Latest / DPC Life: Direct Primary Care Podcast / Direct Specialty Allergy Care From Scratch – Dr. Anita Sivam, Inspire Allergy & Asthma

Transcript

Direct Specialty Allergy Care From Scratch – Dr. Anita Sivam, Inspire Allergy & Asthma · DPC Life: Direct Primary Care Podcast

• 0:00
  Insurance, as we all know, has been a hindrance in medical
• 0:04
  care. So I had kind of looked at other
• 0:06
  direct allergy care practices in the United States, and there's
• 0:09
  not very many of them. But those people had explained
• 0:12
  they had good experiences and direct primary care is pretty, I
• 0:17
  don't want to say mainstream, but people know what it is
• 0:19
  around here. And so it was something
• 0:21
  explored. And once I decided on that, I
• 0:24
  just said, OK, we're going in this direction, let's do this.
• 0:27
  Let's see how it goes. Welcome to DPC Life, the podcast
• 0:31
  where independent doctors share real stories, bold ideas, and
• 0:35
  the freedom of doing medicine on your own terms.
• 0:39
  I'm your host, Doctor Ann Gonzalez, and together we'll
• 0:42
  explore the winds, the struggles, and everything in
• 0:46
  between. Let's dive in.
• 0:49
  Just a quick note before we get started, If you are ADPC or
• 0:54
  Direct specialty care doctor and social media keeps dropping to
• 0:58
  the bottom of your To Do List, this is for you.
• 1:02
  I'm running a 14 day social media Sprint from April 20th to
• 1:07
  May 3rd. It's a short one time Sprint
• 1:10
  where you'll spend 2 to 3 hours upfront connecting your social
• 1:14
  media accounts and at the end you have two full weeks of posts
• 1:19
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• 1:23
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• 1:25
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  them, and a social planner within Harmony OPS, plus your
• 1:34
  own DPC connector page so that every post can actually turn
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  into patients instead of just vanity metrics.
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  We'll kick it off with an onboarding call and then e-mail
• 1:45
  you every few days to make sure you actually follow through
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  instead of letting it collect dust.
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  The cart closes April 18th and then I will shut it down and
• 1:55
  we'll get the group started. So if you are interested, go to
• 1:59
  reach.harmonyopshealth.com and you can learn more there.
• 2:04
  Now let's get into the episode with Doctor Anita Sivam.
• 2:09
  So, OK, my guest today is Doctor Anita Sivam.
• 2:12
  She is an allergist in a suburb of Indianapolis and she is
• 2:19
  starting in three days starting her practice, direct specialty
• 2:23
  care and allergy. She does PEDs and adults.
• 2:25
  So welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me.
• 2:29
  Absolutely. I'm excited to talk to you.
• 2:31
  We don't get a lot of specialists, direct specialty
• 2:34
  care people on the podcast, so this is really exciting for me.
• 2:38
  I would like to know how you found direct specialty care.
• 2:43
  What brought you to that? So as I was transitioning to my
• 2:49
  previous out of my previous role, I was just looking at
• 2:52
  different options. Insurance, as we all know, has
• 2:55
  been a hindrance in medical care.
• 2:58
  So I had kind of looked at other direct allergy care practices in
• 3:02
  the United States and there's not very many of them.
• 3:04
  But those people had explained they had good experiences and
• 3:08
  direct primary care is pretty, I don't want to say mainstream,
• 3:12
  but people know what it is around here.
• 3:14
  And so it was something I explored.
• 3:16
  And once I decided on that, I just said, OK, we're going in
• 3:19
  this direction, let's do this, let's see how it goes.
• 3:22
  I gave myself a timeline and we're going to see if it works.
• 3:25
  I think it will. I think it will.
• 3:28
  So how long ago did you decide that you wanted to do this?
• 3:32
  So probably about, I would say six months ago, the idea came in
• 3:37
  my mind, I had to give 120 day notice for my practice and so my
• 3:41
  last day was in December there and then just kind of been
• 3:44
  preparing the practice since then.
• 3:48
  Well, so you know, it's very interesting.
• 3:50
  Some people will do a very fast, you know, kind of ramp up and
• 3:54
  start their practice. And then some people it takes
• 3:56
  them years to, you know, get started.
• 3:59
  And everyone's a little bit different as far as their
• 4:01
  journey. But so you've had about two
• 4:04
  months to kind of get yourself open.
• 4:07
  So what have you been doing? Yeah.
• 4:10
  And so the last few months I've just been figuring out office
• 4:14
  space, figuring out staffing, if that's something I can do or
• 4:18
  should do, allergy supplies. So allergy testing and things
• 4:22
  like that. Getting all that together was a
• 4:24
  very time intensive process. And then of course, the
• 4:28
  administrative stuff, picking out an EMR, phone stuff, e-mail
• 4:33
  stuff, social media and marketing stuff, all of that
• 4:36
  good stuff, yeah. It's a lot.
