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Hi, I'm Sarah Richardson, former CIO and President of the 229 Executive Development Community. Welcome to Flourish, where we delve into captivating career origin stories and spark conversations that inspire, inform, and foster community.

Join us as we explore the journeys that have shaped successful professionals and uncover the insights that can help you thrive on your career path. Thanks for joining us.

Sarah Richardson: Welcome to Flourish. This is the podcast that explores bold journeys, brave pivots, and the art of building a career that feels both authentic and impactful.

We're gonna dive into her journey from decades in structured systems to thriving as a one woman consultancy driving healthcare forward in new and essential ways. Stephanie, welcome to the show.

Stephanie Lahr: Oh, thanks,

Sarah Richardson: Sarah. What a wonderful introduction. Well, and I love being able to introduce you because one of the hallmarks really of flourish is that.

You get to understand how relationships are formed and built and talk through those as well. And I don't know how long we've known each other. I wanna say it's almost a decade. It might be shorter, but when you meet certain people and you connect, that bond just keeps on going. And I can't picture a time in maybe the last, probably decade in the formative years of this industry and how it keeps pushing forward that you and I haven't been somewhere to gather doing it.

Yeah, and that has been the funnest thing. So again, thank you for agreeing to be on the show today.

Yes. Yes. That's, yes. That's my new me.

Sarah Richardson: You are doing that and you spent years in high impact healthcare leadership roles. I'm curious what made you start questioning whether that path was still right for you?

Stephanie Lahr: You know, It was no one thing. But as I started to realize, in my last role at artisight, it was such a really fabulous role because it was a startup that went through a huge amount of growth while I was there.

So I was able to both contribute and learn. From that process, but it also in that super accelerated transition stage for a company, people also transition as well. And so, it was two and a half years of fabulous education experience moving into that vendor side. From my previous extensive experience, both on the clinical and leadership side in healthcare.

And Bill being the great guy connected on all sides of the industry that he is like, okay, yes, let's do this. So, like, is it a health system you wanna work for? What health system? Let's go figure it out. I'll help you get there. Or, okay, if it's not a health system, is there a company, like what company is driving you now to say, this is where I wanna be?

And I said, yeah, bill, there's no one company, no one health center. There's lots of great people doing great work out there, but there's not one thing that's sort of right now staring at me saying, this is what I wanna do next. Let's go get it. And he says, okay. Maybe you do something on your own.

Wow. Like I didn't even let his idea settle for a second before I had an immediate response of, no, that's not me. Why? Why? Why was that my response? Why was I so quick to come up with that response? And as I thought it through, it really was founded in a couple of things. One, it's all I'd ever done. In from

I needed that structure. In fact, another friend of mine who's an internist turned CIO, said to me recently, I don't know how you did this, because Stephanie, we are internists. We are ultra sort of conservative and overly thoughtful about things. This was way more brave than I would ever been able to do.

But as I thought about, okay, well it's all I've ever done. Okay, well that's an explanation, but it's not a real reason. And then I thought, well, what's wrapped up into that? And it was more fear and anxiety driven around, well, when your paycheck and your benefits and all the things are coming from a company that just feels so much more

And so if those weren't good reasons to not be willing to think about this, maybe I did need to think about it a little bit more. And as I was digging in and thinking about, well, what would that look like and how would I do that? I reflected on the number of conversations I'd had with leaders particularly on the vendor side of the community, but sometimes in health systems where people said, man, we would love to have somebody like you with all of your, diversified background and things on our team.

And so I started putting together what that might look like. And of course. Chat, GPT is an amazing tool set. Get an account, feed in your resume, tell it about yourself, give it all, put your bios in if you've done podcasts and different things. Put the transcripts in, let it get to know you.

And I started asking it questions like, well, what would this look like? And if I wanted to do that, how should I structure the company? And even things like, how do I create a statement of work all of those elements are so much more accessible right now. With those tools you have to do some, credibility, checking on some of it.

I know you're really busy and committed to the work that you're doing already, with artisight. I'm not saying it needs to be you, but how would we go about doing that? We probably are thinking like, part-time, is that even a thing? Does anybody do that?

