Wendy Lund is a women’s health advocate, adviser, and activist with more than 30 years of experience in marketing and communications. After working at Planned Parenthood, the National League of Nursing, and some of the country’s leading healthcare communications firms, Wendy joined Organon, the largest women’s health company of its kind. As Chief Communications Officer, she’s working to change how women’s health is approached, treated, shaped, and especially talked about.

In this conversation with Lippe Taylor CEO Paul Dyer, Wendy gets into her career history, how to merge your passion and purpose with your career, and how the movie Erin Brockovich inspired her approach to leadership. 

Here are some key takeaways from this conversation with Wendy. 

• Listen. When they were launching, Organon initiated a comprehensive listening tour where they spoke to women everywhere about their unmet healthcare needs. This is rare for healthcare companies, who usually focus on doctors, but Organon's mission is to serve their female patient base as intently as possible, which is why they focused on listening from the day they launched in 140 markets and then made major decisions based on what they found out. 

• Take it personally. Wendy cites the movie and true story of Erin Brockovitch as inspiring her approach to bridging her passion with her profession. There's a line where Erin is told she is taking things too personally, to which she replies: "Not personal? That is my time, my sweat, and my time away from my kids—If that's not personal, I don't know what Is." This stuck with Wendy and inspired her approach to her work. Wendy takes her work personally because she takes the mission of helping women across the world personally. Taking it personally has made the difference in pushing through difficulties and complications because, for Wendy, it's a matter of mission.  It's cliche, but when your heart is in something, you will naturally work harder and move mountains to achieve it. Finding and, better yet, creating those causes and missions within your career will make all the difference towards your overall impact.

• Just go for it. Wendy cites a tendency for a lot of young professionals to wait for the perfect moment to take the leap, be more ambitious, take on bigger projects, etc. Wendy's advice: just go for it. Regardless of your perceived credentials or qualifications, taking big projects on head-first, regardless of feeling ready, can actually be the catalyst that gives you those very qualifications you want. 

Thanks for listening! Don't forget to subscribe, and to learn more about Lippe Taylor, check us out at Lippetaylor.com. 

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Produced by Simpler Media