Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

You don’t have to keep up with the culture. You get to choose your values, and you get to build a life — and a career — around them.

A conversation at a birthday party last week got Dr. Stephanie Yamout thinking about a question women physician leaders keep asking themselves, quietly: do I have to keep up with this? With the pace, the expectations, the way it’s always been done? Or am I allowed to do something different?

In Episode 42, Stephanie gives you permission to stop trying to keep up with a culture that’s costing you something — in your family life, your career, the way you lead. She shares what it cost her to choose differently when her kids were little, what she’s learning as she shifts from employed work to locums, and how she led culture change as chief of inpatient pediatrics without blowing up what was already working.

In this episode:

• Why the “keep up” pressure shows up everywhere — birthday parties, travel sports, weekend call, the meeting that’s always been run that way
• A 3-step framework for leading change from the inside out: name the value, choose the smallest aligned action, protect what’s already working. 
• What you actually lose, and what you find, when you choose your values over the culture
• A message for the women physicians coming up behind us

If you’re ready to make decisions from your values instead of from default, download the free Values Journal at womenmdleaders.com/valuesguide.

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

Last episode, we talked about the data between the data — the hallway conversations, the side glances, the offhand comments that carry more information than any report. That led me to reflect a bit deeper into one of the most important places that kind of listening applies: burnout.

Not the burnout that walks in and announces itself. Not the colleague who finally breaks down in your office. 

I'm talking about the burnout that looks exactly like excellence.

The kind that gets rewarded. The kind that hides in a perfectly maintained schedule, a calm demeanor, and a reflexive "I've got it."

This episode is about learning to see what our system was never designed to show us. Because by the time performance falters or someone leaves, we've already missed it. 

And for women physician leaders specifically — who are more likely to internalize, to over-function, to push through in silence — the cost of missing it is enormous.

Stay with me. I'm going to give you a clinical story, a reframe that changed how I lead, and a specific tool you can use in a hallway conversation this week. 

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

You are swimming in data. Reports. KPIs. Dashboards. Epic. Report cards. Middle school grades. The information just flows toward you, and your analytical brain — the one medicine trained to process and synthesize at a high level — catches it all and starts building the story.

But here's what I want you to consider today: some of the most important data in your day has no dashboard. It lives in the pause. The side glance. The colleague who corners you in the hallway. The kid who mentions something offhand in the car.

If you've ever looked back on a situation — a team member who burned out, a protocol that flopped, a child who was struggling — and thought, "the signs were there, I just didn't see them" — this episode is for you.

Stay with me, because I'm going to share a story that humbled me as a physician leader, and a framework that has genuinely changed the way I lead and the way I parent.

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here. 

There’s a moment every physician knows. 

You’ve had a brutal day. The rounding ran long, the family meeting didn’t go the way you planned, and now you’re in bumper-to-bumper traffic — or chasing a toddler around the kitchen — and you can feel yourself unraveling. 

Your thoughts are on autopilot, and they are not being kind to you. 

What if the difference between drowning in that moment and actually moving through it isn’t your schedule, your staffing, or your salary — but the way you’re interpreting what’s happening to you? 

Today we’re talking about perspective shifts: what they are, why they matter, and how to practice them so they actually show up when you need them most. Stay with me. 

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

We are the strong ones.

In medicine, we’re trained for it.

We learn

• How to deliver devastating news with composure
• How to hold space for patients and families in their hardest moments
• How to keep going, no matter what.

But somewhere along the way, something subtle happens.

We learn how to be strong for everyone else — and we lose the ability to be seen ourselves.

Because in our world, struggle feels too close to failure.

And failure? That’s not something we talk about.

But what if the very thing you’ve been hiding is the exact thing that would deepen your relationships, expand your impact, and finally let you exhale?

In today’s episode, I’m sharing a story I didn’t say out loud for years — and what happened when I finally did.

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

Resilience. It’s one of the most celebrated traits in medicine.

We’re taught to build it, strengthen it, and rely on it in moments of intense challenge and pressure.

