This week on The Sales Transformation Podcast Phil speaks to Stacey Hughes, Vice President, Learning & Development at Medscape about some of the important traits of an excellent leader.
They talk about Medscape’s own podcast, Hear From Her, which highlights women in leadership roles within the healthcare industry, before moving on to the importance of having “north star” purpose and support network. They also discuss how leaders can elevate others through sponsorship, as well as some of the ways a leader can improve their own executive presence and charisma.
Highlights include:
- [14:49] – The importance of vision and purpose for women in leadership roles
- [20:17] – The lesson to be learned from jigsaw pieces
- [31:47] – Life’s too short to not be positive!
You can listen to the Hear From Her podcast on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Connect with Philip Squire on LinkedIn
Connect with Stacey Hughes on LinkedIn
Join the discussion in our Sales Transformation Forum group.
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Full episode transcript:
Please note that transcription is done by AI and may contain errors.
Phil: Okay. Well, um, Stacey, it's a huge, uh, pleasure to have you join us on the Sales Transformation podcast series. And I just wonder whether for the, uh, listeners, you could just spend a bit of time. Introducing yourself to us a little bit about your career, and then we can go into what's gonna be the topic of the podcast, which is around I, I think women and leadership and topics connected to that.
Stacey: Absolutely. So my name is Stacey. Just as Phil introduced me, I have been in the, uh, healthcare arena, healthcare space in the capacity of sales training, sales, business development for 28 years, which I still can't believe. Um, I started my career with Johnson and Johnson way back when I was a sales rep for Ortho McNeil and then had the pleasure to switch over and work for Eli Lilly.
Which allowed me to really specialize in the area of psychiatry, which was a, which was a lot of fun, schizophrenia, bipolar, depression, and anxiety. I worked for a small, uh, biotech called Cephalon, um, then for a few years, and then in 2005 switched into medical education for clinicians, which was actually feel very timely because that 2005 was right around the time when all the, the rules and regulations around.
Uh, marketing and education changed, um Okay. In the industry. Um, and now I was with a smaller company called the Neuroscience Education Institute, still pursuing my passion in the psychiatric area. Nice. And then switched over into, um, to work for a company called Medscape, which is the leading, uh, continuing medical education provider.
Um, for physicians worldwide, um, in 2008, and I've been here 17 years,
Phil: which 17 years. Well done. That's a long time. Yeah. You must, you must love the company to be, uh. Working for them for that period of time. So, um, but can I, uh, before we move on, Kate, can I ask what drew you to this sort of area in the first instance?
Was it psychiatry? Did you have a psychiatry background at all? No. You know, it's interesting,
Stacey: um, when you think back, I remember, uh, being, you know, a little girl. And I always wanted to, my, my mom was a nurse, my dad was a dean of a school of pharmacy. My grandparents, and this is a a fun fact, my grandparents owned two mortuaries funeral homes.
Okay. So I grew up life and death, actually. Yeah. So it was all, it was all around life and death, and I loved healthcare, but I realized that I didn't wanna go to school until I was 30. As much as I loved the potential of, of maybe going into healthcare, being a physician, I didn't wanna be in school. So I opted for, um, business and I, uh, specialized in marketing and fell in love with sales during a, um, it was a professional sell selling class that I took, I think my sophomore or junior year.
And so that kinda led me in down the sales route. And I've had a passion for. Being able to combine both the healthcare arena and the sales. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's kind of how it all started.
Phil: That's fantastic. Yeah. Can I share some things with you that we haven't discussed before, but it's just come out of your introduction, which is quite interesting.
Uh, so my wife, uh, my wife was trained as a nurse, so, uh, and then she became a health visitor. But it's very interesting when you talk about parental influences. Um. Uh, neither of her parents were in the medical profession, but we discovered quite recently that a distant relative, and I'm talking about maybe the 18 hundreds, so it's quite distant,
Stacey: quite was in
Phil: fact one of those that we used to call them quacks.
