In this episode, our featured guest is Scott Becker - founder and publisher of Becker's Hospital Review and Becker's Healthcare discusses his journey in publishing and shares insight into the impact of the COVID pandemic on his company, the business of health and  crosscutting transformational and equity challenges within both education and healthcare.

In this episode we continue our discussion with senior level sales growth executives who have achieved revenue in excess of $1 billion during the course of their sales career.  Our guest is Andre Debose - Managing Director at Deloitte Consulting and a retired Army Officer.  We discuss his career transition from military life into growth roles across both product sales at IBM to strategic professional services within Deloitte.  

In this episode Tiffanee Neighbors interviews Harrison Wilson and DJ Eidson - President and COO and co-founders at Limitless Minds.  They discuss their engagement platform that leverages mental conditioning principles to help sales organizations drive measurable performance improvement across their sales teams.  Limitless Minds is a company founded by DJ, Harrison, NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and his mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad.  

TIME STAMPED SHOW NOTES

INTRO:                                00:08 Welcome to WINNING in HEALTH the podcast for winners. In this podcast series, our host, veteran health industry, sales executive and owner of WINNASIUM Tiffanee Neighbors brings you a unique panel of exceptional leaders in business and in sports. These leaders will share their secrets and best practices for winning and leading teams to win in high stakes and highly competitive environment. It's been said that when you sit with winters or conversation is different, let's get the conversation started full.

Host - Welcome               Welcome to Winning in Health, a WINNASIUM podcast. I am your host, Tiffanee Neighbors CEO and Founder at WINNASIUM. And today we're talking to two high performing former sells at secretaries in the healthcare space, DJ Eidson and Harrison Wilson. They are the co founders of the company, Limitless Minds alongside Superbowl winning quarterback, Russell Wilson and his sought after mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad. In many ways, this team represents everything we value at WINNASIUM and we are extremely excited to share their stories and the innovative approach. Limitless Minds is applying to mental conditioning in the workplace.

                                                                                                         DJ and Harrison, welcome to the show.

DJ Eidson:                          Hey, what's up? How's it going? Good afternoon.

Host: Tiffanee N.             Thank you guys. I'm excited to have you. You guys have launched an incredible, incredible company and I don't know what's more exciting for me to have you guys talk about whether it's your journey to get there or the company, but I think we have the benefit of doing both. So I want to give you guys a chance to one, introduce yourselves, your background and then we'll kind of jump into a little bit about your sales journey.

Harrison Wilson:              01:55 First of all, thank you so much for having us on the podcast. We're really excited about this. Spend some time with you. I know you really got a chance to probably spend more time with DJ outside of the walls of the podcast studio here, but I'm excited because I know DJ said a ton of great things about what you're doing and building. So thank you so much for having us. I come from the pharmaceutical medical device space, sales, sales, leadership. I had a journey that was kind of a winding road from different odd sales roles, like office supplies and car sales and enterprise were in a car. And then finally to pharma and medical device. And the journey was really just, you know, wrapped around trying to be like just really good at what I do. You know, I just had that prior to just being really great at what I do and then getting a chance to continue to get promoted through an organization that I was in most recently. And that's where I actually met DJ, this kind of natural organic path that led us to want to do more, do something bigger, to impact as many people as we can to collaborate with my brother who's a cofounder, Russell Wilson quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks and his mental conditioning coach, Trevor Moawad to create Limitless Minds. And so I spent about 10 to 12 years in the sales and in pharma medical device and DJ spent a lot more years than me. Tiffanee, our elder statesman and my uncle, I call him my uncle.

Harrison Wilson:              03:15 we're just excited about, you know, kind of being able to bring, come together and build something. And yeah, we're excited.

DJ Eidson:                          03:20 And Tiffanee, I mean I, you know, it's funny cause I was thinking about your question and I wouldn't know if I shared this with Harry at any point, but my very first sales job, and I remembered this the other day when I, well one of my kids try to do this, I would draw pictures at the dining room table and then I would go door to door and sell those pictures.

DJ Eidson:                          03:38 He came home with a bunch of money and my mom asked me, where did you get that money? And I said, well I drew these pictures and I sold them to the neighbors. And then so she made me go back and give all the money back to the neighbors. But that was the first time I had like actually, you know, produce something and then sold it. So that I, I want to say I was probably, I don't know, six or seven years old, but I've always had that kind of entrepreneurial spirit. I had the opportunity to get into healthcare and pharmaceuticals. I started out as a sales intern and sold Claritin and Nasonex, you know, parlayed that into a full time job and got into some training and leadership and hospital sales. And you know, met Harry about six years ago at a startup company that we helped really build from the ground floor.

DJ Eidson:                          04:23 We had this amazing journey of being able to hire people and be able to promote a product that, you know, nobody had really heard of at the time. And that company bought other products. And we grew and we saw that as we were kind of going through that process and that experience, that the thing that set top performers apart was not necessarily the technical training that they had, but it was the ability to be able to navigate through change challenges and adversity that really got them through to that elite top level. And when we had the opportunity to partner with Trevor and Russ, you know, Trevor's kinda, you know, when you look up Trevor Moawad you see the guru, uh, one of the world's best in mental conditioning and he's been able to work in sports and work with people like Harry’s younger brother Russell, University of Alabama, a lot of professional sports teams. But we said, how can we take that recipe that we know works in business and take it from sports and bring it into business? And that's how we formed. And so, you know, about a year, year and a half ago, we launched the company. We've had the opportunity to work with some of the best and brightest and mostly lead business professionals and companies in the world. It's been a really cool journey.

Host - Tiffanee:                05:26 That's incredible. We've talked offline and one of the things you mentioned too was that you obviously went to President's Club as a high performer in the sales field. So you had the opportunity to probably remain and choose to grow in the sales profession or sales leadership and executive roles within the space. What made you choose to take this path into entrepreneurship versus continuing to climb into higher levels of sales stream?

DJ Eidson:                          05:53 That's a great question. And you know, I started out, like I said, there's always been this on me to be an entrepreneur and Harry and I, when we met, we would always bounce off ideas, whether it was how we were going to build our teams or what we wanted to do next. During the time that we met, Harry had lost his father. And then during the time we worked together, I lost my father both ironically to complications of diabetes. So this whole thing about, I remember sitting in a Panera bread with Perry as we were kind of discussing kind of what do we want to do really want to do next? You know, we started talking about the people that we wanted to impact, the people that our fathers had impacted, and how can we create a legacy that really has a profound and positive impact, not just on the company that we were at at that time, but also throughout the world. And so we said, we're going to impact thousands or millions of people. We're going to have to figure out a vehicle to do that. And so we said, what are we good at doing? And who do we know? And, and you know, what's our network look like? And, and so that's how we formed the business. But you're right, I mean, jumping out of that, right? Harry and I talk about it all the time, the career that we built in big business and pharmaceuticals, then healthcare was a great career.

