:23
  I'd like to travel. I like to garden.
• 0:26
  I like to spend time outside. Like this isn't my whole life.
• 0:31
  And so I like, I'm like, I want time to do all the things.
• 0:35
  We only get so much time here on this earth.
• 0:38
  Working just for the sake of working is not part of my life's
• 0:42
  plan. Welcome to DPC Life, the podcast
• 0:46
  where independent doctors share real stories, bold ideas, and
• 0:50
  the freedom of doing medicine on your own terms.
• 0:54
  I'm your host, Doctor Ann Gonzalez, and together we'll
• 0:57
  explore the winds, the struggles and everything in between.
• 1:02
  Let's dive in. So today, my guest is Doctor
• 1:08
  Kashidi Long of long Health and Wellness in Charlotte, NC, which
• 1:13
  is just a little ways away from me.
• 1:15
  And she is internal medicine and lifestyle medicine boarded and
• 1:20
  her practice is called Long Health and Wellness and opened
• 1:24
  earlier this year, correct? Yes, in January.
• 1:26
  Let's start with how you found DPC and why you went this crazy
• 1:31
  route. I found DPC via a newspaper
• 1:35
  article. Maybe 5 or 6 years ago my mom
• 1:39
  sent me a newspaper article about a practice opening in
• 1:44
  Tampa because it was the Tampa Bay Times because she was still
• 1:47
  in Florida. So this might have actually been
• 1:49
  a little bit longer than 5 or 6 years ago.
• 1:51
  It was a practice opening and they were doing a subscription
• 1:53
  model and they described how she was going to shoot for 600
• 1:57
  patients and going to charge $100 a month.
• 1:59
  And I was like, oh, OK, that's interesting.
• 2:03
  And I just kind of was like, I don't want to open a practice
• 2:06
  and then really matter. But then that was when I was
• 2:10
  working at a SQHC. And so the the days were long
• 2:14
  and I saw like 25 patients a day.
• 2:17
  And so in my mind I was like, this isn't my forever job.
• 2:19
  This is just for loan repayment. So my next job, that'll be the
• 2:23
  good job. So then I ended up working for a
• 2:26
  practice here outside of Charlotte in Fort Mill that was
• 2:29
  owned by one of the hospital systems.
• 2:32
  And it was better initially it was they wanted me to see like
• 2:35
  18 to 20 people a day and there was some flexibility in terms of
• 2:40
  having like one day off a week. And and so it was fine.
• 2:45
  Built the patient panel, but then it got to the point where
• 2:47
  they're like, oh, we don't believe in closing your patient
• 2:50
  panel. So like, you know, infinite
• 2:52
  growth or something. And so the wait times just kept
• 2:55
  getting longer. And then they're like, well, we
• 2:57
  need you to see more like 22 people a day.
• 3:01
  And then it was, OK, we want to bring on a nurse practitioner
• 3:04
  that we want you to supervise. And it just kept being like more
• 3:07
  and more and more. And while all that was going on,
• 3:12
  I was seeing other people start DPC's and just hearing about
• 3:17
  like the practice model, just it kept coming up.
• 3:20
  And I'm a person that believes that things keep coming up.
• 3:23
  If you keep seeing things, then it's like a sign.
• 3:27
  And so at one point I was like, OK, after I pay my loans off and
• 3:31
  save up this huge nest egg where I am financially independent,
• 3:36
  blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then maybe I'll start my DPC in
• 3:40
  like 5-10, fifteen years, something like that.
• 3:43
  And then as the demands of the corporate style practice kept
• 3:48
  continuing, I was like, what I really need to be financially
• 3:52
  independent is to open this practice.
• 3:54
  How much money do I need to save?
• 3:55
  So then I talked to my finance guy and he was like, oh, well,
• 4:00
  you should save this amount so that you can pay your bills for
• 4:02
  at least a year while you're building this practice.
• 4:06
  And so then I started saving and it was still going to be it.
• 4:09
  I didn't have an exact date when he and I had that conversation.
• 4:13
  But then in 2023, the summer of 2023, there were some
• 4:19
  conversations had between administration and the
• 4:21
  physicians and my office where we were basically saying one
• 4:27
  thing. And they were saying, well, I
• 4:29
  know you feel like that, but we think blah, blah, blah, blah,
• 4:32
  blah. And we're like, but no, that's
• 4:34
  not what we want. And then at the end of the last
• 4:38
  meeting that we had with them, it was like, you're not getting
• 4:41
  this. This is what the system wants.
• 4:43
  And the system said that this is how we're doing it.
• 4:46
  So you're just going to have to deal with it.
• 4:48
  And at that point, I felt like, well, why do we have all these
• 4:52
  meetings if that's what y'all were going to say in the inter?
• 4:54
  Like that was like the third time we met about the issue.
• 4:57
  And so why are we continuing to rehash this if y'all are just
• 5:01
  going to tell us how it is? Like, you should have just sent
• 5:03
  the e-mail. And so that was when I was like,
• 5:05
  OK, let me take this DPC thing a bit more seriously.
• 5:08
  So that was most of the journey. So that was 2023, you said?
• 5:13
  Yes. So that was summer 2023 and then
• 5:17
  spring 2024, I went to the DPC Nuts and Bolts conference.
• 5:21
  And then in June 2024, I went to the DPC summit that was in
• 5:27
  Texas. And at the end of that summit, I
• 5:30
  was like, I'm going to open my DPC in January.
