Visible Without the Ick: How Dr. Aleea Gupta Built a Thriving Solo DPC Practice with 12K Followers, Niche Patients & Authentic Marketing

Dr. Aleea Gupta of Family First Direct Primary Care in the western suburbs of Chicago returns to My DPC Story four years after her first appearance, and a lot has changed. Her Instagram following has grown to over 12,000 organic followers, she has partnered with national brands including GoodRx and the AAFP, and her solo practice has evolved into a model of physician entrepreneurship built on authenticity rather than advertising dollars.

In this episode, Dr. Gupta and Dr. Maryal Concepcion dive deep into what so many listeners have been asking between seasons: How do you make your DPC practice visible without feeling salesy or icky? How do you show up online authentically and actually get patients to find you? And what does a realistic social media strategy look like for a physician who is also a mom, a wife, a daughter, and a solo practice owner?

Whether you are just starting your DPC journey or you have been in practice for years and want to grow your presence, this episode is packed with actionable strategy, hard-won lessons, and a refreshingly honest take on what actually works.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• How Dr. Gupta pivoted her Instagram from patient acquisition to inspiring the next generation of physicians, and why that shift organically grew her platform
• The key difference between Instagram and Google for DPC visibility, and how to leverage both without spending hours on either
• Why human connection, not content, is what converts a curious follower into a committed patient
• The "Macedonian truck driver" niche story: how one patient connection became her largest demographic, and what it teaches us about community outreach
• How to identify niche groups in your own community and approach local businesses to present DPC
• A minimum viable visibility strategy for physicians starting from zero in 2026
• Content pillars every DPC physician should post about, broken down by audience type
• The essential equipment for quality content creation: lighting, audio, and your smartphone
• How to balance content creation with clinical care, family life, and solo practice management
• What Dr. Gupta learned about brand partnerships and why you should never underestimate a contract
• How to handle negative comments and critics online, professionally and without losing your sanity
• Why cross-posting the same content to Instagram and TikTok does not work, and what each platform rewards
• Using Instagram analytics and trial reels to understand what resonates with your audience
• How to gracefully handle being at capacity and why you should always keep a waitlist pipeline open
• The ROI reality of social media for DPC practice growth

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Transcript

1:00

Direct Primary care is an innovative alternative path to insurance-driven healthcare. Typically, a patient pays their doctor a low monthly membership and in return builds a lasting relationship with their doctor and has their doctor available at their fingertips. Welcome to the my DPC story podcast, where each week. You will hear the ever so relatable stories shared by physicians who have chosen to practice medicine in their individual communities through the direct primary care model. I'm your host, Marielle conception family physician, DPC, owner, and former fee for Service. Doctor, I hope you enjoy today's episode and come away feeling inspired about the future of patient care direct Primary care.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 1:48

Thank you so much for having me, Muriel. It's so great to be back here. I can't believe four years have passed since the last time we've chatted and my DPC story has just continued to explode. Thank you so much for having me.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 1:59

As Dr. Gupta just called out, she joined us back in 2022. It's been four years and she talked about her journey opening family first direct primary care in the western suburbs of Chicago. And since then, her Instagram following has grown over to 12,000 followers and she's partnered with national brands and built a thriving solo practice all while staying true to the relationship based care that makes DPC special as she runs her DPC practice. She's a mom of two, she's a wife, she's a daughter, and she is not icky at all. So this is a celebration of what a physician entrepreneur can truly do by blossoming in their own shoes and in their own way. So we are going to definitely be diving into. What so many of you have been asking me about between seasons, how do you make your practice visible without feeling salesy or icky? Like I said, how do you show up authentically and actually get patients to find you? Dr. Gupta talked a little bit about that before, but she's in a different place now. So we'll get an update there, and then Dr. Gupta is gonna share what's worked, what hasn't, and how she thinks about visibility now in 2026. When we were back in 2022, you had recently just shifted your Instagram focus from attracting patients, which you talked about how that was a very successful way to get patients to your practice, to educating future physicians. And I definitely like I mentioned, you have over 12,000 followers. How do you see your visibility having evolved since you were last on the podcast?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 3:29

When I was last on the podcast um, it was at that pivotal point, as you said. I started my Instagram account right about the time when I started my practice, which was in 2018. I was very new to social media and I am of course older than the majority of people on those platforms. I was in my mid forties at that time and I'm now in my mid fifties. And so just learning how to use them, learning you, just the, the feel of them and, and how to navigate using them. There were so many skills that I had to become comfortable with when I opened my practice. That's what everybody said, you have to use social media to market your practice. And everyone was just like, well, how do you do that? Well, you just open an account and you start talking about your practice. And so I kind of did that as, as you know, until my practice got off the ground and. Started going through word of mouth and then I discovered that I like using the platforms I had dabbled in Facebook, but then I really enjoyed Instagram. Wasn't as crazy as about TikTok, so I just kind of kept going with one platform. And I found that I liked being able to talk to an audience. And I like being able to engage with people that I would never meet otherwise because, we are in our locale, we are where we live, and the face-to-face people are, who we would meet in daily life. And of course when you're in solo practice, you're not in a big group where you're passing people in the hallway and things like that. And I don't have a lot of reps and stuff coming back, so all of a sudden I am meeting people and connecting with people in different states and different stages in their careers. And because you're talking about. Direct primary care, and it's something innovative and different. There was all of this interest in direct primary care and also in being a practice owner, being a physician, being an older physician. So I found that I wanted to share more of that because people were interested. But I also realized how how much negativity there is in medicine. How many people are telling their children, don't become a doctor, don't go into healthcare. Medicine is a dying field. And that just made me so sad and I thought, well, I have an opportunity here. My practice is kind of stabilizing and I've got this, blossoming a little platform. Why don't I, talk about what I have seen in the last couple decades because I am a little older and what can I tell, younger doctors, what can I tell pre-meds about the positive sides of the profession and about, the experience of becoming a doctor and then working as a doctor. And so visibility for me became more about. That theme than about looking for patients.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 6:06

