When Dr. Marla Richardson-Price started focusing on family medicine, she was able to maximize her time and talents, serve her community much better, and vastly improve her relationships. In this conversation with Dr. Sylvia Morris and Dr. Angela Walker, she shares how her profession not only gave her life meaning but also positively transformed her connectedness with the people around her. Dr. Marla also discusses how she uses social media to promote awareness of public health, her self-care regimen, and what it is like to be in a sorority and a UBHC.
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Working In Family Medicine With Dr. Marla Richardson-Price
We are all set for an awesome conversation with Dr. Marla Richardson-Price. Before we get started with our conversation with Dr. Price, Angela, I have been thinking about the word connection. When I think about connection, as we age, it’s probably a little bit different. In my younger years, that means I was talking to you on the phone all the time or texting or staying in contact maybe on social media with Facebook. Now, it is more about those meaningful moments.
It may only be that twenty-minutes. I talked to Jessica, one of our co-authors on my way to the eye doctor. I know that is not fun. Nor sexy. However, we had fifteen uninterrupted moments and we were able to debrief. I said, “How are you?” She asked me how I was and those moments of connection, I find are so much more meaningful and important to me at this point in my life. Tell me about how you connect with people.
I would say that I’m just trying to be more intentional about connecting. I am taking a page from your playbook. You may have noticed the last meeting that I went to. I sent you a postcard from that meeting because you are so good at old-fashioned writing. It’s a quick message, but people feel so special when they get something in the mail. My kids even. Although they don’t write, but they love to see that they’ve gotten something in the mail. Other than a bill and we said you get it now.
More importantly, taking the time to do it when you think about it. I got some stationary when I was on the last trip, maybe not everyone reading, but we certainly have an age where you know that our days are not promised. We have plenty of people that have transitioned and you wonder, “Why didn’t I reach out to that person when I was thinking about them?”
I try not to let the days go by when I’m thinking about someone to either connect via text. Mostly, I prefer the phone particularly for me because I’ve transitioned from being in full-time practice to being in the office in the hospital where you’re connecting on a daily basis with patients, colleagues and nurses. Which is always the highlight of my days just hearing people’s stories and connecting to working from home and still involved in medicine but not direct patient care.
It’s important. A lot of people have noticed, even with the pandemic. Being able to work from home, there’s a blessing and a curse involved in that if you are not actively engaged in staying connected to other people. Try to take advantage of the invites that we get now and not saying, “I don’t feel like it.” Take advantage of the time to go out and connect with other people and have the conversation. Most importantly with my loved ones, friends and family.
We are connected forever. She cannot shake us, Dr. Marla Richardson-Price. We want to invite you, Dr. Marla, to the show and thank you for coming on.
Thank you for having me. I’m excited. Good to see you, ladies.
We’ve been waiting for you.
Finally, got it together. Life has been life-ing for us all, but in due time it was meant to be and it is now.
Career Journey
Our background is, all of us met at Georgetown School of Medicine. Tell us a little bit about your background and your experience at Georgetown. What have you done since then?
That’s loaded. That’s a long time. We graduated many years ago. I know we all look very young and it hasn’t been that long, but that was a while ago. I am Dr. Marla Richardson-Price. As she said, we met at Georgetown, but I did my undergrad training at Howard University. I was in the Washington DC area for a very long time coming from Orlando, Florida. My background is in Family Medicine. However, I have done several things since then.
The one thing that family medicine has provided me is the ability to pretty much put my toes and fingers into every aspect of medicine. That’s one of the reasons why I chose that specialty, but I’m from Orlando, Florida. I am a single mother of a graduated high school young man. I came back to Orlando after living in the DC area because as I said, this is my hometown. I chose to come back here because I wanted to serve the community that had raised me.
I want to provide everything that I had learned up in the big city and the Capital of Washington DC, whether it was from undergrad or for medicine. I wanted to bring that back to my community. I thought that it was my duty to bring knowledge and education to the community from a medical standpoint and from a leadership standpoint. Plus, my mom was here and I am her only child. I had to come back to where my mom was and where my roots were.
Since graduating, as I said from Georgetown, I have done pretty much every aspect of medicine that you could think of from hospital to in-home care. I found my passion in pretty much every aspect of that. I’m sure we’ll get into it later. In many things that we do, our passion changes. Sometimes based on situations or experiences. As I mentioned earlier, it has been a blessing that family practice has been my choice of specialty because it opened up a broad spectrum of many avenues for me to be able to practice medicine.
