Direct Primary Care

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Startup DPC Book Gets a Shout out from a Successful DPC Doctor

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The Startup DPC Book is Helping Doctors Start and Grow their Direct primary care practices

This week, a successful DPC Doctor, Peter Cashio, MD, gave a big shout out to the Startup DPC Book:

Starting on the Paul Thomas Social Media Marketing plan today. If you haven't picked up a copy of his book, Startup DPC, I HIGHLY recommend it. Lots of great nuts and bolts "how to" action items to move things forwards.

Note: this review and plug was completely unsolicited. Dr. Thomas provide what my entrepreneur friends call "high value."

Startup DPC Book Gets Eleven 5-star Reviews on Amazon

This week, the Startup DPC Book reached eleven 5-star reviews on Amazon. Here’s what one reviewer had to say:

As a student of business in the business of healthcare, one challenge I have faced is helping physicians "get" core business concepts. Medical training and the path to success is based on perfection (or near perfection). After all, who wants to be treated by a physician that is right some of the time! This training however makes it challenging for most doctors to accept standard business concepts such as risk vs. reward, perfect is the enemy of good, and so forth. And I've never personally witnessed a physician willing to "meet a patient where they are!"

There are hundreds of things to learn from Dr. Paul Thomas in this book. But if there is one thing a budding DPC doc should take away from this excellent book, it is to meet your patient where they are. I am confident if you do the basics correctly and live by this simple phrase, you will grow your practice quickly and retain your patients in an enduring manner.

Excellent work Dr. Thomas!

Thanks
Todd McGee
Medical Practice COO/CFO and budding healthcare entrepreneur

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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Direct Primary Care Doctors Embrace the Startup DPC Book and Courses

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Where to find the best information for starting a direct primary care practice

Direct primary care doctors are trying to get the best information on how to start and grow their direct primary care practices. There’s a lot of good resources in the DPC ecosystem, but we want to deliver the best content that helps doctors transform the way they approach starting and growing their DPC practices.

Dr. Prisiliano Salas recently took our Sales Funnel course, and he had great things to say about the process. Check out his LinkedIn Post, here:

Testimonial for Startup DPC book and Courses

Post from Dr. Prisiliano Salas about the Startup DPC Book and Startup DPC Courses:

Just finished a course by Paul Thomas, M.D. from Plum Health DPC and #startupdpc. Let me just say that Paul knows his stuff. I met him in 2018 at the Family Medicine DPC Summit. He gave a lecture about his experience starting a #DirectPrimaryCare practice and using social media marketing strategies. I've been following him on/off during this time but had not fully made the jump onto social platforms the way he describes it. Now two years later his practice growth is testament to this method. He's full and added a new doc! On top of that he remains faithful to his mission, to empower the #DPC community with his knowledge and reproducible success. I'm now ready to embrace social media to share my knowledge and experience with my patients (though still working up to youtube to get more camera ready 😎 ). Take one of his courses or read one of his 2 books, he won't disappoint. Keep the momentum going!

Thank you so much for the shout out Dr. Salas! and best of luck with your direct primary care practice. I know that you’ll have every advantage on attracting new patients after taking our Sales Funnel course.

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Thank you so much for the shout out Dr. Salas! and best of luck with your direct primary care practice. I know that you’ll have every advantage on attracting new patients after taking our Sales Funnel course.

Thank you so much for the shout out Dr. Salas! and best of luck with your direct primary care practice. I know that you’ll have every advantage on attracting new patients after taking our Sales Funnel course.

More about Prisiliano Salas, MD

To learn more about Dr. Prisiliano Salas, MD, check out his practice, Salveo Direct Care, or read his bio, here:

Dr. Prisiliano Salas is a Board Certified Family Medicine physician practicing in the Medical Center in San Antonio. His practice is Salveo Direct Care, one of the first Direct Primary Care clinics in San Antonio and Bexar County TX. In this new model of practice, Dr. Salas offers membership-based care without the limitations that health insurance can have on primary care visits. His mission is to deliver convenient and accessible health care services in San Antonio and across the state of Texas. He is a graduate of The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX and holds a Plant-based nutrition certification from Cornell University - T. Collin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.

