Healthcare should always prioritize the well-being of the patient and must be done in the most personalized way to properly address their specific needs. Dr. Kimberly Works wanted her medical practice to be grounded in time and trust, and therefore found her way into concierge medicine. She joins Dr. Sylvia Morris and Dr. Angela Walker to share how she delivers quality care directly to children’s homes and creates an incredible rapport with them in the process. She explains how she balances equity with entrepreneurship, as well as the role of persistence in maintaining business growth. Dr. Works also talks about the importance of getting therapy, the right way to find joy in your career to avoid burnout, and the unique happiness found in taking care of dogs.
Music courtesy of Dealer’s Choice Sound Recordings, Inc.
Music artist: djezi
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
How One Pediatrician Traded Volume for Connection: Concierge Medicine With Dr. Kimberly Works
The Power of Persistence
We are talking to Dr. Kimberly Works of Pediatric Works. Dr. Works is a proud graduate of South Carolina State, a Pediatrician who’s built her own concierge practice, Pediatric Works, and a traveler who believes that medicine is as much about people as it is about science. Dr. Works is a story of bold leaps, answering the call to pediatrics, reshaping care by bringing it into children’s homes, and building a practice grounded in time, trust, and access.
Along the way, Dr. Works has learned how to balance equity with entrepreneurship, guard against burnout, and find joy in new adventures. Let’s dive into her journey and the lessons that continue to guide her. Before we hear from Dr. Works, let’s talk about persistence. Angela, when have you felt persistent or when have you had examples of persistence along your journey?
I feel like my experience pales in comparison to Dr. Works’ examples of persistence. I just think they’re fabulous. I can’t wait for our readers to know how persistent I think she was all along her journey. For me, I think the dream that I’ve had before we moved to Georgia of moving beyond the fifteen minutes that I get in the office with patients, I knew that there was something else that would be valuable to my patients, some type of model, but I didn’t know what. Ultimately, it came to finding out that I needed to change myself. Changing the way I was practicing helped me to formulate that idea of moving into the health and wellness space and being able to coach and teach and speak.
I feel like you say where’s persistence and all that? It was the persistent idea of I knew that there was something else I could do and I was persistent in the movement towards this change that I’ve made and trying to persistent in trying to find out how could this work for me and me still make a living, but still fulfill my dream to myself and to my patients? I think it goes along with finding your agency and the ability to say no to things sometimes is an example of being persistent on your journey because you’re saying no to things that keep you from moving forward in your journey. How about you?
My entire life is one of persistence. Thank you for helping me think about how am I continuing to be persistent. My journey into media and doing television, and even this show and being a subject matter expert was one of persistence. I was in academics and I would email the media relations person at our academic medical center every six weeks. I would say, “I’m this hospitalist here. I’m really interested in using media to improve public health. Would love to have an opportunity to represent said medical center.” Finally, after about a year of no responses, I received an email. I went on the Weather Channel and the rest is history.
Tell us your position now.
Let’s just say that I am able to represent some organizations for social media.
My title is Social Media Guru and Television Subject Matter Expert.
Speaker, Moderator. I love doing a panel and being a moderator. Coming back to Dr. Works’ story, what I think our readers will take home are just so many pearls about the importance of persistence and how it looks differently for each individual. Coming up is Dr. Kimberly Works of Pediatric Works.
We are in for a treat. We have Dr. Kimberly Works, who is a Concierge Pediatrician. Dr. Works, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me, ladies.
Dr. Kimberly Works, A Proud HBCU Graduate
I am so excited to have you here. You had so many things that we’d like to talk about and touch on and amazing things that you are doing. First of all, we know that you are a proud HBCU graduate.
South Carolina State.
Shirley Mae Smalls and Representative James Clyburn are alumnus of South Carolina State, along with our very own Dr. Works. I had to get that in there.
I graduated in 2002. Long time ago.
Tell us how that experience shaped you, maybe not just as a physician, but as a person.
I had an opportunity to go to South Carolina State on a track and field scholarship. I was there for four years, ’98 to 2002. Basically, I ran hurdles there and how it shaped me, and the reason why I talked about athletics, because athletics shape you quite a bit. It teaches you how to be a team player, which I think we’re losing now. It teaches you to also think about people who may not perform as well as you can. That was the track part. I ran track pretty much all my life. I did summer track at Quicksilver, down in Atlanta. I can’t forget about that, even though now I’m not as fast for sure as I used to be.
You’re fast for your age group.
