05.24.2023
Episode 231: Dr. Dustin Portela, Dermatologist, Skincare and Health Influencer
Summary
As a career journey podcast with a passion for all things skincare, Dr. Dustin Portela is pretty much our dream guest. Dr. Portela is a dermatologist, skincare Influencer with over 2.4 million followers on TikTok, and we were thrilled to speak with him about how he balances his social media platform with day to day life as a father of three.
Dr. Portela has a love for education which he credits to his father, a teacher, who distilled in him a love of science early on. While Dr. Portela maintains a successful dermatology practice in Idaho, he got into social media to combat misinformation during the pandemic, and his audience has grown like wildfire – it seems that smart skincare is more than just a trend.
“If I had been a garbage man, I would be on TikTok as a garbage man, showing people the crazy things that are thrown away.” Clearly no matter the subject matter, Dr. Portela aims to empower people with knowledge. He tells us that his vision with social media is to be an educator, to “take social media to under-served people.”
For more of our chat with Dr. Dustin Portela – including a story about a fortune cookie that will seriously give you chills – tune into this episode wherever you get your podcasts!
Knowing what my vision is: to be an educator, to help people.
Dr. Dustin Portela
Transcript
| Aleni Mackarey | Hi Jodi, How are you? |
| Jodi Katz | Hello Aleni It's nice to talk with you today. This is going to be a really fun episode with Dr. Dustin Portela. Did you remember meeting him at an event I do? |
| Aleni Mackarey | I think the first time I met him in person was at Last Year's melanoma research Foundation Gala in New York. Dr. Portela was on stage accepting the twenty twenty two influencer award. And I remember he brought us into the content creation process. He was filming everyone in the audience for his Tiktok recap, which is so perfect for this influencer quarter. He's he's so in tune to the space. |
| Jodi Katz | Well you know, I'm a skin care junkie. So dermatologists are the influencers in my world. And he's very impressive at what he does. |
| Jodi Katz | Yes. He really is, he gets into the team that he works with and he has them.Helping him produce all this content. And it's so cool to really take a closer look in this episode at how he brings everything to life. Right. Because when I first met him? Which was, I think. Maybe two years ago at a client event, he was really doing all this himself, right. Like the conceiving of the idea is the filming the editing the posting that money management. And I'm actually really grateful. Good to hear that he's not doing this alone anymore. Because I know how much work it is because, you know, we do this in our day jobs at base beauty. So now he has a very big team because there's just not enough hours in the day to be a practicing dermatologists and also a full-time influencer. |
| Aleni Mackarey | No. Definitely not enough hours in the day. In April at base beauty, We actually partnered with brandwatch. If anyone's familiar, this is a best in class social media monitoring tool that we've used for years and one of our senior digital marketing strategists. Emily was pointing out the importance of empowering community managers, so industry break for anyone who doesn't know there are a lot of companies that have people run their accounts. And the community managers are the ones on the ground looking for trends and being the people who really figure out what the accounts are talking about. |
| Jodi Katz | What the conversations are that are happening in those different platforms, right? So in the day, doctor Portela was his own community manager. Right commenting, responding to comments looking for trends. And now he has team members doing that for him, because this is like as close to the customer as close to the vanishing, possibly get is being the community manager. So that webinar that was super impactful, crazy, informative. And there were hundreds of companies that joined like super major companies and such is really cool. |
| Aleni Mackarey | Yeah really, really. Awesome. We got some great feedback from those that came up. And if anybody who's listening is interested in hearing more or about it, you can definitely get in touch with us. And we are happy to introduce you to the team at brandwatch or talk more about community management and social media and all that great stuff. |
| Jodi Katz | So um, in addition to being an influencer and a full-time Derm, Dr Portela is also a parent. And we did talk about like, how And when he gets his kids involved in making content and you know, also, it's tricky, right. How involved do you want be on social media or not one thing on social media? That depends upon your point of view. It's also as a parent. So that was a really interesting conversation with him. |
| Aleni Mackarey | Yeah. I'm sure you had some great insights to that aspect as well, Jody. I'm excited for everyone to hear this one. So let's get started. Dr. Dustin Portela episode. Two thirty one. |
