B (2:17)

Wow.

A (2:17)

And in the office, it's actually surgery of toenails and skin and cysts and all kinds of gory.

B (2:25)

I was just going to say, wow, it sounds like my lunch.

A (2:28)

Yeah, yeah. It's not for the meek.

B (2:30)

I was going to say how does one get into into this very specific form of surgery?

A (2:36)

You know, it's kind of interesting but my story might be different from a few people, but basically we're all pre med and then depending on who you meet and who you see, you end up in a specialty. And for me, the first physician that I connected with was a podiatric physician. And what' nice for women in podiatry is a lot of orthopedics is very big joints, like hip joints and knee joints. And you, believe it or not, your physique matters because you've got to put this joint in. But so a lot of women in orthopedics go into hand and foot surgery. Oh, wow. So that's how I ended up there. And two of my very good mentors to today are both podiatric physicians. So that's how I ended up there.

B (3:21)

I got to ask, how much of it is literally your hands surgery? Are you using like the Zeus or whatever they call it?

A (3:28)

The robotics, the big giant machine? No, it's all hand because it's small. We have very small instruments that have to go in. It's all hand work. We don't do robotics, by and large.

B (3:39)

Cool. So let's, let's talk about Dock Dynasty. Yes, obviously not Duck Dynasty, but Dock Dynasty. Let's, let's. Where does this begin?

A (3:49)

So I have two phases. I have my practice where I have invented a product for a certain foot ailment. And I've written. But as I wrote, I found that I had a lot of students that were asking me questions. My medical school came back and said, can you give us a lecture? What is branding? What is medicine? How do you start a practice? All of which I had done. So Doc Dynasty grew out of that. And it was aimed towards young and middle practitioners who had started then didn't know where to go or didn't know how to start.

B (4:25)

Sure.

A (4:26)

So I was doing so much of this with residents in my own hospital that I said, this should be its own thing. This is the future. This is the legacy I want to lead. It's my 35th year in practice, and I wish I had that. So that's where Doc Dynasty started. It's everything from how to start a practice, how to continue it, how to. And most importantly, how to brand it, how to take what, you know, finesse it, and then be able to bring people in on that brand.

B (4:55)

Can doctors be artists? Cause when you mention branding, I'm like, I can just picture this, like, whiz kid doctor that's been. And he's got his PhD. He's been in medicine for 20, 30 years. And when it Comes to branding, it's just like, oh, like,

A (5:10)

that's fair enough. And probably there's a certain age.

B (5:13)

Does that make me smarter than a doctor? I'm just saying.

A (5:16)

You know what, it's funny, but a lot of surgery and the best surgeons are also good artists because reconstruction is an art. You could teach me everything, you know, in school, but until you get out there and reconstruct a joint on your own, that's all art, Right? So it's kind of the same thing when you practice. And absolutely, your side hustle has to be the creative part for sure, because that's what you bring to. That's what makes you different. That's what brings you. That's what brands you.

B (5:45)

I think I saw a brain surgeon do origami with these two little, tiny, little needles. And I saw it on. Read it. I'm like, whoa, that's. That's.

A (5:51)

It is cool. I should probably bring that in.

B (5:53)

I was going to say, yeah, show and tell, actually.

A (5:56)

We learn how to suture in the same way. Right. You're doing a lot of needle work, but the needles are attached to sutures. So all the suture techniques were brought on by people who learned them sewing and said, why can't we do this on skin?

B (6:10)

Right on.

A (6:11)

Right. So.

B (6:12)

So again, back to the, The. The. The Doc dynasty. It's interesting that you focus on branding and basically marketing and monetizing a doctor, because a lot of doctors are nose down into their books, all academia, and they've got to update essentially their curriculum because things are always changing. How do you pivot and kind of tell a doctor, well, let's brand you. How does that begin?

A (6:33)

Yeah, it's, It's. It's very tough. So, you know, most of my colleagues would never go that way because they're out 35 years. That's a whole different mindset. But all my. The new. The new graduates, everything from my five years on, they want to know how to do it right, because there's not enough time in the day and you're so busy just treating people. But it's so important because what happens is all of us are doing the same thing, right? If we get out of school, this is our specialty. Everybody who's a podiatrist or orthopedist or a neurosurgeon, we're all doing the same thing. So why should somebody come to you and not someone el. And that's where you have to think about what makes me. Me within this profession. Why did I go into it and how Can I stand out? Right. And actually, all of us bring, even as physicians, something to the table that's different than someone down that street.

B (7:28)

Absolutely.

A (7:29)

And I think patients are drawn to that, and I think colleagues are drawn to that. And a lot of old medicine tried to hide it.