DJ Eidson:                          06:57 and we had made great impressions on people and we're moving up that corporate ladder, but it was always this tug to do more inherit throughout that word legacy and what type of legacy do we want to leave for our kids and families and just our footprint on the world. And that drew us to Limitless Minds.

Harrison Wilson:              07:12 Also. Tiffanee, I think that, um, if you Google entrepreneurship or entrepreneur, the word risk is somewhere in that definition. I think, right? DJ has five kids. I have three. I have three daughters that are seven, four and two. At 35 years old or so, I started thinking about like risks and I'm not really an incredibly risk averse person. I'm kind of moderate unlike DJ. I didn't really previously have this entrepreneurial kind of plan per se until I started thinking about risk and the desire to think about to DJ's point about like our father's passing. My dad died at 55 years old and I thought, man, what if I really just had like 20 summers left, 20 Christmases left, 20 years left to do whatever I'm going to do? Like, am I really just going to kind of take the easy path, the path of least resistance, right?

DJ Eidson:                          07:59 To DJ's point, we thought about what are we good at, what do we like to do, what I do want to impact people? And the risk part of it was really attractive all of a sudden because I know looking at the faces of my daughters, they're only gonna be as risky and take those leaps if they've seen it done in their own home, in their own environment and their own ecosystem. So by taking a risk and ultimately being successful when doing so, Gracie, my seven year old, as she begins to find opportunities to take her own risks, she's going to have a little repertoire, a little background, a little canvas to say how her father or her parents had taken risks and be more competent in doing so. And so that's part of that legacy that DJ's talking about relative to me is just wanting to really like show my kids what good looks like and what risk-taking looks like and how you can continue to have a growth mindset and think about things and want to impact people. And it's okay to take some leaps of faith and put yourself out there, you know?

Host – Tiffanee:                Yeah. That's incredible. And that's, I mean, you can't have a better role model than, than doing it yourself, you know, for them being that example. And it's really about not playing it safe and taking those risks. And I think that that's incredible what you've been driven by. I have to ask you guys, you were in one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and did you ever have the kind of training program or experience, the kind of training program that you today offer in the market?

DJ Eidson:                          09:19 Well, it's funny. No we haven't. At least I haven't. But what I'll say is, is that when we're going and talking to C level and C-suite folks or directors of training or marketing or sales, Harry will often ask that question, you know, do you have a game plan for adversity, change challenges and do you want your people to also have a game plan for that? Oftentimes they say they do. They'll kind of sit there and pause for a second whether or not their people do and then he'll ask them, you know, do you think your people should have a game plan and be trained in that area? And they say, absolutely. And so I think, again, going back to that, it's called soft skills training, I should say the type of training that we deliver, but it often gets forgotten about. Like you know, you'll get training around the technical aspects of the pharmaceutical product that you're selling, the technical aspects of, you know, how to target or route your calls in sales.

DJ Eidson:                          10:13 But rarely do you get training around, okay, what happens when you spill coffee on yourself? What happens when you lose a major account? What happens when the managed care environment doesn't go your way? And now all of a sudden the pharmaceutical medication that was covered last year is not covered the next year. How do you navigate through that from a mental standpoint and persevere on and then giving people the real actual blueprint of what that looks like to navigate through that. And what we found is, is that much of our training that we received that differentiated us in the business world was not learned in business, but was learned through sports with learn through mentors, was learned through coaches. And so to be able to package that up and pull it through organizations, there's been a tremendous benefit and I think there's a void there.

Host - Tiffanee:                11:00                   I agree. You know, when you talk about the key to the high performers that you observed in the sales environment, you mentioned their ability to navigate changes, challenges, adversity, and the absence of this, right? This kind of mental conditioning, mental thinking, support, it creates an incredible opportunity. I also see this as an opportunity with the youth. Very recently I was a part of a parent council at my daughter's private school. And the number one challenge in the student population is around stress and anxiety. That ability to build that grit or to navigate the very things you've said, the changes, challenges and adversity. And so I kind of see this theme and this support structure playing itself out. And I'd like to kind of give you guys a chance to talk a little bit about what Limitless Minds is all about and what you guys offer to address and to kind of proliferate the mental conditioning throughout the business industry.

Harrison Wilson:              12:03 Yeah, and I think that's a great question, and we'll put kind of position question there. I think that in a quick couple words, what we're about is we're about adversity tolerance. I think that what DJ was pointing on earlier is that whether it's an individual and an organization, a leader in an organization, organization as a whole, it's culture. And to your point in schools, whether it be the staff, the students, student athletes, everybody comes in to an environment with a different level of adversity, tolerance. And that's just maybe based on past experiences and their environment, whatever it might be, but not everybody's equal relative to their adversity tolerance. What we look to do is to provide really clear, concise, unique, modern tools to increase the diversity tolerance of any and every individual and an organization and try to build those up, build that adversity tolerance up so that collectively the organization has a greater adversity tolerance.

Harrison Wilson:              12:55 And I think that that's really the difference that we see for elite performers in sports, military or all the way to business, from sales to sales leadership to executives. Those that sustain long term success have that adversity tolerance. And so what we've done is we've created an environment where we can take what's worked for like my brother and Trevor in the sports world and create an environment where you don't have to make $35 million a year to have access to this stuff. Everybody needs a coach. Everybody should have a coach in this area. Why not provide that to them? Right? My brother Tiffanee is five 10 he has no business playing in the NFL isn't, and I can say that right? Cause I'm big brother, right? He has no business playing NFL, but he is a savant when it comes to how he thinks competitively. When the pressure's at its highest, his heart rate tends to decrease and that's not on accident.

Harrison Wilson:              13:44 That's success leaves clues and just like a prodigy on piano, golf, tennis, you know that 15 year old Coco golf, right? Who's like taking the world by storm in tennis. She still has a coach, but she's a prodigy, right? That's what's been prodigal from my brother is his mindset and he's had a coach and that's been in Trevor Moawad. And so we just said, why don't we take this, the right access to this across organizations and the like and hopefully schools as we get there. But what we've done is we've created an environment we can do that, but we've also been really important to us is to mobilize the learning because the organizations like these pharma companies, medical device companies and alike across different industries as well that have people that are on the bill. Number one reason why people don't feel like they'd been trained at work is because they don't have enough time.