Our passion changes based on our situations and experiences. Share on XMarla, tell us an early passion. How did it was time to evolve from that particular passion or let it go to move to the next?
Early passion would be from a child. I always said I wanted to be a pediatrician and that was my specialty of choice. I love kids. It’s funny because even after I graduated, I was in the Orlando area practicing for a while. If someone hadn’t seen me in a while but they knew our practice medicine. They’re like, “Are you a pediatrician?” I’m like, “Sort of, yes.” I’m a family medicine, which allows me to be a pediatrician as well, but my love for kids I found through residency was for the whale child.
I wasn’t prepared emotionally to take care of the sick child. When I thought of being a pediatrician, I thought of being in the room playing with the babies, kissing all over the babies and then jumping around. I realized that emotionally, I was not equipped to care for the NICU, the Neonatal. That was not in my ability emotionally. Although I wanted to take care of kids, that’s where my passion for pediatrician changed to family medicine.
In practice in family medicine, again, I found joy in taking care of the infant all the way to adolescence and then also incorporating care for the parent. You learn a lot about people and their family dynamics. Learning their family dynamics plays a huge part in you being able to be the physician that they need you to be and I found joy in that, but then that changed. There have been so many changes in medicine and I find myself being more of a patient advocate physician.
You learn a lot about people through their family dynamics. Share on XWhen my patients couldn’t get what I knew they needed, whether it was insurance reasons, finances or whatever the case may be. That played a toll on me not being able to be the type of physician that I thought they needed me to be. I was looking for other opportunities or other ways to care for the patient outside of direct patient, if that makes sense.
That makes complete sense. It’s a huge reason why I’ve made it a transition as well. It’s funny that you say that because if anybody asked me what you are. I say pediatrician. I think because when we both came into medical school, I wanted to be a pediatrician as well. I always thought of you and knew you were good with kids.
Family Medicine
This is all good information particularly for anyone making transitions in life, but particularly for any young women that are in medicine. There are things that we think we want to do and sometimes, it does serve you well but then later, you grow into wanting to go into another area. Family Medicine has allowed you to do that. Can you tell us what that looks like now for you? What are you involved in?
Medicine has always been my passion. Whatever I was going to do is going to have to be in the field of medicine. As we all get older, as I said, things change. Responsibilities change, becoming a parent and then being a single parent in medicine. It was very difficult. My focus outside of my career became my family. In becoming more focused on my family, that meant that I had to be better in time management. Being a complete hands-on and direct patient care in the clinic, 9:00 to 5:00 did not work for my family, especially with me being a single parent.
I wanted to be the parent that was at every basketball game. I wanted to be the parent that was at the boy scouts. I wanted to be at any performance that he was doing and a lot of times, my clinic schedule did not allow for that. I did not want someone else to have to tell me what my child was doing. I wanted to be present. COVID changed a lot of that as well as far as my availability. My passion never changed, but the way that I had to satisfy my passion did.
My passion has always been patient care and patient advocacy. Prior to what I am doing, I was doing in-home care. I was a primary care physician that traveled around the city and provided care to patients who were either unable to get out of their homes and come to the clinic or were in some type of nursing home or skilled facility.
That allowed me a little bit more flexibility because I was able to make my schedule. I could make my schedule around things. I wanted to be the mom that was at the open house. I wanted to be the mom that was at the teacher’s conferences. I would schedule my patient care around that, but then that got a little bit hectic as well. I decided to go into or it came upon me to be involved in primary care or medicine where I could be an independent contractor as opposed to a salary position.
It’s like a 1099, correct?
Yes. Those opportunities came to me and allowed me the flexibility, be a physician and a mom. If anybody knows anything about me, I am family first. I need to work to make money, pay the bills, and student loans and all of that stuff but I found that I was sacrificing time with family to be a physician. I was doing more for my patients than I was for myself for my family. That is what led me to make a change in how I provided care.
I am doing multiple things, but those things allow me flexibility. People say, “You do a lot.” I do a lot, but they all provided me the opportunity to be present for myself as well as for my family. I am a qualifying physician for medical Cannabis. I also do consultations and chart reviews for social security and disability. I do claims or review claims to qualify patients for their social security. I am also a mentor and a physician collaborator for a couple of nurse practitioners in the area. Each one of these things satisfy my passion for medicine.
