| Todd Sanders: | 00:00 | Welcome to the Let's Talk Business, Phoenix podcast. Today, we are honored to have Molly Stockley who is not only an Athena from this year, our businesswoman of the year, but also with CTCA, and we're going to go into that a little bit. Welcome.
| Molly Stockley: | 00:16 | Thank you.
| Todd Sanders: | 00:17 | So nice to have you here with us.
| Molly Stockley: | 00:18 | Thank you, honored.
| Todd Sanders: | 00:20 | Obviously, we can look you up on CTCA's website and find out all the wonderful things about you. I will say that everyone's bio is really what your mom is really proud of, but I think what we might want to know is tell us something about you that's not on your bio or your resume.
| Molly Stockley: | 00:35 | Ooh, that's a good one. Well, I've been married to Bob Stockley, who is a fourth generation Arizonan, by the way. And together, we have two boys, a nine year old, who is Jacob, and 11 year old, Jackson who were born in Scottsdale, Arizona, makes them fifth. And I'm a sports mom, a very proud sports mom. So baseball, basketball, football, all those fun things, I just love doing it all with my boys. And so when people ask me outside of what I do for work, it is being a sports mom, and I love it.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:07 | That's like a full-time job.
| Molly Stockley: | 01:08 | It is. I love it.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:09 | Well, I know your husband was at the Athena event.
| Molly Stockley: | 01:11 | Yes.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:11 | But I think your son was, too. And he was quite the gentleman.
| Molly Stockley: | 01:15 | Yes.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:15 | He was helping greeting people as they were coming into the event.
| Molly Stockley: | 01:18 | You made him feel like a rockstar.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:19 | He's awesome.
| Molly Stockley: | 01:20 | He got the background tour, he loved it. Now, the time Jacob, my little one, did not want to miss his math class. So he did not
| | | come to my awards, but the whole time Jackson was so excited and still to this day, he says, "Mom, the day they called your name," he said, "I was trying to keep it together." And it was just really cool having your little one, see you in that realm, because he sees me as a mom running around being a sports mom. So he got to see me in my professional stance.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:49 | Well, it was fantastic. It was so fun. He added a lot to the day.
| Molly Stockley: | 01:49 | Thank you.
| Todd Sanders: | 01:52 | Well, so vice president of marketing, CTCA, but yo had an interesting career path. That's not where you started, talk to us about what that path look like.
| Molly Stockley: | 02:03 | Sure. So I'm originally from New Iberia, Louisiana, and I can remember being 15 years old, cheering on the football field at New Iberia's Senior High School, thinking, see that sportscaster, that's what I'm going to be. And that's what I did. I entered college, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a mass communications person. And I remember the day after I graduated, I knocked on the door at KATC, Channel Three in Lafayette, Louisiana and said, "Put me on air." And they did. And they did.
| Todd Sanders: | 02:34 | Now I know where your son gets it.
| Molly Stockley: | 02:36 | Exactly. So I took that. I thought the whole time I was going to be a sportscaster. I did that for four years. I was in Lafayette, Louisiana, Oklahoma City, Seattle, Washington, during the 1995 Seattle Mariners during that time with Randy Johnson and team. That was a lot of fun, but I wanted to get into major league sports. So I got on with the Lake Elsner Storm, which was a minor league team for the Anaheim Angels. So I got my taste of major league baseball and minor league baseball, which was so much fun.
| Todd Sanders: | 03:08 | Is it what you expected?
| Molly Stockley: | 03:09 | No. You don't have a path like that. When people ask me who are in sports, "I'll tell them open up your mind and your doors will come. They will open for you. You don't know where you're going to end up." And now I'm vice president in marketing for Cancer Treatment Centers Of America, the enterprise. How neat is that?
| Todd Sanders: | 03:28 | Well, it's fantastic. And first of all, huge fan of the work at CTCA. But sports to cancer treatment centers, how did that happen? What was the connection there?
