How to talk about Direct Primary Care, find your people, and let go of the guilt.

Feeling burned out in corporate healthcare and obsessing over DPC, but stuck on how to explain it to patients or make the leap?

In this coaching-style episode, Dr. Alisa Awtry, a family physician in Newberg, Oregon and founder of Rooted Direct Primary Care, walks through her real fears, questions, and messaging as she prepares to open her clinic. You’ll hear exactly how we refine her elevator pitch, simplify how she explains DPC, and deal with the emotional weight of leaving the system.

Who this is for

• Physicians exploring Direct Primary Care

• Docs burned out in corporate / employed settings

• New and soon-to-launch DPC owners who feel stuck on messaging, onboarding, and “who am I leaving behind?”

What you’ll learn

• How to explain Direct Primary Care without a 20‑minute lecture

• A simple way to define and attract your ideal DPC patient

• How to handle the guilt of leaving patients behind

• Practical tips for managing high pre-enrollment interest and onboarding cleanly

• How to build a community-centered practice without recreating corporate chaos.

  
  

Guest:

Dr. Alisa Awtry is a family physician in Newberg, Oregon and the founder of Rooted Direct Primary Care. She’s building a deeply community-centered DPC practice focused on proactive, relationship-based care.

Resources & Links

• Rooted DPC Website: rooteddirectprimarycare.com

• Instagram: @rooteddirectprimarycare

• Facebook: Rooted Direct Primary Care

Planning your own dream DPC?

Don’t build your tech stack from scratch. Harmony Ops for DPC gives you a CRM, website, and automation setup built specifically for new DPC clinics so you can launch without tech overwhelm.

Learn more: harmonyopsfordpc.com

This episode is a fan favorite and one of the most popular from the DPC Life Podcast. We hope it brings you meaningful insights and inspiration during this holiday season. Enjoy this replay and let it spark new ideas . Thank you for being a part of our community!

If you're an employed physician feeling dissatisfied, a DPC dreamer preparing to leap, or a mom balancing family and a new practice, this episode is your guide to embracing the required entrepreneurial transformation.

Dr. Una shares her personal journey from pediatrician to seven-figure business owner and provides the mindset shifts and concrete strategies necessary to thrive in your practice and your life.

Who it's for:

Physicians feeling the "nudge" toward something more than the employed status quo.

DPC founders who are struggling with marketing, sales, or work-life balance.

Moms in medicine who feel pressure to "do it all alone".

You’ll learn:

The profound mindset shift required to see all business skills - including marketing and selling - as learnable skills, not innate personality traits.

• How to use introversion as a superpower and manage your social energy by defining it as recharging in solitude.

• Why the "gravitational pull of your former self is real" and how to intentionally fight the habit of reverting to old behaviors.

• The critical necessity of defining your business goals to clearly identify distractions, making it easy to say no to non-aligned opportunities.

• How to build a "home team" to take care of household demands, understanding that there is "no award category for mom that did it alone".

• Why focusing on the right discomfort (like marketing) is essential, as your comfort zone is where the status quo lives.

• The danger of having a "safety net" job and how your backup plan can become your real plan, hindering your growth and commitment.

Guest:

Dr. Una, founder of EntreMD, host of The EntreMD Podcast, two-time best-selling author, and pediatrician who helps physicians build profitable businesses.

Want help taking the first steps?

Dr. Una encourages physicians to remember their proven capacity for dramatic transformation and to find the next step and start taking it. Stop waiting and let your future 90-year-old self be your motivation.

DM me “DPC” on Instagram and I’ll send you my Dr. Una companion workbook + the 5-Day DPC Confidence Course: short, residency-friendly emails with concrete daily actions to move you toward opening.

Guest links:

Website: https://entremd.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/entremds/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrUnachukwu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/druna/ 

Happy Holidays! This episode is one of the most listened-to episodes of the DPC Life Podcast, and we believe it will bring you valuable insights during this holiday season. It might be just what you need to hear as you reflect on the year. We hope you enjoy this replay and find inspiration in it. Thank you for tuning in!

In this episode, we’re joined by my awesome partner, Dr. Rachel Kelly, to take you behind the scenes of building our DPC practice, without a business plan, without a roadmap, and with plenty of trial and error. Together, we share the lessons we’ve learned in resilience and the realization that valuing our time might be the most important shift of all.

