February 29, 2024 • 27 mins
In this episode, Gia interviews Erin Russell, a medical student with a diverse background in digital health and entrepreneurship. Erin shares her journey from the digital health industry to pursuing a career in medicine, highlighting the importance of self-reflection and setting personal goals for success. The conversation delves into the challenges high-achieving women face, such as burnout and self-advocacy in the workplace, offering valuable insights and advice for navigating these obstacles.
Erin discusses the future of women's health and healthcare, emphasizing the need for improved access to care and the role of digital health innovations in advancing healthcare delivery. She also touches on the significance of prioritizing self-care and efficient time management to prevent burnout and maintain overall well-being.
Tune in to gain valuable insights into setting personal goals, redefining success, and embracing your inner guidance. Erin's journey serves as an inspiration for women seeking to make career transitions and prioritize their well-being in a demanding world.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Your Future Starts Now, the go-to podcast for
extraordinary women who are ready to step into their next chapter with
authentic confidence. I'm your host, Gia Lacqua empowerment coach,
motivational speaker, children's book author, and girl mom. Whether
you're a corporate powerhouse or an entrepreneur, this show is
designed for you. Your Future Starts Now is more than
(00:20):
just a podcast. It's a movement, a movement towards rewriting
the rules of success for high-achieving women. Are you ready
to get unstuck and step into your next chapter? If
so, you are exactly where you need to be. Your future starts
now. Welcome to Your Future Starts Now.
I'm your host, Gia Lacqua. Thanks for tuning in today. I am so excited
(00:43):
to introduce you to Erin Russell. Erin is
currently a medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of
Medicine. Before returning to school, Erin served as
the chief operating officer of Curio Digital Therapeutics, leading
commercialization of products to improve women's behavioral and
mental health. She's the previous founder and CEO of
(01:03):
Health Grizzly, a digital health care navigation platform and
Spotlight, a venture focused on patient education and engagement in
dermatology and medical aesthetics. In addition to
her entrepreneurial experience, Erin has commercial experience building
teams and launching products at Merck, Shearing Plow, and
Allergan. Wow, that was a mouthful. Erin, welcome to the show.
(01:25):
Thanks so much for being here with us today. Thank you so much for
having me. So Erin, you went
from digital health and health tech to pursuing
a medical degree. Can you tell us a little bit about
Absolutely. As I was hearing you
(01:45):
kind of talk through everything in my background, I felt like,
wow, I've actually I've done a lot and
a lot of different things. It was a big change, you
know, making the decision to kind of leave digital
health, to leave a great career, to
leave a great job and company that I was really enjoying, to
(02:06):
then go back and kind of restart and reboot my career and go
to medical school was a, it was a big decision. One
I definitely did not take lightly. But I did that because, you
know, as I was working throughout my
career, you know, I started in pharma, then went into digital health, I
had a chance to work more and more closely with patients. With
(02:29):
my last digital health venture, it was a care navigation startup,
and I was literally connecting patients directly with healthcare
options. And what I found was, as I had more and more of that direct patient
interaction, it was It was just so fulfilling and rewarding. And
something I like to do is kind of take stock of what really
(02:51):
drives me and fulfills me on a regular basis. I try to do it
about twice a year. And I realized that all
of the things that were really fulfilling me and that were really driving me were
related to those direct patient interactions. And I wanted more
of that. And so I decided I wanted to go to medical school
to do just that, to go into clinical practice. And to
(03:14):
Wow, that's incredible. I love the fact that you said
you regularly take inventory. I think you said
twice a year of what fulfills you. I think that's so powerful. Some
of us don't take the time to do that enough or at
all. So, you know, the fact that you're able to kind of step back
and reflect on what's actually fueling me, what's energizing me,
(03:35):
What's driving that passion and the purpose is so
incredible. I'd love to know if you rewind back to
when you made that decision. I would love to know what was going through
your mind when you were making that decision to leave the
A lot of things very I mean, I think, you
know, anytime someone makes a change like that, you know, the
(03:59):
1st thing to really recognize is that it can be really scary.
Sure. It is. It is definitely something to consider. I
thought about it for a while. The other
things that were kind of going through my mind were like, where do I really want to be? What
do I really want to do? It's not just not just
the typical what makes me happy and what makes me fulfilled. That was
a part of it. And that was important. But if I look down, you
(04:22):
know, five years, 10 years down the line. what do I want to
be doing? And when I actually asked myself
that question and thought about it, I wanted to be a doctor. And
so it was pretty clear to me if that's, that
was my goal. I just needed to try to make a plan to get there. Now,
I definitely went into it thinking, I don't know if I'll be successful, right?
(04:46):
hard to get into medical school, especially after you've been out of school for a while.
And there were a lot of things that I had to do to get myself to the
point where I could even apply. But once I knew what I wanted to
do, it was it was pretty clear. I just needed to make a
plan and try. And so I did that. It
That's amazing. Did you always want to be a doctor from
(05:09):
when you were a kid? Or did you just wake up one day and say, I think I'm going to go to
A lot of people ask me that question. I did not always want to
be a doctor. I always wanted to work in health care from the
very beginning. And so. You know, when I was an
undergrad, I was a chemistry major in undergrad. And when
I graduated, I actually made a decision to not go to medical school. I
(05:30):
didn't apply to medical school at that time. I wanted to
go work on the commercial side. I immediately went to work in the
pharmaceutical industry because I had this idea of trying to
kind of bring the business and medical or business and healthcare worlds
together in my career. And that's really what I did for, if
you look at the rest of my career and the jobs that I've had.
