DGTL All-Stars (ft. Katherine Isaza)

Thanks for tuning to Digital Voices Podcast, where we chat digital transformation challenges and opportunities across healthcare and life sciences. And now, your host, Ed Marx. Welcome to another drop of Digital Voices. This one's gonna be so cool because we're gonna introduce a little bit of sport into this one, and as it relates to leadership and Teamwork, but it's a really unique sport that most of us probably aren't super familiar with regarding rowing. And so we're going to talk all things digital leadership and coxswain, which is a a position in rowing. So really excited to have Kat Isasa with us. Did I get the last name right, Kat? Close.

Almost. Almost.

Say it in Spanish because it's so beautiful. Say your whole name in Spanish.

Catherine Lucia Isasa.

Yeah, that's a beautiful name in a beautiful language. So. Thanks for sharing that. Welcome to our podcast.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, as we jump in, first I'm going to ask our DJ Megan, our producer, have you ever participated like maybe in college, or if not college, high school, like athletics?

I did. I grew up in the dance studio. So a shameless plug for Seven Hills Dance Studio in Lynchburg, Virginia. I was in their dance company and we traveled and competed on a regional level. Also in high school, I decided to try cheerleading. Being 5 feet tall, I was the flyer and quickly learned that I was not a fan of heights or being dropped, so that was short-lived.

No, that's great. Yeah, and dancing is definitely athletic. I can attest to that for sure, and cheer as well. So Kat, as we like to call her— so I, I have the pleasure of serving with Kat as well as Megan at Divergent. She's our Vice President of Client Services for the Midwestern and Eastern United States regions, and I can tell you people just love her. I've been on Calls with some of our key clients that she oversees, and all all they do is kind of like the Brady Bunch. You know, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha is like cat, cat, cat. But it's great. It's a great testimony to how great of a person she is. We are going to talk a lot about rowing. I'm excuse me. I'm going to read down your resume really quick on rowing, and then we're going to jump right in. Two-time head of the Charles gold medalist, two-time U.S. rowing national championship gold medalist, U.S. rowing national championship bronze medalist. Two times San Diego Crew Classic gold medalist, two times Newport Autumn Rowing Festival gold medalist, three time head of the Chicago gold medalist, Princeton Chase bronze medalist, Big East bronze medalist, ACC runner-up. Just like this fantastic. So not only a fantastic business person and leader, but also an incredible athlete. So it's gonna be fun to merge the two together and we talk digital. And Kat, the first time we met really was through Divergent. So it was in the last couple months and. I was sort of doing my meet and greets with all the senior leaders. And, and then not only did we have a chance to, to meet, you know, via video, but then pretty quickly as we met up with some clients in New York City, we got to meet in person. And so it's been great. It's been a whirlwind 2 months. I was so impressed with your background. And, and again, as the clients talked about you, wanted to have you on as our guest. So what people always wanna know first though, Kat, is songs on your playlist.

Okay. I would definitely say All of the Above by T-Pain holds a really special place in my heart from one of my high school teams. It was our song for one of the years. Remember the Name by Fort Minor always is just a really good tunnel vision song and something that gets me going. And I think I always end the playlist with Can't Tell Me Nothing by Kanye West. A bit intense on the music, but just, just need that that hardo mentality and kind of channeling it.

Yeah, no, that's great. I love that. And what about your life message or mantra or sort of like words that you live by? What might those be?

I thought a lot about my mantra when I was working to earn the vice president job title here at Divergent. It meant a lot to me to stay authentic to my core values that I have carried with me all these years. And after a lot of thought and self-evaluation, I landed on wanting to be described by others as, she's a doer, she doesn't quit, nothing is beneath her, and she cares a lot. Cool.

I love that. And, I bet some of that probably goes back to actually rowing as well, especially the being a doer and never quitting. And obviously, you have to care as well. So, sorry to steal any of your thunder that's coming up later, but I just thought that was interesting because those are the same sort of sort of values and life purpose that can go across your entire life, all parts of it. So, tell us a little bit about your story, both personal and professionally.

