Announcer: Welcome to Business Life 360 with Kristi K., where we cover trends and impact in the world of business.

We get to know CEO leaders and innovators, and we see firsthand how business and life connect.

(Music) Business like 360 with Kristi K. is made possible in par by KeyBank National Association trustee for the Walter E Cahoon Memorial Fun and ProMedica Toledo Hospital, celebrating 150 years of serving our community.

Also by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Kristi: Welcome to Business Live 360.

I'm your host, Kristi K. On this episode, it' all about leadership and impact.

We'll meet American pollster and political and communication consultant doctor Frank Luntz, and we'll talk with the president and CEO of ProMedica, Arturo Palsy.

And we'll meet the CEO and founder of Children's Discovery Center, Lois Mitten, Rosa Berry, along with a special international guest who's been impacted by the philanthropic efforts of Roseanne Barry.

Each of the leaders will meet.

Exemplifie what it takes to face difficult and seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Yet by building a strong team, developing strong business strategies, and setting clear goals.

They work tirelessly to find strategic solutions, achieving success and impact in their worlds.

So kick back, relax and come along with me.

It's all right here, right now.

This is business life.

360.

He's made a career of using the power of words.

Testing them in focus groups and using them for impact on public opinion and emotion in political campaigns and presidential debates.

A national leader in the communications field.

Doctor Frank Luntz once said, 80% of our life is emotion and 20% is intellect.

And I'm much more interested in how you feel than how you think.

He's been credited with changing the term global warming to climate change, and his sometimes controversial style has drawn national attention, as he has consulted for influential political candidates, including George W Bush.

Newt Gingrich, Ross Perot Pat Buchanan and Rudy Giuliani.

So let's head out on locatio to meet the astute, sharp witted doctor Frank Luntz.

Doctor Frank Luntz, it's great to have you here on Business Life 360.

Frank Luntz: It's a privilege.

I hope that I can live up to that bio.

Kristi: Listen, let's dive in.

In reading that bio.

I would really like to know, for the purposes of being succinct how do you describe what you do?

Frank Luntz: I'm a word guy.

Literally two words.

Someone needs to do a speech for a wedding.

Someone needs to do a toast for a business.

An issue needs a sentence or a paragraph or a page to sell itself to the public.

That's my job, is to find the right words.

Kristi: So why words?

Frank Luntz: Sometimes the communication is not based on issues.

It's based on visual.

So I'm wearing a tie of little soldiers here.

I don't have a sport coat because I want to project and informality.

You're very striking.

You want to project an image of authority and knowledge or wisdom.

Everything that we do the words help.

But the visuals are so much more important, particularly to people under age 30 who don't read anymore.

Kristi: It's not what you say.

It's what people hear.

You say that all the time.

So why did.

Frank Luntz: A lot of money off of that.

Kristi: Still working for you?

So why do certain word carry more weight than others?

Frank Luntz: Because they mean more.

I'm sorry.

I made a mistake.

I learned my lesson.

How can I make it up to you?

Or how can I make you a whole?

Will you forgive me?

Five different ways to apologize.

And each one of them, in order, makes the apology that much more serious and that much more credible.

They're saying the same thing.

But the first one says I'm an idiot.

The second one says, I've learned from it.

And each one of them is a progression that says to the person I want to make you whole again, knowing that it sometimes takes that much makes you a better communicator.

It's all true.

It's all authenti because God help you if you lie.

The public can tell.

Kristi: What do we talk about?

Influencers in the medi or podcasters or what have you.

Is it who is saying it?

In other words, for example, are certain influencers when they say it?

Does that mean it.

Kristi: Necessarily true?

No.

Because of who's saying it?

Frank Luntz: Not really any more because they don't trust anyone anymore.

And in fact, if you still have that credibility, if you still have trust, there's something special about you.

One of the greatest challenges of the last ten years is that trust and credibility have been decimated by politicians, journalists.

People in the news.

