Ep 144: Being a Fertility and Reproductive Health Influencer with Dr. Lucky Sekhon

Medical professionals have a duty to educate their patients and help them learn how to advocate for themselves and a great platform to do so is social media! Today on Fertility Forward we welcome Dr. Lucky Sekhon back to discuss her experience as a reproductive health influencer. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about what inspired Dr. Sekhon to become an influencer, how she leverages pop culture to educate her audience, the kind of content she produces, how she balances it with her job and family, and so much more! We then delve into the importance of empowering our patients to advocate for themselves before she tells us how we can separate valid and trustworthy medical advice on social media from nonsense. Finally, Dr. Sekhon shares her goals and why she is grateful that her amazing presence on social media came out of the dark times of the pandemic. Thanks for listening in! 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hi everyone. We are Rena and Dara and welcome to Fertility Ford . We are part of the wellness team at RMA of New York, a fertility clinic affiliated with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Our Fertility Ford Podcast brings together advice from medical professionals, mental health specialists, wellness experts, and patients because knowledge is power and you are your own best advocate

Speaker 2: 0:36

As a reproductive endocrinologist and a current influencer who's created a cult following on social media with over 60,000 followers on Instagram and a large following on TikTok with the handle at Dr . Lucky Egg . We are speaking again today with our fabulous reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Lucky Sicon , who works at RMA with us and we'll be speaking today on all things social media. So happy to have you on.

Speaker 3: 1:07

Thank you for having me. This is such a fun topic. We've never talked about this. We've talked about a lot of things like PCOS and fertility mis , but we've never done this topic and it's definitely how I've been spending a lot of my free time.

Speaker 1: 1:19

I'm super psyched and also very appropriate. We have decided to start recording the video portion of our podcast as well. And so I feel it is only appropriate that you are our first guest that we record video also because your face is now so out there. And I thought I had a Dr . Lucky Siding yesterday at a children's birthday party. I did a double take. I thought it was you <laugh> . So you're out there, everyone knows you. It's , it's really amazing to have such a reputable source of information and someone who really cares, you know, spending so much time putting it out there.

Speaker 3: 1:57

Well, thank you so much for saying that. I feel like both of you are formative to my journey, whether you know it or not, because I would say before 2019, I really never thought of myself as someone who had put themselves out there as a physician and you know, be on social media in that capacity. I had a private Instagram account and I feel like I started doing a lot of informational type events and would collaborate with both of you often. Like we did that PCOS event. I feel like there were really great talks and webinars that we gave and that to me was like my informal training because that really is where you are taking complicated topics and then distilling them in an easy to understand way and having these cross conversations. And I then discovered Instagram, which I'm sure we'll talk about how that all happened, but it's such a great way, such a great forum to talk with other experts and share good information and make people laugh because obviously what we do day in day out of treating and helping people with infertility, it can be really dark, it can be depressing at times. And so I think laughter is the best medicine <laugh>. That's cheesy but true. But yeah, I feel like I got my confidence to do things like that actually from having events and collaborating with experts like you guys. So thank you .

Speaker 1: 3:18

Oh, that's so kind and what an honor . It's true part of your journey. I think it's really, really inspiring as someone that is very reticent to put themselves out there. I get so much inspiration from you. I think it's really brave. Mm-Hmm , <affirmative> . So what was sort of the catalyst for you to kind of start doing it? You know, did you have this vision of like, I wanna be an influencer or it sort of just struck organically it