Yeah. Okay. No particular order. Let me just kind of think off the cusp here. Definitely a very proud Colombian woman, first-generation college. My parents are incredible and definitely my number one fans. Being an only child, my friends are all my sisters who I love and protect very much. I was born in Connecticut and grew up living in both Colombia, South America, and Connecticut, which honestly looking back was the best experience my parents could have given me. I was introduced to the rowing world when I was in 7th grade, and it honestly completely changed my life. My head coach Liz Trond has been the biggest— has had the biggest impact on my life and truly shaped me to be the woman that I am today. As a result, I definitely try to go back and give back to the high school team and the program and honestly coach from time to time. As much as I love to work hard, I also focus on playing hard. So I'm currently sitting at 31 countries, 45 states. Traveling definitely fulfills my craving to connect with people that are very different from my everyday people. So traveling has truly made me a better person, a better citizen of the world, and I'm able to empathize at a much better degree and diversify my thinking based on cultural, you know, immersions. that I've been exposed to. I'm definitely food motivated. My boss could tell you that any day, all day. And as a client service vice president, I happily live on planes and trains, and I travel nearly every week to visit my clients and continue to improve healthcare. So that's a little bit about me.

Yeah, no, super interesting, Kat. So at 31 countries, what are 2 or 3 that are, that are on your bucket list? Like you want to get to next if you can?

I would definitely say Brazil and South Africa.

Yeah, cool. I'm Unfortunately, they're not on the same continent, though, so it might be 2 different trips there. So what inspired you to get into healthcare tech? So you had this dual sort of global citizenship going on between Colombia and the United States, and you did rowing and had fabulous people in your life, and you ended up in healthcare. So how'd that happen?

Never planned. It was my final semester at Syracuse University, and I was planning on continuing down the clinical route by pursuing my career as a physician assistant. And then I was approached and introduced to this entire healthcare IT world. As a medical assistant, I had no idea that there was this whole complex world behind the iPad that I was using to document patient information. And honestly, it was the best decision I ever made. I truly love my job and I enjoy what I do, and I still get to think like a clinician. So, I do think that that skill set gets utilized, and I do tap into it multiple times a day. So, it's a win-win.

Yeah, no, that, that's awesome how that happened. So this is not a, a plug for Divergent. That's not what our podcast is about, but I would ask this. So I would ask this following question to any guest. What are some cool things that you help clients with? Like how does some of the, you know, the knowledge and expertise that you bring to the table along with Divergent help clients? What are a couple of examples of some things that you've done?

Sure. Yeah. I really have the honor of partnering with my clients on all types of projects. One of my clients embarked on their first-ever merger and acquisition last year. So together, we've been working from soup to nuts on this exciting journey. Some of my other clients have asked for help with physician and nursing efficiency programs, remote working culture innovations, advisory slash, you know, best practices engagements. Some activation initiatives continue to roll out throughout the years, managed services. specifically for helpdesk, and as well as a lot of next phase of the digital transformation journey. I really hope your next question is not to ask me what my favorite one is because I just love my job and I could never pick one.

No, no, and I can testify to that. As I mentioned at the top, I've talked to a couple of the organizations and the CIOs that you serve, and they're big raving fans of everything CAT and the things that you've helped them with. Here's a curveball question, though. I'll give you a different one. If I were to ask your dad, I know you have a very close relationship with your dad. If I said, hey, if I met your dad at a cocktail party or something, and I said, hey, tell me about your daughter, what does she do? How would he say that Kat does?

He has no idea. Besides watching me work 24/7, he has no idea what's really going on. He'll sometimes be like, I heard that one call, like, how's that guy doing? And I'm like, which guy? You know, he's like, never mind. And he, you know, he just kind of shuts back. He really has no idea. He knows that it's It's in healthcare and he knows that I work with a lot of amazing people, but he, he truly, he truly could not describe what I do.

Yeah. You know, that's funny. I, I, I don't think that's unusual. Uh, even with my parents, you know, I think they still scratch their head way, even when I was a CIO and had a, you know, a very simple title or whatever, they still, you sort of struggled with exactly what does their son do. And my kids too, growing up, it was the same sort of thing. It's kind of funny. I wanna shift a little bit to leadership and, you know, we didn't talk about this at the top, but You're not too far out of school, so you represent a younger generation than certainly that I'm in. What are you doing to keep yourself, you know, sort of sharp on leadership? Like, you know, so you've been out of school a little bit where you receive a lot of training, but what else do you do today to stay, you know, on point?

A lot of notes in my calendar. I really live by my calendar. All jokes aside, surrounding myself with like-minded peers. I like to call them the hungry ones, the ones that crave more and want to do better. I feed off of this energy and it impacts my mood tremendously.

Yeah, that, that's a really good one is to surround yourself with, always have a diversity in your circle, but also be with the hungry ones that are like you, that inspire you to keep moving forward. That's, that's really good. Yeah. What advice would you have for, for those just getting outta college? So you're 9 years, 10 years out or so. What advice would you have for someone just coming outta college?