It's wonderful, and I do think that. We see so much negativity, like you're mentioning on the news, that it's really nice to hear about your intentionality, about representing what you are doing as an independent physician, as someone who's chosen the DPC route. And as somebody who has not only used visibility for patients, but also for the, the profession of medicine. And I think that it is. Definitely why your platform has grown so much organically. This is not, Dr. Leah went to a chat bot and was like, here, I'll pay you$20 and find me leads. These are legit 12,000 followers who have found her because her content is meaningful. And so I'm wondering if you could talk to our audience, especially those who are DPC, no matter where they are in their journey, but they're looking specifically to gain visibility perhaps for both their patients as well as their own personal brand. How would you describe balancing the two versus switching from one to the other Because you represent both on your platform,

Dr. Aleea Gupta 7:09

I think when you start creating a presence on social media, you have to think about a couple different factors. Number one is, who am I talking to? What do I want my audience to be? And that really guides. Then, you know what. Are you gonna create? So if you're talking to potential patients, that is going to be a different type of message or a different type of content than if you're talking to med students and people who are going into medicine or even other physicians. So your audience is very important, and it took me a while to figure out how important that is, because if you're trying to make everybody like you and talk to the whole world, then it can be difficult because you just get a little lost in your message. But if you start honing in on who that is that really helps out. And then the second side is you have to think about how you wanna present yourself. Who, who do you want to be? Are you gonna be more like your, just your office and what your practice stands for? Are you gonna be more like the doctor and the face of the practice? Are you gonna be a little bit of both? And I think that speaks to also how we are as people. And, and there are some people who are very shy and they would rather not talk and they would rather. Maybe just have clips of themselves or pictures of their office or audio. And then there are other people who can just plunk down a microphone and, talk for days. So I think really asking yourself what you're most comfortable with. But then the third little part is to not overthink it, because I think we just get caught up in trying to make everything perfect. And the great part about social media that you learn along the way is it doesn't really have to be perfect. And there are some nuances between the platforms where sometimes being less polished is actually, to your advantage. And so just giving it a try and then it's one of those things just like opening your practice. You can't just dream about it and write about it. You just have to do it. And then the more you do something, the more you refine it and it becomes more what you want it to be over time.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 9:14

Absolutely. And as fellow family physicians, we know, and our listeners know how, undated our our journeys were in interviewing patients when we were medical students and residents compared to where we are now. Yes. So that journey is real, no matter if it's social media or medicine or opening a DPC practice. So now I wanna Absolutely. Yeah. So now I wanna zoom in on your patients, because in the beginning, you very much were successful in making personal connections through social media. You would follow people and connect with them in their dms. You would go to the restaurant and talk with a chef, in person after connecting with them. And so I love that you, turn social media into a, an actual human person connection. You also mentioned Instagram, but you're also very much present on Google. If you just look at Instagram and Google as ways for a practice to grow, what would you say about the two platforms and what would you recommend? Because locales are different and patient populations are engaging with the internet differently.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 10:14

If you're just going to put things out there. I think Google will take you a little further. So if you have a website or you've got a Google page for your business and you just put it out there and then there's interaction, maybe you have a blog, on your website or there's traffic that just kind of keeps it moving, that will kind of move on its own because people keep searching and then every little thing you do will kind of funnel back to Google. So I don't actually do anything intentional with Google. I have the Google business page. Rarely ever go in there. I, I think to make it move more, you should be updating photos and updating patient reviews and things like that. I do nothing with it. So the fact that people find me, I think is linked to activity on other platforms. With Instagram, if you just put posts out, your account will not really grow. And I've watched other creators do this in the medical space just post, but they don't engage with any other accounts. They don't follow other accounts. They don't really comment and therefore no one comments back. And so there isn't much growth because people want to interact and they, it's, at the end of the day, it's a place to be social and it isn't just a billboard. So I think if you think of Instagram that way, that it's just a billboard and you're gonna put these things up there, it won't really move, but. If you start doing the things that make you link to other accounts, then everything starts to amplify. And so you'll actually see it that the more accounts you interact with, usually those are the ones that pop up on your feed. So sometimes I have to go back around and think, okay, who have I not checked in on in a while? And I'll sometimes even look through my follower list, oh my God, I haven't thought about, let me go. And then, then the algorithm will pull them back to you. So it, there's a little science to how you keep the momentum going on social media, but you have a little more control there. Whereas I feel with Google, you, it's just wide open. You don't have as much control. You can't have as much input into it.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 12:17