Speaker 3: 3:43

<crosstalk> ? No, I , I hate to sound judgmental , but I actually was kind of judgy about it. Like I saw other people doing it starting probably in like 2016, 2017. And it felt cringey, it felt unprofessional. It just was like, what are they doing? Like I would never do that. That's how I felt truly. And then I've done a complete 180. I think for me the pandemic 2020 in New York City was like the biggest catalyst because I was used to doing a lot of in-person events. Like I was someone that was like always going in to give talks and be on panels and then when all of that went away and shut down, I think I was kind of searching for other ways to connect. And then I saw a lot of people doing like Instagram lives. And so I started that series, asked Dr. Lucky and both of you were guests on it and it was so like sometimes some of those videos are still on my account. Like if you scroll way down to the beginning and it's a little like cringe because I didn't know I wasn't as comfortable 'cause I was just doing it for the first time. But that's where I really got this idea of like, you can still connect with people even though we're in this crazy dark, isolating time. Plus I was pregnant so I was consuming a lot of social media as a patient because there was very little information about the effect of covid in pregnancy. And I started looking at what doctors were saying, who were on the front lines, who were treating pregnant women who were catching covid . Like I was getting real time information and then I realized, well my patients are probably using this as a vehicle for information as well. And so I started vocalizing my thoughts on different issues and recognizing that patients of mine were coming to me and saying, oh, I already know what your thoughts are on X, Y, and Z because I watched your videos and I'm like, you watched my videos videos and we don't even need to go over all that because you are so selfishly. I was like, this is making my day to day even more efficient because now I'm treating this like a newsletter where I'm blasting out information that I'm having these, you know, repetitive conversations day to day . But now it's just becoming an established like this is what Dr . Sicon thinks about, you know, this particular topic. And as you both know, in fertility medicine there's always, you know, new tests, new treatments, new angles on things and sometimes the data shows these things to be effective and they stick around and it's like an advancement in our field. And a lot of times it's like okay, this didn't really pan out and people are making real time decisions without having all of the necessary data because that's just how our field is. There's a lot we still don't know. And so I kind of drew that parallel between my experience with as a patient with Covid mm-Hmm . And how it is infertility medicine And it's really been such an effective tool. It's changed my career, it's changed the way I feel about medicine. It feels like I've taken some power back because I used to always be so frustrated with all the misinformation and the crap that I felt women were being fed just so that certain people or companies could make money and capitalize off of them. And we as women are always going to be a vulnerable population. We're understudied the study , the research for women's health issues is chronically underfunded and it's very easy to take topics like fertility and pregnancy and help drive decisions that people make of where they spend their money based on fear. And so I do think it's so imperative, I, I hope more and more doctors feel it's not cringey and put themselves out there because we need reasonable voices of truth where we're actually telling people the right information and it's not based on us trying to make money off of them .

Speaker 1: 7:19

Wow, that's amazing. What an amazing journey and answer and insight into that and you know, your own passion of of why you wanna put it out there. I think that's incredible and women are so lucky.

Speaker 2: 7:33

I was gonna second that like so beautifully said. You really did capture that There's so much out there and I think a lot of times people can feel so lost. And I love that you share your voice in real time so you know, instead of waiting for an event to happen to really share your opinion, you know, if you see something in the news, you're able to report and share. Um mm-hmm <affirmative> your opinion in real time . So I think that's great. Are there any highlights of reels that you find that you enjoyed and also that you got some really good feedback on?

Speaker 3: 8:06

Yeah, I mean there's so many different things. I always like to talk about pop culture and as asinine as it might seem like anytime the Kardashians bring up something about their egg freezing experience, surrogacy experience, anything Kardashians related, it's like those reels go viral and it's like I think that's a litmus test or some sort of indicator about society. Like are they are now like version of the Kennedys, I have no idea. But they are automatically, if the name Kardashian is attached to a topic like that is an opportunity to reach a large broad audience and broadcast that piece of information . So I use those things, those opportunities as like vehicles, right? It never fails. So yeah, I did a post talking about Courtney Kardashian saying you know, she did egg freezing I think at age 39 and froze like seven eggs and she was very negative about it, about her experience. And then I kind of broke it down for everyone and said look like I don't know what kind of advice she had or received and you know, she's clearly someone with endless amounts of resources. She could have done more cycles, tried to accumulate more eggs. Like just talking through, you know, why I wasn't surprised that that didn't work. And what I think people need to understand about egg freezing, that the inefficiency of reproduction doesn't magically go away because you froze your eggs. You need to make sure that you have enough and it's never a guarantee and patients need to be aware of that upfront and really have a clear understanding of the numbers . So I used it as an educational moment and before Instagram and all of that came along like I would just see these things and people would send them to me, they would email the links to me and I would just be annoyed and now it feels like I can do something about it and I can turn it around. And so those types of reels I think always do well. I think there's really a couple of main themes in the content that I produce. It's like dispelling those misconceptions or myths highlighting, you know, certain news stories and explaining like the actual data behind it. 'cause you'll see a lot of like New York Times headlines about this paper on egg freezing or IVF, but then really like going beyond the headline and saying like this is what they got right, this is what they got wrong. And helping people to understand how to actually interpret the data, which a lot of people don't know. And that took years of training for me to really do and learn how to do it properly. Then just being funny and silly and making people laugh, right? A lot of times like there's no point to the post other than I found like a funny idea, a soundbite that I thought would just like lighten the mood. And then also like providing emotional support and a sense of comradery . And a lot of times that happens in the comment section. So like prompting people to share their experience whether they agree with what I'm saying in the post or disagree and having a lot of really good discussion amongst the community. It's like forming a community and really fostering that and engaging with everyone.

