Welcome  to  Beyond  the  Nest  University  of Minnesota,  Rochester's  Alumni  podcast. I'm  Marco  Lands,  UMR  Director  of  Alumni  and  Development Relations  Beyond  the  Nest  highlights Raptor  alumni  as  they  share  their  journey, their  work,  and  lessons  learned  along  the  way. In  this  episode,  we  catch  up  with  Holly  goals, UMR  class  of  2016. Currently  Holly  works  at  Key  Surgical  as an  OR  sales  representative  and  is pursuing  an  MS  in  Health  information. Holly  sat  down  with  Rachel  Win, UMR  Senior  Admissions  Representative, and  fellow  rapper  Alumna  for an  engaging  conversation  on  the  business  of  health  care, not  going  to  med  school  and  puppies. Hello  Holly.  Thank  you  for joining  me  for  our  first  podcast. Why  don't  you  provide  me  your  position  and  then  when  you graduated  from  UMR,  I'm  Holly  Gills. I  am  a  UMR  alum  from 2016  and  I  currently work  at  a  company  called  Key  Surgical. We  were  recently  acquired  by  Stars, so  I  guess  technically  now  I'm a  stares  employee  and  I  am  an  R  sales  representative. I  cover  12  states, everything  west  of  Minnesota, from  Alaska  to  Nebraska. That's  a  lot  of  ground  to  cover.  It's  a  lot  of  ground. Yeah.  Or  standing  for  operating  room,  I'm  sorry. Okay.  Yes,  I  figured. But  just  to  reiterate. Very  good.  And  how  long have  you  been  working  in  that  role? For  this  specific  role, I've  been  here  for  almost  a  year  and  a  half, but  I've  been  in  sales  for a  little  bit  over  three  years  now. Awesome.  So  we're  going  to  take  it  back  a  few  years, like  eight  or  so. What  first  brought  you  to  UMR? Can  you  describe,  as  a  high  school  student, what  was  your  process  in  finding  UMR  and eventually  attending  Yeah,  absolutely. In  high  school.  I  knew  that  I  wanted  to  go into  some  kind  of  medical  field. Actually,  I  specifically  wanted  to  be  a  radiologist. I  remember  thinking  like,  yeah, I  can  sign  myself  up  for  that  many  more  years  of  school, and  I  wanted  a  good  program. I  wanted  a  program  that  was, I  guess,  super  in  depth, very  hands  on  something  that  could really  teach  me  the  core  sciences. I  wanted  chemistry,  I  wanted  biology, I  wanted  everything  that  was  going  to  put  me at  my  best  possible  position  to  apply  for  med  school. And  I  got  a  postcard  in  the  mail  with  UMR. And  it  had,  I  think, three  students  on  it  wearing  their  lab  coats. And  in  a  couple  of  the  other  pictures  on  the  postcard, it  had  like  the  super  awesome  labs that  UMR  has  and  mail  clinic. And  I  was  like,  Mom,  I  got  to  go  see  this  school. This  is  everything  that  I  want. You  know,  I  think  your  story  certainly  resonates with  a  lot  of  students  who  think  I  want  to  be  a  Dr. I  want  to  go  that  full  9  Mi and  head  down  the  road  towards  becoming  a  physician. But  then  finding  that  there  are other  opportunities  in  healthcare  along  the  way. What  eventually  brought  you towards  the  direction  of  business? It  was  actually  in  undergrad that  I  had  started  my  shadowing  experiences. And  if  I  can  give  advice  to anybody  that's  looking  into  future  professions, it's  get  as  much  shadow  experience  as  you  possibly  can. That  was  when  I  really  started  to  realize  that  I  was maybe  a  little  bit  better  suited  for business  just  because  of  how  my  mind  works. And  I  really  got  to  learn  to  have  an  appreciation  for how  much  goes  on  behind  the  scenes  in  healthcare. I  just  learned  that  I  did  a  lot  better  on  the  back  side, understanding  how  much  broader  it  is, and  grew  an  appreciation  for all  the  people  that  did  work  behind  the  scenes  that you  don't  necessarily  see  as  the  face of  health  care  shadowing. I  had  a  couple  of  different  mentors  and  I learned  that  maybe  being  a  physician  wasn't  for  me. What  kind  of  professionals  did  you  shadow? I  feel  like  they  were  all  across  the  board. I  shadowed  at  nursing  homes, I  shadowed  in  hospital  settings. I  volunteered  in  emergency  rooms,  things  like  that. I  just  wanted  to  see  a  lot  of  health  care  so  that  I kind  of  knew  which  specialty  I  would eventually  want  to  fall  into. After  I  choked  