Meet Danielle DeLuca-Pytell, MD

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danielle DeLuca-Pytell, MD. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danielle below.

Hi Danielle, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Confidence and self-esteem did not come easily or quickly. As a physician, I spent a lot of years in school and in training. I was always able to gauge my success by grades and/or accolades received through that process. Once I began work as a plastic surgeon, there was no longer a report card that came out. It was very difficult for me initially to feel confident in the work that I did since I always had an external source by which to judge myself. I distinctly remember walking to the foot of the operating table to look at an immediate post-surgical result and exclaiming, “that looks awesome!” The anesthesiologist remarked, “why are you the only one who is surprised?” It was then that I began to look deep within myself. Learning to trust myself and trust my education took time. What I thought was intuition was actually years of hard work. My “gut” was developed by my experiences in caring for patients over time. Because of this, I was finally able to start my own private practice, something I never thought I would have the confidence to do.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am Danielle DeLuca-Pytell, and I am Your Girlfriend the Plastic Surgeon®. What I love about what I do is that I help make people’s lives better, one person at a time. When I started out, there weren’t a lot of plastic surgeons that looked like me. People always wanted to ask me questions about plastic surgery because I was approachable. I used that to create my brand. Being Your Girlfriend the Plastic Surgeon® to me means talking to my patients like I was their trusted friend (who just happens to have medical knowledge!). What my patients really love, aside from surgical excellence, is the amount of time I spend with them explaining the procedure and recovery, how it will affect them and their lives, both immediately and long term. I make myself accessible to my patients: I never want my patients to go to google for an answer to a question when they have me as a resource! Since many of my patients are a lot like me, I find that being able to relate to what they are experiencing is another benefit.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Listening: paying attention to what is being said and not said. Using this as a skill to gather information for decision making. Sometimes, it is better to be the quiet one paying attention than the one who appears to have all the answers.

Tenacity: knowing what I want and fighting to get it. Whether it is a new skill or a different way to do something challenging, I do not give up until I have what I want.

Collaboration: having trusted colleagues to share ideas and challenges with is invaluable. I find that I wind up teaching as much as I do being taught.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Growing my business is a current challenge that I have been working on for a while. From an “internal” perspective, my team and I have refined the way that we work. We took a giant leap of faith to hire a consultant to help us grow–only to realize that it did not feel authentic to change the core values of the practice for growth. Instead, we honed what we do well and stood by it. My practice coordinator and receptionist are the first points of contact with prospective patients. They do an excellent job of conveying the message of the practice and bringing in patients who are looking for integrity and honesty in their plastic surgery care. From an “external” perspective, it is a constant challenge to get our message out. Learning to ask patients to share before and after photos and leave reviews has been hard. Word of mouth is our best referral source. We are always trying to nuture that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.delucapytell.com
• Instagram: drdelucapytell
• Facebook: drdelucapytell
• Twitter: drdelucapytell
• Youtube: dr.deluca-pytell

Image Credits

Martin Chumiecki (For professional office photos)