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Joy Rios: Bold Resilience- Transforming Fear into Action · The Bold Lounge

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: My name is Leigh Burgess and I will be your host.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: If you're anything like me, you love hearing inspiring stories of people who have gone on bold journeys and made a positive impact in the world.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: This podcast is all about those kinds of stories.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Every week, we'll hear from someone who has taken a leap or embarked on an extraordinary journey.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: In addition to hearing their stories, we'll also learn about their bold growth mindset that they use to make things happen.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Whether they face challenges or doubts along the way, they persisted and ultimately achieved their goals.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: These impactful stories will leave you feeling motivated and inspired to pursue your own bold journey.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I believe everyone has a bold story waiting to be freed.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Tune in and get ready to be inspired.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Today I have Joy Rios.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: She stands as a distinguished health IT strategist and a recognized expert in the value-based care models.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Celebrated for her pioneering spirit, joy was awarded the 2023 HIMSS Changemaker of the Year Award for her significant contributions to women in health IT, underscoring her commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the healthcare sector.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: As a founder and host of the Hit Like a Girl podcast and the Like a Girl media agency, joy is dedicated to elevating diverse voices and advancing DEI initiatives within healthcare.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Her expertise not only bridges gaps between health and technology, but also champions the creation of equitable healthcare environments.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bold Lounge.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Joy, it is so great to be here.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, leigh.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Excellent, we were talking.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: We haven't seen each other in almost two years, probably one and a half years, so I'm so excited to talk with you today, learn what's been going on and how you've been growing and creating over the last several years.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: But let's start with your definition of bold.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: What does bold look like in your world?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Bold in my world means being bigger than my fear.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It is knowing that I can experience something that is scary and then trusting myself to do it anyway.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: And having that trust not necessarily that the outside world is in control, but at least I have control over how I behave and how I show up and go into the world.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: And so I would say that's my definition Just being bigger than your fear, recognizing that fear exists and it's part of it, but doing the thing anyway.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, some people think bold is fearless.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I do not.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: A lot of people do not, but I think it's interesting to hear your definition, because mine is like stepping into fear, not knowing what will happen but doing it anyway.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: But knowing I'll learn.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I'll learn something, I'll grow, I'll meet someone, I'll succeed, like.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: All the above can happen also.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: I really think my relationship with failure has changed quite a bit, because, instead of seeing a failure as an actual failure, it's an accomplishment that I tried something and I learned.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Seeing a failure as an actual failure, it's an accomplishment that I tried something and I learned, and most of the time I feel like people learn more through failing than you do, a lot of times through success.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And so just that keep keep on trying.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: I know it sounds generic, but I do think it's really good advice, yeah for sure.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I think that's a really important part.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Your relationship with failure has changed.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So what did you think of it before?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Like I know, when I was in the corporate world?
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Like failure wasn't an option.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Like you know, you never set out to do that.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: No one really sets out to fail, but it's what you learn from it that's so important.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Would you agree?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I would absolutely agree A hundred percent.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So what's a bold, memorable moment for you?