There used to be people that traveled from town to town with various potions and lotions, you know, professing to be able to cure any particular ailment. So I just wonder whether her interest in the, in the sort of healthcare profession maybe was, was carried through some sort of genetic, uh, condition.
But not that I call her a quack, but she's moved away from that. But it, it is interesting. Um, okay. So that really kind of explains, you know, your, I guess, interest in the profession and, uh, and the whole topic of, um, I guess psychology is really important for selling. You know, it's obviously something which, uh, is, is really important, but also.
Of course it's very important in the medical profession as well. Um, so tell, can you just tell us a bit more about Medscape as well? We've got to know Medscape a little bit over the last year or so, um, through working with you and your colleagues on the coaching program, which has been amazing. Yeah. But tell us a bit more about it and how did it come about and.
Give us an idea if it's, yeah, maybe it's so
Stacey: Medscape and, and, uh, your listeners might have heard of WebMD. So Medscape and WebMD are sister companies. Um, and actually this year we're celebrating our 30th anniversary. We started out as a publishing company. Right. And have, uh, been in the space for a very long time with the sole purpose of being a resource to healthcare providers to keep them current on the latest information that's coming out, whether it's diagnosis, guidelines, new medications, new devices.
And as you know, Phil Medicine is exponentially growing. Um, yeah, I'm, I'm blown away by the number of new drug approvals, the number of, uh, you know, treatments that. For rare diseases that we never had anything. Right. So Medscape, it's an online platform that has. Um, current medical news so physicians can come there to check the news of what's going on in the medical space.
There also is a tremendous amount of resources, whether it's calculators, um, in terms of, I mean, I think we've all heard of the BMI calculation. Yes, there's course, but there's, there are so many different formulas for everything for burn victims to how much fluid you need in the ICU. So there's a lot of point of care resources, drug information, interaction checkers.
And then the area that I am most partial to is education because we know that, um, physicians, you know, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, they go to school. Yeah, they may do, you know, they do an internship, they may do a residency. They may do a fellowship, which is advanced training in cardiovascular surgery or orthopedics.
And then, then we let them out to practice.
Phil: Yeah.
Stacey: And, and the only ways that they stay up to date is attending big conferences, medical conferences. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe reading journals, staying up to date, um, you know, and through the internet as well. That was a, a huge, yeah. Um. Uh, way to get information across, but Medscape creates continuing medical education, which is fair, balanced.
It is the latest cutting edge information on phase three trials, phase two trials, experts sharing what they know with other experts and so. You know, when you look about what, why physicians would make a change, why would they start incorporating a new drug? Why would they know, you know, know about new guidelines?
Phil: Yeah.
Stacey: When, you know, no matter what source you're looking at, um, continuing medical education or CME always rises to the top as being a credible source of information. Yeah. Right up there with their colleagues, their peers, uh, peer review journals. So, um. You know, you had asked me before about kind of how I got into healthcare.
I think getting into healthcare, getting into education, your why is very clear. Yeah. Yeah. And our why here at Medscape is, you know, sure, it's, it's great to get all that information out, but the why is that it changes physician's behavior. They're improving their knowledge on something new. Coming out may mean that when they see, you know, Mr.
Jones in their, in their office the next week, that they're gonna be able to offer the best possible care. Okay. And, uh, so, um, yeah, so that's a little bit about Medscape.
Phil: Yeah. No, that's brilliant. And, and the customers are generally physicians, um, and the medical profession itself, it's not so much the consumer, is that right?
The people on the WebMD? WebMD is more
Stacey: focused. Yeah. WebMD is more focused on the consumer where Medscape really is on the healthcare practitioner and that entire care team. Um, it's not to say that we don't provide education that could be passed on to the patient because yeah. You know, actually when you survey healthcare professionals, that's one of their number one requests.
They want credible resources to be able to give their patients, um,
Phil: right.
