Huge congratulations to Dr. Wendy Molaska, who was recently honored with the inaugural DPC Physician of the Year Award at the DPC Summit. We could not be more proud of her leadership, her advocacy, and the DPC community she has helped shape. This episode is a replay of our original conversation, and it's a perfect look at the work that earned her this recognition.

Today's episode is a replay of one of my favorite conversations from last year, and I'm bringing it back for a reason. Dr. Wendy Molaska of Dedicated Family Care in Fitchburg, WI was just honored with the inaugural DPC Physician of the Year Award at the DPC Summit, and this conversation is exactly why. Wendy opened her practice in May 2021 out of a one-room micropractice, built a bilingual and trilingual team, and now serves one of the most diverse patient panels in DPC. She's also the past president of the Wisconsin Medical Society, testifies at the state legislature every year for DPC recognition, and somehow still runs a full-scope family medicine practice from womb to tomb.

IN THIS EPISODE

• How Wendy went from a one-room micropractice to a full team (three exam rooms, a bilingual RN, a trilingual office assistant, and a new associate physician)

• The hiring lesson she learned the hard way and why "hire slow, fire fast" isn't just a saying

• Building the most diverse patient panel in DPC (40% uninsured, 40% Latino, 20% BIPOC, 15% LGBTQ+)

• Chamber of Commerce networking that actually works, including the Latino, Black, and LGBTQ+ Chambers

• Advocacy at the state level and how to talk to both Republicans and Democrats about DPC

Practice: Dedicated Family Care

Location: Fitchburg, WI (Madison area)

Specialty: Family Medicine

Recognition: Inaugural DPC Physician of the Year Award, DPC Summit

Leadership: Past President, Wisconsin Medical Society

CONNECT WITH DR. MOLASKA

If you want to follow Wendy's work or reach out about advocacy, hiring, or building a diverse DPC panel, here's where to find her.

Website: https://familydpc.com/

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-molaska-md-faafp-990041154/

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

Instagram: @dedicatedfamilycare

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any DPC doc thinking about hiring, advocacy work, or building a more diverse patient panel

• Send Wendy a note of congratulations on her DPC Physician of the Year Award. She has earned every bit of it

🚀 Pre-launch or in your first year of DPC? The Early Practice Plan is for you.

The Early Practice Plan is the HarmonyOps program I built for physicians who are still figuring out the systems, the messaging, and the day-to-day of running a new practice. You get help with your operations, your patient flow, your CRM, and the marketing foundation that carries you through year one. $99 per 28 days plus a one-time setup fee.

Learn more and get started here:https://bot.harmonyopsfordpc.com/earlypp-page

Today I'm coaching Dr. Maheswari Raja of Flower Mound, TX, an 18-year family physician who just walked away from her seventh job in corporate medicine and is opening Anchor Primary Care later this summer. Dr. Raja is doing what most physicians tell themselves they can't: self-funding her practice, working urgent care shifts twice a week to keep the pressure off, and building the practice she’s been dreaming about since residency. We work through her elevator pitch, the salesy feeling that keeps her from posting, her ideal patient (spoiler: it's her), and the free resources most new DPC docs have no idea exist. If you're pre-launch and trying to figure out how to talk about DPC without cringing, this coaching call is for you.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why we sometimes feel salesy posting about our own practice, and how to reframe that as service

• The reason we're not actually posting for our family and friends, and who we should be talking to instead

• The elevator pitch formula: pain point + solution, plus a gym membership analogy that lands every time

• Building referral partnerships with pelvic PT, mental health, and nutrition without leading with the ask

• Two free business resources most new DPC docs don't know about (SBDC and SCORE)

Practice: Anchor Primary Care (opening late July / early August 2026)

Location: Flower Mound, TX (Dallas area)

Specialty: Family Medicine  ·  Obesity Medicine  ·  Menopause Care Certified

Experience: 18 years in practice, 7 jobs post-residency

CONNECT WITH DR. RAJA

Instagram: maheswari.raja.md 

Facebook:  Anchor Primary Care

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any family physician who is pre-launch and cringing at the thought of posting on social media

• Subscribe so you don't miss our six-month check-in with Dr. Raja after Anchor Primary Care opens

Just opening your DPC practice? Start with the right systems. 📋 Early Practice Plan is waiting for you. 👉 https://bot.harmonyopsfordpc.com/earlypp-page

Dr. Chelsea Johnson is back on the podcast, four months into her pediatric DPC in Liberty, MO. When we last talked, she was two weeks out from opening. Today, she's running her practice, doing weekend locums shifts, consulting for pediatric medical device companies, and prepping her teenage daughter to intern with her over the summer. We get into the surprises of the first four months, the marketing philosophy she's built (60% education about DPC, 40% about her clinic), and the brave clinical decision to take unvaccinated families that most pediatricians in her area refuse. If you're a pediatrician who has ever felt underpaid, undervalued, and stretched thin by corporate medicine, this conversation is your permission slip.