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Whether it's from the past or something recent, but what's a memorable, bold moment for you where you stepped into that fear, you've trusted yourself which is another thing you said in your definition and you've gone forward with you know, into the unknown.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I wish that I just had one example, but I feel like I have, I have several examples over my lifetime and just to be like short about it, it started at a young age.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I was bold at the age of 14 when I accepted a scholarship that took me away from moving from my home in Southern California to living in a rural area in central Utah and going to like a private boarding school, so that four years of my life kind of set me on a path to be more self-sufficient and to find my way and to find my voice and sort of you know, be bold in a way of just sort of taking charge in.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Like it's not the same as having a mom and dad around that are going to make breakfast and lunch and dinner for you and make sure that your backpack is packed and you're ready for school.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Like that wasn't the case.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: So from a young age I would say that that was a bold move, and I'm thinking sort of mental, physical and emotional boldness.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: There was a physical challenge that I took on, which was a bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It was part of the AIDS ride and so it was.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: It was fundraising and a lot of training, but it's basically over a seven day period riding your bike for 545 miles, the shortest day being 60 miles, the longest day being 110.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: And by day three or four you realize like holy cow I can't believe I signed up for this, but but but by by day seven and having finished it, it was probably one of the biggest accomplishments that I'm like, if I can do this, I can literally do anything, and I think that that was a confidence booster that I didn't anticipate that that physical challenge would actually have so much, leave such like a mental and emotional impression on me.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I love how you broke it down because of the mental, the physical and the emotional.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Obviously, going to boarding school at, you know, sounds like around ninth grade or eighth grade, you know at age 14 and getting out on your own.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: In a way, there you had to.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: There was no option.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Right Of being bold.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: You were going to start taking care of yourself, living your life in a different way than those that might be at home at that time.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Then, taking this incredible bike ride for a good cause.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Had you ever done a ride like that before?
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: No, I was living in San Francisco and it was in the 2000s and I had seen others do it and see them training and had such admiration for them.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: There was one nurse I knew in particular that I was like I can't believe that she and her husband are doing this crazy ride, and I never thought it would be something that I could do.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: And then I invested in a bike and decided you know what that's going to be for me?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: And, lo and behold, I've not only did it once, I ended up doing it twice.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I did it once in 2008.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: And then I kind of forgot about all that pain.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: It took me eight years to figure out to convince myself to do it again, but I did and it was great on both times.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Excellent when we go through adversity.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: So I'm sure there's adversity in both of those examples the boarding school and kind of being on your own and doing your, you know, figuring out who you are and how you're going to operate in the world.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: And then you know a physical challenge like that, which is it's more than physical.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: There are times when and I've never biked that far, but I've certainly, you know, I've done like the 50 mile ride which are just like and it's not flat, you know.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: So there are times where you're just like can I keep going?
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Will my legs keep working?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Can I get off the bike and stand up?
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Like you know, there's those moments.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Or if you get a flat tire.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the worst, yeah, or people keep telling you that it's all downhill from here and by like the hundredth time that somebody says that and I just want to strangle them.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: It is not downhill.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: That's not how this works.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: That's your perception, right that it's downhill.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: So there's a mental and a physical connection there too, of going through it and being bold in different ways.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Through that, anything memorable come for you as like a mantra, or I got to keep going, or the way that you spoke to yourself during this bold time.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there was.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: One is just like you know, the just keep swimming.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: You were just like you're just going to keep going one another.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there was a little bit of dory, but there was also a lot of like backwards math of just like I'm halfway to the halfway point or I'm halfway to like literally breaking it up, because every single day there would be four rest stops and so you could think of, like, if it's a hundred, if it's a hundred mile day, let's make it easy.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: You're going to get to stop to rest at 25 miles, but literally at mile 10, you're just like you're doing the mental math.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: How?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: much longer till I get, and instead of thinking it to the very end, literally just thinking what's the next step, I'm halfway to the halfway point.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I'm halfway to the halfway to the halfway point, but feeling a sense of accomplishment in the tiny things that you're like, okay, and and literally every step or cycle that you get is closer to your destination and just trusting that, just keep swimming, you'll get there, yeah.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: The other option is you're not going to get there, you're going to get picked up, you'll eventually get on, but you won't have completed the race.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: But it's that what I call goal chunking of like saying you know, I know I'm going to finish the race, but I'm not thinking about how many miles it is until that point I'm going to.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Actually, you know, like you said, the math of the halfway to the halfway.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: We do that with our goals too and what we're trying to do.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: But it takes action, intention, choice, and it doesn't happen by chance that you're achieving these goals and hitting these milestones.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of times, if you don't know the path forward, like taking it off of this.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: You know cycle conversation.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: There's something about when you you know you're on the right path you don't necessarily know the destination and where you're going to end up but just feeling like all I can do is the next right thing.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to keep doing the next right thing, and if that is a small tiny action today, it's something, and do the next right thing tomorrow, yeah, and do the next right thing tomorrow, yeah because you definitely will not have improvement or growth or learning or more understanding by standing still in your path.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: That's part of your definition in a way, is kind of moving through it.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: There's a little bit of fear, or maybe sometimes a lot, but you're going to do it anyway.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: You mentioned trust in yourself in your definition.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: How did you develop that trust in yourself and where did that come from?