• 5:35
  Good for you. So they were very motivating.
• 5:39
  Yes, I went from like a two or three-year timeline, so six
• 5:42
  months. Amazing.
• 5:44
  So in that six months, how long did you have to work out your
• 5:48
  contract? I had a 90 day notice
• 5:51
  requirement on mine and I honestly would have put in my
• 5:55
  notice when I came back from the conference just to give them
• 5:57
  more time to find someone 'cause I'm a caring person like that.
• 6:01
  However, another doc at my office, she put in her notice
• 6:06
  that same week and I was like, oh, both of us can't it at the
• 6:09
  same time. And I felt like really I was
• 6:13
  really conflicted about it. Like I was like, oh man,
• 6:16
  everybody's going to freak out if I put my notice in and I
• 6:20
  don't want to stress everybody out blah blah blah.
• 6:22
  So also caring more about the corporate system that doesn't
• 6:25
  care about me. So basically we started
• 6:29
  interviewing people for her position and like the week after
• 6:33
  we found somebody to take her spot.
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  I put my notice in and that was like borderline like exactly 3
• 6:40
  months. OK, good.
• 6:42
  They still freaked out I'm sure. Admin people probably did, but
• 6:46
  like, they didn't give me. I was concerned they were going
• 6:48
  to give me a hard time about it, but they were actually like, OK,
• 6:51
  well we understand. I was like, really?
• 6:53
  I'll do something. Wrong.
• 6:56
  Right, One guy was like, I really wouldn't would like to
• 6:58
  sit down with you so we can talk one-on-one about what we could
• 7:01
  have done better and bubble. I didn't want to meet with him
• 7:03
  though, so I just didn't respond to the e-mail because, I mean,
• 7:08
  there's nothing you could do, Sir.
• 7:09
  It was above him. So I'm like, no, there's no
• 7:12
  point in wasting my time like that.
• 7:14
  Yeah. And So what about your
• 7:16
  colleagues? What did they say?
• 7:18
  The one colleague who had put in her notice, she was already gone
• 7:21
  because she didn't even give them three month notice.
• 7:23
  She gave like 6 week notice and was like yeah better figure it
• 7:26
  out. I was like can you do that?
• 7:30
  But she did the other colleague that the other colleague that I
• 7:35
  had, he is somebody who had been with the practice for like 20
• 7:40
  something years. And he was like, yeah, I mean, I
• 7:44
  see where what are you going to do?
• 7:46
  And I told him and he's like, yeah, I just can't see figuring
• 7:49
  out how to do all that. He's he's a little technology
• 7:51
  illiterate. He's like, yeah, I think he'll
• 7:53
  do well. So I mean, he was supportive
• 7:55
  enough. He's like, oh man.
• 7:58
  But he kind of said that he saw it coming too.
• 8:01
  So I was just like, OK, well. I.
• 8:03
  Mean, I'm glad you're not, like, freaking out, yeah.
• 8:09
  Yeah. I mean, overall I feel like the
• 8:12
  staff was pretty supportive when I told him what I was doing.
• 8:15
  The office manager, she was a little more like, but what can
• 8:20
  you do? Right, right.
• 8:22
  OK, so six months and did you feel like you were rushed 6
• 8:26
  months to opening or you're you felt like OK, this was a pretty
• 8:30
  good amount of time? So overall, I think things moved
• 8:37
  fairly swiftly. There was, but there were two
• 8:40
  things that were kind of delayed.
• 8:42
  Like I was practicing in South Carolina, so I only had a South
• 8:45
  Carolina license. So I had to get a North Carolina
• 8:47
  license because my office needed to be 15 miles away from where I
• 8:51
  was working, non compete. And I wanted to work in North
• 8:55
  Carolina anyways because I live in Charlotte.
• 8:57
  And so getting a North Carolina medical license took six months.
• 9:03
  Luckily, I had applied for it when I came back from the first
• 9:06
  conference in March, last April, and they approved my it took
• 9:13
  five months because they approved it in September.
• 9:15
  And I needed the North Carolina license before I could apply for
• 9:18
  the PLLC with the state to like be able to open a practice.
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  But that part was actually like once the license came through,
• 9:27
  the PLLC came like was approved within a couple of weeks.
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  So the license was a little bit of a hold up and then
• 9:34
  malpractice. I feel like there was a lot of
• 9:36
  emails back and forth and filling out this application and
• 9:39
  waiting to hear back for the quotes because I think I got
• 9:42
  like 3 or 4 quotes. So that maybe took like 3 or 4
• 9:46
  weeks. But everything else had like a
• 9:47
  really fast turn around and finding the right office space.
• 9:54
  I would just go on my days off to look at office spaces.
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  Like I would Google office space for lease and I looked at a
• 10:01
  couple different styles of spaces, like the suite style
• 10:05
  offices that are like a bunch of people doing things in like 1
• 10:10
  room spaces versus like the actual offices where you have
• 10:14
  like a little lobby and then exam room, bathroom and things
• 10:18
  that are actually designated medical offices.
• 10:21
  I did not get an office that was officially in like a medical
• 10:25
  building or medical office park because those were much more
• 10:27
  expensive. Like I would say maybe like
• 10:30
  $4045 a square foot or more for it.
• 10:34
  And then they tended to be large.
