58. From Residency to DPC: Dr. Jade Norris on Entrepreneurship, Motherhood, and Creating Your Dream Life

Hey doc! I'm excited to bring you this inspiring conversation with Dr. Jade Norris on ✨Stethoscopes and Strollers✨! Dr. Jade is a family medicine and obesity Physician who opened her direct primary care practice straight out of residency while raising two young children.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Her "meet cute" story with her husband (it involves a grocery store and went viral!)
• Having her first child during intern year in the pandemic
• Her challenging breastfeeding journey and how she found peace with it
• Opening a direct primary care practice straight from residency
• How she designed her practice around her dream life, not the other way around

Key takeaways:

• Think "how" not "if" when it comes to your dreams
• Build your career around your dream life, not vice versa
• Start with low overhead when building a practice
• Involve your partner early in your vision
• You can pursue entrepreneurship even during early motherhood

This conversation is filled with gems for any Physician mom considering a different path in medicine. Get ready to be inspired!

Dr. Jade E. Norris, known as “Dr. Jade,” is a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician with additional certification in Obesity Medicine. A Las Vegas native, devoted Christian, wife, and mother, she is passionate about wellness, prevention, and reversing chronic disease through Lifestyle Medicine and her personalized approach, The NSPIRED Health Method.

She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, her medical degree from Southern Illinois University, and completed her residency at Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Dr. Jade is the founder of @NSPIRELV, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening marriages and families through community wellness events. She is also the host of The She NSPIRES Podcast, a children’s book author, and a wellness advocate featured across national media.

With a deep commitment to mentoring youth and empowering communities of color, Dr. Jade’s mission is to promote lifelong health across all ages—guided by her mantra: “Health, it’s a LIFESTYLE!”

For more information about Dr. Jade, you can visit her website and connect with her on Facebook, follow on Instagram, and subscribe to her

Remember to subscribe to "Stethoscopes and Strollers" on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode of encouragement and empowerment.

Apple Podcast | Spotify | YouTube

Connect with me.

Website | Instagram | Facebook

Join my Email list to get tips on navigating motherhood in the medical field.

If you feel you need direct support or someone to talk through the unique challenges of being a physician mom, schedule a free coaching session.

Free Coaching Session with Dr. Toya

Transcript

Hey doc, I am back with another wonderful guest . I have Dr. Jade Norris here with me. She is a family medicine physician and obesity  physician, and she is a mom just like you.

Welcome Dr. Jade. Thank you so much for having me 

excited to be here. 

Yes, I'm so excited. We made this happen. So start off by telling me how many children do you have and how old are they? 

Yes. So I have two daughters. I have a bonus daughter who's, uh, you know, in her thirties, but I have a two little ones.

So Ava is five and she likes to tell me five and a half now. And then Aaliyah is three.  Oh, 

I love that name. Nice. All right. So I didn't realize your kids were so young. Okay. Good. So you're in it. 

Yes. Yeah. I'm in the thick of it. 

tell me in your, first of all, how long have you been married? Yeah, my husband and I were coming up on our ninth year of marriage this year.

Nice. Okay. We're pretty close there. We were seven. Oh, we were seven last year. All right. How did y'all meet? 

Yeah, we met at the grocery store. It's actually pretty funny. We, um, were in Illinois at the grocery store. We met at a few years ago and I said, let's just reenact it. And we reenacted it and recorded it and it went viral.

So it was funny. So apparently meeting at the grocery store is pretty funny, but yeah, the grocery store. 

Okay. What a meet cute. All right. So tell me how, because I literally only see that stuff on TV. So reenact it for me again. Like what exactly happened? 

What's funny is we had two different scenarios of what happened.

I actually saw him first. So I had just moved to, so I was in my second year of med school and our, Med school at Southern Illinois was split campuses where your first year was in Carpendale, Illinois And then your second year you had to move up to the Capitol in Springfield, Illinois So it was my first week in the new city my second year of residence or med school And so I asked all my classmates ahead of me, you know, where do you guys go to church?

