Amy Pearlman, MD, and Gia Ching on starting a private urology practice

In this video, Amy M. Pearlman, MD, interviews Gia Ching of GCC Consulting regarding starting and marketing a private practice. Pearlman is a urologist and co-founder of the Prime Institute in Coral Gables, Florida.

Transcription:

Pearlman: Hey, folks, my name is Dr Amy Pearlman. I'm a board-certified urologist with expertise in hormone health, sexual health, and genital health, and I have Gia Ching here with me today. Gia and I first met about 3 years ago. I found her through a colleague of mine with whom I trained during residency. She was a plastic surgery resident, and she had started her own practice in California, and I saw some of her social media content, her website. I loved it. I interviewed a couple of companies when my sister and I were thinking about starting our own practice. But even before we were thinking about starting our own practice, we just wanted to build an educational website. And so I reached out to Gia at that point, and we started working together, so it's been a couple of years. I'm so happy to introduce you all to Gia, because she and her team have been so instrumental in my sister and I taking what I would consider to be the biggest risk of our adult life, which was leaving our very stable academic practices, which we both very much loved, to change our career and start our own practice in South Florida, and you have to have someone like Gia on your team. Gia, thanks so much for joining us today.

Ching: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure, and yes, it's been quite a journey.

Pearlman: I want to begin this conversation by addressing this question of why it matters. Why do you think it's essential for health care providers, including doctors, to have access to resources like yours when considering starting their own practice?

Ching: I think that 1 of the things that I found in working with so many different providers over the years is that a lot of them have exceptional training, they know they're really good at what they do, obviously in the health care field, but when it comes to some of the things, like marketing themselves, really positioning themselves, and really being able to make that a marketable package of why a patient is going to want to leave seeing them in maybe a bigger setting and go to a private practice, it's really about really cultivating a custom strategy for them, creating a brand voice for them that's going to stand on its own, as well as be able to help them find their ideal patient. Because what I find is that a lot of my clients have been burnt out by the health care system, and they really leave to start their own practice for multiple reasons, the primary reason being they want to provide their patients with the utmost and highest quality level of care, and they're just not able to do that in the settings that they're in. So being able to really work with them one on one, hear their mission, really address everything that they want and want to have their patients get out of their practice, and then it's my job with my team to really help orchestrate that, whatever the timeline may be. Some of my clients, like yourself, come with shorter timelines of launching the practice, and that's really where I think having a consultant comes into play, because we know exactly what you need to set up the practice from A to Z, and it really makes your job a lot easier, so that you can just open up and be able to do what you love right away.

Pearlman: It's definitely not your first rodeo, but for all of us starting our own practices, it is our first rodeo. And often, we don't even know where the rodeo location is, and even how to get there, let alone participate in the rodeo. Te next thing I want to address is, I want our viewers to know who you are, so if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself and sharing some of the things that perhaps inspired you to start consulting with doctors who wanted to start their own practice.

Ching: I've always been in marketing and management for such a long time when I worked in corporate, so what I was able to see working in plastic surgery in Beverly Hills is that, in this industry, there were a lot of providers during that time, which was about 5 years ago, that really wanted to branch on their own, but they didn't necessarily feel ready, and they didn't necessarily feel that they had the tools in their toolbox to go on their own. So it was almost like their skills and their patient following is there, but they just don't have that support, someone that can really help them to really orchestrate a lot of things. So I decided to go solo and start my consulting company about 5 years ago, really filling the void of the Beverly Hills plastic surgery market. I obtained clients quite quickly. As it progressed, I've been able to now expand into all these different cash pay verticals. We have clients in dermatology, urology, all the way into different types of verticals. The common denominator that I find is my passion is I really have a passion for growing private practice that's private pay. Not that there's anything wrong with the insurance model, but I just find that what really makes my clients shine and makes my work shine is really creating that elevated experience, that elevated practice brand that ultimately drives patients from around the world to really seek out my clients and their practice.

Pearlman: I remember when we were getting ready to open, and you asked, "who was going to offer the patient water when they walk in?" It was something that didn't even cross my mind. It was like, offer the patient water? Are we using water bottles? Are we getting a nice water machine? Your team really thinks about all of those very fine details, because the devil is in the details, especially when creating these very high-level and high-touch spaces and practices.

Ching: That's really how it started, and, it's really grown, and now we have over 35 clients nationwide. I love what I do. My team loves what they do, and it's such a awesome journey to be along with the growth journey of these practices, including your practice, Dr. Amy. It's really rewarding. I love it.

Pearlman: Ten years ago, did you see this in your future?

Ching: I definitely didn't see the scale and magnitude in the future as fast as it grew. But I think that now, with all the changes of just how much we've grown and how much more we can handle, it's definitely something that's scaled over time. But again, I think that one of the things is that it's always going to start with my initial bespoke custom plan for every practice. You know me; I don't believe in anything cookie cutter. What I pitch for one practice is not what I would definitely replicate for another practice in the same vertical. I think that it's so important right now to really, really stand as your own brand and really, really have a cultivated patient population that you're after. I think in prior times, the market cultivates itself. The patient population cultivates itself. But now I'm able to actually work with my clients and say, "Okay, do you want this cohort? Let's go find it." And so that's really what brings me the most joy, and what I really wake up every day loving to do. I love the opportunity.

This transcription was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.