Business Innovators Radio - The Inspired Impact Podcast with Judy Carlson-Interview with Linda Watson, VP of Communications, PR, and Community Engagement at HCA Healt

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Linda Watson is VP of Communications, PR, and Community Engagement at HCA HealthONE Sky Ridge, where she is responsible for public relations, strategic communications, legislative affairs and community outreach. Sky Ridge opened on August 20, 2003, and was named one of the best start-up hospitals in the country. Linda was a member of the original leadership team.Prior to joining this state-of-the art medical facility, which opened on August 20, 2003, she was Vice President of Relationship Marketing for U.S. Bank, a full-service commercial bank spanning 24 states. Ms. Watson managed strategic marketing, public relations, communications and events for the Commercial Banking and Private Client Group divisions of U.S. Bank in Colorado and Utah. She had been with the company for 13 years, serving in a variety of capacities including Media Relations Manager, Retail Marketing Manager and Quality Assurance Manager.Described as a “workplace environmentalist,” Ms. Watson was named a 2003 Woman of Distinction by the Mile High Girl Scouts Council. She was also named “Corporate Woman of the Year” in 2001 by the Women’s Vision Foundation and was a finalist for the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce’s Athena Award that same year.A dedicated member of the business community, she is on the board and past Chair of the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce and on the boards of the Lone Tree Arts Center Fundraising Committee, the Douglas County Community Foundation and the Douglas County Business Alliance. She was on the board of the Douglas County Educational Foundation and the Highlands Ranch Chamber. She also served three years as the Events Chair for the Women’s Vision Foundation.Ms. Watson is a graduate of the 2003 class of Leadership Douglas County and is a 1998 graduate of Leadership Denver. She received her BA in Public Relations and Communications from Rowan University.https://www.healthonecares.com/https://www.facebook.com/HCAHealthONESkyRidgeJudy is the CEO & Founder of the Judy Carlson Financial Group. She helps her clients design, build, and implement fully integrated and coordinated financial plans from today through life expectancy and legacy.She is an Independent Fiduciary and Comprehensive Financial Planner who specializes in Wealth Decumulation Strategies. Judy is a CPA, Investment Advisor Representative, Life and Health Insurance Licensed, and Long-Term Care Certified.Judy’s mission is to educate and empower her clients with an all-inclusive financial plan that encourages and motivates them to pursue their lifetime financial goals and dreams.Learn More: https://judycarlson.com/Investment Adviser Representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management, LLC, an SEC Registered Adviser.The Inspired Impact Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-inspired-impact-podcast-with-judy-carlson-interview-with-linda-watson-vp-of-communications-pr-and-community-engagement-at-hca-healthone-sky-ridge

Welcome to the Inspired Impact Podcast, where dedicated female professionals share how they inspire impact every day. Authentic stories, passionate commitment, lives transformed. I'm your host, Judy Carlson. Welcome to today's episode of the Inspired Impact Podcast. You're going to hear from one amazing lady today. She has never wavered in her commitment to her work, her community, her peers, and she has impacted so many lives for good, including mine. Linda Watson, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Judy.

I'm so excited to be here today. So let's get started talking about your journey, where you started, what inspired you to pursue the path you're on, and you've been on the same path for years, which is, wonderful. And how has it allowed you to make an impact in your field? Well, that is a wonderful question. And I hope that what I share is meaningful and important to some other folks that might be listening. You know, I think I'm a little bit of a unicorn in that when I was in high school, I knew really what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to write. I love that field and the intrigue of, to me, of public relations and what that meant. And so I pursued that in my college. So I became a communications and PR professional in college. I had the blessing of

having an amazing teacher, Dr. Anthony Fulginiti. And, you know, I really should look him up someday and see what he's doing. But he was an inspiration to me and really showcased how the work that I would be doing in the future could really impact people. And so I was very fortunate that I knew all along that this is the area that I wanted to be in. And I've been blessed to have an amazing career over these many, too many years, but I'm not stopping yet. Amen, sister. So I can tell you a little bit about, you know, when I first started. Yeah, definitely.

Absolutely. And, you know, I had a little circuitous route. And I've talked a little bit to people about, you know, taking risks, etc. So when I was, when I graduated from college, I had the good fortune to work for an advertising agency in Philadelphia. for those of you who are from Beckys, you might know Broad and Chestnut and Philly. And there I worked at an organization called Spiro and Associates. And I worked on a number of really wonderful accounts and did some fun things. A professor of mine, he told me about a position that was in a bank.