And so they told me oh every we all go to this specific church. So I went there that Sunday  And I saw him, I looked around, you know, I'm new to the city, so I'm like, my head's on a swivel, I'm single, you know, med student, and I didn't see anything in the audience, but I was like, oh, and I look on stage, and I saw the, one of the ministers that was on the, uh, piano, and I was like, ooh, okay, but I just assumed, you know, he was a little older than me, and I assumed he was probably married, you know, and so I was, my mind didn't go any further than that, I just was like, that's the only attractive person I see in the church today.

Um, and then I went grocery shopping after church, and, I happen to see him in the produce section or, you know, I think it was the, he was standing by the Senate and I was like, Oh, and I was like, Oh, Jade, he's married. He's looking for his, he's getting some dinner for his wife and his kids, you know? So I just, again, kept going.

And then he came up and introduced himself to me a little bit later in the produce section. Uh, but what I didn't know from his perspective was his cousin was there grocery shopping and was like, you got to get to the grocery store. There's, there's a new one in town. You got to see her. Um, and then he gets to the grocery store.

His phone goes dead. He can't find his cousin. He doesn't know who his cousin called him up there for. And then he said he saw me and was like, Oh, I don't know who he called me up here for. Right. She's, she's the one. Um, and then later we all laughed and found out that I was the one his cousin had called him to the grocery store for.

So it was like all these, it was like a TV show, all these different scenarios, uh, that happened. So yeah, very, very funny. 

Wow. That is probably one of the best stories I've ever heard about people. That is, that is a meet cute. If, hey, somebody call Hollywood, that is it. I love it.  I love it. Okay. That is wonderful.

All right. So how long were y'all married before you had kids? 

Yeah. So we were married two years before we had our, before we had Ava. Okay. 

And so did you get married in med school? Give me the timeline of when all this happened. 

Yeah. So we met my second year of med school. We got married my fourth year of med school.

So we dated for two years and then got married. Um, and then we had Ava, my intern year of residency. Ooh. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. How was that? Oh, it was just, I mean, how amazing could it be? It was the pandemic, you know, you're pregnant, it's COVID, you're an intern, just all the things. Yeah. Oh, 

my 

gosh. 

So were you how?

I hope you don't mind me asking. How old are you? Yeah, I'm 35. Okay. So in your mind, was that around the time when you wanted to have your first or did you have different ideas?  

I hoped to have my children, like however many that would be total before 35, you know, and I just had, now we call it geriatric pregnancy, right?

I had that, that in mind. So it was like, it'd be nice to be done having kids by 35. So yeah. And then once I'm the kind of person, like I was trying to get back to my healthy weight. So I'm like, look, if we're going to do it, let's have them back to back and get this whole thing over with. Um, so yeah, it, it worked out the way I, I'm thankful with the way it worked out in the timeline.

Yeah. Yeah. 

Yeah, we are very similar. I was like, I'm not  let's get this done. Yes, I cannot like you've got a 

five year time span. 

That's hilarious. Alright, so it wasn't the reason I asked is because intern year. I was wondering if it was a matter of well, I really don't want to do this for an intern year.

But I'm on a timeline. Or was it just whenever it happened? 

Yeah, at that point, it was whenever it happened. And you know, transparently, we went off birth control. So we're like, whenever it happens, if it happens during intern, you're fine. But we were hoping to have children during residency to start having our family during residency.

So that's interesting. Tell me more about that, because that's not anything I've heard before.  

Um, well, after residency, it would be pushing towards 35. So it was the age, yes, it was the age. And then, you know, then I would be fresh into my career. And would that be the thing about it? I just realized there's never a good time.

Med school wasn't a good time. Residency isn't a great time. And post residency, when you're a new attending, especially if you are a contract, you know, I went private practice straight from residency, but most people don't. So then, you know, you're hired to a new position and then you're going to take off.

So it's just never a good time. Right. So you just have to make it your timeline, but it ended up being great. It was a blur for me. Like I look back and people ask, how was I pregnant intern year during the pandemic? I have, I really don't half remember, you know, you just put your head down, you do it, you know, I would vomit on rounds and get right back to it.

You know, you just do it. And yeah, I 

had a pandemic baby as well. And I don't even remember. Yeah, it was just a blur. Luckily, I had a lot of my maternity leave during the pandemic and I was like a real germaphobe in the beginning. So I was just like, I'm so glad I am not in the hospital right now. Nobody knew what was going on.

