Carrie

In today’s episode, we chat with Dr. Katie Deming about her revolutionary line of intimates for women suffering from sensitive skin due to breast cancer treatments. Listen in as Dr. Deming tells us all about how she got started developing her clothing line and all the knowledge she learned along the way. Don’t miss out as she shares tips for starting your own business as a physician as well.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • How Dr. Deming decided to create a line of intimates for cancer patients.
  • Why she feels it is important to create products for women that make them feel good and are comfortable to wear during their treatment and afterwards.
  • How she uses utility patents to protect her garment designs and functionality.
  • How she developed her first prototypes using a designer and patternmaker to make her design ideas come to life.
  • What she learned about the manufacturing process along the way and how she found factories to manufacture her garments.
  • How she used a licensing deal with another company to produce her garments without having to raise a huge amount of capital up front.
  • What she learned about business, contracts and agreements from this process.
  • How she learned the importance of creating your story and staying true to it in order for your brand to succeed.
  • How she balances her medical career with her business venture.
  • What she learned about legally separating her business from her medical career using contract negotiation skills.

Dr. Katie Deming is a radiation oncologist, inventor and entrepreneur who is transforming the cancer experience through collaboration and development of novel solutions. Dr. Deming completed medical school, internship and residency all at Duke University. She is a board certified radiation oncologist specializing in breast and gynecological cancers. Although she loves medicine, Dr. Deming is a designer at heart and has spent much of her career designing cancer programs and developing products for women with cancer. Some of her programs include the first cancer service line within Kaiser Permanente nationally as well as the first cancer specific patient advisory council. As an inventor, she holds a utility patent and has designs in development for several medical conditions. Dr. Deming is also the founder of MAKEMERRY, the first line of intimates for women with sensitive skin from breast cancer treatments. She still practices medicine full time and is grateful to have created a niche that allows her to combine both her love for medicine and interest in design.

Links we discussed in the show:

Quotes from Dr. Katie Deming:

  • “It has been a way for me to fill a need and it has been really fulfilling.”
  • “I’m really just trying to solve a problem for my patients.”
  • “You don’t know what you’re getting into. It’s a whole new world.”
  • “I like to do good and I want to do good in the world.”

Special thank you to this week’s show sponsor: Larry Keller from Physician Financial Services!

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