In terms of the patients who then found you and joined your practice, what do you think was really helpful in all of the platforms, all of your presence, to really get people to then commit to joining your practice?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 12:32

The step that drove people to commit was connecting with me. I think prior to that, everything is a bit of a concept. They hear about DPC or something passes by, maybe they see an Instagram reel or something on TikTok. Maybe they see they've heard about DPC and they Google, but I think until they actually have a phone call or they have. Some type of connection. And it could also be just a direct message on Instagram. They're afraid, but when there's actual communication, then I think it's a real person to a real person. And that's what I found, took them over the hump. So with Instagram it would surprise me because I was looking for small business owners to join the practice. So I would look for local businesses and I would, as you mentioned, seek them out and try to connect with their employees and with the owners, if I could, I try to meet them in person. And there were some that just found me and they would message me. And then over time they would say, I, I think I really wanna join. And I would say, well, absolutely. And, or they say, can I come in and meet you? And once you have that like further connection, then they, they're good to go because I think. It starts out as a concept and people are just afraid, well, we've never heard of this and I'm, I'm paying outta my pocket. What if it doesn't work out? And so different and insurance and all the, all the different things they have to worry about. But then when they meet you now, it's not just the concept, it's this person and, oh, I think maybe we might be a good fit and I want her to be my doctor. And that's totally different than just the concept of DPC.. I think that human connection takes it over the top.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 14:09

If you could go back to day one, and you can envision yourself in 2026 when, HR one has passed and people are, scrambling for healthcare access in a lot of communities. I'm wondering what would you. Design is your minimum visibility strategy to get your practice started from zero.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 14:32

I would get some help, but because it's a lot, but if you can't, then I would have a presence on at least one platform, if not two. So Instagram and overlap with TikTok? I wouldn't necessarily try to do all three, but if you can that's fine too. But I would start definitely with a presence on at least one and I would start making content about my practice and DPC and that's it. I would just, because consistency wins out over anything. If you're overthinking and you're trying to make the perfect post and it's taking you forever, you won't move along. But if you can commit to, okay, I'm gonna post twice a week and I'm just gonna post about these two things. One is gonna be about me as a doctor in my practice, and one is gonna be about direct primary care and just get that out and do it. And that's gonna be your social media strategy. But to get a practice off the ground, social media is only one side of it. I think you have to do other marketing, so you have to do local in-person marketing yourself. You have to go around. I think you also have to be creative with whether you still wanna. Try printed media in this day and age or whether you wanna do some other type of paid advertising that could be boosting Instagram ads. So you could just be building your platform, but you could also consider doing paid ads on either of the platforms with your own content, or with other content because sometimes if you put a little money behind it, the reach will go further and that might be a better investment of your time than paying for a magazine that is only gonna be there, for a month and then disappear. It might be cheaper to run your own content a little bit longer on social media.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 16:19

Would you also recommend any specific physical tools, tripods, cell phone, like things that you would use for creating content?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 16:27

Oh sure. Absolutely. So iPhone is always fine for filming. Definitely a tripod because you want to be at, height and you definitely need light. I have the ring light. There's so many different ones now, but I like it because you can mount your iPhone within it. And then I think audio is really important too, and it took me a long time to figure that out. But the better your audio actually, that really improves the quality too. So, there's a small little square mic now that's like kind of fluffy that everybody uses. So, if I like to move around, so that's nice because you can clip it or you can hold it. If you're just gonna be sitting, there's some really nice big ones, but I think just a small little one that you can clip on. So I think those three things, lighting for sure, which will be with a ring light. And then that includes a tripod to put your phone on, and then audio. Those are the three big things that you need because even if you don't have, and you can try to be by a window, but sometimes you just wanna get different angles and things like that. That's it. That's, that's really all you need, those three things.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 17:28

I totally am in agreement with you. What I will say also for the listener is if you're just getting started, make sure that all the funnels lead to the same place. Like in terms of Yes, if you are wanting to build your SEO, make sure it all goes to the same landing page, because I do think that that also helps in terms of you can't lose a lead if everybody goes to the same spot.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 17:50

Absolutely. And have the same name on every platform and have it, either Picke, it's gonna be your practice or it's gonna be your name, as the physician, one or the other. Absolutely.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 18:00

one of the things that you highlighted was the idea of a niche audience also and a niche audience that became your patients. So specifically in, four years ago when we talked about you growing your practice, you got a huge following of Macedonian truck drivers. Yes, that is an avatar people, and yes, those are patients at Dr. Gupta's practice. And so, I, I think about like I'm in a rural community, that could be a niche, you could create niches every which way basically. And so what I'm wondering is if you can talk to us about how you discovered niches within your practice, and anything that you did to encourage more people within that niche to then engage with you and join your practice.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 18:44