B (7:37)

Sure.

A (7:38)

And I think new medicine, that's definitely the way we want to go.

B (7:42)

Of course.

A (7:42)

So it's a learning curve.

B (7:43)

I was just going to say, when you think of, like, old, old, like Western medicine, you've got mostly gypsies selling you, like, novelty things that aren't real. Yeah, exactly. Snake oil. Someone's played Red Dead Redemption. Yes. Snake oil. I can see why a doctor would be like, well, I don't want to advertise my practice because I don't want to come across as a scam or a sham. Like, if I'm so sophisticated, why should I be advertising my power? So how do you kind of break that stigma?

A (8:08)

So a part of Doc Dynasty is breaking that stigma, meaning this is how you retain your credibility and move it to a point where it becomes an education.

B (8:21)

Sure.

A (8:22)

So I'm still. When I'm talking, I'm still a doctor, but I'm talking as if I were talking to a resident who's doing the same surgery right next to me. And I'm looking and I'm saying, wow, you know, you've got three inch nails and you're. And we've got. We need to fit a glove over those nails, and we need to teach you to do something different. I want to bring that to the table. So it's a celebration of you as a physician, but what makes you different? And I don't think it's actually a pivot. I think it's an extension. Yeah, for sure. It's awesome.

B (8:59)

It definitely is an extension. I completely agree. Like, doctors, teachers should be influencers. They really should be motivating folks. Like, enough with the Logan Paul's and the prime drinks and the Dr. Beast. The hell with them. Like, we need medical professionals, lawyers, tax agents. We need folks that have invested and earned their stripes. Send the elevator back down. Even if it's just through content. Even through a TikTok. Yeah, like, that goes a long, long way. What are some success stories where you kind of see the before and after when a doctor works with you?

A (9:28)

So I have several really great success stories. One is I had a friend of my son's. I have twin boys and grew up. Grew up absolutely brilliant. And said, wanted to be a doctor, and then looked at the price tag and said, I don't think I can be a doctor.

B (9:51)

I'll be a chiropractor.

A (9:53)

Yeah. Or something else. Right. Languished. So I brought him into my office and I made my office manager for a week.

B (9:59)

Oh, right on.

A (10:00)

And he shined like he shined. And I said, I'll make you a deal if you apply. So nowadays there actually are a couple schools where if you're bright enough, your tuition is paid. I said, I want you to go apply to these two schools and if you make it, you have a full time job here. And this will pay for your books. This is all he got to do. He got in, paid for his books.

B (10:26)

Wow.

A (10:26)

So. And I made him not my full office manager, but I put him in front of tech because he was really good at it. And. And it paid for medical school. He graduated and now he's in a residency which pays. So that was my. This guy, we're going to lose him and he needs to be in medicine. So that was one of them. And another really good one was I had that resident who no matter where you took her, she always was the one that was different. And all the old time physicians just kind of didn't get it. Like they never, you can ask for a resident to be on your surgery. And they never picked her. And I was like, this is awful because it was based on what someone looked like and they didn't know how to relate to it. So I said, I'm going to take her on. So I booked some awesome surgeries like where several residents said, can I be on it? Can I be on it? I said, no, no, I'm going to pick her. I brought her on it. Everyone saw what she could do. And now she is the most requested resident on those surgeries.

B (11:31)

God, it's almost like a.

A (11:32)

It's awesome.

B (11:33)

It's crazy. It's almost like a coven of comedians and you're all taking the spotlight, but you're really just doctor.

A (11:38)

Doctoring is no different than any other profession. They're favorites there. Relatability. There's all kinds of politics that go on for sure.

B (11:49)

Now that this is a great segue, let's talk about the perception of what folks think doctors do. They got Grey's Anatomy, they got all these shows on tv. How much of that is manufactured nonsense in reality?

A (11:59)

It's a really good question, actually. Grey's Anatomy and like actually is very close to reality.

B (12:09)

Okay, well, there you go.

A (12:10)

I think my husband is an anesthesia, though. That's our favor show. That's the beginning More than it is now.

B (12:16)

But it's still on.

A (12:17)

Yeah.

B (12:19)

Didn't make dreamy McSteeman. Everyone just died.

A (12:21)

I mean, then it gets a little bit theatrical.

B (12:24)

But two helicopter crashes. Two helicopter crash. It's ridiculous.

