Christina Noble serves as Chief Growth Officer for Sonora Quest Laboratories, a life sciences diagnostics company and joint venture between Banner Health and Quest Diagnostics traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

An innovative leader, Christina combines financial expertise with a background in direct to consumer ambulatory operations, marketing and commercialization, merger and acquisitions integration and a deep understanding of digital technology and information systems including e-commerce. Christina is known for her innovative approach to identifying areas of growth and for bringing profitable businesses to new markets. Christina and team led Sonora Quest to its most successful solutions launch in company history.

She revolutionized the market by delivering the nation's first consumer directed diagnostic solution through a partnership with a national grocer, enabling first of its kind retail access and record breaking growth. This included developing an award winning digital storefront strategy that was recognized and adopted nationwide.

 Welcome to the podcast, Christina.

Christina Noble

Thank you, Maureen. Happy to be here!

Maureen Farmer

Christina and I met a couple of years ago. I'm so delighted that you were able to make it to the podcast...we've had a few trials and errors getting here. But we're here today. And I'm so excited to have the conversation with you. So we have a number of topics that are going to be really exciting and ones that I know, listeners are going to want to hear about. I do have a quote here that I want to read—research from McKinsey: Industry research on healthcare systems and services. I'm just going to read this and that will launch our conversation.

So, "in recent years, the healthcare industry has experienced significant changes, which is obvious to us today, which had been further accelerated by the global pandemic. So, shifts in healthcare technology, delivery, regulation, and expectations of providers, will likely create both opportunities and imperatives for its incumbents and new entrants to create new approaches to delivering and financing care and partnerships, including joint ventures and alliances with other healthcare organizations. And new entrants may offer a promising avenue to access new capabilities, increase speed to market and achieve capital scale and operational efficiencies."

And so with that, Christina, I would love to start our conversation relating to the world of joint ventures and your participation in this dynamic industry.

Christina Noble

Sure, so right now, as the Chief Growth Officer at Sonora Quest Laboratories, we are very much focused on innovating to grow. And if I were to take a step back, I think it may be helpful for those of you that are listening to this podcast to kind of gain a little bit of perspective, as far as what's really different about a joint venture when I was offered the original role that I had has Sonora Quest 11 years ago now, I had no idea what a joint venture was...zero. And I would imagine there's folks out there that are kind of either contemplating it as a business move, or as a career move. And so just kind of backing up a little bit.

When you've got a joint venture, you typically are going to have a couple of partners that come together to have a business thesis that allows for some of the things, Maureen, that you just talked about...that the McKinsey article references. So, that could be entry into a new geography. It could be economies of scale and efficiencies. There's a lot of reasons why companies would come together to do this. This is specifically I think, a really fun and exciting area to think about when you do think about health care. One of the mantras that myself and colleagues talk about is yesterday's competitors become today's collaborators. And so how that manifests itself in a joint venture, is as part of a joint venture, as a management team, you typically have a lot of autonomy once that JV is in it's more mature stages, which we certainly are because we just celebrated our 25th anniversary. So, once you get to that mature stage as a management team, you can begin to kind of go Hey, who's in our healthcare ecosystem, whether that be in an academia, you know, college or university, it could be entrepreneurial startup companies. It could be nonprofits, just a lot of there's a lot in our ecosystem. But it's really exciting as a joint venture to kind of go, Hmm, what makes most sense in terms of growing our company diversifying our revenue streams, and then certainly providing more value to all the health care constituents. And in storquest case, that includes not only patients and their families, but also employers and health plans, as well as other providers. So there's a lot there. But I thought it was kind of important to sort of lay the foundation as far as what is a joint venture and and if I may just kind of compare and contrast that to a startup. I also serve on a board of directors for a startup in the healthcare space that could healthcare consumer space, called Betty karma. And if I were to compare and contrast, these two models in that startup model, you typically are going to have a venture capital or, you know, several venture capitals that are interested in kind of this new idea, right. versus in a private equity space, you're typically looking for a more mature company, that may be hitting a downturn or some difficulty in hitting their operating margins. And they're going to come in and try and turn that around. So the management team in a startup company, they're really running it with a board of directors, and then those venture capitalists as Vc partners. In a joint venture, you've got a board of directors that's made up of both parent partner companies. So it's a combination of those two companies. And then at the early stages, that management team is formed, potentially, by nominees from those joint venture partners. So just a couple of things there. And then I also worked for CVS Health for 13 years. So that would be kind of the fundamental third business scenario, which would be publicly traded in business for years. But in that case, I actually managed through I think, five mergers and acquisitions while I was there.

So, I just think foundationally to compare and contrast these business models is really fascinating.