In my position collaboration, I am able to continue to mentor upcoming nurse practitioners and nurses and a lot of times medical students who come through their office. I’ve gained a passion for alternative type of treatment for medicine and that’s where cannabis comes in outside of pain management and treatment of mental health disease and those types of things. Different ways of doing the same thing that I had to desire to do when I graduated from medical school.
Many avenues and that’s full of nuggets of Information for people. What I heard, what was loud and clear is, a lot of your changes were not necessarily you wanted to get away from your passion in medicine but more that you needed to make the changes so that you could care for your family the way you wanted to that served you best. Once it served you best, it served them best.
Self-Care
Self-care is an area where we lack as women for one and as women physicians. As a woman naturally, we care for everyone else and we neglect ourselves. That took a lot of internal digging for me to be able to feel comfortable doing it because you don’t want to seem selfish or you care about yourself more than others. As you said, Angela, in order for me to care for others, I do have to consider caring for myself. It’s always been very important to me.
In learning to take care of myself has brought on other passions. I’m very passionate about fitness and health more. You would think that that was already a priority as a physician. Unfortunately, that was not at the top of my list when I considered medicine. I could tell you how to make yourself better, but I wasn’t doing it for myself. Fitness, healthy eating and all those types of things have become forefront for me.
I put on a post up. I was like, ‘Fitness is my vibe.” I feel lost if I haven’t done some type of exercise in the days. It’s like something is missing. I get joy out of meal prepping. People see that passion in me, so they’re like, “You are to open up a meal prepping business.” No. I’m doing a lot already, but the fact that they see that I have a passion for those types of things is a mission accomplished. If I can get people to change their life, simply by me doing what is best for myself then I’m doing exactly what I plan for it to do.
I follow you on Instagram and I see your posts. I love them when you’re in the gym. You’re doing your weight lifting and all of the things, sharing with the rest of the world your fitness journey or your self-care journey. I walked probably seventeen minutes. If I get my morning walk in, it’s like 1.3 miles then I know that my day is going to be started off on the good foot, as my mother would say. I appreciate you sharing about your self-care journey. Are there other things, Marla, that you do for self-care?
Outside of fitness and healthy eating, I would have to go back to family. Self-care, for me, is being able to be with my family for whatever they need me to be, in sickness or in health. Family time is very important to me. I’m fortunate to have two sets of parents. Both parents are remarried, but my mom lives six minutes from me and my dad lives about fifteen. That’s a blessing in itself. I try to make a point. If I do not see them every day, I am talking to them every day. To me, that’s self-care.
Also making sure that my son is doing whatever he has to do and just being there for him. He doesn’t need me as much anymore because he’s in college but still. He does need me more than he would if he was away. Self-care, to me, includes all of that and includes me being able to pour into other people and equally allowing people to pour into me.
Self-care means being able to pour into other people and equally allowing people to pour into you. Share on XSorority
Well stated. I do think there is value in, as we mentioned at the beginning, just the connectedness. Staying connected. I know that we have this momentum going forward in terms of self-care and it’s immoral of taking care of ourselves. There is a portion of that as you mentioned. When you are taking good care of other people, that fills you up as well. If that’s all that you’re doing is taking care of other people, that’s when we start to fall short and are not serving ourselves well. Very good. I know another thing that you’ve done. You’re such an interesting person.
Interesting like?
Interesting good. No balls dropping. I know we are sisters because we’re friends, but we’re also sisters because we happen to be a part of the same sorority. I know you continue to do things in your life. It’s never like, “I’ve made it.” I know you pledged Delta Sigma Theta as a graduate and a graduate chapter. In terms of making those life decisions, what prompted you to do something like that? We already know, as you mentioned, you’re a busy lady and you have all these things on your plate. What was that like for you? What does that mean to you?
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated has always been in my heart. I think about the women who play a major part in my life outside my mom. My mom considers herself me by me, but outside of my mom, when of the women who had a great impact on my life, fortunately, coincidentally, or whatever word you want to use. They were all members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. I did had an interest in Delta since a very young age.
Unfortunately, I did not make it at Howard University, but it did not deter me because if it was meant for me it was going to be for me. I decided to pledge a grad chapter again once I got to a point in my life where I felt that I could be an asset to the sorority. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have been an asset had I pledged at Howard University. Everything I believe is in timing. Had I pledged earlier? I may not have been able to be the Delta that they needed me to be at this age and to give to the sorority what I feel that I am able to give in my position.