IN THIS EPISODE

• The 60/40 marketing rule: why most of Chelsea's outreach is about DPC itself, not her clinic

• Why she chose to take unvaccinated families when most pediatricians won't

• The surprise of four months in: her practice is mostly teenagers with chronic conditions

• Building multiple income streams while running DPC (locums, telemedicine, medical device consulting)

• Why DPC might be the thing that saves pediatrics

Practice: KidzMD Direct Primary Care

Location: Liberty, MO (Kansas City area)

Specialty: Pediatrics (birth through young adult)

CONNECT WITH DR. JOHNSON

IG: kidzmd_dpc

Website: https://kidzmd.com/

Email:  [email protected]

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any pediatrician who is burned out on corporate medicine and wondering if DPC is possible for peds

• Subscribe so you don't miss Chelsea's next check-in in about six to eight months

Just opening your DPC practice? Start with the right systems. 📋 Early Practice Plan is waiting for you. 👉 https://bot.harmonyopsfordpc.com/earlypp-page

Six weeks ago, Dr. Brian Bost was a telemedicine-only doc with a soft launch and a long timeline. Today, he's standing in his brand new brick-and-mortar office in Denver, recording from a window seat inside a wellness practice with an acupuncturist next door and a balcony off the exam room. This is the second call in our Hospitalist to DPC series. We cover the office search, the elevator pitch he's still building, and the painting of “The Doctor” he picked out before anything else. If you're a hospitalist or specialist watching from the sidelines and wondering whether DPC is actually doable, this conversation is proof that you can do it. 

IN THIS EPISODE

• How Brian found a brick-and-mortar in weeks instead of months (and how he found it using USA Therapy Rooms)

• Why renting inside a wellness practice instead of a medical building changed the whole patient experience

• The painting of “The Doctor” that became the symbolic anchor for the practice

• Working through the elevator pitch and finding his ideal patient: "I'm lost in the system"

• The hospital-to-home transition program: soft launch July 1, and what's still holding it up

• DPC Summit Hospitalist meetup: open invitation to anyone making the leap

Practice: B2 Direct Care, Denver CO

Specialty: Med-Peds Hospitalist · DPC physician

Facebook Group: Hospitalist to DPC  ·  ~350 members and growing

CONNECT WITH DR. BRIAN BOST

Practice: B2 Direct Care, Denver CO

Website: https://b2directcare.com/

Facebook Group: Hospitalist to DPC (search on Facebook, NPI required to join)

Instagram: b2_direct_care

📍DPC Summit Happy Hour: Dr. Brian Bost will be hosting a happy hour during the DPC Summit on July 17. For the latest event details, please visit the Hospitalist to DPC Facebook Group .

ENJOYED THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any hospitalist, ER doc, or specialist who's been told DPC isn't for their background

• Subscribe so you don't miss the next coaching call with Dr. Bost in six weeks

📲 You keep meaning to post. You're not posting.

The Harmony Ops Social Media Sprint is the 14-day program I built to get DPC practices set up and posting consistently in their own voice. No blank screen, no cringe. You get the brand voice builder, two-weeks of content prompts, a calendar to set up automatic posts, and step-by-step video walkthroughs. $99 to join. Cohorts start together so you have a support community and a real finish line.

Join the next cohort starting July 6:

https://reach.harmonyopshealth.com/sprint-home

Today my guest is Dr. Shehzein Khan, a family medicine physician in Irvine, California who launched her practice, Solace Primary Care, during her maternity leave and never went back to her panel of 1,700 patients. Dr. Khan is part of a growing group of physicians choosing to start DPC with a telehealth-first model, keeping overhead lean while building slowly and intentionally around a life that actually fits. We talk about how she heard about DPC through Instagram, why she resigned mid-maternity leave, and what it takes to set up a HIPAA-compliant telehealth practice from scratch. She explains why she believes in doing the uncomfortable thing, whether that’s posting the cringey first video, cold calling a sublease space, or launching your practice postpartum when the timing makes no sense on paper. If you’re a physician wondering whether you need a physical space before you can start, this conversation is for you.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Telehealth first: the three things you actually need to set up and why keeping it lean matters

• Malpractice insurance for a telehealth-only practice and what to ask before you commit to a carrier

• What a telehealth DPC membership covers and how to explain labs, imaging, and outside care to patients

• Scheduling around a 15-month-old and building a practice that bends around your life, not the other way around

• Finding sublease space through physician mom groups, Facebook, Threads, and cold calls to specialists

• Social media without the perfection: posting messy, using B-reels, and letting the algorithm find your people

Practice: Solace Primary Care

Location: Irvine, CA (Orange County)

Specialty: Family Medicine

Model: Telehealth DPC (transitioning to hybrid in-person)

CONNECT WITH DR. KHAN

Website: https://www.solaceprimarycare.com

Instagram: @dr.shehzeinkhan

Facebook: Shehzein Khan

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any physician, resident, or new parent who is wondering whether telehealth DPC is possible 

• Subscribe so you do not miss any future episodes focused on telehealth 

🛑 Stop staring at the blank screen.