Maureen Farmer

There's no question. And so in terms of reason for joint venture, you talked about growth. So let's think about this growth through JV versus grow through acquisition. What would be the primary difference for choosing one over the other?

Christina Noble

Yeah, so I'm going to just speak from my personal experience with this joint venture. This joint venture is geographically focused in the state of Arizona. So for our joint venture to hypothetically acquire another piece of business, there would be a lot of conversations with both of the JV owners to kind of say, A, how does this fit under the auspices of the joint venture agreements under which this joint venture was established? In other words, if it were to go, let's say, not only out of Arizona, but let's say internationally, how would that impact both of those owners? So what we have found based on the way this joint venture was structured, is that we have focused really in the space of Arizona, to grow organically. And through portfolio diversification that specifically impacts our market, which is Arizona organic growth, we'd be working within the current composition of the companies that sit in the state of Arizona, with very little exceptions. So that would be working with their provider office, and kind of making sure that we can meet their business needs and meet their overall strategic goals and how we can amplify what they're already doing. Perhaps the other way to think about it, and what we've done very successfully, is to kind of go beyond what may be clearly outlined in that joint venture agreement, and kind of challenge the partners, the joint venture partners to say, hey, we thought about diversifying our revenue in X or Y way. So one of the things that we we've done is, and this was I believe, in 2015, we started this process of really going full in to consumer directed health care. So that changed the paradigm from the provider. Think about those clinics being the key purchaser or the key, the key customer, so to speak, now turning and saying, You know what, there's a really nice market out there based on some legislative changes that have occurred here in the state of Arizona, that now allow consumers to purchase their own make their own determination about what diagnostic tests, they want to order. They afford themselves. That was a big risk. It was a huge risk, and it took a lot of courage.

Maureen Farmer

Yes, I've seen some of the footage that you had presented, I think on one of the local TV stations and you had a customer/patient with you talking about the benefit of of having access to that. And I think, you know, it's empowering to have access to those services, rather than going through a third party.

Christina Noble

I think, too is we look at the whole healthcare system and the complexities that you mentioned earlier in this McKinsey article. You know, I think it's incumbent on all of us that serve in the space of healthcare to figure out how do we make this more efficient? Of course, how do we deliver better outcomes for patients and families, you and I, and our families and our friends? You know, but also, how do we make this easier and more convenient, right? I mean, you have to wait to set up an appointment. And then when you get there, you wait in the waiting room. And then once you're seeing you're waiting on your test results, right? So there's a lot of gaps that can be closed, it's no small feat, the game of inches, so to speak, kind of like football. It's just the small gains that we make day after day.

Maureen Farmer

And so would that be considered Forgive me here just so unclear? Would that be considered an example of organic growth? Or is that something different?

Christina Noble

With respect to the consumer directed? Yes, that would be considered launching a new line of business, completely new line of business, with its own set of profit and loss, right. So where's the revenue coming in, and the expense space was very different on that particular line. So the MyLab request, the consumer directed testing was considered a new growth opportunity that was outside of organic growth. So that's just one example of how we can grow.

Maureen Farmer

That's so fascinating.

Christina Noble

It is. And it's kind of...it's challenging too as a business person coming in from a CVS Health where I mean, it's just this behemoth and this, you know, heavily funded and just fascinating company to work for. And this in a joint venture arrangement, what I found culturally, is you have the benefits of these $2 billion companies very well established very well, you know, got a lot of positive reputation, a lot of backing, one of them being publicly traded. And then you're operating in this joint venture. So you have this agility, and you can take these risks, somewhat akin to a startup, but you still have the backing of these two parent partners. So in my view, in many ways, it's the best of all the worlds, all of the continuums that I was talking about earlier, it's great.

Maureen Farmer

So, let's go back a little bit and talk a little bit about your your experience at CVS. Yeah. How was it different from where you are now in terms of the joint venture versus this huge publicly traded entity?

Christina Noble

Yes. So I would say, you know, one of the key differences is, you know, at CVS Health, when you think about career opportunities, I mean, the sky's the limit, right? Whether you want to be in the the pharmaceutical benefit management part, which I was and the retail pharmacy front, and now that it's become CVS, Aetna, you've got the health plan front, right, it's just a insurmountable number of career opportunities, that that are available in a joint venture. In my experience, it's a smaller. So you know, there's, I would say there's a lot of career advancement for individuals within the joint venture, but it's nowhere near what you would see in one of these, you know, multibillion dollar companies. But I do think that there's, you know, like I said, there's benefits to both. So in the CVS health world, I mean, just a lot of investment in employee training, employee retention, you know, very, very competitive in terms of retaining and recruiting in a joint venture environment. You know, we are marching to what the demands are in terms of the budgets that are set by the board. And so we need to make sure that we're delivering on those and we're doing it in a very efficient manner. And so sometimes that requires some agility and some creativity in terms of what are you going to do with the resources you have to execute on the plan that you've committed to deliver on so to me And I think in some ways, it takes a little bit more creative creativity in a joint venture. That's one thing I would say, that would be different between the two. I'm not saying that when I was at CVS Health, I wasn't creative. But a lot of for example, the marketing plans are set at a national level. There they are, there's the collateral, you take them, you may be able to tailor them a bit. And then you you, you punt that off to the marketing team, and they launch it at a joint venture, we're doing a lot of it ourselves.