• 10:36
  So they're like wanting me to rent spaces that are like 15102
• 10:40
  thousand, 3000 square foot. I'm like, I am one person.
• 10:43
  I will have patients here one at a time.
• 10:46
  I don't need 3000 square feet and you're charging $5000 a
• 10:50
  month or $6000 a month. So I winded up getting my office
• 10:53
  off of Craig's, not Craigslist. What's the other one?
• 10:56
  Facebook Marketplace. So that was surprise.
• 10:59
  And I wasn't looking at Facebook Marketplace initially.
• 11:02
  And then my mom, of course, was like, have you checked Facebook
• 11:06
  Market? They have everything on there.
• 11:07
  I was like, well, then I went and I actually toured, I want to
• 11:12
  say like 3 or 4 offices from Facebook Marketplace before I
• 11:14
  found this. So I think those were the things
• 11:17
  that took the most effort. And then everything else was
• 11:20
  kind of like you just sign up online.
• 11:22
  Like I joined the DPC alliance and got in with the GPO and
• 11:25
  created all these accounts for different things.
• 11:28
  It really, I don't know, it didn't feel that rush to me, but
• 11:32
  maybe because I've been thinking about it for years, I kind of
• 11:35
  had like rough ideas in my head. And then the other thing is
• 11:39
  like, I couldn't really tell anybody where I was going.
• 11:43
  And so I was starting from zero basically, and that meant that I
• 11:49
  could kind of grow slowly. So I was like, whatever, I
• 11:52
  haven't figured out yet, I'll just figure it out as I go.
• 11:54
  Which is a good way to approach things, especially when you're
• 11:58
  starting up, because what are you going to do, right?
• 12:02
  Right. Yeah.
• 12:03
  So the place that you're in currently, that's the place you
• 12:06
  started in, is that right? Yes, OK.
• 12:10
  I thought about is. That right?
• 12:13
  No. So this is an office suite.
• 12:16
  It has like my office with my desk and I have like a bookshelf
• 12:21
  and printer and stuff. And I have an exam room, a
• 12:24
  bathroom, a little waiting area. And then there's another room
• 12:27
  that I was using for storage, but I'm actually now renting it
• 12:30
  out to help me with rent. And so the person renting it is
• 12:36
  a lab tech who's trying to start like a mobile lab business.
• 12:41
  So I was like, OK, sounds fine to me.
• 12:44
  So yeah. So she is now covering about 1/3
• 12:48
  of the rent. Cool, Yeah.
• 12:51
  Does she draw labs for you? She does not.
• 12:54
  I send everybody to LabCorp just because she's only been here for
• 12:59
  a month and we haven't like worked out anything for her to
• 13:03
  actually draw for me. She's also not really here when
• 13:06
  I'm here. Like she's here more in the
• 13:09
  evening and on the weekends and so I barely even see her.
• 13:15
  Well, that works out then, right?
• 13:16
  Yeah, very convenient. And so you said you started out
• 13:20
  with 0 patients. And so how did you go about
• 13:24
  finding your patients? My first patient actually found
• 13:28
  me when she found out I was leaving.
• 13:31
  She followed my social media and she signed up on her own.
• 13:35
  So I guess technically I started with one because I think I saw
• 13:38
  her maybe a week after all. And then in that first month or
• 13:43
  so, I had a handful of other patients find me.
• 13:46
  And then I've been finding patients by a lot of networking
• 13:52
  and social media activities. So I joined the Chamber of
• 13:59
  Commerce and I was going to their events.
• 14:02
  Like they have a coffee on Tuesday mornings twice a month.
• 14:07
  They have like networking after five, I think once a month.
• 14:10
  So in the beginning, I was going to all of those and then from
• 14:14
  there, talking to people, they would invite me to other
• 14:17
  networking events. And Charlotte has a bunch of
• 14:20
  networking groups. And so I was just going, telling
• 14:24
  everybody about me going, going, going.
• 14:26
  And then some people through that I met through those we
• 14:29
  would like do like one-on-one meetings where we talk more
• 14:33
  about what our respective businesses do.
• 14:36
  And so some of those people have sent me patients.
• 14:38
  I don't think I don't know that anybody, well, maybe a couple.
• 14:43
  So it's not like the people that I met at the events became the
• 14:46
  patients. It's more so them telling people
• 14:49
  about it and that has resulted in patients.
• 14:51
  I think I've only had like one or two who've been people I
• 14:54
  actually met at a networking event that signed up.
• 14:58
  But you know, whatever works. A word of mouth is usually what
• 15:01
  people say is the best way to grow.
• 15:02
  So I can get enough other people telling people then, hey, I'm
• 15:07
  all for it. And then social media.
• 15:10
  I have a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn.
• 15:14
  I wasn't on TikTok until the beginning of the summer, so most
• 15:19
  of my people were coming from YouTube and Instagram, I think.
• 15:23
  And so now, because I noticed the trend towards people saying
• 15:27
  they saw me on social media, I've been trying to be more
• 15:30
  consistent with social media in terms of posting five days a
• 15:34
  week. I try to schedule it out and
• 15:36
  post like a week ahead of time. Usually just a combination of
• 15:40
  like healthy eating, lifestyle, gardenings in time outside type
• 15:44
  stuff and me talking directly to the camera with health tip.
• 15:49
  So as far as the people that you met at the chamber and those
• 15:52
  other networking events, was there a specific kind of contact
• 15:57
  that is sending you more patients than others?
