Tonya J. Long: 0:06

Welcome home friends. I'm Tonya Long, and this is RESET, where purpose meets possibility. Each week, we share conversations with thought leaders, innovators and the dreamers and doers who are reshaping the future of work, technology, longevity and purpose. Whether you're navigating AI's impact, reimagining your career or searching for deeper meaning, you're in the right place. So settle in, open your mind and let's explore what happens when purpose meets possibility, happens when purpose meets possibility. Hello everyone and welcome to RESET with Tonya. And we are here today on KPCR 92.9 FM in Los Gatos with our special guest, Melinda Yormick, and we're here to talk about RESET, pivots and transitions, and Melinda has had so many interesting transitions just in the last couple of years. We'll talk more about it through the show, but Melinda is a perioperative nurse turned tech CEO, building AI to improve hospitals and save lives, so we are thrilled to have her here. Her journey has brought her from across the states to Seattle, now into the Bay Area, and she's making a difference on so many different levels, and we're thrilled to have her. Melinda, welcome to the show Tonya.

Melinda Yormick: 1:35

thank you so much for having me. Thanks for creating this space to let others share their journeys and their RESET.

Tonya J. Long: 1:42

You know, we all should take a deep breath in life, because that is what this is all about creating spaces for each other, and spaces for each other to share. I've been doing a podcast for a couple of months now on this and it's been remarkable what people have described having the opportunity to share their journey. So tell us a little about what you've been up to. Why are you here Not in this room here at KPCR 92.9, but why are you here in the Bay Area? What have you been working on?

Melinda Yormick: 2:12

Yeah, so I am building a company called CLARA with an absolutely amazing team of folks that have been in industry and building tech previously. So essentially what CLARA is is we get people and things to patients when they need it most in hospital, and that is a result of my own experiences throughout being a travel nurse, being a nurse manager in operating rooms and just coming to a place where realize there's a significant gap in the way that we serve.

Tonya J. Long: 2:52

Now, I'm aware of your origin story as it comes to what led you here. Can you share that with our audience? What brought you and why that moment became your? Why?

Melinda Yormick: 3:03

Absolutely so. You know, after I've been a nurse since 2012, and I have worked at over seven different hospitals as a travel nurse, when I moved out to the West Coast just trying to figure out what hospital system I want to settle down at, and I was able to look at these organizations from what's the same, what's different, what leadership styles and structures I liked, and what I realized was you know, there are a lot of similarities across the board Decided to settle down in organizations that I felt were innovative and wanted to support constant improvement. And my most recent position, where I was running an operating room, I had a patient that lost his life because we couldn't get the right people with the right skill set and the right equipment to him when he needed it most. And this was an elective procedure and really, after doing root cause analysis determines, you know, we can do something. There is technology available to us that will allow us to change healthcare.

Tonya J. Long: 4:04

You have a way on your website of describing your product that's very consumer aware. Do you want to share that little? It's not a tagline, but it kind of.

Melinda Yormick: 4:15

Yeah sure. So we say oftentimes, we say Waze or the Waze app plus air traffic control, and what that really means is the experience of using the application is similar to how you would use any GPS, apple, google Maps outdoors. And we want that because we want people to have a familiarity, we want it to be really easy to use and we want them to be able to get where they need to go seamlessly. But then we add the air traffic control layer, which means that we, through our knowledge of critical clinical workflows, join that with something that is familiar to people and provide a wholly new standard of care Excellent.

Tonya J. Long: 5:04

You know I try by design to have very little to do with hospitals, but I now have you as one of my friends and colleagues in the ecosystem that we have here, and I have a best friend from undergrad who is the leader at HCA down in Miami for nursing quality. So I have just a little bit of touch on it. And when I think about, like you have a patient who's coding and they don't have a defibrillator in every single room, that's just not practical from an expense standpoint.

Tonya J. Long: 5:32

So to be able to have sensors on things with our newly evolving technologies and to be able to know the nearest defibrillator, is you know three doors down in that supply closet or a resource, a particularly skilled physician in a crisis moment, to be able to have the sensors on their badges that say, oh, dr Smith is in between procedures and he's on a break, he's in the break room and be able to get him to a patient fast. It's just remarkable to think about how that could enable saving lives in a very real way, right.

Tonya J. Long: 6:09

And then frustration. We're all pretty aware there's been a nursing crisis, and to think about them being able to get what they need and not experience what you did, I think makes them feel better about what they're able to do every day makes them feel better about what they're able to do every day.

Melinda Yormick: 6:26

Absolutely, Absolutely. The key story that goes along with the event that I was sharing was we literally could not get the airway cart the emergency airway cart to the patient Intubation. If you watched ER back in the day, okay, and the code response team was unable to find the patient that was dying and this is a standard operating room and it's across the board, this is not just one hospital.

Tonya J. Long: 6:45

So I understand. Yeah, you're not picking on anyone. You know that it's a problem that routinely is an issue.