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Because sometimes I think people look for external validation of like, yes, you can do it, you know, and that's always great when people are doing that, but I'm a big believer of your own belief in yourself is what you need to actually succeed.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: So where does your belief in yourself come from?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: You're trusting yourself.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of it has come from the results of taking actions like this, like it was being able to prove to myself that I am capable and that I am more than capable, that I'm like oh, I trust that I can do this thing because I have done hard things in the past.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Every hard thing you do gives yourself evidence that builds up of like oh yeah, I can do hard things.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: It might not be very fun, no, but that's how you've learned, right?
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, a hundred percent.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: So I mean everything from like.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: My business partner lost one of her children like within the first couple months of us starting our consultancy.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: That was really one of the hardest times of my life and, I think, of her life too, of just like carrying each other through that.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: At the same time, I was going through a pretty, not a difficult divorce, but I think divorce under any circumstances are like life-changing so you're unpleasant, you have to get through it and probably just like having the experience of being able to start a business, show up for others and myself and also maintain my authenticity and integrity.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: And I think that there's a little bit of letting go about what other people think of you.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: That, like the trust in yourself is really just like okay, well, what's the right thing for me and for my life and how can I show up in a way that I feel good, sleeping at night, yeah, and just continuing to do that over and over and over again.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: For me it's just like oh, I have all this evidence that, yeah, I can get through tough things.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think sometimes we overthink or we compare, which I think can take us off, I know, for myself, take me off purpose.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Or you know, I think for a while I thought thinking about myself might be selfish.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: You know, I had to kind of get out of that mindset, I think, for working with others and seeing my own journey.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I think when you go through those adversities and people see you do what you did or get through or keep going through those extremely, extremely gut wrenching hard days, you inspire other people through your actions and what you're doing and that has meant a lot, for I think you know your work and your impact that you're having.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: How did you end up in healthcare IT specifically?
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Did you always set out to be in that field?
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Nope, I was an English major and I my master's degree focused on environmental sustainability, and so I actually, like through my mid twenties, thought that I was going to end up either in journalism somehow in the art of storytelling or in solar.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: I thought I'd end up in the solar industry because that's where I, when I was studying in grad school, that's where I was working, and I thought, oh, it just makes a lot of sense, I really like it here, being surrounded by all these engineers.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And it turned out that, you know, I had been at a startup.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I got invited to join a family business my uncle.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: He had a document management company that was taking on an EHR distribution and it was like a life change.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: It was one of those moments and I'm not kidding you, lee I was at a Christmas party and I hadn't seen my uncle for probably five years.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I had been giving him the update on my life and I had said to the universe you know, I think I'm ready for a big change.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: It answered, it answered, it answered and a week later he said you know, I can't stop thinking about you and like the experience that you have, you know, gotten over the last several years, cause I had this really inside experience at a startup, being like employee, five or three years all the way to you know, like that company, when I left, had 120.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: So it was a lot of change and a lot of growth in a short amount of time.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was like I could use that experience at the company that I'm working on and somebody like you, and it was basically the invitation to turn my whole life upside down and move it from San Francisco over to, essentially, miami and learn about health IT, and so that was one of those I don't know what I'm doing, but we're going to, we're going to figure it out.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: It was a sink or swim situation and I basically dove right into healthcare policy using my English degree that I was like let me try to understand, because that was the motivation for this technology push in health care.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: And so I was like, well, what's behind this?