(05:52):
But when I really looked at
what I wanted to do now, as I was as
I was kind of getting those additional experiences, I realized now
is the time I really want to be a doctor. And so I did always want
to help patients. I did always want to work in health care, but I
didn't necessarily always want to be a doctor. That was something that
(06:17):
Wow, what a beautiful part of your journey that you realize that. What
do you think was the biggest challenge for you that you had to overcome as
you were grappling with this decision? I knew you talked to touched a little bit
about the self-doubt. You know, was it the
There were certainly some self-doubt. I think the
(06:37):
biggest challenge that I had was just in really kind
of Not making the plan making
the plan was very straightforward, but it was really
about bringing other people within my network into
the plan. You know, I had a lot of I had, I had
a lot of supporters as I was kind of going down this path. But
(06:58):
then there were also a lot of people who kind of looked at me like I
had kind of sprouted a second head, like, why would you want to do that? And
I even had some people ask me, as I told them I was making this
decision going back to medical school, they said, do you know how many years
medical school is? You know, it's, yes, I
definitely did. But, but the thing is, is
(07:20):
if you enjoy the journey, and I am enjoying this journey immensely, you
know, the amount of time it takes to do something really, really
doesn't matter because you're enjoying the time while you're actually making
Absolutely. And you mentioned earlier that you
had looked down the road five or 10 years ahead and you had a vision for
yourself, right? You had a vision of what you wanted to do, where
(07:43):
you wanted to be. And it sounds like that helped
influence your decision and sort of was really a pull or
Yeah, that's amazing. And the support, the community support
is an important aspect to it. And I think one thing
that's really hard as we go through transformation and transition in
(08:04):
our lives is the people closest to us, or
the people that we think are our biggest supporters, aren't
That definitely can be true. And it's surprising
sometimes when you start to talk to people. Some
people that you don't expect will be very supportive are. And then
(08:27):
others who you expect would be aren't as supportive. And so I
think that's okay. It
doesn't really matter. I think what's important is really trying to talk to people and
get a couple of people who can be in your corner, so to speak, because
it really is helpful to have that support. Because when you're doing something
different, when you're making a big change, especially a change that requires a
(08:50):
lot of work, a lot of things that had to be done. For me to go to medical
school, I had to take the MCAT. I had some prerequisites I
had to finish. that I hadn't completed that medical schools
were requiring. You know, there was a lot of
time and effort that I had to put into even getting to the
point where I could apply. And it was helpful. It was really critical to
(09:10):
have that support. I certainly could not have done that, you know, just on
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's people surprise you, right?
So your point sometimes both ways. Sometimes there's people who are big supporters that
you didn't expect and vice versa. But I think it's important to recognize and
it's really, you know, for various reasons, but it's really about them. It's not about you.
But it's just a matter of finding the right people that you
(09:31):
have, like you said, to have in your corner and support you in that change
and that transformation and not the people that are going to hold you back. And
sometimes that can be really challenging. I'm curious, Erin, in your prior
work, you focused on improving women's behavioral health,
mental health, You know, we our
audience is high achieving women. A lot of them have
(09:53):
experienced burnout, you know, and
a lot of other mental health and physical concerns.
I'm curious, in your experience, what do you see as the key challenges for
There are several. The first is, I think, you know, you brought
up this aspect of burnout. It
(10:14):
is real. I think it's real for women and men. But
specifically for women, I think, you know, we
take a lot on right? Like, we were working if
we're, we're working full time. Professionally, we have a lot.
We spend a lot of time there often. We're also managing things at home with
families. We're often doing other things with friends
(10:36):
or volunteering, et cetera. There's a lot going on in. And
it's very easy to burn out. And so I
think for that challenge, the biggest thing to do
is really to try to be as efficient as possible and to make sure that you're
spending time on the right things. One
thing that I've always taken to heart, and I've shared this with people throughout
(10:57):
my career, The most valuable thing
you're given every single morning is the time that
you have during that day and the decision that you make to spend
that time, how you decide to spend that time, whether you're spending that time working,
whether you're spending that time answering emails, whether you're spending that time with family
or friends or however you choose to spend that time. That is the most, literally
(11:19):
the most important decision that you're going to make. And you should make that
decision in a way that is really prioritizing what's important to you
and what you want to do. And that will help get you to where you want
to go. And so I think that's something, if someone's starting
to burn out, and I felt it, I've been stressed out and
I felt like I have too much going on sometimes. When I
(11:39):
actually take a moment to really take stock of how am I
spending that time? Am I spending it wisely? Am I spending it on the things that
I really want to spend it on? It
often when I'm feeling that that feeling of burnout, I'm
often not spending my time in the right way or in the best way. And
so making those shifts can sometimes help, you
(12:00):
know, the other big challenge that women have, I would just mention and. This
is so important. It's kind of
related to self-doubt, but it's really about advocating for themselves. There
was an article in the Harvard Business Review just last year, really
highlighting that there still is a huge gender gap as
(12:21):
it comes to women being promoted at work and
being compensated for their jobs. And a
big part, and it's real, and one reason
for that could have been, or was hypothesized as
being that employers are thinking that women are
kind of not wanting to leave, that they're less of a flight risk. I
(12:43):
mean, whether that's true or not, you know, the important thing
is successful women really need
to make sure that they're standing up for themselves, that they're advocating for themselves,
that they're taking credit for what they're doing, because often that's
not happening. And it needs to
happen. And they not only should be advocating for themselves, but
