Personal Branding For Doctors With Dr. Gary Wortz

Gary:

Understanding the message that you have to share and trying to stay on message and on brand can really help you find your niche. You know, growing your brand is not about being all things to all people. It’s about being an expert to a very small group of people who are passionate and share the same passions that you have.

Sliman:

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Care Frontiers podcast. The show where we bring healthcare professionals to share with us their own experience running a successful medical business. Joining me today the founder of omega ophthalmics and a physician in the Commonwealth Eye Surgery Center, Dr. Gary Wortz, Doc, welcome to our show.

Gary:

Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to share some experience perspectives. And hopefully it’ll be a fun conversation. I’m looking forward to it.

Sliman:

So before we get a little bit into the the content and and the actual questions we have, tell us a little bit more about your background and how it’s all led to what you’re doing right now.

Gary:

Yeah, well, thanks for having me. Again. My name is Dr. Gary Wirtz. I’m a cataract and refractive surgeon by day in Lexington, Kentucky. So I generally focus on cataract surgery, refractive cataract surgery without a second lasers and LASIK and corneal refractive surgery. So that’s my, that’s my practice. And we run a very busy practice. So we’re, you know, very, very busy taking care of patients. But after hours, I do function as a co founder and operator and Chief Medical Officer at omega ophthalmics. So I would say that my background is maybe a little unconventional. I grew up in a in a very rural area in Michigan, I grew up around great people, but very rural. So I grew up on a farm was used to working with my hands, running heavy equipment, from tractors to bulldozers, and you know, taking care of a lot of farm animals. So I grew up always loving to be outdoors and working with my hands. And interestingly, when you’re in an environment like that, you have to problem solve, there’s always equipment breaking down, there’s always a new challenge that has to be met. And so I always really enjoyed working with my father and my grandfather on the farm and, and learning to problem solve, learning to diagnose a problem, and then finding a creative and simple solution. And you know, from there, I went to college, you know, decided to be a chemistry major, I always really enjoyed the sciences. And also I just felt a knack for chemistry and loved chemistry. And then through medical school, I get I decided that I wanted to be a doctor with the medical school and I guess from working on the farm and what I had seen, I really wanted to work with my hands again. So I knew somewhere I wanted, I wanted to be a surgeon of some sort, and really fell in love with microsurgery. So it was kind of between plastic surgery and an ophthalmology but the quality of life benefits I saw with ophthalmology patients, particularly cataract patients, I mean, it just made me fall in love with ophthalmology. And I was hooked. Once I saw my first cataract surgery, I really knew that’s what I was called to do. That’s what I wanted to do with my life. And I just never gets old helping someone regain their sight. It is really an amazing thing. And even doing it at a high volume and doing a lot of surgeries. It’s still a unique challenge each case. And I really love it. It’s a passion of mine. So I’m lucky I get to, you know, be employed doing something I’m passionate about

Sliman:

This really interesting Doc, because you mentioned the you have a medical device startup called omega ophthalmics while working on Commonwealth eye surgery. How do you juggle between the business side and the clinical side? As you know, medical professionals are less in tune with the business side of things and more focused on the clinical aspects? How can practitioners shift gears towards the business side of things while staying on top of their role as practitioners?

Gary:

Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I don’t necessarily think of myself as any more adept at the business side, or at least I don’t think I have any natural skills that would lead me that direction. But the reason I started omega ophthalmics was I saw an unmet need. I saw that cataract patients who I took care of from time to time, the lens we implant, let’s say for example is the wrong power. So you know they wanted to be free of glasses and now the lens power and being incorrect or not functional for the patient and they have to wear glasses or There are some visual side effects from, let’s say a multifocal lens. And those patients really can’t deal with those. So they feel like in certain lighting conditions, etc. They’re they’re unable to drive or perform activities of daily living. So there are there are certain scenarios in cataract surgery, were being able to take a lens out and replace it with either a different power or different style lens is, is really needed. And the problem is, there really isn’t a great way of doing that after the early post operative period. So, you know, you can take a lens out fairly routinely within about six months. But after, you know, a year especially and beyond, it really becomes difficult. So I saw this as an unmet need, I had a pretty good idea of how to solve the problem. And so I really just kind of took a bet on myself. And I said, you know, I’m a problem solver. I don’t have to solve the whole problem. But I can, I can take one step at a time. And so I started taking steps towards, you know, creating a patent, forming a company. And that’s, I think, the key to success, not only in medicine, but in business, and probably in life is really understanding what you are good at and what you aren’t good. And since I knew pretty clearly that I did not understand the business side of running a startup, I understood the science pretty well, I felt. So I recruited a CEO, I recruited someone that I knew locally, who had a lot of experience running startups, and I partnered with him, and it’s really through that partnership. His name is Rick ethlend. And He is a professor of Business and Entrepreneurship at Westmont University in Santa Barbara, California. And he is a serial entrepreneur, he’s been very successful. And so it really has been my understanding of what I’m not good at, and trying to fill that fill those gaps with other people that has really been the key to, I think running a successful business. So it’s not that I or any one person has to be, you know, knowledgeable about everything, you just need to know what you’re not good at and find someone who can compliment you.

Sliman:

I really like what you did there. Because a problem I see when I talk to my clients, and most of my clients are medical professionals is that when I, when they try to let’s say outsource something else, let’s say related to their business, they feel that they have to do these things themselves and make it perfect. There’s a slow acceptance when it comes to outsourcing. And I think acknowledging and making, let’s say peace with yourself that you’re not good at something, and you should, let’s say trust others and outsource the work is key to success, like like what you just said. So aside from that to transition a little bit towards the branding side of things, and the marketing: Doc, some of medical professionals, when introduced solid to something like personal branding, they think that’s it’s just about creating this fake persona or manufactured image. Can you give us your thoughts on personal branding and how it can benefits the healthcare professionals?

Gary:

Yeah, I think that, you know, personal branding is just that it’s really branding who you are. If you want to stand out, you really have to be the best version of yourself. No one can compete with who you are at your core. Because you’re the only one who is like you, you’re you’re unique. So I think navall I don’t know if you’ve heard the navall podcast, but that’s one of my he’s one of my favorite gurus, navall raava Khan, he has a podcast. And he makes this point that, you know, if you’re trying to be like everyone else, then you are really running a race that you can’t win. Because it’s really hard to be, you know, inauthentic and good at it. But if if you understand who you are, and the things that you are uniquely gifted and good at, and and and you know how to build a brand around those things, then you don’t have to worry necessarily about curating special content or building an image. I’m sure you want to still be selective with what you share and the things that you, you know, brought broadcast into the world because you want it to be on brand and add value to people. But I think that building a personal brand is really as easy as being honest. But I mean, again, that’s kind of hard. Also, it’s not it’s easier said than done. But you know, for example, I know what I like I like doing cataract surgery. I like thinking about outcomes. I like thinking about making things better. And I like building simple solutions to complex problem at my core. Every project I’ve ever done that I’ve been engaged and really interested in has been surrounding bill. Finally a comment complex problem, thinking about it deeply and building a simple solution for that problem that I can share with everyone on my golf. Alex is one example. I’ve recently built an online argue incision calculator for cataract surgeons using femtosecond lasers, along with Priya Gupta, and we published a paper on improved outcome. And we didn’t want to just, you know, show how we could improve outcomes. We wanted to give a tool free online for others to use that same formula. So they could also get those good outcomes. And that’s freely available online, that lricalc.com. And, you know, we’ve, we’ve gotten over 1600 new users last week, and we’ve done over 4000 calculations so far. So, you know, again, it’s really for me, if I’m thinking about my personal brand, there are things I will say yes to if it’s along the lines of Can I help a company like consulting, for example, I used to consulting, I take projects where I feel like I can add value, if there’s an unmet need. That’s really discussing a complex problem. I don’t enjoy just promoting, for example, I don’t know that I’m a good promotional person, I don’t know that I’m really good at giving talks about things that are more promotional, I enjoy education, I love problem solving. Occasionally, I will do some promotional things on things, I’m new solutions or new product products I’m really passionate about and love using. But I know that’s not my main, I guess center of what I’m really called to do and feel excited about.