• 16:00
  I spoke with someone recently that said ACPA was sending a lot
• 16:04
  of patients to the business to their practice.
• 16:08
  There is a dietitian who has sent me a couple of people.
• 16:14
  I had a chiropractor who sent me a couple of people.
• 16:17
  I think everybody else has been kind of sporadic and like a
• 16:20
  little bit random. Yeah, Yeah.
• 16:23
  That's interesting. Well, I'm thinking chiropractor
• 16:26
  and dietitian. I mean some of them are
• 16:28
  insurance, will bill insurance and some are purely cash based.
• 16:32
  Do you know if? The ones who sent.
• 16:34
  You patients are doing kind of a hybrid or purely?
• 16:39
  Cash, the chiropractor, he does take insurance but he also has
• 16:42
  like a reasonable cash price. And then the dietitian, I think
• 16:48
  she is probably cash only because I'm not 100% sure she's
• 16:52
  an RDI. Feel like she's more like a
• 16:54
  nutritionist. Health code.
• 16:55
  People who already work in a cash like a cash based kind of
• 16:58
  business, the people that come to them are more open to a cash
• 17:04
  based practice, right So that. I would agree with that
• 17:08
  statement, so probably. People like that is a good
• 17:12
  thing. Yeah, because I've gotten a
• 17:13
  couple of calls and they've been like, oh, so and so referred me
• 17:16
  to you. And then I'm like, OK, and have
• 17:20
  you been to the website? You understand the practice?
• 17:22
  They're like, Oh yeah, I want to make an appointment.
• 17:24
  And I was like, OK, so you know, we are a membership based
• 17:26
  practice. And I like, wait, what does that
• 17:27
  mean? Like it happened yesterday where
• 17:30
  a dermatologist that I dropped by her office and introduced
• 17:33
  myself. She recommended somebody, the
• 17:36
  person called me to make an appointment.
• 17:38
  I was in a meeting. I was like, here's the link, you
• 17:40
  can schedule your own appointment.
• 17:41
  She was like, oh, I tried that already, but it said I need to
• 17:43
  pay for a membership fee. What is that?
• 17:48
  So then I was like explaining she was like, oh, that makes a
• 17:52
  lot of sense. This isn't a good fit for me.
• 17:54
  I'll pass your information on to other people though.
• 17:57
  I was like, well, thank you for your consideration.
• 18:00
  Yeah. Well, maybe she will be able to
• 18:02
  find you some other patients, but yes, yeah, that.
• 18:06
  Is. That is hard, yeah.
• 18:09
  So when you opened, which was only 10 months ago now, who is
• 18:14
  your ideal patient? Did you have one in mind?
• 18:19
  When I opened, I did not have an ideal patient.
• 18:21
  I'm an internist, so I was like, I'll see anybody over 18 just
• 18:24
  come through several branding and marketing conversations and
• 18:28
  then listen to Michelle Cook at the summit.
• 18:31
  I did over the summer start trying to narrow down and niche
• 18:36
  down to an ideal patient whose name is motivated Monica.
• 18:41
  So I put some characteristics of like the majority of the
• 18:44
  patients that I already have are women of color, age 30 to 60,
• 18:50
  working moms for the most part. And so I put that in the ChatGPT
• 18:54
  and I'm like, define my ideal patient with these
• 18:56
  characteristics. Also somebody who is interested
• 18:59
  in improving the health and motivated to make changes, that
• 19:02
  type of thing. And ChatGPT named her motivated
• 19:05
  Monica. And I think Monica was like 42
• 19:09
  with two children. She has a job, but she also has
• 19:11
  like a little side business. High blood pressure runs in her
• 19:14
  family and she wants to prevent that.
• 19:16
  She has trouble finding the time to exercise and eat right.
• 19:20
  Monica had a whole profile of characteristics and a little
• 19:24
  icon picture per ChatGPT. So then I'm like, where does
• 19:29
  Metal Beta Monica hang out? And then he gave me a list of
• 19:32
  that and I'm like, OK, let me start trying to stop into these
• 19:35
  type of businesses and, and now I am like trying to do community
• 19:40
  talks. So I applied with the Public
• 19:43
  Library to and I gave them a couple topics like cold and flu
• 19:46
  season, menopause, cold and flu season, menopause, maybe weight
• 19:50
  management, something like that. And so I'm waiting to hear back
• 19:52
  from them. And then I approached
• 19:56
  Orangetheory, the 1 I actually go to, and it was like, hey,
• 20:00
  what do y'all think of me doing a talk after class maybe one
• 20:03
  Saturday? And they're like, Oh yeah,
• 20:05
  absolutely. And I was like, oh.
• 20:07
  OK, that was easier than I thought I was going.
• 20:12
  So that is actually scheduled for about a week from now.
• 20:15
  We'll be the first one I'm going to talk about like some tips for
• 20:18
  staying healthy during cold and flu season.
• 20:21
  And so hopefully that has a good turn out.
• 20:23
  And then if it does, I told her we could turn it into like a
• 20:26
  once a month series of me like just picking relevant topics or
• 20:29
  we could even ask like if there's a topic that they'd be
• 20:32
  interested in. So we'll see.
• 20:36
  And then I also stopped into like a couple yoga places.
• 20:39
  Haven't gotten no response from the ones that I stopped in.
• 20:42
  So I'm going to try some other ones.