By the way, even this thing right here, and this is one of the problems that people spend so much time on their phone that they stop seeing reality and they spend their time looking down rather than looking around.

That also kills our credibility because it kills our attention span.

We've been lied to.

We've been misled.

And worst of all, we've been betrayed.

And so we tend not to want to get burned yet again.

And that makes communication so difficult.

Kristi: Speaking of trust when it comes to the media's use of emotionally charged or biased communication and words, that is truly shifte the trust in our institutions.

So what role do you think word choice plays when it comes to driving polarization.

Frank Luntz: It' tremendously important.

Is it.

And the state ta which is a tax on rich people, or is it a death tax which is a tax on dying.

It's the same thing.

But it has a different focus.

Is it global warming with scares the hell out of people.

Or is it climate change which seems like a scientific or a health situatio rather than an immediate threat?

Is it government takeover of health care or government control of health care?

Is it?

By the way, I'm tracking this right now.

Is this a sparkling beverage or is it carbonate it because of it's carbonate.

It's got chemicals.

If it's a sparkling beverage, it's a party in a beverage.

Just these little things.

Is a gambling or gaming.

How you term how you phrase i determines how people see you.

Kristi: For sure.

So perception is reality when it comes to words.

Frank Luntz: Yes.

But reality needs to be the truth.

And I'm so devoted to this right now.

I'm still doing interviews like this.

I've had two strokes in the last five years.

And so it makes my life that much more difficult.

But I feel like it's that much more important.

We have to get the truth back.

We have to be on a relentless pursuit of the truth.

Not as we see it, but as it actually is, because that's the core of our democracy.

That's the core of our society.

What makes America so great?

It's not our income, it's our guns.

It's not all wars.

And our military might.

It's the idea that we have more trust, more faith and trust in each other that we will help each other when we need it.

Kristi: Doctor Frank Luntz, thanks so much for being on business Life Basics.

Thanks for all you do for our world.

You're making it a better place.

Frank Luntz: I don't do enough.

I'm determined to do more, but I appreciate that.

Kristi: Thank you.

He's been the presiden and CEO of ProMedica since 2022, leading the organization through post Covid 19 pandemic challenges.

Remarkably, he and his team have turned an unprofitable health care system back to profitability.

And he continues to build a health care delivery system of clinical excellenc for those living in our region.

So let's head out to ProMedica headquarters for my interview with ProMedica president and CEO Arturo Pulizzi.

Arturo, it's great to be with you here at the ProMedica headquarters.

Arturo Polizzi: It's my pleasure to be with you.

Kristi: Tell us about your leadership prior to coming back here as president and CEO.

Arturo Polizzi: Oh, boy.

I go back a ways.

So I go back to 1998.

Here at ProMedica, I started right out of law school.

I started actually as an intern in the legal department.

I was here at ProMedica for 20 years in various capacities.

After about 13 years, I moved out of the legal department and started moving around.

My predecessor in this role.

Randy Ostrom, was a great mentor for me and really encouraged me to get out and about, get my MBA, which I did up at Michigan.

And then he afforded me a lot of opportunities in human resource and then ultimately operations.

And then I got an opportunity to be CEO of a system down in Cincinnati.

And I learned a ton about myself and my leadership style.

And how to manage board relationships and things like that.

Managed strategy.

Kristi: So then in 2022, you came back here and it was post-pandemic.

There were fiscal difficulties everywhere here.

What was that like as you stepped back into ProMedica post-pandemic from when you were here previously?

Arturo Polizzi We were losing a lot of money.

We had a lot of debt.

So the environment here was stressful.

So as I cam in, I had a lot of relationships from my previous time here at ProMedica, so that helped me get into the mix pretty fast and really try to figure out who's who, what's what, and how do we start to formulate a plan to get out of the financial situation we were in?

It became apparent pretty quickly that we had to take actio and we had to take action fast.

Kristi: So many health care organizations didn't survive.

Yeah.

So really, when you look back at that, what is your takeaway in terms of what you did?