The Harmony Ops Social Media Sprint is the 14-day program I built to get DPC practices set up and posting consistently in their own voice. No blank screen, no wondering what to say.

Join the 14-day Social Media Sprint and get posting in your own voice.

Episode #2 in the DPC Series: From Resident to DPC Practice Owner - The Real Costs & Strategy with Dr. Claire Russell

Today my guest is Dr. Claire Russell, a family medicine resident in Hendersonville, NC who is weeks away from graduation and getting ready to open Clinic by the Sea in Morehead City, NC. Dr. Russell is part of a growing wave of new physicians choosing to step straight from residency into DPC, and she's building her practice from the ground up in a small coastal community. We talk about her childhood dreams of being a country doc, why she chose a rural family medicine residency on purpose, the messaging she's writing for her clinic, and why one should do things even if you don’t feel ready. If you're a resident, a student, or anyone wondering whether you have to wait years before you start, this conversation is for you.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Going straight from residency into DPC and why more new graduates are choosing this path

• Why Claire picked a rural family medicine residency to get the broad scope DPC requires

• The brand voice behind Clinic by the Sea: hanging your shingle and being a family doctor again

• Enrollment fee or no enrollment fee, and the timing of opening the wait list

• "Do it scared": why your landing page does not need to be perfect to go live

Practice: Clinic by the Sea (opening October 2026)

Location: Morehead City, NC (Carteret County)

Specialty: Family Medicine 

Residency: MAHEC Hendersonville (graduating June 2026)

Wait List Opens: July 2026

CONNECT WITH DR. RUSSELL

Website: https://www.clinicbytheseadpc.com launching summer 2026 

Instagram: @clinicbytheseadpc 

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any resident, med student, or new graduate considering DPC straight out of training

• Subscribe so you don't miss Dr. Russell's next check-in once Clinic by the Sea opens its doors

📲 Stop staring at the blank screen. 

The Harmony Ops Social Media Sprint is the 14-day program I built to get DPC practices set up and posting consistently in their own voice. No blank screen, no cringe. 

Join the 14-day Social Media Sprint and get posting in your own voice. 

I'm coaching Dr. Shikha Joshi of Bloom Direct Primary Care in Buffalo, New York. Dr. Joshi is four months into her DPC after nine years as a hospitalist, and she's doing what most early-stage DPC docs are doing: showing up at vendor events, talking to anyone who will listen, and wondering why it isn't converting faster. We dig into her elevator pitch and rebuild it from scratch around patient pain points, then work through the follow-up rhythm, the messaging on her social media, and how to spot which of her referral partners is actually her best one. If you're early stage and the marketing piece is the part keeping you up at night, this coaching call is for you.

IN THIS EPISODE

• How to rebuild your DPC elevator pitch around patient pain points instead of features

• The cocktail party formula: "You know when... well, at my practice..." and why it works

• Why the fortune really is in the follow-up, and how often is actually too often

• Niching down as a generalist: speaking to one ideal patient without excluding everyone else

• How to figure out which of your referral partners is your strongest, and what to do with that

Practice: Bloom Direct Primary Care, Buffalo NY

Specialty: Internal Medicine (also Lifestyle Medicine and Obesity Medicine certified)

Background: 9 years as a Hospitalist

Launched: January 2026

CONNECT WITH DR. JOSHI

If you live in the Buffalo area and want to learn more about Bloom Direct Primary Care, or if you're a fellow DPC physician who wants to follow her work, here's where to find her.

Website: https://www.bloomdirectpc.com/

Instagram: @shikhajoshimd

https://instagram.com/shikhajoshimd

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583881385029

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any DPC doc who is still rewriting their elevator pitch in the car on the way to a networking event

• Subscribe so you don't miss the next coaching call or guest conversation

𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙨 𝙖 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤.

Get started with the 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻. 

Today I'm sitting down with Alexa Torres of Care Identity, a brand and web designer who has spent close to a decade working specifically with Direct Primary Care physicians. Alexa has built over 100 DPC websites and cash pay practice brands, and she has more clarity about how DPC docs actually attract patients than almost anyone I've talked to. We get into niching down, why in-person networking is still the fastest way to grow, the psychology behind a buyer who visited her site 52 times before purchasing, and the AI twin work she's been doing for her own brand and her clients. If you're early stage and feeling like your marketing isn’t working, this is the conversation you need to hear.