Some of it happened serendipitously. I didn't know that this particular demographic would end up being my largest. I think the patient who found me, found me from that printed ad that I, it was so expensive. I could only run it for about a month. I think that patient found me from that ad, but I remember when they came in, they said I forget how they worded it. It was something like, I have lots of Macedonian friends, and you're gonna start getting all these Macedonian people now.'cause once we find a doctor or a dentist, we like, we send all of our friends and families to them. And I was like, oh, thank you so much. And then next thing you know one by one by one they all, started joining. I, I think in that case it happened serendipitously. But if I had to go back in the case of someone who was starting from scratch, I would try to really find out what, who's in my community really look around at the businesses that are there. And sometimes it takes some digging to, to just. Think about what, what are small business industries? Because I barely knew what they were, but of course they are things like landscaping, right? Trucking, HVAC salons, restaurants of all different types. So sometimes you have to be creative and then start digging into what's into your community to find out what is unique. Your rural, you may have farming, you may have things related to that, that aren't in an urban setting, right? And then if you can find one or two people and you can perhaps approach them and see if they'd be willing to allow you to present to their business. I did do that with a couple of restaurants in a couple salons. It's intimidating to ask your patients, but you have to kind of get over that. If you are building and you're in that beginning phase, you just have to grit your teeth and ask, because it's for the greater good and what's the worst that can happen? They say no, and they, they're not comfortable, but most of the time they probably will say. I, that would be fine because I, I love this DPC model and yeah, you can come and talk to my, the rest of the people in the office and sometimes you can add on a little discount. If you refer a friend, you're gonna get 25% off the next month or an incentive or something like that, just to kind of, as a business strategy to draw people in. But I would definitely look for those groups and then try to see if you can approach a larger amount, because then you're getting more bang for your buck, right? If you speak to 20 people and if one signs up, that's so much better than going door to door to 20 different. Right where you may talk to just two people, so whatever can maximize your visibility again, but using that each patient as kind of like a jumping point for that.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 21:23

I love that. And I will say, again, just going back to the idea that just getting started is much better than being perfect. And then you can't start until you're perfect because when you talk about the worst thing they can say is no, it's like you gotta get comfortable also with. What happens to your body and your mind when someone says no? Yes.'cause it usually has nothing to do with you. It usually has everything to do with, not you, but a lot of us can take things personally'cause these are our babies that we're making. And so

Dr. Aleea Gupta 21:50

yes,

Maryal Concepcion, MD 21:50

I think that that is that is an okay thing in terms of if someone says no, I like, I, I, I don't know if there's anyone who's ever practiced tell me no. And then I'm gonna see what is, it's like a trust exercise. So, let me know if, if you have done that out there. But I definitely would say, I totally agree with you also, that it's, it's a healthy thing to just try

Dr. Aleea Gupta 22:41

and Absolutely remember, we up to this point are not used to failing, right. As physicians, we are used to striving to get the A and the A plus and the high MCAT and the high this and that. So the idea of not doing well at something is, is very intimidating, but you know, you have to think of it when it comes to marketing, what I learned is you have to think of it as you're throwing all these things at a wall to see what will stick. You have all these baskets and you're putting stuff in each basket, and then you don't know which one is gonna be the basket that does the best. But you, you just have to diversify and not take it personally because not everybody's gonna be a right fit for you, but there will be people who are, because DPC is a no-brainer, and most of us, we only, you only need, two to 500 people, and that's not that many in almost any community. So it's just a matter of getting in front of those people and how are you gonna do it?

Maryal Concepcion, MD 23:36

Now, one thing I wanna ask here is, as you're talking about knowing who's in your community as a way to help you niche down, I'm wondering if you have a set of questions or particular questions for our audience. If they're thinking about like, how would I interact with my own patients or my community to learn about niching down even further where I am at? What questions would you recommend people start asking

Dr. Aleea Gupta 23:59

Probably asking what they're looking for in a, in a physician. So I would try to get a sense of are there certain health trends within that community? I noticed that, and, and this actually kind of bore itself out, that many of the men in the Macedonian community actually have a, a fair amount of health anxiety. And many of them are, were in my patient group are sort of in their twenties to thirties and I am in my fifties. So I'm a little bit of a maternal figure. Of course they are immigrants and I'm an immigrant too, right? So that these are things we have in common. The girls are actually not as anxious, but they are, just looking for more advice with kind of bringing up children. And so here again, I'm maternal, so I think I would just talk to. Potential patient groups and try to get a sense of what they want out of a doctrine. Sometimes it's, it's just different. Sometimes it's digging into that and then offering what they're looking for whether it's particular things, within your, what you offer or whether it's a particular service that could serve that community. For example Jill Sheer, who is in, I think she's in a rural part of the state. She she's works with I think their transportation as well. They're an industry, but she goes to she does physicals on site for them. She comes once a month and drops off all of their meds. So she does some very, and she has certain days that, she just has open hours for them. So she was able to figure out specifically what that. Group needed and offered them a specific service that really makes it worthwhile. They would never get that from another doctor. I'm in a very urban area with a lot of different, medical groups around, so I'm not able to provide what she does, but I would think that you might, there might be scope for that and thinking of, are there certain things that you like to do within your practice that are different as well? What, what also in niching down, what do you like to do and not do that can then be what you offer to your patients

Maryal Concepcion, MD 26:05

makes the, the journey of DPC a lot better if you like what you're doing. So I, I love that.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 26:10