| Jodi Katz | Welcome to where brains meet beauty. We are career journey podcast talking about what it's like to define success and reach for it in the beauty and wellness industries.Today we continue our influencer journey theme with Dr. Dustin Portela, dermatologists, skin care influencer. Major star. He's a content creator. With over two point. Four million followers on tik tok. And he covers topics to help you be beautiful inside and out. I'm excited to dive into the conversation about his career or journey from Idaho. Dermatologists to superstar influencer on episode two hundred and thirty one. Hi doctor Portela. Welcome to where brains meet beauty. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Thank you. Two hundred and thirty one episodes. That's impressive. |
| Jodi Katz | Yeah. I've been doing this for six years. That's great. Um. You know. I it feels like yesterday when my business coach recommended to me, I started a podcast and I asked him, why would I do that. And he said, because you'd like to talk to people and I'm like, okay, I'll just Google it. See how to make podcasts. And then. Yeah. Just put my head down and did it. Now it's awesome. So we're career career journey show. And I'm gonna ask you the question that I love to ask my guests because we've all been there. So go back to being like ten eleven years old. What do you want to be when you grow up? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. I mean, when I was ten or eleven years old. My um, the the majority of the time you know, thinking about career was following my Dad around. He was a school teacher. He taught science and he was a coach. You know. So I went on the road every time they had an away basketball game. And I, you know, had such such a good time doing all that. I always chi I'd of thought early on I'd end up. You know, doing being a teacher like my Dad and the coach, because, you know, that was a great world to grow up in. I got to spend a lot of time with my Dad. Yeah. But he was introducing me to science. You know, very early on. And I know that, you know, his intention was to cultivate a love for science that could take me beyond being a teacher. And I think that still being a teacher is one of the most noble professions that you could that you could do. And but he wanted, he wanted something different for me than what he was doing. And so he he tried to cultivate that in me and allow me to kind of find something else that I could be passionate about, and it kind of grew from there. |
| Jodi Katz | So while I do want to, um, give full disclosure to our fans. I've met you in real life last time I saw you is in New York at them. Melanoma. Research Foundation Gala and you. We're given a big award at that guy. I want you to tell everybody with that award. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. It was quite an honor to be able to join, um, you know, onstage with some incredible advocates against melanoma and such a great organization like the melanoma research Foundation. And you know, they granted me what they call the influencer of the year award, which really was a great honor, because, you know, getting on social media and talking about, you know, skin cancers cancer awarness and just health in general, it's nice to be recognized that it's more than just like attention-seeking, or like trying to work with amazing skincare brands. But really, the reason that I got on it originally was to combat misinformation. And I had no. You know awareness that you know, I could, um, you know, get a lot of attention or make some additional income through that. It was really a we're in a pandemic. People aren't coming in to see their dermatologist. Can we take the information to people that need it? So that was, you know, is really fun to be able to receive that award and be recognized for the things that I do that I'm that I love doing anyway. |
| Jodi Katz | I also got to meet you at your practice in Idaho, which is so cool for me. Because you know, we live in a digital marketing work world. So I get to see, you know, people we know and respect on Instagram and tik tok. But you know, hardly, ever, really in person. So so cool for me to see you. I guess we'll call it your day Job. Yeah. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | It was fun to welcome you into the practice and learn a little bit about what you and your company were doing. And just the different opportunities that we have to cross paths with each other's fun. |
| Jodi Katz | I wanna um, just acknowledge that a family listening today and they have like the most amazing handle. Their handle is not underscore a underscore dermatologists. So I wonder if this person, yeah, their friends keep turning to them for advice. And they're like, I'm not a dermatologist. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. So that individual body was actually on my podcast a few months ago. Yeah. And um, she started her account after dealing with severe eczema for a child. And so she's really adv located for herself and for her child and learned a lot along the way. So she knows a lot about caring for eczema. But she's not a dermatologist. But really a good person love that. |
