For those of you that don't know ProLiance, we have about 180 surgeons, about 120 of those are orthopedic surgeons, and we have about 100 locations, 99% of which are in western Washington. And I'd just like to comment, I was thinking about this last night, that we did not do this on purpose, but I think each one of us is from a different generation. So I think that's awesome, and we didn't do that purposefully. So hopefully we'll all have a little bit different outlook on our careers and how you can play a bigger role. And just really happy to be here, thanks for inviting me. Awesome. Andrea? Yeah, hi, I'm Andrea Vitelich, those of you at AAOE may know me well. I'm a frequent flyer around here. Yeah, I was asked to join this panel with April. I'm an executive director at ProLiance Surgeons, which actually means that April is my dotted line boss. So it was pretty fun for us to be on this together. And I manage two of those ProLiance care centers that she was referring to. Thank you. And Allison? Hi, thank you so much. I have to apologize for the video issues. I am still getting an error not to be able to start it due to the host, but everybody who works with me would giggle because I'm usually the first person with screen on and video on, often looking at 30 people that have their cameras off. So this is kind of a unique irony that this has worked out this way. But I am the CEO of Emerge Ortho. Emerge Ortho is a orthopedic practice that spans the entire state of North Carolina from the coast to the beautiful mountains. And we have about 51 offices, about 2,000 employees, so pretty large orthopedic practice. And I'm happy to be here. Actually I'm friends with April from some collaborations with ProLiance and have gotten to know Andrea. So thankful to have met the digital networking opportunities as well. That's great. Thank you so much. Right. So first we're going to start with April. And you just tell me if you need me to advance a slide. Yeah, thank you. So I just kind of thought back. I've been in healthcare for about 38 years now, which is a long time. When I first came into the medical field, we were using pegboard, didn't have computers. So that tells you how many years ago that was. And I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what my strengths were and fighting against those strengths. As a younger baby boomer, you were raised to not speak up, you were raised to not unlock your strengths. And so most of my career I've been trying to figure out what are my strengths and how do I unlock them and how do I embrace them? I'm a fire sign. I'm an Aries and I'm a D on the disc profile. So that's a dominant for those of you who've never found out what your disc profile is. And so I tend to be assertive and sometimes a little, I've been told many times a little bit too loud. Andrea and I probably have been told that more than once in our lives. I know Andrea pretty well. And so I've spent quite a bit of time not only unlocking my strengths, but embracing my strengths because my very strengths, I was told for many years, were a weakness, mostly because of my gender and my generation. So I've been in a unique position as one of those younger baby boomers to really be on the ground floor of some opportunities for women that 50 years ago, I would not have been COO of this organization and even maybe 10 or 15 years ago may not have been. So work on your strengths. Don't let people tell you that it's a weakness. I just saw something from the female lead on LinkedIn. If you don't see them on LinkedIn, look, just Google the female lead. And basically it said, keep being assertive and bossy and leaning in. And so I would encourage you to really look closely at what your strengths are. Oh, it looks like we lost Allison. And don't be afraid of those strengths. Dream big. I mean, wow. I was a single mom on welfare at some point in time in my life, very, very early on in my life. And although I knew that I had a leadership potential in me, when you're, I heard a gentleman speak who runs a large arts center for the underprivileged. When you're poor, you're in the dark in your head and everything that you see is darkness and you're not really sure how to get anywhere. So dream big. I've had several women in the last couple of months reach out to me, mostly through our organization and say, Hey, I want to hear from you. I want to, how did you get where you are? Right. What are the steps that you took to be COO of a large organization? And I always knew in my head that I had it in me. And so I just continued to dream, even when a lot of people said I didn't, or, you know, we've all been to that place in our career where people say we're not capable of things. But you know, inside of you, what you are capable of and never let anyone derail your dreams. There's Allison. So happy to be here. Finally. I was, I was really concerned about that. No. Perfect. Perfect. I'm glad to see you. And I love your orange. Thanks. I love your orange too April. Except for you, you're much better accessorized than I am. Well, you'd all be blurry if I didn't have these on. So, so dream big. Find mentors. Wow. This is really important. I was just telling someone the other day that whenever I felt stuck in my career, mostly because when I started out at the orthopedic office that I was in, that's now currently a part of ProLiant Surgeons, Puget Sound Orthopedics. We had two surgeons and we were in a tiny little office. And when I left there four years ago, we had 26 providers and ambulatory surgery center and MRI facility, three different locations. So and I, and I was blessed enough to, to be trusted enough by the physicians at Puget Sound Orthopedics to lead the company through that growth. So you can imagine that as I moved through the progression of that, I got out of my comfort zone a lot of times and, and, and I would find mentors. Many of them were members of AAOE. Many of them were members of MGMA. And I would tap them and say, Hey, can I pick your brain? Can I come and visit you? I would, I would