Harrison Wilson:              14:24 So we just found it to mobilize the learning through a digital learning platform and be able to provide podcasts and micro videos and quizzing and gamification and leaderboard statuses so people can kind of have fun and and recognize their learning and be recognized for it as well as the live stuff or the life that's been important to the live keynotes and leadership summits. And then also we've found ways to measure it, which was I think has been really important, especially for our corporate organizations, is identifying a baseline and being able to measure against it. And we've been able to do that, you know, a mindset assessment that's been tremendous help to be able to measure noncognitive skills like grit, growth mindset, self determination, self discipline, adaptability, resilience, etc. And so that's been really tremendous to be able to show organizations where their people start with us.

Harrison Wilson:              15:04 And then as they become more educated and trained in the area of mindset, how they change along that journey. And then of course, as you can imagine, how it affects their bottom line is really important too. So we're able to take those measurements and put it up against performance data too and say, Hey, listen, during this 12 months we've measured their mindset twice to this was our assessment. And those people that grew the most in these areas also happened in the ones that were the most from a sales performance standpoint. So when we're able to do that, as you can imagine, are the organizations leaders and sales leaders are, are pretty excited to see that. Tiffany. I think the last thing I'll say around it is what we've found, and I don't know that we knew that we'd find this, but we found this, is that we really have seem to be impacting the middle, the mighty middle, and some organizations might call it, you know, cause there's always going to be, let's say you have a sales team, there's always going to be a top 20% that are people that perform at a high level, typically all the time, year in a year out.

Harrison Wilson:              15:54 Then there's your bottom 20% that you know, honestly, they're just not getting the job done. Then maybe they should find excellence elsewhere, right? That oftentimes maybe you're being managed out, but then there's that middle 60 that middle 60 that is so critical to an organization. And if we can move them 5% 10% 8% 11% that's where organizations are seeing a huge jump in performance as affecting their bottom line. I think that's the group we've been impacting the most. And so that's where we feel like the value in this really resides in the differences in kind of how we can impact a sales team. You know, along with the technical sales training that they're investing in for their people.

Host - Tiffanee:                16:30 It's almost one of those things where you guys have, in my view, perfected the offering because of the lens that you have approached it from as former sales individuals, you recognize the need for that diversity in different training modalities. So it's not monolithic. Right. I'm also hearing a little bit of that healthcare background as well, coming into play with the measurement, right? So how are we measuring outcomes? So we all sat through tons of training as sales professionals and executives and we don't always, or never really saw how the outcomes were measured and then of course tied back into the financial performance. I think that those pieces that you've articulated are critical differentiators and I think the discovery around the impact of the metal is kind of interesting to me. And I wondered as you were speaking, was this kind of a, I know that you said it was a surprise, but where did you expect your impact to be greatest going in?

DJ Eidson:                          17:33                   I personally thought the impact would be, would be the greatest, like with the individual contributors, the salespeople. But what I found is that actually the leaders are thirsting for this even more than I think the sales reps. I mean, I think the sales reps do, but they're to the leaders first to be that example, the model of what good looks like, to understand the principles, the concepts that we teach, the fundamentals of thinking. And then when it starts there and then it gets pushed down to the sales team, it creates a common language so that, you know, there's certain terminologies that we use, whether in concepts that we teach, whether it's neutral thinking, illusion of choice, pressure's a privilege. It takes what it takes. These are all different concepts that we teach, but when you start with the leadership and then you push it down through the rest of the organization, it seems to resonate well and it seems to stick. I'm pleasantly surprised with it. You always think if something is going to work, you know, but you have to have the proof of concept. You have to actually do it. You have to put yourself out there and to try it. We had this idea and we thought it would work and we've been able to execute on it. I would like to say flawlessly, right? But you know how it is to be an entrepreneur,

DJ Eidson:                          18:41 but it is turning into a masterpiece and that's where Harry and I, that's what gets us up every morning. That's what we get excited about.

Harrison Wilson:              18:48                   I thought we'd see a huge impact with like, you know people who have been floundering, right? That are the folks maybe in that bottom 20 as I mentioned before, I thought we'd have a great impact on them and I think there's times where we do. But then if you really think about it, Tiffany, like we had a manager, DJI, both a friend and a manager of ours who would always say a leopard never changes his spots, which we always joke about, you know, his sayings and different things that he says. But to me that kind of resonates this year is like Newmont and 20% are who they are for a reason. You know, and a lot of times it's a lot of other intrinsic factors, you know, and they're keeping them from being high-performers or either it's just a skill set or it's just not in the right environment.

Harrison Wilson:              19:21 Or like I said before, there's, there's probably excellence they can find in another environment, in another role and another job somewhere else. It's going to be hard to have an area of weakness. It's hard to flex a muscle that's attribute, right. And so we're motivating. They already motivated. We are moving the group that has a level of motivation. You have to have a certain level of level of motivation to understand that you don't have to be sick to get better. One reason that I think that we did start to hypothesize that we didn't pack the middle of the most is when you start looking at the back end of our engagement platform and you start looking at the data, you start recognizing that the names of the people amongst the sales organization that we're working with are names that the executives, the people at the top of the business, they don't recognize.

Harrison Wilson:              20:02 Not the same names that they typically see walking across stage. Right? Is that as those people that kind of had been living kind of like quietly in the, in the sales organization and not making a huge splash, those are the people that tend to be diving into the content more than their peers because they feel like they need it. Like I need this to get better because I've been consuming the same training as my peers that have been going walking across stage every year, but I'm not passing them up. What more is there for me? And that's, I think that's what the middle is finding.

DJ Eidson:                          20:30 Harry, you know what else is interesting and I know this happens after every event and Tiffany you, you alluded to this earlier, that we'll, we'll have somebody come up to us or multiple people come up to us and say, Hey, how can I get this stuff for my kids? My daughter plays high school basketball, she's years old and I would just love for her to be able to have access to this, you know, to help her with her mindset. And so that's something else too that is an unintended consequence or a great kind of by-product I should say, of what we've been delivered.

Host – Tiffanee:                21:00                   I too had a blind spot until a recent encounter with the parent council. So I definitely see it as an opportunity or something, a population to look at at some point. The idea that your program and your approach allows impact around an organization versus just at the individual contributor level. As a result, you are able to reach different groups or roles within the organization while also having an organizational impact. But when you mentioned earlier Harry about the approach being more of an engagement platform, I thought that was pretty compelling because it sounds as if you are able to collect a lot of different data points or data from a lot of different places and that can then be used to provide a level of learning or informing back to the organization and I wanted to have you share more about that. Let me know if that's correct and correct. Assessment.

Harrison Wilson:              21:50                   I think that is correct, right, because I think that the engagement on our digital learning platform tells us a lot about the people and really the people can tell us a lot about the engagement platform and vice versa. Obviously the organization is going to know a whole heck of a lot more about the people than we do, but we are able to like make a lot of hypotheses about the people based on the engagement and then go back and confirm with the client if we're right, usually released. We're directionally, we're on the right track. And what I mean by that is toward point earlier, we'll look at the engagement, we'll identify the top people, and usually it's some sort of mix of the middle and top performers, right? And so we can go back and kind of confirm that and see what that looks like.