Stacey: You know, I often joke with my mom, she's a, she has always like, well, I found it, I found it on the internet. And I said, mom, like we gotta make sure that it's credible. So if you go to WebMD, yeah, I know it's gonna be credible, but you gotta be careful 'cause there's a lot of misinformation out there.
Phil: Yeah, yeah, of course. It, of course. Uh, there is, and it's not just US based, is it? I mean, it's, you cover the globe as far as I I do.
Stacey: So we actually reach, uh, I think, I think our nu the latest numbers we had was, uh, like 13.2 million healthcare professionals, and that includes 6.5 million physicians, and it is truly the largest online resource for physicians in the world.
Phil: Right. Okay. That's fantastic.
Okay, so one of the, you know, one of the topics that we're gonna talk about is the hear from her podcast series that I know is a topic that you are absolutely sort of passionate about. Um, and I wonder if you could spend some time just talking about. Um, what the purpose was of the podcast. You know, why did you do it?
And I, I remember asking you before Stacey, whose idea was it to come up with the podcast series? And I, I dunno whether you've sort of gone back into the, um,
Stacey: into the challenge. It actually, it actually was a discussion I was having with some colleagues. Um, and we were talking about originally we wanted to do something that was internal at the company to highlight women leaders within our company to help inspire.
Younger women in the company. Um, and what was interesting is that conversation was happening along the same time where our partnership team, Medscape has a whole team that is solely focused on developing relationships with academic centers, um, with. Um, different groups of societies that are involved in patient care.
And at the same time, our partnership team was looking to create a coalition. They call it the Innovations in Women's Health Coalition. Right. Um, Phil, within, within Medicine. Um. You know, this isn't, this isn't like men versus women, but men and women are very different. And we see that in clinical trials.
Um, we see that in the way patients are managed and we also, um, wanted to be able to elevate women in medicine that had really made a difference. And so the hear from her podcast came out of those internal discussions of wanting to do something internally to be able to elevate the voices of, um. Our fellow Medscape and WebMD employees, but also to, um, help make this a bigger initiative in terms of how can we get the word out and how can we really shine a light on the women who are in the healthcare space.
So the hear from her. Podcast came about, um, as a result of those discussions, it's been out for, I wanna say three years now. Okay. And what I love about how it's structured is every single one of the hear from her podcast, maybe with the exception of a few, always has two panelists. One of them is someone who is on the business side in healthcare.
So it could be a senior vice president or a chief medical officer, or a CEO, um, coming from a pharmaceutical or a device company. And we always pair them. With a key opinion leader, a physician, a nurse practitioner, a PA nurse, pharmacist in the space that that company is operating in, and to hear the discussions that organically take place.
It's been really inspiring whether we're talking about vaccines, whether we're talking about women's health issues, whether we're talking about cardiology, neurology, um. We're in good hands. Um, and, and I, I'm really, I've been very proud. It's a, it's an award-winning podcast, but I've been really proud to be involved in this.
'cause I think it's gone way farther than we ever thought it would.
Phil: Yeah, no, I have listened to a number of the podcasts and like you say, find them, uh, found them to be very. Inspiring and I, I, it's, it's triggered a number of questions, Stacey, which I, I you don't mind if I ask you?
Stacey: No, for sure.
Phil: Um, um, the questions, um, and some of these questions may come across as being slightly naive, but if you take the healthcare industry as a, as a sector, um.
Is it, you know what, what's the split between sort of women, male leaders within the healthcare profession? You know, is it predominantly men with some women, or is it roughly equal? Um. How, how many women are le, you know, are leaders within the healthcare profession or, you know, you may not know the exact sta Yeah, I don't know the exact,
Stacey: yeah, I was gonna say, I don't know the exact numbers, Phil, but I would say that it varies company to company.
I would say it's probably predominantly men. I'm very fortunate to work for a company, um, Medscape and WebMD. We do have. Probably a 50 50 split, but that is definitely not the norm. Yeah. Um, I do think also that when you're talking about the actual profession, you know, and if you think about, um, women going into medicine, it's a huge time commitment and esp and, and lose a lot who, who opt to, um, take a pause, have a family, have children.