drive mostly in the state a couple of times. I think I drove to Oregon. Can I come spend the day with you and just follow you around and pick your brain on uncertain things. So find mentors as a, as a, as a young emerging leader, I really, they didn't organically just show up for me. As far as mentors go, I had to seek them out. And the organization, AAOE, MGMA, even your local, for us, it was Washington State MGMA, or for me, it was Washington State MGMA. I was always able to find someone that I, I was amazed at their accomplishments or respected them a lot for the work that they'd done in the organizations. And so I would just call them and say, or email them and say, Hey, I need some help. And can you help me? So definitely find mentors that you connect with. Surround yourself with good people. How many times have we all been told this, right? You are, I was listening to a podcast the other day that there's a lot of research going on that, and that has gone on, but, but even more so now, I listened to a podcast called Hidden Brain. It's about neuroscience and about, it's a phenomenal podcast if you haven't had the opportunity to listen to it. There's some really science-based research that says that you are only as good as the worst member on your team. You will never be able to be better than that worst member of your team. And so there's a, there's a lot of science around surrounding yourself with good people. And on the personal side, they say that you are the six people that, the six people that are closest to you is how your life will, your, your, your life will mirror those six people. And so it's, it's no different really at work. And, and, you know, transition is difficult. Transitioning someone out is difficult, but, but you, you have to really, as a leader, take a look at who are you surrounding yourself with and are those the right people? And, and that's, that's, that's critical to your success. Network with peers. This is, you know, same thing as mentorship, like the, the two women on this call, I consider just phenomenal peers. They both in their own right have done amazing things in their careers. And they are often much smarter than I am in, in certain areas. And I may be smarter than them in certain areas, right? It's just how it works. Never be afraid to be around people that are smaller, smarter than you, because they will definitely help you raise your bar. I worked with this when we were opening our surgery center, I worked with this contracting person. Many of you may know her, Naya Quijes. She's done contracting, particularly in Washington state. That's where she lives, but she also has done a lot of national work. I think she's now, she was ECG consulting. I always felt like when I was in a room with her, she would always say something that I'm like, God, why didn't I think of that? Like, she's so smart, right? And that's okay. You, you, I learned so much from Naya and, and she is wicked smart. And I'm not afraid to say she is wicked smart. And so don't be afraid of people that are smarter than you. They actually will help you. Just say yes. Again, as a baby boomer, there was really no such thing as life balance when, when I started out in this field, right? Like even the orthopedic surgeons that I was working for back in the day, they worked seven days a week. They took calls seven days a week. They had no family life. Their, their wives raised their kids. It's much different than, than today where we know that life balance is critical to mental health and physical health and emotional health. And, but there's also something to just saying, yes, I was even things that I didn't really know. Like I'd never built a surgery center. I'd never done a TI build out in a brand new building that we had just purchased. I never had done any of that, but I was never afraid to say yes, because I knew that just saying yes was most of the battle. The rest would come again, networking with peers. I'd reach out to peers and say, Hey, you've built a building before, right? Like what, what are the pitfalls I need to look out for? Where should I, what, where are the cobwebs? Where are the spiders that are going to, you know, come attack me out of the corners? But you have to say yes first in order to do that. And and, and so never be afraid to say yes on the flip side of that. Don't be afraid to say no either. If you know that something, your plate is full, of course, back in the day, we would never have said no. Nowadays, I say no, because I know a full plate is an overflowing plate isn't necessarily the best place to be. And so just as you shouldn't be afraid to say yes, you also shouldn't be afraid to say no. April, can I, can I add to that, that one, I think the one of the worst, my best quotes on that, or the one of the, the, like a quote that I heard on that was by saying no to something, you're saying yes to something else. Is that, thank you for that. Yeah, that is, that's, that sums it up perfectly. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And then challenge your view of yourself and the world. Again, we're all told things. We all come with a lot of baggage from our, most of us come with a lot of baggage from our childhoods, right? The way that we were raised, the parents that we had, the siblings that we had. We all have a view by the time we reach adulthood of ourselves and of the world. And that view is just simply that it's just a view. It's not right. It's not wrong. It's not true. It's not false. It is simply just a thing and never let it become your reality. If I had let my view of myself and the world control my trajectory, I would still be on welfare, right? I would never have climbed out of those ranks. And so I was always, again, as a fire sign entity on the DISC profile, I was continually pushing boundaries and continually challenging myself and my view of the world. Never be afraid to be in a room with someone who disagrees with you. Most recently, our exec team, which is comprised of a CEO, myself, our CFO, we have a CAO, and we