Speaker 1: 11:01

I think it's amazing . I think you have a great balance and I think, you know so many people they do, you know, they turn to celebrities, right? And I think celebrities think maybe they're being helpful by sharing their stories, but it's so one sided and yeah.

Speaker 3: 11:17

And a lot of times content and headlines are always going to sell more if they're salacious and extreme like polarized, right? The truth is usually boring and not glamorous. It's always like in between and balanced but that's not what people want to consume. And people that publish the headlines or produce reality shows, they know that. And so it's always better to have the extreme view and unfortunately I don't think society is aware that that's how it works. Like even influencers when they cover their experience going through egg freezing or IVF, it's usually a little bit more dramatic than what we see in our day-to-day with treating patients because it's content,

Speaker 2: 11:59

Right? Well you're great I think at like bringing light to some boring topics like making jokes or putting cute music. So I think you could still share important content that may not be super interesting and adjust more in a creative fun, lighthearted way.

Speaker 3: 12:16

Yeah . You almost have to fool people. Oh yeah, for sure. And sometimes it's really scientific but I feel like you have to fool the person into watching your video and then before they know it, they've read the caption and they've learned, they've learned so much but they didn't even realize that they learned it. So it's like kind of learning how to be an educator. But you know, as doctors we should be educating our patients. Every consult is like a little mini biology lesson if you're being comprehensive. So this is just doing it on a larger scale. And I wanna say that this is completely selfless but it's not. It's selfish too because I like to be efficient and nothing thrills me more than when a new patient comes in and they've been following me and they kind of already understand so much. It makes the conversation so much more high level because they're coming in here, not starting here and now we can talk about these issues up here, if that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 13:04

I'm sure there's so many questions that they don't even know what to ask. And then seeing your videos, it probably helps answer a lot of these, those questions that wouldn't have been asked.

Speaker 3: 13:14

Exactly, exactly. And I think it's also prompting people to think differently about their care, to better advocate for themselves. Like I've talked a lot about second opinions 'cause patients sometimes will be afraid they'll apologize about asking questions and I'm like, this is your follow-up appointment. This is why you came. Like why don't apologize and don't apologize or feel bad for your doctor if you do go to get a second opinion because you owe that to yourself. Right. I will actively encourage my patients to get a second opinion if I feel like there's a little hesitancy with the plan or they're just not feeling completely settled with it. And I'll still be confident that it's the right plan, but I want them to feel confident. Right. And so I think giving patients that empowerment to advocate for themselves and to stop thinking about everyone else, like really putting themselves first.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Absolutely. I know, I see that all the time. I work with people a lot on that about using your voice or getting a second opinion. You know, I think people are, they're so afraid that it will offend the physician.

Speaker 3: 14:18

Yeah. We're like, this is what we do. We understand, we see second opinions. And I think when your doctor recommends it or mentions it, it probably sets a lot of people free because they're like, okay. Like it's not like I something that I have to hide 'cause I don't want them to hide it. I want them to come back with the list of recommendations that are outside the scope of what we discuss and then we can talk about whether we agree and kind of come to a consensus.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Absolutely. I love too how you mix your personal life into this little, I think it really humanizes you and not only, of course your kids adorable, but I personally find Bobby hilarious

Speaker 3: 14:52

<laugh> . Yeah, he's two of you bantering my muse. <laugh> .

Speaker 1: 14:55

Yeah . He's so funny. So, and I feel like it just really humanizes you, but my question just as another working mom is , I mean, how do you find time for this? I , I feel like people must ask you that all the time. That's ,

Speaker 3: 15:07

I mean, I'll be very honest with you, it's become a little bit of an addiction. Like I woke up this morning and I was like, ugh , the last time I posted something educational or like a reel was like three or four days ago. And that to me feels like a long time <laugh>. I know that sounds so crazy. It was .