Maybe. I had some knee surgeries and stuff like that. That was the past life. It definitely shaped me to who I am now as far as hard work and a team player. I stayed, specifically taught community and I didn’t realize that until I left South Carolina State because you get spoiled. Your professors know your name and concerned about you and what are your goals in life. When I left and I went to University of Louisville grad school, it was like we had a create that, which we already had. As we continue on to medical school and residency, those communities were even harder to create.
Why do you think those communities are harder to create?
I think because they don’t want us to be there. We still do have a low representation of African Americans in healthcare. I feel like now it should be better. I think we’re like 5% in healthcare.
Thirteen percent of the population.
I think by design, they don’t want us there, to be quite honest. You have to create your own community while stressed out with medical school and everything that goes with that. At South Carolina State, the community was there. I didn’t even know it was there. You got spoiled with it being there until I left and went to higher education and realized that I have to create this. I think in University of Louisville, we created association for minorities and I was the secretary. Medical school is a lot of blur.
African Americans still have low representation in healthcare. They have to create their own community there while being stressed out with medical school. Share on XDid you have SNMA?
It was such a blur because right now, I’m in a book club and we read the book on legacy and she talks about her journey in medical school. In the group, I’m the only physician, so the other women were pretty shocked about some of the stuff that happened. I was like, “I’m not because that’s my experience and/or I forgot.” I forgot a lot of stuff. Reading the book made me from remember things that I had went through.
Getting Into Medical School
It’s the PTSD of it all. Can you talk about what drew you into medicine and where you went to med school?
I always an athlete. I was always going to something reference to the body. Initially, I was very scared. I decided med school late. I was junior year in college, perhaps when I finally decided. I’ll be very honest with you because this is an honest show, it’s because I did not believe I was smart enough. I’m not saying these disciplines aren’t smart. I was thinking about doing physical therapy. I was thinking about Chiropractic medicine. It’s very important, which I tell people, not just medicine, any job you want to do, you need a shadow. I shadowed someone at the VA hospital.
How did that come about? I think those are key points in terms of how you got that opportunity.
It’s funny because I was telling my niece about this, because she wants to go to med school, you have to open your mouth and bother people. I look back at my journey, I’ve bothered a lot of people, even in residency, and we’ll talk about that in a second. I don’t know about how I rotated with the physical therapist, but I do remember one summer just driving around primary care doctors, going to their office and say, “Can I shadow you for the summer?”
Was this in Orangeburg? Was this in Atlanta?
This is Atlanta.
Just driving around and asking and they’ll be polite and say, “Yes, I’ll get back to you.” We had emails then. I’m making myself old. This is before social media and stuff. I don’t know if LinkedIn was there. Maybe it was, I’m not sure. I don’t know. I remember just going to the clinics and asking to speak to the office manager and they’re very polite. They say yes or no and move on. Just putting yourself in those predicaments. Persistence, like a little bug.
Shaping A Resilient Mindset And Going Into Pediatrics
I just want to recap everything I’ve heard so far. You have resilience. You had that atmosphere that you actually had probably a lot of confidence may be instilled on you that you didn’t really realize when you were at South Carolina State. You took that into grad school and had to create your own environment that continued to nurture you. All along, you’ve got this moxie, this resilience, and this confidence. I’d still love to hear about how you decided to go into pediatrics, but I’d also like to know where you think you got that from.
I am dyslexic. I think that’s where it came from. Dyslexic, ADHD. I wasn’t diagnosed. I actually diagnosed myself in med school for dyslexia. We were in neurology and the professor was talking and I was like, “That’s me.” I talked to him after and he was like, “Yeah, sounds like it. What going to do now?” It was such an eye-opening experience because, again, I didn’t think I was smart. I never understood why it took me a little longer than everyone else to read a package or understand something.
That is where that came from. I think that moxie and then my parents also didn’t know, but they did the best they can like, “If you want it, go get it,” and so forth. That’s essentially where that came from, for sure. As far as pediatrics is concerned, I know I definitely wanted to be a doctor. I did know. Initially, I wanted to be a businesswoman. Remember Dallas?
Yes.
Remember Paige?
I’m from Dallas.
Remember Paige on the show? She was younger. She was White. She always had a bad business suit on. For some reason, I wanted to be that. Initially it was business and then I was business in high school. My senior year, I took some business courses, accounting and so forth. I was bored out of my mind. Going to school, “What are you going to pick?” I literally looked at my grades like, “You’re always did good in science.”