Harrison Wilson:              22:27 It was really important to us as customization. Where an organization will allow us to do so is to not just like necessarily come out with a program that's out of the box, out of a can. And of course as a business, it's important for us to have that option, but that's not an option that we recommend to be honest with you, right? It's just a program that has content that's out of the box. Every organization is different than their neighbor organization or their peer or their competitor across the street. There's different challenges. There's different nuances that are happening. So if you're going to train adversity, tolerance and mindset, it can be out of the same box. Another organizations getting per se, you know, we have the same kind of constructs and learning tools, but they're going to be wrapped quite differently. So we spent a lot of time with focus groups within the organization identifying the needs, the challenges, you know, kind of doing a SWOT analysis, right?

Speaker 4:                         23:11 To be kind of corny . That's what analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and identifying what those are for those companies and those organizations. And then trying to create environments where we can simulate those situations and then give them a kind of a, a best case kind of cause and effect kind of outcome. If this, then that environment that they can practice a neutral thinking for example. Or they can understand how choice is just an illusion or they can see how pressures a privilege and then they can start to think differently about it and create a new language at their organization. So I think that those are the things that we're able to help. And I think the outcomes two to those are, there has to be some sort of level of time. You can't expect there to be some sort of reliable measurement or statistically significant environment that's created like over a couple of months or one engagement.

Harrison Wilson:              23:54 So you know, you get into six months, you get into 12 months, you get into two years. That's when you can really see what the data really means. And we can even go back and say, during this 12 month engagement, this is what it looked like. And then, gosh, tell us about your retention numbers. How has that change? Right? And we've seen organizations, uh, lower their turnover or in this case an increase their retention, right? And then going back to those people, going back to the group, the universe that we're in front of, and asking them how they felt because it think some of the measurement isn't just, it doesn't have to be just quantifiable. It can be qualitative as well. And so sometimes there's, what are people saying about it? How do they think it's affecting them? And sometimes how they think it's affecting them make becomes reality, right? Perceptions, reality. So I think that those are some of the things that the engagement platform allows us to do and some of the insights that they can provide us

Host – Tiffanee:                24:40 That's interesting and industry change way. It reminds me of a topic that's really hot in the it space, especially the health it space and it's around continuous performance improvement. It's almost a part of the agile model and it's almost as if you guys in some ways have applied some of those principles to supporting growth within different organizations and individuals. So I have to ask you guys to give me a little bit of insight into one of your proudest success stories or one of your top improvements.

Harrison Wilson:              25:12 You know, obviously we've worked with a number of pharma companies which have been a good place for us to be because we understand, like I said, what some of the challenges are and and changes and adversities that DJ mentioned earlier and understand kind of what those little micro challenges are. I'd like to give you one an example from from there. So we have like a mid size pharma company that we've worked with for a year and some change, and this kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier about being able to track performance growth, what's happening with performers and then again with that hypothesis that will impact the middle. What does that mean? Right. And so I think that's, I'm in in 2018 you're able to impact an organization to the point where we could see both from a kind of like a district level for those that may be familiar with a pharmaceutical sales force, there's gonna, you know there's going to be individual performers and our sales reps, territory managers, and there's a district manager, my manage 8 to 12 of those reps.

Harrison Wilson:              26:02 and then of course there's regional and so on and so forth. If my district level being able to identify, again the engagement levels of with our content and then being able to go and say with the people that engage the most, what happened with their sales and we were seeing that this organization was, was already kind of seeing growth, which was great. Again, we're motivating the already motivated, so this organization was seeing 5% sales growth quarter over quarter, which is solid. When you think about a five to $6 billion market cap organization, that's a lot of dollars. But what we noticed is that from a district perspective, from a team's perspective, the district leaders and their squads, their teams that engage the most on our platform, month over month, we're improving like 25 to 26% higher the rest of the nation. Wow. And that was true for month over month, quarter over quarter during 2018 which was pretty cool to see.

Harrison Wilson:              26:49 And then we broke that down to a territory manager level. Obviously if that showed up at the district level, it's going to show up at the territory manager level when you break it down for the most part. I think what was neat is, again, it was folks that nobody really recognize those names now know. Obviously you knew who they were and the salesforce was small enough salesforce, about 300 folks give or take, but there weren't people that typically you saw kind of in lights at the national sales meeting or in lights on the weekly highlights and stuff like that. And so it was interesting to see how often people were going to get content and then what was happening with their sales numbers as they began to allow that content to have access to them and to impact them. There's a lot of examples like that where you know, just simply being able to watch the engagement and then marry it with the sales growth for the companies that we're working with that have sales teams and be able to tell that story to an organization, it's hard for them to not acknowledge that the impact is real.

Harrison Wilson:              27:41 Especially then when you go to those same people and ask them, Hey, what's been the difference for you? What's been going on? And naturally the mindset training is impacted them, right? And even just these microwaves has impacted them and they're thinking differently about the challenges that exist from market changes to competitors to as long sales cycles to traffic, you know, mourning the personal life that that kind of affects their everyday. So, so that's, that's just one example.

Host - Tiffanee:                28:03 That's fantastic. And I think that you were not only brilliant for bringing these two things together, which is the prioritization around mental conditioning and then applying it to basically the sport of sales, right? That function in an organization that is really driven by performance improvement and performance at large. And then for you guys to attach measurement and the ability to really drive visibility into the outcomes right at the organizations level in addition to your input is pretty unique and compelling. And you know, I hope that the audience has gotten a lot of value out of this discussion. I think where you're going is extremely valuable. Having lived in sales for over 21 years and then having practitioner led solution like you guys have developed, the potential is unlimited in my mind. So can you tell the audience how they can get in touch with you, learn more and, and reach out to you guys.

DJ Eidson:                          29:04 If you go to think big hyphen, go far.com. That's the limitless minds a website. You can also follow us on LinkedIn. Harry's got a bunch of friends on LinkedIn and you can follow him at [inaudible] Harrison Wilson or myself or DJ [inaudible], that's E. I. D. S. O. N. we're also on Instagram, Facebook. But, uh, I think really for your audience and what we've seen, LinkedIn has been an amazing tool. We get comments on that daily in terms of, Hey, you know, we're following what you're doing. I can't believe you're working with that company. There's success stories that are on there that people are just organically sharing. We really did not foresee that out of the gates that we were going to have that much of an impact from a social media standpoint just right away. And so as we're posting pictures and kind of posting some of the people that we're partnering with and companies that we're partnering with desperate and really cool to see. And there's, and there's ways when you're on the website, if you want more information, there's a contact us tab and we'll ask you for a little bit of information about yourself or the company. But we're booking keynotes every day. I mean it's been crazy with, you know, all the healthcare companies and pharmaceutical companies are having these national sales meetings and we're like fully booked pretty solid in January, February. But please reach out to us and we'll definitely would love to partner with you if it makes sense.