We talk about…

• Why “90% of what we’ve done has not worked, and 10% has been successful”

• The challenges of opening a DPC without a business plan

• How aesthetics fit into (and sometimes complicate) the DPC model

• The mindset shift of realizing our time is worth something

This conversation is honest, unpolished, and packed with wisdom from our real experience. It’s a reminder that the DPC journey isn’t about perfection; it’s about staying committed, learning along the way, and building a practice that truly serves our patients, our families, and ourselves.

Resources & Mentions

• Kickstart Accounting - bookkeeping and accounting support for small practices and businesses

  
  

If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with a friend. Reviews help more doctors discover these conversations.

Have an idea for a future topic or guest? Email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.

Building your own DPC practice? We've got you covered with tools built by a DPC doc (me!), for DPC docs:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Harmony Ops Health ⁠⁠⁠⁠helps you streamline operations and automate the tasks that eat up your time.

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠DPC Ads in Minutes ⁠⁠⁠⁠shows you how to get simple, effective ads running without the overwhelm.

𝗡𝗼 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻? 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽.Get the 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝟱-𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗗𝗣𝗖 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 - your roadmap to launch with clarity, systems, and confidence.👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://harmonyopshealth.com/dpc-confidence-course⁠⁠

Internal medicine and lifestyle medicine physician Dr. Kashiti Long (Long Health and Wellness, Charlotte, NC) shares the unfiltered reality of leaving corporate medicine and launching a Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice in just six months.

She walks through the exact steps she took, what actually worked for marketing, and the painful surprises that almost derailed her launch.

This is a grounded, behind‑the‑scenes look at what it really takes to go from employed to independent in DPC, with practical takeaways you can apply before you resign.

What You Will Learn

• Why She Left Sooner Than Planned: The administrative pressure and patient volume that forced her to accelerate a “3‑year plan” into a six‑month exit.

• The 6‑Month Sprint to Opening: How DPC conferences reshaped her timeline and what she focused on first.

• Hidden Delays: The six‑month North Carolina license wait, malpractice shopping, and other slow, boring bottlenecks that cost real time.

• Finding Patients in Real Life: What actually moved the needle: networking, consistent social content, and defining her avatar “Motivated Monica.”

• Audience‑Building Before You Quit: Why she now tells every doctor to start capturing emails and followers the moment DPC is on their mind.

• Financial Contingency Planning: How she handled months with 0–4 signups and why a part‑time telehealth job can be your safety net, not a failure.

🔗 Guest Links

Practice Name: Long Health and Wellness 

Website: longhealthandwellness.com 

Social Media: Kashiti Long MD (on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok)

If this episode hits home and you’re “DPC curious,” get my free 5-Day DPC Confidence Course: short daily emails with specific actions to go from “maybe someday” to a concrete plan. 

👉 DM me “COURSE” on Instagram or go to https://harmonyopshealth.com/dpc-confidence-course to enroll.

Stay Connected & Support the Podcast! Follow & Leave Us a Review on the DPC Life Podcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dpclife/

Harmony Ops Health for DPC: https://harmonyopshealth.com/home

This is a transparent, real‑world coaching session with Dr. Chelsea Johnson, founder of Kidz MD Pediatric DPC in Liberty, Missouri. After years in academic medicine, ER/urgent care, and consulting, she decided the only way she’d practice primary care was inside DPC. She calls it her “off‑ramp” to keep kids out of the ER and stay in medicine on her terms.

We walk through the unsexy but critical pieces of launching a pediatric DPC: solving the vaccine purchasing maze, marketing on a tight budget, and building operations that don’t collapse the minute you open. You’ll hear how she targets her ideal suburban mom, and how to think about systems (EMR + CRM + website) so you’re not duct‑taping your practice together.

What You’ll Learn:

• The “Off‑Ramp” to DPCHow Dr. Johnson went from a high‑mobility, consultant/ER career to launching Kidz MD as the only primary care model that made sense for her life and her patients.

• Solving the Vaccine ChallengeHow she used a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to bridge vaccine access until she qualifies for direct contracts, so she could open without waiting years.

• Marketing on a BudgetHow she uses the local Chamber, community events, and social media to reach busy suburban moms without spending agency money.

• Defining Your Ideal FamilyWhy she built around the “busy suburban mom with multiple kids” who wants a pediatrician that can handle more in‑office so they can avoid unnecessary ER visits.