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Direct Primary Care Physician Inspired by the Startup DPC Book

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Today, Rebecca Berens, MD of Vida Family Medicine in Houston Texas sent out very kind post on Instagram. She recently read the Startup DPC book, Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice and she posted a quote on her Instagram that I used in the book from John C Maxwell, “Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it's almost always due to personal growth.”

This is the quote that I used at the beginning of Chapter 6 on How to Prepare for Direct Primary Care While in Residency. I used the quote here because I believe that new doctors and residents have the greatest opportunity to learn a new system of care, and they have a unique opportunity to adopt the DPC model and the DPC mindset before getting enmeshed in the dysfunctional fee-for-service system as an employed physician.

Here’s what Dr. Berens had to say:

I love this quote that Dr. Paul Thomas from @plumhealthdpc added to his new book, #startupdpc Direct Primary Care is a new concept to many patients (and even doctors), but it was truly personal growth that led me to take this path. I was so tired of churning patients through the system in 10 minute increments, never having enough time to really help them in the way I knew I could. Meanwhile, I was arriving home to my family emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Becoming a mother made me realise that I needed to do better, for my patients and my family. Starting your own business is a huge risk (even without a pandemic throwing a wrench in the mix!) but in the end all of the stress and uncertainty it will be worth it.
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Does spending more time at home during pandemic have you reflecting too? How have you grown over the last few months?

More about Rebecca Berens, MD

Dr. Rebecca Berens is a board-certified Family Medicine Physician with expertise in Women's Health and Breastfeeding Medicine. Her holistic approach serves patients from newborns to the elderly, focusing on both the physical and mental well-being of each family member - perfect for patients looking for a lifetime of care and support.

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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"Great Sales Funnel Course!" and HIPAA Protected Communications

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Direct Primary Care Sales Funnel Course Receives Praise

One of Startup DPC docs recently completed the Sales Funnel Course and had this to say about the experience:

Hi Paul, great sales funnel course! I will start implementing what I learned immediately.  When you set up MailChimp for newsletters, how do you share your subscriber’s data and be HIPAA compliant with your patients? MailChimp doesn’t have a BAA for PHI. Any other recommendations?

Thanks for your insight.

First of all, I’m glad people are enjoying and getting a ton of value out of the Sales Funnel Course. I’ve had several docs talk about how helpful it has been in helping them attract new patients for their direct primary care practices.

Using Email Marketing Platforms to Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice

Second, I don't put my patients info into MailChimp unless they enroll themselves. If someone goes to my site, they can sign up for my email blasts by putting in their email address online, via a form submission on our website. I’ve synced my MailChimp account with my Plum Health SquareSpace account. Therefore, if anyone submits their email address on my website, they automatically are asked if they’d like to join the email list. If they agree to MailChimp’s terms and conditions, they are then made a part of my email list.

If set up correctly, this is more or less an automated process. I then send out monthly email blasts to those folks. Here’s the form as it appears on our Plum Health DPC website.

This is the site on my Plum Health DPC website where folks can submit their contact information. If they complete this form and agree to MailChimp’s terms of service, we can send them emails whenever we like. We usually send monthly updates.

This is the site on my Plum Health DPC website where folks can submit their contact information. If they complete this form and agree to MailChimp’s terms of service, we can send them emails whenever we like. We usually send monthly updates.

For my patients, I send them notes via my EMR. There's a function in ATLAS that allows me to send a group email to all of my patients. 

As a side note, I have all of my patients waive my obligation to their HIPAA rights in the contract, which is roughly 7 pages long. That way, I have some protection for any emails, phone calls, or text messages. 

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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Direct Primary Care Book is Available in Paperback Format!

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Today I received the first copies of the published Startup DPC book!! 📖

It’s an amazing feeling to hold this book 📚 in my hands, as it’s been the culmination of 4 years of knowledge and experience, and 3 years of writing and documenting the process.