Definitely.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 26:11

I appreciate those details about, how specifically the niche of the Macedonian truck driver really connected with you. And I do think that there is a lot of, not only perception, but there's also trust that is built. Upon that perception that then really encourages the patient to commit and join your practice, which definitely you have, you've done all, all of the above. And so I'm wondering, in terms of building trust with, with the audience, whoever is out there seeing a person's social media, a person's website, a person's Google presence talk to us about how one builds trust holistically, because trust doesn't get made overnight, especially in medicine, especially with people who have medical trauma. And yet, we're not here selling used cars, we're selling actual preventative personalized care. And it's, it's such a mind blowing thing to think about. You have to sell yourself, but mm-hmm. We're not selling ourself with, losing our souls to the sales process

Dr. Aleea Gupta 27:14

in terms of selling yourself and bringing yourself, putting yourself out there. I think you have to think about your message. You have to really do a bit of soul searching. You have to decide what, not just who's, who's your audience, as we talked about, but what do you wanna say to that audience? And that kind of varies and how you wanna say it. And you always, always have to stay with in the box of what you're comfortable with. So for me, I am comfortable talking about DPC family medicine the way things are in the office. I actually don't like talking about medical topics. I'm not the one who's gonna talk about, hypertension and, do, there's so many physicians that are educating and there's a huge demand for that. That's not where I wanna be. I just, I just don't, I did enough of it. Don't care to talk about it anymore. Plenty of other people are. So you have to know what you wanna talk about and why are you talking about it. Now, if you're addressing the general public, you can talk about DPC, you can talk about yourself as a doctor, you can talk about some medical topics.'cause the public loves to learn about that, right? They love to hear. That's part of you explaining who you are as a doctor. But if you don't want to, don't bring it in there. Then there's how do you present yourself? Do you wanna be more formal? Do you wanna be more relaxed? Do you wanna be somewhere in between? So I try to think about it as when we were back in like morning report and we were like, on rounds we had a little bit of a persona in terms of when we talked to people. So I kind of think of it like that, professional, but you know, relaxed. And certainly social pe social media is a place where you can have some fun, you can bring in a little bit of levity, but I also always think my kids are watching this. My patients and parents. If, if I feel like maybe I wouldn't, it wouldn't stand the test of, my kids or certain other family members, then it probably shouldn't be there. And we all know that line. So if you get that funny feeling, and maybe that's not what you should put out there, and we all know that for ourselves.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 29:19

as you talk about that you were approaching small business owners to join your practice there's that term, I'm not a big fan of the, the retail patient, the individual patient mm-hmm. Versus a business owner who has the lives of multiple people in their business. Do you think that the trust factor can be different for a person who's an individual versus a person who's running a business looking for multiple people in their company to join your practice?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 29:46

I would treat it kind of the same in a way I would present myself the same way because it's tempting to want to reel in the owner just to get the whole company. But I would just think of it as I'm getting the whole company, which is a whole block of people. So I would try to not think too much about closing the deal. I would just try to think about, I'm gonna get these patients and he's representing these patients. So however I. Present myself to an individual patient, I would probably present myself to the employer too. And you meant, you asked about building trust. I think it is about just being transparent about the model, about who you are. We always hear, don't over promise, right? But you can, it's like you under promise, but you overdeliver, right? So don't try to make it more than it can be. But once people start seeing you and the value that you bring they're naturally gonna be happy and that's going to continue to sell you and sell the model. So sometimes it's, it's not so much that you're selling yourself, maybe you're more just explaining. And maybe if you think of it that way, you're explaining yourself on social media, you're explaining the model to people. It's not as harsh as thinking I'm selling it.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 31:30

When it comes to how do you draw the line before things are personal versus too personal? I mean, you mentioned how like it has to stand the test of time for your kids watching it, family members watching it. What would you say to the audience who's wondering about I wanna be transparent, I wanna be real, but I don't know if this is too personal, but I wanna be personal'cause I'm trying to get people to understand that I'm a person. What would you say to how you draw the line or how you recommend other people look at how they draw the line for, getting personal to a certain point.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 32:02

Here again, we were trained so well in medical school. Even if you didn't have a class that sat you down and said, here are the boundaries you set around a patient. We've all had years of experience dealing with people. So we inherently know you, in day to day you are, you see a patient, you get to know them. Over the years, there are some of them that may ask you, where does your son go to college? And this and that, and you're comfortable sharing them. And then there are others that you don't talk about your family, right? So we know that part of interacting with people is sharing little details about our personal life. But here on social media, it's a stage that the entire country can see and there's an element of security, right? So you also wanna be careful to not show things like your street, your address, things that can. Potentially have a, put you at risk for somebody identifying you and, and showing up. But beyond that, I also think that if your purpose for being there is to transmit a message, that's the main focus of what you're talking about. But breaking that up with some details about your life also makes you just a more rounded person. So I think of, in terms of how much I think of it, almost like when you're with patients, it's maybe 10% of your interaction would ever be about anything personal. And I wouldn't, make it anything much more than you would share with a patient in terms of details of your life. It's tempting because you're there. You, there's a captive audience, with attention. But you have to always remember, you're a professional. This is a professional account. And there if you wanna have a more personal type of account, you can always create a second account, right? To have that type of. Focused.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 33:45