What are your thoughts? And I was like, okay. The universe has spoken, right? This is exactly where I've been thinking I wanted to go. Now I get a call basically with somebody saying, do you wanna come do this for us? And worked and was able to share, Hey, actually I am making CR transition. Let's talk about this.

Sarah Richardson: I love that you had that epiphany sort of turning point moment where you're like, I think I can do this, then I believe I can do this and I'm gonna do this and this. The pieces that started coming together, the phone call, the realization that all the documentation on the backend is pretty achievable now through the tools that we have available to us.

But then you had to choose a name for your company. And I remember having a conversation with you and you're like, it's this, it's that. And then you settled on, I shouldn't say settled, you. Very strategically chose vital thread advisory. What is the thread that you are aiming to weave into the whole healthcare ecosystem and why you chose that specific name?

But I, it was by far the most painful, vital obviously is everything, both from vital meaning essential, but also in healthcare, vitality, prosperity, health and wellbeing. As part of being vital, the thread is then kind of more about the connective tissue that brings things together.

And so, Those words felt like it resonated with me as a way for me to be able to be a thread in a company . And so it was a way for me to think about being part of something and integral to it without it having to be all encompassing. So that's how it came about. And chatGPT of course helped, right? I put a bunch of options in and it told me.

Yes. No, we think this, so you need a critic. Always ask Chad, GBT,

Sarah Richardson: ask Chad, GP and ask others. It's hard to choose the name of something. Yeah. And many people call and say, what should I call it? And it's back and forth with does this work? Does this work? And you finally settle on, yes, this is what, and this is what, but you've got such deep.

Stephanie Lahr: Honestly, right now for me, it's mostly about cool teams and technology that I feel can be super transformational and, or is essential for many years my mantra has been, let's bring the joy back to medicine. And I mean that in the broadest terms of what that sense can be is, it's not just bringing joy back to doctors, bringing joy back to nurses, but bringing joy back to the ecosystem of healthcare and everyone who works in it.

And so. As I, encounter companies that are interested in having a conversation about collaborating. That's kind of the first thing is there something in my heart and soul that says what they're bringing to the market has a place and has importance? And is there a way that my background

And even down to the, this button shouldn't go here and this should really look more like that. And these integrations are, need to be, are kind of a requirement to then, the other end of the spectrum where people are like, look, you set up a commercial organization at artisight

Help us assess our commercial organization, help us evaluate our, marketing strategy and our branding messaging and figuring out if those really make sense. And so, it's not all about, the particular kind of work, but more who are the people what problems are they trying to solve, and is there alignment with where they're at in that journey?

And what I can bring to the table.

Your product already exists in 10 other places, like your best bet is to sell into somebody else as a solution within their platform, et cetera. How are you evaluating those perspectives as you're working with companies and deciding how to help them be the most successful? How comfortable is the honesty factor?

In these conversations?

Stephanie Lahr: Yeah. I would say of the companies I've chosen to work with and in many cases, these are people where I've had connection, with them in the industry, so they already know some about who I am and. If you've heard me on a stage talking or on a podcast talking, I'm pretty much a straight shooter.

tell us what you think and be honest. And that's a skill set that you know, through, especially during my career as CMIO and CIO when I was doing healthcare transformation in health systems. Those are pieces you have to be really careful about because when you are saying something like.

I think it's time to move in a new direction. You wanna be really careful that you're not coming across as criticizing the previous direction. Nobody's previous direction is wrong because they wouldn't be where they are if they hadn't had that direction. But we're in a world where change is the name of the game and we all have to be thinking about how to do those pivots.

Okay, let's talk about this. But honestly, literally everyone has said, please don't hold back. Please tell us this market we're in right now was so tricky that nobody has time for missteps and doing things for the sake of doing things that aren't gonna get them where they need to be. So, again, I would say the industry right now is asking for a lot of this really frank feedback.

Sarah Richardson: And that comes with a bit of a fear factor. There's the risk and reward about going out on your own and being able to be that candid with people. Also, a bit liberating that you don't have to go through the board and then the three governance committees and then bringing back to

What did you have to overcome? What were the things that said, I know I can do this. And more importantly, it is a tricky market. Like how do you go and source the right contracts and ideas that can help you sustain your family?