That’s how biology came and then it was like, “Medicine sounds great, but you’re not that smart enough for medicine. Let’s do physical therapy, let’s try other things.” I shadowed on those disciplines and I didn’t care for them. I’m not saying anything’s wrong with them. I didn’t care for them. It was my junior year in college, “Let’s go.” That’s how I decided on medicine.
When you said that you shadowed the physician, was that helpful? It sounds like it was obviously helpful in determining, “Yes, this is where I need to be, my calling.” Was that physician in particular helpful in showing you that you could do it?
I didn’t shadow a physician, I don’t believe. I went around and asked. It did not work out. I do remember probably shadow my own doctor. I don’t remember showering any physician. I’m sure I did, obviously, but I can’t recall at this point while I’m talking to you. I just remember things that shadowing and I didn’t like it. How about that?
Graduating Outside Of The United States
You’re a graduate of St. George’s University. Can you talk about your journey to med school and how you elected to go there? Certainly, graduating outside of the United States has its own unique set of challenges. It certainly creates really resilient, great docs. Talk about that for our readers, please.
Any Caribbean doc is very resilient, I can just tell you that. Typically older because we didn’t get into US schools for the most part, so we had to seek elsewhere. I decided on medicine “late” and started the MCAT and all that stuff late and did not get into med school. It took three tries. I am a poor test taker because I’m dyslexic. Trying to figure it out. I believe I took the MCAT three times. I did Kaplan. Remember Kaplan in preschool? I remember Kaplan.
I did all those things. A friend of mine was in Caribbean school, so I applied. I got into Ross University first, and then a couple of months later, I got into St. George’s. I prefer St. George’s because it’s the Princeton of Caribbean medical school, as they say. From my understanding, Ross, I had to go there and find housing myself where St. George’s had on campus housing.
All the difference in the world. Tell us where St. George’s is.
Grenada, West Indies. I’m not sure now, but then, you do two years on the island and then you rotate your clinicals in the US And so I landed in Jersey for my clinicals.
They find your clinicals, which is also a distinction.
Everything is set up for you.
I remember I met some student. I wasn’t a student as of yet, but she was in Caribbean school. I can’t remember which one, honestly. I remember she had set up her own clinical rotations throughout the US.
That’s a great limiting step.
St. George’s, everything was in one. Everything was set up for you to, to pass. Housing was there. I was on campus all semester. My last semester, I think I moved off because I wanted to be grown.
Did you have an apartment on the beach? Please tell us it was the beach.
It was.
That led me to my question. For me, when I think about med school in the Caribbean, because of my love for the beach, all I think about is, “It’s so beautiful to be in that atmosphere,” but you had to do your two years of medical school and I know what medical school is like. You don’t probably get to enjoy it as much as someone thinks that you’re actually enjoying all the atmosphere out there because for the most part, you’re in the books,
Everyone thinks, “You’re in the island. You had fun.” No. I don’t remember the water because you’re still in med school. I remember I was walking, I was exhausted. I looked, the water’s right there, like just a blur. Maybe after tests. I can’t remember the names, but people would go to the beach and have parties and stuff after our finals. Essentially, the day of day, I did not. I enjoyed Grenada once I graduated and came back to visit.
Why Dr. Works Chose Pediatric Medicine
That’s like DC for me. There are so many things we could have done when we were in Washington DC and free. There was no time. I enjoy it now when I’m going back. At the end of the day, obviously, you came out of this as an MD. Tell us how you chose pediatrics. I personally always wanted to be a pediatrician. I did my rotation in OB-GYN prior to PD. I fell in love with it. I certainly know the calling, but how did you decide?
It’s funny because I wanted to do OB a little bit. It was like OB and ER. It’s funny how people are planning into your life. As far as OB is concerned, I was in an OB resident rotation. Mother had a vaginal delivery, and you’re the student and you’re standing by and all this other stuff. The baby came out and went to the corner. I remember telling myself, and this is a true story, “You can’t leave.”
I wanted to go over there and see what he was doing, but you cannot. That’s when I was like, “Maybe you should do peds.” It was PDR. My family medicine teacher, I was telling him, “I want to do PDR and stuff.” He looked at me, he was like, “Kim, I’ve known you for six weeks now. You are not ER because you want to know how’s grades, how school.”
You’re a pediatrician.
You want continuity of care.
He’s still in Jersey. He’s a family medicine doc. He’s over the family medicine residency program out there. Now I’m a primary care pediatrician.
