¶ Intro / Opening
Well, hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, host of the MGMA Podcast Network. And today we're doing a member spotlight podcast, and we are spotlighting the early careerist resource group here at MGMA. May going be going, what is that? But we'll get to that.
We have, in the last year or so, we've launched several leadership resource groups. And before the end of this, I am going to drop links to those resource groups in the episode show notes. So you may see a resource group you identify with or wanna be a part of, and that's one of the things we wanna do here. Last week, I had the opportunity to talk to someone with the AAPI leadership resource group, and that was a lot of fun having that conversation. So let's get back to the early careerist group.
¶ Introduction and Overview
This is a space specifically for members 35. It allows them an opportunity to connect, get support, and navigate the real world challenges of starting and growing a health care career. Today, we have a panel. These are folks who are our group's volunteer facilitators. First, we have Agnes Etiquari who has her MHA. We have Melinda Mastel who has been on the MGMA podcast before. Melinda has her MBA in CMPE. And then finally, Tori Cordova. She has her CPPM, CPC, COC, CHONC. Wow.
You need a second line for all these, Tory. That is impressive, and I'm so glad to have all three of you here today. So let's just get started, everybody. What I wanna do first, though, we're gonna talk a lot about the Early Careerist Resource Group, but let's kick it off just so our audience can get to know each of you a little bit better. I'm gonna start where I can see y'all first.
¶ Meet the Panelists
So Agnes, if you wanna kick this off, just tell them a little bit about your background in health care and where you are today and what you're doing.
Yeah, of course.
My name is Agnes Hidde Carey. I'm a Director of Performance Improvement and Project Facilitation here at PPOSBC Melody Health in California. I've done a wide range of things between primary care, specialty care, surgery within FQHC's academic medicine and ambulatory surgery centers. So I have a wide range of practice management, operations and project management in healthcare.
Perfect. And I'll go with Melinda next. I know you've been on the show before, but for our listeners, give them a little bit about your background.
Absolutely. Yes. My name is Melinda Mastel. I am in the Southeastern Wisconsin area. I work at an academic medical center where I've been for going on nine years now, time flies. And I'm primarily in a financial management role, but I really touch a little bit of everything. So a little bit of jack of all trades with HR operations, communications, strategic planning, a little bit of everything. And I love the variety.
Wonderful. And then finally, Tori, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Yeah, I'm Tori Cordova. I am currently a senior manager of practice administration at a multi site cancer clinic in Colorado. I have a lot of experience in practice management, revenue cycle, and also operations. And I've been in my current role for about three years, but been heavy on the revenue cycle side for a lot longer than that. So Well, Tori. Yeah.
Tori, I just learned something. You're a neighbor. You're also in Colorado. Where are you located?
I am in I live in Fort Collins, Colorado, so about an hour north of Denver.
Okay. Perfect. Yeah. I've got some friends yeah. Some friends that are up there at CSU. So good to have you here as well. Didn't realize you were in the state. So good to see you there. Alright. Well, let's start with the basics, y'all. As I mentioned earlier, we are really spotlighting our resource groups. We want people to know about them. We want those MGMA members to know about them. So let's talk about the early careerist resource group. Melinda, let's start with you on this one.
What's the vision behind it? Anything else you might wanna share about that particular group?
Yeah, absolutely. So as you mentioned, we were founded as one of several different MGMA resource groups. And the idea is really to invite collaborative peer led discussions on topics that are relevant, in our case, to those earlier in their career. So as you mentioned, it's roughly that age 35 and below demographic. So people who might be just graduating from school or from graduate school who are starting out their careers, maybe transitioning into their first leadership role, that's a lot of who we kind of cover.
¶ Understanding the Early Careerist Resource Group
So we held our first discussion sessions at the twenty twenty four MGMA Leaders Conference last fall, and we'll be at this fall's MGMA Leaders Conference as well leading some sessions there. So look out for us on the schedule. But we're also keeping the discussions alive in between the conferences with quarterly Zoom sessions now. So we're doing virtual discussions, and really focusing on a specific theme or topic each time. And the idea is really to just share insights, practical tips, ideas, our stories and experiences, and get some good conversation going around those.