Given that you have been doing social media starting from the ground up to a platform that has over 12,000 just on Instagram I'm wondering if you can talk to us about how you balance social media along with all of the other hats that you wear. It's a fun job in DVC when we're wearing all the hats, but you are still running your solo practice. You're still a mom, you're still a wife, you're still a daughter, and you're constantly and consistently on social media. So, how do you prevent content creation, taking over the, the things that you're creating content about?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 34:22

I've tried a couple different things over the years, and I've definitely had times where I had to step back and take a break, and I've had times when I've kind of been on a roll. I've had times when I'm like, why am I doing this? What's the point? It, it's definitely been a rollercoaster and the platforms have changed. The in, when I started there was no video content. We typed everything. It was a picture with paragraphs underneath, and then we went all the way to video. Now it's like sliding carousels or graphics and stuff. So, in terms of, I, I've gotten better at, DPC and the practice, just studying parameters around clinical work around. Social media, content creation and around family time. So I try to be a little bit strategic around what happens when, so if I'm posting and trying to tidy up a post, I usually do that in the morning and then get them out by about nine o'clock. And then, after that it's more like patient care, emails, things like that. And then, heading to the office, stuff like that. Sometimes around lunchtime then I might go back in. And then a big part of social media is not just content creation, but it's the engagement with other accounts that you follow. And I still answer every single comment that comes on any of my posts. Every single one.'cause that's how I started and that's how I've always done it. So I answer every single comment. And that keeps the engagement going. And people really notice because then you comment on their post and they will come back, even if it's been a while, comment on yours. And that's what keeps the connection going. And you just the conversation going right. When I'm actually so then, we see patients and stuff in the afternoon, at the end of the day at the office if I have time, especially if it's a day when I wash my hair and I thought it planned ahead and, my hair, my makeup's done. I'll usually film a bunch of clips just doing different stuff, sitting and, moving around the office. And if I wanna do any talking kind of content, sometimes I'll just do a whole batch. And I don't, this is more of a newer thing lately, but I'll just record a bunch of them and then later I'll go back and then do the editing. Since my practice is part-time, I try to leave some time on Mondays and Fridays to do. Like more content creation, take those clips and tidy them up or write the captions. I do use chat GPT to help me tidy up the grammar and stuff like that. But I don't really ask it to write me things from scratch and more just use it to help me make it a little more concise. But I think also over time I've also learned it helps to have your content pillars and your content concepts. I didn't do this for a long time. I was just kind of vaguely like, oh, DPC, and then, I'm gonna talk about family medicine, then I'm gonna talk about DPC, then I'm gonna talk about going to med school, then I'm gonna talk about the life of a doctor. It's kind of like my four pillars and I would sort of be all over the place, but then I learned over time to think about rotating them. And then also think about the type of posts you're making that which ones do you like making, and make the ones that do well and look at your analytics and see which ones perform well, which ones were easier for you to make and do more of what does well because that's what also the platforms seem to like. So if something's doing well, make it again, post it again a month later, things like that.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 37:40

Yeah, I love that. And I, I do appreciate you also mentioning like, there was, there's seasons where you're just like, Nope, I'm out. And that's not a bad thing. Again, it's like there's no problem with getting started, even if it's not perfect, there's no problem with taking a break because if you can't take care of yourself, you cannot take care of other people. So I think that is awesome and I, I definitely encourage people to, reflect on their own, what they wanted to leave insurance-based medicine for and not creating burnout. Yes. Even with this portion of your DPC.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 38:14

Yes, most definitely.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 38:16

Yeah. When it comes to the last four years, your platform has also definitely blossomed into more people's algorithms and then also engaging with national brands. So you've partnered with GoodRx, you've partnered with the American Academy of Family Practice, and I'm just wondering your platform as a physician who is independent, not accepting insurance doing DPC specifically in a solo practice, how do you view your pedestal of presence when it comes to, it's still not the most common way to practice medicine, and these national platforms have great audiences for you to expose what you're doing to these audiences.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 39:03

Working with brands is a whole nother area that you just have to learn on the fly. Thankfully there are, people on YouTube, there are other people doing it, but you, you can only learn so much because brands all have, you sign confidentiality clauses, so you can't really talk to other people very much about anything specific. I, it's a huge honor to be invited to collaborate with some of these brands, especially the A A FP. It was, it was just such a huge honor. They usually, the, the project has a focus, so that kind of is what the project is, but having the opportunity to be visible it just it was just an unexpected byproduct of all of. I didn't think when I opened a DPC practice that I would be here eight years later. And as my, I kept working on social media, I knew I wanted to connect with students and I wanted to connect with future doctors and, and talk about DPC. And I eventually got the idea that I wanted to work with brands, but I never expected it would, that it would be, on such a level. So it, it's a huge honor. But I think also you just have to be mindful of all the different spaces that we occupy and that, in certain spaces, maybe the focus is different. So, it could be that, discounted medications is the focus for this one, or family medicine in general. Or it could be that, this particular product. So it, I, it isn't always. An opportunity to bring other things in, but it is more visibility in the long run, if that makes sense.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 40:46