have a VP of HR. And after one of our recent exec team meetings, our CEO said, you know what I love about this group? We bring healthy tension into the room. We aren't afraid to disagree with one another. But at the end of the day, when we leave the room, we respect each other. We leave it in the room. We know that we can air our differences in front of each other and have those healthy conversations about disagreements because we don't all agree. And we shouldn't. We just should not all agree or what a boring place that would be. So healthy tension is really, really important. So don't shy away from it. We're taught, particularly as women, that we shouldn't challenge things. We shouldn't have strong opinions. We shouldn't. But that's just simply not true. Again, one of those podcasts, same thing, Hidden Brain. It's called The Secret to Healthy or Secret to Strong Teams. I think it was September 25th. If you want to listen to it, again, research shows that teams with a majority women are healthier just in general overall. So never be afraid to speak up and challenge how you think about not only yourself, but the world. And the world is your oyster. I love that. Healthy tension. It's so good and so true. And then this one. Oh man, I found this the other day when I was preparing for a meeting. I have spent so much of my life fighting the old, right? Like what is that about? Why do we do that? And I love change. I'm not afraid to change, but instead of fighting the old, concentrate on building the new and the sky's the limit. That's awesome. Thank you everybody. Those are some great thoughts, April. All right. Next, we're going to go to Andrea. I think it's my turn. Yeah. So I'm the, I'm the elder millennial of the group, Aquarius, Myers-Briggs, assertive ESTJ. Let's get all those out of the way. April and I are very much cut from the same cloth. So she and I have, she and I have very, very similar input. I was like, I wanted to steal a bunch of her slides, but I think I found my own. Okay. So for the, the my first suggestion for, for folks is don't take no for an answer. I, okay, I've got another suggestion for folks. Never split the difference book by Chris Voss. He is a FBI hostage negotiator turned negotiation guru. I actually listened to the first session on negotiation and she was talking about she's talking about a lot of the same things, but typically when people say no to you, what it actually means is something like, I'm intimidated by you, I'm not ready, I can't afford that, I don't understand, I need more information, I don't trust you, etc, etc. So no typically means that there are more questions. So along the way, you need to be anticipating those objections and answering those questions along the way. And the person who frames the narrative wins the argument, you know, the previous speaker said, you know, the first person who throws out the first number is the one who's going to lose. Well, you need to be playing chess while other people are playing checkers. So don't take no for an answer. And if you have still answered all of those objections and every problem along the way, if they still say no, find somebody who will say yes. In the words of our great poet of our century, Taylor Swift, haters are going to hate. And there are a lot of folks, unfortunately, a lot of them women, hold on one second. I just realized that my space heater was still going. If they people are going to people are going to say no to you. And if you've done all that you can, you need to do your own samurai work and go this organization or this situation may not be the best for me. And I need to exit it and find people who will say yes. Okay, next thing. You have to do the job the one you have to do the job you want before you get the job you want. And this is a part of what April was talking about of just say yes, when people come to you and ask you to do things. Say yes. And remember that sometimes saying no means saying yes to something else. This also means is April and I are working on is I say yes too much sometimes. And sometimes you need to look at the things you need to say no to so that you can say yes to things. I had this one mentor who gave me this book. And in this book, there was a quote that said, I would rather have a whole ass half than a half assed whole. I'll say that again. I'd rather have a whole ass half than a half assed whole. So if you're going to pick the things you do, do them well. Your boss can't read your mind, flaunt your work repeatedly, ask for how you can move up, ask for the things that you want. Tell them about the things that you've done. Solve your boss's problems for them anticipate their next steps so that you can help create ease in their life. Show that you have the initiative and responsibility before being asked that kind of goes back to solving the problems. I'm constantly sending April things like, hey, since we were talking about this, here's another idea for world domination. And of course, she's usually like, lol, great minds think alike. It's already on my list. And then also, your work should speak for itself. And again, that's the part about being a putting everything into it that you've got and taking responsibility for your work. Okay, next one. Be the leader you didn't have. This one is really important to me. I have had some real crappy leaders in my life. And unfortunately, all of them have been women. The people who said no to me the most women, the people who treated me the worst women. Yes, a couple guys in there too. But for the most part, I would say the majority of my strongest mentors, historically have been the men who were able to see beyond my gender and see that I had the intelligence and the smarts to do stuff. So be the leader that you didn't have, especially when it comes to how you treat people. This is a quote. This on the bottom here is a quote that I have on my email. And I can't tell you how many times people point this out to me and go, wow, that's really great. Your smile is your logo. Your personality is your