Making The Leap Into Concierge Medicine
Talk about that. Talk about your leap into concierge medicine because when I think about concierge, I think your business skills have to be really tight. You also have to make certain that you know where your patients are going to come from because there is no structure. You are the structure. Talk about how you decided to go into concierge medicine.
It sounds crazy because now I think back, I’m like, “You didn’t know what you were doing at all. Let’s do it.” I was vice chair of a traditional hospital system for three and a half years after residency. I was miserable.
Why were you miserable?
There was a lot of racial issues going on. I was only pediatrician in the office, so I was always underhanded or treated badly. I’ll never forget a time when the nurses said to me, “I hate what they made us do to you when you first got here.” I did not want to ask her what it was.
Do you mind sharing where you were? Not necessarily at the institution, but what state or city?
South Georgia. I remember her saying that and I was like, “Don’t ask any more questions.” It just wasn’t a good situation for me.
Were you down there doing for loan repayment or you just decided to work in South Georgia?
Loan repayment. I was training in Jersey. I graduated residency in Jersey. I went to my clinicals in Jersey and then I went to residency in Jersey. I have to say this, I know that you didn’t ask this question, but if students are watching, I can tell you how I got into residency. My scores, again, have always struggled because I’m not a good test taker because of ADHD, etc.
I remember I was rotating Beth Israel and doing well and they really liked me. When it’s time for applications and so forth, I was not getting interviews. I went to Dr. Neil, never met him before. I went to her office. I said, “I’m Kimberly Works. Can I have an interview?” She looked at me and she was caught back. She said, “Okay.” That is how I got into residency program. Obviously, I had to go through the interview and all the other stuff, but if you don’t open your mouth, it’s not going to happen.
If you do not open your mouth, big changes will not happen. Share on XThat agency and advocacy that you have for yourself says a lot about what you feel in terms of your self-worth, despite all the other circumstances. I think that’s such great insight for those that may be wanting to follow in your footsteps. Thank you for sharing that.
All they can do is tell you no.
You go find your yes.
Keep asking. I know you didn’t ask that, but I just want to mention that. I went to South Georgia, worked there for three years and was not happy. I remember asking one of my friends who started with me. We started at the same time during rotations. He’s the psychologist. I remember talking to him, I said, “Can you be burnt out in three years?” He was like, “Yeah.” In three years, you’re already burnt out because I saw 35 patients a day. They wanted me to see 40.
PD patients?
That’s how pediatric practices are. You document at night. I document at night. When my last patient was done, I was done. I used to leave and go walk my dog or so forth.
Is that Lola or was that a different dog?
That was Lola. She was waiting for me. She was a savior, for sure, having her there. I would walk her and then I used to go to gym at 5:00 AM. I still do. After going to gym, then I would chart and then start my day. That’s how I did mine. It was always like, what are you missing or what are you going to miss? It’s always 3:00, 4:00 patient who’s depressed and you have to get them admitted and all the other stuff.
It was just definitely long days. I wasn’t happy there. Even though I tried, I wasn’t happy at all. One of the nights I was not sleeping, I was on Facebook at the time or something. I saw an article, a pediatrician doing this type of model, direct primary care concierge in North Carolina. I started to dig and find out there’s a whole DPC, direct patient care organization.
I went to some conferences and everyone just seems so much happier because it’s on their own terms. Essentially, that’s it. It’s on your own terms. It’s a different type of stress because you don’t have the systems in place. If it fails, it is on you. They were just so happy. I started to, in my free time, think about what I was going to do in my next life. I moved back to Atlanta. My parents were like, “You are going to leave that good job.”
With benefit the job.
That’s what parents say.
They’re still saying it now. The benefits.
“You are not going to take insurance.” They were very concerned at the time, which I can understand. My mom was fine. “She’s a board-certified by pediatrician. She can find a job anywhere.”
Your mom said this?
She did say that. They’ve been on the rollercoaster as well with me, the poor scoring or having to test over again. When I decided to go concierge, my mom and dad were like, “What’s happening?” They’re like, “She’s a board-certified pediatrician. It doesn’t work, she’ll get a job somewhere else.” They like, “Okay.”
Building Rapport With Patients At Their Own Homes
That is absolutely the truth. It’s interesting because so many pearls that you are dropping for those that are wanting to go into medicine, but maybe even a completely different career, even for those that are wanting to change what they’re currently doing. I’d like to talk a little bit more about what you’re doing because it’s so fascinating to me. I’ve read that you said your practice is built on time, trust, and access. How does caring for children in their homes shift that doctor-patient relationship compared to being in that traditional exam room where it sounds like you only have like 10- or 15-minutes max with a patient?