It’s much bigger and longer than I thought it would be, but I guess I had a lot to say 💁🏻‍♂️

It’s my sincere hope that this book is transformative for those doctors 🥼 who want to take back medicine 💊 🔬 for the sake of their patients and the communities that they serve.

Here’s to your good health, and to a better health care system that awaits us, if we choose to reach for it.

This moment ^^^ brought to you by pure joy - it's an amazing feeling to unbox and open up the hard copy of my book - Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0886GYD9Z/

It was a labor of love - for the love of our patients, for the love of our communities, and for the love of my physician colleagues, so that they have to tools and knowledge to truly take care of their patients on their own terms.

Together, we can build a more compassionate and sustainable health care systems that focuses on caring for people and valuing the patient-doctor relationship.

Thanks for reading and watching,

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

Paul Thomas MD of Startup DPC holds up a copy of Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice. Dr. Paul Thomas is a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician practicing at Plum Health DPC in Detroit, Michigan.

Paul Thomas MD of Startup DPC holds up a copy of Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice. Dr. Paul Thomas is a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician practicing at Plum Health DPC in Detroit, Michigan.

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Adding a New Skill to Your LinkedIn Profile

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How to attract more patients to your direct primary care practice by using LinkedIn

Adding new skills on LinkedIn can help to keep your LinkedIn profile looking fresh. It will communicate with your audience that you're actively engaged in the work that you're doing. If you're a direct primary care doctor, having a fresh and engaging LinkedIn profile is a must for attracting and retaining new patients to your direct primary care practice.

For me, I just took 5 minutes to update my LinkedIn profile. This action will help me reach a broader audience and keep my current audience engaged. I just wrote a book called Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice, so I needed to update the publications section of my LinkedIn profile.

In this video, I show you step by step how I did this. If you spend 5 minutes on LinkedIn every day, you'll see tremendous results for your personal and professional brand. I created an entire course on attracting new patients to your direct primary care practice, and it can be found here.

I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn - you can add me by going to my profile and clicking on the “Connect” button.

Have a wonderful day,

-Dr. Paul Thomas

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The Direct Primary Care Book is The #1 New Release

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Today’s a very exciting day! Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has hit number 1 on Amazon under the Physician category.

Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has hit number 1 on Amazon under the Physician category.

Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has hit number 1 on Amazon under the Physician category.

Additionally, the book has garnered some amazing reviews so far. Here’s the top review:

Dr. Thomas has a wealth of knowledge from his experience starting and running a highly successful DPC practice. This book, his previous book, and his online courses are all extremely helpful resources for physicians to start their own DPC practice to provide better, more affordable care to patients.

The next review came from Kendrick:

This book is more than just one guys thoughts about starting a DPC practice. Dr. Paul has been advocating purpose driven business for years. If you have a goal of making money with a successful DPC practice you may or may not find that brings you happiness or fulfillment. Dr. Paul's discussion fo the concept of ikigai could change your life if you are open to it.

The practical stuff is here too. You could follow this recipe for a practice like his and have something you could really be proud of in the end. But inevitably, you're going to be adding in your own ingredients and the recipe here becomes not a restriction but a great base to start with.

I honestly can't believe what Dr. Paul has accomplished. He and I started practices at the same time and if I were the comparing type, I'd feel bad about myself. Instead, I'm choosing just to be inspired.

Sincerely thank you for the kind words Kendrick, I really appreciate you.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Startup DPC, you can do so here.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day! - Dr. Paul Thomas

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Startup DPC Book is the Number 1 New Release on Amazon

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DR. PAUL THOMAS OF PLUM HEALTH DPC PUBLISHES A NEW BOOK

I am proud and excited to announce that my new book, Startup DPC: How to Start and Grow Your Direct Primary Care Practice has officially been published! The Startup DPC Book is the Number 1 New Release on Amazon in the Physicians category, and I’m stoked!