So we might share lessons that we've learned, what we're experiencing in our own roles, and just encouraging learning from one another. So there's no need to be an expert or come with all the answers. The idea is really that we each have something to share and contribute to this space. And the goal or vision is really to help people feel connected, have a welcoming space where they can come share questions. Maybe you want to bring something outside of your organization for a different perspective, different view, a different take on it, and just help people talk about upcoming trends and get some new ideas that we can bring back to our workplaces.
Let me follow-up then. So y'all had something, as you mentioned, at the past leaders conference. Y'all also I think you were combined with the late careers group at the summit. Is that correct? Okay. Then as far as the sort of Zoom meetings that y'all have had, how many of those have you had?
We've had two so far, and then our next one will be coming up in July.
Okay. Great. Yeah. So everybody, I'll bring this up again, but the next meeting is gonna be July 8. That's a Tuesday, and it'll be at 3PM eastern time.
You're gonna be able to register at mgma.com/events. What we're gonna do is we're gonna put a direct link to that event so you can go right to it and register for that. And I'll put a reminder in that again before we sign off today. So, Agnes, I'm gonna direct the next question to you. So all of you are working closely with early career professionals.
What are some of the biggest challenges you see them facing in today's health care environment? You might even want to throw in what the challenges you're personally having out there. But tell us a little bit about those challenges that y'all are encountering.
Yeah, of course. So absolutely. Some things I've heard from healthcare professionals, especially in our ambulatory surgery centers, our health centers and practices, is the balancing act of healthcare as a business and healthcare as a service. We all aspire as a career in health care to make impact, and the reality is health is still a business. So many professionals are dealing with trying to keep up with the innovation that's happening in health care and really leading their teams to that change and the regulatory compliance along with it.
Some are also dealing with navigating their professional role, whether it's trying to navigate and how to show up in a complex organisation or complexity in payers and relations. Really trying to navigate those fields, along with managing the numerous tasks that they have on them between the administrative burden, the organisational mission that's driven that they have to work on. Some are also dealing with being accountable and responsible for things for the first time in their new role. So we're really trying to be multifaceted and trying to give them the options and the support with all the different topics that they're dealing with.
¶ Challenges Faced by Early Career Professionals
Okay. Great. I'll just throw this out there to Melinda and Tory. Any challenges that y'all see out there as well? If not, we can move on to the next question.
I think it's just this eternal, especially from the financial perspective of doing more with less and just constant optimizing process improvement and creative thinking to try to innovate and bring new services to the forefront while also having real constraints that we're working within. So that's a great reason to kind of share best practices and ideas with other people.
Yeah. Love that. Alright. For our next question, Tori, I'm gonna direct this one to you. Let's talk about what a meeting looks like when y'all have met.
I think Melinda had mentioned y'all have had two in those Zoom rooms. You had the live energy of leaders conference, had people there physically in that space together, which is a really neat kinda really feel that difference in the energy when you're there in person together. But, when someone joins a meeting, what's something they should expect, Tori? And then can you walk us through the format and how those conversations typically go?
Yes. So when someone joins a meeting, we usually have a presentation prepared ahead of time. The topic is usually chosen based off of suggestions that the, early careers submit when they fill out the survey that's sent to them, or we present our topics that, you know, we feel strongly about, networking, AI using AI is a huge topic recently. So that's kind of some topics we've talked about you recently. We look for feedback and open dialogue and discussion from the group.
¶ Meeting Format and Topics
I think that sometimes it can be a little bit quiet at first, but what we're here for is to support these other careers to join our group. So feel free to ask questions at any point throughout the presentation. It's not super formal. It's just there as a tool to help guide the conversation.
Oh, that's awesome. Alright. Thank you so much for sharing that. So, Melinda, I'll direct this one to you. Tori was mentioning AI as a theme and a topic that keeps coming up. What are some of the other themes, topics that just they just keep surfacing? They are like perennial questions that are topic areas that people want to talk about? Tell us about that.
So we've really had a wide variety, I would say, of questions come up. So we've been all over the place. A common one is discussing the transition to leading people from an individual contributor role, establishing your leadership presence also as a younger leader in that space, and then also navigating multi generational workforces. We have had questions about career paths, specific education certifications, things like that. So we've walked through some of that since we all have experience in that realm, how to stand out in the fields, how to differentiate yourself early on, and then also covering things like goal setting, really practical topic there.