It was, it was truly a blessing. Um, even though I felt at the moment it was terrible because we were alone. so how did you deal with that? The kind of isolation of the pandemic and the pregnancy and postpartum, 

I wasn't isolated. I think that's the problem. I was a frontliner resident, right? So I was in the emergency room.

I was in the ICU. I'm giving the patients bad news. I'm resuscitating patients while I'm nine months pregnant. Like, yeah, I was not, I think it would have been nice to be a little bit isolated, but they're like, no, we need all hands on deck, you know, holding the pager. All right. Uh, delivering babies. So I was in the thick of it.

Um, I didn't really get to experience too much of the isolation components. Mm-hmm . Um, my husband, he, he's has his own career, so he went remote. He now works remote in general, but his position was remote, so he was more, he was fine. He was at the basketball court. Right. But for me, it was like, the main thing was I was just praying not to, obviously.

get covid while I was pregnant, not to give it to my husband. Um, and so that was the main thing. I would get fully undressed before I can't like in the garage and drop my clothes off at the laundry and then go straight to the shower, you know, so more of those precautions and then just praying I wouldn't, you know, get covid while pregnant, especially that third trimester, just being like, oh, I don't want to be one of these.

Um, and I know that I'm one of the first pregnant people. This is my first baby to the thought of my husband not being able to be in the room and all those things. So I'm thankful I never you know, got covid during the pandemic. So that was my main concern. and given it to my family. Yeah. 

Yeah. That was my next question is if you got it, um, because I remember At the time, we had a lot of, because I'm OBGYN, so we had a lot of people miscarrying.

We had a lot of preterm labor. It was like at the very beginning when nobody had any kind of immunity and nobody knew what was going on. We were seeing a lot, but another level we can say yes, this is what's causing it, but it was very obvious that there was some kind of correlation.

So I'm glad that you did not experience that. And let me tell you, I had COVID during pregnancy, after vaccination and stuff, and it was not pleasant. So I'm very happy that you did not have it because it was pretty bad. so okay, that is scary. I can't believe that that's what you had to do. But luckily, everything was fine.

Was your actual birth fine? Any other Issues surrounding that. 

No, no. Only issue is she just didn't want to come out, but you know, we just waited it out three days and eventually she came out. So, yeah, no, it was, it was a really blessed delivery. Yeah. I always tell people my hardest part was like trying to figure out breastfeeding after, uh, but the, the labor was, was very, it was fine for us when she came out.

Yeah. 

Nice. All right. So tell me about that. How was your breastfeeding journey? 

Uh, it's so funny. I look back as a resident when they tell you, you know, they give you all the lines to say like, Oh, tell the mom's breast is best. And, you know, just connect them with the, you know, the breastfeeding lactation specialist and they'll be fine and encourage this and encourage that.

Yeah, I'm like, I didn't know what I was talking about. They, you know, it, it was a, it was the hardest part of my journey. Um, outside of the nausea and first trimester and the heartburn and third trimester, the breastfeeding was the hardest part. I wasn't a good producer. I tried all the things, lots of water, all the things they say to drink and to do.

And none of it really made me produce very much and it was very painful for me. Um, I was exclusively pumping for a while. That was very painful for me. I tried all the different flange sizes and all the things they told you to do. Um, ointments, whatever. It all hurt. And I did not produce a lot. , I would have preferred to put her to the breast, but for whatever reason, she would scream bloody murder if I put my nipple anywhere near her face.

And so, 

It was so bizarre. 

So she did not want the breast at all, 

but she would take the bottle. 

But I didn't produce. So, you know, I had in my, in my mind that I wanted to be 

one of these moms with like the freezer full of, you know, deep freezer full of milk. And that just wasn't my story. So that was frustrating.

And I just was like, Ugh, what's happening? And then my second baby, I just gave myself grace. And I was like, 

Okay, I was formula fed. My first daughter was formula fed. You know, 

try to give her some 

of the early breast milk 

so she can get the colostrum. And then from there, 

just release yourself 

of the pressure

if you're not a good producer.

And I wasn't second time around either. And, and then I, at that point, you know, second baby gets the, gets the laid back mom. So I was like, here's your bottle, you know, but it was tough for me with the first baby cause I really had in my mind that I was going to be this overproducing deep freezer milk mom.