Well right away.

Was it those outside entities that you worked with?

Was it the team?

All of the above?

Arturo Polizzi: Yeah.

So the restructuring plan really was to focus back on our hospitals and doctor and our memory care facilities.

At that time, we were huge, where $7 billion company, we had nursing homes, we had an insurance company.

And we really wanted to focus on what we do well, which is hospitals, doctors, memory care.

Those are the things we did really well.

So it was really divesting everything else.

We were able to adapt really fast and that gets back to that team.

Kristi: So how has that refocusing really streamlined business operations and even things like community engagement and impact?

Arturo Polizzi: Yeah.

I think it' helped us, you know, this focus, instead of being a mile wide and an inch deep, you know, now we can dig a lot deeper into northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan on what we're doing.

We still have a lot of community impact initiatives out there.

Rusty bide who our children's hospital is named after a benefactor, from gosh, is probably ten years ago now when he gave us that big gift.

You know, we've got a couple Ebeid neighborhood promises one here in Toledo in an urban setting and one in Adrian, Michigan, in a rural setting.

And Russ, his mantra was a hand up, not a handout.

And he was very much focused on education.

Let's help folks in these communities who need help get educated financially, clinically, wherever we can, help provide some education and a hand up.

Let's do it.

And so we're doing a lot of that work still in different communities.

And we have a lo of other initiatives going on.

We've got a great mobile care unit with the Ronald McDonald Hous that goes into different areas of northwest Ohio, which is fantastic.

So we've got a ton of stuff going on, but now it's more local versus national.

Kristi: When it comes to the different specialties Cardiology.

Neurology.

Oncology, orthopedics, children's.

How do you go about attracting the best specialists and really creating top teams that make a difference for the patients, but also s that people living in our region can stay in our region and get their care here.

Arturo Polizzi: You know, the way we drive it is just what you set through those service lines.

We have formal structure and all of those service lines heart, neuro oncology, pediatrics, orthopedics and we have physician leaders in all those areas.

We pair them with administrative leaders, and we have a strategic planning department who works with all of them to make sure we're staying state of the art in everythin we're doing, including research.

So it's through those plans that we're able to stay state of the art and do the high level stuff that we're doing.

It's and what was great, even during all of our restructuring, we never stopped any of that.

All of that kept rolling an we kept investing in our people.

We keep recruiting top talent and top talent recruits top talent.

So, you know, our physicians recruit their friends.

So when you have great talent, it attracts others.

And that's been a very good progra for us on the recruitment side.

And we've stayed very strong in that space.

And we invest in a lot of technology to state, state of the art.

You know, one of the things we're most proud o is our robotic surgery program.

We are one of the top programs in the country with robotic surgery.

Kristi: As you talk about that and delivering the best clinical care you possibly can.

I'm interested in understanding, you know, you're starting to build a culture of that.

And as you said, sort of that that begins to build upon it, you know, sort of with each other.

Yes.

But how do you continue to do that day after day, year after year and keep that culture thread in throughout the years and the generations?

Arturo Polizzi: Yeah.

Well, what we do i we create a very formal process through our strategy department.

So every year we've got a calendar of appointments.

So you got to show u and you got to make your pitch.

And if you're not being aggressive enough we'll push you.

If you're being too aggressive we'll pull you back a little bit.

But we try to be very deliberate in those planning sessions to make sure we're pushing enough to make sure we're staying on to of what's coming down the road.

Kristi How has the patient experience in your mind evolved through the years?

Arturo Polizzi Well, that's a great question.

The patient experience, I think, means different things to different people.

You know, if you're trying to get, an X-ray done you want to be able to schedule that really easily today.

You want to be able to do that online.

If you're in a hospital, you want to make sure your meal is hot and your meal is good.

So it kind of depends.

I start when I think about our experience.

I start with safety.

We have a culture of safety within our organization.

I think that's really important.

Whether you're in a physician's office or in one of our hospitals.