Melinda Yormick: 6:51

And we didn't have the technology to do this till recently. And even the technology that's out now is not structured appropriately for hospitals, and so we are building specific for health care. We want to provide hospitals with white glove services in this area.

Tonya J. Long: 7:08

Let's take it back to you, because this was a RESET for and this is all good, I just wanted it to be ground context for our audience. You went to school for several years to become an RN and then you progressed in your career. You managed the OR, become an RN and then you progressed in your career. You managed the OR and then you decided to fix something which meant you had to leave that behind.

Tonya J. Long: 7:31

So what was that emotional journey like for you to make that decision and then go into this abyss that is entrepreneurship? What was it like for you, from an emotional perspective, to make the choice to move career-wise?

Melinda Yormick: 7:45

Yeah, I would say that I didn't necessarily realize it while I was doing it, but I was always an entrepreneur and I was always looking at problems and wanting to solve them and not feeling like that wasn't my job, and so it was a process of, like, getting creative, finding the right teams to work with, and so this transition from the perspective of problem solving wasn't as challenging. I will say that what was the biggest hump for me to get over was this thought that everyone was going to think that I was crazy. Why is she walking away from this perfectly good leadership track? She's got a great team, she's doing wonderful things, exactly, and that stability and I couldn't not do it, so I had to be okay, with people looking at me a little funny. That was huge.

Tonya J. Long: 8:51

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Understandable. So you transitioned careers, but it occurs to me that you also felt compelled to start your MBA as you started a company. I would have advised against that had I known you. Then you had to balance a lot. You had to balance a partner at home, a spouse at home, a career shift, and then you threw yourself into a competitive MBA program. What was it like for that pivot, for you to go back into a focused, applied set of academics MBAs are hopefully applied academics these days more than just research but what was it like to throw yourself from the chaos and stress of a hospital OR to the structure and rigidity of an MBA program?

Melinda Yormick: 9:45

Well, so I guess I'll take it back a little bit further, because you said you would have advised against it.

Melinda Yormick: 9:50

I will say that when I was first applying for this program, I didn't know that this was the direction I was going to choose. I was planning on climbing the healthcare leadership ladder. I wanted to be a chief nurse or some sort of operations. I have some mentors that have been really impactful to me along the way and I thought to myself well, I can be just like them, and so my goal was to get the MBA so that I could progress in my career in the health system. And when this happened that I started the program the exact same month as I was starting my company I had to shift my mindset and look at this as an opportunity to use my MBA to really fully understand the business, and it was an environment shift, though 100%, to have to go from being the expert to back to learning, and I had been learning more about the business of healthcare, but not about business more broadly. So it opened my eyes to that world and helped me embrace what I'm doing now.

Tonya J. Long: 11:07

How interesting my mental model was that you decided to build CLARA and went and got your MBA concurrently to build it. Well, but you found the vision for CLARA while you were in your MBA program.

Melinda Yormick: 11:21

No, I had applied for the program and I actually. This is a story that I don't tell often, but I'll be vulnerable here. So the first time that I applied for the program, they said, hey, because this is an executive MBA program, we either want you to have a longer time in leadership or a higher title and so I said okay, I will give you both. I took a promotion to go over to a different hospital and run the neural OR in the Interventional Spine Center, and this was where I had that patient never event.

Melinda Yormick: 11:57

So I had gotten into the program and then I realized that I needed to start this company.

Tonya J. Long: 12:14

And then I realized that I needed to start this company. So I shifted my mindset to say use this program to propel you to build a team and to make the oh. Everything's always been easy. They may not say it, you know, it may not be top of mind, but it's an assumption that, oh, they're just the chosen ones.

Tonya J. Long: 12:29

Things are simple and to hear that someone told you no, they didn't tell you no, they told you not yet yes, and you said I really want this. And you moved hospitals so that's like moving work families. So you moved hospitals, took a promotion, all in the name of getting into this executive MBA program For you. What was so compelling for you about getting that education? For anybody who's in our audience who might be on the fence, about the investment time and money of going back and getting more credentials on someone who's already highly credentialed?

Tonya J. Long: 13:06

like you were as an.

Melinda Yormick: 13:07

RN.

Tonya J. Long: 13:10

What did you believe that the MBA would do for you? I'm not trying to go down a rat hole. I just think it's probably a really good sign for other people of what they might need to do to get to where they're going.

Melinda Yormick: 13:21

Yeah, absolutely, and it's one thing that I think comes up a lot for me in conversation with coming from the nursing background, where nurses don't often network, they're not taught to network, they're not encouraged to do so, even internally, and one of the things that I realized very early was find people that are very smart and sit around them, and when I was thinking about this executive MBA program, I said I want to be in the cohort with the best of the best and I want to not just be learning from amazing professors, but I want to be learning from people that have real industry knowledge, and that was probably the biggest thing that propelled me to return to school.