Harrison Wilson:              30:20                   I don't let DJ full year. The reason why he was trying to like make a bunch of noise about my followers, me tell, say this man's secret is that he literally take those two thumbs and just push, connect, connect, connect.

Harrison Wilson:              30:37 And I think they stopped him from being the add friends.

DJ Eidson:                          30:43 Listen, I think it was Michael Jordan that said you miss 100% of the shots that you don't pay. So you know what I mean? Like I got to take some shots.

Host – Tiffanee :               30:49                   I love it. I love it.

Harrison Wilson:              30:51 Carmelo Anthony cause you'd be shooting.

Host – Wrap Up:              30:55 You guys are too much fun. I have thoroughly enjoyed having you and I so appreciate you coming on. I can't say enough great things about what you're doing and I just wish you the best of luck.

DJ Eidson:                          31:06 Thank you. It's been a privilege to be on here. We didn't get to talk about, that's a hometown girl, Virginia. But uh, yeah, we respect the work that you're doing. Keep up the great work.

Closing:                              31:16 Thank you for joining today's conversation. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and join us again to learn more of what it takes to consistently win when the stakes are high. For more information on our company, visit our website at www.winnasium.com, that's www.winnasium.com.

Host: T Neighbors            00:43

Welcome to the Winning in Health podcast in this new series we're connecting with high performing growth executives in roles such as Managing Director and Vice President of Sales and Business Development that have achieved $1 billion in sales revenue during the course of your careers. What's remarkable about these individuals is that they've achieved these numbers, not as managers of the team or even through a single large transaction, but as individual contributors who have had multiple deals that comprise this total revenue. At WINNASIUM we study high performers and seek to learn from their extraordinary success.  In this series our guests will help us expose the secrets behind their exceptional performance.

Host: T Neighbors                     01:30 

In this interview, episode 15 - we will interview JR Glass, Vice President of Business Development with one of the largest government Health IT contractors in the federal contracting space. Today JR will discuss his career progression and we will glean and capture lessons on how he prepares and competes to achieve the results obtained over the course of his career.   

Guest:  JR Glass                01:54

Well, thank you very much, Tiffanee. Thanks for having me.

Host: T Neighbors            01:57

This series is super exciting because it takes us back to the core of what Winning and Health is all about. It's really about capturing these lessons of sales performance and high performance in business, particularly in the health space and JR that's the bulk of where you've spent your sales career. Is that correct?

Guest:  JR Glass                02:15

Yes, that is correct. I've been supporting federal health clients now for, geez, my professional career is about 23 years, but in business development for the last 12

Host: T Neighbors            02:26

That's quite commendable for you to achieve such numbers in just almost 12 years when you really narrow down the time spent in sales. You know, sales is not something that we intend to do, right? Business development, sales. I kind of use those interchangeably. Can you tell us a little bit about how you entered the Business Development/Sales profession and how your career has progressed?

Guest:  JR Glass                02:50

That's a bit of a loaded question. I feel like I'm blessed to be where I am, but it was not by design, so I come from delivery. I've been a consultant in the federal space for, like I said, for over 20 years. I progressed through project leadership and became a project director and I was the Director of healthcare programs for a small 8a, a business that was doing business at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A lot of small businesses, anyone that's growing at all, everybody's responsible for growth and so it just kind of worked out that I found myself working on a lot of different proposals. We had one vice president for business development who took a liking to me, took me under his wing and said, for better or worse, Hey, I want this guy to come work for me, and my leadership said to me, how would you like the opportunity to do business development full time?

Guest:  JR Glass:               03:44

We had been very successful. We grew the company from about 50 people to about 200 in a span of about a year and a half. We were going to grow and I needed a Deputy, this opportunity was presented to me to go and do business development full time. And I said, well, um, I know how to deliver, I know what success looks like from delivery so it was an opportunity for me to learn and to learn how to get business in the first place. So with my career I've always looked for new opportunities to learn new and exciting things. So I did that and that's kind of how I ended up in business development. And it's been a wild ride ever since.

Host: T Neighbors:          04:22

That's interesting. And you know, it's kind of consistent kicking off this series we interviewed an author and the book that’s pretty funny in terms of its title, but it's really a business book for children - it's about wanting to be in sales when you grow up. And of course there's the play on that, right? No one really by design interests, sales though that is changing. And we talk about that in that prior episode, episode 14 but you mentioned two things that I'd like to make sure we capture, which is that there was someone who mentored you and that you also kind of had experience in an environment where you had to do everything. You mentioned the term 8a and of course for those in the audience who aren't familiar with the government space, that's a small business, almost the equivalent of a startup in the commercial world. Can you tell us a little bit about that particular growth experience where you had, as you said, experience growing that organization or contributing to growth from an employee base of 50 to 200 so with mentorship included and that prior experience delivering that opposite side of the sales process, what do you attribute to your success in that moment?

Guest:  JR Glass                05:31

Oh wow. So that's a great question. It's interesting how many times people have asked me that question like, Hey, how did you guys grow that company so quickly? Because by the time I switched to business development full time, we had grown from 50 to 200 by the time I left several years later we were at about 800 employees, so we had 40% year over year growth. And I attribute that success in a large to the hard work of a lot of people. You know, I jokingly used to say when you're at a small business, you're chief cook and bottle washer, so you kind of have to do everything. There was no real formal process that we were following. It was loosely based on the Shipley method of business development and capture and proposals, but we were kind of figuring out as we went along and I had a very aggressive leadership that were very all in for bidding, lots of opportunities. So we bid everything. We were bold, we were unconstrained, and we went after a lot of different things that were not necessarily in our core set of offerings. As a company, as you might imagine, when you're a 50 person company, people say, well, what kind of company are you? And we say, well, we'll be whatever you want to.

Guest:  JR Glass                06:47

You know, we can prove it to you. As we started getting more programs under our belt and we were hiring the right people that knew how to deliver those programs, we earned the trust of our client and they said, Hey, you know, if we're going to go to a small business and they have many that they can choose from, they knew the company that I was working for could deliver for them. They brought real resources that understood their business and they could deliver effectively. And I think that that was in large part, a major contributor to our ability to win new business. The past is prologue. You gotta be able to say that you can deliver because there's nothing worse than going in and convincing a client to trust you and give you some work and then you screw it all up and then it looks bad.