A few things. My practice is home-based, office-based, virtual. My appointments are like an hour long. No more than an hour. Usually, I’m just talking to the parents. We’re talking about travel. With that being said, when I go to the home, if I’m there for an hour at, I see here in the hour, we are building a rapport. They’re feeling comfortable with me, I feel comfortable with them. When I go to the home, and I have an opportunity to go to someone’s home, you’re on their turf. They’re typically more comfortable than if they come to the office. You get to see things and they exposed more at home or just the fact that they are getting to know me a little bit faster than if it was like a five-minute appointment.
Bringing medical care straight to people’s homes allow doctors to know their patients a little bit faster than a five-minute appointment. Share on XIt’s trust. I love my clients, my patients, because I actually learn a lot from them. It doesn’t take an hour to see a kid. Usually, we’re done and we’re talking about whatever. I get a lot of joy learning from them. One of my clients is actually a nutritionist, two of them. I would’ve never known that before. I actually didn’t know their names before, everyone was mom like, “Hi mom, hi dad.” You’re seeing four patients a day. Now I actually know them and know what’s going on in their lives.
Also, like the nutritionist, I refer clients to her. I would’ve never known any of that if I didn’t have the time to do it. I had a client, we were here for like an hour and a half. We were just talking. Mom and Dad were talking. Baby was fine. The baby is one month old. I was learning from them. I didn’t know people rolled their skates for exercise. I know you did it but they’re serious about it. They go to the rink.
She was telling me how she can’t wait to get back to skating because she wants to lose the baby weight and stuff. She’s going to go skate and then dad will sit with the baby because the baby’s one month old. They’ll switch off every twenty minutes. That’s how they work out. I didn’t know that. That might be something because I have skates. It was bad but I have skates. I went to the run on the trail and my dog, Lola, was like, “You don’t look steady.”
It was bad. It’s all thigh. I’m learning from them. I think that’s pretty cool. I learn from patients because you get to see them who they are. If it’s a harder conversation to have, then I can have that harder conversation because they know who I am and I know who they are as far as having a conversation with them. Some of my clients want me to take them straight. Some want me to draw a diagram. Some just say, “Just take care of it.” The fact that I can spend time with them longer, I know how to come at them. Not like attack them. Come at them, what they need to know.
Finding Strength In The Most Unusual Places
Dr. Works, you have had a really colorful career and journey. If you could go back and talk to your 22-year-old self who’s just finishing South Carolina state and is thinking about this journey of medicine, what would you say to her?
You’ll be okay. I know that probably sounds really like whatever, but you’ll be okay because I was plagued with a lot of anxiety because of dyslexia. You wouldn’t have known it seeing me because I can hide the insecurities very well. I think a lot of us can. Looking back, I did become that businesswoman that I told you about. Everything worked out. It took longer than I expected, but that’s okay.
You’re on your path.
You had to walk through the areas that did not serve you well. Just as you eliminated the things that you knew you didn’t want to do, like physical therapy and things like that, you worked in a practice that you knew was not serving you or your patients.
Also, the places that didn’t serve me well ended up making me stronger. I didn’t see that before. Med school, even though I don’t remember a lot of it, made me stronger. My first job made me stronger. I was the second person that had this kind of practice in Atlanta. The person who had it before he’s a man. He retired at his ten-year mark, my first year.
Why did he retire?
He was older. Definitely older. He was in his 60s, perhaps. Same scenario. He was working for a system, got sad, and opened up his own practice. Being a relatively new practice, concierge, direct primary care, cash-based, no insurance, Black female in Atlanta. Three months after I started, COVID happened. All these things made it much difficult. Also, I didn’t go to school in Atlanta. I didn’t train in Atlanta. Having to network, trying to build those connections with other physicians in the area so I can refer to them and they can refer to me. Looking back, it sounded crazy, but sometimes you do things. You realize, looking back, it’s like, “Girl, you had to make your own website and trying to figure that out,” and accounting.
Adapting To The Restrictions Of COVID-19
Let’s go back to, COVID happened three months into you starting a cash-based concierge pediatric practice.
Do you see why my parents were scared?
Talk to us just about how COVID impacted you, how you navigated the anxiety around that. That’s a big deal. I don’t want us to go by that.