| Jodi Katz | Well that's what I say to clients. I'm not a lawyer. Like like, you need to go to a lawyer. Um. Okay. Let's talk about the power of dermatology, and then we're gonna go deep deep deep into influencing. When did you decide that dermatology is going to be your path and not? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. I had decided when I was, um, in medical school, where. When I was an undergraduate that I was gonna go to medical school. And at that time you start to shadow a lot of different specialties. You're trying to get letters of recommendation. And I had spent a lot of time with family medicine and emergency medicine and a friend of mine. A college roommate actually was also going to medical school and recommended that I look into dermatology. He was gonna be a dermatologist. And that there was a German town that allowed people to come in shadow. And so I yeah, you know, made a phone call. I got set up to go in there and my understanding of dermatology was very limited. You know, people have acne. They get warts, you know, rashes. Of course. And I didn't. I had very low expectations when I walked into the office. And I walked in on a day where he was doing most surgery. And I was like, wait a minute? What is this you're like, you're doing big surgeries on people? You're rearranging their faces. You removing skin cancer, I thought that this had to be done by plastic surgeons, and you're doing flaps and skin grafts. And then I'm we're seeing some of your follow-up patients. And I can't even tell that they had anything done. This is really amazing. And so I was very interested in dermatology from that moment on seeing the procedural aspect of it that I had no concept of before. But I had, you know, very little opportunity to get hands on with dermatology when you're an undergraduate student or even as a medical student, you don't get to do a lot, but when you're rotating through dermatology because it's often very cosmetic focused, and patients understandably want the doctor to be doing their procedures and not some medical student. However when you rotate through the emergency room, it's a free for all sometimes and they can be overrun. And so hey, somebody needs stitches. They're not dying. The medical student can do that. And so you get to do this hands-on you get to do procedures. You get to see, you know, the highs and the lows of people. And it's very exciting. When you're young, you can do those late night nights and the weekends and all of that stuff. So I went to medical school with the intention to do emergency medicine, and I did join the dermatology club. You know, because I had this peripheral interest in it. But I knew it's almost impossible to become a dermatologist. It's what everybody tells you. And so emergency medicine was always the plan. I did really well on my board exams I was doing well in school. And ultimately, I like to tell people that thirty year old me and fifty year old me sat down and had a conversation about what we wanted to do when we were fifty and fifty year old me said, you know, I'm I don't want to work nights and weekends anymore. And I don't want to have to maybe Miss birthday parties or anything like that for your kids. So so even though my experience rotating through emergency medicine was a lot more fun and a lot more exciting. At that moment, I knew that that I would love dermatology if I was given the opportunity to become a dermatologist and I decided to dive in and give it one hundred percent effort. And luckily, I was able to match into dermatology. And that kind of led me down that path to being procedural dermatologist where I get to do most surgery now myself and take care of patients of all ages with a wide range of skin conditions. |
| Jodi Katz | Alright. So there was this Tiktok you made about a fortune Cookie having a part making part of this decision for you. Can you explain this? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. So so you know, I was always interested in science and something in the health careers after the influence of my Dad. And so I had looked into physical therapy, you know, physician assistant school, even more jawary science. You know anything to do with the human body. And so I was kind of at this point where I was, ah, going into my junior our year of college. And I was like, maybe I'm gonna go to P a school medical school. Seems like a long time. You know, that's at least seven or eight years to be able to do something. P. Schools. Just two more years and I could practice in any specialty and. My my roommate, as I said he was going to medical school and I always kind of thought like, well, if he could do it, I could do it like I'm and he's not smarter than. And it's a completely true stories that there was this. There's this Chinese restaurant a couple of miles from my apartment. And I was studying on a Sunday morning. And then in the evening like I was tired of study. And so I went to this Chinese restaurant, you know, once a month or so. And I went there and I was eating, you