business card and how you leave others feeling after an experience with you becomes your trademark. So be clear is kind, be kind to people and be the leader that you didn't have and learn from those poor leaders that really left a bad taste in your mouth. Take someone with you. So I'm getting to the point now where I'm at in my career where I am developing other leaders underneath me. And it's super fun to take them along the way with me and be like, hey, this was a really great experience that I had and I want to take you with me. I just took one of my supervisors to the AOE conference last year and it blew her mind and she was just so excited about it. It was really funny though. At the end of it, she's like, wow, you actually really work hard at these conferences. And I'm like, yeah, you do, but it's fun and you're learning a lot. So take somebody with you. This is a quote that I found from Simon Sinek. And again, this kind of goes back to being a leader that you didn't have. Bring those lady leaders along with you and help them grow and self-actualize too so that they can be the best versions of themselves. But then also you're providing an opportunity that you otherwise may not have gotten yourself. So those are my points. Thank you so much. That was awesome. I'm really feeling this. This is making me yeah. So further ado, Allison. Here I am. Okay, great. Hopefully with audio and visual after some music. So I'm the third of the A's. And if we're going through all the fun facts, Capricorn, you'll see that in very short order. I turned 50 this year. So Generation X and ESTJ, just as Andrea is. So very common personality traits here of female leaders of orthopedic practices. So I was going through the topics and I really liked the visuals that April shared and Andrea with her kind of growing leadership and kind of momentum and some inspirational thought there. But I really wanted to get down to some basics and kind of bring it home in a little different fashion. So you're here, you're on an AOE conference and you're listening to kind of three crazy women, I'll begin with A, that have gotten here. And I don't think anybody when they're filling out the kindergarten, get to know me, you know, pop quiz the first day of kindergarten or said, I want to be an orthopedic practice administrator. So you probably said one of the first three things I would have said about Broadway, but I can't sing or dance. Actually, I can dance to hip hop, but I can't dance like ballet or anything like that. But we're all here. We're all in orthopedics and we're at different roles and different responsibilities. But when I'm trying to bring home here is keep that mindset that got you here. Keep that mindset of how you got to this career and landed yourself in orthopedics and landed yourself in medicine. Don't don't just have that stop, really ponder and look back at where you started and how you got here and the pivots and turns that you made along the way. And think about the people that fostered those pivots and turns. And don't marginalize yourself and your own personal guidance and how you got here and what was attractive. Because if something was attractive to you, you can do this. If this was attractive to you, you are tough, you're motivated, you're going to go through the challenges. You have this growth mindset if you have found yourself on this webinar and listening to us so far. So the next visual shows the difference between the two mindsets. And you're already on the right hand side, if you will, with the green and the growth. You've embraced challenges. Orthopedics is not easy. Orthopedic surgeons are just unique, bold, confident, type A personality, direct, passionate people. And let me tell you, I have taught a bunch of young, mostly women in the practice that may have had a, we call it spirited conversation with one of our surgeons that I said, listen, that conversation did not go the way that I would have liked to. Now, let me tell you, I will draw the line on respect and yelling and cussing. I'm not saying that that's appropriate ever. But I do have to empathize with that surgeon. You have no idea what happened on the operating table in the middle of the night last night. And you have no idea they could have had someone pass away in their arms. They could have had to do an amputation on a child. And while you were watching Property Brothers, they were dealing with this. And so just really think about their reality. Also, I usually follow that up with the, you've just gone through the windshield of a car crash and an EMT is holding your leg in their hand. Who do you want to meet at the emergency room door? That jerk is who you want to meet. Okay. So just realize everybody's in their role and that they picked orthopedics because they also embrace challenges and you have that in common with them. You're also crazy smart. If you have made it here, you're crazy smart. This is one of the top three most difficult specialties there is. You did not take the easy way out when you were somewhere choosing a practice to either stay with or invest in. You've mastered new skills, especially if you were in your career during COVID. You've learned more about your business from the middle of March, 2020 till right now than you ever would have gotten in the previous decade of knowledge. The end of March, 2020 was the hardest I've ever worked in my entire life. And I was getting paid half of my salary because we all went down with everybody. And so you have the skills, you can do it, you can learn from your failures, and you can celebrate other people's successes. You can do all these things if you're on this phone call, you're already here. So I just want you to know that the fact that you're in this career and in this industry proves that you have the growth mindset. So on the next slide, how's it progressed? You probably have a degree. It may be one of those things listed here. Doesn't matter if it's not. I learned more in my first three weeks of working in public accounting than a master's degree