COVID started three months after we closed down, let’s just say. We closed down at mid-March, I think. I was three months into my practice. I remember someone mentioning to me, one of the faults after, one of the reasons why I applied businesses don’t work out is because we don’t have a marketing budget. If I had a marketing budget and a nice crisp website and emails going out and a following and so forth, when COVID happened, I would’ve been able to pivot really fast.
That also would’ve implied that you had huge capital sitting around for your marketing budget and you weren’t a physician that is newer in the world. Come on now. That’s pie in the sky.
I didn’t have any of that. I was building my practice and working, picking up odd jobs. I worked at something called Kids Time. It was urgent care at night. I was picking up locum shifts.
While you were working on your concierge practice, you also did locums, other income streams to support your practice until it could actually really take off on its own.
Support my practice and support me. I did have a savings. When I was in my first job, I was in Tifton, Georgia, thinking about branching out, at the time, I did have a financial advisor. I got a financial advisor because I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I was like, “I need my stuff to be together.” Scott Silver is my financial advisor since 2017. He was making sure of all the adult stuff you’re supposed to have. I remember telling him, “This is what I want to do.” He said, “Alright, do it. You need to have a one-year savings before you do it.” I did have money. I didn’t think I had money. It was a scarcity mindset. My account wasn’t getting better.
You had that saving.
I did, but didn’t think about it. I had a scarcity mindset. I was picking up odd jobs or whatever, working in hospital shifts, working in urgent care for a while, while I was building my practice and learning how to be a businesswoman. It’s totally different. I remember I had someone came in and did a meet and greet and so she was telling me why she was interested because every time she went to her pediatrician’s office, she saw somebody else. I was like, “Let’s talk about it.” Her child’s autistic and she’s telling me all things and I’m writing stuff down. I’m giving her a plan. I said, “She didn’t sign up.” My mentor was like, “Why would she? You done told her everything.”
You said everything that she needed.
“You’re a businesswoman now. You’re not a pediatrician. You’ve got to change that hat.” I was learning all that during that time. I remember one meet and greet. My first one, I was so excited. I said, “You’re my first meet and greet.” The mom looked at me, I was like, “I’ve been in medicine for a long,” but I’m sure I lost her. Learning how to present yourself in a business setting. Doctor, we’ve all trained, we know how to do that, but this is a different umbrella, a different tool I had to learn. During those COVID months, I was still learning business and still am to quite a degree. I don’t have it all down pat.
Tell us what was the turning point for you? Obviously, COVID just didn’t go away after the shutdown, so because you’re a board-certified pediatrician, you were able to work in these other avenues, as your mom said, “She’s not going to starve because she has other potential access to revenue.” Tell us how things actually turned around. At what point did you know, “This is really working and this is what’s going to work for me moving forward.”
Probably now okay because the first year of COVID was awash. The second year also, trying to build from that year. Around maybe year 3 or 4, I felt a little bit more like, “I can do this,” under my belt. Now, I definitely feel more comfortable in my position. I would say like year three and a half that I’ve been grinding, working here and there, and so forth to love on this stream.
I don’t want to misrepresent myself. There are times where, listen I remember a while ago, I was laying on the floor in my office like, “What is happening?” I think that’s part of also entrepreneurship. You do have your highs, your lows. I want to say like probably a year, three and a half, it was like, “This is going to work out.”
How A Black Female Pediatrician Seeks Support
I’m curious because we’re in traditional medicine, and I love the model that you have, but where are you seeking your support? As an entrepreneur, I understand there are a lot of avenues to get entrepreneurial support from a female perspective even and a Black female perspective. As a concierge medicine, Black female pediatrician, anyone out there or any avenues out there in terms of support systems for you?
I’m not sure if you’re asking this question, but it’s therapy. I’m a very strong proponent of therapy. That’s where I get my support from. Also, God, my family. I say therapy because I definitely recommend people who are going through this venture, it’s hard. It might not have been as hard for me if I knew who I was before going into it. I do have a therapist that helps quite a bit and just to pull me up off the ground, like, “It’s going to be alright.”
Other than that, other business owners. While I’ve been in the field, in the trenches, I’ve met other business owners with different disciplines. Lactation or physical therapy, or just anybody. Chiropractic, I’ve met people along the way and it’s joyful because even though it’s different disciplines, we all understand entrepreneurship grind. We all have several different jobs. My marketing team, you need somebody, I love them. We trade the good stuff. They definitely support, for sure.