Uh, you also see some disparities when you get into the academic aspect of things with, with, um, yeah. Deans, leaders of medical schools. Um, it definitely is more predominantly men. Yeah. But you know, I think our goal was to really inspire folks that you can have it all. Well, if, if you do want to go higher up, it it is, there is support there.
And, you know, I, I think that. Um, listening to the podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing, um, two nurse practitioners last week. Um, one who's a senior vice president at Curology, which is a dermatology company, another one who's leading a women's health clinic in New York. And. I, I was just in awe of their ability to juggle motherhood, um, their desire to get ahead in their careers.
Yeah. And I think the, you know, they, the one thing that really, um. Kind of was indicative of how they were able to do that was the fact that they were very clear on their why. And I think in healthcare, yeah, we talked about this a little bit before. I think with healthcare, it's very easy to identify why am I getting outta bed?
Why am I stressing myself out? Why am I wanting to do that? And it is because you're having a direct impact on patient outcomes.
Phil: Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. I was going to ask you through all of the interviews that have, have, have happened, what your sort of observations have been of the key leadership traits that you think.
Are particularly important for women in leadership roles?
Stacey: Yeah, I think in terms of key traits, it is definitely having that strategic vision or that goal, that why of why you're wanting to do, um, what you're doing. Uh, I think also having a support network, and it doesn't have to be just other women. It can be women, men, anybody, but having a support network that is going to help you achieve that goal.
Um, yeah. And I do think being able to say, Hey, I need some help on some things, um, yeah. Oftentimes, um, sometimes as women, we think we can, we can handle it all, and that isn't always the case. And there's always someone there that can lend a hand. Yeah.
Phil: What struck me with listening to one of the interviews, I can't remember the name of the person now, but I, I think it was something that both, both people said on the podcast I listened to was that they didn't come into the profession or to their roles with the idea of being a leader.
They came into it because they wanted to be in, in the profession, and they happened to then find themselves in a leadership role. And it made me a question. Whether, whether that motivation, because you talk about purpose and you talk about, you know, that, that being, uh, a key factor and I'm a huge supporter of that.
I, I would say that, that, that we're slightly similar in the way that we look at education here at Consalia, but I, I, I wonder whether that is a, a general attitude to employment is different. Perhaps to men who may go in wanting to go up the corporate ladder, what, you know, and they're driven by that sort of ambition.
Uh, so their paper, their purpose is, is, is position, uh, perhaps within a company rather than profession itself. Um, uh, and I, you know, just made me reflect a bit whether, mm-hmm. Whether. Um, that was an observation perhaps, that you had made, uh, in the leaders, they were natural leaders in the sense they evolved naturally because of their, their qualities of tenacity and perseverance.
But they were at the intersect, I suppose, between, um, something they found very purposeful and the natural qualities that they had, you know, as a, as a person. So.
Stacey: I think it's what your thoughts are on
Phil: that.
Stacey: It's a great observation. I wouldn't want pigeonhole, 'cause I, I'm, I'm sure that there are some men out there who have, who have a purpose and who have passion.
But you know, I would say that the majority of individuals that I've encountered, especially in on the hear from her podcast, just like you said it, the goal was not to get ahead. The goal was to make a difference and, By accident or by design, it led to a leadership role that they excelled at. And um, you know, I think when I, I think of my own personal journey, did I ever set out to be a vp? No. That, you know, that wasn't really the goal. I wanted to be good at my job. I wanted to inspire individuals. I wanted to leave people in a better place than when I found them. And you know, if you gravitate towards what you actually.
Love doing and this, you know, some of the younger folks that I get have the opportunity to mentor. I always say be very keenly aware of what brings you joy and what you enjoy about your job. That's not gonna say that you're gonna find the perfect job that is going to not have all of the eh stuff that you're not a hundred percent sure of.