| Molly Stockley: | 03:40 | Well, the neat part is with my roles in sports, not only on television, as a reporter and as a marketing executive with the minor league and major league team, I have to get you to not watch this team and watch this team. So it's direct to consumer. And so when I came across Cancer Treatment Centers of America, when they found me, I was actually at a tennis championship in Surprise, Arizona interviewing John McEnroe and the chief marketing officer of Cancer Treatment Centers of America was watching me do this interview. And at the time, I worked for Channel Three and CW Six here and afterwards, he pulled me aside and said, "Now, what do you do?" And we talked through that and he said, "Well, we're opening up this hospital in Goodyear, Arizona." I said, "Wonderful." And he said, "We're looking for a director of marketing."I said, "Great. I'll tell my friends about it."
| Molly Stockley: | 04:32 | And during that time, I had lost one of my best friends to cancer. And I remember walking out... Well, the funny part of this story too is it was during 2008 where it was recession during that time, of course. And I needed a cameraman to come and record me at this. And I literally called Bob who I was dating, and he runs a company and I said, "Bob, I need you to come and pretend like you're my cameraman." And he set it up, and we did it. And I remember walking out and I told him, "I met the chief marketing officer." He said, "Molly, it's your sign. You've been looking for your sign. And you just found it now, what do you do with it?"
| Todd Sanders: | 05:09 | Absolutely incredible. What a fantastic story and you're right. There's no linear careers. Absolutely.
| Molly Stockley: | 05:17 | Keep your eyes open.
| Todd Sanders: | 05:17 | Well, I love that. And of course, we also have John Macarro, huge Macaro fan. So how did that journey lead you to Athena?
| Molly Stockley: | 05:31 | Wow. This is a wonderful story, and I said it in my speech. Well, I remember when I was hired as the director of marketing for Cancer Treatment Centers of America, and I remember sitting there, again, no healthcare experience, all sports, and I thought, okay, I'm direct to consumer. How do I get to the consumer? And I wanted business women. I wanted women who are leading this community, and I started Googling, and guess what
| | | popped up? It was a 2008 Athena Awards. I called. I said, "We want to be a sponsor. Let's get in there." And I attended my first one in 2008 when Dr. Candace Lu won. And I remember sitting there thinking, oh my gosh, I have to do more. These women are incredible. The stories I heard, the paths that they took.
| Molly Stockley: | 06:23 | And every year since then, I would either attend or watch or follow up or seek after, thinking to myself, I have to do more. And it was really a motivator for me. And then 13 years later, I get to sit here with that amazing title as the private Athena winner, and it was overwhelming and amazing.
| Todd Sanders: | 06:45 | Well, it was well earned.
| Molly Stockley: | 06:45 | Thank you.
| Todd Sanders: | 06:47 | And I like what you said when you started looking at women leaders, because we I think have such an abundance of strong women leaders here in Arizona. That is I think one of our strengths and probably why the Athena program has been so successful over time. So thinking about the professional side and the personal side, how has that contributed to your success?
| Molly Stockley: | 07:13 | Well, over the years, like I said before, no one had nominated me, and I had not nominated myself for the 13 years. But if I heard a great story, I would reach out to that woman. Carrie Martz is one of my mentors in fact, and quite a few of my mentors have either been nominated or became a recipient or won. And so I always helped use that as a guide to, I want to get to know her, what more is out there?
| Molly Stockley: | 07:39 | Sue Bla is another mentor of mine, and she's the one that instilled in my head you can be a part of the community, but you better get your hands dirty. You better get in there and help. And so that's how I used that. And then when I was nominated by a woman who had actually heard me at one of your events, the Professional Alliance Women's event, and she nominated me, I thought, wow, I need to do this. And she didn't know me. That was the neatest part. So my message to everyone this past year about Athena is find those unsung heroes, those women who are doing what they're doing, who are amazing and just going about, find them so we can celebrate them.