• 20:43
  But yeah, so that's that's what I'm working on, going to the
• 20:47
  places where motivated Monica might hang out.
• 20:49
  I love that, I love that. I'll have to try doing that with
• 20:53
  ChatGPT to see, but that's great.
• 20:57
  AII think a lot of people feel like oh terminators kind of all
• 21:02
  that about AI but it it can be super helpful especially if you
• 21:07
  are a solo practitioner. I like it for stuff like that.
• 21:11
  I like it for writing my social media captions.
• 21:15
  It can also give like content plans, like if you don't know
• 21:19
  what you want to post, then you don't want to put the brain
• 21:21
  power in it. And you like give me a content
• 21:23
  plan for the next 7 days with this theme or like this style of
• 21:29
  videos or like some of the things that you like.
• 21:33
  For me, I film myself doing certain things during the week.
• 21:37
  Like if I go on a walk outside, I'll take a little video of the
• 21:40
  walk or but I'm in the garden like pruning stuff, I might film
• 21:43
  that. Or when I cook, I'll film and
• 21:47
  then I'll tell Chad GPC like I already have these videos, make
• 21:50
  stuff for these connected to lifestyle medicine, connected to
• 21:55
  high blood pressure, diabetes or something like that.
• 21:58
  And then flush out some other things to round out the week.
• 22:01
  Something like that. And it'll give you details.
• 22:03
  It's like here's your script, here's your caption, here's some
• 22:06
  ideas for the actual video. It's even will be like use warm
• 22:10
  light, look directly at the camera, blah blah, blah.
• 22:12
  And I'm like, where am I going to get warm light from?
• 22:16
  But that's besides the point. So it can do as much or as
• 22:19
  little as you want it to. Now am IA person who wants my
• 22:24
  phone listening to me all the time or all of that stuff.
• 22:27
  Not that portion of AI you can keep that, but for getting work
• 22:31
  done I think it's great. Yeah, that's great.
• 22:33
  Yeah, you definitely. I think there's so many things
• 22:36
  that people don't realize that it can do to help you.
• 22:40
  I have used ChatGPT to help with business planning and kind of
• 22:46
  narrowing focus of what do we need to do next, which is super
• 22:51
  helpful, very helpful. I agree.
• 22:54
  So you mentioned your YouTube. You had that before you even
• 22:58
  started your practice though, correct?
• 23:00
  Yes, so YouTube I've had for like 5 years.
• 23:04
  Like during the pandemic I started gardening, I was living
• 23:08
  in the townhouse and I had a little patio and couldn't go
• 23:10
  anywhere. I was in Greenville, SC.
• 23:12
  They didn't believe in mass and social destiny.
• 23:15
  And so every time I went somewhere, I felt like people
• 23:17
  were too close to me. So I was like, I guess I'll be
• 23:20
  staying home and let me grow some plants.
• 23:23
  What else do you have to do when you can't go anywhere?
• 23:25
  And I was like, well, let me show my friends what I'm doing.
• 23:28
  So I was just taking the videos and putting them on YouTube and
• 23:31
  like sending them to my friends. And we were just, it was just
• 23:35
  the thing. And then when I moved to
• 23:38
  Charlotte, I expanded the garden.
• 23:40
  I first moved in with my mom, and she wasn't doing anything
• 23:43
  with her backyard. So then I put a bunch of stuff
• 23:44
  in her backyard. I was like, look at all these
• 23:46
  tomatoes that I got, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:48
  And so it was originally just a gardening video.
• 23:51
  And then I started adding in like cooking.
• 23:54
  And then I started doing like Wellness Wednesday.
• 23:57
  Wellness Wednesday didn't really catch on that much.
• 24:00
  I feel like people were mostly interested in the food, and so I
• 24:06
  would go back and forth in terms of whether I was being
• 24:08
  consistent with posting and stuff.
• 24:10
  And then when I knew I was going to start a practice, I couldn't
• 24:14
  solicit my patients, but I'm like, they're like, well, you
• 24:16
  can't tell me. I was like, no, but I won't be
• 24:18
  hard to find. I'm on YouTube.
• 24:20
  If you want to follow YouTube, then you'll be able to find me
• 24:24
  because some of my people I think were following me on
• 24:26
  YouTube. And actually one of them, maybe
• 24:30
  a couple months after I left, commented on a YouTube video,
• 24:34
  Hey, I still want to be your patient.
• 24:35
  Where are you? And I'm like, what?
• 24:38
  I can't really tell you that and the YouTube comment.
• 24:41
  Just Google me and. Then she found Instagram which
• 24:44
  she DM's me on Instagram and then I was able to respond to
• 24:48
  her 'cause it's like I can't put out all your business and I
• 24:51
  don't. I didn't know if that was a
• 24:52
  HIPAA violation cause comments are public though.
• 24:55
  Then when she sent me a private message I was able to respond
• 24:58
  but it was hilarious 'cause she commented on like 2 YouTube
• 25:01
  videos. Hey, sign me up, call me and I'm
• 25:05
  like, I don't know your phone number.
• 25:07
  Also, I don't think this is supposed to work like this, but
• 25:11
  it was really funny. Yeah, that's great.
• 25:13
  So what else have you had time to do now because you're in DPC?
• 25:17
  Well, now my garden is much, much bigger.
• 25:21
  So that is something that I really enjoy doing is like
• 25:24
  growing my own food because I feel like it tastes better than
• 25:27
  the grocery store and I know that I haven't sprayed it with
• 25:31
  pesticides and herbicides and all the besides.