WHY THIS BOOK ON DIRECT PRIMARY CARE WAS WRITTEN?

I wrote this book for so many reasons - to begin with, starting and growing a Direct Primary Care practice has changed my life. I’ve been able to serve people in my community with a high-value family medicine service, I’ve been able to advocate for causes that I feel passionate about, and I’ve been able to be creative in my approach to solving people’s healthcare challenges. In short, I’ve been able to become the doctor I’m meant to be.

I’ve also learned a ton from my colleagues in the direct primary care movement, and I wanted to give back in a tangible way. So, I took all of my learnings, all of my knowledge and wisdom that I’ve gained over the past four years and put those lessons into this book. I’ve had a lot of victories, but I’ve also made a ton of mistakes and I’ve had my share of failures - I wanted to share about the spectrum of success and failure and give my primary care colleagues as many advantages as possible when they set out to do this kind of work.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day,

-Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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How This Direct Primary Care Doctor Built a Successful Sales Funnel

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How to attract more patients to your direct primary care practice

Direct primary care doctors want to know how to attract more patients to their direct primary care practices. This can be accomplished by using a sales funnel, which may seem like a foreign concept, but let me explain. You see, doctors aren’t taught how to market themselves in medical school. There is no course on branding and marketing in medical school or residency. Further, doctors can feel icky about marketing themselves or selling their services.

However, you shouldn’t feel gross about marketing yourself, and here’s why. The best form of marketing is giving the right people in your community the right information about your service. If you can clearly explain what it is that you do and how you help people, that’s marketing. If you can share interesting stories about yourself and about your direct primary care practice, that’s marketing.

There’s a lot of nuance here and there are some tips and tricks to create the best marketing plan for yourself and for your direct primary care practice, which is why I created the Direct Primary Care Sales Funnel Course on Startup DPC.

How this Direct Primary Care Doctor Built a Successful Sales Funnel

For me, it’s been exciting to watch more and more doctors purchase this course, learn from this course, and start applying this new knowledge to grow their direct primary care practices! Further, I’ve been getting some great reviews for this course material. Here’s what one of our successful students had to say about the Sales Funnel Course:

Paul Thomas through his marketing course explains how a blog will get people to click on your actual website and while there take a look at your services. You can also title the blogs to items frequently searched such as #bestdoctorincharlotte or #howtofindagooddoctor Since I’ve taken what I would’ve normally put in a Facebook post (like info about COVID-19) or that I put in weekly emails, into a “blog article on my website”, I’ve cross posted it in blog format so when they click on it to read-they are at my website. I get quite a few views from Facebook and LinkedIn which I used to never interact with. Google searches have gone up too. In terms of SEO it definitely works to drive traffic to your site (now it’s fun to see how many people have been to my website after a posting). In terms of patients-definitely a couple since I started doing it this way, but like a lot of marketing-it seems to be a long game. Since I’m basically giving out good info for free, it doesn’t feel like “marketing” or trying to be a saleswoman which I like. I do spend about 3-4 hours researching and working on content, so was very hesitant to commit at first. Since I’m still building and have empty slots-I just use that time to work on content. As I get busier, I plan to blog less or as needed when a topic is relevant. Some docs pay a service to write blog articles for them as part of their SEO-you could do this, but it isn’t as personable to you. It does work though-just have to weigh the benefits/ROI of your time.

I responded to her by saying that this made my day, because it sincerely made my day! There are few things that make me happier than seeing doctors succeed in their direct primary care practices. Sincerely thank you Melissa Jones, DO for writing this.

This is the review from Facebook of our Startup DPC Sales Funnel Course.

This is the review from Facebook of our Startup DPC Sales Funnel Course.

More About Melissa Jones, DO

To learn more about Melissa Jones, DO, please check out her website, here. Her practice is in Charlotte, North Carolina and her goal is to provide all of her patients with quality care, greater access, and better solutions all of the time. Check her out on Facebook as well!