Speaker 1: 15:25

It was the ,

Speaker 3: 15:25

I know, I know. But it's like starts to make me feel like, no, no I wanna do something else. Like I feel like it's like an organism, it's almost like a plant that I'm watering. And so I don't want it to go stagnant for too long and I, it always makes me feel good to be like producing. I think that's just who I am. This is who I am as a person and now it's just like manifested in terms of my social media presence. So sometimes I'm like, oh man, like I just wanna sit on the couch at the end of a long day and like watch Netflix. But there's this burden of like, no, you have all these ideas and things that you were supposed to work on. And so I do a lot of it after my kids go to bed at night, which means I probably go to bed later than I should Not. Good. I know Rena , you always lecturing me about I know you don filling my own cup. I know. And then I do a lot on my commute so I'll shoot a video and I wish I could say, even though my husband for my birthday bought me all of the tools, I like leave them at home. I don't bring 'em to the office. So I still will like often fill a cup of water and lean this like, and have it on a stack of books. I'll shoot a video that is just unedited five minutes of me answering a question that I think is important right at the end of the day. And then I'll take it and it'll be, I'll have to just be good in its first form. And then on the subway I use a program called Cap Cut and I edit it and I put the captions on and by the time I'm walking from the subway to my apartment, it's posted.

Speaker 1: 16:50

Wow. That's so efficient.

Speaker 3: 16:52

Yeah. Sometimes I'll save the draft and then I'll write the caption at night after my kids go to bed. So I'm not spending any time outside of my personal time with my family. 'cause that's a huge priority and I'm definitely not cutting into my day with patient care. I have to make it work in the time where I couldn't be doing anything else anyway. And, and that's my motto and that has made me get really efficient, really fast. And luckily I have like a 25 minute commute so it works.

Speaker 1: 17:17

That's amazing . That's perfect . To manage what a gift to be so like high on your work that you wanna be doing it all the time. I mean that's a real blessing, you know? You know they don't get that and that's really amazing . Yeah. But

Speaker 3: 17:30

It's gratifying. A lot of doctors talk about burnout and I think creativity can be the antidote for burnout. So if you find something that, even if it's not work related and it's not social media for me, it like all melds together. But if you find something that you enjoy that's like a creative outlet, you're gonna feel less burnt out whatever the source of burnout is. I, I think it's definitely a way to help.

Speaker 1: 17:51

Yeah. I think , I mean passionate about , yeah. And all three of us know, you know, client facing , patient facing interaction. It is, it's a lot. We give so much of ourselves and you can't do that a hundred percent of the time. You have to balance that . Yeah . With things ,

Speaker 3: 18:05

For me it's a form of therapy. It's like the sources of frustration, the things that really eat away at my soul and bother me. I get to like work out those issues in the form of a post.

Speaker 1: 18:15

I love that <laugh>. That's a great way of looking at it. Do you have goals for yourself? Do you now have sort of, I don't know, any goals for followers or where you wanna take this or you're kind of just riding the wave ?

Speaker 3: 18:26

I mean I think when people say like it doesn't matter how many people follow you, they're lying. I think that it is motivating because it's not about the ego, it's not about saying like you have so many followers. For me it's more that when I first started sharing and I had only hundreds of followers, it felt less gratifying to me because I'm like, am I just screaming into the void who's listening? And I think the more people are listening the more motivated you are to keep doing it. And so it is also positive reinforcement that you're on the right track and that your messages are resonating because your community is growing. And like I said, it's like an organism, right? Like you wanna keep growing and expanding and so yeah of course like I wanna keep growing the community bigger. My goal is always consistency and just like being able to show up in whatever way is possible depending on my schedule that week. But a lot of great opportunities are coming from it. Like I've gotten a lot of media opportunities, which is like a new interesting, fun challenge that is an adrenaline rush. Like I always joke that some people jump out of planes to feel things and I'm like, I like to go on live television <laugh> for like five minutes, but it is exhilarating. So I think I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie and I'm getting addicted to those types of fun opportunities where I'm getting pushed outta my comfort zone and I believe it . That's