Maybe I needed to be a doctor before I could. Maybe I needed to be a mom or whatever the case may be, but I chose to do it because again, it was something I felt that I wanted to do and it had always been in my heart to be a Delta woman. All of the women around me were members of the sorority. Even though I was deterred, and I’ve been deterred many times along the way for so many different things. If I believe that it is for me, nothing’s going to stop me from getting there.
In Delta, I have been the chairperson of health and wellness. I’ve been involved in many things around health and scholarship. My sorority at the Orlando Alumni Chapter in Orlando, Florida has stood behind me. They’ve given me avenues to continue to be a voice for medicine. It’s opened up many doors for me being part of health fairs and Saint Jude walks and all different types of things. The short answer is, I was always meant to be a Delta. I was going to make sure that happened.
Advice To Younger Self
Marla, we met, we’ll say in the early ‘90s. I remember our leader, Dr. Hoyt, would always say, “Like, likes and like.” What I’d like to know is, if you could go back to that woman who was walking into the library and tell her 1 or 2 pieces of advice. What would you say to her?
First of all, I would probably tell her that it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to have times where you struggle, but more importantly in not being okay to not be afraid to ask for help. A lot of times, we’re struggling with different things. We don’t think that anybody else is struggling with those same things, so we keep it to ourselves. That may be struggling with a particular concept in a class or struggling with a particular person or something like that. The first thing that I would say to her is don’t keep it to yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
The second thing that I would probably tell her is better time management but you have to know yourself. The reason I say time management is because you’re talking about walking in the halls and then the library. I spent hours and hours in the library when nobody else seemed to do it. There were a few other people there.
If I hadn’t done that, I would not be here. I’m cute but I’m not all that bright. I just work hard.
It’s nice to know it wasn’t just me. There were times that I wished I had done better in time management and studying so I could have enjoyed other parts of being in medical school outside of just studying, I’ll just say that because there’s so much more to life. Grad school, medical school, and law school is very time-consuming and you got a lot to do, but there’s so much more to it than just studying. I probably would focus on those two things most.
Life keeps life-ing wherever. That’s settled advice.
Time Management
Can I ask you a question based on that concept of time management, which for a lot of us myself included is still working progress? What have you learned? What has helped you? Was there anyone in particular or any type of system that you use because as busy as you are, or is it just been life and figuring it out?
It sounds simple but having a planner and organizing and not counting on my brain to remember, honestly. I know that happened here, but time management in this sense where if I can look at it I can see where in my day I can fit this or fit that. The other thing is not overextending myself. If I have a calendar, because I can honestly say there have been one too many times where I have double booked myself. I can’t be in two places at one time and I’m like, “Is that today?”
Keeping a planner and using my phone and the calendar has changed the game for me. Since I got older, I just can’t remember everything. Before it was like, “I can remember this is going to happen.” Not overextending myself is the main thing. I tell people now that I’m in my 50s. I am a one event a day person. Don’t ask me to come to this in the morning and this in the afternoon. Before, I could do it and I felt fine but now, I just cannot overextend myself.
Again, not doing that allows me the time back to that self-care and family time. The time is filled with different things that are more fulfilling to me. I don’t overextend myself and I keep a calendar for the most part. Now, in saying that, you got to remember to put it on the calendar. Sometimes that does not always happen, but I’m working on it. Keeping a calendar and not overextending myself are the main things.
Learning to say no.
That’s so hard, though, sometimes. It depends on who you’re saying no to, but that’s hard because you want to be there for so many people. Again, in doing that, you got to remember you got to be there for yourself.
That’s a nugget.
Going back to overextending yourself. I have the bad habit that I’m trying to work on by saying yes to lots of different things and over scheduling my off days. I thought I had an appointment to get my brows done and I showed up there. I’m sitting there and she’s like, “You canceled.” I was like, “I did what?”
It looks good.
I was going to say, “Are you sure you’re getting it done?”
I did, because we have that connection and relationship but it is those moments of like I want a little bit more time and I realized my day off is consumed with all of these other things, which I’m happy about, excited about and grateful for. I have to try and schedule my off time as well. Meaning don’t touch it. I need a day to do nothing ideally once a week, but every couple of weeks.
Most Important People
Agreed. That’s important. Marla, you spoke about your parents and your son. Is there any important person that you feel like has shaped you or persons that you want to elaborate on? It may be people that you mentioned, which I suspect but anyone else along the way that you can share what their impact was? How did that shape you?