know, whatever my Mandarin chicken. And I got to the fortune. The Cookie part. I broke it open. I eat my fortune Cookie and because I'm superstitious, you have to eat the Cookie first and then you can read your fortune. So then I looked at the the fortune, and it said, you could prosper in the field of medicine. And I was like, that is an oddly specific fortune like. You know, I've never seen a fortune like that. It's so specific. Um. You know, I was like, oh, good fortune will follow you soon or you're gonna make a difference in somebody's life, you know, but no, you could prosper in the field of medicine. And I was like, okay, let's let's go to medical school. Of course. It wasn't the thing that made the decision. I was on the fence about it all ready. But I like to tell people that I went to medical school because a fortune Cookie told me to I took that home. I taped it to my study desk. It's been there all through medical school. And then I removed it when the desk fell apart. Put it in my wallet. And it's still there to this. |
| Jodi Katz | I'm like tearing up because this is so insane. Because you're right. Fortune cookies. They're like vague. Um. And let you you know, it's almost like horoscopes like super vague, right. You can make what you want out of them. But this is so specific. And we're crazy. And I love that you kept it right. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Like imagine a sixty year old accountant gets that fortune like, what's he gonna do with that like that. Fortune Cookie was meant for me. Like I don't know if my Dad was like in the kitchen like stuffing a fortune Cookie watching me come or something. |
| Jodi Katz | Yeah. It's it feels planted. It's so specific. I love that. I love that you took the time to look at it. It's almost like a stop and smell the roses moment, right. You could have just moved, you know. Thrown it out and not have paid attention? Right you. It would be like sliding door runners this movie with Gwyneth Paltrow years ago. And artist, did you ever see this movie? Wow. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | I don't think I have. |
| Jodi Katz | Ah. So it's like she gets is on the subway. Her life is a certain way. If she misses the subway, it's a completely different life and they show you both worlds. Ah. So yeah. You had your own sliding doors moment with this fortune. Yeah. Right. Okay. So you talked about. I love this. You had a conversation with your future self. About what kind of lifestyle you wanted? That's very forward, thinking. I don't think a lot of you know. People who are ambitious in their career early on are really thinking about the impacts of their decisions. You know, two decades later, it's meaningful to me that you were thinking in that way and having these conversations internally, it's something I think about all the time I wrote this book, you can see here facing the seduction of success, which is really about this. It's like, I want something for my career. My ambition, but I also want something from my personal life and my family life. And sometimes there's a, you know, a huge tension, right. One going super fast. But it impacts the other train greatly. So you know, I've seen your family on social. Tell me what you're like. Kind of like influencer. Philosophy is now right that your an influencer and dermatologist and both take up a lot of time. What is this bounce look like? And how did you manage the seduction of creating so much success for yourself? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. I mean, I won't pretend like I've always been great at the balance portion. I think at this point in my life I've realised that I do enjoy work. Um it. You know, feels good to me to work hard and I would be working hard. I would be putting in a lot of hours regardless of the career path that I had chosen. So if I had become a school teacher, I'd be, you know, I'd also be coaching. I'd be meeting kids early to help them with their assignments. I'd be staying late to practice skills on the basketball court. Whatever it is, I'd like to tell people if I had become a garbage man, I'd be on Tiktok as a garbage man showing everybody here. Look at the crazy stuff. People were throwing away like I would be creating things for myself out outside of my, you know, normal day to day. Because I think that's just my personality. And so as a creator and a dermatologist, they're both very demanding. They both you know. Take so much time, but I'm going to put that amount of time into anything, regardless of the career path that I had chosen. And I'm very lucky that my day Job is to be a dermatologist. It's fantastic. But that balance has been difficult at times because there is that side section of success. You know, the more time that I spend in clinic seeing patients it. You know, it's very rewarding on a personal and financial level. And the more time that I put into social media, I get to meet amazing people. And it can be very tempting because you do get a lot of adulation. You know, people give you a lot of praise and then you can go home at and your kids don't want to listen