We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Salina Womack recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Salina, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I grew up in a household of 8 children with a single mom, working evening and night shifts as a certified nursing assistant. I would see her come home tired and leave home tired. It gave me the idea that if you wanted something you would need to work for it. As the 3rd child out of 8. I saw my older sisters quit high school in the 9 grade each, but for some reason, they would always tell people that I was going to be the one to make it. Growing up on dirt roads surrounded by destitute families and drugs. I knew the only way out was the way I had to make for myself.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Currently, I am focused on building and growing my medical practice Preferred Direct Family Care, located in my own hometown in Central Florida. I started my journey as a CNA 2003, LPN 2007, RN 2009, Nurse Practitioner 2018 and now I have obtained my Doctorates as a Nurse Practitioner 2022. With each step, I would realize there was another step that would allow me to be of a better service to my community, my family, and humanity in general.
Our family care service offers personalized one-on-one attention with scheduled visits, no wait times, and no co-pays. Our monthly membership also provides discounted rates on labs, tests, and medications for added savings. We provide cost-effective primary care, weight loss programs, IV Hydration Therapy, and Hormone Replacement Therapy for our patient’s convenience.
The most exciting aspect of what I do as a medical provider is I get to help others in the way they need it. Because I do not bill insurance for services I get to have a transparent conversation with the patients about their needs and their options. I am excited to be adding new services this year which includes home visits for those who are not able to make it to their doctor’s office or even those who just want the convenience of having their medical provider come to them. I am bringing back the old way of being a medical provider and I am so glad I get to do it in my home town.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The first I would say is my ability to think past an issue. There is no issue in my mind there is only an opportunity to learn, grow, and do something different. I have the skill to multi-task so what might take someone a few hours I like to challenge myself and say okay if it took 5 hours how can I make it 3hour then 2 hours then 1 hour. This ability has allowed me to grow my practice with very low overhead which has allowed me to keep my prices lower for the patient’s own affordability. I love knowledge and can listen to podcasts, Youtube or read a book on a subject all day if I am interested in learning about it this has allowed me to expand my knowledge in many areas from spirituality, being and author, real estate, being a medical office business owner to being a better person in general.
I would advise folks who are early in their journey to follow the good feeling thought and know when you are happy you are doing the right thing, when you are sad check in with yourself and ask if it is the right thing to do. If it gets you closer to your goal keep pushing, if it takes you away from your goal you might need to re-think your plan of action and go in a different direction.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
That’s a very good question. I would have always thought if you asked me a year ago that you should work on the areas you are not as strong in, but now that viewpoint has changed some. I think it is important to be aware of the areas you are not as strong in, but if you can hire someone or yes “teach yourself” to be stronger in that area until you can hire someone then do it.
I have had several real estate properties I had managed for years on my own. I realized with the growth of my medical practice it wasn’t feasible to be at a property painting until midnight and then dragging myself into the office the next day to take care of patients. After some thought I decided to hire someone to manage it and the money, time, and energy she saved me was worth the cost 10 fold. When a home needed to be re-rented she turned the property in less than 7 days something that would have taken me most likely a month or more and a lot of headaches.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.preferreddirectfamilycare.com/
- Facebook: Preferred Direct Family Care
- Youtube: salina womack
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