Sliman:

So, Doc, while we’re on the subject of personal branding and branding overall, do you have any tips or ways the medical professionals can grow their brand and build awareness around it?

Gary:

Well, I think there’s some building blocks that everyone should should consider those building blocks obviously would be would include, you know, making sure your online presence is, you know, up to par, I would consider social media, there’s some pros and cons of that. for medical professionals. I think we’ve seen some backlash for maybe some unprofessional behavior, for example, people dancing in the operating room, obviously, those are some some big, no no’s from a professionalism standpoint. But I’ve, you know, I think I think it really just depends on what each physician feels comfortable with sharing. I’ve seen some fellow physicians be very open, sharing photos of their family, sharing photos of their personal life and connecting with other people on Instagram, for example, and just being very transparent, I don’t necessarily feel as comfortable with that, because I’m a little bit more of a private person. I don’t necessarily like exposing my family and, you know, to that side of things, so I think there’s going to be a spectrum of comfort level that people have. But I do think that transparency is is is a is a good thing, as I said before being authentic. And then I also think that, and I’m learning this so I don’t say I don’t, I’m not necessarily perfect at this, but people for example, on Twitter, that’s my main social media outlet, you can follow me at cataract MD, but most of the people who follow me and most of the people I follow are ophthalmologist or people who are in the ophthalmology industry. But you know, occasionally I might like to send a tweet about University of Kentucky basketball because I love Kentucky basketball. But you know, most of my followers don’t really want to see or read Kentucky basketball tweets from me there, they have followed me because they want to hear what I have to say about ophthalmology. So you know, you have to understand why someone is following you on social media, what your brand is, and you want to stick to that brand. So if you’re if you’re littering someone’s twitter feed with, you know, random videos of cats, or you know, basketball, you know, hot takes, or even you know, getting political, those things can sometimes turn followers off. And so I think understanding the message that you have to share and trying to stay on message and on brand can really help you find your niche. Because really, it’s not you know, growing your brand is not about being all things to all people. It’s about being an expert to a very small group of people who are passionate and share the same passions that you have. So really understanding what message you have to deliver and who your audience is, will help you stay on brand.

Sliman:

I really like your last point. It’s really not about being everything to all people. It’s just about focusing the brand and niching down on something or an audience that you really want to reach.

Gary:

Right. And that’s just to just to finish that point, you know, that’s why mine Twitter handle is cataract MD, it really to me was the simplest way to communicate. If you want to hear about cataract surgery, if you’re interested in cataract surgery, I’m the guy to follow because that is the thing that I’m most passionate about professionally. And so you know it even in my Twitter handle, it is telling and communicating a message of what you’re going to be receiving If you follow him

Sliman:

Of course, the links are in the show notes. If you’re listening right now, just head over the show notes. And you found all the links of Dr. Gary Wortz. So, Doc, I’ve listened to one of your episodes and in terms of marketing, I know that you’re big on building relationships with with medical professionals as a way to expand your network and increase referral sources. So can you tell us a little bit more about networking and some of the tips that you might give to professionals now?

Gary:

Yeah, I mean, ophthalmology is very interesting, because we have other eye care professionals, physicians in optometrists, and, you know, in our area, you know, we we benefit from a lot of those referrals, you know, so we maintain really good relationships with optometrists in our area, we have a very strong relationship with them. And we’ve really benefited and I think it’s been a mutual benefit, they’ve they’ve benefited from, you know, the good care we’ve been able to provide, and I think they’ve, you know, and we’ve you know, benefit from having a steady referral source. So I think it’s natural to, to find the people or the other physicians or practitioners in your area, who they need an easy button, they need someone that they can rely on that they know that they’re going to get a good quality outcome that their patients they refer are going to be treated with respect and care, and that you’re there for not just for the, the high dollar referral potential, but also you’ll take the the indigent patient, or you’ll extend a helping hand, if it’s a difficult case. So I think that you know, and that’s really about building trust, it really can’t be a transactional relationship, it really has to be about that other referral source, understanding that you are a trustworthy person, that you will do what you say they will go above and beyond to take care of their patient. So I think that the most important part of networking is building trust. Because really, if you don’t have that, you know, if you are relying on someone to, for example, introduce you to someone that you want to know. And then sort of tap into their network, it really depends on how much they trust you is to what extent they will extend their network to you. So that’s where I think a lot of times people go wrong with trying to expand their network too fast, trying to be friends with everybody. And it’s not that you shouldn’t be open to being friends with everybody. But it is something where you want to take a stepwise approach, and it’s probably better to have a few deep relationships with people that they really know you and you’re really tapped in where you would share your your, you know, network with them and they would share theirs with your with with you. So I think it’s it should be a stepwise approach. And there’s really two sides of this one side is building a network of people who can support your local business, so referral sources in your local area. And then in my world, it’s really about connecting with other ophthalmologists who are really at the top of their game. So some of the top ophthalmologists in the world are part of for example, Vanguard, ophthalmology, society or cedars Aspen’s society. And these are sort of fraternities, sororities of some of the top like I said, top ophthalmologists, and you know, being invited into that group is a high honor and it is a you know, invitation only kind of thing. But But when you when you show yourself to be trustworthy, when you show yourself to be someone who’s not about yourself, but really more about helping other people. That’s the kind of person that you want to invite into your network. You don’t want to invite someone in who is going to you feel they’re going to just want to take take take, you really want to invite someone in who has something to offer, who is trustworthy, and someone that you would enjoy being around. So I think that when you’re thinking about networking and being, you know, trying to grow your brand, grow your network, grow your status, perhaps it really, you really have to become the kind of person that can add value to a conversation to another company to another colleague, and the only thing you can really control is really being the kind of person that other people would want to invite in. If you do that and you’re at least somewhat putting yourself out there and conversations. Maybe online discussions or other things, and occasionally asked for some opportunities, if you’re the kind of person and if you’ve done the work on yourself to be the kind of person that others want to be around, it’s almost like magic, the help just comes that networks open up. If you’re approaching networking from the side of how much can I get from that relationship, you’re just going to hit, you’re gonna run into a brick wall each time.

Sliman:

I really want to double down on trust creation, because especially in the health care sphere, trust plays a bigger rule as the decision of referring patients or making, let’s say, partnership is a big decision. And it requires a lot of a lot of trust between the two partners. So, so Doc, having years worth of experience, at this point, in your journey, what are you tired o in the ophthalmology industry, and what are you most excited about?

Gary:

You know, I think that the thing that’s difficult is seeing really advanced technologies getting approved in, in other countries for a long time, and just waiting for them to come to the United States. You know, our colleagues in Europe and around the world, commonly will have years worth of experience using, you know, higher technology, and we’re just jealous, or jealous of, you know, the access they have to those technologies. So, that’s something that I think the FDA is working on, and, and they’re, they’re doing the best they can, they are a little bit conservative, but you know, that’s actually been helpful in some cases, so I can’t fault them for it. But it is something that, you know, I wish sometimes we had access to different technology. Um, so I’ll just, I’ll probably just leave that at that, you know, we we are jealous sometimes of the technology in other countries. But the things I’m excited about, are really some some breakthroughs in ophthalmology that I think are really going to be foundational changes in the way we we approach disease process. I’m really excited about electronics going inside the eye. And I know that sounds like you know, Cyborg technology. But you know, there’s a lot of disease processes, for example, glaucoma, where, you know, we don’t know what the patient’s pressure is in between visit. So we might check the pressure. glaucoma is a degenerative process of the optic nerve that’s typically caused by high pressure, there’s some other things that are involved. But suffice it to say it’s kind of like hypertension of the so we check the pressure, we treat the pressure and we check them maybe three to four months later. Well, we know that the pressure fluctuates throughout the day. Some people have normal pressure during the day and it goes up at night or it drops at nighttime. So there’s a lot of variability. And so having continuous telemetry where we’re monitoring interactive pressure would be a real game changer for understanding glaucoma better and understand the disease process understanding compliance because a lot of patients only take their drops seems the day or two before they come to see us. So a lot of times, patients may be progressing and their their glaucoma and optic nerve damage is getting worse. And we’re not understanding why because it looks like their pressures at Target, but maybe they’re not taking their drops in the intervening time. So I’m really excited about electronics inside the eye being able to help monitor disease processes, especially glaucoma. I’m also really excited about drug delivery systems inside the macular degeneration, the wet version is being treated very successfully with anti veg f therapies such as Lucentis, and there’s some drug depot technologies that are being developed and actually being rolled out right now that you know, really extend the amount of time between injections so it’s in the past patients have been able to go you know, a month or so between injections I Leah’s a little bit more you can go maybe two to three months. But you know, that means that someone’s with this disease process has to get an injection in their eye every month or they go blind. And that’s just not a great it’s not a great way to to live your life. So some of these drug depots, systems look really exciting. There’s also some drug delivery or long time release drug implants for glaucoma also, which are really exciting. And so, I think that the AI is such an interesting place for drug delivery to work. I think that once we figure all that out, it’s really going to change something I’m also excited about