Stephanie Lahr: Yeah, that's a big question. I think there's a balance between setting yourself up to be ready to do it.

But also not. Over analyzing and over preparing that keeps you from actually moving into execution. Right? So there was the ideation stage and a lot of that I did while I was still working full-time for someone else doing a great job, but in that work, but realizing that I was gonna make a transition. I mean, you don't, we shouldn't wake up one morning and decide you wanna do this and, walk out on your job that day and think you're gonna do this the next day.

Just make some decision points around that. One of the things that I did, and I've helped a couple of friends with, as they were thinking about transitions, is set a date, make it up, align it with some event, whatever it is, and create the list of things that like if this is happening by this time, I'm going this direction, and if this is happening, I'm going this direction, write it down.

And then you can do two things. One, you can let it go so that your every day is not consumed by should I do this or should I do this, should I do this or should I do this? And then you work on progress and then you get to that point and it's like, okay, it's time. I'm gonna do this and we're gonna move it forward.

I was like, be brutally honest. Tell me what you think I should and shouldn't do. A number of people have started to say, well, maybe this is bigger than you. Maybe you need to have employees. I'm like, Nope, nope. Like I. That's not where I'm at. I appreciate the guidance. But that's this, that's not what this is about for me.

But it, it did force me to think about that. Like, well, what does that look like? Is that something I would wanna do? So, I think it's set some timelines, set some goals. A friend of mine did say. Set some money aside so that you have the ability to sort of support things and you aren't feeling as anxious.

And then at some point you just have to do it. And then, and I would say p like call me. I have had so many people contact me since I started doing this, asking like. Tell me more, especially clinicians. And I think there's a really, I will say, I do think for clinicians in the informatics and IT space, there's a real opportunity right now.

Companies need your experience need the combination of education and experience and operational know-how and workflow and things that you can bring to the table. And there might be unique ways for people to do that. So I've had a number of, other physicians that have been CMIOs and done different things, reach out to me.

I'm amazing. I can't be stopped. Having, a little bit of self-questioning pushes us to make sure that we're doing the right thing for the right reasons. But you also have to be able to. Box that up and set it aside and say I'm not gonna let that, keep me from going where I wanna go.

Good things keep happening and people are magnetically drawn to you. And you've talked about this [00:22:00] though, that especially for women, the lines between career and identity are often blurred. And so what are you doing differently to help shift that dynamic and how have you even overcome? I am Stephanie, the doctor who works in the hospital system or for a premier partner and does these things too

hey, by the way, I'm still Stephanie, the doctor, and now I have my own company and I'm not tied to my identity of my career.

Stephanie Lahr: Yeah. I think one big part of it is I've always, throughout each of these big transitions in my career, one, I've always evaluated them from the perspective of what opportunity is that gonna offer me that I don't have today?

I haven't practiced medicine now for, a handful of years. It's like, was that the right thing to do? Moments of doubt and whatever creep in, but. One, again, the network of women, and even, physician colleagues around the country or even around the world that I've established who are like, wait, you're doing so much cool stuff.

You can't get rutted in one part of your career and say, well, that was really who I was and what I was meant to be. We're all meant to evolve throughout our careers and time. And so each of those pieces has been a unique opportunity for me to one. Learn something new, step into a new space and provide what I hope is a unique perspective.

Sarah Richardson: And it's never too late to do those things. It's never too late to never create the right space for change. Although most people are often stuck or waiting for the right time to make a change, whether that's personal or even companies that are looking to pivot into new areas or think about how they need to transform to meet the market where it is today.

How do you know when it's right for either companies or people to push them into creating the change that they want, but may be holding them back?

Stephanie Lahr: Yeah. I think knowing who you are and what you know, I mean the in introspection as an individual and as a company, what are your core principles? What drives you and how are you aligned right now in making those things happen?

But I think every person, every company should spend a certain amount of time dedicated to thinking about what does change and transformation look like? because it's easy for all of us to get settled in and comfortable with what we're doing and we don't realize. While that's happening, we might be moving into obsolescence again.

You need to go do more work on this, or you need to get to this level of maturity and evolution before we really talk a lot further because you're not ready for this and therefore I wouldn't be able to add value to you. But they were at least doing the work of where, what and how and there will be a right time.