Guest:  JR Glass                07:30

From a business development perspective. And just in general. And you know, I came from the delivery side of the house. So I was already managing all the people trying to make the projects that we had one, be profitable because it was my experience at the time that these BD people didn't know what the heck they were doing. They would say, ah, you know, I don't need a project manager on this project. And then we went at and I'd say, okay, who's the project manager? And I say, well, we didn't bid one. And I use that as an extreme example, but I think that the owner of the company recognized, Hey, you know, this guy comes from delivery, he's pretty smart. Let's make sure that we have this guy doing business development so that we can be profitable on all the things that we went. It's one thing to get the business and then you have to make money on it. So I think perhaps that combination of having delivered the business and then having customer intimacy and understanding what the customer's needs were and then having a boss who let me be on constrained and would back me and provide the resources to allow us to bid were key factors in the success.

Host: T Neighbors            08:34                  

I think that a lot of those factors are different, right? In a large company, some are the same, but you talk about the ability to bid in an unconstrained way and larger companies such as the one that you work and there is a little bit more discipline around what opportunities are allowed to go through a bid process. Right. And you've been able to deliver a similar, so I have to put you on the spot to say, okay, so you've delivered in a small environment, but you've also delivered in a large environment, one that is in a very competitive space right now. In the government space where sometimes it comes down to just cost and that's one of those things that we would be dismissive of in the past. Like cost is never really the factor is what we use to say, but you've been able to do both. Can you tell us a little bit about how you've been able to succeed with similar growth results in a large company?

Guest:  JR Glass                09:25

So when I left that small business and ended up at the company I'm at today, we were what I consider a mid sized company. We had about 6,000 employees, but we were a very, again, unconstrained and aggressive. We bid much like a small company, very agile, very nimble. That company merged with another company and at the time we became the largest, only government contracting entity that was out there. We had about 20,000 employees. So now we're on a whole nother scale. We have so much more to sell. You know I have from a business development perspective, multiple arrows in my quiver that I'm shooting, right? I have lots of multiple past performances. But what we found was the company that we merged with was a more traditional large systems integrator in the government space. A bit of a dinosaur, right? They were slow to react. [inaudible]

Guest:  JR Glass:               10:18

the leadership that took place, they recognize the growth engine that we had developed in the company that I came from. Again, being very agile, very nimble, very aggressive, and they said, Hey, we're going to put all that leadership on top of this new company. So I had the support of my leadership who hired me because of my small business mentality and my kind of drive and being able to turn quickly and respond to changes in the environment, whether they be competition or customer needs or procurements that we weren't tracking. They came down, they were in our sweet spot. We would bid things that traditional large systems integrators wouldn't bid because they were stymied by their own internal processes. We were operating at this 20,000 person company thinking, Hey, you know, we're the big fish in the pond. I'm kind of looking around for potential acquisition targets companies, smaller companies we might want to buy. And I wasn't watching my back and we got gobbled up by a very, very large, systems integrator

Guest:  JR Glass:               11:19

and that new company, they basically recognize, Hey, they've got something special here and their growth department, we're going to put all those leaders in charge of this new company. So even though they acquired us, they kicked their leadership out of the growth organization and kept what we had in place. And so we have been growing and thriving ever since. And one of the things we work very hard to do is not be stymied by process. We will go around internal obstacles, we'll flag them, note them. We have to balance the real reasons why companies put policies in place for governance and risk aversion with the ability to still be flexible because the market in federal contracting has really changed. There's a lot of pressure from small businesses, a lot of new digital services, types of companies are coming in and they're being very agile and nimble. So for a large systems integrator like us, in order for us to be successful, we have to adapt and overcome and we can't be chained to our own processes. You like to say we're not going to do stupid stuff. So when we find a process that limits our ability to respond quickly and effectively we go around it, we put in changes and we fix those processes. It's a constant battle and evolution that we face pretty much daily.

Host: T Neighbors:          12:30

You know that ability to navigate process takes a lot of influence at your level, right? The ability to influence your leaders internally. And it sounds like what I hear consistently is that you've had relationships with your leadership team of influence. So that might actually answer a portion of my next question, which was really around tenure. So you've spent a lot of time in the same company. I think in our market Health IT, sales executives are, you know, they are a premium so they tend to get recruited a lot. That means they rotate around a lot and their average tenure is about two to three years. Five years is considered, you know, a long time in our market. How is it that you have kind of defied that trend?

Guest:  JR Glass:               13:09

That's a great question and sometimes I'm not sure if they answer that myself.

Guest:  JR Glass:               13:15

What I will say is, obviously I'm well compensated. That is a big important thing, but to your point, it's a very stiff competition for business development resources. So money will get you so far, but it's, you know, having a good group of people that I work with day in and day out that make coming to work a pleasure. I could not be successful without the type of people that are delivering day in and day out for our customers. So I spent a lot of time unlike probably a lot of other people that do the same job I do interfacing with my teams that are delivering day to day. I attend biweekly project meetings for different teams. I go on customer meetings for monthly meetings. They're the people that give me the energy to make me want to come into work every day. We like to say one of our tagline is small company attitude, big company resources.

Guest:  JR Glass:               14:03

My leadership is really invested. They know, particularly in the federal health space where the opportunities are in the 30 to 100 million dollar range on average, right? I'm competing in currently with my company against opportunities that we're bidding, like at NASA for example, that are $1.5 billion. In order for me to be successful, I have to feel like I've got support from my leadership that says, Hey, you know, it may take us ten $50 million deals to get to a half a billion, but we'll do that and we'll invest in it. Versus just only going after the billion dollar deals at NASA and FAA where the deals are our leadership team from the set health side of our organization, they're all in. Oftentimes what I do is I work with my teams here at the account level where I'm them, how to do business development, how to bid and respond to customer requests for information or request for quotes or proposals so that we don't have to rely on our corporate resources from the central office who are chasing those billion dollar deals at NASA. So in the course of these meetings and interactions, you develop great personal relationships and it's been one of the things that keeps me here.

Host                                    15:14

That's fantastic. So I have to ask the opposite question. You've probably seen a lot of turnover with your peers, right? Other vice presidents of business development, other sales professionals. What do you think contributes to underperformance of a sales rep?

Guest:  JR Glass:               15:29

Ooh, that's a good question. And I'm not sure, but I can speak for myself and I can say what I think was a tough, interesting lesson from me. After I moved out of the small business world to the large business, we were so successful at that small business. Our win rate was something like 55-60% and that's because our competition was smaller. When I got to the large business and we were winning everything, my boss said to me, Oh, don't worry. You know, the average wind rates 25 30% so that means that you know, 70 to 75% of the time you have to get okay with losing and losing sucks. No one likes to lose. But if you're not able to overcome those losses and keep bidding, and when stuff in it becomes almost a demotivator, right? So having a leadership team that recognizes that 70% of the time you're not gonna win.