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And there was the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that had a high tech act that was set aside with something like $80 million for doctors to implement EHR systems.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: And I just wanted to understand the why.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: So I put to use my English major and was like let me tear this policy into pieces and see if somebody were to ask me if I could explain it to them.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Why should they invest in EHRs and technology?
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: And that essentially put me into a subject matter expert role, because not many people were taking it from the same perspective as me.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So they were just looking at what the requirements were and then saying here's how we do it versus the why behind the requirement.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: And that ended up it lent towards me actually creating curriculum to help providers understand the laws better.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Breaking them down into bits that we can understand.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: You and I are both in healthcare.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I'm on the research better.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Breaking them down into bits that we can understand.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: You and I are both in healthcare.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I'm on the research side of this.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So a lot of also policy and regulation in that particular area.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: But I think you know you also sounds like a bold moment there with your uncle of saying, yeah, like I want something different, I want something to change in my life and I'm going to try this.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: You landed in this space and you know, I know it's been a while and you've had a lot of experience.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: What are some of the top things you've learned about being a woman in healthcare?
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: It that kind of lent you to create Hit Like a.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Girl.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I think that women are the backbone of healthcare.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: That's where I like, I'm like and I feel like I see that and I have seen that through being.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: I was a road warrior for a while and got to travel to a bunch of different clinics all over the country and the people that I would have relationships with in training and who was running the clinics and you know, nine times out of 10, it was women and what showed up for me when I would go to conferences and I'd look at like who gets the microphone and who gets to be on stage and who is given a platform, and it wasn't the women and that was like for me it just felt like a major, major breakdown that we are doing ourselves a disservice by not gleaning out the expertise and knowledge and wisdom that all these women have and we should be able to highlight and learn from them in a way that I think that would honor them and also would be better for us.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: You know, like we could get farther faster if we have a more representative amount of feedback and contributions around where we're going.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So it kind of came from this like ragey moment, to be honest, of feeling like okay, well, what can I do?
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: And I felt like getting tired of it all.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, and it was all kind of in that mix of a time when I was like my business partner had a very sick child, I was in the middle of a divorce, contemplating moving to Mexico which I ended up doing and just like, okay, what is in my control and what can I do?
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: And I have a technical skillset that I'm pretty sure that I know how to use a mic and get it up and out into the world.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: And if this isn't a conversation around, I genuinely felt like it's not about money, because there's plenty of money to go around in healthcare.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: You see it all the time and you're like if somebody wanted to do something, if they wanted to learn and hear from women, they would have done it.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: And I looked around and I was just like, okay, fine, if no one's going to do it, I'm going to do it.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: And it felt like this I'm not going to talk about it, I'm just going to show them.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: This is going to become a show, not tell, and not in a mean way, not in a complaining way, not in a like we're just going to talk about the problems.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: I was like no, we're going to use this as an opportunity to learn from these women.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: It is going to be a showcase of like.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: They have a lot of wisdom to share and we should all be looking at them as experts, because they are and and I wanted to be able to instill confidence in not just the guests that come onto the show, but also in the listeners of the show that, like they, that whole like if you can't see it, you can't be it philosophy, and I was like okay, well, how can I shine a light on this in a bigger way so that more people can see it, so that others can be it?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think like a girl has really evolved and I think it was dove or I think it was a dove campaign, which was incredible and painful at the same time to watch.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Right, you know you're seeing people like what does it feel like to run like a girl now, when you're like six or seven or eight?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: And then what does it look like?
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Other people saying you know, what does it look like to run like a girl and making it slow or goofy or whatever?
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: I actually think it's in its 2.0 phase, you know of.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: It means strength, it means unity, it means empowerment, it means inspiration, it means being real, yep, which not everybody is, and you have to be bold to be real.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Well, how do you think that has evolved, especially with all your conversations that you've had on your show.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Well, when it started so I've been at this for six years, you're absolutely right and there was, and there was pushback on the name itself.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: That was just like oh, people were like, oh, you're going to do it like a girl, like why would I want to be on that show or why would you advertise that you're doing something like a girl?