And I think most good leaders, that's, I think a piece that you get attuned to is. When is your culture and what have you done to, be ready for this kind of change?

Sarah Richardson: And it is an interesting time to be navigating ambiguity, uncertainty about things that are happening.

There are margin compression, there are reimbursement changes, there are policy changes. There's so many reasons why things couldn't happen, as many reasons as there are, why they could. When you are working with your clients today, how are you helping them think differently about adoption execution strategy?

How are you really bringing that chasm closer together so that people can make a difference in healthcare today?

Stephanie Lahr: For every company. I think it's a little bit different. I honestly, I think in healthcare, the number one thing that drives success is some initial success. And one of the elements I really work closely.

And I, at artisights, this was certainly a principle. You need to partner, find some health systems. They don't have to be, academic health systems maybe that's maybe the best fit is a community health system. Maybe the best fit is a small practice, but you need to find a partner.

If you've got revenue, that's awesome, but the. Future potential for revenue is really, what's more important. And I think for small, especially startup companies, they're so concerned about driving and demonstrating success by having somebody pay them a bill or paying their invoice.

They lose sight of the fact that honestly, the bigger success is not that money coming in. That's what seed money start. All that's what all that stuff is for, It's to help sustain your company during these stages that you're pre-revenue. Then. It's really creating partnership and figuring out do you have the right fit, do you have the right tool?

Especially with early development products newly coming into the market that's key is focus less on revenue and more on the other successes of product market fit, workflow support and then identifying what the ROI is. I will say I've never, ever been in healthcare when the conversations about ROI on every single assessment that's being made.

Have been more intense. And that's both challenging and an opportunity for everybody to really think about what is the value of what they're bringing to the table. I have also had conversations with, some companies around, is there a way for you to share in that. Risk, benefit and reward.

And an organization that can help you mold and craft that, or a few organizations that can mold and craft that together.

Sarah Richardson: That is incredible perspective, especially as a physician with different organizations looking to find foothold in our industry today. I love, especially in this effect, will be a superpower for you, is that sometimes the clinician intuition.

About a product is as valuable as the dollar ROI. I remember having that conversation with some physicians at a recent round table and they're like, it has this much weight in the decision factor because you know it's the right thing to do, and do you have the clout inside your organization for that voice to be heard and are you willing to take that risk?

Where they go for the actual piece. What is the one thing that you do to reset when fear creeps in?

Stephanie Lahr: Deep breath, go for a walk and break things into pieces. I find when I get overwhelmed, it's usually because I've created a thought in my mind around something that way over complicated. I'm trying to take on too much in my mind at one time.

I need to break it down into pieces that are manageable and then some deep breathing at a walk.

Sarah Richardson: Good. I would say exercise for you tends to be the thing. Um, You and I have been at lots of places in the universe together, and here you come, like in your gym clothes on the way in between meetings.

I'm like, how does she do that? How does she go and then come back and still look awesome for an event? This

Stephanie Lahr: hairstyle's very resilient.

That moment, literally when you said. I'm going solo. I know I can do this. I believe in myself.

Stephanie Lahr: it probably really was the conversation that I had with one of the CEOs where he, out of the blue said, Hey, what's the opportunity here again? I really felt like the universe was saying to me, you are on the right track.

This is what you should be doing. Go out and get it.

Sarah Richardson: In one word, what does flourish mean to you?

Alignment. I love

Stephanie Lahr: it.

Sarah Richardson: And thank you for one word answer. Usually I get like the two or three sentence answer, it's a good one. I'm not

Stephanie Lahr: known for one word answers there, so I want up there.

Sarah Richardson: Really appreciate. Could have been like super fraud. Xpl Aosis, you never know around here. Well, thank you for that.

Stephanie, thank you for sharing your courage, your clarity, and your deep conviction in what's possible when you combine medical wisdom, business, grit, and a willingness to do things differently.

Stephanie Lahr: [Mic bleed]

thanks so much, Sarah. It's always so fun to talk to you. Can't wait to see you in person soon.

We hope these stories catalyze inspiration within you, propelling you forward in your own career odyssey. Stay connected, stay curious, and keep flourishing.