Yeah, I mean, that really spoke to me. Even before I had kids as an OBGYN, I felt very strongly about how we, as people who take care of women who have babies, talk about breastfeeding and counsel about it and the dream that we made up that it is the best thing.

And you know, this is what makes you a good mom. And  it, it always bothered me. And then I had, mine and the kind of pressure and the pain that I put on myself? I just feel like it is unhealthy, Um, especially as physicians, we have enough pressure that we're putting on ourselves.

We do not need this extra thing. And like you said, I was also formula fed and I, I am the picture of perfection. So  formula is, formula is fine. Um, yeah. So I want to ask in the, the first experience, how did you handle? All of the pain and especially when you said you when she came to latch she screamed like what was going through your mind at that point?

Um Yeah, now knowing my daughter's personality now, it just makes all the sense. It's like she's going to do things her own way in general. So she added, she gets that from her mom, I guess, but yeah, she just didn't like it. And I was okay with that, but then my, my default after that was, well, then that's fine.

I'll just, you know, pump. You know, then I can do it anywhere and I'm going to have to go to work anyway at some point. So pumping is going to be my lifestyle anyway. So I would have been fine with it had I been an easily, you know, a pumping mom that worked easily. But that part not working well and my production not  Just being so like just sitting there in pain for 20 minutes at a time and then it being like an ounce or two was just like and then I'm watching these videos these YouTube videos and it's like They have a full bottle after right?

So it was just  The first time around it was tough for me to let go of that Idea because I had myself on a strict schedule. Um, I had my bag and my equipment everywhere. Like I said, I was a resident, so I would take it with me to rounds. I actually it's embarrassing looking back, but like we had open, you know, open laptops and tables.

All the residents, you know, all worked openly and I would be sitting there between patients. Out in public with a little rap over me, but people will walk by and they'd be like, what's that sound? And I'm like, it's my pump. And you know, I'm like doing notes and it just was, it was what it was. I was like, I'm sticking to my schedule.

I'm going to do the best I can. Um, and, and looking back, I didn't have to put all that pressure on myself and I figured it out the second time around. But at first I just was like, I was a new mom and I just was like, I don't want her. I don't want to put that stuff in her body. If my poison. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. 

Yeah. Well, hopefully you telling this story will help another new mom not put themselves through that because you say it's embarrassing. That doesn't sound embarrassing to me. You know, it's just boobs, whatever you could be able to pump wherever, but the schedule and the pressure and I cannot stand pumping exclusive pumpers, all the respect to you because I, if that was my story, I would have just stopped  there.

There's just like no way because you're right. It's painful. It's a chore. And if you weren't getting enough, it's just like, what am I doing this for? Um, so I'm glad you gave yourself grace for the second one. Um, the second time around. Cause that sounds terrible. 

Yeah. Yeah. The embarrassing part of the story was just that I didn't have to do that.

Like I could have released myself from That schedule far earlier on, like the signs of me not being a, uh, a producer were there much earlier, but I just went for months, you know, of still like sticking to it. I think 

that's, that's common because we're physicians. We're like, I'm going to solve this problem.

You were on YouTube. I don't know. Were you in Dr. Milk? Have you heard of that group? No. No. Okay. It's this intense Facebook group of physicians about breastfeeding. Oh, no.  It's a good thing. You went in there. No, I'll tell you that group will break you, man. Um, anyway, all respect to the people who are in Dr.

Milk and who run that group. They have a lot of good resources, but I just felt that it was overwhelming. Um, especially for somebody like you said, who is not a producer. They have all the tips and stuff, and maybe it may have prolonged all of the trying. Um, but I do respect everybody's journey. If they are a little producer, I did.

That was not mine. And I know that Need to give your baby the best and as doctors we're like, okay, this is the best. So this is what I'm gonna do Exactly. Yeah, how long did you get off in residency? 

Uh, yeah, so they gave me, I believe they, so they followed the California law and at that time they would give me up to six months.

And so I chose to do four months. And so for Ava, I took off four months, but I, I'm trying to remember, it was like a certain timeframe that you were paid. I may be quoting it wrong cause it's been a while. So I think I was paid up to six weeks and then, you know, after that it was like I had to supplement, you know, with just my husband's income.