People of different disciplines can be brought together especially if they all understand the entrepreneurship grind. Share on XDisconnecting Through Traveling And Dogs
Dr. Works, you mentioned joyful. I love that word. Where are the other places that you find joy? We’ve talked about burnout. Now you are hopefully on the other side of burnout. How do you find joy and what does your self-care look like?
Joy for me, one, is traveling. I’ll be going to Brazil. Definitely traveling, disconnecting. I like to hike. Some people like the water. I like to go in the woods and get lost, which is scary.
Nature bath.
For me, that’s a little scary, but yes
Same.
Me and my dog, because she’s a lap pit. She’s black coat. I think she gets hotter. Lola was not. Lola was brown coat. I think Joy gets hotter quicker. We’ll get up in the morning before all the sun comes out, get lost for a few hours and come back home. I’m definitely enjoying that.
I may be able to hike if I had that. I either had a Shih Tzu poodle or a bulldog.
Pierre would be right there with you,
A lab pit, that’s a great hiking dog.
Yes. We just go. That definitely gives me joy. She gives me joy as well. Her name is Joy. My family, my little nephew. I lost Lola. Lola died when she was three. She had cancer. We did the whole chemo thing. It didn’t work out. She went to live for a year. After she passed, a month later, I was walking the belt line and best friends, they were out with dogs.
Adoption?
Adoption. I saw her. I don’t know. I left. I said, “No, I’m not going to do this impulse thing.” I walked the trail. I was with a friend. We went to brunch and I told her, “If she’s here when I come back, I’ll take her.” I left and I came back and she was there. I said, “Okay, let’s go.” Her husband rolled his eyes and said, “She didn’t let anybody else take her. She was waiting for you to come back.” I was like, “Perfect.” That’s all that happened.
I named her joy because she made me smile. I know some people don’t understand, but losing a dog was a lot. Before having a dog, I was just like, “It’s a dog.” Now, I get it. Unfortunately, Lola has had to leave at three. She was still a baby when she got cancer. Yes, I cried like a five-year-old when she left. I can understand how much joy they give you. Even if you’re having a bad day, they’re going to come. Even if you’re mean to them, they’re still going to be there.
They pick up your mood, too. I realize that like when I am overwhelmed or something, Joy will come and like lay across my chest. I’m like, “I’m okay,” because I need to go meditate or something like that. They pick up on everything. Yeah, she definitely gives me joy. Traveling and my family and my little nephew now who’s two, these are people that give me a lot of joy.
Self-Care Through Workout And Meditation
It sounds like a lot of self-care that you’re actually giving yourself through those avenues. Anything else that you’d like to give our readers in terms of self-care regimens?
Sure. I am a true advocate of working out. I’ve always worked out. That’s just me because I’m was very athletic. I still work out. I lift four times a week still. I go hiking. Running, not so much because the knee is banged up. Lord is saying those days are over. Lifting, yoga, and trails are my things. Also, meditation. Even though I am slacking a little bit, but meditation does keep me grounded. Maybe like 10 to 15 minutes a day. It helps a lot with the medical so much.
Meditation can keep you grounded even if you are just doing it for around 15 minutes a day. Share on XIt sounds like you have a lot to offer to not only the patients that you care for, but for the parents as well.
I try.
That’s wonderful. Beautiful.
Get In Touch With Dr. Works
Dr. Works, you have left us with so many pearls and on behalf of our readers, we thank you so much. Where can people find you?
I’m located in Atlanta, Georgia. My office is in Sandy Springs. For those who are in Atlanta, it’s in Sandy Springs. Those who are not in Atlanta, it’s in Atlanta. It depends on where you are.
Do you do virtual visits?
I do virtual visits. I have an office and I do home visits. That’s me. Basically, Pediatric Works is myself and my assistant. I’m looking to grow to add some more people with me. My clients have me in the palm of their hands, meaning on the weekends or on after hours, something urgent is happening and they need to talk to me, they can. They give me a call and we have a conversation to see what the next steps are.
Where can people find you online?
It’s PediatricWorks.co. For Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, it’s Pediatric Works.
Perfect. Very good. We can’t thank you enough. We loved everything that you had to share with the audience. As I said, so many pearls that you dropped in this episode. We can’t wait for our readers to read all that you had to share. We thank you so much for taking the time and we know you’re a busy lady and until we meet again, may you be well.
Thank you so much for having me.
May you be well.