(13:04):
if you're in a more senior position, advocate for others who are
Yeah, it's a great point. I think because we so often, if
we're not 100% certain or confident in our abilities,
we won't go for that next job, the next promotion. Sometimes
we find that we don't want to come across as arrogant
(13:26):
right, if we are self-promoting, but
it is a critical aspect of that self-advocacy and
making sure that you are seen and you are heard, getting the recognition that
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I just I think it's to the point where I
don't think anyone should be worried about being seen as arrogant. Just
(13:49):
if you do something like it's OK, you can tell people that you do it,
Absolutely. The recognition and reward is is so
important. Do you have any advice for so we've gone through, I
think, you know, over the last couple of years, especially with COVID, I
think we and there still is a bit of a hustle culture, right, their
mentality of work, work, work. I think there's more recognition now
(14:11):
for burnout, I think there's more awareness, I think that people are taking it
more seriously, that there are potentially serious health consequences, beyond
just being tired. And so You know, I'm curious for
anybody who is in that grind or stuck in
that burnout cycle, any suggestions
(14:32):
You have to prioritize self care. So I would my
biggest piece of advice is do what you need to do
to take care of yourself, whether that's finding someone to talk to, whether
that's taking time where you're not working and where
you're doing something that really kind of fulfills you or
fills your cup, so to speak. But you really need to
(14:52):
prioritize that time for self-care because, you
know, it's important. Everyone really
should be doing that. And in fact, everyone should be doing that even before they get to
the point where they're feeling burnout. mental health,
behavioral health, kind of just general wellness. These are all really important
concepts and things that everyone should really be
(15:13):
thinking of on a regular basis. So and it's
about taking the time. Going back to my comment earlier about choosing how
to spend your time doesn't have to be every day, but it really within
a week, there should be some carved out time where you're really at
least thinking about that and doing it in a in a very thoughtful
Yeah, great point. Being thoughtful, being intentional about
(15:36):
that time. And just because, you know, yoga and meditation work
for somebody else, I can tell you, for me, that may not be what self-care looks
like, right? I think it's very individualized. It's what fuels you, what
helps you to refuel. But it's so easy, you know, especially
as women, we're so hyper-focused on everyone else's needs and all the
other priorities that we forget to prioritize ourselves. So
(15:57):
making sure we're being intentional about carving out that time on a
somewhat regular basis for ourselves is so
important. Erin, given your background, I would
love to know when you think about the future of women's
health, health care in general, what challenges or
barriers still exist in your opinion? And
(16:19):
what role do you believe innovation can play in helping to
Yeah, so I think, first of all, specific
to women's health, I would just say access is really important and being
able to access care in a way that kind of fits in within women's
busy lives is really critical. And so as it
(16:39):
comes to innovations, anything that can help improve that access, whether
that's a financial piece or whether that's just making sure
that healthcare is here and now, it's both, I think. Anything
that can help advance that is helpful. And so we made a lot of good progress in
those areas over the last several years. Certainly, I think the
(16:59):
COVID pandemic has helped to kind of expedite some of the progress that's been
made in the acceptance of digital health overall. But
then coming out of the pandemic now, we're kind of back in the regular world.
A lot of that progress, it's not that it was necessarily erased, but
a lot of that progress, it's kind of taken a step back. And so even
if it has taken a step back and, you know, digital health
(17:22):
solutions or some telehealth solutions are less well accepted, they're
still very helpful. And there really is a very important place
for those, especially within someone's busy life. And
so I think those types of innovations are really going to be critical. And
we're going to see that those types of innovations, they may evolve somewhat,
but that they're going to continue to be very important in
(17:45):
the coming years. That's probably the biggest. The other thing
I would just add specific to women's health is just figuring
out how to kind of gather everything together across
healthcare, right? And so as you think about healthcare and what am I accessing
as a woman, I have a lot of different types of healthcare that I'm
(18:06):
accessing. And I would argue, especially if you still
believe, and I do believe this when you look at the data, you can still
see it, that women are directing healthcare for their families as well. as
themselves, you see a lot of different types of
physicians, types of healthcare facilities, pharmacies, et cetera.
I mean, if you just make a list of all the different office numbers that you
(18:28):
would have to call or offices you would have to go to, it's pretty significant.
And so I think anything that can kind of bring some of that together and
just make it more efficient so that women are able to get the things
done and kind of get them, get their families the healthcare that
they need in a way that can fit within their lives is
going to be really important because we spend a lot of time still within
(18:54):
Mm hmm. So interesting. It's a great point. Is
there anything that women can do individually or do you see that as
I think it's mainly systemic, but certainly like as an individual person, you
know, you can try to be as organized and efficient as possible. So there are
some things that you can do, but ultimately, I, you
know, I think there's, there's progress that needs to be made within
(19:17):
the healthcare system. And there's a lot of, there are a lot of healthcare systems that
are making that progress actually, and doing a great job. It's just
more at the local level. And so if you happen to be
in one of those areas where you're able to kind of pull it all together, that's great. But
but a lot of women are not in those areas. And so being able to try to
try to get to the point where women have that that easy
(19:39):
access and are able to kind of synthesize it all, if
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. You touched upon also
the digital health aspect. I'm curious as to what you anticipate the
role of digital health being and how do you see that evolving over
I mean, digital health is, it's here to stay. I don't know if
(20:03):
anyone's saying it's not. It's so
important. I think that there are a lot of exciting opportunities.