Guest:  JR Glass                16:17

But putting good solid captures together and wins, will you know, absolve the sins of losses. So you have to keep winning. And I think a lot of companies don't get it. Maybe some of the mid sizes, smaller companies don't understand that the average federal sales cycle is 12 to 18 months. And you know, they may hire a BD person to come in and they have a one day thing and nine or 10 months. So their leadership starts pressuring them and they start saying, geez, you know, have a one day thing and the one or two deals, maybe they did work, they don't win. So maybe they say, Hey, what's the next gig I can go to? I don't know for sure because I haven't really pulled them. But you know, I often wonder that myself. So for me personally, I like to spend some time in an organization and prove that I can deliver here.

Guest:  JR Glass                17:03

And it's kinda like if you're delivering and you're winning and you're being compensated and appreciated, why would you leave? You know? So that's kind of where I find myself and again, I want to feel like I can make a difference and make an impact where I'm at because all that really does is make you more attractive as a, as an employee for others. So even if I don't stay, you know, more than five years somewhere I will have five years of experience where maybe I had a 30% win rate, but boy that I'd been a lot of things, I honed my skills as a professional,

Host: T Neighbors            17:34

you know, on the sports side where I look at high performers and kind of look at the parallels between business and sports, high performance, we see that sports high performers tend to prepare themselves mentally.   Very often they have a training, mental thinking coach. They also do a lot of personal preparation. I think Larry Bird, when he was active, he made it a habit to shoot 500 free throws a day just to prepare himself to be great at what he does. How do you as an individual prepare yourself outside of the organizational dynamics that you have to influence as an individual, preparing yourself for performance as a sales rep? How do you do so?

Guest:  JR Glass                18:19

You know, I wish I could say that I had some secrets that I follow. You know, uh, I wake up in the morning and I have a nice cup of stress. I go to lunch, I drink stress for lunch, and I have stress for dinner. I'm not sure that there's a method to the madness, but you know, one thing I will say, I have a giant whiteboard in my office and I have a couple of sayings that I write on it. They follow me for the last four jobs I've worked. One is work smarter, not harder. And the other is positive mental attitude. I try to wake up every day with a positive mental attitude that says, how am I going to be successful today? How will I react to even a loss? You know, if I don't where I did something and yeah, it hurts and losing sucks, but what can I take away from that as a lesson learned that I will apply to the next thing I'm chasing?

Guest:  JR Glass                19:11                  

I think that having that positive mental attitude, not doing dumb stuff mentality where you're working smart, just not working harder I think keeps me going. Also, I'm very lucky in that you know, my customer primarily the one I'm supporting at this moment and for the last 20 years has been my primary clients, the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services is that I keep in mind that I'm helping them fulfill their mission, which is delivering healthcare to the most needy populations in our country. The sick, the elderly, the infirmed children, and that's really important and that kind of makes me feel a little special life. When I get up, I'm like, Hey, I'm helping people live and thrive and have healthy lives. Yeah. All the BS that comes with, Oh, I got to do a gate review or a pipeline review and I've got to write a proposal. The ultimate recipient or beneficiary of that work will be the people in our society who need their help the most. That can't help themselves and that's a very motivating thing.

Host: T Neighbors            20:11

That's fantastic. Well, you've certainly shared a lot. One of the things I didn't get to ask you, which I'm sure the folks in the audience would want to know is, you know, you mentioned the centers for Medicare and Medicaid. That's obviously the nation's largest payer and they have significant opportunities and contracts. Can you tell us the largest deal size that you've ever closed?

Guest:  JR Glass                20:33

Well, you know, I don't want to jinx myself, but at CMS probably about $350 million deal. But you know, unlike a lot of companies that do work at the agency, they tend to get pigeonholed into one area. My company is very in that we're not just like an infrastructure contractor or a systems developer or somebody that does mission support. We run the whole gamut, so our deal sizes tend to vary. We'll chase things that are $10 million task orders under one of the IDIQ vehicles that we have, which is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracting type. The government will issue task orders under two full and open $300 million healthcare integrated general ledger accounting system. You know, so we will bid where the opportunities take us, right? And that creates a scenario where, because we've been so successful every three to five years, you're defending your work because they come up for recompete this year alone.

Guest:  JR Glass                21:29

Just give you some high level statistics that we've captured and successfully won close to three quarters of $1 billion worth of work just this year alone. And that comprises recompete work from old contracts, new work, and all contract growth. So one of the things that I do, as I alluded to before, is work closely with the project delivery teams. And I really try to, he leaves folks up to say, Hey, you need to be listening to your customers when opportunities present themselves. So I work with them to develop business cases for them to modify their contracts. So we pay close attention to the things that the administration thinks are important and that the administrator of CMS is trying to accomplish. And we will try to proposed changes and innovations to our existing work that will help them achieve their mission. So that if the government comes up with any additional funding, as they often do throughout the period of a fiscal year, they'll say, Hey, I've got an extra $5 million.

Guest:  JR Glass                22:25                  

I want to go spend it on something that can make a difference. They'll look to contractors like us and they'll say, what do you guys have teed up for me? Right? So we've had over $150 million of on contract growth this year alone. This year alone. We've so far submitted 80 different proposals to just CMS alone. Those comprised on contract growth, new business bridges, extensions, recompete. So we are all in at the agency because of the nature of the work that we do. You know, the infrastructure, like cloud computing, that could be hundreds of millions of dollars, but we're also very focused on clinical quality and standards. So we may be chasing a deal while we have clinicians and coders and policy experts, that's only 10 or $15 million. And that work is just important to us as a company, as the $300 million deal. So we're all in and we take different approaches depending on the size of the opportunity, which vehicles the government is using to procure those opportunities and the different needs of the client as we understand them. So it's a very busy and exciting environment.

Host: T Neighbors            23:29

Well, I think that range that you've kind of captured is very significant because it takes a lot to one influence that many transactions in a large organization, especially one as large as yours. It also takes a lot to influence things internally with that different range to create that excitement for a $10 million deal as much as you would for $350 million deal. But I think it goes back to a lot of the things that really have made you successful, which is that connection with the mission, which obviously you've conveyed to your leadership team. That ability to influence the leadership team is obviously they are that relationship and that trust with your client base that you've established through not only being a business developer but being the delivery arm, which is really where that trust is solidified. Right? And then I think that ability to navigate all of the nuances with the managing process but then also having that driving mantra, which I think I heard, which is being all in right? And so that guiding principle or that guiding mindset allows you to kind of be creative, which is another thing that I heard and I think lastly, the one thing that I have observed about you is having that positive thinking component. And so when we collect all of those things, I think that from your success we can attribute those things. And I just want to thank you for coming out today.