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Episode Takeaways From Dr. Angela And Dr. Sylvia
Sylvia, that was such a wonderful interview. I am so in awe of Dr. Works and her practice, Pediatric Works. I love the idea of concierge medicine. I never knew how that would work for me. Being an OBGYN and already have been on call, that part I can’t imagine. As a mother of two children and having the access to my pediatrician and I know the value of relationships.
It such an intimate way too. Coming to your home, having conversations. That’s like a home visit in addition to like a doctor’s visit. That’s fantastic.
For me to tell a parent, if I was a pediatrician, “You need to do this with your kids,” but I already know what the parents do. I know what their schedule looks like. I know all of the factors that could relate to this recommendation I’m giving. It gives you a completely different perspective in how someone is living and what they can and maybe cannot do in terms of their kids.
Anyway, I digress. We want to talk about pearls that we learned, but as I mentioned during the interview, she dropped so many, I was impressed, number one, with her moxie from the very beginning. Knocking on doors. You think about, this is before social media and everything, but just the notion of, “I just want to figure out what I want to do, so I’m going to just go out and see if I can see a chiropractor or what a physical therapist does, a physician does.”
That in and of itself comes from somewhere. I would love to find out how you can instill that into all kids. If you want to know something, you’ve got to go for it. You’ve got to go after it. Don’t be afraid of the no because she had plenty of noes. Be persistent. Moxie was one. Obviously, the relationship with the patients that she’s building and the patients’ families I think is beautiful in terms of pediatrics. Certainly, what I love to do. As she mentioned, you learn so much from patients. I bought a Peloton because of a patient.
I go to different restaurants because of a patient. Therapy because of a patient. Just things that you learn from other people. Places that I’ve traveled and have curated, visits in a different country because of what a patient has given me. There are so many relationships that you build. Obviously, we’re not spending tons of time on that, but as you learn to communicate with others in all aspects of medicine, you definitely learn a lot as patients are getting things from you. It’s a two-way street. I could relate to that.
I think lastly, I don’t know if she actually said it this way, but I loved her idea of curating her own community. She has the support because of the people in her life. They may not be pediatricians doing concierge medicine, but other entrepreneurs and people that can relate and support her. I had so many. The fourth one, the last one is normalizing therapy, which I think probably is the most important in my mind in our world right now. For us to be able to say, “I see a therapist and therapy is valuable.” There’s nothing wrong with therapy
I am a better human being because of my therapy. I tell him that all the time.
Same. I could go on and on but how about you? What did you glean?
Dr. Works left us with so many things. I know we need to have her back to continue our conversation. I know our readers have gleaned so many things. I’m going to focus on her self-care because Dr. Works talked about traveling and the importance of disconnecting when traveling. She talked about, I’m going to call it a nature bath, but her walks in the woods with her dog Joy, that brings her joy.
I was okay when she said the dog was with her.
Exactly. It’s a lab pit. That is ferocious. Also, her use of mindfulness techniques, again, whether it’s yoga and meditation. Dr. Works is embodying being a well physician as well as a well human being. I was just so happy to hear of all the various things that she does to keep herself joyful and to move from burnout to being a happy, joyful clinician, physician, pediatrician is really very important. I know that our readers will get some important techniques that maybe that they can incorporate into their own lives.
I’m so full after this episode and can’t wait for our readers to read. For those of you out there that enjoyed the episode or know of someone that this might be helpful for, please feel free to share. We’d love for you to like and definitely subscribe on YouTube. The YouTube channel is Boss Leap Podcast. You can also find us in all streaming platforms and also through our website, BossLeapPodcast.com. There is an avenue there for you to leave us your likes or your comments or any ideas for future episodes, things that you’d love to learn about. Please let us know. Until we meet again, may you be well.
Important Links
- Pediatric Works
- Dr. Kimberly Works on LinkedIn
- Pediatric Works on Instagram
- Pediatric Works on Facebook
- Pediatric Works on YouTube
- Pediatric Works on LinkedIn
- Boss Leap Podcast on YouTube
About Dr. Kimberly Works
After years in traditional healthcare settings, Dr. Works envisioned a better way. She created Pediatric Works to offer families more time, more trust, and more access.
Her approach blends medical excellence with cultural awareness and genuine connection—especially for those who have felt overlooked in conventional pediatric care.
Pediatric Works provides a full range of services, including home visits, telemedicine, same-day appointments, newborn care, vaccine consultations, and child healthcare consulting with an integrative mindset.
Dr. Works is known for her calm presence, clear communication, and deep commitment to helping children thrive.