Tonya J. Long: 14:19

So exposure to others and experience that's different than your clinical experience, right, others and experience that's different than your clinical experience and forced is a horrible word, but it is what propelled you into a completely different environment to learn. I love it. You are a founder and in the community that we spend a lot of our time in here in the Bay Area, founders have a lot less world experience. They might have gone through a master's or two, depending on the field, but I work with a lot of founders that are really early career and don't have the wisdom that you had from your experiences with people, with business, and I think it's remarkable that even with those I think it was 10 years that you had you still decided to tack on a different angle and approach for the MBA work. Do you think it paid off?

Melinda Yormick: 15:10

100%.

Tonya J. Long: 15:12

I guess that's an obvious answer, but how did that reinforce your success?

Melinda Yormick: 15:20

courses. Obviously that very much relate to what we're building at CLARA and helped us look at things, you know, not only through that financial lens but also through the operational lens and the problem solving lens, I would say. The other thing that was probably more strategic right from the start was wanting to work with certain people and work with them on projects for CLARA throughout the program and see what it would be like to work with them and see what value they would bring and what value I would also add for potentially being involved in their future through this company. So we were able to build the team through quite a few members of this highly experienced executive MBA cohort just really remarkable professionals.

Tonya J. Long: 16:21

You talk about it as if it was a very important part of your life. You light up other people that can't see you, that aren't here in the room you talk about it with and that was four years ago, maybe three years ago, it was not yesterday and you do glow when you talk about the experience.

Melinda Yormick: 16:38

So it says a lot it does. Yeah, we graduated in 2024,. But I have to say the people that, like I glow because I feel so proud that I get to work with them.

Tonya J. Long: 16:49

Yeah, I really do is right smack dab in the middle of Los Gatos and coming up on Saturday, april 26th, is the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce and I think it's the 15th annual Wine Walk that we're doing and KPCR will be involved. Keep in touch with our website and you'll see some of the activities that we're planning. We're looking for bands. There will be wine as part of the Wine Walk. If you're interested, there will be discounts at some of the stores here, but wine being poured at over 30 places. Now, to partake of the wine, you need a wine ticket, and that comes through Eventbrite, just so you can get to what you need for that Saturday. If you want to get a memorial glass and walk from store to store on what we hope will be a beautiful Saturday afternoon at the end of April.

Tonya J. Long: 17:47

So April 26th, the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce Wine Walk, I will be here. I hope to see you here as well. So back to you, Melinda. So we've talked about transitions out of a clinical role then into an MBA program, and then I would say your next big transition was from clinical managerial roles to entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship really is the abyss. What was it like for you moving from very structured you know what the protocols are when you have to be there, how much response time you need to your creating and crafting, your go forward as an entrepreneur. It's a big whiteboard.

Melinda Yormick: 18:38

What was that like? Viewed any leadership as creativity, as the ability to build something, and you have to do it together. So that is, I think, even in hospital, moving. I started in the operating room, right, and you need all of those pieces working together. It's an orchestration, and sometimes, of course, the surgeon has, like, the preferences and all of those things, but you have to be responsible to your patient, right, and so it's every person in there. It's their operating room.

Tonya J. Long: 19:29

Yes.

Melinda Yormick: 19:29

And it's their way of orchestrating that patient's care.

Melinda Yormick: 19:35

And so it went from that from bedside to team building right. So now we're seeing how can we provide the best care through building teams that have the right training, that are comfortable in the positions that they're in, and from there moving into COVID. How do we craft these solutions so that patients can flow through, so that we can care for patients that aren't sick, so that we can care for patients that are sick, so that we can fully protect our caregivers as much as possible? And that's all creation to me, and so I see it in a very global fashion where maybe sometimes people would see it rigid and structured, but I never have I think that's interesting because I had assumed it was really prescriptive.

Tonya J. Long: 20:25

No pun intended, and to hear you talk about it, you had a lot more agency than I would have expected in a large metropolitan hospital, so that's interesting. You just mentioned working with a team and how everybody on the team had roles to care for that patient on the team had roles to care for that patient.

Tonya J. Long: 20:43

It's the same when you're an entrepreneur building out your team, whether they're a direct team or outsourced to find the right roles and the right people and the right fit to create what you're creating. How did you transfer those practices that you built for team building when you moved into entrepreneurship?

Melinda Yormick: 21:10

So I'll go with one specific example. When I started, running a cardiac, thoracic and vascular operating room was my first large leadership responsibility, and we didn't have enough cardiac team members, and so you can't just automatically hire somebody and think that they're going to be ready to do cardiac surgery right, and also, in order to move other team members from different areas, you need to get permissions from the other areas they serve, and then you need to train them and you need to become the priority, and so I guess, in this way I will say, sometimes you do have to fight for what you need, and that translates very well into entrepreneurship, it sure does as you describe it that way.

Tonya J. Long: 22:14

I'm thinking corporate, corporate corporate my journey. So yeah, I see the parallels Keep going.