• 4:38
  So it's nice that you had time off out of your previous job to
• 4:42
  be able to focus on it because it really is.
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  It's a full time job, you know, trying to figure out all the
• 4:48
  details and how to do this all without getting too overwhelmed.
• 4:52
  So I would like to find out from you, as far as you know,
• 4:58
  specialty care of course, is a little different from primary
• 5:00
  care and how you market it and how you get your message out.
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  But I still find that there's a lot in common because you're
• 5:08
  still starting a practice. You're still starting from, you
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  know, A very well, you may have some patients, but it's not
• 5:14
  obviously a full practice. And so the things that are very
• 5:18
  similar are crafting your message #1 making it as clear as
• 5:22
  possible, trying to figure out who you are marketing to and
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  then how to reach them. So tell me what would be helpful
• 5:30
  for you if at the end of the call you had a plan for doing XY
• 5:34
  or Z. So I think right now in my mind,
• 5:39
  I have kind of a marketing plan of sorts, but I think that
• 5:43
  probably needs to be further tailored so I can get more
• 5:46
  patience. Right now I've been focusing on
• 5:49
  social media and then of course the decision of how much should
• 5:52
  we spend the return on an investment of that and is it
• 5:56
  worth it at this point or just kind of a wait and see approach?
• 6:00
  Yeah. And then what about networking
• 6:03
  in person? So I have been doing a lot of
• 6:08
  just going around to the different direct primary care
• 6:10
  practices and not direct primary care traditional practices.
• 6:14
  I've even networked with other allergists in the area just
• 6:16
  because I'm offering some services that they don't
• 6:19
  necessarily offer. So, you know, them being an
• 6:21
  internal network of referrals and then trying to push the mom
• 6:26
  groups, social media, I hate to say influencers, but
• 6:29
  influencers, things like that, just to see if that could help
• 6:33
  bring in patients as well. So what are you offering that
• 6:36
  most allergy practices aren't doing?
• 6:40
  In our area, only the academic center and one other allergist
• 6:43
  in Indianapolis offers food oral immunotherapy or desensitization
• 6:47
  for food allergies. So that is kind of my niche
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  because a lot of patients are traveling outside the state to
• 6:54
  Chicago, California, Cincinnati to get this therapy.
• 6:57
  So I'm hoping to kind of expand access to that in the area.
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  So that's kind of my big push when I'm talking about the
• 7:03
  practice and things like that. Yeah.
• 7:07
  So just curious, so anyone who is listening, if they decided
• 7:11
  that they have patients that might benefit from that, what
• 7:14
  states are you licensed in? So I'm licensed in Indiana,
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  Tennessee, and California, but for food immunotherapy, it's one
• 7:20
  of those things that does need to be done in person, so it
• 7:23
  would probably be someone who's more local to the area.
• 7:26
  You never know, someone might want to travel.
• 7:29
  OK, I would love that. OK, well, that's good to know.
• 7:33
  So, OK, well, when you meet somebody and say it's just
• 7:38
  someone that you meet casually, how are you explaining your
• 7:40
  practice to them? So I generally say that we're a
• 7:44
  direct allergy care practice and that means that instead of going
• 7:48
  through insurance for out of network with insurances that
• 7:50
  that allows me to have more time to spend with the patient.
• 7:54
  We're coming up with a plan for being reactive right now, but
• 7:58
  also a preventative plan in terms of depending on what
• 8:01
  they're care is. And with all of that comes
• 8:04
  transparent pricing. We're upfront about all of the
• 8:06
  cost so that there's no surprises that you might
• 8:09
  encounter with insurance based pricing and that you are always
• 8:14
  have access to me and that we're always kind of having that
• 8:17
  conversation so that the allergy care isn't fragmented.
• 8:21
  It's a kind of a continuous process with that.
• 8:24
  OK. When you talk to people, what do
• 8:27
  they say that their pain points are as far as access to allergy
• 8:32
  treatment. So primarily being able to reach
• 8:38
  their allergist is kind of the biggest pain point.
• 8:41
  Most of the allergy groups in our area of larger groups.
• 8:44
  So they're going through AI systems, phone trees, not build
• 8:48
  access their nurse when they need medication refills or
• 8:51
  medication questions or what to do when a reaction, things like
• 8:54
  that. And so that's one of the biggest
• 8:57
  pain points. And then of course, getting into
• 8:59
  the allergist, our wait lists are pretty long around here for
• 9:02
  specialist care. Some are even 6 to 12 months
• 9:05
  out. And so when you're having an
• 9:07
  allergy issue, it's usually needs to be handled pretty
• 9:10
  quickly. But by the time an appointment
• 9:13
  comes around, you may not even have that issue at that point.
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  So that's a big concern for patients.
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  And then of course, with oral immunotherapy, just not even
• 9:20
  having access to it readily in the area.
• 9:23
  Yep. So your pricing is more per
• 9:25
  visit, is that how you do it? So I have kind of both options.
