SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT (ft. Ed Marx)

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.

Hey, it's Ed, and I'm so excited to make a special announcement that I've started my own firm, like became 100% independent, and the firm is called Marx Advisory, something pretty simple. But what it's really about is experience, right? And really improving the experience connecting to the marketplace. A lot of companies really struggle to how do I connect with the C-suite? How do I connect with CIOs, CEOs, and so forth? And I'm here to help. And I'm leveraging all the experience I've had in my career in order to do that. So I think for those who don't know, I started off as a janitor in healthcare when I was 16. It was at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. And even though I was, you know, 16 and listening to Black Sabbath on my Sony Walkman, there was a draw, there was a call, and I couldn't really articulate it as a teenager. But as I grew older, I knew that I was called to healthcare. So one thing led to another. I had an opportunity to join the Army Reserve. I became a combat medic. And again, that just further stoked the fire of— You know, healthcare. And then I graduated college and became a combat engineer officer. At the same time, I really wanted to retain that connection with healthcare. So being in the reserves, I still had a civilian career, and I went back to the hospital and the communities where I lived and tried anything to get a job. And finally, I got a job as an anesthesia tech, and that was mind-blowing, working in the OR. Just again, just further illuminated that light, that fire within me to serve in healthcare. Not sure exactly what was going to come of it. And certainly I thought about that time of being a clinician, a physician, a nurse. And at the same time, I was starting my family. And I did get a promotion. I worked in the computer— led the computer operations in the OR and got a promotion into physician relations. So into the strategy office. helping IT, of all things, sort of with marketing and the ability to connect with their clients. And one thing led to another, and I saw the power firsthand in the birth of my oldest daughter, the power of technology to save people's lives. And at that point, I knew my call was absolutely healthcare, and it was at the intersection of the clinical, the strategy, and the tech to save people's lives. And then After that, I was like, I'm only working in healthcare tech. So I had the amazing opportunity to serve incredible organizations like Cleveland Clinic as CIO, University Hospitals as CIO, Texas Health Resources as CIO, New York City Health and Hospitals as CIO, just amazing opportunities. And that led to becoming Chief Digital Officer for Tech Mahindra Health and Life Sciences. So got experience on the vendor side and helping create companies and curate companies and helping governments actually with their healthcare challenges. It was just an amazing experience which led to becoming a CEO of a consulting firm. And that was a whole nother level of just learning and connecting. And now taking all those different experiences in healthcare and just helping others connect better with the experience in the marketplace to better serve, you know, their prospects, their clients, their customers. And so that's what I started, and it's Marx Advisory, and it, it really manifests itself in 4 distinct areas. The first is retained advisory. So I'm working with select clients, just a handful of clients who want to better connect, have that better experience in the marketplace. So this manifests itself in many different ways. It could be events. It's, it's a lot of weekly meetings like on strategy, on brand. It's really counseling on how to you know, best work with particular clients. We get very, very specific customer advisory boards, even books, which kind of goes to the second thing. So I've curated some books specifically for clients to help improve their positioning in the marketplace and add value as a whole. So that's really exciting. So, but the second thing is books. So I, I love writing. I don't know how it happened because I didn't read a single book when I was in high school, but somehow writing just became a thing for me. And so I've really enjoyed it because again, it's an ability to scale a lot of ideas and thoughts. And so I've been very fortunate again to sort of fall into some things. And I wrote a few books, some bestsellers, 2019 Voices of Innovation, 2020 with my friend Patty, Healthcare Digital Transformation. We have Voices second edition coming out. In July of 2023, we have a book on patient experience, which is going to blow, blow up. And that comes out in the spring. That's with my best friend, Chris Ross at Mayo Clinic. It really describes sort of our experiences with cancer, our cancer journeys, and really improving the patient experience. But get this, the angle there is it's for the public. It's not meant for healthcare, although there's a chapter in there that I think everyone will want to read. So we're really super excited about that. But there's more books coming. Human-Centered Design in Healthcare. I'm also dropping a book with my bride, Simran. So this one is like achieving that integrated sort of balance, if you will, in life and how we're pulling it off. And so super excited about that. So books is a second way that just sort of connecting and improving the experience in the marketplace. The third is boards. So I'm fortunate, again, just to be able to serve on many boards, including Summa Health, a great health system in the heart of Ohio, has a payer element as well. Super exciting to be helping them and learning at the same time. And then closer to where I live in Dallas-Fort Worth is Mary Crowley Cancer Research. So this is a phase 1 clinical trials company. This is where Hope lives. I mean, it just aligns so much with who I am and my mission about saving lives, and it's just, uh, it's just an amazing place. And I hope my friends and family never have to use it, but if you ever were there, that would be the place. So really excited about serving on those boards. So there's some other— there's some companies that I serve on the boards as well, and so I want to continue to do that. So that's another way of helping companies, you know, connect and improve their experiences. And then finally is speaking. I do a tremendous amount of speaking, and I sort of held back the last few years because obviously my focus was whatever my primary role was, whether it was being CIO at Cleveland Clinic or Chief Digital Officer at Tech Mahindra. That was really my focus, so I really didn't open it up. And now I'm opening it up, and I'm keynoting across the world this year already. So it's so so much fun. And so I would love to do that. And what I do is I weave in all these experiences. So it's not PowerPoints, although I might throw in a couple slides here and there, but it's real-life experiences. All the talks are hand-curated. There's no cookie-cutter approach. I just take the experiences I had, as I mentioned, you know, in terms of my service to our country, a service into healthcare, but also I've climbed some of the world's highest mountains. I've had this podcast that's top 3% in the world, that I've met so many interesting guests and have so many stories. I'm a cancer survivor, as I mentioned when I talked about one of my books. I'm also a widowmaker survivor. So this is the big one. This is the heart attack that kills 95% of individuals with one last breath. And I had the heart attack in the middle of a race for Team USA. It's just, I'm just so thankful to be alive. Let me put it that way. And thankful for the digital care that I received as well as the clinical care that helped me. But anyway, it's taking stories like that that help bring things together and motivate, inspire, but at the same time really add value, you know, so that people walk away with, okay, that was inspirational, that's great, but I also learned these 3 things I can apply in my life. And so there's a lot of different things like that that I bring into it. And then most importantly, You know, my experiences as a husband and as a dad. I have 5 kids, 4 grandchildren, and they're all like solid people. And it's, again, I just feel fortunate. I guess that's a word I've said 3 or 4 times now, but I've been surrounded by amazing people my entire life, my entire career, my family. And so it's really created these different opportunities. So that's what I'm doing, and I'm super excited. I actually tried this 5 years ago. After I left the Cleveland Clinic and I was hired, after two months I had I had some clients and and one of the clients actually my first client there after two months they were like Ed just work for us full time. So I'm I'm gonna avoid that this time. Although it was great, I'm glad I did it. But so here I am. So if you want to learn more, marksadvisory.com is the website, and I try to keep it updated so you'll. Find out a summary basically of everything I've just shared with you. Also starting a YouTube channel, so you'll see that connected there. And of course, LinkedIn and Twitter have always been active, and my podcast for the last several years. So a lot of different ways to connect with me, and I would love to serve you. So if you have a need in any of those areas, if you're trying to improve your experience connecting with the marketplace, I'm here to talk with you. I may not be the right fit, so we'll talk first and kind of feel each other out and determine, hey, is this a good fit or not? Because I want you to have a great experience as well as myself. So that's what it's really all about. So marksadvisory.com, and super, super excited, if you can't tell, about what happens next. So thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Take care.

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. Thank you.