• Why Your Tech Stack MattersThe hidden cost of trying to launch on spreadsheets, generic CRMs, and 7 disconnected tools instead of a DPC‑specific system from day one.

Who This Is For:

Pediatricians and family docs who love patient care but are exhausted by RVUs, inboxes, and charting after kid bedtime. If you’re pre‑launch or newly launched in DPC and feel stuck on operations, vaccines, and marketing, this episode gives you a practical blueprint.

Guest Links

Guest: Dr. Chelsea Johnson

Website: https://kidzmd.com/

Email:  [email protected]

Next Step: See the CRM Built for DPC Launches

If this episode hits home and you’re serious about launching or growing your DPC in the next 12 months, go look at Harmony Ops for DPC - the CRM + website + automations platform I built specifically for DPC clinics so you don’t drown in tech.

Search “Harmony Ops for DPC” and book a demo to see how your practice could be live in about 10 business days with AI chat, patient funnels, and launch‑ready automations installed for you. 

You can still grab my free 5‑Day DPC Confidence Course if you’re earlier and just want the plan: short daily emails to move from “maybe someday” to a concrete launch path.

👉 DM me “COURSE” on Instagram or go to https://harmonyopshealth.com/dpc-confidence-course to enroll.

Stay Connected & Support the Podcast! Follow & Leave Us a Review on the DPC Life Podcast

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dpclife/

Harmony Ops Health for DPC: https://harmonyopshealth.com/home

Are you a primary care or hospitalist doc charting at 11 p.m., staring at RVUs, and wondering, “Is this it?”

In this episode, Dr. Nadia Sirdar, an internal medicine physician and founder of Bethesda Modern Primary Care, shares how she walked away from hospital medicine to build a Direct Primary Care practice that actually feels human again.

We get into:

• The breaking point: The exact moments that made her realize volume-driven hospital medicine was costing her joy, family, and health.

• Finding DPC (and her tribe): How one podcast and one DPC Summit turned “someday” into a launch date and gave her a new community overnight.

• Building a non-elitist clinic: How she navigated the “concierge vs DPC” branding tension to create a practice that’s relationship-based, prevention-focused, and accessible.

• Her clinical niche--menopause & perimenopause: Why midlife women are falling through the cracks in traditional care, and how longer visits + deep relationships change everything.

• Replacing hospital camaraderie: The role of the DPC community, local events, and even her kids passing out flyers at farmers markets in keeping her motivated on hard days.

  
  

If you’re a physician quietly dreaming of DPC but scared to leave the system, this conversation is a roadmap and a reality check.

Guest Resources & Socials

Website: bethesdadoctor.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnadiasirdar/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/drnadiasirdar

FB: https://www.facebook.com/nadiasirdarmd/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@drnadiasirdar

You can book a free 15-minute discovery call with Dr. Sirdar to see if Bethesda Modern Primary Care is the right fit for you.

If this episode hits home and you’re “DPC curious,” get my free 5-Day DPC Confidence Course: short daily emails with specific actions to go from “maybe someday” to a concrete plan.

👉 DM me “COURSE” on Instagram or go to https://harmonyopshealth.com/dpc-confidence-course to enroll.

Stay Connected & Support the Podcast! Follow & Leave Us a Review on the DPC Life Podcast

🎧 Your reviews help us reach more physicians and amplify the DPC movement.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dpclife/

Harmony Ops Health for DPC: https://harmonyopshealth.com/home

If you're an employed physician feeling dissatisfied, a DPC dreamer preparing to leap, or a mom balancing family and a new practice, this episode is your guide to embracing the required entrepreneurial transformation.Dr. Una shares her personal journey from pediatrician to seven-figure business owner and provides the mindset shifts and concrete strategies necessary to thrive in your practice and your life.Who it's for:Physicians feeling the "nudge" toward something more than the employed status quo.DPC founders who are struggling with marketing, sales, or work-life balance.Moms in medicine who feel pressure to "do it all alone".You’ll learn:

• How to use introversion as a superpower and manage your social energy by defining it as recharging in solitude.

• Why the "gravitational pull of your former self is real" and how to intentionally fight the habit of reverting to old behaviors.

• The critical necessity of defining your business goals to clearly identify distractions, making it easy to say no to non-aligned opportunities.

• How to build a "home team" to take care of household demands, understanding that there is "no award category for mom that did it alone".

• Why focusing on the right discomfort (like marketing) is essential, as your comfort zone is where the status quo lives.