• 9:29
  I have a la carte because some allergy care is kind of A1 and
• 9:32
  done type thing or once every six months.
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  So they have that option. But then I also have membership
• 9:37
  option for like severe asthmatics, chronic eczema,
• 9:40
  chronic hives. If they want to have continuous
• 9:42
  follow up, even if it's for a short term period of time, they
• 9:45
  can opt for that option as well. Yeah.
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  All right. So you have a monthly membership
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  and then a la carte options. OK, yeah.
• 9:55
  So what I'm trying to fill out is pretending that I'm a patient
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  and what is the benefit? And you gave me a bunch of them,
• 10:06
  which is wonderful. That's the great thing about
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  direct specialty care. But probably it's nice to have
• 10:11
  one or two things to really focus on.
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  And that's why I was trying to get at the pain points because
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  once you start, OK, listing all those different things, it gets
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  a little overwhelming. And people are kind of like, I
• 10:23
  don't know what to do with this. So what are the main things that
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  maybe say like one or two things?
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  And how would you present that to somebody if you just meet
• 10:33
  them and they don't know a whole lot about allergy treatments or
• 10:36
  about specialty allergy care in the special, you know, direct
• 10:41
  Care World? So I would probably emphasize
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  more of the longer visits aspect of things.
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  We're not just rushing through the visit.
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  We're going into the details of the history as well as the
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  social aspect of how this kind of effects them from day-to-day
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  life. And then the transparent
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  pricing. I think with specialty care,
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  there are a lot of surprise costs, obviously deductibles,
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  but coinsurance, co-pays, things that are not necessarily covered
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  under insurance just because it's a specialist.
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  So in your previous practice, once you heard about direct
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  specialty care and you went along with your day and then
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  things happen and you think, oh gosh, that would, I wouldn't
• 11:23
  have to do that. I could do this so much better.
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  What kind of things were those in your previous practice?
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  Because if you saw that that was a problem, then obviously your
• 11:33
  patients would see that's a problem.
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  So I think addressing some of the mental aspects of how
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  allergy care or allergy issues affect that patient, food
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  allergies obviously cause anxiety, quality of life issues,
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  we know all of that. But in the 1520 minute visit,
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  we're not able to address those things.
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  I mean, we're kind of skimming the surface.
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  We give them an action plans, tell them to avoid the food,
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  give them an EpiPen, and then they're on their way.
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  But there's so many unanswered questions after that.
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  How is this going to affect my child?
• 12:09
  Is he or she going to be OK at school?
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  Things like that. And that is what I'm hoping to
• 12:15
  be able to encompass when we're doing direct allergy care.
• 12:20
  Yeah. So in your visits previously,
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  how did you address those questions?
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  What did you do? It was hard.
• 12:28
  Either I would quickly run through some answers and try to
• 12:32
  be more generic and vague just so I could get through the visit
• 12:35
  and get to the next patient, or I would ask my nurse to kind of
• 12:39
  handle things just because I didn't have the time and I knew
• 12:42
  I needed to get to the next patient.
• 12:45
  OK, so besides rushing through some of the mental health
• 12:50
  aspects about how food allergies affect people, what else did you
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  notice, whether it's about things that you had to discuss
• 12:58
  with patients that you didn't get to or processes within the
• 13:02
  practice that you thought, OK, I don't have to do that anymore?
• 13:07
  So towards the end, we were asked to see more patients on a
• 13:11
  scheduled template that didn't necessarily work with my flow of
• 13:15
  kind of things from the office perspective with getting nursing
• 13:18
  staff and things like that. And so I'm excited that I don't
• 13:22
  have to listen to that schedule. I can set aside two hours for a
• 13:26
  new patient visit if I wanted to and that I'm only focused on
• 13:30
  that one patient with allergy. A lot of times we're
• 13:33
  multitasking. We're seeing 234 patients at the
• 13:36
  same time because one's getting tested, one's going through a
• 13:39
  food challenge, and 1 is just getting seen for a follow up
• 13:42
  appointment. So there's three encounters
• 13:45
  going on at the same time, which can be hard.
• 13:48
  I'm a good multi Tasker, but I don't think it's necessarily
• 13:50
  good for patient care when we're doing that.
• 13:53
  And so I am excited to be able to dedicate my brain space to
• 13:57
  one patient for that dedicated amount of time.
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  So if somebody is, you know, they're somewhat plugged into
• 14:04
  allergy right now because say they either their child has a
• 14:08
  lot of allergies or they've experienced allergy testing 10
• 14:12
  or 15 years ago and they see you and they think, well, they ask
• 14:16
  you, why would I come to you? How would you, you know, knowing
• 14:19
  that they've had a little bit of experience, what would you tell
• 14:22
  them? How would you pitch it to them?
• 14:25
  Sure, great question. I would explain to them that
• 14:30
  this is not a traditional allergy care system.
• 14:33
  You're not going to be just a number, just a patient.