Definitely. And when it comes to patients, I, I think about one of my friends, she was on a Sensodine commercial as a dentist. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, I wonder what her patients think about when she has Sensodine or when she doesn't have sensodine in the office. So I'm wondering in terms of when you think about partnering either to, amplify just what you're doing, how you're doing it, all of the things plus the brand that you're working with how do you lean into protecting your autonomy when you are having contracts especially sent to you? Because we all know that in the world of, of employed medicine, that happens quite a lot. Mm-hmm. And all of the terms are not necessarily to our benefit.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 41:30

Never, ever, ever underestimate a contract and always do your homework. Because we are from a profession that's very trusting. We, even though we have an agreement in our DPC practices, it is nowhere near as stringent as some of these as some other agreements can be. And that was one thing that surprised me because I think that if you're not from the legal world, you can be naive. I happen to have close friends who are lawyers and being, having access to some legal help. I think you have to, if you enter into contracts to do work as a physician that is not providing patient care. So the number one thing I would say is be a shark when it comes to contracts, because whoever, however contracts are made, it is not always. It's not like medicine where the goodness of your heart is at the basis of just about everything we do. That's not the case with legal things. So always err on the side of getting more help. Just to, just to protect yourself.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 42:38

I would totally agree with that, and I definitely would, would say, we don't know what avenues a company can then take the content, right? Yes. So it's if they're using your likeness, like I don't think that Jennifer Aniston just lets people use her image on their Smartwater commercial or whatever. And so definitely the nuances of how to protect yourself as a physician is important. And I do agree looking for legal help for people from lawyers specifically who are seasoned or knowledgeable in the space of content creation. And especially because there are so many physicians doing content creation. Those lawyers who have worked with physicians who do content creation. Yeah.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 43:17

And there's one other thing I learned about you can buy insurance specifically for this as well. And I think that depending if it's something you wanna continue into, I think that's a good investment because we are putting advice out there that even though you put, this is not medical advice, you never know what people are gonna do or spin it, it's nowhere on the. Scale of malpractice insurance in terms of pricing, but I, I do know some creators have bought it. I bought some this year just to feel like I had that extra layer of protection, to cover me of things. I just had no idea that you're not supposed to do that because there's no roadmap necessarily for how do you, start working with brands and then do your research online too. Because there are other creators who are making medical creators and non-medical who are making, six figure seven figure salaries doing this stuff because there's so much money in this industry. So, you can learn also just from doing research in terms of what to be aware of.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 44:17

So because this is April, and because we are talking about visibility without that icky factor, without that used car salesman factor, no offense to use car salesman. I, I actually just thought about that as I'm saying it. If a doctor is listening out there and is okay, I have just been like fire hosed with the amazing things that Dr. Gupta has shared, and I am just all over with ideas and I'm not sure where to get started. What would you recommend to doctors who are looking to have a actionable plan, a smart goal for the next seven business days

Dr. Aleea Gupta 44:55

I would pick one platform to start with on social media. I per, if you are a person who wants to be a little bit more polished and professional, I would go with Instagram. If you're more of a person that doesn't mind sticking a camera up and just talking and doesn't mind it being a little bit raw, I would go with TikTok. One caveat I wanted to point out is that you can cross post. Everybody does it because everybody just wants to make one thing and put it on the other platform. You will never do as well on one as the other. If you do that, and trust me trust me on this, there are people who have a hundred thousand, 200, whatever on one platform and you see them on the other platform and they have a 10th of that. And that's because the platforms are a little bit greedy and they want you to make content just for them. And so you cannot just copy the same thing and put it on the other one. You can but it won't do as well. So if you really wanna grow on two platforms, you have to make different content for each one. TikTok makes these speaking spoken content. Instagram likes that right now the carousels and still likes reels that are like polished up. So that's just something I finally figured out. That's my little gift to you guys. But, so yeah, I would have a, a presence on at least, one platform and just focus on one. I would also have a website and a Google Business page.'cause you absolutely need those to get yourself out there. Your website doesn't have to be fancy, but it needs to be something that is gonna be a landing page for you. You have to have that. And then everything has to be linked so your Instagram can drive people to your webpage, your Google can drive and then people can sign up and you have to have enroll now. Very visible, right there on the top and easy to get to and easy to click and go, on the top of your webpage. And then beyond that anything else you do is gonna be a little bit more, you have to get out of there to do it. I would join the Chamber of Commerce in your town because you get a lot of bang for that because that gives you access to many bigger groups.'cause remember it's that concept of more bang for your buck. So whatever you can go to that has bunches of people do that.'cause you can go to one networking event that has, I don't know, a hundred people, if you talk to 30, that's 30 new people that know about you, right? And you have your business card and your little flyer. Same with things like farmer's markets or lion's Club or church. Anything you can get in front of groups of people. Just do it and get yourself out there. And every time you talk about DPC, it's gonna get easier, and then if, if at the end of all that. You feel like you wanna put some money into more paid ads or printed media, then I would tag that on at the end.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 47:34

Awesome. And when it comes to the content pillars that you talked about, the four content pillars you focus on, do you think that there's a content pillar? Do you think there's at least one content pillar that all DPC doctors should be focusing on on their platforms?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 47:50

