2207 - Health Equity and Economic Justice: A Conversation with Marie Newman

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1:05With us right now, it's Marie Newman. Marie, you are a former congresswoman, lifetime entrepreneur. You're an author. Your book is titled A Life Made From Scratch, Lessons from a Controversial Congresswoman, Mompreneur, and Unstoppable Political Activist. Marie, it is so great to have you. Well, so good to be here. Good morning and good afternoon. Yes, yes. By the way, your website is marienewmanstudio.com. We have that linked in the show notes for our friends that are listening right now. Go there, follow along. You're going to want to see what we're about to talk about. But Marie, before we get into the work that you do, and I hope you don't mind if I ask you a few questions about your background, because it's not every day that I get a congresswoman on the show.

1:50But before we get into that, what have you been doing for fun lately, or what are you into lately? You know, we're starting to get better weather here in the Chicago area. So I have been trying to absorb, I've been a voracious reader my whole life and just recently getting into audio books. And what I am finally figuring out after doing it for a couple of years is I am now a connoisseur of what I should read in print and what I should listen to. And so I'm crazy about dogs and I have a dog and I go on three dog walks a day. So I listen to just like the wildest array. I keep trying to tell people what genre I like and I like everything.

2:33So that's one of my little passions right now. Yeah. And podcast listening and book listening on tape. Yeah. What's one of your favorite audio books over the past year or so that you can remember? Sure. You know, where the crawdads sing? Oh, yeah. Yes. Yes. Such a beautiful story. Did you like the movie adaptation of it? I didn't see the movie. Oh, okay. because I um when when we saw it was about a year ago we we really loved it it was I will go see it it's just a period piece like you are there it's world building it's like you just are just sucked into this this emotional life's journey of this woman and it's just it really was fantastic yeah I will go see the movie um when I have time um but I the the whole like um because I do get a little bored if I'm just walking, but that's true.

3:30Like if I'm just driving or just walking, like I kind of have to have a few things going on, which is not good either. No, no, totally. Listen, I think you are among friends on this show. Marie, share with us the work that you do today. Sure. Right now. So I just finished the book of life made from scratch and I do some consulting work on a few fronts. I do health equity, small business consulting. So I work with VC firms and PE firms that work in the healthcare space and help Portco companies get bigger scale, do a little leadership, do a little coaching, all of those things, but also try to help in the healthcare spaces because we have so many gaps in our services and try to fill in those gaps for people that have a little less than the rest of us.

4:16Yeah. Well, I mean, can I just give you a little bit of a platform here and talk about why that's so important? Yeah. So, um, when I, forever, I've been an advocate for health equity and economic inequity, right? Um, so there are so many of us that, um, don't get the appropriate amount of healthcare in our lives because we can't afford it. It's just plain and simple as that. Um, so I try to help folks that are getting Medicaid or Medicare, get more of the services that they desperately need. Um, as an example right now, you know, Medicare and Medicaid are under scrutiny, and I don't want to go down a political path, but about 40 % of our nation uses Medicaid as their main healthcare source.

4:56So I'm trying to make sure that as a backstop that those folks have as much as they need. I also do a little political consulting around that too, to help people understand this is, let's deal with everybody's everyday. Everyday you have healthcare issues, everyday you have cost issues, everyday you look around you and your environment is everyday. So I try to help people with everyday issues. I'm going to I want to talk more about that. Can I ask you before we do, can I ask you about your background and experience? So from from 2020 to 2022, you were the first woman to be elected to the Illinois Third Congressional District in history.

5:35Do you mind maybe just sharing a little bit about what that experience was like and how that has impacted your work and impact today? You know, like probably most of your listeners, right? I was always an entrepreneur. I worked way up to executive in marketing and advertising spaces, then had kiddos, right? And couldn't get childcare, so I started my own business. So in that space, I did a lot of consulting, management consulting, and then executive marketing consulting with ad agencies in particular, and then with management consulting businesses. And during that time, I got extra revved up around the health care piece because I tend to help those types of companies and how people were really being left out.

6:21Right. Kind of on the as a sidecar at that time. And I had always been doing volunteer work, women's rights issues and then gun reform and some other things. Finally, when about, oh, gosh, probably 2014, I was working on an anti-bullying effort. I started an anti-bullying platform as well as a nonprofit called Team Up to Stop Bullying, wrote a book about it. That was my first book. And people started asking me to run for office. And so I did. I lost the first time by two points. And then I won the second time in 2020 and was in office during that time. And I just kept all those things going, you know, like working for folks that have less than most of us do and those that are invulnerable and in marginalized communities that I ran.

7:06So kind of all my small business and entrepreneurial and social impact converged together and ran for office and really, really loved my time while I was there. For those of us who have been lifetime entrepreneurs, and maybe we are considering, should I put my hat in the ring? Should I participate at some local office? You know, what would you like? Would you would you recommend that? Would you say, are you crazy? Why would you do this to yourself? Like it's just for anyone who's kind of toying around with the idea. What would you tell them? Well, first of all, at this time and space, I think it's really important for everybody to step up across the political spectrum if, in fact, you want to help folks.

7:56I mean, at the end of the day, public servants are there to help, and you're there to work with other public servants to create good solutions, right, and not worry about parties so much. So for me, anybody who wants to step up probably means they should be stepping up because I'm sure we've all had these discussions on your air where we've talked about, hey, go with your passion and what you know or what you are curious and want to learn about, right? So that always works best. So if you're passionate about public service, it probably means you do need to step up. And by the way, if you need a little help on my website, marienewmanstudio.com, I've got a bunch of planning guides around starting social movements and political campaigns and help yourself.