Work hard. And I mean, really hard. Just because you were great academically or athletically in university, you know, doesn't mean anything anymore. And on the contrary, if you were average academically or athletically, go rebrand yourself. I had a Ukrainian coach tell me very early on in my career, after every race that we won, she would say, today you are a champion, tomorrow you are nothing. And this has carried with me all these years, and I apply it every day. I celebrate a great accomplishment, but quickly remember it's time to do it again. I think you have to remember that just like in athletics, you can always be better, and there are new levels to achieve. So work hard for them, and hard work truly does always pay off.

Yeah, I'm going to sort of double down on what you just said just to really highlight it. One is to work hard and out hustle. So you can be, and I imagine it's going to come up maybe in our rowing part of our discussion, but you can outperform athletes that are more gifted than yourself. That's my life story and it's my career story as well. So I always tell people I'm pretty average. I was very average in college and flunked out of college early on, but you can still outperform people. And it's just that hunger that you talked about. And so out hustling, work hard, it's great. And then What your Ukrainian coach said is harsh, but it's true. And it's great that you had that person in your life. But yeah, it's kind of like, tell me what you've done for me lately sort of thing. I had a mentor slash boss at one point. It's kind of the same thing, because I might be like, well, look what we did in the last couple of years, these 3 things. But it's like, okay, well, that was good a couple of years ago. What about today and tomorrow? So it's sort of harsh, but it's real and it's good and it's served you well and has served many others as well. Also, let's shift a little bit now towards athletics. So I already read off sort of your honor roll in terms of the things that you accomplished. But so you were a collegiate varsity athlete, right, in rowing?

I was, yeah. I was recruited to Syracuse University as a coxswain on the women's rowing team.

Yeah, that's very cool. So explain rowing. So not everyone, you know, other than maybe every 4 years when the Olympics comes up, spends a lot of time thinking about rowing. So tell us a little bit about rowing. And then I want to talk about what is a coxswain, because it's perhaps at least my bias is the most important role, I think, on the crew. And so it'll be interesting for you to talk about that. But first, tell us a little bit about rowing and all of its different forms, because I know there's different types of rowing.

Yeah, absolutely. Rowing to me, and I'm sure many others, is this beautifully intense water sport. You can row a single, you can row a double, you can row a 4-person boat with or without a coxswain. And then of course, there's my favorite, which is the Rowing, quite literally, is a sport where you, you know, sit on your tush and you push backwards. Don't quote me, but it might be the only sport where you don't face the direction that you're moving in. And so like in many sports, it takes a lot of practice. The technicality of the sport is truly what makes it so beautiful to watch. The synchronization of each oar and the timing, you know, to the water is what we spend hours on hours on hours practicing before, before each race, right? Rowers are tested both indoor— excuse me, in indoor rowing equipment called an erg. Therefore, it's both a land performance and a water testing sport. And just like in a professional career, you know, you might end up on a team with no prior experience, and, you know, you can learn as you go. So some of rowing's legends were, you know, collegiate walk-ons that showed up to practice with the right attitude, the hunger to learn, and the desire to bring pride to the organization.

Yeah, I remember when I was in college, And I was in ROTC. We had really early morning gatherings for physical training and running and stuff, and we'd run into the crew teams, and we always had this argument about— and then we'd run into the other athletic teams as well. We'd all share the same weight rooms and things like that. And, you know, we had this debate, and I think the crew team won as to who was in best shape. So to be on a crew team and to row, You have to have what you've got to have upper body, lower body, and definitely core.

Yeah, everything for sure. Height helps tremendously. It's just, it means that you have a longer stroke, which helps you with, you know, more power through the water. It's a water sport, right? So the amount of time that your blade spends in the water is how much you're actually contributing to the boat going faster and moving in the direction towards the finish line.

So as a coxswain, how does it work in terms of you're sitting, like you said, facing the opposite direction of the flow of the direction that your boat is heading. And at the same time, and you're trying to keep everyone right in sync and motivated, but how do you know? So especially if you're behind, you can't see in front of you where the other boats are. So how do you handle that? I'm very curious. You know, obviously if you're in the lead, you can see all the boats behind you, in front of you as a coxswain, but behind your boat. But what happens in the opposite? How do you know? Like how far you have to go to catch the boat?

So actually, the rowers are the only ones that are not facing the direction that you're moving in. So the coxswains are facing the direction that you're going in. So the coxswain, think of it as like driving a car, right, where you are literally facing the direction that you're going in. And so we can see, I mean, we do have the ability, especially in the 8, as you're sitting, to be able to, you know, do a 360 and actually, you know, tilt your head just like you would in like a driver's seat in a car. Now, when you're in a 4, your body as a coxswain is laying down. inside of the boat. And so your ability to look around is a little bit more limited, especially because you've got a rower literally sitting behind you, like your head is pretty much touching their backside as when they come to the end of their stroke. So there's a little bit of explanation more on the differences there.