There are also a lot of things that are happening or that could happen that,
you know, frighten people, right? This whole idea of how
does AI really fit into healthcare is a huge, I mean, we could
probably talk about that for a long time. And there are a lot of
(20:25):
very valid concerns about how that can be integrated. That
being said, there's going to be a way to do it in the right way and
in an appropriate way, and we will figure that out. And so I think, as
I look at the future of digital health, it is going to be. really focused
primarily, I think in the next couple of years, still on
(20:45):
just increasing that access to healthcare that I was
mentioning earlier. But it's also going to be focused, especially
on the research and the discovery side. You know,
there are a lot of really exciting things happening right now, really leveraging
AI and machine learning to really improve how we're discovering different
therapeutics and treatments for very important diseases
(21:06):
and even how we identify in early help to diagnose
individuals earlier. And so there's a lot of that that
Yeah, I can't wait to see where that goes. It's funny, when you mentioned the
AI piece of it, there was a show that I used to watch. I don't know
(21:27):
Yeah, it's a great series. And there was a couple of episodes where
they had sort of an AI, it was an iPad, that
was diagnosing the patients that were coming into the ER. It
was so fascinating to think, is that the future?
There actually is a digital health company. You can be diagnosed yourself
(21:49):
on the phone. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that, but
Yeah, yeah. We're not there yet. Definitely. I mean, I can imagine
there's a lot of benefits and upsides, but certainly I think still a lot of risks and
challenges probably that come along with it as well. Erin, so obviously
we talk about redefining success a lot on this podcast. I would love
to know from your perspective, how do you define success and
(22:15):
So for me, success is really about achieving the goals that
I set for myself. Um, and it's a very, it's a very inward
out kind of approach. And what I mean by that is I'm setting, I'm figuring out
what I want to do and those goals can be. you know, as small as
making sure I get five runs in a week. I'm a, I'm a runner and I really
enjoy running. And so it can be that. And at the end of
(22:36):
the week, I feel really good because I accomplished that goal or it
can be as big as trying to get into medical school. Right. And
so. Whatever that is, I actively
set goals for myself and achieving those goals is what
gives me that feeling of success and kind of moves me
forward and towards where I want to be. It's definitely changed. I
(22:57):
will tell you, it's probably completely opposite how
I used to define success, you know, earlier in my career, coming
right out of college. it was more of an outward-in approach
for success, right? I was successful as I compared to others. And
it started with how other people were doing and then how I was doing compared to
them. I don't think in that way anymore. I am
(23:18):
definitely still a competitive person, but the way that I really define my
own success is how am I doing relative to where I
Absolutely. And what helped you make that shift from
I think that, I don't know if it was any one thing in particular. I
(23:40):
think it was more about just realizing that if
I wanted to be successful, I had to start thinking about what I
wanted to do specifically and that that was different,
really realizing it was different than the others that I was around. I
think as we're all kind of doing the same thing together, let's
(24:00):
say we're all in college together, we're all kind
of doing the same type of thing. But then as we kind of
get out, everyone diverges and people have
different goals and they want to do different things. And I think it was just realizing that
for me to be successful, for me to feel fulfilled and to be happy
and really achieve the things that I wanted to achieve, it really had to start from within.
(24:24):
Yeah, I think it's an important point. I think, you know, given society
culture that most of us grew up in, there's a
lot of especially as women do, as you're told, respecting
elders. There's a lot of traditional education where you have to pass
a test. And to your point, we're all sort of doing the same things. Right.
And then recognizing that at some point, that's not
(24:47):
what's guiding you anymore. Right. At some point, it's it's the
inner core that's guiding you that you have to get in touch
with, right, and reconnect with in order to define what those
goals and objectives are for yourself. So that's a really powerful lesson. I
would love to know what is next for you. I mean,
obviously, I see cadaver labs in your future, but what's next
(25:08):
It's a lot of studying. Look, I'm
on, you know, I alluded to it earlier. It's a long journey that
I'm on right now, right? Though I'm enjoying every single
minute of I'm a first year in medical school, right? So
I am going to continue on. We have another year
or so of classes. We actually, um, recently finished our
(25:35):
Yes. Yeah. That was a big, uh, it's a big hurdle if you will. Uh,
and so next I'm going to continue on, uh, continue
on with classes. We move into clerkship rotations in another year.
Wow. Amazing. Amazing. Erin,
thank you so much for being here, sharing your insights and expertise. We
(25:57):
wish you all the best. How and where can our listeners connect
It's been great being here. Uh, you know, the best, the best network
is really LinkedIn for me. I have not been as active
on it as I used to be, but I am still very active on it. So, um,
just reach out, follow me on LinkedIn and, um, they can connect
(26:20):
Thank you, Erin. And of course, you can visit my website at GiaLacqua.com. Reach
out to me on Instagram at GiaLacqua with thoughts, feedback, comments, and
questions on this topic and what you'd like to hear about in future episodes. This
is Gia signing off with gratitude for your time and energy. Our mic
drops, but the movement continues. Until next time, your
next chapter is waiting. Take care. That concludes another
(26:41):
empowering episode of Your Future Starts Now. Before we
wrap up, I want to thank this incredible community of high-achieving women.
