Reclaiming Women's Voices in Healthcare: HIT Like a Girl Pod Is Back

[00:00:08] Well, hello ladies. It's nice to see you again. Hi Grace and hi Rebecca. Hello. Yeah, we've met before. Grace and I, you and I have been working together for a while. Rebecca, you've been a guest on the show and started your own podcast. I feel like all three of us have our own distinct voices, but it's really nice to be here together with you guys. We are so excited to be here and I am just thrilled that the three of us are finally getting together to have this conversation to bring you back into HIT Like a Girl.

[00:00:38] Thank you. Powerhouse woman looking to do powerhouse things. Yep, that's the idea. It's been an interesting couple years because I've essentially have taken a break from podcasting officially since I broke my ankle, y'all remember, a couple years ago and basically the universe just said, sit down, you need to take a break.

[00:01:00] And so I listened and I have healed and I got my, I mean many of our listeners know I live in Mexico. Since then I've moved farther into Mexico. I have now settled into Puerto Vallarta and enjoying the work life balance that I have created.

[00:01:17] But it's really been interesting to watch healthcare and everything that's been going on from the sidelines for a little bit. And I think both of you have been in it for a bit. So can we talk about, just do a little catch up on like, what has the last two years of your life been like? Let's start with you, Rebecca.

[00:04:06] Not to mention the podcasting. Just interviewing women leaders, getting their stories out there. And that's why I'm so excited about this and joining with you, Joy and Rebecca. Because between the three of us, we hit so much of the industry and we know so many people. And so to bring us all together and get so many varying perspectives in a big series like this is so exciting. So listeners, if you haven't figured it out, Hit Like a Girl pod is back. But this time we're doing it with grace, love and joy.

[00:04:35] So that is the concept here. And we are trying to bring you along and essentially have a healthcare conversation, a safe space, a trusted place with voices that deeply care and care about outcomes and impacts and making a difference. And even when there's challenges around us and the environment and ahead and essentially at every turn.

[00:04:57] But like one thing that we do have is each other. And I feel like when I take a step back and when I think about like how I started in healthcare and why I started in healthcare, I remember a lot of it had to do with the federal government coming from a place of having a strategic plan. And they could say, hey, here's what to expect for the next five years, because this is going to be what we're going to focus on and what we're building.

[00:05:22] And it was really easy as a professional to be able to sign up for it and say, yes, I can dig my teeth into that. Let's get to work. And I think what we've noticed in this the past year and a half, I would say, is that we've really seen a lot of dismantling of systems.

[00:05:37] And it's been a vacuum of leadership and taking not only grants and jobs and departments and, you know, turning them into something that is completely unrecognizable, but really hard to actually say, how can I be part of this? And I think that maybe that is also part of why we're here to talk today is just like, how do we move forward together to still make a difference when it feels like you're fighting with the ocean? That's how I feel sometimes. And I'm like, oh, do you just stop fighting with the ocean?

[00:06:07] Or how can we turn it into like actually riding a wave or something that is more enjoyable? And I think that's exactly it, Joy. When we were talking about even bringing these voices back in the absence of so many of the systems, the leaders, the scientists, the physicians, the experts seem to be disappearing across the systems that we know at the federal level. Who do you trust at these moments in time? And I think to your point, it wasn't only feeling like you were fighting an ocean. It feels like you were floating alone in the ocean.

[00:06:34] And to remain silent and to stay quiet almost seemed to be complicit in what was going on. And I think we just sort of started to say like grace and joy and love. It's like, hey, you know what? It is time not to be complicit and silent, but to bring back the joy and the grace and the love in regards to health care and the conversations that we need to be having and bringing back truth and trust and establishment and standards. Because we believe in a greater future than what is currently existing in our structures.

[00:07:03] And we believe that the best way to do that is by having hard conversations and bringing people of different backgrounds together to have them because there has to be a future here. We don't want to go backward to an era where those didn't exist and there wasn't voices. And I think that's part of that power of that ocean, that feeling of overwhelming and then also floating is why we found our voices again. Absolutely.

[00:07:28] I'm also hearing across the world as I'm traveling and speaking at different conferences that women are feeling isolated more than ever because of this huge leadership vacuum, because of all these changes. And I think our hope too here is to help women hear and learn from other women and be inspired by them. And so that they don't feel alone. It's okay.

[00:07:51] And it's wonderful that you are working your tail off to change the world in whatever area of influence you are, because there's a lot of other women that are also doing that. And maybe we can learn from each other and maybe we can help each other grow and maybe we can help each other level up. And that is a huge part of this too, is just helping solve that loneliness epidemic in women's healthcare innovation leadership. I could not agree more.