I’m going to have to go back to my mom. My mom is my backbone. Everything that I do, I have to run it by her. If she says no then it’s not going to happen. As I said, I talked to her several times a day and her being a single parent and learning from her in my single parenthood, she has just been my best friend and my teacher. I went to the middle school, where she is a teacher and I wanted to be in her class. She said, “Absolutely not.”
I try my best to emulate her but she is the woman’s woman to put it lightly. She tells me when I’m right and when I’m wrong. She encourages me when I don’t even know I need encouragement. She’s always there for me. If I had to pick one person, it would be her. Had there been other people along the path that have put nuggets and been there for me? Definitely. I have a very huge church family. My church family is Phila Delta’s as well and people who have followed me.
I put it out there and they’re going to ask me questions about medical school and about this. Whatever there is that I am putting forward or say that I want to do, they are going to put into place things to make sure to hold me accountable for them. I could list a ton of people but I’ll let my mom have the highlights for that from church to even to work from medical school, friends and family at Howard University. There’s been a lot of people who have reported to me and have allowed me to be who I am. I don’t want to not say any names, so I’m just going to talk about my mom.
You’ve got a tribe, but the leader there is your mom.
It’s Joyce.
That’s her. As my friends at Howard said, they call her Marla’s Mom. “That’s Marla’s mom.” “Miss Marla’s mom,” that’s what they say every time they see you.
HBCU
This brought up a question that I have for you. Sylvia and I went to traditional universities or not HBCUs. Certainly, when we met you, there’s no doubt that you had all the pride in your HBCU, Howard University and we were there in DC close to the school. For those people that may not know much about HBCUs and also for those that are familiar. What did that mean to you in your journey? What does it mean to you now?
I often say even nobody knows anything about me. They know that I graduated from Howard University. Three things, that I’m a doctor, I graduated from Howard, and I’m a Delta. If you don’t know those three things, you know Howard is my love. Howard is my heart. It’s the only school I ever saw myself going to. My love for Howard was because my uncle who is now an ENT, he attended Howard University and so that was my first love for Howard.
Your uncle in Richmond. Is that right, Marla?
Yes. You met him, Doctor Randall Dalton. The HBCU experience is like none other. It allowed me to be in a space with people who were like-minded who looked like me coming from a high school that was pretty much mixed. I was looking for community when I moved up to the college experience. An HBCU was the only school that I was going to apply to, which is the only school I applied to and Howard was the number one.
That experience is giving me lifelong friendships and additional family. It allowed me to gain academic knowledge in an environment that was also stimulating me culturally that I did not necessarily get in secondary school like in high school. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about Black excellence. I had done my research before on fire graduates at Howard University, but it just gave me a sense of wanting to continue the legacy of those that came before me at the school.
In doing that, it allowed me to learn more about Black history, myself, my culture, and my upbringing. Things that I may not have been exposed to. Even things that my family may not have been exposed to or didn’t know to teach me. The environment was one of, as I said, the word that keeps coming to me is the community. I felt safe. I felt recognized. I felt loved. It felt like family. Again, to this day, there are so many people who still play a major role in my life who I met at Howard University.
Advice To Young People In Medicine
I know that you mentor quite a few young people who are interested in going to medical school.
They just found me.
Marla, they met you and they just bonded for life. What do you tell young people who are interested in a career in medicine? As you mentioned, the medicine that we entered in the last century, honestly, is very different to how people practice and even patient’s expectation when they show up in our offices. Can you talk a little bit about your advice to young folks?
When I am talking to young ladies and/or young men about going into medicine, the one thing that I do ask most often is, what is your passion? Why are you choosing medicine? What is it about medicine that has your attention? What is your expectation? What are you expecting this career to give to you? What are you giving to it? As you said, Sylvia, practicing medicine now is so different. A lot of the things that we are doing as physicians now may not have necessarily been available to us then or we didn’t know about it.
I let them know based on their passion like, what is it that you want to do in medicine? That medicine by itself isn’t just direct patient care. It’s not necessarily being in an office. There’s so many avenues that you can satisfy your desire to be a physician that don’t necessarily just include direct patient care. In finding out what their passion and why they want to do medicine I think people chose careers a long time ago because they thought it made the most money. We know it’s not always the case.