Yeah. But if you can position yourself and if you are aware of what you really, what brings you joy and what you really enjoy doing, it's amazing how. The doors just open up. I, I would've never been in, gotten into training had I not, you know, had another opportunity not come into play. I would've never gotten into education had something not happened with the kind of rules and regulations, with regard to pharmaceutical sales.
Phil: Yeah.
Stacey: Um, and when I look back, everything. Phil, one thing you may or may not know about me, I love jigsaw puzzles. I even have this. Oh, okay. No. For those of you who are listening, I, I wear a puzzle piece necklace. Yes. I love autism. I have a friend who has an autistic son. However, a puzzle piece, if you've ever worked a puzzle, every single piece has a place.
And I look back on my life and every single thing that has happened to me has a place. And I think you, you find this sense of comfort when you might be in uncharted waters. To say, well, I'm this training thing I'm not too sure about. Every piece has a place, and when I look back on my life, it has all come perfectly together.
And would you, the puzzle's not done yet, Phil, but yes, I'm, I'm on my way.
Phil: You're on your way. So yes. You don't quite know what the final picture is going to look like, or do you have an idea? You can see that there's a house over here or a mountain range over there on the puzzle.
Stacey: Well, I will tell you, I, I see things lining up, which is Okay.
A really neat thing to, to see. Yep.
Phil: Yeah. But, um. How many, how many, how many people have the privilege of being in that position, would you say, of knowing, you know, what gives them joy, like you say, or what gives them purpose? It's, uh, it's a real privilege, I think, to be in the situation that you're in. A lot of people go through a lot of their life trying to work out what is it?
Sometimes even, who are they? Yeah. What is it that really drives them? What is it that gives them joy and they're not happy in what they do?
Stacey: Yeah.
Phil: A bit profound, isn't it? I
Stacey: think, you know, that profound comment. Think it's interesting. Yeah. So Phil, um, as you know, I'm, working on my coaching certification through Consalia Absolutely. Loving the journey. Yeah. And I think one thing that has struck me, power of silence. The power of space and time to just sit with your thoughts. And I think when you do that, it helps you identify what you, what you really enjoy when you give yourself the time to think about it. We at work in such a busy society, all, I mean, we, we are held captive by our to-do lists.
We go, go, go get up, do go through the day, get home, go to bed, get back up, go through it again the next day. I think what has been. Most helpful for me in identifying and, and thinking about what I really enjoy is just giving myself the time and the space and doing it with intention. And you know, oftentimes when I say that to someone who's at the beginning of their career, take a pause, be aware of what you like, be aware, and, and if you don't know what you like, I'm sure you're very clear on what you don't like.
Sometimes it's easier for us to identify what, what we're not crazy about. But take the time. Take the time to do that. Don't get caught up in the rat race and
Phil: Hmm.
Stacey: And that is gonna help. I think the giving yourself silence, giving yourself space and time to think through things. Yeah. Is the best gift you can give.
Phil: Yeah. Yeah, it's quite, it is very interesting on the, um, some of the programs we run on the, on the master's level, and to some extent, I'm sure you've covered it on the coaching, is that we. We ask people to reflect a little on what their sort of core values are, because so much of how they look at life is influenced by, uh, what those values might be.
But it, it's always very surprising how few people have actually thought about it in depth. You know, to really have reflected on it. And, uh, and quite often you find that when we start to talk about values, ask people the first time round, you come up with some fairly, uh, sort of flippant, not flippant, but they, you know, they talk about family and integrity and so on, but actually starting to delve deeper into those.
Maybe pivotal events that have helped shaped you as a person. That does take deep, reflective thought and it's, it's, most people, I would say, have not given themselves the space, or perhaps they haven't had the structured conversations with coaching, perhaps Stacey, for them to really get in touch with what those thoughts and uh, feelings are.
Yeah, I remember on a, on a module that I was at, at Middlesex University when I was doing my doctorate, um, yeah. One of the tutors asked me that same question, so, Philip, do you mind telling me what your values were? And I came out with some glib comments and she looked at me as if. She was saying, you're talking outta bullshit, Phil.