Sliman:

That sounds very futuristic Haha. But, Doc to close this off, any takeaways to share with the listeners?

Gary:

Well, I’ll just apologize I’m sure a lot of people listening to this are not interested in ophthalmology, but I will say that, you know, in my world, I think That having a network of people you can trust having a referral source that is committed to common goals and having a network of professionals that you can rely on who understand that this shared struggle that you go through whether that’s, you know, going to meetings, and or meeting online or even on Twitter and Social Media, you know, those are the things that beyond just, you know, the patient interaction, you know, those are the things that can really make any job in medicine very meaningful. And so I would encourage people to get involved, to go to meetings to make, you know, to make friends to network organically. And I think by doing so, you know, there’s a lot of burnout in medicine, not I don’t feel like so much in ophthalmology, at least the ophthalmologists that I that I know. I feel like we we do a pretty good job. But even even still, you know, patients can be difficult. They can they can really wear on your, I guess they can take a little they can take years off your life depending on how you deal with it. But I think having good colleagues you can talk to and you can commiserate and share, you know, war stories, for example, I think those are the things that are really good and it relieves a lot of stress. And let you know you’re not alone. And you’re in this, you’re in this together. So I really do think making lasting friends through your network is probably my, I guess my number one tip for all.

Sliman:

Thank you so much doctor Wortz, for taking the time. It’s such a pleasure having you here. If you want to reach Dr. Wortz, you can follow him on Twitter, cataractMD, and if you’d like more of Dr. Wortz, you can tune in to his podcast, podcast ophthalmology off the grid. And all the links are in the show notes. Dr. Wortz, you told me before this recording that you have new projects and other projects besides these two, can you please tell the audience about them? .

Gary:

Yeah, I’ve started along with doctors Priya Gupta and Nathan Radcliffe, a new educational platform for ophthalmologists looking to add new skills and new tools to their surgical armamentarium it’s called interventional mindset. It’s available at interventional mindset.com. We also have a podcast that you can search for on on all podcast platforms Apple, Spotify, etc. interventional mindset if you search for that you’ll find it and it’s really for the the young to mid career ophthalmologist who is interested in you know, ACO surface disease, cataract surgery, LASIK and also MiGs are microinvasive glaucoma surgeries. It is a wonderful resource with a lot of really groundbreaking content. So we would really appreciate if folks are interested, they can check that out.

Sliman:

Also, you told me you created a new calculator. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Gary:

Yes, I mentioned that briefly earlier, but it’s at lricalc.com. And it is for ophthalmologists who do laser refractive cataract surgery, and it’s for correcting astigmatism, so it’s available. It’s been validated through a peer reviewed journal. We published through clinical ophthalmology. That paper is actually also on on the available on the website. But it is a new validated formula that allows for patients to achieve better outcomes. As a matter of fact, our paper showed that with using this formula, we got almost a two fold increase in patients who had 2020 vision after cataract surgery, and so really increases the value proposition of doing laser refractive cataract surgery.

Sliman:

All the links, of course are in the show notes. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that was Dr. Gary Wortz.