I haven’t had that many who say, “I want to go into medicine because I want to make a lot of money.” They don’t say that anymore. The goal is more or less, all of us want to help people and so, in helping someone, they’re so many different avenues you can do in medicine. I just try to get them to speak their passion and make a decision of what avenue of medicine they want to go into, whether the specialty or functional medicine or alternative medicine.
As I said, family medicine gives you so many things, but even in the more subspecialties, they’re still so many different avenues that you can take with even the subspecialties in being like sports medicine physicians for teams, basketball teams, and football teams. I try to get them to get down to the nitty-gritty of what it is that you want out of this out of medicine and what is it you want to give to medicine.
I think it’s great advice. I’ve always wanted, in my mind, to have this workshop for multiple levels of women. When my kids were younger, it was like a workshop that exposed young girls to all professions so that they could go in one environment and have multiple speakers and to have some practical advice on what you do. Now, there’s exposure to social media, which we certainly didn’t have when we were young. I remember my dad mentioning engineering. I was like, “I don’t want to work on a building or something.” You don’t have any idea.
Even with reaching back into medical schools, we talked in our book about the importance of having mentors is what you’re discussing. It’s having some practical advice on what is like your family medicine physician, but you’re doing all these other things and that has a lot to do all these other things. Whereas a surgeon, that’s a lot longer and you’ve done a lot more investment in your career. I would have to say, as all of us and even our friends that are physicians, it has been a blessing to be able to do a lot of other things.
It does open doors for you. I’m certainly not saying that, but I don’t think a lot of younger people know the full extent. It’s incumbent upon us as mentors to open their eyes in terms of all the things you could potentially do so that they don’t just see one particular path. I know from experience that you are a very good mentor for a lot of people.
Thank you. I should hope I am. I love teaching, though. I love mentorship. That’s another one of my passions as well.
Social Media
One of your other passions is social media. We want to know. We are novices on how you have mastered your social media presence. I admire and inspired by your transparency. You’re sharing your journey on health, wellness, and nutrition. How did that come about because we all came of an age where we had to learn it?
I have a great group0020of women behind me. I cannot take full credit for my social media accounts and how well it has evolved. I have always been on social media for a long time. I started a side hustle in quotes because that side hustle, hopefully, will become a little bit more than a side hustle as I progress. I joined and partnered with an online health and wellness company called It Works. The company is simply through social media. That’s how we gain business partners as well as potential customers. The idea behind it is to take people on a journey with you. People are interested in you based on what you are posting. They’re interested in and want to follow you because of what you’re posting.
People are interested in you based on what you post on social media. They follow you because of what you post. Share on XThat is how we gain interest. People see me exercising. They see me meal planning. They see me going on trips or with my family and they inquire about what I’m doing. This opportunity has put pegs into all of the little aspects of my life that I enjoy. Being a part of this company has improved my leadership skills. The company is a faith-based company and so, my spiritual development. It’s heavy on personal development. People see us as physicians that we are in a leadership position because of our title, so to speak. Yes, we are doctors but a lot of times we don’t necessarily know how to lead in different aspects. This has developed my leadership.
Sometimes, some of us are poor leaders. Not you, but I’ve experienced some bad bosses. Do you want me to be transparent?
Maybe they are reading but they don’t know who you’re talking about. You can think it works for getting on this show. Before, I probably would have said, “No, thank you.” It’s allowed me to open up a little bit more because the opportunity also gives people the ability to become healthier. It still hones in on my want and desire to help people. We have over 40 plant-based products that help with weight loss, weight management, skincare and beauty care.
In my medicine and it’s still there for that side, put a peg in that little box. It also allows me the opportunity to mentor women on how to make money and become healthier as well. That’s that mentorship aspect and put a little money in my pocket while doing it. I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I’ve been doing it for a year and it has done things for me that I wasn’t expecting when I said yes to the opportunity. I’m having fun. Again, fitness and health being more of a passion for me. It’s right in line with where I’m trying to take Marla.
You brought up the word fun, which is important and I don’t think we give it enough attention because we get busy about the work of living and life is always life-ing as we say. Tell me what this fun looks like?
Fun, for me, is traveling. It could be traveling up the street or down the street. Fun is laughing with friends. I don’t try to be funny all the time but apparently, I am. I love being with friends. As I said, I don’t necessarily have to travel out of the country. Traveling to a beach. I love the beach. I love the water. I love going to visit friends and family. Fun is being around people who make me happy and who I can make happy. That’s fun for me.