• 14:35
  We will care about you and your family and expect all the
• 14:39
  different things that go along with seeing a family with
• 14:43
  allergies and be able to spend more time, be transparent about
• 14:47
  the pricing. And then we also have other
• 14:49
  treatment options that may not be available at a traditional
• 14:52
  allergy practice just because we're able to have that extended
• 14:56
  period of time to explain the options, discuss together what
• 14:59
  works best for you and your family, and then choose that
• 15:03
  option together. Yeah.
• 15:06
  So when you're talking to people about something like direct
• 15:09
  specialty care, which of course is a definitely a want, not a
• 15:13
  need, right, Especially if they have insurance, right.
• 15:17
  Sure. When you're talking to people,
• 15:18
  you can go a couple different ways about explaining things.
• 15:22
  You can go either a more numbers kind of route, you're saying
• 15:28
  it's transparent pricing, we spend more time with you, well,
• 15:31
  more numbers like money, OK. So you can go that way or you
• 15:35
  can go an emotional route. And I think particularly it's
• 15:40
  just about with anything, if you are really kind of going and and
• 15:45
  affecting their emotions. A lot of times the decisions
• 15:49
  that we make are made by our emotional reactions to things.
• 15:53
  And so that's why sometimes and it you have to feel people out,
• 15:59
  right, because they'll have certain things that they want
• 16:03
  addressed. And so that's one of the things
• 16:05
  that we had to learn, I had to learn is figure out as soon, as
• 16:07
  quickly as possible when you're talking to somebody, what is
• 16:09
  their pain point? Is it money?
• 16:12
  Is it time? Is it access?
• 16:15
  Is it that they don't feel like their answers, you know,
• 16:17
  questions are getting answered, their questions about their
• 16:20
  children aren't getting answered.
• 16:22
  So it is nice to have little snippets, kind of like little
• 16:27
  mini talks or mini pitches to address each of those.
• 16:31
  Have you heard of the disk personalities DISCI don't
• 16:36
  remember the exact meaning of the initials, but so there's
• 16:40
  four it's a personality typing thing.
• 16:42
  So disk and one is more analytical like you will be
• 16:47
  like, this is what we do. And they're like, great, let's
• 16:49
  go for it. I mean, and it's just like, give
• 16:51
  me the upfront, the no fluff, just very upfront and just I'll
• 16:58
  go for it. It's like they don't need a lot
• 17:00
  of time to make their decisions. And then some want to know
• 17:03
  everything and they take a long time to make their decisions,
• 17:08
  right? So these are the people that
• 17:09
  maybe you might have your social media out for two years and then
• 17:12
  they're like, OK, finally I'm going to come.
• 17:15
  And then some are, they're more, gosh, I keep forgetting what
• 17:19
  these initials are. But the idea is that, and you
• 17:22
  can look it up and anyone who's listening can look it up DISC
• 17:26
  disk personalities. But what I try to do is try to
• 17:30
  figure out how do I approach each of these personality types
• 17:34
  because there's something that they will respond to.
• 17:39
  And it's really you just have to kind of figure out what each
• 17:43
  person is like. And it's the more you do it, the
• 17:46
  more you kind of see how people where they fit in this.
• 17:50
  But I like the way that it divides everything up because it
• 17:53
  does help you figure out, OK, how do I make my pitch short and
• 17:58
  sweet and to the point and really get to their emotions?
• 18:01
  What's the pain point? And depending on which
• 18:05
  personality they are, they've all got different pain points
• 18:08
  that make sense. Yep, absolutely.
• 18:11
  So, OK, and then let's talk about social media and
• 18:16
  networking. So what are you doing with your
• 18:18
  social media right now? So I am trying to push out as
• 18:22
  many videos as I can and so I started.
• 18:25
  I'm an elder millennial so my social media of choice is
• 18:29
  Instagram but I have also added in TikTok and then Facebook.
• 18:33
  So I have been just making different videos with pain
• 18:36
  points, trying to focus on the food allergy and oral
• 18:39
  immunotherapy aspect of things, but then also just talking you
• 18:41
  want direct allergy care and then general allergy tips.
• 18:44
  So we've kind of been doing that aspect of things with social
• 18:48
  media. Are you doing any ads or is it
• 18:52
  all organic? So all organic right now.
• 18:56
  I haven't done any social media ads quite yet.
• 18:59
  Yeah, I'm not saying you have to.
• 19:00
  I was just wondering. Yeah.
• 19:02
  No, no, no. I.
• 19:02
  Haven't. Yeah.
• 19:03
  And then at the networking events, what kinds of things are
• 19:06
  you going to? So we have a local women
• 19:10
  physicians direct primary care and direct specialty care group.
• 19:14
  So they get together every few months.