Through our training, we learn to push through the hardest cases, keep going when the system doesn’t make sense, and show up — no matter what.

But what if the problem isn’t that you’re not resilient enough?

What if the real issue is that you’ve been relying on resilience for things it was never meant to carry?

Today, I want to challenge the way we think about resilience in medicine — and offer a completely different way to define strength.

Because here’s what I’ve come to know: Women physician leaders don’t have a resilience problem.

We have a recognition problem.

A boundary problem.
A systems problem.
And a silence problem.

If you’ve ever smiled through something that broke you a little inside – this episode is for you.

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

There are moments in life when you suddenly realize you’ve come full circle.

Not in the sense that nothing has changed—but in the sense that everything has changed, and somehow the pieces are fitting together in a new (hopefully improved) way.

This week is one of those moments for me.

I’m leaving for my very first week of locums work. And while that might sound like a simple professional change, for me it represents something much bigger. It represents the journey of rediscovering what I love about medicine, while also building a life that holds space for new purpose, new learning, and new passions.

For many years, like so many physicians, I had my head down. I was working hard, doing meaningful work, and proud of what I had accomplished. But I wasn’t always allowing myself to imagine the bigger possibilities.

Today I want to share a reflection about this moment — about coming full circle, about rediscovering purpose, and about the idea that a life with multiple passions and directions might actually be more possible than we think.

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

There is immense power in reflection.

So often when I’m trying to decipher the steps to solve a problem — whether it’s boundary setting, overcoming imposter syndrome, or recovering from burnout — the first step is always the same.

Notice. Reflect.

Find time, space, and energy to simply notice what is happening inside your life.

Reflection did not become part of my routine until I was digging myself out of burnout.

Before that, I was moving quickly and methodically — solving problems, taking care of everyone, checking boxes. Like many physicians, I was excellent at doing. But I had built in almost zero time for noticing.

This week, let’s go through how reflection is actually a critical skill to learn to fend off burnout, but also to build greater resilience through life. 

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

For most of our lives, the path was handed to us.

There was a legit curriculum.

• A next standardized exam.
• A next rotation.
• A next milestone.

If you were anything like me, you moved straight through education and training knowing exactly what came next. The structure itself created focus.

And then you arrive.

And suddenly… there is no curriculum.

No clear plan. No one handing you the syllabus for the rest of your life.

And that’s when clarity becomes everything.

One of the most powerful tools I’ve both used and experienced in coaching is clarity.

• Clarity in my purpose.
• Clarity in my values.
• Clarity in the direction of my life.

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Find the full transcript for this episode and more resources for Women Physician Leaders here.

One of the most powerful tools I’ve used — both in my own life and in coaching physician leaders — is clarity.

And surprisingly, many of us don’t actually have it.

We might have a vague sense of what we want. A few ideas are floating around. Maybe even a list of things we should be doing.

But clarity — the kind where you can truly see and feel who you are becoming — is something different.

When you have that kind of clarity, something remarkable happens.

Your path feels more directed.
 Decisions become easier.

The way you invest your time and energy becomes much more intentional.

But clarity doesn’t just appear on its own.

It requires time spent thinking… reflecting… asking yourself questions you may not have asked in a long time.

Questions like:

·       Who do I actually want to become?

·       How do I want to show up in the rooms I walk into?

In meetings.
 In patient rooms.
 In conversations with colleagues and family.

And how do I want people to experience me?

About the Host

Dr. Stephanie Yamout, MD, MBA, CPCC, ACC, is a pediatric hospitalist and internationally certified coach for women physician leaders. She helps women physicians get their time back, own their value, and command the room as they were born to do.

Work with Stephanie 

🩺 Book a free 1:1 Discovery Call → womenmdleaders.com/work-with-stephanie 

🌿 Reserve a 90-min Better Boundaries Session → womenmdleaders.com/boundaries

Connect 

🌐 womenmdleaders.com 

💼 linkedin.com/in/stephanieyamout 

📧 [email protected]

Follow the show so you never miss an episode.