Melinda Yormick: 22:22

People sometimes don't listen to you or don't want to hear you until you've said it enough or the right way or, you know, made sure the correct. I mean, we talk like ICP right in business, so who's the person you're supposed to talk to? How do you have to speak to them? Um, what do they want solved? All of these things are essential, and for you to be able to make change in a hospital, you just have to do the same thing. It's just you're selling to keep patients safe. Right, I'm still doing the same thing. I'm selling to keep patients safe, that team building perspective. I think you asked, like it's, how do you also get people to do something really hard for a really long time when?

Melinda Yormick: 23:18

you know we're all trying to push for this great change and I think that's really what it is is that we all believe in what we're doing and we know that we can make this change.

Tonya J. Long: 23:23

I love it. I love it. So we just keep transitioning down your timeline for the last five years. You decided to make the move a temporary move. You moved, you left your husband and, I think, a dog in Seattle.

Melinda Yormick: 23:38

And a kid.

Tonya J. Long: 23:39

And a kid and a kid in Seattle. Okay, now I'm just surprised she's 50 and she's amazing All the conversations that you and I've had and I did not know that you had a daughter, because we always talk business, so shout out to your daughter.

Tonya J. Long: 23:53

I know Doug Rose, I love you Aw see, but that just it just amplifies what a sacrifice you made. I don't want to get all teary. What a sacrifice you made. I don't want to get all teary, but a sacrifice that you made to be here for the ecosystem that the Bay Area is, for entrepreneurs and to raise funding.

Melinda Yormick: 24:28

So I think my question is you moved from Seattle to San Francisco. What was that like? And I think that was earlier, that was six months ago or so. Yeah, I moved, uh. December okay and obviously went home for the holidays but um came back and stayed. I've been here ever since just really trying to and you're like a local.

Tonya J. Long: 24:37

I'll tell you. I see you at least once a week and you, you've really built a network here, as if you're going to be here and I realize you won't because you have a real life to get back to.

Melinda Yormick: 24:49

Well, you know though, okay, so this is not a nothing. Stop for me right Like this is where a lot of innovation comes out of and, at the very least, I see myself very often going back and forth. And you know this area, it moves things and it does.

Tonya J. Long: 25:12

It's remarkable to be here, isn't it?

Melinda Yormick: 25:13

It's compelled me to for sure know that I'll be back and forth quite often.

Tonya J. Long: 25:17

Yeah, and Seattle's no slouch when it comes to entrepreneurship, you know one of the companies I work with is headquartered in Seattle and they like to say they're the home of cloud, and I just zip my mouth. There are several large entities up there that have been game-changing for the world from the cloud side, but giving them credit for that still, you see the value in being here. And similar to the question about what did the mba take you into? What did moving to san francisco temporarily bring you into?

Melinda Yormick: 25:54

well, I know we've talked about it a couple times, but I did move into a founder house, oh my god, yeah, and so also known as a hacker house.

Tonya J. Long: 26:03

Yes, she's calling it a founder house, which sounds so much more pleasant. Well going with the professional. Yes, yes, yes.

Melinda Yormick: 26:09

And it was very intentional. I had originally found a different place and somebody which I loved, by the way, if you're listening, because she probably is but I wanted to be surrounded by other people that were building. Again, it's sit in the space, and so I will. One of the promises, actually, that I made to my team a while back was you can find me in the things, find me in the places where the things are happening, and that's something that you know. This journey is hard, and I think that gives you the best shot at being lucky, and so I'm trying to be lucky.

Tonya J. Long: 26:53

Wow, okay, and again it shows your amazing commitment to your journey. Just like leaving the hospital environment was a commitment, Getting an MBA was a commitment, now leaving your two peeps in Seattle to be here to get this done is an absolute heart and soul commitment for you, and that's remarkable. I think a lot of people don't realize the stories when we meet people around. Nearly everyone has made a big shift in their life, a big pivot in some way to be able to do this Right. What are you experiencing in the networks that you're participating in here that help you understand?

Tonya J. Long: 27:42

I actually remember. I was at a conference with you about a week and a half ago at the Women and Wealth Catalyst Summit. Yes, and I interviewed you there with my friend Nick Larson and Nikki Estes, and you said being here makes me realize I'm not alone.

Melinda Yormick: 27:56

Right.

Tonya J. Long: 27:57

And that was such a heartfelt statement because that entrepreneurial journey is so isolating. That's right is so isolating. That's right, unless you do what you're doing, which is to throw yourself out into these ecosystems to be able to help people and to be helped. So that's my, that's what I see in what's happening. What's your experience of what's happening?

Melinda Yormick: 28:21

Yeah, I would say that what you see is pretty well accurate. Listening to a podcast recently and I'm disappointed I can't remember the name of who it was but one of the things that she said was like realizing that you're not that special just allows you to get through more challenging things. And so coming to a place where you literally are not alone, like you are surrounded by other people that are just grinding out and pushing to find the success that they need for their companies, it just makes you realize like, oh okay, like I'm just doing normal things. Yes, they're hard, but I'm just doing the normal things to make the world go around.