Episode Wrap-up
I would just have to kick her. I could tell you so many experiences, but things that I remember about you are always laughing that I said at the onset. Even though you weren’t necessarily trying to be funny, you are that person. I do remember being invited to the beach. I remember going to, I think it was Virginia Beach. That’s my happy place. My reset. Hence, the picture behind me. What I’ve gotten out of talk is that self-care is important.
You have identified that and that has made a big impact in your life and part of you transitioning into the business and the side hustle that you’re in is because of that self-care aspect. Family and having that connectedness. Whether it’s your blood family or the family that you have created in your life through your sisterhood with Delta Sigma Theta Incorporated or other friends and laughter.
They cannot underrate the value of laughter. I remember a very dark period in my life, and I had nothing to do. There was no one around and there was a comedy club and I went in. I’m sure the people around me were like, “That was not that funny,” but it can be medicine for your soul. That’s why people are so attracted to be in your presence. That’s my takeaways.
The other thing I would just add is the importance of community. You talked about your Howard community, your sorority community, your church community and your immediate family. I know that we’re part of your community as well. I continue to be inspired. I love hearing about your journey because I, too, am a person who has had several jobs and continues to use medicine as a vehicle to be in service. That brings the other part of it, is that you are always in service to your family, your alumni community, your sorority, and your greater Orlando Community as well. For that, we thank you, Marla, for just being an awesome human being.
You’re going to make me cry.
It’s true.
I appreciate you, guys. I want to thank you, ladies, for inviting me and seeing something in me that I not always see in myself. I appreciate you and yes, you are family and you can never get rid of me. I just want to thank you both from the bottom of my heart.
When we started with Boss Leap, from the infancy of the concept and what we wanted to talk about, and what we wanted our audience to get from, the experience is authentic stories about women that will inspire others and you were top on our list. We are overjoyed that you are here and you shared them with us. If you want to share any of your contact information, we can certainly put it in, but anything you want to share.
Where can people find you on social media?
You can find me on social media. I don’t know my TikTok because I’m not good at that yet, but when I do TikTok, it gets some interest. I got to learn how to do more of that. My Facebook is MarNee Rich. My Instagram is @Marnee13. My phone number is even all over social media, so you can text me.
We’ll just put the social media.
I appreciate you, ladies.
Dr. Marla Richardson-Price, we so appreciate you being here with us on the show. Thank you for sharing your journey with us and our followers. Please feel free to check us out at BossLeapPodcast.com and give us any feedback on the show as well as ideas for new shows.
Until then, live well and be well.
May you be well.
Important Links
- Dr. Marla Richardson-Price – LinkedIn
- Delta Sigma Theta
- It Works
- MarNee Rich – Facebook
- @Marnee13 – Instagram
- BossLeapPodcast.com
About Dr. Marla Richardson-Price
Dr. Marla Richardson-Price is a Family Medicine physician with fellowship training in Geriatrics. Her passion for science and service led her from majoring in Microbiology at Howard University to earning her medical degree from Georgetown University. She returned to Orlando, completing her residency at Florida Hospital (now Advent Health Orlando), to serve the community that shaped her.
Dr. Richardson-Price’s career spans various healthcare settings, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, and in-home care. These experiences exposed her to diverse patient populations and medical challenges, honing her clinical skills and emphasizing the need for continuous learning in the ever-evolving field of medicine.
As a collaborating physician for local nurse practitioners, she finds fulfillment in sharing knowledge, guiding others, and positively impacting their careers and patient care. This role demands patience, empathy, and a dedication to lifelong teaching and learning, which Dr. Richardson-Price embraces wholeheartedly.
Committed to treating the whole patient, she values long-term relationships with her patients, guiding them through their health journeys. Her interest in alternative medicine led her to provide medical cannabis certifications since 2018 at Cannabis Card Orlando, East and South locations. Here, she educates patients on the benefits and risks of cannabis, discusses different approaches to treatment, and considers each patient’s medical history.
Dr. Richardson-Price’s journey extends beyond clinical practice. As a medical consultant for The Florida Department of Health’s Disability Determination division, an independent distributor for It Works, an online health and wellness company, and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she is committed to continuous learning and service.
Balancing her professional roles as a single mother, Dr. Richardson-Price has learned invaluable lessons in time management, resilience, and finding joy in every moment, further enriching her personal and professional life.