A (12:30)

A little ridiculous. But some of the episodes on there are very accurate. If you're in a city hospital, if you're in New York or Chicago or la, you are actually seeing that crazy stuff coming in, the interactions between the women and the men. And all that does go on, for sure. In our day, we didn't have separate dressing rooms. Everybody was dressing in the same. And the women would have to, like, you know, I don't know, lock themselves in a locker. All kinds of crazy stuff went on. But it's pretty accurate, I would say. A lot of the medicine in it is extremely accurate. Do people think of doctors going through that? Probably not. You know, probably not, but it is that way. And so when you come out of a program that's like one of the shows, you are extremely well qualified. So ultimately they stay with you because you can treat them, you can get rid of their pain. They know that you know what you're talking about.

B (13:35)

Right on.

A (13:35)

But I think people don't think all that stuff goes on, but to some extent it sort of does.

B (13:42)

That's. That's good to know that there's human stories and human interaction happening behind the scenes at a doctor's office.

A (13:48)

Yeah, we're a little more normal than people think we are.

B (13:51)

Right on. Speaking of normalities and the abnormal, what are your thoughts on AI and the direction that we're going?

A (13:56)

Oh, my gosh. Like, it's amazing. I'm sure it changes with anyone, you know, but AI in medicine is unbelievable.

B (14:05)

Absolutely.

A (14:07)

There's so much to know in medicine, and now you have to memorize less and it does more, which means now the focus is on treating versus all this stuff. Example, in any kind of medicine, a patient walks in that you've never seen before, and they go, I have low back pain, my neck hurts, my foot hurts, my knees hurt when I'm running, but not when I'm walking. My arch hurts. And why are my toes doing this? This is typical. Right? So, like, I'm a podiatrist telling me about this entire thing, and my daughter is in the hospital and this and that. Okay, so this is your 15 minutes, and you've got to take all that sorted. Right. And the most important part is you have to come up with a differential of what is happening on the foot for me. Right. So there are 15 things going on? Where is it all coming from in five minutes or less? Because five min, they filled out the paperwork. Five minutes I'm talking to them, five minutes, I have to figure it out. So that's a lot of medicine is differential diagnosis. And now there's an app on the phone. We put in exactly what. And it's ChatGPT has a teaching version. You put in all the symptoms and it spits out a differential diagnosis. And so now you can concentrate on, is it this, is it that? So you need your medical knowledge.

B (15:32)

Absolutely.

A (15:32)

If I want to find this, do I need a blood test? If I want to find this, I have to examine this. And so it makes your time with that patient so much more focused. It's amazing for medicine. It's amazing because of the volume of information you have to know.

B (15:48)

Absolutely. Yeah. And it funnels all that in. It puts it all in a very organized way for you to just follow and execute and follow up.

A (15:55)

Correct.

B (15:56)

I don't think AI is going to replace anyone. It's really just going to enhance the human experience. Yes. It may replace some. Some categories of different tax brackets, but for folks like you and I and folks that listen to this podcast, they see AI as an amazing tool, almost a way of freedom. As a. As an artist, I don't have to take weeks or months to create songs. I'm doing a song in the morning and the music video for that song in the afternoon. And I'm creating content daily. So it's very aggressive. Yeah. So I. Talking about aggression and perception. What can we learn? What are we going to learn from. From your episode? I have no idea why I use aggression for that segue. But what are we going to learn for your episode?

A (16:33)

Well, my hope is to take doctors and medical professionals and have them start thinking differently about branding themselves. That's my absolute focus, that these are the things that you actually have knowledge of and you're not looking at it this way. This is your expertise and we need to draw from it.

B (16:52)

Yes.

A (16:53)

And exactly how to take that brand, market the brand, monetize the brand.

B (16:58)

And how are you communicating this? Are you having, are you having seminars? Are you doing talks, podcasts?

A (17:03)

I actually, I think so far the most feedback I've gotten is all, is TikTok. I have a website, all social media, and an amazing amount of physicians who just come back and respond. And based on that response, I put out more. So for right now, that's what I've focused on so far. I haven't. And because of it. My school has asked me back and I've talked to residents, but I haven't. I'm looking to kind of add to that.

B (17:36)

So it's almost like Doc Dynasty is almost like a talent app where it's like you've got this amazing doctor with amazing skills, but we need to put the spotlight on that doctor to make sure that they rise in a set. And so they're really touching and transforming people's hearts and lives that they need. Yeah, right on. Well, that's, that's a brilliant, brilliant. Why I'm eager to learn more. It's either going to be me or Lauren interviewing you for your episode for Legacy Makers, but with that, I'm going to conclude it there and keep it as a preview. Anything you'd like to add before we wrap up?

A (18:04)

Dr. No, I love it. I love it. I love the Forum.

B (18:07)

Rock and roll. Well, enjoy your Friday. Enjoy your interview. And. Yeah. And for Inside Success and Legacy Makers, I'm Ray Gutierrez.