Tonya J. Long: 29:09

I love it.

Tonya J. Long: 29:09

It reminds me in ways people would not understand unless they had lived there, being in Nashville.

Tonya J. Long: 29:15

I came here from Nashville and there were so many solid musicians, so many talented and creative artists who had put their lives since they were born. They were playing the guitar and there were remarkably talented people who would literally pay to sit in the Wendy's at the airport and play. You know, because that was the thing as Nashville started to develop more of a sophisticated tourism model, the airport put musicians in literally every little airport eatery that had any floor space and people would pay to be there. And at Christmas people would take almost no pay at the holidays to play at company Christmas parties or at people's homes at their larger parties. And I always thought it was just really sad because you looked at the big names in music and you looked at these other people who just didn't have a name but they had just as much talent, right, and every room they were in, just like for you and me here, every room that you're in is an opportunity for someone to see you and to take a gamble and make a bet on you.

Melinda Yormick: 30:23

That's right.

Tonya J. Long: 30:23

And it propelled those people hardest working people I've ever seen until I got here. And it's the same kind of mindset that I have a skill, I have a dream and everything I have is going into that dream. That's right, bet on me.

Melinda Yormick: 30:37

Bet on me.

Tonya J. Long: 30:38

Bet on Melinda Yormick. Seattle to San Francisco, I love it. So let's do a quick station check-in. We are at Pirate Cat Radio, that's KPCR LP 92.9 here in beautiful, clear day, sunny Los Gatos, and also KMRT LP and that's 101.9 FM out of Santa Cruz. We serve the Central Coast and the Bay Area with creative programming for what our listeners want to hear. And today I hope that you are enjoying hearing about RESET and Transitions with Melinda Yormick. From Bedside to Boardroom is what I titled our session A Nurse's Journey to AI Entrepreneurship. So we've been moving into a lot of conversations around your transitions, but for you personally, we talked about I called it the leap. You know you've made several leaps into new things, but now I'd like to switch it to be even more about you, for the personal transformation that you must have undergone with so many.

Tonya J. Long: 31:51

They don't feel like full pivots, but they are definitely life impacting navigational times to get to your, to where you're ultimately headed on your journey, right? So what have you learned about yourself? A and I hate this, but I will not just as an entrepreneur, but as a female founder. What have you learned about yourself while you've been raising capital in a very male dominated and I will not whine about it, but it's a very well-known stat 2% of VC funding goes to women and you are swimming upstream as hard as your little fins will go. So what's it been like for you as a female founder in an ecosystem with so much talent?

Melinda Yormick: 32:36

So I don't know if this is exactly the right direction to go with it, but I feel moved.

Tonya J. Long: 32:41

Every direction is the right direction. I'm going to jump.

Melinda Yormick: 32:43

So I have about 20 years of my life in martial arts.

Melinda Yormick: 32:49

Oh good, yes, yes. And so I have a black belt in Koshishori Rukempo and I have a fifth degree black belt in Blantwaka Srema. And these are not nothing, burgers. This is something that I feel really did prepare me for this. Luckily Nice, because I was surrounded by other very strong men, giant men. You know. I was teaching at various stages throughout, and one of my best students was like six foot two hundred and something pounds, 200 and something pounds, and, like you, just learn that you are to be respected in the space and you have as much right to be there as anybody else through that sort of play and interaction and coming down here. Of course, it's for a different thing and so thing, and so the activities are very different, but the mindset needed to be applied there and so that is the shift is how do I just show up, as this is where I'm supposed to be, and I think everything else follows from that.

Melinda Yormick: 34:08

This is obviously a tough market for everyone right, yeah right, but my goal is to show up and be present and be here as much as you know have a right to be here just as much as anybody else does.

Tonya J. Long: 34:28

I love it. I love it and I love that we were able to work in your martial arts story, because that is fascinating about you. Everybody has some little surprise bullet point on their journey and for me, you know, you surprised me today when there's a 15-year-old back home. But when I learned that you had martial art fifth degree black belt, that also was surprising. So I think everybody has stories when you take the time and make a space to listen, and that's what we're here for today, right?

Tonya J. Long: 35:01

So, as we keep focusing on you and your transitions and what you've learned through these RESET, being down here while you've got a husband and a teenager at home has to be tough, and you're living in a hacker house. I get to say that it's a hacker house with, I think, 30, probably mostly young, much younger men. So what's it like balancing? You know your daughter wants to tell you about what's happening at school. A 15 is an important age, yeah, um, and your husband just misses talking to you because you've been home for all those years. So what's it like balancing that with? We're pretty relentless down here. You know we're out every night in crowds to help people and to be useful in this world.

Tonya J. Long: 35:49

So, you're balancing two very different worlds. What's that?