from one of the top accounting programs in the country. What you learn every day, if you come in with that growth mindset and you're a sponge and you listen and you learn and you ask questions, does not matter. I would like us to respect education. I think medicine is based on certifications and registrations and licensures and degrees. I don't want to marginalize that. But I'm just saying that it is important, but the career experience and who you surround yourself with and who you learn from can be just as valuable. So you have that education and you have a growth mindset. And so what's next? I just need everybody to jump in and get to work. You don't point fingers. Don't say I can't do that. Don't say that's someone else's job. Don't say I tried and nobody listened to me. Quit putting excuses. Jump in. The only way is through. There are no shortcuts. Get to work and it will serve you well. If you are dealing with something hard, you need to look at yourself and say, sound like I need to get to work. I worked as a part time treasurer for a nonprofit a lifetime ago and went to go meet with the bank because some irresponsible financial decisions had been made before I came on board. And we met with the bank and the VP of the BB&T or now Truist for the region was looking across at us. And he just crossed his arms and said, sounds like you two need to get to work. And I go back to that comment at least once a week, that if you have a barrier, whether a human or a software or a patient, you can apply this to your personal life. You need to get to work. You need to go to your toolbox. You need to pull out your skill set and you need to do it. And you need to put excuses to the side and just go right through it. That's great advice as a mother, especially if you're teenagers. I don't have teenagers anymore. Thank gosh. But jump in and get to work. And if you've gotten here, you know what you need to do. You just need to pull up your bootstraps and do it. Allison, can I just add to that comment real quick? I have right now, I'm struggling with some folks who have that kind of mindset of, well, this is the way we always did it. Or it was done this way historically. And what about the past? Blah, blah, blah. And I just had to get to a point where I was like, at some point we have to draw a line in the sand, except that the past is the past and move forward. And that was essentially, we got to jump in and get to work. And I'm sorry if you were treated wrongly before, really sorry for that. We got to move forward now. Exactly. Exactly. That is fabulous advice. So there's three little steps that I wanted to share with everybody. So invest in yourself. I mean, you are your best asset. I do agree with Andrea with surrounding yourself with a team and taking people with you. And I have enjoyed that too. If you're not at that point in your career that you have that luxury, please keep growing and get yourself to that point. I have surrounded myself with some people that I truly love. I love them. They are my go-to people. I trust them. I can delegate to them without even having to go back behind them. And it is taking me, in my current role, 10 years to surround myself with that team. And they are MVPs. I do anything for them. I prioritize them. They prioritize me. But investing in myself came first. So then I knew what I had to offer to the team and who I could be and what I needed to complement that. I am not the smartest person in the room. I'm with orthopedic surgeons all day long. I am not the smartest person in the room. One of them is, let's just be real, I could be more fun. But if we're having a smart contest, that's, I don't even try to win. I can be as smart as them from a business standpoint. And I can educate. And I can be patient. And I can listen. But also, I do not know how to perform a spine surgery. But the people I'm working with know everything about how to run a retirement plan. So I can be in the middle because I've invested myself. And I'm giving myself the knowledge of the role that I'm in. And I've not tried to get myself the knowledge of performing a spine surgery. You must establish trust with your leader. This is the third time this has been said, this little session conference. If you do not trust, respect, look up to, get knowledge, get praise, celebrate wins, collaborate on failures with your current manager, you need to make a personal decision. People do not quit jobs, they quit managers. And think about that a little bit more, okay? And you will think about that again in the future. You must be working in an environment with a trusted leader, or is that going to be a continuous barrier to your career? You also must surround yourself at your level with a family of people. You see all the stats about you spend more hours of your life with your work, family than your real family. If you are not coming in on Monday and asking people how their weekend was, and they're not asking you the same, if you do not know people's birthdays and the cubes around you, if you do not know their kids' names or dogs' names, their parents' name, if you do not cry when they have a death, if you do not celebrate when they have a birth, you need to find somebody else. I'm just telling you that. That reality exists. That reality exists. Like, not only done in my work family, those five people that April just mentioned with her executive director team, I know all of them. And I know, like, it extends beyond, you know, your cubicles or your offices. It can be in other practices. It can be at an association that you made a friend, and it's just a safe space of someone to vent to, but also to celebrate, too. Again, we talked about this, too, the get to work and showing your manager that you can do work for them. Robert Redford said it was in a nonprofit setting, but he said if you can do more, you probably should. If you can be a better parent, you probably should. If you can give more to your church, you probably should. If you can give more to your job, you probably should. If you're