But for us, Yeah. Yeah. We, we took four months and we were like, well, yeah, we'll supplement. Um, and then I had to tack on to my training, whatever I took off. So then I had a delayed, you know, graduation four months later.  

So tell me about that decision, because most people I talk to say, I don't want to graduate late.

So how did you come to that decision?  

Yeah, it's interesting because during residency, I. Figured out I wasn't going to, um, take an employed position and I was going to go straight into entrepreneurship and we were going to try to open a direct primary care practice or not try we were. That's what that's our plan and what we did.

And so I wasn't in a rush, you know, because I wasn't starting a job. Um, I knew I was going to get a part time urgent care job, but that wasn't going to go anywhere.  So and at that time she would have been three, right? I ended up being pregnant my third year to when I graduated. But, um, yeah. So for her, like I wasn't in a rush after because I  was going into entrepreneurship after was the plan.

Yeah. And I want to come back to that because, you know, I have a special place in my heart for entrepreneurs, but, um, for any of this, you know, either pregnancy, did you all have help?  

no, no, we didn't. So we were on our own in California during during residency. And so we didn't have family. Carlos's family is in Illinois.

My family's in Las Vegas. So we didn't I think that was the hardest part was it was just you know We found a good daycare and that was it and we weren't I wasn't I didn't know my resident Co colleagues well enough to like leave my new bait my first baby with them. You know what I mean? so no, it was just the two of us and And the daycare and that was really it that sounds rough.

It was rough. It was rough  Yeah  

and was it ever an option for family to come 

at the time? So my mom's retired now, but at the time she was not yet retired. So she couldn't come. Um, she did come for a little bit because she was a teacher. So she and my baby was born in the summer. So she had like a few weeks off, like four weeks off to stay with us.

Um, but, but I don't remember her staying. I think she just came back and forth more often during that time. So it wasn't an option. Our, all of our family worked at that time. 

Yeah.  Yes, that is rough, man, especially in residency. I can't even imagine. Yeah. All right. So tell me, how is it that during residency, you were like, you know what?

Not only am I going to open a private practice, I'm going to open a DPC practice. Tell me how that, that thought entered your brain.  

Yeah, so as a child, I started saying I wanted to be a doctor at four years old and my exposure to medicine was my pediatrician in Chicago, um, he had his own private pediatrics practice.

So my first exposure to medicine was like a doctor that knew you really well, um, it was the same doctor every time and, and he owned the practice. So when I started saying I wanted to be a doctor as a little girl, I was like, I'm going to have my own practice too. So that was just. What I saw and so what I wanted.

Um, and then of course, do my training, right? High school, undergrad, med school. It was kind of trained out of me like, Oh, you can't, you know, you can't do that anymore. That was back in the day. Um, private practices have been bought up by big, you know, companies. And so then I thought, Oh, I guess I can't have my own practice because that that's that was how it was back in the day.

That doesn't happen anymore. So I kind of went away from that idea. But yeah. My desire and how I wanted to practice medicine as far as like having a good relationship being the community doctor My patients knowing me and me knowing them me being easy to access like that desire was still there Even if I couldn't own my own practice so that never left.

So then during residency It was just my second year. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do yet or what my position was going to look like after I just knew my plan was to come back home and practice in Vegas., but just During lunch one day, 

one of my attending

second year said, you know, well, 

"what do you want to do after?"

Or, you know, other people were signing contracts already. 

And I just explained literally that to her. Well, I want to be the community doctor. 

I want people to be able to reach me. 

I want to spend time with them. 

I want to know them.

I want to have less patients 

so I can take good care of them. And I was like, But I don't know how 

I'm going to be able to do that.

And then she was like, 

well, it sounds like you might be interested in something called direct primary care. And I was like, what's that? And so I just went home and I like Googled it. um, At the time 

they had some of the old conferences 

on YouTube. So I. Found those in the conferences. They mentioned some books.

So I bought those from Amazon. 

And then in the conferences they mentioned some physician DPC Facebook groups, so I joined those. And then I let it open this 

whole community up to me 

that I had nothing knew nothing about. 

I started following the different docs on social media. And then I found several of them that had started their practices straight from residency.