What does emotionally intelligent leadership look like? And then as you mentioned, AI is on everyone's mind right now. So in our most recent presentation, we went over how to tie in goal setting and leadership with AI prompting and went over some tips and strategies for that. I think Agnes might have some additional things to jump in with.
Yeah. I mean, I think along with everything you mentioned, Melinda, a lot of our participants are really requesting relationship building and networking. I think that's something that we're really focusing on for our next session, along with how to workshop even some of the real time issues that they're dealing with in their respective roles because they really want that q and a and that feedback and brainstorming from their colleagues. A couple more topics that we're adding.
Yeah. Agnes, I want to stay with you for the next question. So for anyone who's listening who hasn't joined yet, maybe they're unsure it's for them or for whatever reason, what would you say about the value of showing up and being part of this group? What's the selling point for this Early Careers group?
Yeah. I mean, being a part of this group gives you that small group dialogue that you can foster connections and growth with other professionals in your field and industry. Because I know sometimes you may feel a little uneasy talking to others or so. So having that small group discussion with others in that same group as you is really helpful, And I think you'd enjoy that. They'd enjoy that.
Yeah, love that. Either Melinda or Tori, anybody have any other things they want to add about the value of the group?
I would say just come and try a session. Give us your feedback. Let us know if there's something you'd like to cover or learn more about, because we're happy to help facilitate a discussion around that. We're really here to make this valuable and impactful for you. And just like Agnes said, it's low pressure and we are really focused on fostering those real connections and relationships that people can take away and hopefully continue outside of this resource group as well.
¶ The Value of Joining the Group
Yeah. And those are the main questions I have, but I wanna have a little fun with this y'all. So I'm a bit of a sci fi fan, so we're just gonna imagine we have time machines or if we could somehow teleport and have a conversation with our younger selves. So this is our bonus question. So if y'all could go back and give your early career self one piece of advice, what would it be? Tori, let's start with you.
What a great question. I would tell myself not to rush the process. I have always been one who has big goals and big dreams and ideas, and there's no correct way to always do things. And I think that was a difficult lesson to learn. And if I had just known that from the start, I might have saved myself a lot of headache, but just, you know, trust the process.
¶ Advice to Our Younger Selves
And you don't need to have everything figured out right away. And just always be willing to learn. I think that's a key thing as not only a leader, but just navigating life in general.
Yeah. I I love that. And it's one of those questions where it's fun to think about it, and then we can just, like, beat ourselves up. Like, why didn't I tell my why didn't I know to do this? Why didn't I know to do that? But I love that answer, Tori. So thank you for that. So let's hear from Melinda next. What would you tell that younger self about your early career, you know, that advice you'd want to give that younger self?
Yeah, it was really fun to reflect on this one. I have a couple of things. Would say first, like define success for yourself because it looks different for everyone. So don't be afraid to create your own path. It's okay for your journey to look differently than you might have at first thought or different than someone else's.
I would also say really identify and follow trusted leaders and learn from them. I think I did that well, but I would definitely go back and encourage myself to really prioritize that. And then just be yourself, like own your strengths, find them and just own them and how that makes you your own leader and gives you unique value. I think that's a big confidence builder.
I love it. All right, Agnes, you get the final word.
Yeah. I mean, I think I would tell my younger self that failure is necessary for success. I think early on, I'm used to just doing things right correctly the first time. So I struggled when I didn't get that buy in from my team or a process that I put into place didn't work. But honestly, you have to fail forward. So I think telling my younger self that just fail forward, learn, adapt, be agile, it'll help you become a better leader.
That is so cool. Well, Agnes, Melinda, Tori, thank you so much for hanging out with us today on the MGMA podcast.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Alright. Well, everybody, that is gonna do it for this episode of the MGMA member spotlight podcast where we get to tell the stories of MGMA members. In this particular, episode, we're looking at the, early careerist resource group. And so be on the lookout for all of our resource group episodes that are gonna be coming out this year. We're gonna have a lot of fun with those and bring a lot of awareness to just a great opportunity to network with people you see as peers.
Until then, just be on the lookout in the episode show notes. We're gonna connect not only to how you how you can register for, the next event, and let's bring that date up again. It's Tuesday, July 8 at 3PM eastern time. Again, you can go to mgma.com/events and navigate to the registration for it, and I'll make it super easy and put it in the episode show notes as well. So until then, thank you for being MGMA podcast listeners.