Melinda Yormick: 35:52

like entrepreneurial journey, is framed in my mind as something that I have a great responsibility to my team to make go right, and I also have a great responsibility to my family, and so maybe in that way, that's where I find the balance, because, even though I'm not with them, even though I'm not talking to them as much, and even though, yes, as you said, I'm hustling every day, I am doing this for them, I'm doing this for my team and I'm doing this for a larger community, a larger global perspective.

Melinda Yormick: 36:50

That gives me stability and comfort, and I think I would feel less stable if I was not, if I shied away from doing something just because it pulled me away from those things that are quote unquote normal, and I know that there will always be some degree of difficulty in finding the right amount of time that somebody else needs. When people respect each other, when people respect each other, they take turns and they keep learning, and that's kind of the way that I look at it from a family perspective. I know, on the other side of this, what my husband, my daughter and I will be able to say that we did to make the world a better place will be a win for all of us.

Tonya J. Long: 37:44

Yeah, and I don't know what your daughter's talents or interests are at this point in her life, but I can only imagine seeing a mama out there doing all the things you're doing, not just to build a better paperclip, but to really shift the world and save lives and make a meaningful difference, and she must be so proud, thank you lives and make a meaningful difference, and she must be so proud.

Tonya J. Long: 38:08

Thank you, she's amazing, she deserves it. Yeah, wonderful, I love it. I love it. You've also I don't want to talk about self-care, but I stink at self-care, but I think you've developed some interesting hobbies or I don't know if it's a hobby or just interest that you've started exploring. I asked you when you were on your way here if you would share one of those hobbies with us. You want to tell us what you and is this a new thing, or is this something that you've been doing before arriving?

Melinda Yormick: 38:39

This is a brand new thing.

Tonya J. Long: 38:41

Yeah, ok, I felt like it was. Yeah so tell me what it is.

Melinda Yormick: 38:45

You know that I live in a hacker house, Call it what it is, yes, so I also take the bar to a lot of places. And one night got off and heard this noise and it was just like calling to me. And it was this woman's voice that was very powerful and beautiful and she was telling a story. So I walked over and realized that there were a whole bunch of people standing in a circle and if you go inside this chalk circle you can read poetry to the world, to this corner of SF, and it just made me think. You know, everybody has something to say and it's people in all different walks of life standing around this circle and listening to each other. And I thought that was amazing and for me, when I'm going through this journey and so often, like as entrepreneurs, they say it's a lonely journey Well, that's true, it's definitely there and sometimes you take in a lot and you need to figure out how to also let that out. So what was happening in that circle was spoken word poetry.

Tonya J. Long: 40:02

Okay, spoken word poetry, that's right.

Melinda Yormick: 40:06

That's right, and I was just so compelled that I went home that night and wrote a poem and went back the following week because they do it every Thursday at 10 o'clock at night and I read my poem and from there on I realized that this was really healthy for me to be able to get thoughts out that I didn't need to store inside as extra weight because I have a job to do.

Tonya J. Long: 40:33

Yes, I think it's remarkably brave. I speak on a lot of stages, but I speak about facts or I facilitate, and to me that's easy facilitate and to me that's easy, but to open up your heart and pour it into words, that you then deliver as an art form is remarkably courageous. Thank you, were you scared the first time you got up and started to with a mixed group meaning not everybody understands your journey right yeah, yeah.

Melinda Yormick: 41:06

I think there's very limited experiences that I can say that for the first time I wouldn't be a little bit nervous right so like for sure, like even though I was standing on a street inside of a chalk circle, I was like I've never done this before and I don't know if my poem is. If people are going to think it's terrible, right, it means something to me. But I think as you start, your voice might be a little shaky at first, and then you find your feet and then you start to get louder and you just again do that thing that I was talking about earlier, where you decide what I don't, I can't necessarily care so much like. This is my story, this is my journey, and some people are going to like it, some people aren't, and that's fine, and I'm going to speak to the world. So then I got comfortable then you got comfortable.

Tonya J. Long: 42:00

There's a term you're using that is not familiar to me. Are you saying chalk circle?

Melinda Yormick: 42:06

like chalk on a chalk board, like they were literally like kid, like kids chalk.

Tonya J. Long: 42:10

Yeah, yeah, they drew pictures and like all sorts of so is a chalk circle and I'm making this up I'm imagining like a big 50 foot circle that everyone stands within so that they're in hearing distance is that what a chalk circle is?

Melinda Yormick: 42:23

yes, so everybody stands outside of the circle outside the, the only person that can speak. It's like a TED stage Inside the circle.

Tonya J. Long: 42:30

It's like a chalk TED stage. You know that red dot that you stand on when you're doing a TED talk.

Melinda Yormick: 42:34

That's right. I love it, yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 42:36

This is very educational. I did not know about this. Would you like to share something with us today? I I gave you the option a whole 12 minutes before you arrived.