Yeah, okay. No, that's a good, good clarification. So you do have a pretty good view of the competition and everything that's going on. And somehow you have to— how does the motivation work? Because you don't have a lot of I don't know, maybe you do a lot. How do you communicate if you're trying to motivate your team? Maybe you're behind or maybe you're in the lead, but someone's catching up to you. Are you allowed to— do you talk? What's the communication like?

Sign language, Ed. No, I'm just kidding. No, there's luckily microphones in the boat. So we have a mic that's tied to our head and comes down to right near our mouth area. So you can obviously hear. And then there are speakers throughout the boat where they can hear us very clearly on what we're communicating. Okay.

This is great because I'm sure there's many like me that don't have all this information. And I remember one time when I was on an adventure race team, it was 2-person, 3-person, and it came down to the boat and we each were paddling our own direction. We didn't have any synchronicity. We almost went in a circle and it was very aggravating, the amount of energy output we made. And the amount of progress we had. And then I remember we took one lesson, and that one lesson really got us to rowing together in sync, and it was much more efficient. Can you talk about some analogies that you see with leadership, and maybe as it could be with the coxswain as the leader and the team of rowers, or any other thing around teamwork or leadership where rowing really is a great metaphor?

Yeah, absolutely. Let me tell you maybe a little bit like what I learned from my time as a coxswain. I absolutely learned, you know, responsibility and what it's like to work very hard. I learned how to conquer fears and set new goals, learn how to motivate 8 completely different women all at the same time. As an only child, I learned at the age of 12 how to put the needs of others before my own, and how to respect each individual person for their own, you know, unique skill sets that they brought to the team. And I probably learned perhaps One of the most important lessons in life, which is to learn how to lose. I was pretty spoiled with starting my career with Liz Trond, who was the best head coach on the East Coast and runs a full team of championship wins. My boat and I were undefeated and winning the hardest races coast to coast. I accepted the offer to Syracuse University to learn what it was like to lose. At the age of 17, I wanted to learn that life skill. I was set to join Justin Moore and 9 other recruits on a mission to transform the Syracuse women's rowing program and make it an NCAA contender and a top 15 team. So today, I carry those valuable lessons and I apply them in my career. I work hard every day. I encourage my teammates and clients, honestly, as well to continue, you know, turning the page. I accept that there are times where I'm not the best vendor partner for my clients, and I just wait for my next turn. So I truly think that that's a lot of what I've learned in the sport and been able to carry in my adult career and professional career.

Yeah. How does a coach— so when you have a crew team, you know, you have multiple teams, and how does a coach decide who goes on which boat? Like, what's the thinking process about how the individual or the teams for the boats are selected?

So that's definitely a coach's call. You know, coxswains do weigh in on that, especially like seat races. Like, You know, you might meet with the coach after and they might be like, which combination felt the best, right, of these 2? Like, which one felt better? You know, it's funny, Ed, sometimes you think, oh, absolutely, these 3 are the fastest, like they're going to be great together. And they're not. Sometimes just 2 of them mesh. I don't know, there's just something about what links really like each other and where they can all— all their strengths can truly fit together. So there's no true rhyme or reason. I mean, again, there's just some people that it just makes sense and they're together. But it's a lot of seat racing to figure out which combinations truly move a boat, because you might be great at performing, you know, indoors and have great ERG scores and do great in one boat. But then we put you in the, in the top boat, and you're a boat member, not a boat mover. And we need boat movers.

Yeah, I asked the question, right? Because from a leadership perspective, it's not always the obvious combinations that create the winning boat. And it's not necessarily the 8 fastest individuals aren't necessarily the best on the 8 boat, whatever, however you refer to it as. So it really comes down to other nuances and stylistic type of differences. That's really interesting. It's really fascinating. I love like when I run, particularly when I run in Austin, Texas, I run around this lake/river and the UT crew teams are always Going up and down, and I always stop on the bridges and just watch and just admire the the synchronicity, the timing. And I'm always looking for, even though I'm not super familiar with sport, but I'm always looking for how smooth it is and and the wake behind them. Just and then the coxswain and you know what their role and how they're working it. It's just it's always been a very fascinating sport to me, and and I can really appreciate it. So as you think about digital transformation, Kat, and, and some of the opportunities that you've had and, you know, the, the experience you've had working on teams both in and outside of healthcare, what are one or two things that you hope to accomplish, you know, in your career? And maybe we won't talk career like 30 years, uh, but maybe in the next few years, you know, taking All these different things that you've learned, surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals, having worked with some of the leading CIOs and the preeminent healthcare organizations in our country, taking all this knowledge that you have, like, what's one thing that you'd like to see happen or be part of?