| Todd Sanders: | 08:22 | So true. Interesting when you talk about Phoenix, you obviously aren't from here, you came from Louisiana. What I hear
| | | consistently, and we had a conversation with a mayor talking about when you come here, it's a great place to be new. No one cares what school you want to necessarily, what your last name is, they only care that you want to get involved, and it's easy to do here. Did you find that to be the case?
| Molly Stockley: | 08:46 | Yes. What I love about this community is people are looking for genuine leaders, not somebody to just put your name on a resume or win awards. What I learned is everyone here is genuine and will help each other. Brenda Howard is another woman who I met through American Heart Association through The Heart Ball. She said, "I love you, Molly. Let's do great work." And she helped guide me, and same thing with all my other mentors. And it almost became a pay it forward.
| Molly Stockley: | 09:15 | So that's how I always follow. Women that I meet who ask me to mentor them, or maybe women that I reach out and say, "Do you mind if I mentor you?" My goal is always to help that woman get forward, and men too, go forward so I can sit back and smile and say, "We did this. We all did this." And when I say we, I mean the community, because that's how ingrained we are.
| Todd Sanders: | 09:42 | You talk about mentors and the importance of being a mentor, and I couldn't agree more. So what advice would you give, you mentioned young men and young women, what advice do you give them in terms of their careers? Clearly, it sounds like you talk about don't expect a necessarily linear career. What do you tell them?
| Molly Stockley: | 10:03 | Well, first of all, I want to get to know them. What are they looking for? Let's look at the big picture. I'm a big picture person. I can literally see far into the future what something will look like, but let's figure out how to get you there. And then along the way, things may change. But the neatest part about mentoring is helping somebody find their inner confidence, their inner strength, their inner I can do this. That's the number one thing. So many of the people, especially women, they have a lot going on in their lives. A lot are mothers, they're up and coming in their career, maybe they want to get more involved in the community. It's really talking to them about where they see themselves, and let's put together a plan to help them get there. And you can do it. That's the thing. Never think that you can't. If you put a negative thought in your head, that will go out in the universe. So let's always say we can, we will.
| Todd Sanders: | 10:59 | I like that. You have to stay motivated. There's no question. And some days are hard, no question. How do you stay motivated?
| Molly Stockley: | 11:06 | I get to go to work and look at all the amazing patients that I and my team help bring in, because we are not only marketing to bring to patients in Arizona, these patients are coming from all over the country to come to our Arizona, to come to Maricopa County, to come to Goodyear. And that's where I get to look around, and my secret is I always go and get a coffee at 7:30 in the morning, talk to some of the patients, ask where you from, how did you find out about is, the stories, and that's what motivates me. I get to help people. And this is a life and death type of situation, but just to be a part of their journey and helping to make their journey improvable, every day, I'm grateful.
| Todd Sanders: | 11:52 | Absolutely correct. There's no question you're changing people's lives on a daily basis. You mentioned your son and the day of Athena. I love this event, and it is probably one of my favorites. Talk to us about the process. What's it like? If people are out there thinking, oh, I got nominated, I'm not sure. And then tell us about day of. What was that like?
| Molly Stockley: | 12:15 | Well, I'm so glad you asked me about the process and the journey, because again, I remember getting the email saying I was a nominee and I thought to myself, oh boy. Because I've seen this 13 different times. And I had talked to a couple of my mentors who have been chosen as Athenas or were nominated, and they said, "Molly, it's a journey." And I kept thinking, what do you mean it's a journey? It is a journey, because it is about what have you done in leadership, mentorship, and community. So I would lay out a sheet of paper and I would just write down every day, what did I do with leadership? What did I do in community? What did I do in mentorship.
| Molly Stockley: | 12:51 | Throughout that time, I had a good month and a half to put that together. And then I started writing it and building it. And I did hear from people before, "Oh, it's hard to write about yourself." It is hard to write about yourself, but you need to pull yourself out and write as if you are helping someone write. And I put it all together. I put everything, and that's the journey, everything on paper.