Melinda Yormick: 42:46

I would love to. So. This poem is called Perceptions. You wake up one day, even though you were already awake. This is eyes open, different. Today, the world is turning same as yesterday, but you are turning counter. You are ready to create, write something different under your name, something other than what fits in a standard frame.

Melinda Yormick: 43:30

I am not defined in a 4x6, a wallet sleeve or album fame. Sometimes we choose to fit because it gives us a safe space. Don't be scared when I tell you that never existed in the first place. My box only exists if you believe it's true, and your box only exists if I think so too. So let's stop asking questions and start stating facts, even if we are wrong about exacts, because my box was built by someone who didn't know that what they built cannot contain my soul. What we say today won't be perfect for tomorrow, but we cannot be afraid to turn counter. I tell you, glass ceilings aren't above my fingertips, rather under my feet. Looks like diamonds in the street, like the sparkle in your eye, the light in your smile and the feeling of freedom.

Tonya J. Long: 44:58

Wow.

Melinda Yormick: 44:58

Wow, thanks for letting me share that.

Tonya J. Long: 45:07

Wonderful and powerful and I know you saw me get a little teary. Um, I don't know what happened when I turned 50, but you know the tears I didn't shed the first 50 years just come so much more easily now when I'm moved by expression and thought and excellence, and so thank you for sharing.

Tonya J. Long: 45:23

And now my mind's racing a little bit. I can't help it. Wouldn't it be great to bring four or five people into this studio to share, and we have the creative license to do that here. Kpcr 92.9 is all about creativity. Some of its music, and I think that the spoken word would be welcome. That could be a very interesting thing for us to put together, because it touches so deeply into what people are thinking about, how they're feeling, the things they don't get to say in the normal course of their lives, right? So let's work on that. That would be a lot of fun.

Melinda Yormick: 46:01

I love that yeah.

Tonya J. Long: 46:02

Good, good. So, speaking of KPCR 92.9, I've just said how we foster, advocate and share creativity of all forms. We are a nonprofit community radio station, so we champion makers, creators like you. We have lots of emerging and underground artists, so I think you'd love this community. The sound of Pirate Cat is shaped by those who take part, and so not you, Melinda, but to the world that's listening. We invite that world to take part, but also not just to listen but to contribute. So we are a listener-funded nonprofit radio station and if you feel compelled, just go to kpcrorg on the web and you'll see little support buttons all over the homepage to contribute to keep this going so that we can do programs like the work that'll happen on April 26th at the Wine Walk, like pulling together creative artists of a different type, you know, not a band, but a group of spoken word artists. So if you'd like to contribute, we'd love to have you participate in multiple ways by listening and contributing at kpcrorg, by listening and contributing at kpcrorg, and just hit that support button. So I love what you just delivered. Thank you for that. Thank you.

Tonya J. Long: 47:39

Let's move out of that and back into, oh, the wisdoms of millennia. So I mentioned earlier. We've got a nursing crisis. We've got a lot of crises in different verticals and industries, with people that serve, that are on the front lines, right. What would be your advice to healthcare professionals who are thinking about transitioning or doing more to create change Healthcare? You and I are fairly technical, so we see what we can build and how we can redesign workflows to change how healthcare operates, to be better at diagnosis, prescriptive medicine, all those things but what's your advice to people who are kind of on that cliff of trying to decide whether to improve it or to exit it?

Melinda Yormick: 48:32

So I think that sometimes it's really easy to jump easy to jump and we all get ideas. And in healthcare there I mean, it's such a big industry and it's run by such large systems it makes it hard to have everything running perfectly efficiently. So, that said, we see a lot of gaps and a lot of potential for change. However, I would say that take your time and be in the space you know, especially for, like, new grads going into healthcare, and not necessarily. I know some things are difficult, it's tricky to learn certain things and being short-staffed is hard. I'm not trying to lessen any of those things, but being in that space, maintaining a positive mindset and going through and experiencing opportunities for change internally, will prepare you, will set you up for success for the time that you do. Find that one thing that sticks out at you that says you can't not solve me, you can't not fix me, because if you don't, you won't be happy. And making sure that we are building our networks.

Melinda Yormick: 50:12

I think that's huge culture. It is to talk to other people so that you're always prepared for what could potentially be next, to move to the place where you can make your greatest contribution, and it doesn't have to be starting a tech company right like. This is my journey, but it might be running the operating room and you should feel you know inspiring as somebody that's running the operating room and you should feel you know inspiring as somebody that's running the operating room. It might be learning cardiac service line. You should feel inspired and inspiring in those shoes also. I think those two would be my biggest pushes. Do things inside with a smile, take challenges as opportunities and don't be afraid to know everyone.

Tonya J. Long: 51:13

Say more about that last part. Don't be afraid to know everyone, yeah.

Melinda Yormick: 51:21

I think the good, the bad and the ugly. You need to know it all. You need to have all the information to be able to operate Right. So don't shy away because something makes you uncomfortable. There's often clicks in different places like you can't buy into. That, right, right.