So then I followed their journey.

I messaged them, I visited their practices, 

They became my, 

like, unofficial mentors.

I met them at the conferences. 

And so, yeah, 

I just dove into the 

the whole DPC world 

and once I found out 

other people did it 

straight from residency, 

that was pretty much it for me.

I'm like, well, it's been done.

I can do it, right? And I just needed 

to know it's been done. And so yeah, and then it was just on from there on Okay Well, 

My husband and I

getting on the same page,

being in agreement 

because that was a big deal. 

Like he's been 

on this journey with me. 

And it's like, 

"Now up to the point 

where you're supposed to 

finally start making some money, 

you want to become an entrepreneur?"

Um, so we had to 

get on the same page. 

And he got educated on it 

and, you know, 

agreed eventually like, 

"Okay, yeah. 

This is the right fit for our family." 

And from there it was, it was on. Like, okay,

what do we need to do?

Step one, 

step two, 

step three, 

and prayer. That 

is amazing. I have so many questions. Let me get my pencil down.

So I think the most impressive part is the straight from residency because I know a lot of DPC docs because you know I'm in entrepreneurship, physician entrepreneurship, and I love it. I thought I was going to open a practice and if I was it was going to be a DPC or a DSC because I'm OB. Um, but that leap from residency is very very impressive and I just wanted to take a minute to commend you for doing it and for just needing the fact that it had been done because a lot of people know that It has been done and they're still like, Ooh, no.

So that is very commendable and impressive. So I just want to make sure that everybody knows that in case they missed it, that this was straight out of residency. 

I 

appreciate 

that for whatever reason, in my mind,  I feel like it's easier straight from residency in a lot of ways and and I say that to say mostly the financial piece, right?

Because established physicians have an established attending physician lifestyle. They've already upgraded their lifestyle for me I'm like, I'm coming out of residency. I'm like, okay anything over this It's gravy. So, you know, I was, you know, we had a, a no loan, very low overhead start. Um, and I just saved a little bit of my residency income to start the practice.

And then I took on 10 shifts per month at urgent care. And then as the practice grew, I peeled away one urgent care shift at a time. And so. From the start having 10 urgent care shifts was already double what I was making as a resident, right? And so I'm like, okay, we're already ahead of the game. And so and it was just building from there So I in that regard the financial regard I think doing it established is more difficult But of course from the confidence and skill level, you know, I can see the opposite, right?

Like oh you're doing it straight from training, but I'm like well  Having the urgent care position where I'm running this corporation's urgent care by myself, right? Oh, and supervising nurse practitioners and oh, wow. And I'm doing it. They're expecting me to do that straight from residency. So why am I so scared to do it for myself?

Um, so yeah, it was really the mindset from there. 

Yeah, I hope you all listen, man, because she is dropping some gems. And let me tell you, just in terms of yeah. The financial aspect like that's because I used to follow white coat investor when I just got out of residency, and  really set me up well and set me up to be able to do some of the stuff I'm doing right now.

And one of the things he says is to live like a resident, you know, and so you That's what you did. And that's, it's really good advice. I, I don't agree with everything he says, but that was definitely some good advice because like you said, you just upgrade to this lifestyle that is really at the top of your salary for most people.

And then it becomes unsustainable whole physicians living paycheck to paycheck and all this other stuff. So, That seemed like a very good move, and I'm assuming your practice is thriving, as I see you all over social media. 

Yeah, we've done well. Um, the biggest thing is that we kept our overhead low.

That's been, that was the smartest thing that we did. I didn't go take out a big bank loan right away on day one. I didn't get like a lavish office. You know, we got an open room suite. DPC is very simple. It's about you and the patient. And so we kept the model super low overhead, so we were profitable.

Very early. And then we brought on team and we even brought on a lean team. Really smart. You know, we brought on people part time and remote and just ways to really continue to keep the overhead low. Um, as we grew. Uh, so yeah, it's it's worked well by being strategic. 

, strategic, smart, all those things because people have this weird misconception about DPC that it cannot be profitable and cannot do this and do that.

And Dealing with insurance is expensive like you need all of this extra stuff. Your overhead automatically becomes so high. it's inherent in TPC that your overhead is low. And then, you know, of course, you make smart decisions to keep it as low as possible. So that is amazing. I just, I can't even talking about entrepreneurship makes me very excited.