to you. So it's it's a balance. And I'm grateful to have good friends and amazing spouse that helped to bring me down to Earth, and and somebody that I can confide in and also. That you know, I've got like a business coach as well. That we we talk about things we outline goals. And we, you know, try to do the things that are the most effective and mental. Partnering with a business coach has been a great way to kind of step back and prioritize and not let the tactics of what I'm doing. Get in the way of my overall vision. And knowing what my vision is to be an educator to help people to get better health to be a good father, a good husband, the tactics on how that you know need to be able to change for a while. That's you know, doing brand deals. Because it creates opportunity. But now I'm trying to shift into, like, where do I go next with social media? How do I impact more lives? What kind of long-term partnerships can I can? I foster that help achieve my vision of taking care to more under served people and giving my kids experience to see different things in the world. Rather than a one-off, you know, brand partnership, for example. So really trying to pivot and shift and make those partnerships that also align with my long-term vision has been challenging at times. But you know, we're getting there. |
| Jodi Katz | Why want to know more about what's next? But before we dive into that, let's talk about, um, the kids, you know, like in my business. I mean, I think I think of it as a family business. It's not really family possessed. But it is a family business because my kids hear me. You know, talk about it. My husband helps me from time to time and the kids have to pack up boxes. You know, when we move offices and things like that. So I feel like, you know, being someone who's ambitious and her career. Pretending that it doesn't impact the family. Doesn't you know do any good? But I tried it. Try to involve them as much as possible. And first of all, they're fifteen and twelve. So they're way more digitally savvy than you know me. So I'm curious like do behind the scenes get your kids involved in any of this work. Do they see it happening into the understand the whys of it? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. I think they they do understand to a degree. You know, the the older ones for sure, my kids are, you know, um, thirteen, ten and six. And so they they see it and I do involve them. I that's a little tension with my wife. She doesn't want to on camera. And so we're careful about that. But I do get them on there sometimes because I want people to know, you know, I'm a real person and that this is, you know, part of my life. I don't want it to be completely separate. Um also, it gives me an opportunity to employ my kids. And so I'm able to pay them almost as influencers themselves, their talent, their on-screen personalities with me and some of those videos. And as a result, they're able to start a retirement account is six years old like that's not a lot of six year olds can do that. But you know, we've we've done that. Because of what they you know, are able to do in in helping me with social media. So I do want them to be involved. I want them to see that you can create something. And there's more career opers communities in the world than there's ever been before. And I want them to be innovative and kind to see the different areas that you can pursue. Right. But it does impact them. I travel. It takes time away from them. And that is hard at times. There's tension with that. |
| Jodi Katz | I think I would probably have a long coffee with your wife because I don't want to put my kids on camera. I mean, I've seen, like, I think people see like the back their heads and stuff like that. And now that they're tweens and teens. Yeah. First of all, they're not allowed to have their own social media accounts, because I mean, I know I do this for a living. But I do this for a living. So I know the powers and these tools. Yeah. So every once in a while, they sneak in to like a Disney family photo kind of thing online. But right, I just think it's like this very slippery slope of how does the impact their life the parts of their life. I don't even see right. The tax from their friends and the group chats and and you know all this stuff. I don't know. I just think it's a really complicated worlds for kids. Yeah. And I don't let my kids have social, either. They're not gonna have smartphones, because I know that there's dangers with that. You know we're we're gonna, you know, keep their lives living in, you know, I don't want him to grow up more the way that I did. And when they are out on their own, if they want to be on social, they certainly can. But it's going to be tightly supervised until they're out of the house. So I was definitely. For probably pretty annoying. Um. For one of my kids they want to do like a gaming Youtube. And I'm like, that's fine. But no one can see your face and they can't know your name. And you know the whole list of things, right? But that's what it takes. Because yeah, there's just worlds that kids are playing digitally that I'm, you know, not an expert in right. There's things I'm an expert in. There's these other worlds. I'm not. So I'm kind of that annoying mom. But um, OK, let's talk about influencing influencing influencing. Is there a team behind you helping you develop all this content? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | So when it comes to tik tok, I mean for the longest time now. I mean, it was just me. I was doing everything I was replying to the emails. I was doing all the filming. I was doing all the editing and, you know, it's easy to get burned out. When you're doing all of that. Plus I'm I own my own practice. I have you know twenty employees. So there's a lot going on, but over time, you know, I've found that I need to outsource certain things. And so I have cultivated a team of employees and contractors to help with things. So I have a manager that helps to do all of the emails. Communications negotiations. All of that. I then have a P R team that helps to get me placements in magazine articles. And we're working on TV appearances and things like that. I've hired a video editor. A couple of different ones. I have, you know a video editor right now. That's actually in Serbia. That's editing a lot of these Tiktok videos that I'm putting up because it saves me hours of time and they can do it faster. And they can do it way better than I can. And I have. A creative director to help plan and organize Youtube videos. I have, you know, a video editor for Youtube separately. And then I've hired an assistant that's in my office on a daily basis. So you know, considering all of those things, it's really freed up a lot of my time again to spend more. And more time doing the things that I love to do. |
| Jodi Katz | That is a very big team. And I'm really glad that you have them because I, um, when I see how hard you work. And I know what it takes to produce things I get like like my heart starts racing. No joke like every see your content like it is so good. Oh my God. He's working so hard. You know, I'm like so. Yeah. I'm thinking about the behind the thing scenes of the life to make this. And I'm really empathetic with the experience. I know that the user sees the five seconds. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds, but I actually see that the hours the days the months. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. So I am very amazed at your how prolific you are. And I'm really glad for you that you have a huge team. Now it makes me feel like I can take the temperature down. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. Yeah. It's been. It's been a lifesaver. I couldn't keep doing what I'm doing without that. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay. Let's talk about trends. Are there trends that you will like not participating? Because by the way, you're like, very clever at finding a dermatology way into transit, you would think there's no connection here. But are there things that you will not touch? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Um. You know, I have probably taken risks before that I shouldn't have. And I've learned lessons from that. You know, I I've tried to be careful about not being negative against certain skin care. Brands. I prefer to just stay positive, like I'll find the brands that I like to work with, or that I like to talk about organically and talk about them and talk about their benefits, but otherwise to stay away from, you know, just being negative about something for the sake of negativity. I don't. I don't like to try to bash brands. I've had some brands. I think that um, ended up upset at me. But I was really just approaching it from like, here's the real, you know, truth about this ingredient or this marketing. You know, strategy something like that. So I just I'm trying to stay like more in the realm of positivity and avoiding negativity. And if somebody you know, wants to be negative toward DZ me like, I don't have any qualms about like just saying, this is my page. This is my space. Where positive? Here you can go somewhere else. And you know, I've I've blocked people before. And I know some people don't like doing that. But it just isn't worth the mental energy for me to like, try to put up with bullying. So okay. So are you actually reading all these comments? No. No. I mean, I can't keep up with him anymore. Earlier on, I would. But it's just not possible anymore. So if I post a video I do. Typically try to check comments for the first thirty minutes or so. And then if a video you know, blows up, it's just impossible to see everything. |
| Jodi Katz | Love it because they upload for you one of my favorites was this met Gala thing. I don't know if his last year two years ago was about. Yeah. I know you found this like funny skin way into the Gala. That made me laugh out loud for days. Like literally days. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. It was fun. We were commenting on the celebrities outfits and I really don't know anything about fashion. And so we were just talking about whether these particular outfits could be good for sun protection or not. |