It's a great question. The top— the Coxon toolkit is pretty robust, and there's a lot of tools packed into a, you know, 5-foot-tall, 110 woman. You know, I really think that the role that I've served as a Coxon has translated almost identically to my current role. So, when I think about future, I think about my excitement for more change in healthcare, right? And for all of us to slowly but surely become more adaptable to changes and just quicker, right? I think as we all focus on embarking on the digital transformation journey, I think that it's really important that we have an open mindset. And that we are collaborative and in a very much in a learning stage, right? I think that we're moving in different directions. And everyone needs to be flexible and adaptable, as Justin Moore would say, flood-aptible. He combined the two words. You don't get that after hearing that for 4 years. And just forever learning, right, and learning to be patient with one another, but having that sense of urgency and wanting to be better than we were yesterday, because Other industries continue to advance quicker and quicker, and we have to be able to keep up and move our needle.

Yeah. So, Kat, I had one last question for you, and then I'll let you finish with anything else that we may have missed. So it's been a few years since you've graduated from Syracuse and been in that competitive rowing environment. Do you still row today, or what do you do today to— because I imagine once that athletic stuff gets into your blood, you know, you don't want to stop. being active? Are you doing things today or rowing at all?

I am, yes. So still coxing, mostly as just like from time to time for specifically the high school team. I really enjoy going down there and coaching them and mentoring the coxswains. It also, again, kind of translates into my current role at Divergent where I do have a mentee as well. It's been fun to kind of have both sides and, and bring a little bit of that to, to the professional setting. I am not currently racing. I may race again for the Head of the Charles in October. We did bring an alumni boat to the Head of the Charles, and we requalified for this next year. So I'm always hungry for another gold medal there. Yeah, take a lot of hard work, but nothing is impossible. So we'll see what we can do.

Yeah, you know, I was just thinking, we have a leadership retreat coming up in Austin. And it would be sort of fun as a team building exercise to try and get everyone on a boat and see how that works without coaching. And then with a little bit of coaching to see what the differences are. I don't know. I just made that up as I, as I was thinking about listening to you speak. So we should think about that seriously. So we covered so much ground, you know, from everything from sort of your life message You know, being a doer, taking risks, those sort of things, and a little bit about yourself personally, and then what inspired you to get into healthcare and some of the things that you've done, and a lot of leadership advice for individuals such as yourself and those just graduating from college. And then we talked a lot about rowing and how that relates to teamwork and leadership. Is there anything else we may have missed or anything you want to double down on as we close our podcast?

Maybe just a little bit on, you know, what exactly the coxswain is. I think a lot of people think, oh, just the little one that's sits and yells, right? Which, you know, not gonna lie, sure, it's a lot true. Not even somewhat true. It's a lot true. And definitely what everybody sees from the outside, right? But there's definitely a lot more than that. I would truly describe the role of a coxswain as the brains of the operation, the eyes, the ears, basically the everything of the boat. The coxswain truly has a pre-devised race plan that is, you know, ready to be executed on. However, life, right? Things don't always go as planned, meaning there might need to be a game-time decision change, and the coxswain has to make the best judgment decision to run with and run with it at the end of the day, right? The coxswain, at the end of the day, amplifies trustworthy, competitive, a mind reader, the disruptor, fiercely loyal to the crew, caregiver, and ultimately responsible for the execution of a race. Plan and a tremendous key player in the race results. So although the little one not doing the work, there's a lot more going on, as I give you some air quotes there. And it's been fun. I'm very grateful that it was brought into my life when I was in 7th grade, and that I've been able to be a part of the sport till this day and try my best to give back. And that it's truly, again, with Liz's help, has shaped me to be the woman that I am today and the professional that I am today. So I'm just I'm very, very lucky.

That's cool.

Yeah.

And like, like we were saying, a lot of analogies between that and being a leader and, and then, and as you've said before, caring for those people as well. So, Ed, this has been a fascinating conversation. Kat, thank you for being our guest. I, I really learned a lot and I'll never look at rowing this quite the same. Uh, it'll be even with a sharper mind now towards, uh, leadership and teamwork. So thank you for sharing, uh, your story with us.

My pleasure, Ed. Thank you so much for having me.

All right. That wraps up another drop of Digital Voices. Thank you as always to our DJ and producer extraordinaire Megan Aylsworth. Thank you for listening to Digital Voices Podcast with Ed Marx. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe on your preferred streaming service and leave a rating and review. And most importantly, thanks again for listening.