• The danger of having a "safety net" job and how your backup plan can become your real plan, hindering your growth and commitment.

Guest:

Dr. Una, founder of EntreMD, host of The EntreMD Podcast, two-time best-selling author, and pediatrician who helps physicians build profitable businesses.Want help taking the first steps?Dr. Una encourages physicians to remember their proven capacity for dramatic transformation and to find the next step and start taking it. Stop waiting and let your future 90-year-old self be your motivation.

DM me “DPC” on Instagram and I’ll send you my Dr. Una companion workbook + the 5-Day DPC Confidence Course: short, residency-friendly emails with concrete daily actions to move you toward opening.

Guest links:

Website: https://entremd.com/

IG: https://www.instagram.com/entremds/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrUnachukwu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/druna/

If you’re a resident dreaming of DPC or an early DPC doc staring at an empty panel, this episode is your proof that you can start from nothing and still win.

Dr. Catherine Lok opened River Rock Clinic in Asheville with zero patients, got hit by a clinic-destroying hurricane, and still built a thriving, values-aligned DPC micropractice

Who it’s for:

• Residents planning to launch a DPC straight out of training

• Early-stage DPC docs who need reassurance, strategy, and proof that you can build from nothing.

  
  

You’ll learn:

• How Dr. Lok opened with zero patients, survived a clinic-destroying hurricane, and still built River Rock Clinic in Asheville, NC.

• The one thing she wishes she’d done sooner

• Why networking outperforms ads for patient growth.

• How SEO + local-specific blogs filled her schedule fast and the exact blog topic that performed best.

• The power of micro practice creativity: shaping your day, your clinic flow, and your life with intention.

• Her approach to mutual aid, community collaboration, and combating DPC isolation 

• Practical tips on labs, OMT as an access funnel, and reducing specialty referrals with time-rich care.

Guest:Dr. Catherine Lok, founder of River Rock Clinic DPC (Asheville, NC). DO, integrative-leaning primary care, OMT practitioner, champion of DPC mutual aid and community-building.

Want help taking the first steps?

DM me “DPC” on LinkedIn and I’ll send you the 5-Day DPC Confidence Course: short, residency‑friendly emails with concrete daily actions to move you toward opening.

Guest links:

Website: riverrockclinic.com

Email available on site for DPC questions & meet-and-greets.

Who it’s for: Docs launching their DPC in the next 12 months who want a pitch that attracts the right patients and protects their time.

You’ll learn:

• The biggest patient pain (access) and how to promise speed they believe, without burning out.

• A simple, believable elevator pitch (same/next‑day visits + direct text with response windows).

• How to counter “I already have insurance” without sounding defensive.

• Boundaries that increase satisfaction and retention (access rules, not 24/7).

  
  

Guest:

Dr. Jaclyn Harris, Desert DPC (Peoria, AZ). Military IM → opened DPC → sharpening the pitch.

Get the goods:

Planning your DPC on the low-down? DM “DPC” to me on LinkedIn and I’ll send you the  5-day DPC Confidence Course. Private, 1:1 and stealth‑friendly. 

Connect with Dr. Jaclyn Harris:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/desertdpc

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjaclynharris/

Desert DPC: https://www.desertdpc.com/ 

Who this is for: Primary care physicians quietly planning a DPC launch in the next year, or newly opened and figuring it out on a budget without an existing panel.

In this coaching session, you’ll learn:

• What to focus on first when you’re starting from zero (no panel, smaller or non-urban market)

• How to clarify your niche and message without limiting your reach

• The truth about “boosting a post” versus running a real marketing campaign

• Simple, low-cost ways to grow your first email list (think local partners, mom groups, and community visibility)

• Why clear, simple messaging outperforms clever complexity and how to simplify yours this week
  

Summary: Dr. Jo Ann Beltre, founder of Wander Care Pediatrics in NH, opens up about her early wins and roadblocks launching a pediatric + urgent care DPC from scratch. Together, we map her next steps to grow with clarity and confidence.

Guest Links:

🌐 Wander Care Pediatrics

📘 Facebook: Wander Care Pediatrics

📸 Instagram: @wandercarenh

🧭 Want the highlights?

If you’re planning a DPC in the next 12 months, clarity is your best shortcut.

Get the free 5-day DPC Confidence Course — your roadmap to launch with clarity, systems, and confidence.👉 https://harmonyopshealth.com/dpc-bundle