Safety first, and then the experience for me is once you're in our walls, we take great care of you, an our people are great with you.

Well, how it's evolvin right now is through technology.

What we're trying to make very easy for the consumer is to schedule an appointment to do a telehealth visit.

If you want to see your doctor or your caregiver virtually.

We're trying to make that very easy to do and really anything else.

Pay your bills, everything through that app.

Leveraging technology is where it's evolving, and we're trying to stay on the forefront of that.

Kristi: What have you learned the most about yoursel personally and professionally?

Arturo Polizzi: You're capable of a lot.

You just got to stick to it and keep grinding.

If you're hones with people, clear with people, even if they don't agre with you, they'll move with you.

It's impossible to get 100% consensus all the time, but you got to get enough and you got to have people respect you enough and trust you enough to take the leap.

Kristi: And you do that so well as a leader.

You see people, you hear people.

You have that emotional intelligence that really makes you an incredible leader.

Arturo Polizzi: Thank you.

Kristi So thank you for being with us on Business Life 360 and for all you do for this region and beyond.

Arturo Polizzi: My pleasure.

Kristi: And no let's head back to the studio.

In 1982, Lois Mitte Roddenberry founded Children's Discovery Center, a business that grew into a successful premier early care and education provider in our region and beyond.

She's an educational icon and is committed to excellence, innovation and being distinctive in the world of childhood education.

Lois Roseberry.

Welcome to Business Live 360.

It's so great to have you here.

Lois Roseberry: Thanks, Kristi.

Kristi: Lois, you have had an extensive background in early childhood education and of course, a love of children.

So we really want to know about those early days as you were thinking about Children's Discovery Cente and how you really got started?

Lois Roseberry: Well, as you said, Kristi, it was the year 1982.

Interest rates were 18 to 21%.

My husband was unemployed.

My parents were making our house payments.

My daughter was on free school lunches, and on top of that, I was eight months pregnant with my third child.

Kristi: Oh my goodness.

Lois Roseberry: Certainly not a good time to start a business and expect to succeed, but I couldn't think of a better job for this pregnant mom.

Kristi: And I really want to ask you two about female entrepreneurs.

When you first started, were there many?

And did you find that to b a benefit or maybe not so much.

Lois Roseberry: Well, because it's childcare, there were a lot of business leaders who were women.

But I was invited to join a women's business group.

But I turned it down.

Kristi: Because.

Lois Roseberry: Because I said I don't want to limit myself to women.

We have a lot to learn from men as well.

And I've taken that approach.

And really, men have supported me in ways I could have never imagined.

Kristi: I like that a lot.

Now you speak to business organizations often and you talk about three points to success.

I've heard these and I love them.

And please share with our listeners and our viewers what your three points to success are.

Lois Roseberry: Excellence is our mantra.

Innovation is our distinctive and faith is our foundation.

Kristi: That's incredible.

And something else.

Lois, too, is following the succes of Children's Discovery Center.

You became extensively involved in something called Missio International, which is a US based nonprofit partnering with Romania for abused and traumatized girls in something that is called the Deborah House.

How did you get involved in that cause and why?

Lois Roseberry: When 1995, I wa asked to give the commencement address at Eastern Nazarene College in the Boston area.

And at that time they told me about the program that they had started in a place called Sequoia, Romania, where their students had learned about the plight of the children in orphanages in Romania based on 202 Dateline or 60 minutes stories.

And they started this study abroad program where their students could go and model best practices there, in the hospitals and in the orphanages.

And they invited me to go.

And while I saw that, you know, the horribl conditions in those hospitals, I also was taken out to around my village.

And there I walked along a stream that was littered with cans and trash and learne that was their drinking supply.

I then went into one and say, where are my homes?

And I learned that one of the children had died there because the child was bitten by a rat.

And the student who took m said, if only I had a four wheel drive vehicl to navigate these muddy roads.

She said I know I can make a difference.

I could take seeds and I could help them plant a garden, and I could improve their nutrition, and I could help them in so many ways.