[00:08:16] And I just refuse to believe that women and girls is a bad word and that diversity isn't actually something that is going to help all of us. That if we have different points of view and different life experiences and different areas of expertise, that there's no other way than to learn from each other and hopefully apply it in our lives so that we can be better and go do better and have real impacts.

[00:08:41] And I think that there's this feeling of like having our power taken away. And there's something that you and I, the three of us talked about when we talked last. It's like, it feels like nobody's coming to save us. And I like to think that like, well, if nobody's coming to save us, nobody's coming to stop us either. So we have an opportunity to reach out with each other and for each other and support one another. Like there's no one stopping us from doing that.

[00:09:09] And me being in Mexico, I'm like, well, guess what? Women's not a bad word here. So I will express like there has been a real fear around speaking out, around like trying to empower women because it feels like that's somehow pushed against, like we're undeserving or something. And I know that is in my heart not true. It is totally not true. And I think the reality is that it threw many of us for a loop wondering who we were in our identities, what our roles were.

[00:09:39] And I think the reality is there's space for everyone. And I think the world always is better when you bring in large groups of people from different backgrounds to have really different conversations. And I think society as a whole and nations around the world, it's societies that have women leaders and male leaders that work together that actually have the best outcomes around the world. And for us to think in one moment to just question, would we even go back 50 years? Would we go back 100 years?

[00:10:05] To stand on the shoulders of all of the giants of the women who made it possible for us to be here today, to me is not only honoring women, but it's honoring history and the future of our nations. And I think the truth is that I don't believe most want to go back. What we want is we want a world that actually embraces the equitable access for information and knowledge and experience and opportunity that rises up the majority as opposed to the minority.

[00:10:32] And we don't want to create a more segmented society, but one that actually embraces where we can go. And I think to your point, I think it caught so many of us off guard, men, women together, that we didn't know how to navigate that. And to your point, we were looking for somebody to come save us or direct that conversation when nobody was coming. It's like, you know what? We have to do this ourselves and stop letting other people control one side of a narrative and we being absent because we have abdicated our voices for others to speak on.

[00:11:02] And it's time to take our voices back and make this impact. In this era of AI, I couldn't agree more. I think trust and authenticity is the new oil. And I really believe that women leaders more than ever can use that to our advantage because we are such amazing leaders and innovators and trustworthy individuals.

[00:11:25] And I really think that when I'm excited about us in particular coming together to do this is bringing that authenticity into this conversation. And talking about those hard conversations, bringing it to the light and not just having these be fluff pieces. Oh, talking about cheerleader topics and whatever people's agendas are, right? It's really getting to the meat of what's going on in the industry and bringing that trust and authenticity into the table here.

[00:11:53] And I would add to that, doing this on round two or the next level, leveling up is making sure that we're actually authentic and true to ourselves. And so that means doing it without burnout. This is not something like, I want to be coming to this place from a place of joy. And I mean that wholeheartedly because I mean, when I broke my ankle and was on a road to recovery, I've said this out loud to folks. I'm like, I didn't have much nice to say.

[00:12:20] I was like, I don't think you should put a microphone in front of me because I don't really have anything nice to say right now. And I certainly don't think it should be amplified. So if I am going to have a mic in front of me, I would like to be coming from a really good place. So that whatever messages that we're sharing is something that is actually like imparting positivity and goodness into the world and not the opposite. I don't think we need that. And on the grace side of things, like, yes, it's a beautiful name and we've done so much work together.

[00:12:49] But it also means we're human and we are going to make mistakes. And there are things that we will get wrong and so will our guests. And so guess what? That's kind of lovely. There's a luxury to being able to make a mistake and move on. And coming with love. Come on, it's public health. Like we all care so deeply about these topics that we want to share and bring up and not hide away from or shy away from. They are hard topics that we are all dealing with.

[00:13:18] And all three of our lovely names. I'm so glad that we get to come together in this way. I think, Doreen, you say well from the perspective that feeling burned out and feeling like you can't come into this space and have authentic conversations because it's being driven by narratives that aren't resonating with your soul or with the environment and the energy that you want to bring. It's why I think we are coming back at that.

[00:13:41] It's because this should be fun and it should be interesting and it should be a place where creativity naturally flows and brings out the best in humanity. And that is something that is hard to do in places and moments when things feel dark. And that is the time that we're pushing back. That is where all of us in our careers have felt burnt out at times and overwhelmed and honestly feel like I'm constantly failing every step of the way.

[00:14:07] And it's pulling yourself up back by bootstraps and getting back into that conversation and that fight and believing still in this vision and mission and not compromising yourself so fully that you can't be authentic anymore. And I think that is part of what we're bringing back to say it is okay to be authentic and it is okay to be real and to have a value system that's going to be something you're proud to hold because that's what inspires you to have joy and love and grace in your life.