• 19:16
  So I've been attending those to hand out business cards and
• 19:19
  stuff. And then now I'm kind of getting
• 19:21
  into the non medical world and trying to explore the Chamber of
• 19:25
  Commerce, things like that to see if that might be a good way
• 19:28
  of generating patients as well. Who do you think are going to be
• 19:32
  your best referral sources? I think it'll primarily be
• 19:38
  pediatricians and family medicine from the medical aspect
• 19:42
  of things, but then I think from the non medical will be word of
• 19:46
  mouth, social media, mom groups, things like that.
• 19:50
  Yeah. So having several good referral
• 19:52
  sources is key. So if you're thinking about your
• 19:55
  mom groups, if there's any patients that you know that
• 19:58
  they're going to follow you from your previous practice, if
• 20:01
  they're in those mom groups, you can get them to be your.
• 20:06
  Raving fans, if they haven't already been like, yes, Doctrine
• 20:09
  is she's awesome, you need to go see her.
• 20:12
  She's got this great practice. It's very different.
• 20:14
  You get a lot of time with her and she really understands your
• 20:17
  kids problems. If you can get them to do that,
• 20:20
  that's huge. And then are you getting on
• 20:23
  there and talking whenever anyone has allergy questions?
• 20:26
  Are you just kind of putting in? So I generally try to answer any
• 20:30
  of those questions or have my friends kind of speak up or
• 20:34
  friends patients speak up kind of to boost the practice.
• 20:37
  A little bit have you heard gotten any interest from now
• 20:39
  that? I have, and then I'm also
• 20:42
  hosting a food allergy seminar, a free one in two weeks.
• 20:45
  So kind of as a way to advertise the practice.
• 20:47
  So that was my way of not directly advertising, but kind
• 20:51
  of more indirectly advertising for them.
• 20:53
  No, that's wonderful. That's great.
• 20:55
  Is that online or is that in person?
• 20:58
  No, in person. In person, it's basically going
• 21:00
  to discuss the oral immunotherapy and options for
• 21:03
  patients. So we have a few patients
• 21:05
  already, a few people, I should say, signed up.
• 21:07
  So hopefully that will eventually generate 2 coming
• 21:10
  into the practice. That's great.
• 21:12
  Have you thought about live streaming it Instagram?
• 21:15
  That is a good idea. I have to figure out all the
• 21:17
  technology, all the new stuff for me.
• 21:19
  But yes, that is a good. Idea yeah it is.
• 21:23
  It's possible I can't remember exactly.
• 21:25
  They changed it a little bit over the past year so I just
• 21:28
  always ask chat TPT how do I do this again cuz I can't remember
• 21:32
  but I'll have to. Look into it, but I should live
• 21:35
  stream it. That's probably a good way to
• 21:36
  have people who can't make it. And see it yeah because what
• 21:39
  will happen is when you do live stream it it gets recorded as
• 21:41
  well and it will be on and I think the last time we did one
• 21:46
  it was Facebook so it would be on your Facebook account for
• 21:48
  like 30 or 60 days and you can also download it So what about
• 21:53
  YouTube so I. Haven't gone to the world of
• 21:57
  YouTube yet but I know and I have heard that it is a good
• 22:00
  also place for sharing information.
• 22:04
  Yeah, so then you can. It's really easy to start a
• 22:06
  YouTube channel. I mean, it's very easy.
• 22:10
  So if you start a YouTube channel, you can take the things
• 22:13
  that you are putting on social media and you can just put it
• 22:15
  there too. It's just different, different
• 22:18
  ways of finding you. But that's one place that you
• 22:20
  can put that webinar. You can take that, you can chop
• 22:23
  it up in pieces and use that for reals on social media.
• 22:27
  You can use it on YouTube and short as shorts.
• 22:30
  So you can use things and that's a lot of times we think we need
• 22:33
  to make new things every day. And it really you don't, you can
• 22:38
  repost things weeks later because organic social media,
• 22:42
  even though yes, it's great, only about two or three percent
• 22:45
  of your followers are going to see it.
• 22:46
  So if you post something one day and then two weeks later post it
• 22:50
  again, I'm sorry, the same people aren't going to see it.
• 22:53
  So if there's something that you see, you know, going back, if
• 22:56
  you look back at how long have you been posting, like 2 months.
• 23:00
  Yeah, about two months. Go back and look at your numbers
• 23:03
  and see oh wow, that one got a lot of views.
• 23:06
  Take that, maybe tweak it a little bit.
• 23:09
  Either add something at the beginning or the end, you know,
• 23:12
  just cut or change the caption something, Post again.
• 23:15
  So find the stuff that has really resonated with people.
• 23:18
  Repost that so that you're not making more work for yourself.
• 23:23
  Sure, sure. Absolutely.
• 23:26
  Yeah. So going back and seeing and
• 23:28
  then you can also figure out, OK, what were the things that
• 23:30
  did hit really well and what was I talking about?
• 23:34
  And then redo that. Just do it 10 different ways.
• 23:40
  Then you already know what are people looking at?
• 23:42
  What are they, what are they really excited about?