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: And I just feel like a little bit, what I have been doing is just holding a mirror up and saying this is not, yeah, it's not a reflection on me of what I think of what it's like to be like a girl.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: When you say that you're, you're showing me what you think of what it's like to be like a girl, and I'm just trying to very gently push back In the boy way.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Help them understand themselves, because if you don't understand it yourself like the bias you have or the things that come up in your mind when you hear that, or the way that you may act even as a woman or a girl in the world, because of hearing that, right, it definitely is something that even I'm in my fifties like, even now, like it's unbelievable.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Some of the things that occur, you know, as an entrepreneur, or doing something new or doing something bold, the things you'll hear people say and sometimes even it's not men that are saying it, it's women.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: And a lot of it is just unlearning, and like that's, a lot of it is for me in particular too, because I've had a lot of unlearning to do, a lot that we have been, that has been ingrained in us.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: We have been instilled a certain way of beliefs that I don't know, that we should disbelieve.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Like they always tell us to question authority and I think in this way it's one of those ways push back, absolutely question.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Think for yourself, ask questions, be curious, right?
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I always encourage people to.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: When someone says oh, is this a dumb question?
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Like there's really no dumb question, like just ask it, put it out there.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to ask yourself the questions too as well, like why am I thinking that?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Why is that coming up?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Where did that belief come from, did it?
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: get ascribed to me, you know like I don't subscribe to it anymore, you know.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: So, I think, as we grow up and evolve and some of us do that faster than others I think some people may never grow up in that way, but all you can do is be responsible for yourself and invite others to be, and I think the more we understand that about this particular topic, when it comes to how people, you know how.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: When you say hit like a girl, what does that mean?
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: What do you see?
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: And then think about that and then start to unlock why you're thinking about it and you know whether it's going down a different path or thinking a different way.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Start to act on it and that helps others also.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: You know through your learning.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Again, success and failure, like we said before, you're going to have an impact, that ripple effect, when you think about where you are now.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: You have now created your own media agency.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So hit like a girl huge success.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: You know doing what you've been doing, hundreds of episodes, hundreds of women that you've talked to.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: How did it get to the point where you know your mission and connecting now to your, your agency?
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate the question.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: I found out that my mission was bigger than my platform, which is great.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: It's a great thing and we should have visions that are bigger than you know where, like my eyes are, are bigger than my grasp.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Right, there's something, and it was basically by I had created a space where folks could some other women could use my platform as a guest hosting opportunity and say, hey, guess what?
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: I don't need to be behind the mic all the time.
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: I've created this platform If you want to share your voice.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: I've offered to others to kind of just do guest hosting, do five episodes here if you want to interview somebody, and you kind of give somebody else an opportunity to hold those conversations.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: But it grew to so much that they started their own shows.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: And those folks Grace Vinton for one she does high tea with Grace, she was the impetus for it, to be honest, because she's like I don't, I don't want to do this by myself, I don't want to be out there, you know, flying solo, and she's like I love the tribe, I love the community, I want to feel like I have a group of women to support me along this, and it's just sort of like this cheerleading aspect and that grew into like, okay, well, if I'm going to support you, then actually let me make this official.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: And at the beginning of this year started like a girl media agency and then started finding other women thought leaders in the healthcare space.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: So Lori McGraw she does a podcast called Inspiring Women and you know she interviews business leaders and has a nice collaboration with the women WBL the women business leaders in healthcare.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: So she does a lot of interviews with those folks.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: There's nurse Alice and she has much more of a nursing perspective and she's, you know, on TV all the time on in the Los Angeles area, and so it's been really great to support her as well and just literally just production needs or marketing needs or getting their message out and just making sure that it's sharing or resharing, and so currently there's just the four different shows, but it's only been a couple months, yeah, so again you probably stepped into some forward movement of like what am I?