And he said, Linda, you really need to go for this. And I think it'll be a great next step for you. And the good news is that it was because that experience at that bank when I was hired on really led me to the next phase, which was moving to Colorado. I did get married back in New Jersey, my home state, picked up with not knowing a soul or having a job after my honeymoon and moving to Colorado with this brand new husband. And I said, wow, now what? And, you know, it was, I won't tell you what year it was because I don't want to date myself, but it was quite a while ago. And things were a little rocky in the Colorado region at that time.

And I thought, oh, my goodness gracious, how am I going to get a job? But I was very fortunate that the experience that I had in banking back in New Jersey led me to an incredible job with United Bank of Denver. So some of you listeners may remember United Bank of Denver. It is the cash register building that is now Wells Fargo. But because of my experience at the bank, I was able to get a landed job there. And I met some incredible people. I worked with amazing women. Some of you may know Tucker Hart Adams, the economist, Nancy McCallon,

who had a great career with the government and then the community college system. And they were just so amazing. And we had such a great rapport and were able to do some wonderful things. And I learned so much about PR and economy and banking and how what we do really can make a difference to people's lives. And then Tucker because of our great relationship when she moved down to, Central Bank of Denver. She brought me on and asked me to come down there. They needed a media relations manager at Central Bank, which now I believe is a restaurant. So that tells you a little bit about how far things have come. So over the years of my career in banking,

which ultimately the organization became U.S. Bank. I went through about 13 different mergers and acquisitions during that time. And I said, by God, I made it through all of them. And so that gave me a lot of impetus to keep on going. And I enjoyed my work there. I enjoyed working for CEOs. I enjoyed working for people who really wanted to hear how they could engage with the community, how they could engage with employees on a different level. I loved being able to share the gifts that I received over the years. And I'll tell you, Judy, one of the greatest organizations and one of my incredible mentors was Steffie Allen.

Steffie Allen was an amazing woman. She has since passed much to my heartache. But she created an organization called the Women's Vision Foundation. And the goal of that organization was to, to connect women leaders with other women leaders, to mentor those that were coming up, to share wisdom, to create opportunities for women,

to look for opportunities for women to be on boards and get engaged in their communities. And she was just a complete inspiration to me. And I supervised and oversaw some of these events that we did, number one of which was the women's success forum. And I just had a ball doing that. And because of my relationship was Steffy, which at the time I didn't realize that she was on the board of Health One. And when I saw Sky Ridge opening up, I said to myself, you know, I have loved my career in banking.

It's been joyous to me. I love the CEO that I was working for. He left to start his own business. And I said, you know, it's time. It's time for me to do something different. It's time for me to look for a way that I can feel really more engaged and empowered in the work than I'm doing. And Steffie was my champion. And she sent a letter to the CEO of Sky Ridge, Maureen Terrant,

who it happened to be that I was on a board with at the Safehouse Board in Denver many years before. And so she remembered me. And Judy, the rest is history. I started at Sky Ridge and opened this place up 21 years ago. Wow. That's an incredible story, isn't it? Yeah, it just shows you the power of perseverance, the power of taking a risk. If I hadn't, you know, been willing to move across the country and know no one, you know, my, it would be a very different story.

You know, getting engaged in an organization that really believed in the power of women and what we could do. That was another step. And, you know, and I say to people, I knew nothing about health care. It's funny. I always tell this little joke about acronyms. I knew what an ATM was, of course, because I worked in banking. But when I came to the healthcare world, I didn't know what an MOB was. And I had to ask, what's an MOB? And of course, in the hospital jargon, it's a medical office building. But I said, I knew nothing. But I was confident in myself that I knew I could learn it. I knew the skills that I brought. brought to the table. And I knew that by being a non-clinical person, it was going to help me because I could decipher all this gobbledygook that can be overwhelming and complex, and I can make it sound understandable to the person that's coming in and is fearful or scared or doesn't really know the healthcare industry. So I thought that was a real coup for me to be able to share information

with people in a way that they could understand. So tell me how your responsibilities, your job, your impact has changed in 21 years. Well, it's only gotten better and more involved. I will tell you, Judy, that over the years what I've learned is that one of the most important things of any career choices that we make, of any organization that we work with, that the foundation of everything we do is based on relationships. And when I came to Sky Ridge, and this is just a little bit of how I tried to inculcate myself, if you will, into the community. I lived always in Douglas County, but I worked downtown for my entire time working in Colorado. And I knew I needed to,