• 23:45
  And just post a lot about that because again, people may not
• 23:50
  see it again, new people are going to see it all the time
• 23:52
  because again, 2 to 3% only see it.
• 23:55
  And it doesn't matter if you say it the same over and over or if
• 23:58
  you tweak it a little bit. But that's The thing is you want
• 24:01
  to have something that you repeat all the time, especially
• 24:06
  if it has been very popular, it's hit really well.
• 24:09
  People are resonating with it. And it's OK people either they
• 24:14
  don't see it. You may feel like you're saying
• 24:16
  it so, so, so much that you get tired of it.
• 24:19
  But it's OK because you want to be known for something.
• 24:25
  Not that you don't want to be known for everything else, but
• 24:27
  there's probably it's the food allergy, oral therapy,
• 24:29
  immunotherapy probably. So you probably just want to
• 24:31
  just keep talking about that. OK.
• 24:35
  But go back and see maybe it's something else that's really
• 24:37
  hit. And that's the thing about
• 24:39
  social media is it's kind of experimentation and seeing, OK,
• 24:45
  people didn't really listen to that.
• 24:47
  Or they really like to the price.
• 24:48
  Sometimes I'm like, oh interesting, they didn't care
• 24:51
  about that but that video made it OK.
• 24:54
  And sometimes it's just the way that you said it, or maybe your
• 24:57
  background, or maybe sometimes it's hard to figure it out.
• 25:00
  But definitely the message you can figure out what message
• 25:03
  seems to really, you know, get people's attention.
• 25:07
  And sometimes it's the hook and your hook is the difference.
• 25:10
  So you can test different hooks. If you had like a main part, you
• 25:14
  start talking about the immunotherapy, but the first 5
• 25:18
  seconds is different and you can try different ones.
• 25:21
  But it's, yeah, a lot of experimentation with.
• 25:25
  Social media, yes, for sure. Definitely.
• 25:29
  And then the networking in person with your Pete's
• 25:32
  practices and family medicine practices, how are you following
• 25:36
  up with them? So a lot of the pediatric
• 25:40
  practices and even internal medicine practices in our area
• 25:43
  are owned by large group practices or the hospital.
• 25:47
  So it's even very hard. So I couldn't even get personal
• 25:51
  FaceTime with these people. It was just me dropping off
• 25:53
  Flyers and business cards. So I won't ever know if things
• 25:57
  worked. I did get one referral from a
• 25:59
  practice so at least I know it went through the door, but they
• 26:03
  don't allow like a lot of them just don't allow it.
• 26:05
  So I'm trying to focus more on the private groups or the ones
• 26:08
  that I actually can get contact with, like a referral
• 26:11
  coordinator things. Like that?
• 26:13
  So how many of those smaller private groups are there that
• 26:16
  you've been going to? Yeah, that's probably only like
• 26:20
  5 to 10 in our area, to be honest.
• 26:22
  It's OK. I mean, if you've got 5 to 10
• 26:25
  referral sources and they send you multiple people every month
• 26:29
  each one, that's pretty good. So do you have a plan for
• 26:34
  following up with them? I haven't actually come up with
• 26:38
  a plan yet. So what could you do?
• 26:43
  So probably in, I would say probably in six to eight weeks,
• 26:46
  probably run back to those offices and see if we can chit
• 26:49
  chat again or just say is there anything that could make this
• 26:53
  process easier or what could be helpful on my side of things to
• 26:56
  make this referral process a little smoother?
• 27:00
  Yeah, Yeah. I think that The thing is, and
• 27:03
  with direct primary care, I guess any practice really, you
• 27:07
  can get information to people. But yeah, you just have to keep
• 27:10
  following up with them because people are busy and they forget.
• 27:14
  And then I think the wet or the in person event that you're
• 27:17
  doing is really key and trying to get the word out about that.
• 27:21
  So how are you doing that? How are you advertising that?
• 27:25
  So that has been mainly through social media when I've been
• 27:28
  dropping off the Flyers to the practice, I'm also including a
• 27:30
  flyer for that. And so, and then some of the
• 27:33
  direct care practices that I've been to had already took a
• 27:36
  picture and texted it to those patients that they were feeling
• 27:40
  like they would be interested in.
• 27:41
  And actually that's how I got most of them.
• 27:43
  Is that word a mouse? Some of the social media mom
• 27:46
  groups in our area are like, all this is advertising your
• 27:49
  practice. So they won't even let me post
• 27:51
  it in the group. So that's a little
• 27:53
  disappointing. So I've been trying to have
• 27:54
  other people post it and just say oh I have a food allergy
• 27:57
  kiddo that is and I'm interested in going to this event so
• 28:01
  hopefully that will bring things along.
• 28:07
  Sorry, you're fine. You're fine.
• 28:09
  I got to move around. A little more kidding.
• 28:12
  I think doing something like that is always, you know, really
• 28:16
  gets a lot of attention and it might be something that's worth
• 28:20
  putting a little money towards. You don't have to do a lot with
• 28:25
  the ad like you don't have to put a lot of money behind it.