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: I didn't plan this, right, right?
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Someone asked me yesterday, like did you have this all planned out when you started your business?
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: And I was like no, I didn't even think of probably the four or five things that are happening.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Now it's turned into something that I never could have imagined.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: You know, like what you just said.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: It's one of those moments of I see it like yeah, totally, I get why Joy's doing that.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I've seen her in action, I've seen her operate.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I see how she pulls together communities and connects on such a human level with so many people.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Like this is just the beginning of what you're doing and again, I think it comes back to creating community at the same time connecting with one another, but also championing them but challenging them.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: But right, when I think of community, I think it's being your cheerleader and it's like have you thought about, did you consider?
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: You said you were going to, but where are we?
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: You know, are you still thinking about that?
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what's your definition of community when you think about the many that you've formed and the one that you've created?
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of it is just knowing that you kind of have a safety net, knowing that if you're going to make a call, that somebody is going to answer it and will be there for you Exactly, and it doesn't necessarily mean it's an individual or there's a specific place.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: I mean we meet in person at different conferences, we have a Slack community and of course, we're like just a phone call away from a lot of folks.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: But I think, more than anything, it's just knowing that there's people out there that want to see you succeed and are supporters of you.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got this.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, be excited about the opportunities.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: I made a post today just about all the different things I'm excited about and some of them are still like I'm growing, I'm figuring things out myself personally, you know, I'm trying to get healthier.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to do these things I'm succeeding in feeling daily, but I'm still excited about the opportunity ahead, about what you know, what I'm doing and hopefully, the impact I'm having in a positive way.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: And I see that in your work and the work that you're doing as well as someone starting off as we close out our discussion and they're just trying to figure out the what's next.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: And you had that moment at that Christmas party with your uncle and you kind of had asked the universe how does someone do that?
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: How do they get to that point?
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: What would be your guidance of figuring out how to get to the what's next?
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness, that's a big question.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: I think that's different for everybody.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: It's personal, yeah, it's personal, and I think it also.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, it takes a lot of work to figure out where you want to go right.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Are you on the right path?
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: There's something for me that landed.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I took a year of just doing all affirmations every day, coming up with a new ones and a big wall calendar so that I can revisit it at any given time.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: One of those that I continue to go back to and reread is that if you're on the right path, your pace doesn't really matter that much.
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: It's okay if it goes slow, but just trusting that you're on the right path and I would imagine that the answer to that question is some self-reflection of just figuring out am I on the path that I wanna be on?
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: And starting there?
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: And if you're not, how do you get there?
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, allowing yourself to think about it, I think, is the first step, versus the I can't, I won't someday, you know, like I think sometimes that gets in the way.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: But I love your affirmation of if you're on the right path, the pace doesn't matter.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: And I think for someone thinking it's too late to start something or you know, I can't do that because of, and you know, insert the 10 things we say to ourselves, but just allow yourself to think about the possibility and the opportunity, right.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: The time's going to pass anyway.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: I remember that being one of those like chirps in the back of my mind of like, okay, oh, it's going to take so long if I'm going to go down this path, or if I'm going to do new schooling or do new studies or whatever, but the time it's going to pass anyway.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: So would you rather have if it's four years it?
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Would you rather be in the same place four years from now, or would you rather be farther along in your journey?
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, choose farther along, choose farther along every time.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: That's what we say.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: There we go.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I'd love that.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being on the bold lounge, for sharing your bold journey, all the information about Joy's Hit Like a Girl podcast, her media agency and connecting with her on her socials.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Please do that and see below in the episode notes.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this has been great, Leigh, thank you so much.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Bold Lounge podcast.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Through the continuum of bold stories vulnerability to taking a leap you will meet more extraordinary people making a positive impact for others through their unique and important story.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: By highlighting these stories, we hope to inspire others and share the journey of those with a bold mindset.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: We hope you've enjoyed this podcast and look forward to sharing the next bold journey with you.