dr. kothari came to us through a referral. and we hit it off right away because

we grew up in the same area and went to the same high school (albeit a few years apart). it gave us a starting point that was shared.

and because of that, our conversation went very deep. and it took just a few moments to learn just how compassionate, skilled, empathetic, and nurturing she is. not just as a physician, but as a human. a wife. a mother. a daughter. a friend. and a doctor who practices one of the most challenging types of medicine there is.

medicine is hard to differentiate in. so often, the focus is just on communicating credibility. but credibility is earned. that comes from creating a feeling of safety and security in your patients. and so many doctors fail to nail that. bedside manner isn’t required just when the patient is in the hospital bed. that’s an ongoing commitment. and thanks to youtube, so much of that is changing now, where doctors are among the most popular content creators.

but for those that spend more time in practice than on camera, how do you differentiate? for dr. kothari, we ran into the same problem i did with natasha kohli a decade earlier. the on-camera interview format just didn’t work.

but i didn’t need to research for a few days to get this right. i paused the interview and turned to natasha (now natasha vallury) and reminded her of her own documentary shoot. we agreed this wasn’t going well. and i pitched an alternate location, doing something - anything - other than talking about medicine.

we learned during our interview that dr. kothari loves to make clothes for her daughter. and that became the starting point. let’s create a talk track for her, built off her own words, that explains who she is while she does something she loves. it just so happens that cutting and sewing are a part of medicine too.

and as that added bonus during the shoot, i chose to film her recording session with steve. that tender moment brought me to tears the first time i finished the edit. and it still wells my eyes when i watch it today.