• 28:27
  When is it again? So it's March. 10th.
• 28:32
  So we got two weeks or so. Two weeks.
• 28:33
  Yeah, and you won't see people signing up until a big push,
• 28:37
  probably till a few days beforehand.
• 28:39
  And they'll sign up and a lot of people won't come, but that's
• 28:42
  OK. If you do your recording, people
• 28:44
  who didn't come or who had no idea, they'll be able to see as
• 28:50
  well. But yeah, if you were going to
• 28:52
  put a little bit of money behind it, I would actually do a real
• 28:55
  ad. I wouldn't just boost it, OK?
• 28:58
  Because if you just boost it, it just shows it to more people,
• 29:02
  not necessarily people that need to see your ad, right?
• 29:06
  It's just showing it to more people.
• 29:08
  So with the ads, what's really key is you want to make sure
• 29:10
  your messaging is very, very clear or even just your social
• 29:14
  media. So hey, Carmel moms, call them
• 29:17
  out because that's going to directly get their attention.
• 29:21
  Do you have a child with food allergies?
• 29:24
  If so, this is for you, right? Is that I mean, if you're
• 29:27
  already doing that, stop me, but.
• 29:30
  No, no, that I mean that I think I was a little bit more worried.
• 29:33
  So this is good, short to the point.
• 29:35
  Yeah, no, just just get into it because you have 3 seconds take.
• 29:40
  Care sure scroll. Live, yeah.
• 29:43
  So either if it's a static image, put your put it on there
• 29:47
  so that it's big letters, right? I wouldn't just bury it in the
• 29:51
  caption because they might not even stop to look at it.
• 29:55
  But if you put in there caramel moms, does your child have food
• 29:58
  allergies? I mean, if I was a caramel mom,
• 30:01
  I'd be like, why are you saying this?
• 30:04
  What is this about? And then also reels.
• 30:08
  Are you doing reels? Yeah, yeah.
• 30:11
  And so with the reels definitely calling it out immediately, it's
• 30:15
  not annoying. OK, all right, all right.
• 30:21
  Hopefully they're not sick of the space.
• 30:22
  Yeah, No, no, no, no, no, they won't be.
• 30:25
  They won't be. It's if they do, they'll be, Oh,
• 30:28
  there's Doctor Anita. She's talking about allergies.
• 30:30
  What is she saying this time? It's and if they it's not for
• 30:34
  them. It's not for them.
• 30:35
  But the more you you create the message that is very direct and
• 30:39
  pointed that at the people, it's it's really calling out the
• 30:42
  people that you want to hear you, It will get pushed out.
• 30:45
  And then people will share it. They'll they'll start sharing
• 30:49
  with other people. And so that's, that's how it's
• 30:51
  gonna get pushed out more. But the reels are really key.
• 30:54
  And then putting it in your stories too.
• 30:55
  Yeah. So what other things are you
• 31:01
  doing to get the word out? Those are honestly primarily the
• 31:06
  big things. I have been trying to look at
• 31:09
  Wellness seminars or local health fairs, things like that,
• 31:12
  to see how I can join. But it seems like those are
• 31:15
  planned way far in advance than I had even expected.
• 31:19
  But I'm open to suggestions if you have other suggestions of
• 31:22
  kind of how to spread the word. I think trying to figure out
• 31:25
  other referral sources, OK, you know referral things that you
• 31:29
  wouldn't think acupuncture kind of these not kind of adjacent
• 31:35
  Wellness. Shapes.
• 31:37
  Acupuncture, massage therapy, chiropractor, because people who
• 31:43
  are going there, they're already kind of going beyond the typical
• 31:46
  Western medicine. They're looking at alternatives
• 31:49
  already. And so that's what you're
• 31:52
  providing. I mean, it's, it's medicine,
• 31:54
  it's it's evidence based, sure, but it's still a little bit on
• 31:57
  the outside of what people are doing most of the time, right?
• 32:01
  Sure. So you may find that you'll get
• 32:04
  people from these other referral sources.
• 32:06
  So who around you kind of fits that kind of fringy, I guess I
• 32:11
  would say? Probably more of the functional
• 32:16
  medicine aspect of things. I think chiropractor is very
• 32:21
  popular in this area as well and Wellness coaches or the OR say
• 32:27
  health hub, I don't know what how you guys call it, but where
• 32:30
  they get the juice shots and things like that, that type of
• 32:33
  thing. Yeah.
• 32:35
  And then local gyms, maybe even just from people who are more in
• 32:38
  the health and Wellness. Space pharmacies, small
• 32:41
  pharmacies, OK, they may be sure because people are going in and
• 32:44
  getting their allergy meds. Yeah, that's true.
• 32:47
  Yeah. So you can, you can talk to the
• 32:49
  pharmacists trying to think of other referral sources.