Speaker 1: 19:45

A healthy way of doing

Speaker 3: 19:47

It . Yeah. If you're not scared or feeling nervous then maybe you're not growing. Like I feel like you have to step outta your comfort zone and push yourself a little bit. And that's also another way to just continue to feel passionate and engaged and excited about, you know, Monday and starting the week like going to work. So I think my goals are to continue to find opportunities like that. Like I'd love to maybe one day be a health correspondent, right ? A fertility book. Like doing things that are opportunities that can spring from this amazing thing that I've discovered on Instagram. Instagram is really my main love. I feel like TikTok, I really need to figure out if it doesn't get banned, it's like kind of hard. I'm like is it gonna get banned or do I need to continue to do TikTok ? I'm not as good at TikTok. It's harder to figure out the features and the demographic is just very different. It's like, yeah , what resonates on Instagram? Sometimes it like completely flops on TikTok. No one cares, no one watches it. So I have to figure that out. But my Instagram is at Lucky Sicon and that's where you're gonna see me showing up the most

Speaker 2: 20:52

Disagree with you. I loved, I was watching, I was telling, you know Dr. Sicon right before that we were, you know, that I was on that like scroll of TikTok last night on her feed and like being a fan of the Bachelor.

Speaker 3: 21:06

Oh yeah ,

Speaker 2: 21:06

Endometriosis. I was like that was a phenomenal Yeah . Uh , you know,

Speaker 3: 21:10

I try to cross post , I like do a lot of the same videos, which is

Speaker 2: 21:14

Actually a good way to do that. Or even like your Oz post, which I learned so much from my question to you is how do people, so you put out such great content and you really do discern fact from fiction, but when people are scrolling and going through, you know, a variety of different content that may not just be yours Mm-Hmm <affirmative> , how can they really tell if it's something that they should trust or something that they should just throw out the window?

Speaker 3: 21:39

I mean I always put a disclaimer when I'm doing like Q and As and whatnot, that I'm not your doctor. Please know that this is educational and this is not personalized medical advice. So that's important. It is hard to discern and understand who you can trust. So my point is don't trust blindly what you see on social media. Even if it's what I'm saying. Like I think it applies evenly to everyone. Take what I'm saying and take it to your doctor and have a discussion with them. Right. But I think some key red flags to look out for is if someone tells you something and then they follow it up with Lincoln bio to sign up for my course or buy my supplements, it's like, okay, I'm sorry but automatically if you're trying to sell me something that immediately invalidates everything that you said. Right? It's just like, I don't mean to sound cynical or suspicious, but that's just common sense 1 0 1. I also think you gotta look at people's credentials. Mm-Hmm . Like a lot of times you'll see someone that has no credentials. They may be just went through fertility treatment themselves, but they have no formal training in nutrition, mental health or you know, the medical aspects of things. And they have this big account with huge followers that should not be the distraction. Someone can have a huge account with a lot of followers, which either they bought or maybe they had from a different avenue or maybe they've convinced a lot of people to follow them but that doesn't make what they're saying more valid. They have no credentials or background in that subject. I would take what they say with a grain of salt, right? And look at it with a critical lens. A few red flags also are like when people start their videos with talking about how you can't trust doctors, you know, or these doctors are all using cookie cutter protocols. I have this personalized plan for you. It's like how could you have a personalized plan for me? You don't even know me. You're just someone that I randomly came across on Instagram. So I think when someone has to put down healthcare industry IVF clinics or doctors in order to prove their point, that's them pitting us, the evidence-based people against you so that they can kind of divide us and then feed you their narrative. And I feel like that's a very slick approach that I see being used all the time and I hate it. And I feel like when you say like cookie cutter protocol, it automatically makes people feel very wary and suspicious that like, oh my gosh is my doctor just using some like standard IVF protocol on me? In reality there aren't that many protocols, right? And there isn't a way to make everyone their own individualized ones. So it's just, you know, I think those are some high level things but there's so many others and there's so much marketing out there, marketing gimmicks. So if anything sounds salesy, that's also a reason to be wary.

Speaker 1: 24:25

I was saying I think those are all great points. Really important to know. I love that you don't like sell things, you're just out there information. I agree. It's very sort of shady, you know? Right. When someone tries to sell you something or I hate when people promise you that if you work with them or do whatever they're talking about that you're , it's guaranteed success. We all know this .