She didn't say those words. She was far more diplomatic. But that's how it felt. Um, but actually it, it had a huge impact because I, you know, I completely agree with you that sort of getting, getting in touch with, you know, what's important and what shaped you as an individual can help better understand the, the reality of this, the situation you're in.
Do you think that process is, is particularly important for women in leadership roles? Or do you think it's it's more general than that?
Stacey: That's a great question. I would say that it's, it's probably more general. I think it is, it is the key to success for whether, whether you're male or female. Um. Being really clear with who you are.
And I don't think that it is stagnant. I think it, it evolves as you do as a person. Yeah. Um, you know, one thing that I love to do, and I don't, I don't do it every year, Phil, but I try to pick a word that is going to kind of set the tone. For my year, and I usually it's in December, I start thinking about it and reflecting on what do I want more of in my life?
What, what, you know. It really helps me kind of hone in on what does bring me joy. And so my word this year is shine and I picked the word shine. Um. A couple different reasons. One is I always want to be a bright spot in someone's day. I want to make sure that I'm meeting them with warmth. From shining of a light, I wanna make sure I'm leaving them in a better place.
And so, you know, when you, when you pick a word for the year, it really helps you kind of set the tone and it's almost like a touchstone that you go back to say you're, you know, involved in a project or you're having a tough day. You know, it's kind of my reflection point to go back and go, Hey man, this shine was the word.
Let's, let's make sure that we are, um, wow. Illuminating this situation. Now, I will say I don't pick one every year. Last year, uh, didn't, didn't feel it, didn't pick a word, but I've had words like evolve. I've had, um, courage. Wow. And I would encourage the listeners to, you know, if you're, if you are wanting to kind of get more in touch with yourself.
Take that time and, you know, hello in, in the invent. You know, who helped me pick my word this year? AI Gemini. I, I started just randomly typing things in about what I wanted next year to look like, and it gave me a bunch of different words to at least, yeah, at least think through. So I think that's, that's one way to help you kind of get in touch with your, the deeper meaning of your life and, and how you want to shape things, um, for the following year.
Phil: That's amazing. You sound very, um, you sound quite systematic and, and organized in the way you think things through. Is that. Is that a reasonable reflection, Stacey, or, I mean, it, it
Stacey: is. I, I would say, I don't know if you're, if, if you're familiar with disc, but I would say yeah, I am not too much. My C, which is conscientious and details, I'm actually pretty low.
I like things more. Big picture.
Phil: Right. I think more frameworks than detail. More, yeah.
Stacey: Less. Less, less detail, more kind of big picture, more um, you know, conceptual. But I will say that I think I'm very fortunate in the, in the fact that, um, I'm very in touch with my own emotions and I think that that plays in into making me the leader that I am.
Yeah. So whether it's a systematic approach to my, to my, I wouldn't say systematic. I would say I'm, I'm much more empathetic and much more just aware. I think it's a self-awareness.
Phil: Oh, yes, no, I, I get that. But I also see you as like having, there are certain principles that you think are important and you carry them through maybe not every year.
Yeah. But, um, yeah, you know, that's what I really meant by systematic. Yeah. Um, that you have a, you know, you have a, a structure to the way you like to go about things. Have you heard of the work of cou uh, Cooperrider, an appreciative inquiry? Have you come across that as a, do you know? I think you would love Cooper, David Cooper rider, and, um, and David, uh.
David introduced a different way of looking at problem solving, and it's called Appreciative inquiry because it's based on appreciating the best of what is good. Yeah. And then you go through different stages as a, as sort of a loop process. So you, you look at what is best, then you look at how could you make best better.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's best done in a collaborative environment. So instead of looking at a problem Yeah. Where you tend to look at rather negative things. You, you, you take a, you take a situation, you say, well, what is the, you know, what is the, what, what does best look like? And there's given situation, and then you move, move, move round to, well, if we were going to make best better, what would that look like?