• 32:52
  Yeah. You just have to kind of think
• 32:53
  about where would, where are these moms be?
• 32:56
  Where would they be? Where would the kids be?
• 33:00
  So other places that. Maybe they so maybe even a fun
• 33:05
  we have inflatable place. I know that's kind of
• 33:07
  out-of-the-box play places. Yeah, Daycares.
• 33:11
  Yeah, cuz the people who are there, they see the kids every
• 33:14
  day and they're having issues. They may be seeing it.
• 33:19
  So there's always a lot of different referral sources other
• 33:22
  than just your typical offices and moms groups and Realtors.
• 33:29
  Realtors are good because they are talking to people who are
• 33:32
  new to the area. And if they're new to the area,
• 33:35
  they. Maybe have allergies?
• 33:38
  Sure, absolutely. That's a good one.
• 33:41
  Yeah. So those are also good people to
• 33:44
  talk to. So it's it's really honestly
• 33:47
  anyone you talk to is a good referral source because you
• 33:51
  never know who they know and who they're it's it's just a spider
• 33:56
  web kind of effect. So yeah, well, I'm really
• 34:00
  excited for you. I think you have a lot of good
• 34:03
  things that you're going to offer to your patients.
• 34:05
  And it you're a Unicorn. No one does this in your area.
• 34:09
  So, you know, it's I don't see how you won't have patients.
• 34:14
  I. Appreciate that.
• 34:15
  I'm so excited for Monday and just to get started.
• 34:17
  It's I've been itching to see patients the last few months so
• 34:21
  I can't. Wait, do you have patients on
• 34:22
  your schedule? Yeah, we have patients already
• 34:25
  scheduled, some that have followed me from my old practice
• 34:28
  and then some brand new patients that have heard just from word
• 34:30
  of mouth already. Amazing, that's.
• 34:32
  Wonderful. Yeah, that's.
• 34:34
  Wonderful. So who do you have with you?
• 34:36
  Do you have an assistant? So I have an A part time or as
• 34:41
  needed nurse. I don't always need someone with
• 34:43
  me, but it's just so much easier to have help when I'm doing
• 34:46
  allergy testing so that I can do things kind of simultaneously.
• 34:51
  Yeah. Well, wonderful.
• 34:54
  I'm so excited for you. Is there anything else?
• 34:56
  Thank you. That was on your mind.
• 34:58
  No, I think this is great. I appreciate you having me,
• 35:01
  absolutely. Yeah, I'm really, really excited
• 35:03
  for what you're gonna do, and I can't wait to hear how your
• 35:07
  practice go. Absolutely.
• 35:08
  We should definitely do this again in a few months so we can
• 35:10
  see how things go. Yes, because it's still kind of
• 35:14
  nebulous in my mind. Is this what direction is this
• 35:18
  gonna? Go Yep, absolutely.
• 35:21
  Well tell. Tell our listeners how they can
• 35:23
  find you, especially if they live in Indiana.
• 35:26
  Sure. And so our website is inspire
• 35:29
  allergy and asthma and then I'm on social media under the same
• 35:33
  name and tag and a Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok and then my
• 35:38
  email's also on the website. And so patients or fellow
• 35:41
  colleagues are welcome to reach out that way as.
• 35:43
  Well, wonderful. Well, thanks so much for being
• 35:46
  on the pod. Yes, we will definitely yes do
• 35:48
  this again. Thank you for having me.
• 35:50
  Absolutely. If this episode got you thinking
• 35:53
  differently about growing your practice, here is your next
• 35:56
  step. If you're still posting in
• 35:58
  random bursts or at midnight, the DPC social media Sprint is
• 36:03
  how you fix that without adding a part time job.
• 36:07
  It's a 14 day Sprint, April 20th to May 3rd, where you spend 2 to
• 36:12
  3 hours beforehand setting it up with video walkthroughs,
• 36:17
  plugging into the Harmony OPS social media planner, and you
• 36:20
  can paste on multiple accounts from one screen.
• 36:25
  You'll have AI captions, AI images if needed, and a two week
• 36:29
  content calendar already mapped. And you get your own DPC
• 36:33
  connector page, so every post sends patients somewhere that
• 36:37
  actually converts. I'll host a kickoff onboarding
• 36:41
  call and then e-mail you every few days during the Sprint so
• 36:45
  that you don't stall out. The cart for this round closes
• 36:48
  on April 18th, 2026 and after that, the doors will shut and we
• 36:54
  will get the Sprint started. So go to
• 36:57
  reach.harmonyopshealth.com to learn more about the social
• 37:02
  media spread. Thank you for listening to DPC
• 37:05
  Life. If today's conversation inspired
• 37:08
  you, hit follow, leave a review and share it with a friend who's
• 37:13
  ready for change. Remember, wherever you are in
• 37:16
  the journey, your DPC family has your back.
• 37:21
  Until next time, keep building a practice and a life that truly
• 37:25
  fits you.