• 25:34
  And so I've expanded the garden. I, I feel like I cook more.
• 25:41
  I'm in a book club. I was in book club even when I
• 25:43
  was employed, but I feel like you get more books in.
• 25:47
  I don't know, I feel like I have fairly good work life balance,
• 25:51
  if that's what you want to call it.
• 25:53
  Before though, I feel like everything I do now is just more
• 25:57
  of the things I was already doing.
• 25:59
  Since you are all, you're coming up on your year anniversary very
• 26:02
  soon. In retrospect, I know it's
• 26:05
  awesome. Is there anything that you did
• 26:07
  that you thought if I started over again, I wouldn't do that?
• 26:11
  Wouldn't do. Or maybe I shouldn't have done
• 26:14
  that? Or is there something in
• 26:16
  particular you thought, oh that was really good, Definitely want
• 26:19
  to keep doing that if. I was starting all over again.
• 26:25
  I would have started collecting my patients emails or
• 26:31
  encouraging them to follow me on social media the minute I
• 26:34
  decided that I was going to leave regardless of putting my
• 26:38
  notice in. I should have been like hey I'm
• 26:40
  thinking about collect or starting a newsletter and maybe
• 26:43
  sending out healthy eating tips. You want to be on it and like
• 26:46
  getting those emails. Like if I had come back from the
• 26:48
  DPC summit and started getting emails right then I would have
• 26:52
  had probably 56700 people on an e-mail list.
• 26:56
  But I didn't start collecting emails because like once people
• 27:00
  found out I was leaving, they're like, where you going?
• 27:02
  I'm like, I can't tell you. But if you give me your e-mail,
• 27:04
  then you know, after my non compete runs out, I'll add you
• 27:07
  to my e-mail list. But I should have been a bit
• 27:10
  more strategic and started earlier just saying that I was
• 27:14
  going to do a newsletter and then I could have added them to
• 27:17
  a newsletter and it wouldn't have been like solicitation per
• 27:20
  SE. So I think that would have at
• 27:23
  least on the one hand, I'm like, OK, if people want to find me,
• 27:26
  they can find me. They just have to put in a
• 27:27
  little bit of effort. On the other hand, it's like I
• 27:30
  could have assisted them in that effort, gave them a little
• 27:33
  stepping stone, and then maybe that would have encouraged more
• 27:37
  people to join. Granted, I am like 30 to 45
• 27:41
  minutes away from the old office, so some people might
• 27:43
  feel like it's too far, But there were a good amount of
• 27:46
  people who live in Charlotte, but we're going to the doctor in
• 27:50
  Fort Mill because it was only like a port Mills, only like
• 27:54
  1015 minutes from the North Carolina border.
• 27:57
  And so I think that could have been better.
• 28:02
  I think I love my space, but if I had been networking before I
• 28:11
  started, I might have met some people that I could have just
• 28:15
  rented space in their office because I don't necessarily like
• 28:18
  my exam room barely gets used. Like because unless I need
• 28:22
  somebody to lay down on the table, I mostly just examine
• 28:25
  them in the office. Like sitting in the chair,
• 28:27
  listen to the heart, lungs, check their legs.
• 28:30
  Like unless I need to feel your stomach or we're doing a
• 28:32
  gynecological exam or a breast exam all the time.
• 28:35
  We don't even need to go in the exam room.
• 28:37
  So I could have done this in a smaller space and saved
• 28:40
  overhead. So networking before opening
• 28:44
  probably would have allowed me to find somebody because one of
• 28:46
  the chiropractors I met he a couple months ago, he was like,
• 28:49
  oh, I have this extra room, would you be interested?
• 28:52
  I was like, well, my lease doesn't end in November.
• 28:54
  He's like, oh, OK, well, it's just something to consider.
• 28:57
  And then I was asking her, I was like, would you guys take the
• 28:59
  space? Should I move?
• 29:00
  And they were like, well, you have a room in your office that
• 29:03
  you can rent out. Maybe you should focus on that.
• 29:05
  And that's when I got serious about renting out the room I was
• 29:08
  using for storage. And within a, I wanna say within
• 29:11
  a month of me putting it up for rent, I found somebody to rent
• 29:15
  space. So I was like should have done
• 29:17
  that in the beginning. I think those are the couple of
• 29:20
  things that would change. Yeah, those are great
• 29:22
  suggestions for sure. Yeah.
• 29:24
  So your lease is up soon. So yeah, if you're just gonna
• 29:27
  stay put, then. I'm not moving, I'm stay put.
• 29:30
  Now that I have somebody covering 1/3 of the rent, it
• 29:32
  doesn't necessarily save me money to move in with him.
• 29:35
  The other thing I was like, well, it would increase my
• 29:38
  visibility because he has people coming in all the time.
• 29:41
  But I mean, visibility wise, I'm all over social media people.
• 29:46
  I mean, he's referred people to me.
• 29:48
  So if he had somebody that he thought would be a good fit, I'm
• 29:51
  sure he'd send them down here. He's like 2 blocks away.
• 29:53
  So I don't necessarily feel the need to move.
• 29:57
  And then I also don't want to move at the end of the first
• 30:02
  year and then the practice grows to where I wanted to grow.
• 30:05
  So and I'm like this is enough space and then I got to move at
• 30:08
  the end of the second year or this.