[00:14:34] Because without it, you become a shell of that human. And how amazing to do this with your besties. I can't say. The thing that comes up for me is I'm like, when we notice and identify the vacuum, right? There's grief that comes along with that. There's real emotions that come of like, man, my reality just kind of burst a little bit because I thought that our government or other departments were there to support us. We're there to help us.

[00:15:02] And like, there's a true sadness of feeling like that's not the case in our current times. And I think this is a place to discuss that too. It's a safe space to just like process the emotion of it all because we're not robots. We are not. And nor should we behave as such. And that shouldn't be the expectation. So I really like to lean on friendship, on community, connection to ourselves and each other and the industry.

[00:15:32] And ultimately that ends up being to the environment and to patients and to all the countries. Like healthcare and health technology is certainly not unique to the United States. So I'm glad that we get to kind of open up this conversation to be bigger. And what is it? What was it? It said deeper conversations with bigger impact. And there's a third one. That's a really powerful tab. I enjoy. Thank you. Give me some grace because I forgot it. I can pull it up.

[00:16:02] I'll say it at the end. Yeah. And I can say too, I think what's great about what all of us and our vision for this series is too, is to not have the normal voices you'd hear on a typical panel. We want to have the underdogs that are secret, working in secret to make an impact and who know the good stuff, but no one else knows they know the good stuff. And so I think that's very impactful as well.

[00:16:27] I think it's going to make this a really great time for the industry to get to know some voices they may not have heard before. Because the truth is there's voices that are disappearing and then there's voices that are rising. And I think we create that platform of those who are ready to use their voice if they feel like they have been canceled or they have disappeared and they don't know where to come. We also want to have those conversations because the narratives are important. The conversations are going to be what shapes how we move forward.

[00:16:57] And I think if you are out there and you are a woman and you're looking for your space and you're saying, I'm not sure how to navigate this, neither do we. Honestly, I wish we could tell you that we have this all figured out. All we know is we just have to get started. Because if we're not going to get started, nothing's going to change. And the truth is the one thing that we want to do see is we want to see change for the better. And we believe wholeheartedly that it is where conversations happen, that this change is going to start taking root. And we're going to start pushing back on narratives that we don't believe are right,

[00:17:24] or we don't believe exist, or that are the wrong ones to have. And you know what? And if you feel that way too, we want to hear from you. We want you involved in the community that we hope to build. And we want to meet the best leaders of women around the world across healthcare, informatics, technology, and beyond that want to change the world for the better and start building their own groups and messages and communities so that they don't feel alone in this space. And that's, I think, why we're pushing forward to just kick this off and see where it goes. So true, Rebecca.

[00:17:54] Okay, now I did find our tagline, which is exactly what you're saying here. Built on joy, fueled by love, led with grace, bigger vision, deeper impact, stronger together. I love it. So the other piece that I was thinking about is when things get destroyed, and it can be sad, there's the grief that comes along with it, but it also leaves a place for something to be built.

[00:18:20] And that is, I think, where we're coming from, is what is the future that we want to see? And what can we do now to ensure that it is one that we're happy to be in? And that's the part that I'm like, okay, let's take action. And there may be a vacuum, but guess what? Space means that there's an opportunity. And if there's opportunity to build, like, let's do it. So on that note, I think that we might want to introduce how we plan on presenting our conversations.

[00:18:49] What we'd like to do in the future is have a theme conversation around one big topic. And the three of us will come together to discuss that one big topic and then go our separate ways to interview a guest, like you mentioned, Grace, individually, a one-on-one. So in all, you would have four podcast episodes related to a particular topic that would be addressed through different lenses.

[00:19:16] And so Rebecca is more of a nursing and innovation lens. Grace is more of a patient lens and communication storytelling lens. I come from more of a policy and technology and also just humanity lens. And so hopefully that will make for some really great conversations and food for thought for people to be thinking and growing and connecting on and about. And ultimately, we want to create a space for women to come together

[00:19:42] and actually make those connections in real life. And so we anticipate that we will be having a retreat here in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in November for 25 women leaders in the healthcare and health IT space. So more information on that will be forthcoming. But right now, we're just really excited to reintroduce ourselves and say hello and welcome back to the community. Here we go. Here we go. Wait, you guys. This is so exciting.

[00:20:13] Let's do it. We will see you guys. And this is going to be what I think one of the most exciting times, I think, to reboot ever. I think so too. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Hit Like a Girl Pod. If this episode resonated with you, please follow us on social media at HitLikeAGirlPod. That's H-I-T-L-I-K-A-G-R-L-P-O-D across all platforms. And to learn more about the show, our guests, or to join our waitlist for what's coming next,

[00:20:42] please visit our website. The link is in the show notes. The Hit Like a Girl podcast is built on joy, fueled by love, and led with grace. We're so glad that you're here. We'll see you next time.