Speaker 3: 24:48

Oh that. Yeah. I should have named that as the first red flag <laugh> . Or when they like, you know, talk about my , I get 50 year olds pregnant, you know, you don't need your doctor and the danger in it is maybe the supplement or the tea they're telling you to consume isn't gonna kill you. It's not gonna hurt you. But what about the time wasted

Speaker 1: 25:06

Or the money

Speaker 3: 25:07

Actually Yeah, the time and the money wasted and time equals eggs, right? Like time is not on our side. And so wasting time doing a cleanse for six months before you actually start your IVF cycle and all the while your A MH and your egg quality is declining, that's not the right way to prioritize things. So I definitely think whatever you see, always question. It doesn't matter who it's coming from and talk to your actual care team in real life who are, you know , held to a different standard. You can't sue the influencer that told you to take supplements for a whole year and then go see a doctor because now you know IVF isn't successful and you wasted valuable time. You can't sue them. There's no recourse and it shouldn't be about litigation and all that, but you know what I mean? Like they're not held to the same standard as your care team and the doctor that you signed up to actually see who's there to guide you every step of the way.

Speaker 1: 25:58

I feel like Instagram it's a great avenue of, as you sort of touched upon before, is finding out information that, oh, I didn't know that this existed. Okay let me educate myself. I found out about it on Instagram. Let me now take that information to my dietician, to my therapist, to my reproductive endocrinologist and ask them my , the trusted source that knows me, knows my body, knows all of my medical data. Ask them what they think about it. Hey, why didn't we discuss doing this protocol? Why didn't we discuss doing this test ? Yes. You know, and so that's the avenue with which to use it.

Speaker 3: 26:30

And sometimes you can find your doctors like this is like such a crazy new world that we live in. But I can't tell you the number of times patients have found me because of Instagram. But at least then you're like actually meeting in real life and seeing that this is a real person with real credentials. I don't think there's anything wrong with finding your doctor on Instagram, but it's like this is a fake virtual world where like, yes you can come across information, some of it's gonna be fake, some of it's gonna be valuable, but you need to vet it and talk to your actual doctor and someone that you see virtually on these platforms can become your real life doctor. And there's nothing wrong with that. But again, you're still taking that extra step and going from the app to reality and that's really important. I think too many people are getting their information off of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and then just self-treating.

Speaker 1: 27:21

Right . Good point. I was gonna ask, have you found sort of an uptick in either patients or patients that now travel to see you from outside of New York because they found you on Instagram? Yeah , I know that people that have traveled to see you.

Speaker 3: 27:35

Yeah. And it's really cool. I think that that's so awesome . Awesome . But my main guiding principle is that's not the goal. That was like a byproduct. Right? And I talk to a lot of other positions that ask for advice or are interested in, you know, whether they wanna have a voice on social media. And I always say to them, don't do this as a form of marketing. Don't do this with the goal of I wanna fill more slots on my calendar. Have a pure intention and do it for the right reasons. If you do the right thing and you do your best and you try to help people, then yes other forms of success will follow because patients want to find a doctor that cares about them and is gonna do a good job if you do something with the intention of I just wanna be more popular, more busy, I want a lot of followers that's gonna show through. That's the thing I do like about social media and, and the way the platform presents itself is I feel like you can tell a lot about a person. Like you get a sense of why they're there, what their goals are, what they're trying to do very quickly. And, and it's very hard to mask if someone's there because they're trying to market themselves. Like it's gonna be very obvious. But if someone's there because they wanna educate and they wanna be a balanced voice of reason, that's evidence-based, you're gonna know that too. And I don't think there's anything wrong with like, there's been a lot of pros for me, right? Like it's made my day-to-day more efficient. It's like my own little newsletter and it's a great way to disseminate information on mass. And I've gotten great, you know, new I've met friends and made contacts and gotten, you know, media opportunities. It's been wonderful. And also, you know, more and more patients wanna come see me and that's great too. But the goal is always the same. And I think you just have to kind of stick to your guiding principle and not veer off of that path. And that's the best advice I can give anyone because that's never led me astray. And patients often will say like, I'm really happy to know that you're not trying to sell me supplements or do this or that. It matters. Integrity matters. Uh , you can't put a price on that and it's not worth it for me to make a few thousand dollars off of like TikTok shop to sell products when I have a day job. I don't need to do that. I don't wanna sell myself short, sell my patients short. I don't wanna put my integrity at risk.