• 30:10
  I want to keep moving. So I feel like I could stay in
• 30:13
  this space and fully grow the practice to where I want to and
• 30:16
  then decide whether I want to move or not.
• 30:19
  If I want to continue growing by hiring somebody then I would
• 30:22
  move to a bigger space. Or I just might not want to grow
• 30:27
  anymore and might just say a micro practice, in which case
• 30:30
  this space would be a perfect fit long term.
• 30:33
  So do you have any help or is it just all you?
• 30:36
  Do you have a VA or assistant? It's just me.
• 30:40
  No, I am going to get a VA when I hit 50 patients.
• 30:44
  That is what the goal that I set.
• 30:46
  I'm going to get Ava at 50 patients and I am not there yet.
• 30:50
  So it's just me. And right now, I mean, I know
• 30:53
  the plans may change, but where do you want to get to?
• 30:56
  What's your your goal right now? Number of patients wise.
• 31:00
  Probably 2. Yeah, 250.
• 31:03
  We'll see. Yeah.
• 31:05
  I mean, people are like 0600 patients.
• 31:07
  That's the magic number. And I'm just like that seems
• 31:10
  like a lot I don't know. Yeah, Yeah.
• 31:13
  I don't know. Yeah.
• 31:14
  Well, 250 was kind of our goal and we kind of picked that
• 31:18
  because the average full time DPC is like 500 is what most
• 31:22
  people say. But yeah started hitting like
• 31:25
  180 and was feeling really busy because I am technically like
• 31:29
  part part time and 18190 started.
• 31:32
  Really it was a lot. Yeah, 506 hundred being full
• 31:40
  time, OK, I don't necessarily want to work full time.
• 31:44
  I don't want to be here everyday.
• 31:45
  Like I love being a doctor, I love my patients, but in my
• 31:49
  ideal world, I'm only seeing patients three, maybe four days
• 31:53
  a week if needed, but at least one weekday I do not plan on
• 31:58
  seeing patients. And then I feel like another
• 32:01
  day. I would want to just be like a
• 32:04
  virtual day for urgent stuff and then it's like an Advent day.
• 32:08
  So really I only want to see patients three days a week.
• 32:12
  And so that's not really conducive with five to 600
• 32:15
  patients. Also, I'd like to travel, I like
• 32:18
  to garden, I like to spend time outside.
• 32:21
  Like this isn't my whole life. And so I like, I'm like, I want
• 32:26
  time to do all the things. We only get so much time here on
• 32:30
  this earth. Working just for the sake of
• 32:33
  working is not part of my life's plan.
• 32:36
  Like I kind of calculate, OK, how much money do I need to
• 32:40
  live, enjoy life, invest for, plan for the future, all that
• 32:43
  stuff. And with that amount of money
• 32:47
  per year, taking into account at some point having kids and all
• 32:50
  that jazz, how much do I need to work for that?
• 32:54
  Like, I don't need to just work just to make money, just to have
• 32:58
  money. I just want to work to be live
• 33:02
  the life that I want to live, which depending on how I'm
• 33:05
  feeling, sometimes that's working a little.
• 33:07
  Bit less. Well, that's I think that's a
• 33:11
  great way to approach how much do you need to make?
• 33:14
  It's, it's not just like you said, it's not just making money
• 33:17
  to make money, but you need to have a purpose for the money
• 33:19
  that you are making, right. So that it has meaning.
• 33:23
  So that's that's perfect. Yeah.
• 33:25
  Well, is there anything else that you want to tell our
• 33:29
  listeners maybe who are about to take the leap or thinking about
• 33:33
  it? I would say that my growth has
• 33:36
  been a lot slower than what I'd hoped for.
• 33:39
  Like I'd listen to a bunch of podcasts, read the books, blah
• 33:41
  blah blah. I was like, oh OK, maybe I'll
• 33:43
  grow in like 5 to 10 patients a month and fill up in 2 years.
• 33:47
  I don't know if I'm going to fill up in 2 years.
• 33:48
  I hope so. But this year has not been
• 33:52
  anything. Like there was some months where
• 33:54
  I got like 2 to 4 people and then there was some months where
• 33:57
  I got 0 people. And so plan for it like you can
• 34:05
  make a business plan and say you're going to get so many
• 34:07
  patients a month, blah, blah, blah, but it might not work out
• 34:10
  that way. So plan for the what if?
• 34:11
  Like what if you don't grow as fast as you think you are going
• 34:15
  to grow? And so for me, what that looked
• 34:18
  like was even though I had saved for a couple of years before
• 34:22
  doing this, it was I think I should get a telehealth part
• 34:26
  time job just to give myself cushion because I know I don't
• 34:30
  want to go back to working an employee practice like in
• 34:35
  person, but a little telly part time job to give myself a
• 34:39
  financial cushion while I am not paying myself and I don't want
• 34:42
  to drain my savings or investments or anything.
• 34:46
  So I would say make sure you have a plan for that.
• 34:48
  If you have a like super duper large savings or some type of
• 34:52
  generational wealth to where it's not a worry, then don't
• 34:54
  worry about it. But for all of you semi or semi
• 34:58
  single people who have bills to pay and nobody to pay them for
• 35:01
  you, you might want to keep a little part time job or side
• 35:05
  hustle or something that gives you an income so you can still
• 35:07
  live life and not be miserable while you do this and not be
• 35:11
  like stressed out over finances. And then the other thing I would
• 35:14
  say is that it still feels worth it.