I bought that.

And knew I had to keep coming back.

But my church in this area was also supporting a mission in another part of Romania.

Close to the Hungarian border.

So I thought, well, when I'm over in Romania, I should go visit that.

And there I saw the center fo boys and it was called a NASA.

Brothers and their boys were homeless and and had been street boys and had been brought in to a residential facility and I said, why isn't there a program for girls like this?

I wrote the first check.

Through these years, there have been close to 200 girls who, as you mentioned earlier, have been sexually trafficked or have been abused, who became, it received the counseling and the hope and the healing through their time at the Deborah Center.

Kristi: We are so lucky.

On business life.

360 to have a young woman who went into Deborah House and was able to really change her life around who is with us today.

So let's bring her on and talk more with her.

Lois Roseberry: I'd love that.

Kristi And now from Timisoara, Romania, we are welcoming here to the set.

Doctor Morella really welcome.

Dr. Mihaly: Thank you.

Kristi: It's really nice to have you here.

And we were just talking about Deborah House and the incredible impact it has had on young women.

And you were in Deborah House.

Please tell us a little bit more about perhaps why you were there an how your experience was there.

Dr. Mihaly: I arrived at Deborah House in 2009.

Yes.

My childhood wasn't so happy.

My parents were struggling with alcohol addiction.

And things at home were going worse and worse.

I started to work at just 11 years old, and all the money I earned, my mother would take from me to take by herself, you know, for herself.

Cigarets and alcohol.

At the age of 13 years old, I was sexually abused by a neighbor.

I got a charge at the age of 13 with the help of the church.

And the pastor from there.

And they helped me, you know to arrive at the Deborah house.

Kristi: How was your experience once you arrived there?

Dr. Mihaly: There.

I found, you know, Joy and I found the, you know, the powe to pass through to the people, who came with Deborah House through the themes from the United States and with the help of the counselors and everything.

So it helped me to grow and to heal and to to be what I am today.

Kristi You have done some great things since being at Deborah House.

Tell us about your life now and what you have been doing since leaving Deborah House.

Dr. Mihaly: In 2013.

I started medical school.

It was challenging.

With the help of God and with the help of so many others behind me, I made it.

Now I' in my final year of residency.

Internal medicine.

Kristi: Congratulations.

Dr. Mihaly: Here I am.

Kristi: And, Lois, how does this make you feel?

Lois Rosenberry: When I see Mirella, If we can make a difference in one or in 100.

I know that is what God has called us to do.

You know, I think it's entrepreneurs, Kristi.

We have a role to give back and to make that difference.

And clearly, that gives me sense of satisfaction of knowing that we have made a difference, not only here with the local charities such as the YWCA, but also worldwide with children, that we are raising them up to a higher leve where they believe in themselves and they have a better career.

Kristi: And to Lois it has been remarkably inspiring to not only learn how you began Children's Discovery Center with the many challenges you faced, and then seeing how Deborah House has grown to support girl who needed refuge and healing.

Marella.

What a story of courage, o overcoming and now of fruition.

Thank you for sharin your transformative experience and your story of hop and realization of your dreams.

And thank you bot for being on business life.

360.

Effective leadership shows up in many styles and unique philosophies, but always with a strong work ethic, resilience, and goal that lead to impact and success.

Where there is a clear strategy, a strong team and the drive to make a difference.

Success is inevitable.

And that's a wrap on this episode of Business Life 360.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about the exciting leadership, innovation and strength in business occurring right here in our region and beyond.

I'm Kristi K. and I'll see you soon.

Announcer: Connect with Kristi K. on LinkedIn at Kristi K. Hoffman.

And here, The Business Life 360 with Kristi K..

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To watch previous episode and more, visit our website at org.

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Wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Business like 360 with Kristi K. is made possible in par by KeyBank National Association trustee for the Walter E Troon Memorial Fun and ProMedica Toledo Hospital, celebrating 150 years of serving our community.

Also by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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