Designing Your Practice Around Your Dream Life: Insights from Dr. Jade Norris
March 12, 2025
As Physician moms, we often structure our lives around our practices – adjusting our family time, personal needs, and dreams to fit the demands of our career. But what if we reversed that equation?
In this week's inspiring conversation with Family Medicine and Obesity Physician Dr. Jade Norris, I discovered a powerful alternative approach: building your practice around your dream life.
From Residency to Entrepreneurship
One of the most striking aspects of Dr. Jade's story is her bold decision to open a Direct Primary Care (DPC) practice immediately after residency – while parenting two young children.
"For whatever reason, in my mind, I feel like it's easier straight from residency in a lot of ways," she shared. "Established Physicians have an established attending Physician lifestyle. They've already upgraded their lifestyle. For me, I'm coming out of residency – anything over this is gravy."
This perspective allowed her to maintain a resident-level lifestyle while building her practice with minimal financial pressure. She started with a part-time urgent care position (10 shifts per month) to create stability, then gradually reduced those shifts as her practice grew.
The Low-Overhead Approach
Perhaps the most practical advice Dr. Jade offered was about keeping overhead low: "We kept our overhead low. That's been 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 a lavish office."
By starting with an open-room suite and focusing on the essential doctor-patient relationship, her practice became profitable early. She built her team strategically, bringing on part-time and remote staff to maintain that lean approach as they grew.
Navigating Early Motherhood During Training
Dr. Jade's journey is even more remarkable considering she had her first child during her intern year – in the midst of the pandemic.
When I asked how she managed, she laughed: "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."
Without family nearby, she and her husband relied on daycare and each other. Despite these challenges, she took four months of leave, even though it meant delaying her graduation – a decision that aligned with her entrepreneurial plans.
Finding Peace with Breastfeeding Struggles
Many Physician moms will relate to Dr. Jade's candid discussion of her breastfeeding journey. Despite her best efforts, she wasn't a high producer and experienced significant pain while pumping.
"I had in my mind that I wanted to be one of these moms with the freezer full of milk," she shared. "And that just wasn't my story."
With her second child, she gave herself grace: "I was formula fed. My first daughter was formula fed... And at that point, you know, second baby gets the laid-back mom."
This evolution represents something many of us experience – the shift from rigid expectations to compassionate flexibility as we grow as parents.
Bringing Your Partner Along on the Journey
One aspect of Dr. Jade's story that particularly resonated was how she approached entrepreneurship as a family decision. When her husband initially questioned her plan to open a DPC instead of taking a traditional position, she didn't push forward alone.
"It involved us both getting educated together," she explained. They listened to podcasts, researched, and learned about entrepreneurship as a couple. This collaborative approach created alignment and shared ownership of their vision.
The "Not If, But How" Mindset
Perhaps the most powerful takeaway from our conversation was Dr. Jade's approach to obstacles: "I really try to think about not if but how. So it's not if it can happen, but like how can that happen."
This mindset shift applies to everything from finding household help to starting a business to creating a fulfilling employed position. It removes limiting beliefs and opens paths to possibilities we might otherwise dismiss.
Building Medicine Around Life, Not Life Around Medicine
The insight that most deeply struck me was Dr. Jade's emphasis on "fitting your DPC around your dream life" rather than contorting your life to fit a predetermined practice model.
As she put it: "COVID taught us that... Do not make [medicine] 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."
This philosophy can transform how we approach not just our practices, but our entire relationship with medicine.
Your Turn to Dream
Whether you're considering entrepreneurship, seeking a more aligned employed position, or simply wanting to recalibrate your current practice, Dr. Jade's journey offers valuable insights.
The question isn't if you can create a medical career that supports your dream life – it's how.
What would your practice look like if you designed it around your dream life? What small step could you take toward that vision today?
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