Climbing for a Cause

02/13/18 • 54 min

I had the pleasure of spending time with two of my favorite people, Dylan Bates and Matt Smith, recently as not only podcast guests, but we christened the first Facebook Live version of the Living a Life in Full show.

Dylan is the CEO of ATI Physical Therapy, the largest, single brand physical therapy/sports medicine/rehabilitation company in the world with clinics coast to coast. Matt is the Senior Vice President of Growth and Development for ATI’s Western Region and they both are embarking on a two-pronged challenge: 1) Summit Mt. Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain on the African continent/one of the “Seven Summits” and 2) They are using this challenge as a fund and awareness raiser for the ATI Foundation, with a $1M donation target!

The ATI Foundation works to make a day-to-day impact on the lives of children with physical impairments and their families. The Foundation works under the leadership of Terry Williams, Vice President and Executive Director, to meet various needs, such as providing financial assistance for medical expenses, purchasing medical equipment not covered by insurance, donating adaptive bicycles for recreation and therapy, funding therapeutic horseback riding lessons, or covering travel and lodging expenses for families requiring out-of-state care.

They coined the term “Klimb4Kids” as the campaign’s call to action. Matt and Dylan came up with this sizable double challenge by way of Matt’s tradition to have especially unique birthdays on the ones that are “5s” and “10s.” No donated funds will be going toward expenses related to participation in the climb.

In this episode, we do a deep dive into their origin stories, why Kilimanjaro, their training, their passions and the very special children and families the ATI Foundation works with. We also discuss healthcare, leadership, teamwork, and their vision for making a difference.

Kilimanjaro is no easy feat. As noted it is one of the “Seven Summits” as well as the tallest mountain on the entirety of the African continent. I climbed it in 1992 and during our expedition, a skilled French expedition team member fell sick with Acute Mountain Sickness and needed to be emergency evacuated 2000 feet below the summit. So we wish Dylan and Matt all the best with their expedition and applaud their humanitarian ethos.

They are two great gentlemen living their lives in full, and to the benefit of others.

They are two great gentlemen living their lives in full, and to the benefit of others.

Previous Episode

Blockchains, Apps, eHealth, Innovating to Save Lives… All in a Day’s Work for the Postmodern CIO, Edward Marx/The Cleveland Clinic

Edward Marx is one of the most authentic people I know. He comes from humble beginnings and no silver spoon. Ed had some struggles as a young adult, including a lack of money, being fired from his first job, and having a not-so-stellar college GPA. Fast forward to today and he is CIO of one of the nation’s top healthcare institutions, The Cleveland Clinic.

In between, he served 15 years in the U.S Army Reserve, as both a combat medic and a combat engineer officer. For eight years he was the governor-appointed chairman of the Texas Health Services Authority, providing leadership over health information exchange for Texas—no small task! He is a Fellow of both the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and he serves on the College’s Faculty for their CIO Boot Camp. CHIME/HIMSS named him CIO of the Year and he’s widely considered one of the top 10 disruptive forces in healthcare!

I consider Ed to be a force of nature because in addition to all of this, Ed serves in professional organizations and on various corporate boards, such as HP, Cisco, AT&T, and Microsoft, as well as having been an advisor to boards for Texas Christian University, University of Texas at Dallas, and Southern Methodist University.

He balances his professional, disruptive, postmodern CIO work by being very involved in his family life, achieving status as a top-ranked triathlete and decathlete (he’s earned spots on TeamUSA in the duathlon as well), he’s a mountaineer, and he’s published his autobiography, “Extraordinary Tales from a Rather Ordinary Guy,” which I think is miss-titled as he certainly is not ordinary!

This episode dives deep into why Ed is known as an IT Rock Star, his 14 guiding principles of leadership, cybersecurity of healthcare information, Blockchain applications to EMRs, the application of IT vis-à-vis innovation in saving lives. We also discuss the impact of Big Data, predictive analytics, and deep learning or Machine learning to medicine and his work.

And Ed has made time to work with Seeds of Hope in Puerta Vallarta community to bring economic and physical transformation to the poorest of the poor, as well as co-founding Open Arms Medical Clinic, a free medical clinic to the Maasai Tribe of Tanzania.

He is an accomplished fellow who had “been there and done that” and demonstrates how to live your life in full.

Next Episode

How to make the world a healthier place, in 12 Minutes Flat with Krista Stryker

Have you ever had a problem with getting in really great shape? Is it that you don’t have enough time, or you can’t afford a gym membership, or you don’t have any exercise equipment at home, or you have a killer travel schedule, or maybe you’re just a bit too inhibited to work-out in front of others. Or maybe you want to augment your workouts to being up your performance. Well then you need to learn about the 12 Minute Athlete and its amazing creator and entrepreneur, Krista Stryker.

Krista Stryker, is an NSCA certified personal trainer and founder of the 12 Minute Athlete. She originally hales from Portland. She’s a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, with BA in International Affairs and Communication that she’s put to good use, working on both coasts and in Amsterdam.

As a personal trainer in New York City, she got fed up working-out for hours a day, only to find herself over trained, injured, and having little time for anything else. She studied many different things ranging from cross-fit to bodybuilding type of workouts. Which was part of the genesis of her crating the 12 Minute Athlete, incredibly effective high intensity interval training—HIIT workouts, which we’ll do a deeper dive into on this episode.

Krista’s approach addresses all the problems that prevent people from working out—not enough time, can’t afford a gym membership, don’t have the equipment, travel too often, too embarrassed to work-out in front of others—the 12 Minute Athlete check all the boxes.

She is also an entrepreneur and she’s even been quoted in the WSJ on her work. We go deep into the business aspect as well—app and product development, pricing, marketing, sponsorships—all the nuts and bolts and the story behind the story.

Krista is committed to helping others live their life in full by becoming more fit and healthy, no matter what limitations you may face, or if you want to up your physical performance.