Your energy, resilience, and commitment to growth are the driving force
behind what we do. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate
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(27:02):
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GiaLacqua. I encourage you to carry the energy of this conversation
into your day and keep on supporting the incredible women around you.
Welcome to Your Future Starts Now, the go-to podcast for
extraordinary women who are ready to step into their next chapter with
authentic confidence. I'm your host, Gia Lacqua empowerment coach,
motivational speaker, children's book author, and girl mom. Whether
you're a corporate powerhouse or an entrepreneur, this show is
designed for you. Your Future Starts Now is more than
(00:20):
just a podcast. It's a movement, a movement towards rewriting
the rules of success for high-achieving women. Are you ready
to get unstuck and step into your next chapter? If
so, you are exactly where you need to be. Your future starts
now. Welcome to Your Future Starts Now.
I'm your host, Gia Lacqua. Thanks for tuning in today. I am so excited
(00:43):
to introduce you to Erin Russell. Erin is
currently a medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of
Medicine. Before returning to school, Erin served as
the chief operating officer of Curio Digital Therapeutics, leading
commercialization of products to improve women's behavioral and
mental health. She's the previous founder and CEO of
(01:03):
Health Grizzly, a digital health care navigation platform and
Spotlight, a venture focused on patient education and engagement in
dermatology and medical aesthetics. In addition to
her entrepreneurial experience, Erin has commercial experience building
teams and launching products at Merck, Shearing Plow, and
Allergan. Wow, that was a mouthful. Erin, welcome to the show.
(01:25):
Thanks so much for being here with us today. Thank you so much for
having me. So Erin, you went
from digital health and health tech to pursuing
a medical degree. Can you tell us a little bit about
Absolutely. As I was hearing you
(01:45):
kind of talk through everything in my background, I felt like,
wow, I've actually I've done a lot and
a lot of different things. It was a big change, you
know, making the decision to kind of leave digital
health, to leave a great career, to
leave a great job and company that I was really enjoying, to
(02:06):
then go back and kind of restart and reboot my career and go
to medical school was a, it was a big decision. One
I definitely did not take lightly. But I did that because, you
know, as I was working throughout my
career, you know, I started in pharma, then went into digital health, I
had a chance to work more and more closely with patients. With
(02:29):
my last digital health venture, it was a care navigation startup,
and I was literally connecting patients directly with healthcare
options. And what I found was, as I had more and more of that direct patient
interaction, it was It was just so fulfilling and rewarding. And
something I like to do is kind of take stock of what really
(02:51):
drives me and fulfills me on a regular basis. I try to do it
about twice a year. And I realized that all
of the things that were really fulfilling me and that were really driving me were
related to those direct patient interactions. And I wanted more
of that. And so I decided I wanted to go to medical school
to do just that, to go into clinical practice. And to
(03:14):
Wow, that's incredible. I love the fact that you said
you regularly take inventory. I think you said
twice a year of what fulfills you. I think that's so powerful. Some
of us don't take the time to do that enough or at
all. So, you know, the fact that you're able to kind of step back
and reflect on what's actually fueling me, what's energizing me,
(03:35):
What's driving that passion and the purpose is so
incredible. I'd love to know if you rewind back to
when you made that decision. I would love to know what was going through
your mind when you were making that decision to leave the
A lot of things very I mean, I think, you
know, anytime someone makes a change like that, you know, the
(03:59):
1st thing to really recognize is that it can be really scary.
Sure. It is. It is definitely something to consider. I
thought about it for a while. The other
things that were kind of going through my mind were like, where do I really want to be? What
do I really want to do? It's not just not just
the typical what makes me happy and what makes me fulfilled. That was
a part of it. And that was important. But if I look down, you
(04:22):
know, five years, 10 years down the line. what do I want to
be doing? And when I actually asked myself
that question and thought about it, I wanted to be a doctor. And
so it was pretty clear to me if that's, that
was my goal. I just needed to try to make a plan to get there. Now,
I definitely went into it thinking, I don't know if I'll be successful, right?
(04:46):
hard to get into medical school, especially after you've been out of school for a while.
And there were a lot of things that I had to do to get myself to the
point where I could even apply. But once I knew what I wanted to
do, it was it was pretty clear. I just needed to make a
plan and try. And so I did that. It
That's amazing. Did you always want to be a doctor from
(05:09):
when you were a kid? Or did you just wake up one day and say, I think I'm going to go to
A lot of people ask me that question. I did not always want to
be a doctor. I always wanted to work in health care from the
very beginning. And so. You know, when I was an
undergrad, I was a chemistry major in undergrad. And when
I graduated, I actually made a decision to not go to medical school. I
(05:30):
didn't apply to medical school at that time. I wanted to
go work on the commercial side. I immediately went to work in the
pharmaceutical industry because I had this idea of trying to
kind of bring the business and medical or business and healthcare worlds
together in my career. And that's really what I did for, if
you look at the rest of my career and the jobs that I've had.