overspent, you need to say no, like we talked about before, and say yes to something else. But if you can do more and you feel like you have something to give, you probably should, and you need to find a family and a leader that fosters that environment. At the same time, guys, we don't need, I'm the best person, I did this, you know, I had to pull you guys out last weekend because y'all botched it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Nobody likes that. Nobody likes that. This was Andrea's final saying with the personality and the smile and your trademark and your own personal brand, you must be humble, and the kindness helps, too. I was watching American Idol a couple years ago, and Jennifer Lopez said, you know, I'm not the best dancer, I'm not the best singer, but people like working with me. I'm friendly, I'm always in a good mood, I listen to them, I collaborate, people like working with me. And you will win out over the smartest person in the room and the person who, you know, did the big report PowerPoint, if you are humble, you celebrate the people that got there with you, and you are kind, I will tell you, that is half the battle. Half the battle. Walk in on Monday with a smile on your face, say happy birthday, bring the balloons, call everybody sunshine, be silly. I'm a ridiculous person. I'm a ridiculous person. I'm a terrible speller. I have horrible grammar. I'm very, very, very good at numbers. So at least there's that. But I do like to be silly. And I do like to make fun of myself. And I think that that's gotten me a long way. I'm a huge dork. People tell me that all the time. Sometimes they say I'm charismatic. I really appreciate that grace. But I am really, really quirky. And I don't care. I don't care. I'm I'm this is who I am. And I'm just thankful to be surrounded by people that have some sense sometimes. And just to bring it home. These are the final three things. If you're gonna take anything with you, you must do the right thing. Never, never, never, never deviate. Never deviate. Never, never choose the easy path. Never lie. I'm serious about never lying. You get overpaid, no paycheck, you need to go to human resources and you need to say I got overpaid. Your benefits were not administered accurately. You, you know, your PTO was canceled in air and you actually took PTO. Never, never, never compromise doing the right thing. It will serve you well. I have fired so many people that they're looking at me and just said, I knew it was the wrong thing to do. I regret it, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's you just must I must insist on that always speak the truth. And I do not lie. I will look a surgeon in the face and tell them I messed up. I'll tell them someone who worked for me messed up. I will. And I and in my role, sometimes those that news is decisions that were hundreds of thousands of dollars of financial effect. It is the truth, though it is the truth. You must speak it you can you you can never hold back on something that you know has an important aspect to the job. Make sure you're telling it to the right people and in the right way. The humbleness and the judgment can can get you off kilter there. But speak your truth. And then back to the positive intent. If you do those two things with hope and positivity, and you you do mean well, you come in, you do good work and you mean well, um, I've had some some really tough things happen, especially since I've taken my new role, driving home at night driving home after a board meeting things, things, things did not go the way that I had hoped. And I looked back, I have I have a work friend who is someone is a safe space for me to yell out and scream at and beat myself up. And she's a safe space. And she asked me, did I do these three things. And if I did these three things, I just know I did the best that I could. And just karma went the other direction. So the these three things will give you peace if you feel like things have not gone your way. That's it. Wow, I would I would reiterate that Allison, I assuming our our culture in general loves to assume things right. And we love to be judgmental about things. And we love to make things up in our head. When we don't have the full picture. And so I've done a lot of work over the years around walking into a room with with nothing but as an assumption of positive intent, because even when we do wrong things, we usually do them for the right reason. We do and people do not jump to that first. It's often that someone will just hear something another way. And I've learned a lot that until you come together, that way is that person's reality just just as real as your interpretation of the situation and where you're coming from is your reality. It takes two sides of the story to a whole nother level. If you really can get there mentally, that is truly their reality. And if you just put put your emotions to the side that I disagree with them, and that's stupid. And then I mean, if you're like, okay, that is their reality. They, they, they really think that money is theirs. They really think that that person needs to be in that role. They really think that that software is the right choice. You need to have a conversation with knowing that that is where they are as strongly as where you are and assume nothing, ask every question. And I'll tell you, it will serve you well every single time. There have been so many times where I walked into a conversation and man nature hates vacuum. And it's it my brain is made up all sorts of stories. And I and I came in and I actually just had one just yesterday, a coaching conversation, where I was initially going to go into it. And thankfully, my leaders questioned me who I was having the conversation. And they're like, No, no, no, Andrea, I think we need to take a different approach with this person. And I was like, No, I don't care. I want to do it my way. But I was like, Okay, I'll do it your way. Sure as heck, I went in there and I did it their way. And it was a totally different