In this concise 6‑questions‑in‑7‑minutes interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Candice Imwalle, a sales director at a molecular diagnostics company who also co‑writes children’s books about healthy eating. Candice explains that her work in diagnostics is driven by a patient‑first mindset, delivering answers that improve health outcomes, while her books aim to teach kids and parents about nutrition. She emphasizes that emotional intelligence should be a core chapter for any organization, linking it to employee engagement, retention, and overall corporate culture. Candice advises leaders to pursue continuous self‑improvement—through podcasts, books, and personal development—because growth in professional life feeds personal life and vice‑versa. Regarding the COVID‑19 pandemic, she highlights the need for leaders who can balance empathy for customers’ fears with effective business strategies. She shares a personal anecdote about her first job at a Massachusetts ice‑cream parlor, noting the lesson of moderation. The episode closes with her contact information: LinkedIn, Facebook, and the Instagram handle “Healthy Kids Guru” for her children’s book brand.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hello, Pete. It's a pleasure to be with you today. It's so awesome to see you, as always. My name is Candice M. Wally, and I'm currently a sales director for a molecular diagnostics company. I also write children's books in partnership with my children to teach other children how to eat healthy and prepare themselves for a lifetime of good health and happiness.
Candice, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
The best thing about working in my industry, the company I work for really focuses on improving patient care and giving them answers to diagnostic questions that they have relative to their health. So it's really exciting to work for a company that really cares about the patient and helping them come up with a solution to their ailment. Um, what I really enjoy about writing children's books is I really feel like I'm making a difference in children's lives as well as parents' lives. It's really difficult to teach children how to eat healthy, and any books that kind of carry that message is really beneficial. So I would say both sides of my professional life are focused on improving things for people, and I really enjoy that, and I'm passionate about it.
No, I can hear it in your voice, and it's so neat to see that you're making a difference on both sides of your professional life. It's great. Question number 3: I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Well, I think most companies need to read the chapter on emotional intelligence. I think it's crucial that corporations engrave that into their culture because if you don't have emotional intelligence, there's a domino effect of negative things that can occur. You have retention issues, you have attitude issues, you have people that aren't fully engaged in the job. And I think if you have emotional intelligence, assuming good intent, um, positive intent for fellow employees, I think you're always going to have a very satisfied corporate culture. Um, if you have that, you have the opposite of the issues that occur with not having it. You have people that are engaged, they're happy to be working for the company, they're productive, they're loyal, and those are things that you really want from your employees. So I think that would be a really important chapter for for every business leader to read.
I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I think all business leaders need to strive to be better in all aspects of their professional and personal life because a lot of times things carry over back and forth. Which means really striving to not only improve yourself personally, you know, do everything you can to work on the developmental areas that we all have, that we're— a lot of us were born with our developmental areas, as well as, you know, reading. There's wonderful podcasts like this available where you can learn from other business leaders. There's books you can read. There's audiobooks so you can listen while you're doing other things like driving or working out. And there's really no excuse excuse for people not to strive to be better people all the time. Even if you've been in your industry for a really long time, you, you view yourself as an industry leader, there's always different angles that you can learn within your existing industry. So regardless of how experienced somebody is, how long they've been in a certain role, you can always improve yourself. And, and this again, this carries over on your personal life as well. I mean, if you are a better friend, a better parent, a better partner. There's ways you can seek out information to always self-improve. And it's really important that people are curious about everything in their life and do everything they can to be the best person they can possibly be. I would encourage all leaders to do that.
I really think that's so well stated. I love it. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
I think the type of business leader that we should be considering having on your podcast is anybody that is figuring out how to help customers during this time of COVID-19. It's a very unique time in all of our lives. Nobody that I know that has lived through anything like this, and people are fearful and people are fearful for their jobs. They're fearful for their health. There's a lot of things that people are fearful for and that's jeopardizing business, that's hurting business, that's creating scenarios where customers aren't willing to meet with vendors or meet with companies. And so if you find any leaders that have figured out a way to navigate this new normal effectively, where we're exercising empathy for other people's positions and fear while also being effective from a business perspective, I think that would be highly valuable to business leaders.
I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you for that. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Oh gosh, my first job was absolutely my favorite job that I've ever had. So I worked in an ice cream parlor when I was 14 years old in my town. And, you know, summertime— I grew up in Massachusetts— so summertime, everybody was just constantly outside, constantly, you know, getting ice cream, doing things outdoors. And we always had a huge line of customers that wrapped around the building. It was an ice cream parlor that was half inside, half outside, and it was so much fun having access to any flavor of ice cream, abundant amounts of hot fudge and whipped cream and nuts and cherries. It was such a wonderful summer. But one thing I have to say is the lesson of working in an ice cream parlor that I had to learn was moderation. Because as a 14-year-old, typically your metabolism is extremely high, and I actually started noticing I was gaining weight. It's like, oh my gosh, now I know what my mom means when she talks about moderation with dessert. So it was a good lesson, but a wonderful job.
Oh, that's great. And what a perfect time for summertime talking about ice cream. It goes perfectly here.
So yeah, I still love ice cream.
So me too. Candice, so thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
So I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook, and then my children's book is is on Instagram, so I'm Healthy Kids Guru on Instagram as well. So that's how you can find me.
Excellent. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