(05:52):
But when I really looked at
what I wanted to do now, as I was as
I was kind of getting those additional experiences, I realized now
is the time I really want to be a doctor. And so I did always want
to help patients. I did always want to work in health care, but I
didn't necessarily always want to be a doctor. That was something that
(06:17):
Wow, what a beautiful part of your journey that you realize that. What
do you think was the biggest challenge for you that you had to overcome as
you were grappling with this decision? I knew you talked to touched a little bit
about the self-doubt. You know, was it the
There were certainly some self-doubt. I think the
(06:37):
biggest challenge that I had was just in really kind
of Not making the plan making
the plan was very straightforward, but it was really
about bringing other people within my network into
the plan. You know, I had a lot of I had, I had
a lot of supporters as I was kind of going down this path. But
(06:58):
then there were also a lot of people who kind of looked at me like I
had kind of sprouted a second head, like, why would you want to do that? And
I even had some people ask me, as I told them I was making this
decision going back to medical school, they said, do you know how many years
medical school is? You know, it's, yes, I
definitely did. But, but the thing is, is
(07:20):
if you enjoy the journey, and I am enjoying this journey immensely, you
know, the amount of time it takes to do something really, really
doesn't matter because you're enjoying the time while you're actually making
Absolutely. And you mentioned earlier that you
had looked down the road five or 10 years ahead and you had a vision for
yourself, right? You had a vision of what you wanted to do, where
(07:43):
you wanted to be. And it sounds like that helped
influence your decision and sort of was really a pull or
Yeah, that's amazing. And the support, the community support
is an important aspect to it. And I think one thing
that's really hard as we go through transformation and transition in
(08:04):
our lives is the people closest to us, or
the people that we think are our biggest supporters, aren't
That definitely can be true. And it's surprising
sometimes when you start to talk to people. Some
people that you don't expect will be very supportive are. And then
(08:27):
others who you expect would be aren't as supportive. And so I
think that's okay. It
doesn't really matter. I think what's important is really trying to talk to people and
get a couple of people who can be in your corner, so to speak, because
it really is helpful to have that support. Because when you're doing something
different, when you're making a big change, especially a change that requires a
(08:50):
lot of work, a lot of things that had to be done. For me to go to medical
school, I had to take the MCAT. I had some prerequisites I
had to finish. that I hadn't completed that medical schools
were requiring. You know, there was a lot of
time and effort that I had to put into even getting to the
point where I could apply. And it was helpful. It was really critical to
(09:10):
have that support. I certainly could not have done that, you know, just on
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's people surprise you, right?
So your point sometimes both ways. Sometimes there's people who are big supporters that
you didn't expect and vice versa. But I think it's important to recognize and
it's really, you know, for various reasons, but it's really about them. It's not about you.
But it's just a matter of finding the right people that you
(09:31):
have, like you said, to have in your corner and support you in that change
and that transformation and not the people that are going to hold you back. And
sometimes that can be really challenging. I'm curious, Erin, in your prior
work, you focused on improving women's behavioral health,
mental health, You know, we our
audience is high achieving women. A lot of them have
(09:53):
experienced burnout, you know, and
a lot of other mental health and physical concerns.
I'm curious, in your experience, what do you see as the key challenges for
There are several. The first is, I think, you know, you brought
up this aspect of burnout. It
(10:14):
is real. I think it's real for women and men. But
specifically for women, I think, you know, we
take a lot on right? Like, we were working if
we're, we're working full time. Professionally, we have a lot.
We spend a lot of time there often. We're also managing things at home with
families. We're often doing other things with friends
(10:36):
or volunteering, et cetera. There's a lot going on in. And
it's very easy to burn out. And so I
think for that challenge, the biggest thing to do
is really to try to be as efficient as possible and to make sure that you're
spending time on the right things. One
thing that I've always taken to heart, and I've shared this with people throughout
(10:57):
my career, The most valuable thing
you're given every single morning is the time that
you have during that day and the decision that you make to spend
that time, how you decide to spend that time, whether you're spending that time working,
whether you're spending that time answering emails, whether you're spending that time with family
or friends or however you choose to spend that time. That is the most, literally
(11:19):
the most important decision that you're going to make. And you should make that
decision in a way that is really prioritizing what's important to you
and what you want to do. And that will help get you to where you want
to go. And so I think that's something, if someone's starting
to burn out, and I felt it, I've been stressed out and
I felt like I have too much going on sometimes. When I
(11:39):
actually take a moment to really take stock of how am I
spending that time? Am I spending it wisely? Am I spending it on the things that
I really want to spend it on? It
often when I'm feeling that that feeling of burnout, I'm
often not spending my time in the right way or in the best way. And
so making those shifts can sometimes help, you
(12:00):
know, the other big challenge that women have, I would just mention and. This
is so important. It's kind of
related to self-doubt, but it's really about advocating for themselves. There
was an article in the Harvard Business Review just last year, really
highlighting that there still is a huge gender gap as
(12:21):
it comes to women being promoted at work and
being compensated for their jobs. And a
big part, and it's real, and one reason
for that could have been, or was hypothesized as
being that employers are thinking that women are
kind of not wanting to leave, that they're less of a flight risk. I
(12:43):
mean, whether that's true or not, you know, the important thing
is successful women really need
to make sure that they're standing up for themselves, that they're advocating for themselves,
that they're taking credit for what they're doing, because often that's
not happening. And it needs to
happen. And they not only should be advocating for themselves, but