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC

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Low Cost Tools to Create Excellent Video Content for Your Direct Primary Care Practice

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How to Create Excellent Video Content for Your Direct Primary Care Practice

This week, I got a really nice note from a direct primary care colleague. He wanted to know about the tools that I use to create engaging video content for my direct primary care practice. Here’s the ask:

Hey Paul, I hope all is well and that you’re staying safe during this time. You posted your equipment on how you make videos - the computer program, the lighting, the microphone, and the camera that you use to make your videos for Startup DPC and for your practice Plum Health DPC. Can you share that information with me again? I can’t seem to find the post. I want to start making videos and I think these tools and resources will help me to create better videos.

Thank you

There are a ton of great people in the direct primary care movement and I love seeing them succeed in their direct primary care practices. So here it is, the tools that I use to make great video content!

Tools of the Trade

The editing software that I use during my lectures is called Camtasia and it costs $250 - https://www.techsmith.com/store/camtasia. I don't make any money from recommending this product and I recommend it because it's easy to use and low cost. Also, they're based in Lansing Michigan, so a part of my State's economy.

The camera that I use is found on Amazon and it's a Logitech C920S - it costs about $225 and it's worth every penny because the video quality is just so damn good. Here's a video with the basic MacBook Air webcam (super grainy, almost distractingly so). Here's a video with the Logitech C920S HD Webcam that shoots in 1080p: perfectly focused and crystal clear.

The microphone that I use can be found on Amazon, and it's called a Blue Yeti. It costs about $129 if you click over to the basic (silver) color package. The blue version of the Blue Yeti is $146. I don't know why I can't link directly to this lower cost microphone, but it's there for less expensive if you click over to the silver one.

So for right around $600, you can have everything that you need to create excellent content.

Lighting Your Video Perfectly

Now, if you want to kick it up a notch, you can use a simple ring light to give you the perfect lighting in any environment. It's about $60 or $65 on Amazon.

A ring light is great for shooting in situations where lighting is less than ideal. I shoot most of my videos in my office because I get great lighting - there's a large window that faces our front desk, so I just sit at the front desk or stand behind my front desk and enjoy perfect lighting.

A few things to note about this video - the sound quality isn't as good because the camera/microphone combo that is my iPhone is being held 8 feet away from my mouth, so it sounds echo-y. Also, the video quality isn't nearly as good as my other videos shot in 1080p using my Logitech C920S.

So in daytime situations at my office, my lighting is perfect. But, if I'm in another room in my office, or filming at home in my home office, my lighting isn't very good as is. Therefore, I bought a ring light to give me excellent lighting wherever I may be. Here's what that ring light looks like in my dining room and here’s what the ring light looks like in my home office.

Here's an example of mediocre lighting, I was at Ford Field where the Detroit Lions play for a Men’s Health event. You see how the light source (big windows) are on the right side of the screen? And do you see how that illuminates the left side of my face, but leaves the right side of my face in shadow? This is an example of less-than-ideal lighting.

Here's another video with crappy lighting - the overhead fluorescent lights illuminate my forehead and leave my chin dark. Also, no microphone so bad sound quality, and no HD camera, so kind of a grainy video.

However, if that same office with the same camera location is shot during the day, you can see how much better the lighting can be.

With a ring light, you can have perfect lighting any time, any where. So it's a reasonable investment if you're filming in a location where you know the lighting isn't great - for example if you're shooting in a low-light environment or in a room lit by overhead fluorescent lights.

HOW CAN I LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A DIRECT PRIMARY CARE PRACTICE?

If you enjoyed reading this blog post and if you want to learn more about starting and growing your direct primary care practice, look no further than our courses on how to start and grow your direct primary care practice. We at Startup DPC have begun compiling some of the best content available on this blog and in our courses.

The best place to start is to take our Direct Primary Care Business Plan course, available here. From there, you can learn how to attract new patients to your direct primary care practice and how to find the perfect location or build out the practice of your dreams.

Thanks for reading and watching, and best of luck in your direct primary care journey!

- Dr. Paul Thomas with Startup DPC