| Molly Stockley: | 13:14 | When I lost my friend to cancer, I put that on paper. I put the times that celebrities to moms and dads will call and ask how can their loved one get into CTCA? I wrote everything. I put it all out on paper and that's your journey. You put it on paper and
| | | then you send it in. But then it's leading up to it. And when we had to do the 20 minute interview with the panel and you guys, I'm sitting there looking at the 2008 winner that I saw win as well as Kathleen Duffy, who I saw win and Sue Pearl, who I saw win. And I kept thinking, oh my gosh, I'm in the hands of rock stars right now.
| Molly Stockley: | 13:53 | And the first thing, one of the things they asked me about being Athena, I said, "This is our World Series. Literally, all of us women are on this World Series team right now. Your job is to pick that MVP, but we're already on the team." And that's literally the way I felt. But when you're sitting there, I remember I watched the video of myself, which is crazy in itself-
| Todd Sanders: | 14:17 | During the event.
| Molly Stockley: | 14:17 | Yes, during the event. So I'm at the event and I'm sitting there and I just said, "God, if this is where I need to be, this is where I need to be." And I had this overwhelming just calmness.
| Todd Sanders: | 14:28 | Well, you had a huge cheering section.
| Molly Stockley: | 14:28 | Yes, I did.
| Todd Sanders: | 14:28 | You really did.
| Molly Stockley: | 14:30 | So fun.
| Todd Sanders: | 14:30 | It was awesome, it was right outside of the room. I remember looking over there.
| Molly Stockley: | 14:34 | Oh yes. And I had girlfriends of mine, Brit Voice was probably that voice that you heard. And then Jackson, my 11 year old and my husband and you guys, when they called my name-
| Todd Sanders: | 14:44 | What did that feel like?
| Molly Stockley: | 14:45 | It was like my body came out, and I remember my hands going up to my face, and remember, I have been trained to speak on TV. And my husband looked at me and said for the first time, "You're not completely poised as you are." He gave me my glasses so I could read. my speech, and then my 11 year old hugged me. And you guys, it was the coolest thing. It was the coolest thing because the next stage, you know what my boys gave me? They gave me a little doll of Bow Peep from Toy Story. You remember that?
| Todd Sanders: | 15:21 | I remember that.
| Molly Stockley: | 15:23 | Bow Peep's skirt is her cape, and that's what they gave me after I won. Right there, sums it all up.
| Todd Sanders: | 15:31 | Well, and it was spectacular. And you're right, and you can't prepare for it.
| Molly Stockley: | 15:36 | No.
| Todd Sanders: | 15:36 | How has it changed? How's that year been?
| Molly Stockley: | 15:39 | Oh, it's been fun. And what I want to say too, it's what you do with it too. So with you guys, with the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, the way that you push it out, and it's in the media and everything, and since I came from the media, I said, "This has been a bucket list of mine. I'm going to run with this."
| Molly Stockley: | 15:57 | So I made sure to get all the information out for all three of us. So Scottsdale picked it up, different media picked it up, but the best was my hometown, The Daily Iberian-
| Todd Sanders: | 16:09 | I saw that.
| Molly Stockley: | 16:10 | Did a two page full spread. Our picture was so big on the front and that has just gone wild. And it just goes to show, of course, you want to make your parents proud, but you got to make your community proud. And my community is Louisiana and Arizona, especially Goodyear, but I am still running with it. You're going to see us on a couple of TV stations coming up before the October event. We have some articles in the work, but it's all about what you make of it. But this is the pinnacle. This is the pinnacle. So make it work.
| Todd Sanders: | 16:42 | Well, I'll tell you it was cool because I was preparing a little bit and I saw that article.
| Molly Stockley: | 16:48 | You did?