(13:04):
if you're in a more senior position, advocate for others who are
Yeah, it's a great point. I think because we so often, if
we're not 100% certain or confident in our abilities,
we won't go for that next job, the next promotion. Sometimes
we find that we don't want to come across as arrogant
(13:26):
right, if we are self-promoting, but
it is a critical aspect of that self-advocacy and
making sure that you are seen and you are heard, getting the recognition that
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I just I think it's to the point where I
don't think anyone should be worried about being seen as arrogant. Just
(13:49):
if you do something like it's OK, you can tell people that you do it,
Absolutely. The recognition and reward is is so
important. Do you have any advice for so we've gone through, I
think, you know, over the last couple of years, especially with COVID, I
think we and there still is a bit of a hustle culture, right, their
mentality of work, work, work. I think there's more recognition now
(14:11):
for burnout, I think there's more awareness, I think that people are taking it
more seriously, that there are potentially serious health consequences, beyond
just being tired. And so You know, I'm curious for
anybody who is in that grind or stuck in
that burnout cycle, any suggestions
(14:32):
You have to prioritize self care. So I would my
biggest piece of advice is do what you need to do
to take care of yourself, whether that's finding someone to talk to, whether
that's taking time where you're not working and where
you're doing something that really kind of fulfills you or
fills your cup, so to speak. But you really need to
(14:52):
prioritize that time for self-care because, you
know, it's important. Everyone really
should be doing that. And in fact, everyone should be doing that even before they get to
the point where they're feeling burnout. mental health,
behavioral health, kind of just general wellness. These are all really important
concepts and things that everyone should really be
(15:13):
thinking of on a regular basis. So and it's
about taking the time. Going back to my comment earlier about choosing how
to spend your time doesn't have to be every day, but it really within
a week, there should be some carved out time where you're really at
least thinking about that and doing it in a in a very thoughtful
Yeah, great point. Being thoughtful, being intentional about
(15:36):
that time. And just because, you know, yoga and meditation work
for somebody else, I can tell you, for me, that may not be what self-care looks
like, right? I think it's very individualized. It's what fuels you, what
helps you to refuel. But it's so easy, you know, especially
as women, we're so hyper-focused on everyone else's needs and all the
other priorities that we forget to prioritize ourselves. So
(15:57):
making sure we're being intentional about carving out that time on a
somewhat regular basis for ourselves is so
important. Erin, given your background, I would
love to know when you think about the future of women's
health, health care in general, what challenges or
barriers still exist in your opinion? And
(16:19):
what role do you believe innovation can play in helping to
Yeah, so I think, first of all, specific
to women's health, I would just say access is really important and being
able to access care in a way that kind of fits in within women's
busy lives is really critical. And so as it
(16:39):
comes to innovations, anything that can help improve that access, whether
that's a financial piece or whether that's just making sure
that healthcare is here and now, it's both, I think. Anything
that can help advance that is helpful. And so we made a lot of good progress in
those areas over the last several years. Certainly, I think the
(16:59):
COVID pandemic has helped to kind of expedite some of the progress that's been
made in the acceptance of digital health overall. But
then coming out of the pandemic now, we're kind of back in the regular world.
A lot of that progress, it's not that it was necessarily erased, but
a lot of that progress, it's kind of taken a step back. And so even
if it has taken a step back and, you know, digital health
(17:22):
solutions or some telehealth solutions are less well accepted, they're
still very helpful. And there really is a very important place
for those, especially within someone's busy life. And
so I think those types of innovations are really going to be critical. And
we're going to see that those types of innovations, they may evolve somewhat,
but that they're going to continue to be very important in
(17:45):
the coming years. That's probably the biggest. The other thing
I would just add specific to women's health is just figuring
out how to kind of gather everything together across
healthcare, right? And so as you think about healthcare and what am I accessing
as a woman, I have a lot of different types of healthcare that I'm
(18:06):
accessing. And I would argue, especially if you still
believe, and I do believe this when you look at the data, you can still
see it, that women are directing healthcare for their families as well. as
themselves, you see a lot of different types of
physicians, types of healthcare facilities, pharmacies, et cetera.
I mean, if you just make a list of all the different office numbers that you
(18:28):
would have to call or offices you would have to go to, it's pretty significant.
And so I think anything that can kind of bring some of that together and
just make it more efficient so that women are able to get the things
done and kind of get them, get their families the healthcare that
they need in a way that can fit within their lives is
going to be really important because we spend a lot of time still within
(18:54):
Mm hmm. So interesting. It's a great point. Is
there anything that women can do individually or do you see that as
I think it's mainly systemic, but certainly like as an individual person, you
know, you can try to be as organized and efficient as possible. So there are
some things that you can do, but ultimately, I, you
know, I think there's, there's progress that needs to be made within
(19:17):
the healthcare system. And there's a lot of, there are a lot of healthcare systems that
are making that progress actually, and doing a great job. It's just
more at the local level. And so if you happen to be
in one of those areas where you're able to kind of pull it all together, that's great. But
but a lot of women are not in those areas. And so being able to try to
try to get to the point where women have that that easy
(19:39):
access and are able to kind of synthesize it all, if
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. You touched upon also
the digital health aspect. I'm curious as to what you anticipate the
role of digital health being and how do you see that evolving over
I mean, digital health is, it's here to stay. I don't know if
(20:03):
anyone's saying it's not. It's so
important. I think that there are a lot of exciting opportunities.