you know, change that pattern because all the people I knew were downtown. And I'm like, gosh, I live here. I need to know more about my community. I am at Sky Ridge now. And one of the most important things we can do as this brand new hospital in Douglas County, the first one to open, you know, we will be successful when we make the connections that are important to the community and when we do the things that our community really wants us to be doing. So, you know, one of the first things I did was, I said, I'm going to just go. And I heard about leadership Douglas County. I had already done leadership Denver before. And I thought it was an incredibly great experience. And I said, wow, I'm going to, I'm going to jump on board that. And

to this day, I did it in 2003-2004 year. Probably one of the best things I ever did. I really learned a lot about the community, who's who. And it gave me an opportunity to really understand what makes this area thrive. And from that, we really just started to build long-term lasting relationships with the organization, people, city, municipalities, government officials, et cetera, that really where we work hand in hand. So my philosophy has never been, you know, networking for the sake of networking, like, what can you do for me?

My philosophy has always been, how can I help you succeed and introduce you to others or how can we work together to make what we're doing even better? So I think that has been kind of at the root of what we've been able to achieve here at Sky Ridge. And that's still, I think, a lasting legacy that, you know, one of the things I'm most proud of is the relationship we have built over time, the community engagement that we have, the way in which we respond to the needs of the community. So those are really very important things to me. It's fascinating that it's, you know, what does the community want us to do for them? I mean, that's counterintuitive to the way most people go out into the community, isn't it? Well, yeah, it can be.

But I think when you can be a better organization, when you know that what you're doing is based on the information that you've gathered from the community, what are the residents saying, what are the government officials need, how can we work together? to solve a common problem. You know, certainly at Sky Ridge, what can we be doing? What are the health care needs of the communities so that we can, you know, tackle the things that are most important to this community to help them, you know, thrive and live good and useful lives, right? I mean, I think that's what we all want.

How can we help our neighbors thrive? Right. So do you have a specific experience you can share when you realized you were really making a difference. You know, that is such a wonderful question because, yes, I do. I have them, I have miracles happen every day. And I'll tell you two stories that have always been with me. One, very early on it in Sky Ridge's history.

I wanted to host an event because people are afraid. of certain screenings and things like that. Mammograms is one of them. And I wanted to do a mammogram event where it was fun. It was engaging. We did nails. We had, you know, gifts and giveaways. We had people talking. And then, and we talked about the importance of a mammogram and why you need to get a mammogram. But we made it fun. We made it entertaining. We, we were able to give information. to people in a way that it was consumable. And I will never forget this, that a woman came up to me after that. And she said, you know, I just turned 40 and I have been afraid to get a mammogram.

I don't, I think it's going to hurt. I'm afraid of the results. I really don't want to do it. But, you know, after attending this event, I'm going to go do it. and I'm going to schedule my mammogram and I'm going to do it. And I will tell you, Judy, that that woman's comment to me set me on a path of doing all kinds of events at Sky Ridge. And because it resonated in my head that you don't always know who you're touching. Right.

But you know that when you hear that kind of a comment, that you've got to keep. doing it. You've got to keep out there and you've got to keep helping people understand that they need to take care of themselves. So my work at Sky Ridge, and quite honestly, and I say this to people, I never dreamed I would be somewhere for 21 years. But this job, every day I wake up and I feel fortunate that I'm going into a job that I love. I don't look at this as a job. I look at this as such an opportunity to share all the news and information and the patient stories. And it just really makes my heart happy. So I feel very fulfilled by having that opportunity to do that.

And one other story I would like to share too is that this was a couple years ago. I think it was just about right before COVID. And we had a family that was visiting, they were from another state and they were visiting their loved ones in Lone Tree. And this young, you know, pregnant woman and her hubby were here to visit their family. She didn't expect to go into labor at, you know, 26 weeks. And, well, I always say, well, this baby wanted to be a Colorado native. So, and so we had our little miracle baby and, you know, and we are fortunate that we have an amazing NICU at Sky Ridge.

That's a neonatal intensive care unit. And we could care for this baby. Now, she was here for a good three months. But what I saw was over her progression, the amazing will to live. in this baby. And she was remarkable. And I called her our Christmas Miracle Baby. And the following Christmas, the family back in their home stayed, you know, they sent us a

picture of her at one year, one year old next to her little picture right after she was born. And I still, as I'm talking to you now, I see this picture in my mind. And I said, that is such a story of the power of what you can do to save lives, influence lives, et cetera. Now, can I do that personally? No, but can I share that story and make people feel comfortable that when they have a baby here at Sky Ridge, they know that they've got like the best people to take care of their family. And so I am just so proud and honored that I can share.