So I'm trying to like stay focused,  but the one thing I want to talk about. Before we wrap up is the conversation with your husband. I literally just recorded an episode about talking to your partner about like dream life and different things and having those difficult conversations and you alluded to the fact that it wasn't just like 100%.

Yes, I am on board. So tell me a little bit about that. 

Yeah, mostly because neither of us had any idea what direct primary care was, you know, and so I, you know, went on YouTube and started looking at conferences and educating myself and then all of a sudden I'm on fire for this new random thing and he's like, never heard of it.

What is that? What do you mean you're not signing that contract? Uh, you know, so it was more of like, I've never heard of that.  And so it involved us both getting educated together. There was a podcast, my DPC. story. So we both started listening to those episodes together. We started, you know, when I would see something and it would be like a spouse giving their feedback on being the spouse of a DPC doc, I would send him that, you know, so we really started.

Investigating it as a couple, um, and learning entrepreneurship. Well, what is his role? Okay, you know, what is that going to look like? And what is what is the business plan and how you know, we wanted to be successful for going to do it. We want to be successful. So what does that look like? So it was mostly the education component.

And then we're people of faith. So we had to pray on it. And God confirmed for him like, Yeah, this is what what your family's called to do. And so that's really what we needed. Um, was to just be in agreement to be prayerful and to be educated, but have a specific plan on and strategy that made sense for for the likelihood of success.

Right? I love that. And this can be used for any situation, anything that you are dreaming about doing involving your partner early, because a lot of times you have these ideas, these desires inside. It's ruminating in your mind for however long. And then when it finally comes out, The person is like, well,  and it may come off as, you know, not supportive or whatever, but you've, you've had time to digest this, right?

And dropping it on them can sometimes be a little bit shocking. So it's always better to just.  You know, learn together, as you said, and, um, really have the vision together because you're all together. You might as well be doing it, um, as a team. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. I love your story.

This makes me so excited and happy. Right. Dr Toya: So if you had any piece of advice

for another Physician mom out there, 

a physician entrepreneur

or otherwise, 

what would it be?  

It would really be about thinking about what they're called to do. Like, what brings them joy? The reason they're put here. And  what needs to happen to make that happen?

It's like I really try to think about 

not "if" but "how".

So it's not, if it can happen,

but like, how can that happen? Like? 

Oh, I need help in the house.

Like, okay, 

it doesn't look like 

that can happen on paper, but how can that happen? You know, how can I get the help I need around the house? How can I start the business?

How can I be, um, have an employed position 

that's really fulfilling? You know, how, 

how can that look? And so I really think of the 

not 'if', but 'how' mindset 

and, you know, for me being prayerful 

and really building my DPC 

around my dream life, 

not my dream life 

trying to fit that into the peg hole of how anyone else's DPC looks.

So, yeah, I'm really just about

wellness and fulfillment 

and doing what I'm called to do

in my purpose 

and anything I dream 

or desire to do,

figuring out how that can happen and not having limiting beliefs. 

I just want to highlight my favorite part of what you said is fitting your DPC around your dream life, because especially with entrepreneurship and even if you're employed, you try to fit your life around this job, this thing that we have worked so hard for that seems to be all encompassing and the most important thing, but it really isn't like COVID taught us that, you know, the rise of mid levels and like all those things are telling us Do not make this the center of your world make your life the center you your family the things that you want the center and Then focus everything else around it, especially if you're an entrepreneur.

Yeah, I love it. I love it Oh my gosh, Dr. J, this was amazing. I'm so glad that you were able to come on and share your story and all of your amazing advice. And y'all listen to her, even if you do not want to start at DPC, which you should, that's how we're going to take back medicine. Um, even if you don't, these things that she's talking about, most of the things that I talk about on this podcast can be transferred.

No matter what you're doing, if you're employed, if you're married, if you're single,  these are like life lessons, like Dr. Jade just improved your life right now, right?  So thank you so much for joining and sharing everything with the Stethoscopes and Strollers family. 

Thank you so much for having me. 

Yes.

All right. So Doc, I will see you next time on another episode of Stethoscopes and Strollers. Bye.