There are also a lot of things that are happening or that could happen that,
you know, frighten people, right? This whole idea of how
does AI really fit into healthcare is a huge, I mean, we could
probably talk about that for a long time. And there are a lot of
(20:25):
very valid concerns about how that can be integrated. That
being said, there's going to be a way to do it in the right way and
in an appropriate way, and we will figure that out. And so I think, as
I look at the future of digital health, it is going to be. really focused
primarily, I think in the next couple of years, still on
(20:45):
just increasing that access to healthcare that I was
mentioning earlier. But it's also going to be focused, especially
on the research and the discovery side. You know,
there are a lot of really exciting things happening right now, really leveraging
AI and machine learning to really improve how we're discovering different
therapeutics and treatments for very important diseases
(21:06):
and even how we identify in early help to diagnose
individuals earlier. And so there's a lot of that that
Yeah, I can't wait to see where that goes. It's funny, when you mentioned the
AI piece of it, there was a show that I used to watch. I don't know
(21:27):
Yeah, it's a great series. And there was a couple of episodes where
they had sort of an AI, it was an iPad, that
was diagnosing the patients that were coming into the ER. It
was so fascinating to think, is that the future?
There actually is a digital health company. You can be diagnosed yourself
(21:49):
on the phone. I wouldn't necessarily recommend that, but
Yeah, yeah. We're not there yet. Definitely. I mean, I can imagine
there's a lot of benefits and upsides, but certainly I think still a lot of risks and
challenges probably that come along with it as well. Erin, so obviously
we talk about redefining success a lot on this podcast. I would love
to know from your perspective, how do you define success and
(22:15):
So for me, success is really about achieving the goals that
I set for myself. Um, and it's a very, it's a very inward
out kind of approach. And what I mean by that is I'm setting, I'm figuring out
what I want to do and those goals can be. you know, as small as
making sure I get five runs in a week. I'm a, I'm a runner and I really
enjoy running. And so it can be that. And at the end of
(22:36):
the week, I feel really good because I accomplished that goal or it
can be as big as trying to get into medical school. Right. And
so. Whatever that is, I actively
set goals for myself and achieving those goals is what
gives me that feeling of success and kind of moves me
forward and towards where I want to be. It's definitely changed. I
(22:57):
will tell you, it's probably completely opposite how
I used to define success, you know, earlier in my career, coming
right out of college. it was more of an outward-in approach
for success, right? I was successful as I compared to others. And
it started with how other people were doing and then how I was doing compared to
them. I don't think in that way anymore. I am
(23:18):
definitely still a competitive person, but the way that I really define my
own success is how am I doing relative to where I
Absolutely. And what helped you make that shift from
I think that, I don't know if it was any one thing in particular. I
(23:40):
think it was more about just realizing that if
I wanted to be successful, I had to start thinking about what I
wanted to do specifically and that that was different,
really realizing it was different than the others that I was around. I
think as we're all kind of doing the same thing together, let's
(24:00):
say we're all in college together, we're all kind
of doing the same type of thing. But then as we kind of
get out, everyone diverges and people have
different goals and they want to do different things. And I think it was just realizing that
for me to be successful, for me to feel fulfilled and to be happy
and really achieve the things that I wanted to achieve, it really had to start from within.
(24:24):
Yeah, I think it's an important point. I think, you know, given society
culture that most of us grew up in, there's a
lot of especially as women do, as you're told, respecting
elders. There's a lot of traditional education where you have to pass
a test. And to your point, we're all sort of doing the same things. Right.
And then recognizing that at some point, that's not
(24:47):
what's guiding you anymore. Right. At some point, it's it's the
inner core that's guiding you that you have to get in touch
with, right, and reconnect with in order to define what those
goals and objectives are for yourself. So that's a really powerful lesson. I
would love to know what is next for you. I mean,
obviously, I see cadaver labs in your future, but what's next
(25:08):
It's a lot of studying. Look, I'm
on, you know, I alluded to it earlier. It's a long journey that
I'm on right now, right? Though I'm enjoying every single
minute of I'm a first year in medical school, right? So
I am going to continue on. We have another year
or so of classes. We actually, um, recently finished our
(25:35):
Yes. Yeah. That was a big, uh, it's a big hurdle if you will. Uh,
and so next I'm going to continue on, uh, continue
on with classes. We move into clerkship rotations in another year.
Wow. Amazing. Amazing. Erin,
thank you so much for being here, sharing your insights and expertise. We
(25:57):
wish you all the best. How and where can our listeners connect
It's been great being here. Uh, you know, the best, the best network
is really LinkedIn for me. I have not been as active
on it as I used to be, but I am still very active on it. So, um,
just reach out, follow me on LinkedIn and, um, they can connect
(26:20):
Thank you, Erin. And of course, you can visit my website at GiaLacqua.com. Reach
out to me on Instagram at GiaLacqua with thoughts, feedback, comments, and
questions on this topic and what you'd like to hear about in future episodes. This
is Gia signing off with gratitude for your time and energy. Our mic
drops, but the movement continues. Until next time, your
next chapter is waiting. Take care. That concludes another
(26:41):
empowering episode of Your Future Starts Now. Before we
wrap up, I want to thank this incredible community of high-achieving women.
Your energy, resilience, and commitment to growth are the driving force
behind what we do. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate
it, leave a review, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Your
feedback fuels our mission to empower high-achieving women just like
(27:02):
you. And of course, share Your Future Starts Now with the extraordinary women
in your life who are also on a journey of healing and empowerment. Connect
with us on social media, share your thoughts, let us know what topics you'd like to
explore in future episodes. Stay connected on Instagram at
GiaLacqua. I encourage you to carry the energy of this conversation
into your day and keep on supporting the incredible women around you.
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