situation. They were 100% accurate, I would have been way off, I would have burned a bridge. And instead, we had a really great education and coaching opportunity for somebody who, frankly, probably displayed more emotional intelligence and maturity than most of my physicians could have ever even dreamed of displaying. So, so just, you know, having that, like, even if you come in with that taking an opportunity to be like, okay, what's their side of the story and finding that out? So many times have I been like, well, I was wrong on that. Yeah, yeah. No, that's the case. But you do you, you do need to get there and you need to make sure you're in a place where you can get behind it as well. You know, Andrea's story that worked out well, but there's there's times that you're like, No, I, I really still think I'm right on that one. So don't, don't step aside. Because if you don't go all the way to the point of a fact place where you're comfortable with seeing this time and time again, that you give up, or you say, Okay, I said, but nobody listened to me. If you're in a leadership role, acceptance of the situation is approval. Okay. So if you've accepted the resolution, if you have moved forward, if you have not made the change, if you've kept the person in that role, you've kept that software, you've kept that relationship, you've kept that supplier, and they, they were not completely resolved by you where we needed to be. If you have kept it, that is you approving it. Okay. You sorry, Allison, the thing that I didn't hear any of us say is you also need to have the ability to read the room. Like, if for instance, Andrea had gone down the path of, I'm going to do it my way, and got into the room, and was really aware enough, self aware and situationally aware enough to know this isn't going how I planned it to go. You got to be able to read the room and course correct, not be afraid to course correct. And also, we deal with so many different audiences, right? We deal with orthopedic surgeons, and we deal with, with medical records, clerks, and, and front desk people, and, you know, all different walks of life. And it's really important to be able to read the room, and know when your message is off target. Yeah. And, and be willing to course correct. Yeah, that's great, great comment. Well, I think that you've all given us way, way, way more than 10 things and takeaways that we can create a liberty with 10. 10 each. Yeah, exactly. It was perfect, though. And there's so many takeaways that not only can be implemented right now, but can continue to contribute to your growth in your career, no matter where you're at. And you know, I'm not an administrator in an orthopedic office, that doesn't mean that I can't take away so much of what you said today, and apply it to my own career as well. So I, the information that you've given is invaluable. I feel like everything that we've learned here today has just been so good. I don't know about anybody else, but I feel really empowered and excited to take on new opportunities as well. So I want to give you an opportunity if there's anything else that you want to share in closing while we see if anybody has comments or questions either in the q&a or the chat, I'll monitor both. Just make sure that you're putting everyone in the two so that we can see what those are. But yeah, just open it back up to all if you have any closing remarks. As I kick off, I think that sometimes it comes off that women have to be tough. And we all even maybe were to fall of starting with with our personalities and that kind of stuff. If you really just go in with the mindset that that most humans are good. I mean, eBay was built on the fact that over 90% of humans are good and tell the truth. And that is the majority of people if you just go into situations with love, and accuracy and truth. And knowing what you know, and knowing what you don't know, and surrounding yourself with people who are like minded decision makers, really, that is where you need to be and your business will be positioned for success. All it takes is one person who's a cancer in the organization, you need to hire slow and fire quick, that it can really derail the entire path if people are respect for each other and love each other and go in the same direction. Yeah. And I think I've heard this in all the sessions that we've had today in some form or another, of finding a mentor, an executive coach, a good therapist, whatever it whatever it is, but having that person who can help you with your stuff, but also call you on your BS. I think that that's also something that's really important that some of the thing like an executive coach and whatnot can do. I've learned a lot by having somebody hold up a mirror to me. And as Alan men, Alan, Allison mentioned, you know, having those people that you trust who you can go unload to, if I need to solve a problem, I go to my husband. If I if I'm like, hey, I'm having a problem with something I you know, and I need him. He's a he's a great chess thinker. He like thinks through all the stuff. If I need to solve a problem, I go to my husband. If I need to have an emotional breakdown, I go to my therapist, I do not go to my husband, because my husband will say to me, I don't know why you're telling me this, you're not solving the problem, you are part of the problem. And that's not what I need when I'm having an emotional breakdown. So I go to my therapist and have my emotional breakdown. And then I go home to my honey or my executive coach, and I say, Okay, I'm ready to solve this problem. So you know, knowing those audiences of who you can talk to about what and when I think, especially when we start getting up into higher echelons of leadership, it's lonely at the top. It is. It's lonely at the top. And you need people who can help prop you up. But you also need people who can help call you out. Yeah, that is absolutely true. And and I would encourage you to work on your own personal baggage, for lack of a better word, like, when you show up somewhere, how