Speaker 1: 29:54

I love that. I mean that you're so genuine about it . And I think that's exactly what people respond to. They

Speaker 2: 29:59

Could tell and it shows, it shows in your posts how genuine you are and how passionate you are. And I think when you're passionate about something , um, again, it shows through and that's why people gravitate towards you. You're passionate, you love what you do and you disseminate quality content with a twist of like, I love it . The the sarcasm, the humor, the lightness because you know, this could be quite a heavy topic to speak about and you have a really great way of lightening it up but still making it really educational for your listeners.

Speaker 3: 30:31

Thank you. Sometimes it's scary. Sometimes I'm like ugh . 'cause like you don't always have good feedback, right? It's not all sunshine and roses. That's why sometimes people, sometimes people will come after you 'cause they're like threatened by the fact that you said, you know, this supplement, which is their main way of making an income on social media is maybe not as effective as they're claiming. And even without calling them out specifically, like people have attacked me and even like sharing your personal life, like I just don't have enough bandwidth to have a separate account for my personal life and I don't have family in New York and I have a lot of friends in other places and I wanna be able to stay up to date with everyone and share my life. And so I just think it's easier for me to have it all on one place and I'm kind of an open book, but I often am , I'm constantly reevaluating. Like I sometimes feel bad like maybe I shouldn't be sharing my kids because now my account is bigger and who knows who's consuming what and maybe you know, they should have to consent to being shown on my account. And I don't know, these are things I grapple with. These are human real concerns. Like I don't know the perfect way to do things and I'm always kind of adjusting and learning and sometimes having some bad experiences and then saying, okay, maybe I need to like, you know, think about how I'm gonna approach this issue. So I'm learning and evolving every day just like the rest of us.

Speaker 2: 31:52

You made a good point that not everyone may like your content and that's okay too. Yes . But I think as music comes from a genuine place, I mean I personally love it. I'm like, oh she went on a bike tour yesterday, maybe I'll do that next year. Like you totally inspired me. I'm like, that sounds like a great rate . That's

Speaker 3: 32:09

So cool. Totally

Speaker 2: 32:09

Doable. If it wasn't raining, I would've been there.

Speaker 3: 32:12

By the way, on my way there, I actually came in to do an egg retrieval in the morning, which was a crazy start to the day. And then I hopped on the subway and at like 8:00 AM someone came up to me and was like, are you Dr . Lucky I follow you on Instagram? And I was like, really? Oh my god. And it was crazy. She said to me, this happened yesterday. She said, I just want you to know that I decided to donate my eggs thanks to your posts about egg donation. And it was such a fulfilling thing. I never would've thought about it or known about it and I just wanna thank you. And I was like, oh my God. It just gave me like such a great feeling, a good start to the day and moments like that I'm like okay good. I'm glad I'm doing this. It just motivates me even more.

Speaker 1: 32:54

That's incredible.

Speaker 3: 32:56

Yeah, it was a really cool moment.

Speaker 1: 32:59

Mm , that's amazing. Well I feel like that's a great way maybe to wrap this. I'm so happy to have you on to share, you know, sort of how this all came to be. It's been really amazing and inspiring to watch you and I'm so proud to work with you and you know, really excited to keep watching your stories and see where you take this. I feel like the world really is your oyster.

Speaker 3: 33:22

Thank you. I think one of my biggest goals is, you know, our group of physicians is so amazing and I actually think all of them could have killer accounts 'cause they all have great personalities. They're all just so smart and have something different to bring to the table. So I'm hoping to collaborate with more of our physicians on our team and bring them outta their shells because trust me, back in like 20 17, 20 18, if you told me this was going to be the future and I'd be doing this, I would never have believed you. So if I can do it, any of them can definitely do it probably better than me. So that's another one of the big goals. So stay tuned for that.

Speaker 1: 34:00

Okay. Works good .

Speaker 3: 34:01

<laugh>

Speaker 1: 34:02

Works good . Well thank you so much for coming on and you are a recurring guest. I know we will have you on again very soon and you know anyone listening, I'm sure you know you said where to find you. It's very easy to find you. So everyone you know follow Dr. Lucky , she is amazing. We're so lucky to work with her

Speaker 3: 34:18

And say hi on the subway. <laugh>.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Yes . Give a shout out .

Speaker 3: 34:22

This is great. Thank you guys so much for having me. And I feel honored to be the inaugural guest for the first video recorded podcast. I'm excited to see how it all turns out.