Tonya J. Long: 51:38

You won't run away from it. It will be everywhere you land.

Melinda Yormick: 51:41

Well, it will be, and there are people that provide a lot of value outside of those clicks, and so if you define yourself to that, you're really limiting yourself as well, and so it's just a lot of opening a lot of open doors for yourself.

Tonya J. Long: 52:00

I love that you talked about doing the hard thing. I think we've talked about that before doing those hard things. Those hard things lead to personal growth. Right, Looking back on this journey, what's the thing that stands out for you where you did or are doing the hard thing and what's the personal growth that's coming out of it? That has surprised and maybe even delighted you.

Melinda Yormick: 52:29

So I think, if I do this from a more purely personal growth perspective, I would say when we were originally talking earlier in the show about not necessarily caring as much about what other people think about you, and that was kind of something that was crucial for when I was entering this journey, and along the way I've realized that I need to take that one step farther and not so much treated as I can't care as much. It's actually my responsibility to not be influenced from the outside overly. Right, I am the expert in this space and individuals that I allow to have an influence over the way that I think, the way that I see the world and the way that I move at opportunities or choose not to. And having that focus, having that clarity, I think is not only good for my mental health, but I believe that it's very good for the company.

Tonya J. Long: 54:15

I agree. I agree as you talk, I'm thinking about a friend of mine named Margaret and she runs really big Airstream rallies. So talk about couldn't be further from right. But you know you have a lot of opinions Right and a lot of customers. Frankly, you know they may be helping you put the rally on because it's largely a bunch of volunteers putting something together, but you've got to keep them happy. But they're also contributing and it's a lot to handle.

Tonya J. Long: 54:45

And her phrase she doesn't use it often or lightly, but she says I don't crowdsource my personal choices yeah um, and I love that because she needs to stand in her own power and make her personal choices, always with a lens of who she's serving, right, but she doesn't crowdsource her personal choices, and that is that was such a powerful statement for me. When she did something personally big, she got her own airstream she got her own um smaller to tow and it was a big deal and people were like I would have helped.

Tonya J. Long: 55:17

I would have helped and she said I don't crowdsource my choices she went through it and made her best decision, which is, to me, parallel to what you're saying it just means that all of us can benefit from standing in our intuition and what we know Right and leaning into our ability to make decisions. So anyway, so shout out to Margaret if she's out there listening. I think she's on her way to Europe, but there will be other Airstream buddies who absolutely know who Margaret is. All right. So while we've been on a journey, for this call yes.

Tonya J. Long: 55:56

So now let's talk about your vision for the future, whether it's CLARA specific or healthcare in general, that both would resonate, I think with our audience.

Melinda Yormick: 56:15

What's your vision for what's coming for us? So for us, yeah, yes, I think I'll go with the play off of kind of the way that you talk about things, Tonya, because I think you have a lot of wisdom when you speak about AI and how we can incorporate it into this new, changing world, right?

Melinda Yormick: 56:32

And wanting to make sure that we still keep the human touch of things, and so I look at healthcare as something that is very human and technology obviously very valuable, and there is an intersection for the two. We can't remove the human from well care or sick care without removing the word care, mm, hmm. Or sick care without removing the word care, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And I see technology playing a massive role in eliminating more middleman operations or Repeatable yes, yeah, things that are automatable, less clinical and obviously certain things technology will move into clinical spaces. I mean, my mother actually had to change her career from when she had saying is that I think that it will remain largely human, and I think that we need to be working with companies that are working with AI from an ethical perspective and from a very human lens, so that we are continuously learning more about what our patients need and what our clinical teams need to provide the best care, the most enhanced care.

Tonya J. Long: 58:23

I love it. I love it. I hate that our time is up but we can do more of this. And you have been absolutely remarkable. I knew you would be, but the maturity, the wisdom, I feel relieved for healthcare that you're bringing something to the world that's going to make a huge difference and then go on to your next level of greatness in terms of impact. So I look forward to being part of that.

Melinda Yormick: 58:48

Thank you.

Tonya J. Long: 58:50

And if listeners would like to get in touch with you or with CLARA, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Melinda Yormick: 58:56

Yeah, so reach out to me on LinkedIn, Melinda Yormick, and then info at CLARA. You can also find that email through our website, which is claraguide. com.

Tonya J. Long: 59:13

Fantastic. So CLARA, g-u-i-d-e, CLARA Wonderful, thank you. So everyone, we have had the most remarkable hour, From Bedside to Boardroom, that's right. That's right. A Nurse's Journey to AI Entrepreneurship. And that has been here on RESET with Tonya, where purpose meets possibility, and I see so much possibility based on the last hour. Thank you, Melinda, we will see you soon. Thank you, Melinda, we will see you soon. Thank you, Tonya, take care. Thanks for joining us on RESET. Remember, transformation is a journey, not a destination. So until next time, keep exploring what's possible. I'm Tonya Long and this is home. This is RESET.