| Todd Sanders: | 16:48 | It was awesome. It was very, very cool to see that. Well now, I imagine maybe you were thinking back in '08, there's probably somebody watching this thinking there's no way. What does it take to be Athena?
| Molly Stockley: | 17:06 | Well, you already have it. If a woman is sitting there thinking, well, I don't know if I can do this, dig in, make it your journey. Like I said before, start writing down everything that you've
| | | done. How have you helped your community? How have you helped someone? How have you helped not only in your leadership, are you a pinnacle in the industry that you're in? Write about it. Talk about it. And it's not being arrogant at all. This is because the way I feel is someone is watching me. Just in the case of Ashley who watched me, and nominated me, somebody is watching. Somebody is saying, "One day, I'm going to be like her." This is how you pay it forward by bringing yourself forward with your story.
| Molly Stockley: | 17:49 | My story is, I thought I had an amazing career in sports, and then I lost one of my best friends, Christie at 28 years old to cancer, and I thought to myself, how do I keep her going? And then I end up at a cancer center as a VP there and every person I meet is my Christie, and I just sit here and I say, "Oh, look what's happened." It's your faith, and the universe brings it all together, but don't be scared. Submit. That's what I tell people, submit. And I'm very excited for this next year because I reached out to a lot of those unsung heroes that would not normally submit for themselves.
| Todd Sanders: | 18:26 | And there's so many.
| Molly Stockley: | 18:26 | And they're there. They're coming.
| Todd Sanders: | 18:29 | Stories are always... You find them, right?
| Molly Stockley: | 18:32 | Yes.
| Todd Sanders: | 18:33 | I love the story about your sons, and we talk a lot about how you'll see how young women can learn from this process. What about young men, can they learn anything from this?
| Molly Stockley: | 18:43 | Absolutely. Well, that's another thing, too. Confidence. I had a mentee. His name is Diego. Quiet, smart, young. He came on our team and a month later, he was up in front of a thousand people speaking at an event, and he didn't think he can do it. But guess what? After he got off of that stage, he said, "I can do anything." And now he's excelling. Now I have to keep up with him.
| Molly Stockley: | 19:10 | So it is about finding your person. And so meaning, is it a mentee? Can you be a mentor for someone or even a mentee still to this day for someone? Just pay it forward. Use your skills to help someone pay it forward.
| Todd Sanders: | 19:25 | Well, I'll tell you, there is so much about this program that I think we love, and there's so many things that we don't even think about, and the impacts are so significant. Let's talk a little bit about your role. I know we heard a little bit, but tell us what's happening over at CTCA.
| Molly Stockley: | 19:43 | Sure. So I've been at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, now City of Hope, for 14 years, and now I'm in the role of overseeing all the regional marketing for not only our hospital in Goodyear, but also our hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, in Chicago, Illinois. So over the whole enterprise. So I'm working with those team members to come up with strategies for those areas. So that means if you really want to know marketing terms for Chicago itself, there are 14 different DMAs and states that we're working on. Atlanta has 15. Over here in Arizona, we're focusing on another 12. So we pretty much have the whole United States, and so I'm working with the teams to strategize on finding those patients who need cancer care all under one roof.
| Molly Stockley: | 20:30 | CTC only treats cancer. We are an expert in that, and so that's what I do there. Now part of City of Hope is the big thing I keep saying, because we were bought February One. City of hope has an amazing amount of clinical trials, BMT, which is bone marrow transplants. They're nationally and internationally known, just ranked number seven in the country. So to have that backing a part of being of CTCA, again, I've been there from the start to now, it's just amazing what we're going to be able to do and how many people we're going to be able to help.
| Todd Sanders: | 21:05 | Absolutely. Are there any thoughts, obviously during the time that it's been in the valley, it's been more of a West Valley type of organization, any thoughts about perhaps expanding outside of-
| Molly Stockley: | 21:17 | Yeah. Well outside of Arizona? Well, we are in Arizona, and we have three outpatient care clinics. One in Scottsdale, one in north Phoenix, and one in Gilbert. But it's interesting that you say West Valley place, but people come from all over the country to come to that hospital there. So I don't know. You'll just have to hang with us and see how we do.
