The following transcript has been edited for clarity. Jen Werther: Welcome to Deep: The Health Marketing Podcast. I'm Jen Werther, and we're kicking off season three. I'm so excited to be here. This past March at Digipharma Connect, I sat in on a panel I haven't been able to shake. A patient was sharing his experience with concierge medicine. Healthcare is personal, and his story rang true. What stuck with me is that he didn't trust doctors at all. He hadn't been to a doctor since his pediatrician and avoided them at all costs. As I sat there, it hit close to home. My husband feels the same way. He has heart disease and he's not a fan of doctors. He does see a cardiologist, but he doesn't have a primary care physician. So today we're starting a little differently: we're bringing the patient to the podcast. Joe was the one on stage at Digipharma, and after his panel I ran up to him and said, "We have to talk." I wanted to bring him on the podcast, and I wanted to learn more about his experience with concierge medicine: how it's changed the way he thinks about his health, how his health is managed today, and what proactive care can actually look like. Joe O'Connor, thanks so much for joining the podcast. As you'll recall, I was that crazy lady who came up to you after your panel and said, "Your story resonated so much. My husband doesn't trust the healthcare system. He hates going to the doctor. He's got heart disease." I'm thrilled to have you here. Joe O'Connor: Thank you so much for having me. Getting off the stage in Nashville and having someone come up and say my story resonated with them meant a lot. I got a kick out of it. I think my experience is similar to a lot of people's relationship with the healthcare system, so it was great to see that it mattered to someone. JW: It totally mattered. I still think about it and talk about it with my husband all the time. Since you don't come from healthcare marketing like your wife does, let's get to know Joe. Tell me a little about yourself. JO: Sure. I'm 39. I own and operate a fractional CFO services firm based in the Capital Region of upstate New York. I'm married to my wife, Sarah, and I'm the proud parent of two kids: Ella is five and Danny is about a year and a half. JW: Wow. So you're in the thick of it. JO: Yes, we're going through it. JW: My two girls are seven and almost 10, and I feel like we're still in the thick of it, just a different thick. JO: I hear the problems get more expensive. JW: They do. Little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems. In a couple of years you're going to say, "Jen, I totally get it." So what made you decide to go to a concierge doctor? It's fairly new. You don't hear about concierge doctors all the time. What led you to this practice? JO: For most of my adult life, my healthcare has been very transactional. The line I use is that I didn't have a primary care doctor from my pediatrician until about a year ago. I provide fractional CFO services for small and medium-sized businesses. I had a business relationship with someone who was starting a concierge practice, and we were bartering: she'd give me an IV, and I'd help her get her books organized. To get an IV, you have to get your blood pressure taken. The first or second time I went in, my blood pressure was running pretty high. I came back a month later and it was even higher. I've got my own business, young kids, a lot going on, and I never thought much about my own health. Seeing my blood pressure climb started a more involved dialogue with her, and that's how it began. My experience has been great. I meet with her once a month. We've established baselines and talked a lot about my life as well as my health. The goal is to be forward-looking rather than reactive. Historically, I'd get sick, and either I'd get through it or I'd go to a walk-in clinic, get a Z-Pak and keep moving without ever looking under the hood. This has been a real change for me, and I think it's setting me up for long-term success. JW: In the past, when you never went to doctors, was it because you were scared? Did you have a bad experience? Where did that come from? JO: It wasn't so much fear of the healthcare system. It felt really disjointed. And I was a guy in my 20s and 30s without any clear red flags. I've put on some weight over the last few years, but nothing was clearly wrong in how I operated day to day. I lift five to six days a week. I probably don't do as much cardio as I should, but I've been active. My thinking was: control your eating, keep going to the gym, nothing's wrong on the surface, you're good to go. JW: Right. Why go looking for something? JO: Exactly. JW: Funny enough, I went to get health insurance and my blood pressure was up. I had no idea. My husband said, "You'd better start checking your blood pressure." I checked it that weekend and it was still high, and I'd been getting headaches. So I also have high blood pressure, and with little ones at home, the weight gain is inevitable. Tell me about that first interaction with the concierge doctor. You'd been to walk-ins for a Z-Pak, and to a pediatrician long ago. What felt so different about concierge care versus a regular primary care physician? JO: First and foremost, the amount of time I spent with my new primary care doctor. We talked about my health, but also my life and all the factors that could be affecting my health. I had recently started a business, I have two young kids and I'm very busy, so I live what could be considered a high-stress life. She took that into account instead of saying, "Get on the scale, here's your BMI," and disregarding the fact that I'm in the gym five or six days a week and a pretty built guy. That full-picture approach resonated with me, along with her saying, "This is the first of many conversations." It gave me comfort that we were building a game plan, not a one-time thing, and that we'd work through it over an extended period. I'm 39 now. My parents are getting older and have had their own health issues come up. On the other end, my kids are healthy, but young kids get sick all the time. It hit me that I needed to be proactive and stay on top of my health, because I have to take care of people on both ends of the spectrum. My health needs to be in order so I can support everyone else. JW: You're looking back at genetics, but you're also looking forward, for yourself and your kids. JO: Yes. JW: When we spoke before, I mentioned that my husband's brother died of a massive heart attack three weeks shy of 45. He has three kids. Your story resonated when I think about genetics and how scary it is. I believe your dad had a heart scare, which led Sarah, who we'll talk to later in the episode, to say, "Now's the time to take a look at this." I'm sure this story will resonate with a lot of people, not just me. When you think about m...