Oh, yeah. So with DPC DPC, you, you can think of it in terms of you have two groups of patients. So you have the group that wants affordable care, and then you have the group that wants. Access to you kind of concierge style. So if I was going back and making posts about DPC and you wanted to break things down, you could, post about, the affordable care side and really focus on that and do a post a week. That's all about how it saves you money on labs and it saves you money on x-rays. And then another one is how it saves you money per month because there's unlimited visits and then how it keeps you out of the er. So that's all the financial benefits of DPC and that's your uninsured patient. So that's one content pillar, right? The financial benefits of DPC. And then the second would be more like what are the access benefits of DPC?'cause that's where you get the concierge, oh, we have longer appointments and 60 minutes and then 30 minutes and you can call me and then, you can text me and, I'll handle this for you and send me a picture of a rash. And so each one of those is like another post. And then you can do another because it's DPC and we're all primary care. People get tired of hearing the same thing over and over again, then I would just do one that has to do with you as a family doc and it, it doesn't have to be, again, you can do those topics if you want, like family docs or what do family doctors do, right? We take care of coughs, colds, rashes, and all the things we take care of. So you can do that. And then you can also run just some things about your practice, your particular practice, right? So you do a walkthrough or before and after when you were setting up or a day in the life or something with your staff or a kid comes in and here's the Lollipop bowl. So like some scenes of your practice. I think if you have maybe four things, then you just create posts in each one and then just put two out a week. Or if you're really prolific, four a week and then you can, within that, you can change the format. Whether you want one of them to be, you are talking, one of them is you're filming people around the office and then you. Speak over it or if you wanna do the ones where you just show a little clip, they call that B roll, and then you put something on there, POVI just saved my patient, a hundred dollars this month, read how below, and then underneath you write everything about it. But I think easily, four content pillars and if you wanted to make a fifth one, just a little bit about you and a day in your life and what you are like, you can post a little bit about that too. And that's already five topics right there.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 50:19

This last question is coming from a listener, as you're talking about how, like you started day one answering all of your dms and then you still do it, I'm way good at reading them. I'm way bad at responding. And so, thank you to the listener who, said that they feel that I am like only pro fullscope family medicine. So, one, I just wanna set the record straight. I am pro DPC, and so if that DPC includes obstetrics, amen. If it doesn't, amen. And if it, so I, I will say. In that theme, if there's a person who's Dr. Gupta, I love you and amen for all that you've done for your practice for DPC, for your patients, but man, I am just not buying the social media stuff. I don't think I can do it. Even after you've broken stuff down the way you have. What would you say to those people? Because that's okay too.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 51:11

Oh yeah. I mean, not everything is right for everybody, and you can't do what you're not comfortable doing. You just can't because that's when you are not authentic and that's when you get, I think that's where the ick is, right? When you're doing something that you're not comfortable with and you don't like it and it comes across and it's just gonna show itself. And then that's where. I think that's where the it's gonna be. So as long as if it's not for you, you will find other places to market it. And it's not the only way it really isn't. There are plenty of people who are not on social media and who have built practices. You just are gonna have to get out in your community more and you're gonna have more, to find more of the kind of like, physical ways to get in front of people than virtual ways. And those are possible as well.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 51:57

Dr. Gto, where can people find you after this podcast?

Dr. Aleea Gupta 52:01

I'm at Dr. Period Aleea Gupta, on Instagram and on TikTok. On TikTok. I'm just at Dr. Aleea.

Maryal Concepcion, MD 52:08

And just for the listeners, it's doctor spelled DR because that is an important distinction to make. There's only one Dr. Aleea Gupta, and that's where to finder.

Dr. Aleea Gupta 52:18

Thank you so much for having me. I am so, so incredibly proud and grateful for all that you have done for the DPC community and for everything that you give to this space just keep doing what you're doing and we are so, so, so grateful to you. And thank you for having me.

52:35

Thanks for being here for this episode of my DPC story. Whether you stumbled across DPC for the first time today, or you've been in practice for years, these stories are here for you, wherever you are in your DPC journey. And that's exactly, have a start here. page@mydpcstory.com is built now. It meets you where you are new to DPC and learning the fundamentals. There's a path for that already practicing or in the planning stages and looking for practical tools. There's a path for that too. Ready to go deeper. That's covered. Head to the start herePage@mydpcstory.com and find your starting point. If you have a question or challenge you want to hear addressed on the show, go to the contactPage@mydpcstory.com and leave me a voice message. And if this episode moved you, please leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts. It's one of the best ways to help other physicians find these stories when they need them the most. For commercial free episodes and extended conversations, check out our Patreon. There's a free tier and a paid tier, and both help keep the show going. Follow us. On socials at my DPC story and find everything from episodes free resources, the DPC Toolkit Magazine, and more@mydpcstory.com. My DPC story is created and hosted by me Maryal Concepcion A huge thank you to the team that makes this show possible. Chief Growth Officer, Keira Hanselman, head of Marketing and Strategy, Nathalia Highland and Chief Operational Officer Alexander Gobble We are all in your corner. Until next time, this is Maryal Concepcion