| Todd Sanders: | 21:35 | Excellence matters, right?
| Molly Stockley: | 21:36 | Yes, it does.
| Todd Sanders: | 21:37 | Excellent. Well, I want to thank you for spending so much time with us today. We're going to finish up with a quick lightning
| | | round. Easy questions. Since you are a sports fanatic, we're going to start with the first one. Super Bowl's going to be here very soon. What are your predictions? Who's going to be in that game?
| Molly Stockley: | 21:54 | Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. There we go. Arizona Cards knows. Although I am from Louisiana, the New Orleans Saints of have always been in my heart, but Arizona is my team. From the leadership to the players to how ingrained Larry Fitzgerald, although he's not playing anymore, what a great representative of what we have. But oh, come on Cardinals. We're going to be there.
| Todd Sanders: | 22:18 | All right. Well then this might answer the next question. Favorite Arizona team?
| Molly Stockley: | 22:21 | Cardinals. Cardinals. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love Derek Hall. Yes. They're number two only because I really loving the Cardinals.
| Todd Sanders: | 22:32 | Absolutely. And I think we might have heard that, but first job, was it with the radio station, I guess when you graduated, but any jobs before that?
| Molly Stockley: | 22:41 | Well, no, that was it. Because I was a cheerleader, played softball, played tennis. And back to that story real quick, when I was cheering on the field and looked at Mac McCullough who I wanted to work with and said, "What do I do?" And he goes, "Yeah, come to my office the day after you graduate." And literally I went the day after I graduate. That was my first job, and he threw me on air.
| Todd Sanders: | 23:04 | And does he know the impact you had?
| Molly Stockley: | 23:05 | Yes. It's just amazing.
| Todd Sanders: | 23:06 | Okay. And you can't say this job so.
| Molly Stockley: | 23:09 | Okay.
| Todd Sanders: | 23:09 | Dream job?
| Molly Stockley: | 23:11 | Oh boy, that's a great one. I love healthcare, and I am a huge veteran and military fan. I want to work and I continue to work right now with veterans in the military.,And I really do think that's a dream job, because I know I can make impact and just be able to help those who have served us. That's my dream job.
| Todd Sanders: | 23:34 | 100%. We don't do enough for our veterans.
| Molly Stockley: | 23:36 | We don't.
| Todd Sanders: | 23:36 | And then finally, first car?
| Molly Stockley: | 23:39 | Oh my goodness. A white Geo Spectrum. Do you even know what that is?
| Todd Sanders: | 23:43 | I do.
| Molly Stockley: | 23:44 | Okay. The day I got it, I lost the pedal, and I had to drive around with a metal piece, right there. My girlfriends are going to laugh about that, because it's my little Geo Spectrum, white with blue interior.
| Todd Sanders: | 23:56 | It got you through it, right?
| Molly Stockley: | 23:56 | With no radio. And then I had to put a radio in.
| Todd Sanders: | 24:00 | I hope it had air conditioning.
| Molly Stockley: | 24:00 | Yeah, it did. Thank goodness, Louisiana.
| Todd Sanders: | 24:01 | There you go. Well, it's been such a pleasure to speak with you, to have the opportunity to learn more about you. Obviously, we got to know a lot about you during the Athena process, but it's certainly been wonderful, and thank you for being such a great ambassador for us and for the Athena program.
| Molly Stockley: | 24:17 | Thank you so much. And I'm looking forward to this year. These women are going to surprise us all again Thank you.
| Todd Sanders: | 24:22 | Thank you.
| Todd Sanders: | 24:23 | Well, thank you all for joining us. We look forward to seeing you at the next one. You can find more episodes at phoenixchamber.com. We'll see you soon. Take care.