8:38Well, I think it's a good time. A lot of people, I'm seeing a lot of people who were never politically involved getting politically involved because maybe some of their hot button issues have been pushed. So we'll leave it there. Marie, share a little bit more about, on the consulting side, the work that you do. And we're going to talk about the book next, but I just want to kind of finish talking about this. Like who would be the ideal person? Like how would someone listening to this conversation know I need to grab some time with Marie? Cause she's like, they would be super well positioned for the kind of help that you could provide them.

9:19Yeah. So I would never say I'm a leadership coach. I don't have that background. I've been a CEO twice and I've been a Congress person and led a lot of organizations, but I am not a leadership coach. I certainly know how to lead, but I am not a leadership coach. What I am really good at is helping people plan. Like I would say, if you need like a planning coach, like I've done strategic planning for almost my entire career, whether it was in market research, advertising, or general business and help people understand, you know, the five parts of your organization, you know, operations, administration, accounting, all the back office stuff, HR, communications, and talent an org, how does that all come together under one brand?

10:04And how do you operate in a really cohesive way? And then how do you scale that bugger, right? How do you make that thing really chug? And so those are the things that I help people understand. But I also help people with the pivot in their life, right? Everybody's afraid of the pivot, and particularly women, I would say. And so what I'm particularly good at is when people are trying to figure out, should I pivot? Maybe it's building a new organization, a new small business, a nonprofit. Should I do it? And how do I do that? What is that planning path? So if you want help with roadmapping your pivot or your transition or build, I have a model I've lived with for 30 years is when you do not see the solution you need in the world, build it from scratch.

10:51Which sounds scary. It is always, right? Right. But, but, and sometimes we might think, it's not scary though. It's not fun. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Why do you want to do boring stuff your whole life? I mean, come on. So, well, it's interesting, you know, and I think there's a little bit of this, you know, there's kind of these psychological forces at play that we always think that everything is started by people who are far more talented or capable than, or smart or successful than we are. Oh, so can I just tell you about imposter syndrome? Anybody who tells you they don't have imposter syndrome regularly on up to the top CEO at the top of the Fortune 500 is a liar, a liar, because everybody, you should feel it means you're a healthy human, right?

11:38I'll tell you, I have felt it many times. And by the way, I've been so woefully inqualified to do things that I've done woefully and qualified, you know? And so I have another saying is, is that when you're in the room with a big party and there's a big sticky ball in the middle of the room and everybody's walking around it and ignoring it, pretending like it's not there. I'm the one that will go pick that up because I'm the one that will go pick that up and solve it. Right. So be the one that picks up the sticky ball. It doesn't mean you're qualified. It means that you're the one that is supposed to do it, even though you're not qualified.

12:11yeah none of us are qualified we're all pretending we're all doing the best we can but you know in the process of doing that's the process of becoming and then we become fully qualified to do what we but you won't get there unless you do the thing which i which i love and you do just dive in sometimes and learn yeah uh marie share with us a bit about your book It's called A Life Made From Scratch. It's everywhere that you buy books. You have both hardcover paperback and e-book. But who should read this book? And what would you hope the outcome or the transformation might take place for the reader?

12:55Yeah, thanks for that question, because it really is about transformation. My book, the reason I wrote it was that someone came to me as I was leaving Congress saying, hey, you've had, you've built a lot of stuff, Marie, like just like that, like they were in the hallway. A publisher that I had met said, you've really built a lot of stuff. He said, you should write about it. And I'm just like, I don't think I want, I don't think I'd read that book. That doesn't sound good. My team really started kicking it around. And I realized, you know, I've built nonprofits, I've built social movements, I built an anti-bullying movement here in the nation.

13:29I built a political campaign. And now I have built some things in the projects I'm working on right now in the social spaces, right? So if you are at a crossroads in your life, back to who should read this is that, you know, anybody can. I write anecdotes in there that tell a story and then provide a lesson, right? So each chapter is a story of my life. It goes somewhat in chronological order. In my business life, in my personal life, my family has had a lot of mental health challenges. And unfortunately, as every entrepreneur on this listenership will contend to is that it always merges, right?

14:11So I've had a lot of family challenges we've gotten through, share those lessons learned, learned a lot of lessons in politics and a lot of really hard lessons and but hard lessons in business too so um i share it um and wrote it so that people that are crossroads are thinking about making a pivot or transforming their life is that their life is meant to go in a direction you just have to be open to that new direction right really be open to it yeah the um it's by the way you've got great reviews uh life made from scratch lessons from a controversial Congresswoman Mompreneur, an unstoppable political activist.

14:52So Marie, your website is marienewmanstudio.com. To our friend that's listening, what would you recommend their next steps be if they want more Marie in their life? Or maybe there's an opportunity to engage and work with you. I have a contact on there. My email for all of my projects are marienewmanspeaks.com. I do speaking engagements. I do a wide variety of consulting. I'm writing another book right now that'll come out next year. My current book is out. But if you want to talk to me about any of these things, whether it's a speaking engagement on up, you can email me right on the website. And I do have a team that looks at it every day.

15:35So I'm not one of those people that has a email and then never looks at it. So it is there. It's a specific email for that reason. So feel free to reach out to me and ask questions. And I also have a planning guide series on there that helps folks build small businesses, build political campaigns, social movements. And I have some mental health guides on there for people, for families that are challenged with mental health issues and a few others. I love it. Marie Newman, former Congresswoman, lifetime entrepreneur and author of the book, A Life Made from Scratch. Marie, it's been a great conversation.

16:10Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

16:18Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

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