radiologist  out,  I  was  like,  well, maybe  it's  a  different  profession after  seeing  everything  hands  on, I  just  kept  coming  back  to  that,  wasn't  it? Now,  I  guess,  I  don't know  what  actually  like  kind  of  pulled  the  trigger. I  went  to  a  U  of M  job  fair  and  met  a  recruiter  there  that  said  I would  be  really  great  in  medical  sales  and  I  was so  close  to  graduation  that it  was  one  of  those  things  where  it's  like, well,  you  know,  maybe  that'll be  a  great  way  to  see  a  different  side  of health  care  when  the  job  offer was  on  the  table  and  I  was  out  of  school. And  you  talk  about  gap  years,  a  ton. I  was  like,  worst  case  scenario. This  is  a  great  gap  year  and  an  opportunity  to  learn. And  I  kind  of  just  fell  in love  with  it  right  away  after  school. You  mentioned  like  how  your  brain  worked  and  how, and  what  fit  your  perhaps  personality. Like,  what  sort  of  qualities  did  you find  or  what  sort  of  strengths  did  you  find that  you  were  able  to  pull  out  from  the  field  that  you're currently  in  that  perhaps  you  weren't able  to  fulfill  with  some  of  these  other  career  paths? It  was  sitting  down  with  my  own  physician that  I'd  known  for  years, and  I  was  talking  to  her  about  the  path  that  I  wanted  to take  and  basically  telling her  that  I  wanted  to  be  just  like  her, because  I  admired  her  so  much. And  it  was  kind  of  that  harsh  reality of  we're  all  so  different. And  if  I  could  go  back  and  do  it  all  over  again, this  is  what  I  would  do. And  she  kind  of  walked  me  through what  she  would  have  done  differently  and how  health  care  had  changed  in  her  30  years  in  practice. And  I  didn't  that wasn't  the  point  in  time  where  I  was  like, I'm  going  into  the  business  side  of health  care  That  was  just  kind  of  what grounded  me  to  start  looking  into other  parts  of  health  care. Because  at  this  point  in  time, younger  Holly  was  like, well,  it's  all  the  care,  it's  all  the  hands  on. I  want  to  help  people,  I  want  to  serve  people. I  want  to  do  something  for somebody  else  when  they're  at  their  weakest  moments. But  when  she  had  kind  of  gotten into  different  aspects  of  health  care, like  the  different  insurances  and  some  of the  things  that  we  really  want  to  help  patients  with, we  run  into  some  red  tape. Red  tape,  meaning,  you  know, maybe  it's  that  their  Medicare  or Medicaid  funds  don't  cover  certain  procedures, or  there's  policies  in  place that  cost  the  patient  a  little  bit  more, or  different  vendors  have  really  great  options. It's  just  that  they're  not  available  on  the  market  yet. I  really  started  to  dig  in  a  little  bit  more  to  what else  goes  on  in  health  care  that  impacts  patients  lives. And  that's  really  where  my  brain  started  to  take  on. Well,  what  do  we  do  for  this  red  tape? What  kind  of  solutions  can  we present  to  the  patient  that  are  available? Or  how  do  we  make  this  easier  to navigate  my  own  insurance? Because  as  soon  as  I  got  on  my  own  insurance, it  was  a  matter  of  the  medications that  I  routinely  take,  did  they  get  covered? Do  I  pay?  Is  it  $5  out  of  pocket? Is  it  $40  out  of  pocket? I  started  really  getting  into  data  and the  big  picture  of health  care  and  what  that  meant  for  me  as  a  patient, but  also  everybody  in  my  community  that  was  a  patient, looking  more  at  healthcare  as  a  system  and  how  to help  the  system  versus each  individual  patient  is what  I'm  hearing  you  talk  about. Exactly.  Yes.  To  pause  for  a  second, my  dog's  in  the  room  and  I  don't  want  to  totally  cool. As  beyond  the  nest  grows,  we  want  to  hear  from  you, Check  the  show  notes  for  how  to connect  and  share  your  raptor  journey. Now,  back  to  Holly  and  Rachel  as  they  delve  into success  coaches  research  and building  a  professional  network. Did  you  talk  to  your  success coach  when  you  were  a  student? I  did  a  ton  and  she  helped  me  a  lot. She  was  very  real  with  me,  which  I  appreciated. Yeah,  she  sat  me  down  and really  got  to  know  me  as  a  person  and was  always  that  like  devil's  advocate  of, are  you  sure  that's  what  you  want  to  do? What  about  this?  