Guest:  JR Glass                24:49                  

I really appreciate the opportunity and I thank you for the podcast you're doing. And for thinking of me and inviting me to be a part of it. It's been a pleasure to talk business. I bore the heck out of my wife and my friends when I talk, so it's good that I get to talk with you and people that really care about it.

Closing                               25:07

Thank you. Thank you for joining today's conversation. If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and join us again to learn more of what it takes to consistently win when the stakes are high. For more information on our company, visit our website at www dot [inaudible] dot com that's www.winnasium.com.

In Episode 14 of the Winning in Health podcast we sit down with John Barrows - Author, CEO and LinkedIn Sales Influencer.  We discuss his new business book for children and discuss the motivations behind him authoring this book and title.  We also discuss trends in sales training, explore the attributes of high performing sales reps and get John’s take on what it looks like when sales is done right. 

In this two part episode of the Winning in Health podcast our guest is retired United States Air Force health IT executive - Jaime Parent.  In this episode Jaime shares tells us what compelled him to launch an organization helping other Veterans in their IT and health career transitions.  We also discuss his new book Moving Past PTSD and his journey to create inclusive environments supporting Veterans and others with disabilities. 

In this two part episode of the Winning in Health podcast our guest is retired United States Air Force health IT executive - Jaime Parent.  In this episode Jaime shares tells us what compelled him to launch an organization helping other Veterans in their IT and health career transitions.  We also discuss his new book Moving Past PTSD and his journey to create inclusive environments supporting Veterans and others with disabilities. 

In Episode #11 we continue our discussion on transformation in healthcare with senior executives in the Federal and Defense health space.  Guests include CAPTAIN Gabriel T. Brown, USN (North Capital Area Regional CIO, Defense Health Agency) and Dr Kenyon Crowley - Deputy Director, Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland College Park - Smith Business School.  CAPTAIN Brown shares his military health leadership journey and discusses the current enterprise transformation and medical treatment facility consolidation underway within the Defense Health Agency (www.dha.mil). Dr Kenyon Crowley shares insight into how the new graduate program prepares IT professionals to address the strategic and operational components of organizational and system transformation within complex, large scale health organizations.

SHOW NOTES

Episode Overview

Guest Intros

Captain Brown's Journey in Health IT

Scale and Transformation - Drivers for Defense Health Agency (DHA) Transformation

Kaiser and Data Sharing

Introduction of University of Maryland College Park graduate program in Strategic and Transformational IT

Evolution of Health IT 

Agile in Healthcare, Digital Transformation

Data Sharing and mHealth Patient Story  - hip surgery, 70 year old patient

Transformation to Consumer Driven Healthcare

Consumer Landscape & Trends

Care that is tailored to an individual

AI (artificial intelligence) to create vale and use cases

AI Implementation 

AI in Defense Health Agency, Data Discovery - Womack AMC and 

Transferring Data and Efficiency

SPONSORSHIP MESSAGE

Thank you to our sponsor www.hcdi.com for the generous support of this episode.  HCD International is an award-winning WOSB that has supported national, state and local quality improvement and healthcare transformation programs for over 20 years. Today HCDI shares innovative thought leadership to the nation’s largest government and commercial payers create high performance quality improvement services for some of the most vulnerable populations in health.

• For more information on Defense Health Agency visit - www.dha.mil
• For more information on University of Maryland College Park CHIDS graduate program in Strategic and Transformational IT visit -  go.umd.edu.healthleaders

In Episode #10 we are joined by Suzana Iveljic Director of Digital Media for the Office of Communications at the Veterans Health Administration.  During this interview we continue our discussion on transformation in healthcare with a focus in this episode on how social media in particular has impacted the way healthcare organizations engage with their beneficiaries, vendors, providers and other stakeholders.   We will also get Suzana’s perspective into the evolution and impact of marketing in healthcare during her 20 years leading Marketing and Communications functions in large complex health organizations.

Show Notes

[:50 – 1:54]

Welcome & Guest Intro: 

Suzana Iveljic – Veteran Health Administration’s Director of Digital Media for the Office of Communications

[1:56 - ]  Suzana Iveljic background

[3:01]  VHA Social Media at a Glance

The Veterans Health Administration has approximately 1.1 million Facebook followers. If you tally all of the medical centers nationwide, we have over 100,000 Twitter followers and we're interacting with those people on a daily basis, actually many times in a day.

[3:50] QIO (Quality Improvement Organizaiton) Experience  

[5:49] Evolution of Communication and Social Media over last 20 years in healthcare

[7:47] Self Education and Social Media

[9:41] Social Media Engagement and Efficiency

[10:42]  Social Media Good News Stories

[11:42] Advice and metrics for large health systems around social media. 

[13:07] Using Social Media to Help Capture the Voice of the Veteran

[14:22] Conversations and building trust and community with Veterans via social media

[15:15] Connect with Veterans Health Administration

Main website:  www.va.gov

Twitter @VeteransHealth

Blog:   https://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/

In this episode we are joined by COL Gina E. Adam, 9th Director for the US Army Medical’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) located at Fort Detrick, Maryland.  During this interview with COL Adam we begin our 4 part series  on transformation and innovation in healthcare with a focus in this episode on how innovation and research has impacted the way healthcare organizations particularly the military engage with their beneficiaries, providers and other stakeholders.   We will also get COL Adam’s perspective into the role that research and innovation plays in advancing unique care gaps in healthcare.

Show Notes

[0:44] Guest Intro:  COL Gina E Adam (Bio here - https://www.tatrc.org/www/about/leadership.html)

[1:19] Show Description

[1:44] Show Begins

[2:07] COL Gina E Adam - overview of professional background

[4:27] Autonomous evacuation

[4:44] Allowing innovators to innovate

[5:12] Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) mission – using data and technology to advance the mission

[6:43] Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

[7:17] Programs with impact on care outcomes. Mobile surgical center, Army Knowledge Online, Teleconsultation, Telemedicine used in healthcare and disaster relief

[9:34] Fort Gordon Mobile Healthcare Innovation Center – Mobile Care (MCare) – connect with provider from personal device. Remote Monitoring, behavior change coaching tele behavioral health,

[10:48] Work in Diabetes – study and partnership in Patient Centered Medical Home at Clemson University Medical Center.

[12:55] How TATRC Partners with industry - SBIR, CRADA

[14:21] Telestration project - surgeon telementoring and telesurgical consult and coaching  

[17:09]  Changes at TATRC, US Army Future's Command and Defense Health Agency

[19:11] Engagement and partnerships to advance innovation, addressing critical healthcare gaps 

[21:11] How to foster innovation and ideas at an organizational level. Science meetings, vendor meeting, cross agency exchanges

Links provided in the episode

US Army Medical Research Development Command (MRDC)

https://mrdc.amedd.army.mil/

Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC)

www.tatrc.org