those stories. Those are, they're so heartwarming, Linda, I have the goosebumps too. Absolutely. So I asked you when we were speaking, you know, just the two of us about being a female professional. And I loved your answer because I want you to share about the path you've chosen and why you've chosen it and how that's made a difference in the communities and in the companies that you worked for. Absolutely. You know, everybody has a different path and everybody needs to know what it is that they, what they truly want to do. And I'm being very candid about this. I never wanted to be a CEO. That was not what made my heart happy. But I knew I always wanted

to work for CEOs because I think I play a very special role in helping CEOs message appropriately to colleagues, to message appropriately to the community, to look at how we could advance our communication, our relationships, our engagement. So those are the things that, to me, that are what I believe I bring to the table. And that's what's made me happy over the years. I've worked for some amazing CEOs through my banking career, as well as my, as well as right here at Sky Ridge with the CEOs that I've worked with here.

And I like to tell women, you know, it isn't about seeking the CEO job, Unless you want it. I mean, if you want it, go for it. Go for it, girl. You can do it. And I think people should strive for those things. But I also think you should never look at yourself and pigeonhole yourself that if you aren't the CEO, then your worth, then your worth is not as high as it should be.

Or your value to the organization is not as important. that couldn't be further from the truth. Because I think when you really hone in on the things that make you unique, on the talents that you bring to the table, when you can feel comfortable that you are doing a great service and you are taking pride in the work that you do and you can see the results of that, then by all means, you know, embrace that. it's okay. It's okay not to be striving for the C-suite spot. As long as you know that the work that you're doing matters, as long as you're happy, as long as you're contributing, as long as you can feel like you're making a difference. And I know, and I know that sounds a little maybe

polyamish, but I think that's really helped me well over the years because when I needed to change course or direction, it was because I needed to feel like the things that I personally am doing matter. And I think that's really what's been the driving force for the career path that I've chosen. And I'm very happy with where I am and the contributions I make. Well, and they've been many. I've trailed around behind you for so many years over there at Sky Ridge. And some of the symposiums I've been to have been extremely valuable for me as well. So I've been encouraged by them as well, Linda. And you have given us such a powerful message today and especially at the end here

that our worth and our value to the organization, if it makes our hearts sing and we feel fulfilled, then that's what matters to each person. Absolutely. And your day, your job should be one in which you feel gratitude. And I say that because I'm grateful every day that I can come here and share a story. I'm grateful when I can do things like you mentioned, Judy, our women's symposium, when I can bring our physicians out and have women be able to ask any question under the sun that they'd like to ask because. you know, life gets so busy and they don't have necessarily always the time to, you know, ask the questions they'd like to know, or they hear conflicting information from different people and they'd like to get a straight shot at hearing what's what and whether it's, you know, myth busting and things like that. But those are the kinds of things that do those and you'll never be, you'll never have a dull moment and you'll always be happy.

That's for sure. Well, I love that. Linda, is there anything that you want to share about concluding with Sky Ridge, contacting you, being in the know, connecting further with opportunities, volunteerism? Is there anything you want to share before we close out today? Well, thanks for asking that because I think this is one, another one of the lessons that learned along the way pretty early on in my career. And it's really twofold.

One, it is about volunteering. How can you make your community better? How can you support the people in your community to do good, that do good works and what you can do to lend a hand? But the other thing is mentoring. I encourage people to really be, you know, when somebody needs a cup of coffee and you may not have a job for them, but you can meet with them and share, here's a couple of people I know that they might be able to talk to you and this could lead to this and that could lead to that. I think I learned so much from my time, not only volunteering, but being,

mentored in such a profound way by some amazing women that it is something I feel very strongly about giving back to. So if somebody, you know, asks me, hey, can you just meet me and, you know, I'm interested in health care or I'm interested in, you know, marketing and PR communications. And could you just, you know, share your story with me or tell me who you know or how can, or can you introduce me to someone, I think it's incumbent upon all of us that if we can help others along the way and help them get some positions and, you know, in places or or enable them to advance their own careers or I think that is another way that we can all support each other. So I just really encourage people. Like if you haven't taken somebody under your wing lately,

you know, look for opportunities to do that. If you need to be taken under the wing of someone, you know, reach out. You would be surprised. People would be gracious and honored to help in those ways. And so don't ever be afraid to ask. I think that is an important message I'd like to share. That's wonderful. Yep.

You've got to knock on the door to find out if it's open or not. There you go. Oh, well, thank you so much. much, Linda, this has been delightful. I am just so blessed to have you as a guest, and I'm looking forward to our listeners and the impact this is going to make on their lives. So thank you so much. Well, thank you, Judy. My pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us for the Inspired Impact Podcast. To listen to past episodes, please visit the Inspired Impact Podcast.com.

Thank you.