Did  you  think  about  this? Is  there  a  particular  memory  from  UMR, your  time  there  that  sticks  with  you  to  this  day, that  kind  influences  your  professional  life after  like  understanding  that  college  was  so different  in  my  study  routines  and  how  much  I  needed  to change  myself  and  you grow  up  once  you  leave  the  nest  or  home. I  think  getting  to  sit  down  with  individuals that  are  a  lot  like  you  but  also  so  different  from  you. It  was  nice  to  have  that  connection  at  UMR. Everybody  there  wanted  to  do  the  same  thing, but  not  the  same  thing. We  all  wanted  to  be  in  health  care, but  we  all  had  different  end  goals, yet  we  were  using  the  same  avenue, or  the  same  paths  and  the  same  tracks  to  get  there. I  think  that  really  helped  me  to talk  about  why  we  wanted  to  do  things. And  I  learned  a  lot  more  about  healthcare, actually  from  my  friends  and  the  people  that  I  met. As  well  as  things  like  just  ask  and getting  to  know  teachers  outside  of  the  classroom. For  example,  I  was  in  a  research  group and  getting  to  sit  down  with the  teachers  and  you  get  to  really  talk about  what  comes  after  college. Did  you  find  that  there  was a  pressure  to  move  on  to  further  education? I  know  you  mentioned your  interest  in  medical  school  initially, and  a  lot  of  healthcare  professions do  require  further  education. What  drew  you  to  a  different  path of  not  pursuing  further  education  after  UMR? That's  a  great  question.  I  think  there  definitely was  pressure  to  have  this  next  step  level, but  it  was  more  from  myself  than  it was  from  everybody  else  around  me. And  I  didn't  recognize  that  it was  from  myself  and  not  everybody  around  me. There  was  nobody  that  was actually  looking  at  me  and  saying,  well, you  have  to  go  to  grad  school  or  you have  to  go  to  a  professional  school, or  you  have  to  go  to  medical  school or  dental  school  or  what  have  you. I  think  it  was  just  the  pressure  that  I  was  putting  on myself  because  so  many  of my  peers  were  on  that  same  track. It  was  really  great  and  that  it  made  me competitive  and  want  to  do  as  well  as  them. But  when  I  took  a  step  back, it  was  still  nice  that  I  had  been pushed  so  hard  and  yet  can  still  have a  totally  different  angle  than  what  I had  originally  thought  I  was  supposed  to  do. Definitely.  You  mentioned  you  have  research  experience. What  research  did  you  do  at  UMR? I  worked  with  Dr.  Dunbar  and  Dr. Pretzel  and  we  were  studying  zebra  fish,  Danio. It  was  the  effects  of  group  learning. There  was  in  different  directions  that  that  group  took. When  I  had  left  it,  we  were  looking  into  whether or  not  you  could  have  a  tutor  fish to  teach  a  school  of  fish. It  essentially  to  see if  it  was  also  applicable  then  to  humans. If  you  have  the  tutors  trained  fish, does  that  group  learning  experience then  become  shared  with  the  group? Because  one  person  knows  it. It  doesn't  matter  whether  or  not they  were  trained  ahead  of  time  or if  it's  just  somebody  that's picked  out  of  a  group  to  succeed. That  was  the  first  time  that  I  was introduced  to  the  program  R, which  is  a  stat  program. I've  always  loved  math, but  I  hated  stats. Again,  that's  just  something  that's  in  my  nature. I'm  not  trying  to  like  yuck  somebody  else's. Some  people  are  really  great  at  it. I  didn't  do  well  with  it  inside  of  a  classroom  setting, but  research  allowed  me  to  actually  fall  back  in  love with  statistics  because  I understood  how  applicable  it  was. Oddly  enough,  I'm  actually now  in  a  Master's  program  that's health  informatics  and  that's  driven  off  of  statistics. Yeah,  I  guess  I  can  say that  research  carried  into  something  bigger. Wonderful.  