you show up anywhere is how you show up everywhere. And executive coach told me that years ago. And if you're showing up places, angry, defeated, A, you might be in the wrong places, right? So you really need to rethink that. But B, I've done a lot of personal work with therapists and coaches on why I showed up the way I did and why I took things personally and why I reacted in certain ways. And because at the end of the day, how you choose to react to any situation, positive or negative, is really the driver of what happens in that situation. And you can choose to engage, you can choose to walk away, you can choose passive aggressive behavior, there are all sorts of ways that we can choose to show up. And I would encourage all of us to continue seeking out those opportunities to understand our own behavior, and to learn how to change that because it's really made the big difference for me in how I feel at the end of the day, right? Like, and a lot of us are juggling busy careers and children, my children are grown and raised and actually have my 17 year old granddaughter here with me, she spent the night with me last night. So we're all at different stages, we might be married, we might be single parents, we might so you have your own things that you're dealing with outside of personal or your professional life. And just really take care of yourselves and understand how to show up healthier from the way that you're reacting to things. Because that's really going to drive whether or not you can take more on which is Allison said, if you if you can do more, you probably should. Yeah. And that that that reminds me what you guys just both said it is lonely at the top. Inferiority complex is real. See it coming and look at the face. You must be a very confident upwardly mobile per person if you're being promoted. I'm CEO of the fifth largest country. And I mean, it's, it's crazy. But it is lonely. I can't go to the break room and yell about how my boss is being ridiculous anymore, because guess what, it's it's me. So it's real. For the first time in my life, I doubted myself, I've had to acknowledge that those complexes and those way of your brain thinking is real, just like postpartum postpartum depression is real, like it is real, it is a mental state. Listen to your body, listen to yourself, surround yourself with the people that can help you get through those things. But also, you know, take the wins to man, take the wins. I mean, take the take the promotions, take the additional projects, take the merit increases, take the pats on the back, take the little words of employee of the month man that that all adds, you're doing good work, take the wins and pat yourself on the back and just say, man, I did that. And be proud of yourself. It's it's tough out there. It's tough. It's in your head. That was a big thing for me. Like I had to say, April, who's in your head? Who's in your head? Like I had somebody asked me one time, if the voice inside of your head was your best friend, would you keep them around? And and I'm like, Oh, probably not. Yeah. I mean, they're being a jerk. They need to show. So affirm your belief in yourself. I write things on my mirror because that's my bathroom mirror because that's what I see the first thing every morning, right? Like, whatever I need to focus on in my life, I write it on my mirror until I don't need to focus on that anymore. And then I wipe it off and write something new up there. I love that. And Allison, you touching on, you know, taking in every little thing. Somebody told me once that anytime they got an email from somebody, you know, with a praise or a good note, or something about a project or an award or anything, they kept it all in a folder. And there was in the, in the keynote, she talked about having that evidence ready for you from a negotiation standpoint. But this person also said when they just had a really bad day, they're down on themselves, they're feeling awful, they have that as a resource to go. Okay, I'm doing the right thing. I had a bad day. That doesn't mean my whole career is bad, or that I'm doing a bad job overall, you just have a bad day sometimes. And that's okay. And it's okay to sit in that for a second and feel it. And then you got to figure out how to move on. So having tools like that, exactly having tools like that, to be able to move to that next stage after the sort of wallow moment that we all can have and need to have sometimes is a good thing. So awesome. This is the app on this for hours, I think. And we need to have like a traveling a roadshow. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, we can continue the conversation and the networking session. That's what's next. There's no agenda or anything to that outside of the first couple of minutes. Pardon me, we're going to do a quick raffle drawing for attendees who are going to be, everybody should have gotten a ticket. And there are some people who registered late that didn't have a ticket yet that I have your name on a list to pull a number. So there will be that at the very beginning. And then I have some breakout rooms based on size, group size, so that we can kind of create a little bit of order to the madness because 60 people in one room may make it hard for people to talk. But really hope that you join us for that next session. That's another great way to hopefully maybe you'll find a mentor as a part of the networking. This is a great way to start doing that. And yeah, really excited to have that session. But so thankful to April, Allison and Andrea for participating, putting this together. This was so great. Just really, really appreciate your time and effort spent on this. And yeah, looking forward to this next session that'll begin in just a few minutes at 315. We'll open that up. See everybody then. Great. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Thanks, everybody.

initiative

mentors

reading the room

positive mindset

investing in oneself

establishing trust

authenticity

self-reflection

growth mindset