| Jodi Katz | So it was awesome. Okay. So I love that you just said you focusing on the products and the ingredients that are meaningful to you, and you feel about unofficial and just sort of. |
| Jodi Katz | Not addressing the ones that aren't. So this feels very like a magazine. Editorial perspective, right? They're not typically unless they consume. Yeah. Of course it's doing testing and statistics. They're just putting forward their winners, right. They're not also having pages for the losers, right. Yeah. But I do have I've a question. And you can tell me if you don't want to comment on it. I don't remember if this is a video you made. I know a lot of your peers during covert there were telling us that Neosporin is not good to put on wounds. Um where you started this conversation. Yeah. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | I've been in that conversation before. Um. And so typically dermatologists don't like Neosporin because most of the stuff that we do there CL mean procedures. You know they're they're not infected. And so when you start putting on an antibiotic, you're just at risk for an allergic react. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay. So I've been telling my kids this and my husband, they're like, you're wrong, Jodie, like, of course we're gonna put Neosporin on wound. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yes. Because that's what Neosporin tells us to do. Like what's the whole purpose of the product? Yeah. And I'm saying, no, it's all just on Tiktok or telling me no. And I couldn't remember why. So would I be putting Neosporin on a cut that I got in my backyard? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. That might be a more appropriate time. And you know, I typically still recommend like I want you to start with just cleaning the wound with soap and water and then put Vaseline on it. It's just the lowest risk of allergic reaction. And so um, but you know, if you are starting to get more redness or irritation, their Neosporin might be helpful in that circumstance. |
| Jodi Katz | Alright. Thank you for clarifying that. I'm gonna go downstairs after this call and put everybody to rest like I. This is like, you know. Neosporin question. Mark. Period. We solved it. Yeah. So the last question I have for you in this part of the interview is really about, like, what is your life like every day, like, what is a schedule like? Because I think that, you know, you've reached us like in enormity of success. |
| Jodi Katz | I I see it as enormity of success as being influential. And then you also are growing your practice and I do believe you have your own product line. Is that right? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. Yeah. We we do have our own products for our patients in the office. So yeah. Yeah. |
| Jodi Katz | There's just too many verticals I've done. You're dr Dustin Portela. Yeah. You also spend a lot of time working out? Right. Um. Behind the scenes, we call it. The doctor doesn't foretell glow up right from. Yeah. Yeah. You started on social media few years ago. To what. You show us now and you have the family and travel. So tell us what is a day like. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. So on a typical day when I'm in, you know in Boise, I get up, um, about five thirty. I head to the gym. Ah. Try to get a workout in. And then from there, I go to the clinic and I'll see patients or I'll be doing surgery one or the other and will do that until about forty five o'clock. Ah. Depending on the day I may record a little bit after the clinic is over. If we got done a little early. I'll you know. Plan out something and I'll record and then go home. Eat dinner and play with the kids. Put them to bed. Answer. You know, some emails catch up on that kind of stuff. And and that's kind of the entirety of the day. On average Fridays. I don't see patience. Tts I spend that time creating content primarily and doing administrative things for the clinics. So the weekends I try to take as much of that off as I can and just be present with family. And sometimes I'm travelling. Sometimes other things get in the way. But um, that's kind of a typical day for me. And there's it's every minute seems to be booked. And I may a squeeze in, you know, phone calls or zoom meetings with different companies in the middle of the day. And my assistant helps to coordinate and schedule all of that. So again, that's where it's really helpful to have a good team. |
| Jodi Katz | And so in between appointments that you're also like reviewing the second version of the edit or you know, like you've mentioned a lot of team. So we're helping you produce a content is, is it in between appointments that you're adjusting those content needs. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. Yeah. Some of that is between appointments or over the lunch hour things like that. |