How  did  you get  involved  with  your  graduate  program  now? That  was  just  something  I  did  on  my  own. That  was  after  I  realized  that  I  did  want that  bigger  picture  in  health  care  and understanding  more  of  the  market  side that  I  needed  a  master's  if  I  ever wanted  to  be  in  any  product  management  or  to  look  at something  as  a  whole  health  system. Ucb  had  a  specific  job  that  was  population  health. Ucb  being  the  pharmaceutical  company  that  I  worked  for, the  population  health  role  was  to  look  at patients  that  were  taking  medications  from  UCB. What  their  demographics  were, where  it  was  being  impacted, Which  physicians  prefer  certain  things over  another  in  like  treatment  regimens. Whether  it  be  through  research  and  proven  results, or  whether  it  be  through  the  data  that  we  get  or  collect, or  can  be  collected  from  pharmacies, I  should  say  we,  because  we  didn't  collect  it. That  role  opened  my  eyes  to  that. There's  so  much  more  that  goes  into  it  and  I wanted  a  role  that  was  closer  to  that. Without  being  in  pharmaceuticals,  I  definitely, I  think  have  found  more  of  my  niche  now  in  med  device. But  it  helped  me  realize  how  much more  there  is  to  health  care  yet. Again,  I  feel  like  each  day I  opened  my  eyes  to  more  things. Was  there  ever  a  time  where  you felt  really  nervous  about  initiating a  conversation  or  an  e  mail  before  making  that  leap? Honestly,  every  time  I  have  a  conversation, I  feel  like  that  comes  through  my  head. I  don't  know  if  I'm  like  the  extroverted  introvert or  an  introvert,  extrovert  that. But  even  this  interview  I  was  like, oh  man,  I'm  going  to  screw  something  up. I'm  going  to  say  something  wrong. That's  going  to  be  in. But  that's  never  the  point,  right? I  have  to  remind  myself, just  do  it  gets  easier  when  you  start  talking. Do  you  have  any  other  thoughts  of pieces  of  advice  for  students? Your  timeline  is  not  somebody  else's. It  was  advice  from  my  mom actually  about,  well,  you're  down  there, utilize  the  time  that  you  have because  even  though  you'll be  a  student  the  rest  of  your  life, you  won't  actually  be  labeled as  a  student  the  rest  of  your  life. That  really  stuck  with  me.  Definitely  take the  opportunities  that  you  can get  comfortable  with  being  uncomfortable. I  feel  like,  UM,  R  is  going  to  push  you  in  new  ways, college  will  in  general. That  said,  I  was  still  uncomfortable  at UMR  at  times  because  it  was something  that  I  wasn't  familiar  with. And  it's  really  easy  to  be, not  easy  to  be  ahead  of  classes  because  it  was  easy. It  was  just  that  it  didn't  challenge  you  enough. And  I  feel  like  a  lot  of  the  students  that  come  to MR.  Have  that  feeling  of  high  school  with such  a  breeze  and  things  went well  for  me  or  things  went great  because  I  got  into  this  awesome  school, I'm  on  my  path,  and  college  is  a  really  exciting  time. And  then  there's  going  to  be  a  time where  it  just  completely hits  you  and  it  comes  real  full  circle  really  fast. But  just  push  through  it. I  feel  like  any  uncomfort, really  just  pushes  you  to  be  that  much better  for  the  next  time  that  situation happens  and  you  grow a  whole  heck  of  a  lot  more  because  of  it. All  right.  What  do  you  wish  you  knew  as a  student  that  you  know  now along  the  lines  of  the  advice? Yeah.  As  a  student I'm  going  to  go  with  that  time  management  piece. Again,  I  feel  like  my  life  would  have  been  a  lot easier  if  I  would  have  understand  how  I  work. For  example,  for  me  it's  a  lot  easier  for me  to  do  25  minute  blocks of  really  hard  work  and  then  taking 5  min  and  then  coming  back  and  doing  another  25. I  worked  very  cyclical, but  I  didn't  understand  that,  apologized  like, okay,  I  need  to  spend  4  H  studying  for  this  all  at  once, and  then  I  can  switch  gears  and  study  2  H  for  this. And  some  of  my  friends  were  really  great  at  that, so  I  thought  I  should  be  really  great  at that  and  I  wasn't. I  think  finding  something  that worked  for  me  was  a  big  deal. Thank  you,  Holly.  It  was  great  having  you  out  here. Congressional  for  sure. A  big  thank  you  to  those  who  built  beyond  the  nest. Rachel  Wynne,  Jenny  Casper,  Molly  Olson, and  most  importantly  to  all  the  Amara  Lum  who  are rising  to  the  grand  health  challenges of  the  21st  century. Stay  tuned  for  the  next  episode  of  Beyond  the  Nest.