• 35:15
  Even though it's not growing as fast as I would hope, it's still
• 35:20
  growing. I am making my overhead and not
• 35:24
  incurring any extra debt. And my patients, they appreciate
• 35:28
  the style of medicine and being heard and having time with the
• 35:32
  doctor. And so it's still worth it and
• 35:36
  valuable. And I've been told by a lot of
• 35:38
  people I've talked to during networking that this is the wave
• 35:41
  of the future, like going back to cash based practices and not
• 35:44
  relying on insurance and having good relationships with your
• 35:48
  physician is what people are wanting.
• 35:51
  It's where medicine isn't going to have a choice but to go with
• 35:55
  their current environment. And so don't be afraid to take
• 35:59
  leap. Just make lots of contingency
• 36:01
  plans. Yeah, that sounds super smart.
• 36:06
  Well, I appreciate, I appreciate the honesty because I think
• 36:09
  certainly there are a lot of people who talk about their
• 36:12
  successes, which is wonderful. And sometimes people just don't
• 36:15
  talk about what is really hard about DPC, opening your own DPC
• 36:20
  or just business in general. So I think it's good to have a
• 36:23
  balanced view of what could happen.
• 36:26
  And then I saw where somebody they talk about, there's a
• 36:30
  couple posts where people go like nobody talks about the DP
• 36:33
  CS that fail. It like the reasons why they
• 36:35
  fail. And there's some people who are
• 36:37
  like, oh, they're failing because they're charging too
• 36:39
  high a price. And then there's some people who
• 36:41
  are like, well, they fail because they run out of money.
• 36:43
  Like if you are just living on your savings and you run out of
• 36:47
  money and your practice isn't growing that fast, whether your
• 36:50
  price is $60.00 or $150.00, if you don't have any money, then
• 36:56
  you're going to close your practice and go get a job.
• 36:59
  And so your price is your price. You value yourself at whatever
• 37:03
  you value yourself at. The people who value those
• 37:06
  things will find you. But like, if you're on the
• 37:09
  higher end, it might take them a little longer to find you.
• 37:11
  And So what are you going to do to not run out of money in the
• 37:14
  meantime? Contingency backup.
• 37:17
  Backup plans. There you go.
• 37:20
  All right, well, I appreciate your time and your honesty, your
• 37:23
  wisdom. I think you've given us a lot of
• 37:25
  things to think about, especially when you're starting
• 37:27
  out. So those you've given us great
• 37:29
  ideas, things to do before you leave fee for service.
• 37:33
  So thank you so much. I appreciate it.
• 37:35
  And tell us how people can find you online and YouTube.
• 37:40
  Thank you for having me and I am on YouTube, Instagram and and
• 37:47
  TikTok as Khashidi Long, MD. My practice name is Long Health
• 37:51
  and Wellness. You can find
• 37:53
  us@longhealthandwellness.com and let me know if you have any
• 37:57
  questions. Yes, great.
• 37:59
  Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
• 38:01
  And then I'd like to talk to you again in maybe six months or a
• 38:04
  year just to kind of check in and see how you're doing.
• 38:08
  Absolutely, of course. Thanks again to Doctor Long for
• 38:11
  her honest experiences and for telling the truth about what
• 38:14
  it's like to be a DPC owner and a physician entrepreneur.
• 38:19
  She is correct, it is hard, it's a lot of work, but it is
• 38:22
  definitely worth it. I hear from DPC doctors,
• 38:25
  especially new doctors that they are struggling and I hate to
• 38:29
  hear that it doesn't have to be that way.
• 38:32
  And so I created Harmony OPS for DPC to help new and about to
• 38:36
  launch DPC Doctors to help grow their practices and reach their
• 38:40
  ideal clients, nurture those relationships and then retain
• 38:43
  them as patients. We have weekly calls to go
• 38:48
  through how to use the platform to its fullest extent so that
• 38:53
  you can reach more people and also to talk about DPC in
• 38:57
  general. There's an online community of
• 39:01
  Harmony OPS users as well to share ideas, the wins and
• 39:04
  struggles, and again, to just generally help everyone improve
• 39:07
  their practices. Plus also included is the DPC
• 39:11
  Ads in Minutes course that I created to help DPC practices
• 39:16
  learn how to run Meta ads to get more attention for their
• 39:20
  practices. The combination of the DPC Ads
• 39:22
  in Minutes plus the Harmony OPS platform is a wonderful way to
• 39:27
  help increase your visibility and Dr. more traffic to your
• 39:31
  website and to learn more about your practice.
• 39:35
  O go to harmonyopsfordpc.com to learn more and to sign up for
• 39:39
  demo and we can walk through the platform and show you what's
• 39:42
  possible and how we can help you grow your practice.
• 39:47
  Thank you for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.
• 39:51
  Thank you for listening to DPC Life.
• 39:54
  If today's conversation inspired you, hit follow, leave a review
• 39:59
  and share it with a friend who's ready for change.
• 40:02
  Remember wherever you are in the journey.
• 40:06
  Your DPC family has your back. Until next time, keep building a
• 40:11
  practice and a life that truly fits you.
• 40:16
  This show is brought to you by DPC Ads in Minutes and Harmony
• 40:20
  OPS Health, helping independent doctors like you grow and
• 40:24
  thrive.