| Jodi Katz | Are you exhausted at the end of the day? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Basically. Yeah. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay. My last question. This is off script? But do you watch reality TV? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | I I just don't have time to watch much TV at all. The only way where you know a place that I keep up on stuff is through social media. So if something becomes a trend, I might hear about it. But that's about it. |
| Jodi Katz | Alright. So um, I'm dying to know. Is there a Dustin Dr Dawson? Portela dermatology. Angle into the scan of all, which is Vanderpump, rules all the chaos happening with the. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. I've seen headlines on this, but I honestly couldn't tell you anything about what's going on. I wish I wish I could. But I don't know anything about it. Wow. |
| Jodi Katz | Thank you for playing along with me on that one. I was really hopeful that you watch Vanderpump rules. But I feel like you'd have a really good angle, okay. Our last segment of the show is fan questions, and we have so many. Maybe we'll get to two or three. Reinhardt is asking, um, if you have if you know that Khloe Kardashian had melanoma. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yes. I I've heard that, but she really hasn't spoken a lot about it. I know that through some other groups that I've worked with, they have tried to reach out and get her to be more of an advocate on that and just haven't gotten a response there. So I would love to see her be more of an advocate against skin cancer and melanoma awareness. But um, I'm aware of that. And I just haven't seen her actually use that platform. To fight skin cancer. |
| Jodi Katz | But do we know that it's confirmed she's she's acknowledged that she just doesn't hasn't spoken out about it? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | So it sounds like she has had a couple of different things removed. But she hasn't. As far as I've seen actually come out and said, like I had melanoma, um, you know, I think she may have said the a word, skin cancer or like a concerning spot. But I haven't seen her actually come out and explained. I had a melanoma. It was this aggressive or that. Here's the treatment that I went through. |
| Jodi Katz | Anything like that? Alright. So it's um, we know she had things removed. But it's speculation to say it was full on the anova. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. I from what. I understand it. It's pretty likely that she had melanoma. But I couldn't tell you where that's actually cited. |
| Jodi Katz | Got it? Okay. Um. This one's from Emily. Hi Emily. Besides sun screen. What is a must in every skincare? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | I think a must in every skincare routine would be probably a good moisturizer or cleanser. So I would say, I would probably say a cleanser like you need to get stuff off of your skin. So a good cleanser would be the number one thing, okay? |
| Jodi Katz | Nikita is asking, what is the best treatment for Melasma? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Um. The best treatment of Melasma again is going to be sunscreen. You've got to prevent it from getting worse. There's no treatment that we have that will fix your Melasma if you're not wearing some screen. So that's the number one thing you have to do now. If we get into specific treatments for it, there's a lot of benefit from hydroquinone from cysteamine. There's some laser treatment that can help. But I would probably say, just because of it's availability is going to be hydroquinone. |
| Jodi Katz | Okay. So um, last question from fans. Good one other than your own. What is a favorite Tiktok account that you want? |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. Oh man, there's so many good ones. Um. I mean, there's like, you know, of course, the skin care, medical ones. And then there's just like the entertaining ones. Um. There is a surgeon in the U. K. Who I think puts out amazing medical content. Um. I can't think of his name now. Doctor a. But he's a general surgeon and colorectal surgeon in the U. K and his tick talks are just really high yield good medical information to keep your body healthy. So I would recommend that fans find that and follow that great. |
| Jodi Katz | Well we will dig around and try to find his accounts. We can share it with fans. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Yeah. |
| Jodi Katz | For sure, you did it. That's it, Dr. Portela. Three hundred And thirty first episode. Thank you. So much for joining us and sharing your wisdom today. |
| Dr. Dustin Portela | Thank you. It's an honor. |
| Jodi Katz | And for our fans, if you'd like this episode, please rate and review as always make sure you are following us on your favorite podcast platform and Instagram to stay up-to-date on the upcoming episode. |
| Jodi Katz | And Dr. Portela. Amazing to see you again. Thank you. Look forward to seeing you in person the next time. So thanks. Everybody have a good one. Bye. |
| Announcer | Thanks for listening to WHERE BRAINS MEET BEAUTY™ with JodI Katz. Tune in again for more authentic conversations with beauty leaders. |
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