IN THIS EPISODE

• Why niching down tripled Alexa's business and what that looks like for a DPC practice

• The hill Alexa will die on: in-person connection is still the fastest way to grow a DPC practice

• The 52-touchpoint story: what one buyer's journey teaches us about patience and online content

• Sales as a service: how I think about leading with patient pain points instead of DPC features

• How Alexa is using an AI twin to create on-brand content without burning out on photo shoots

ABOUT THE GUEST

Business: Care Identity (DPC brand and web design)

Focus: Brand identity, websites, and marketing for DPC physicians

Track Record: Over 100 DPC and cash pay practice websites

Years in DPC: Close to 10 years working with DPC practices

CONNECT WITH ALEXA

Care Identity : www.careid.us

Klinishen’s Atelier : https://www.theklinishensatelier.com

I Need Patients Yesterday: https://www.theklinishensatelier.shop/inpy

Create Your AI Twin: https://www.theklinishensatelier.shop/aitwin

ENJOY THIS EPISODE?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any DPC physician who feels stuck on the marketing side of building their practice

• Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode on automations and using AI in your workflows

Join the DPC Lifer Club today 💙

First live call starts this Wednesday, June 3.

Monthly calls, real DPC conversations, and a community that grows with you.

Join here: https://dpclife.com/club

Starting your DPC practice is exciting. Losing patients because your systems aren't ready yet? Not so much.The Early Practice Plan is built for exactly where you are right now.

After almost two years of paying for DPC marketing companies that did not deliver, Dr. Moizah Saad finally decided to take control of her own growth.

In Part 2 of our live coaching call, we walk through the exact networking strategies, elevator pitch formula, and social media mindset shifts she is using to grow her DPC + hybrid clinic in Princeton, New Jersey. We also unpack the “Mamdani moment” that changed how she sees showing up online and why it matters more than she realized.

If you’re a DPC doctor who feels burned by agencies or flustered by marketing, this one is for you.

In this episode

• The DPC elevator pitch formula I share with every doctor I coach

• Why most paid DPC marketing companies fail us, and what to do instead

• The “Mamdani moment” that flipped how Dr. Saad thinks about social media

• “Fortune is in the follow up” and how to stop letting warm leads die in a drawer

• Why building a regional DPC support group might be the move for New Jersey

  
  

About Dr. Saad

Practice: DPC + Hybrid Clinic, Princeton NJ

Specialty: Internal Medicine

Years in DPC: ~2 years (and counting)

Patient Focus: Adults in their 40s who feel unheard by traditional medicine

Enjoyed this episode?

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share with any DPC physician, aspiring DPC owner, or burned out doctor who needs the reminder that the marketing learning curve is universal

• Subscribe so you don’t miss the next coaching call on DPC Life

📈 Thinking about opening your own DPC? Find out if your systems are ready. Take the free 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝘇👇

🔗 Starter System Quiz

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Moizah Saad, an internal medicine physician who left California corporate medicine, moved to New Jersey, and opened her hybrid DPC clinic, Jersey Family Health.

She thought: “If I open my doors and put up a website, patients will come.”Reality: crickets.

On this live coaching call, we unpack the marketing blind spots corporate medicine never teaches you and walk step by step through one core shift: stopping the “everyone is my patient” mindset so she can finally speak directly to the exact patients who are already looking for her.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why “build it and they will come” is a lie: How corporate jobs hide the business side, and why a website and a logo are not a patient acquisition plan.

• “All adults” is not a niche: How trying to talk to everyone guarantees no one feels like you’re talking to them.

• How to find your true patient avatar: We mine Dr. Saad’s most meaningful cases to identify her real sweet spot: mid-life women with complex, “unsolved” medical issues who feel brushed off by the system.

• Using channels that actually fit you: What happened when she stopped forcing herself onto every social platform and leaned into local community WhatsApp groups instead.

Meet the guest: Dr. Moizah Saad

• Internal Medicine physician

• Founder, Jersey Family Health (hybrid DPC, New Jersey)

• Focus: complex medical mysteries and mid‑life women with chronic fatigue and long-ignored symptoms

• Current challenge: unlearning corporate assumptions about “if you accept insurance, patients appear” and rebuilding real-world marketing skills from scratch.

  
  

From Dr. Anne

I’m building something specifically for DPC Life listeners and I want it to be actually useful, not theoretical.There’s a short 2-minute form linked below: what you’re stuck on, what’s helped you most so far, and what you want to hear about next.

Everyone who fills it out gets a free, brandable DPC slide deck you can customize for Rotary, employer groups, or any community talk. You can also check the box if you want early access when the DPC Life community launches.

Form + free slides: dpcfoundations.com

If you enjoyed this episode:

• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

• Share it with any primary care doc, hospitalist, ER doc, or specialist who needs to hear about DPC 

• Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode of DPC Life