Speaker 1: 34:32

Yeah , well we wouldn't have it any other way. <laugh> and the way we like to end our podcasts are something that we are grateful for. So something that you are grateful for today.

Speaker 3: 34:42

Well maybe it's redundant, but I am so grateful I'm not, you know, happy that the pandemic happened, obviously, but I'm so grateful that in such a dark, isolating, scary time for myself personally and professionally, I'm so grateful that this came out of all of that. I don't think if the pandemic didn't happen, I don't think we'd be sitting here having this conversation. I would've just continued on business as usual . So I'm grateful that something amazing, a wonderful tool that's changed my life. It's changed the way I think about patient care and communication. It's changed the way I feel about my profession. It's given me a voice. It's given me a feeling of power over things that used to frustrate and bother me in our field. I'm so happy for the connections I've made. It's just like an amazing thing that really changed the trajectory of my career and I'm so grateful that I stumbled upon that. And I'm grateful for colleagues like you , um, that are, you know, both involved. And I feel like this podcast is like a post pandemic production. Mm-Hmm . Right.

Speaker 1: 35:49

No, we started at pre , we started right

Speaker 2: 35:51

Before. Right

Speaker 3: 35:52

Before . I know. But I feel like podcasting blew up. So like I'm really grateful that you guys have been able to continue this though. Like you , you started and you've just continued to churn out episode after episode and bringing in all of the expert voices and you're becoming a really trusted resource and all encompassing, like my patients come to me all the time saying like, I saw that episode that they talked about, you know, this study or you know, their egg freezing episode where they talked to this doctor and it's wonderful. It's just like adds to the tools we're giving our patients. So thank you for everything you guys are doing.

Speaker 1: 36:28

I love that makes me so happy. 'cause that's what this is here for . So Mm-Hmm

Speaker 2: 36:31

<affirmative> . And I love how she took something negative and switch it to something positive. It's true. You know, that was definitely a challenging time, but there was so much that was good that came out of it. And how you use something so challenging towards something so positive. It's really inspiring for me.

Speaker 1: 36:52

Yeah . Uh , there you say your gratitude

Speaker 2: 36:54

Is , um, I was gonna say that I'm grateful for your inspiration. Like I think our podcast is fabulous, but I think it really is kind of giving me some ideas of how I can best share my love and my passions with the world. I appreciate that. It's funny , before I was thinking I'm like, I I am also grateful <laugh> for having a good night's sleep.

Speaker 3: 37:15

Yes .

Speaker 2: 37:16

I have not slept well in a while and I speak so much about the importance of going to bed early and having good sleep hygiene. I know and know last night the stars aligned. I woke up feeling refreshed for the first time in a while . So I have to give a shout out to, you know, good sleep

Speaker 1: 37:31

To the god all that . I love that.

Speaker 2: 37:34

What about you ?

Speaker 1: 37:35

She asked me to do an Instagram video live the other day and she's like, can we start at like nine? And I was like, what ? No ,

Speaker 3: 37:42

I know .

Speaker 1: 37:43

But for you I'll stay up . It is , it's great though. It's hard to get everything done. I would say, you know, I'd sort of piggyback on the idea of something negative turning into something positive. You know, I think that's the order of the universe, you know? Yeah. Unless sort of something bad happens, then nothing good can come outta it. So I would just say I've been sort of dealing with some things the past year that we're not super great in my life. But to be on the other side of them, I'm really grateful for the experience because I feel I've grown tremendously as a person. And you know, it's not the easy times in life we grow from, it's the challenges. And I know all three of us have dealt with a lot of challenges and I mean, look, we've all sort of turned our fertility challenges into, you know, a , a career and that's amazing. So it's not about like, why is this happening to me? It's what can I learn from this? So be on the other side of that . What

Speaker 2: 38:31

Happening to you and for you.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Exactly. Exactly. I love that. So thank you so much for coming on. We are super excited to share this. As usual. Anyone if they have questions, anything they know where to reach us to reach you. And thank you so much. It

Speaker 3: 38:47

Was so fun chatting with you guys. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 4: 38:50

Thank you so much for listening today. And always remember practice gratitude, give a little love to someone else and yourself. And remember you are not alone. Find us on Instagram at Fertility Forward . And if you're looking for more support, visit us@www.rmany.com and tune in next week for more fertility.