Yeah. So how can we take, for example, you know, take leadership and women in leadership, you say, well, who are great exemplars of the best in women's leadership? And then you say, well, how can we take the best to make it better? Yeah. What sort of things would better look like? And then you move more into an execution phase, which is how do we then take those principles of learning?
And, uh, sort of creates an action plan from it. Then how do we review it? And then how do we take the learnings and take the best of the learnings and make it better? So it's the opposite to problem solving, which tends to focus on things that go wrong. It's focusing on things that go well, but sorry, I've gone on.
I love that. No, I love that.
Stacey: And you can count on me. You can count on me to check. I just know, I think it would choose, I, I,
Phil: I think you'd enjoy it. I, I love it because it's very energizing. It's a very energizing way to look at developing new ideas, and it's very innovative because, uh. The energy that's kind of created from the process.
Well, and also
Stacey: the focus on the positive because I do think Exactly Yeah. Focus on the positive. Yeah. And, and it is so important. And, you know, I am someone who, I'm a consummate optimist. I, I always see the glasses. Yeah. I'm always like the glass half full. And um, you know, I always would get pushback. I'm, I, you know, I own it now.
This is who I am. I'm a very positive person. Um, but people always say, Stacey how you, you know, you're always in such a great mood. Why? You know?
Phil: Yeah.
Stacey: It's a
choice. We all have the choice. You know, I, could I wake up and be a sour puss? Absolutely. But I think life is too short. Life is too short and there's so much out there for us to be grateful for.
Phil: Yeah. So much. So I, I suppose there's a couple of questions sort of looking at, uh, the future because, you know, we talked a little bit about the podcast and, and you know, what amazing things have been achieved through hearing, uh, women leaders talk about their experiences and so on. Where, where do you see the future of the podcast going?
Stacey: That's a great question. Um, I don't think we thought it would go on as long as it has, but, uh, we continue to have demand and we actually have listeners in 96 different countries.
Phil: That's amazing. Um,
Stacey: which, which absolutely. Yeah. I know that we're having an impact all over the world. Yeah. With sharing their stories.
Um, there will be a season four. I just recorded an episode last week. Um, I think we're gonna continue to. Uh, explore the boundaries. I think when you think of women's health, most everyone thinks of reproductive health. Yeah. And there is so much more, so much more to women. Uh, actually women have a higher prevalence of Alzheimer's disease.
They have, um, higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease. And so there's a lot of different things that we can explore, uh, throughout to inspire new women leaders. So I think the future is bright for that podcast. Um, I am excited to continue to be involved in it. Yeah, I think for myself, if you want me to talk about kind of
Phil: yeah, where,
Stacey: where I, where I see myself going.
Um, I have, I wouldn't say it's been a recent kind of passion of mine, but this whole idea of executive presence and charisma in leadership has been something that I have. I kind of, um, immersed myself in more and have had the opportunity to, um, do more talking and, and share kind of my experience with executive presence with some of the younger up and coming generations, as well as those who've been around for a while at Medscape.
So, uh, for me, I want to continue, continue the work in that area. Um, I also. As I have gotten older, uh, turned the big five oh this year. Woo. Very exciting. You're so young, Stacey. I know I'm such a young whipper snapper, but actually I would say for any of you who are approaching 50, it's best, best years of your life.
Like honestly. Yeah. Thirties, forties. Yeah. I mean, forties were fun, but fifties is, is really here. Yeah. I find it my responsibility now that I am in a leadership position, right. Um, to make sure that I am. The phrase we use on the podcast is lifting. As we rise, we need to lift up other folks as we're rising.
and you do that. Um, Phil, I don't know if you have heard. Or if you come across the word sponsorship, I know coaching is in your blood sponsorship. Um,
Phil: of course
Stacey: mentorship. Yeah. And there's a difference As you are rising up in the ranks, it is our responsibility to sponsor, which means you are recommending, you are talking about individuals when they are not in the room.
Whether you're a man or a woman, you are. You're volunteering up folks that you think would be really good at the job by sponsoring them, and that's how we bring people along. Once you've sponsored them, then that's when mentorship and coaching kick in. Yeah. That you're gonna want them to be successful in that.
Phil: Right.
Stacey: So as I have evolved as a leader in my own right, um, that is my focus now. My focus really is on helping bring out the best
Phil: Yeah.
Stacey: In the next generation of sales folks and the next generation of leaders, be it men or women.
Phil: It's very inspiring actually listening to you talk, Stacey. Yeah, I think the, uh, younger people inside Medscape, uh, are very lucky to have someone like you, you know, in this kind of role of development and enablement.
Yeah. Wise words. Yeah, yeah. Wise words. Indeed. I know that on your podcast, you often finish the podcast with, you know, are there any sort of key takeaways, and perhaps you've actually alluded to that as well in what you've just said, but if you were to kind of reflect a bit on, you know, what would be the key takeaways for women in a, in a leadership role?
Um, what would they be? I, I know you've spoken about this already, perhaps, but what would be the, the key messages you'd like to leave us with?
Stacey: Yeah. The key messages and, and you know, Phil, it's interesting 'cause I, I hadn't really thought about it and this conversation's gone a lot of different directions, um, than, than what I thought, which has been great.
I hope you've enjoyed this, but I would say, yeah, no, but I would say that for, for leaders out there, whether you're in sales or not, whether you're in healthcare or not. I think the best thing that you can do is, is really find your, your why, your north star of why you're doing what you're doing and become, you know, very aware of what you enjoy and follow that path.
Um, I think that we all have an opportunity to help shape other, other individuals as well. Yeah, and I take it as a responsibility. I think we, um. Someone saw something in me way back. Yeah. Yeah. 25 years ago. And you know, I think we've all, we can all look back on the leaders that shaped us, but as you start evolving in your career and whether, like I said, male, female, we have the obligation to give back.
And so I would encourage you two things. One would be. To get to know yourself better, meaning really think about what brings you joy, what you get excited about, and try and put as much of that in your day-to-day as you possibly can. And then the second thing is, take the opportunity to impart everything that you've learned along your journey to someone else because it makes a difference.
And that is how all of us are gonna improve as leaders by sharing, by, um, by keeping a positive attitude and. And always looking to give back. I think that those are my parting words.
Phil: Yes. Can I ask one final question, Stacey, which is about charisma and presence, you know, is part of your future direction and perhaps I should have asked this question before I ask you for your final comments.
But, um, is it possible to develop people's charisma? Do you believe? Or do you, do you think it's late?
Stacey: 100%. 100% percent? No. I think, I think in terms of executive presence or charisma or the wow factor, there are very simple things that one can do. And the two key variables, Phil, that help shape you as how people perceive you are your warmth and your competence.
Um, you could simplify it to your friendliness and your smarts. But the two questions that that folks need to answer is, can I trust you? Yeah. Can I follow you? And, um, you know, warmth are things like smiling, like making eye contact, like nodding when someone's talking, having an open presence.
Phil: Yeah.
Stacey: Um, when you think about the competence or your intelligence, it's about.
Becoming a, an expert in your space, mastering all of the information that you possibly could. It's about speaking up, it's about offering up an opinion when you might be shy and not want to. Um, I always tell people silence speaks words of misunderstanding. And if you're quiet, I don't know what you know.
So, you know, increasing your competence by not only the physical of standing tall. Holding your head high, but also of speaking up and showing what you know and, and what your skillset is and having a positive attitude. So absolutely you can influence how people view you, um, in the way that you act and the way that you communicate and the way that you look.
Phil: Okay's
Stacey: skills. That's fantastic. Yeah.
Phil: Well I think that's a, that's a lovely way to finish the podcast, Stacey. Um, thank you so much for your time for joining us.
Stacey: Well, and thank you Phil, for your thoughtful questions and um, I have thoroughly enjoyed talking with you today.
Phil: Oh, that's great. Me too.