The other thing that I would mention, Maureen, that I think is very different is when you're talking about one of these multinational fortune 50, fortune 10 companies, which CVS health now is, and I should say, CVS, Aetna, Aetna now is, you know, you have most of your services, maybe with the exception of it, some of that may be outsourced. But most of the services are held in house, when you're setting up a joint venture, one of the most important decisions that you need to make as a board of directors as a joint venture, is what services you're going to handle yourself internally, such as marketing, which I mentioned, which I have oversight for, and what resources or what services are going to buy from the parent. So in our case, we have one of our IT systems that we we buy from one of our parents, and then we buy from one of our other parents, more of the benefits part of the scenario. So that is very different as well, if you can imagine kind of navigating within the auspices of another companies, IT system or another companies that benefits. So again, that's I think where the creativity comes in is how do we how do we make this work?

Maureen Farmer

So when we consider the governance structure for our joint venture? How can you just describe that a little bit? Is there a there's obviously a joint venture board of directors that would be distinct and different from the individual parent companies? Correct?

Christina Noble

That's correct. That's correct. So yeah, just a couple of highlights I would point out is the board, the boards are typically going to be composed of members, select members from both companies. So both companies have a voice. In our case, the chair rotates on a particular time basis. And that is all outlined in that operating agreement. So all joint ventures are going to be of course, different. The other thing that is happening, you know, regularly as part of governance is, you know, the compensation committee, there's the audit, you know, taking place each year in February. So they're select members of the team that are going to be working on that board of directors working, perhaps on the audit and overview of the audit. So there's what we would typically see is the board of directors, and then some select committees that are meeting off cycle, our board meets at least four times a year. And I think, you know, generally the board meetings are going to be a little bit more succinct than what I hear happens in these larger, you know, fortune 100 companies. So I think the JV boards need to be very efficient, very, very efficient. And when I think about success factors related to actually establishing a joint venture, I think first and foremost is that values foundation, you have to have the whatever the thesis is right, you've got to have a very solid business thesis for where the ROI is going to come from, and what the pro forma shows and the timeframes around that. But if you don't have this core values, system in place in common, if you think about it, it's not as if it's an acquisition. So one culture is kind of usurping, in some respects, kind of existing culture to become a new culture and the joint venture environment, you actually have culture one, culture two coming together to form this new culture three. And if the value system and both of these parents isn't aligned from the beginning, regardless as to the strength of your management team, regardless as to the strength of your business thesis, your capital, your backing all of it, the values aren't in alignment. It's a non starter. So just a couple of things I wanted to point out there joint ventures they are it's it's a difficult go. I know this because I do talk to individuals who are part of other joint ventures within the system that I'm currently in and outside of the system that I'm currently in. So you definitely have to have the right partners, you need to have a solid business thesis, you need to have an alignment of values. You need to have a very strong management team to make all this work.

Maureen Farmer

So this is a great segue into the next topic that we had pre discussed that we would chat about here. Today, we're talking about competencies, leadership competencies to help make the joint venture as successful as possible. And I know that you have a little bit of secret sauce when it comes to employee engagement. You've got some some secret activities there. And one of the top leadership competencies that is discussed a lot today among the thought leaders around the world is that of resiliency. So I would love to talk a little bit about your experience with resiliency and employee engagement and how you pull your teams along with you.

Christina Noble

Yes, so I think there's a couple of attributes a very successful management team members in a joint venture area. One is, you have to be extremely creative, you cannot be one that's like, here's the placemat and I'm just going to execute against the placemat. This is not a place for that. Certainly, you know, you do need to have that creativity, you also need to have a very strong, I would say financial mind a really good handle on numbers, because they will be coming at you fast and furious. And you need to make sure you understand which dials you need to turn in order to execute on these.

Maureen Farmer

Can you give us an example of some of the financial...like what specifically financially would be required? Is it at a keen understanding of the balance sheet? Is it cashflow? Is it pricing and margins? Like what what would that look like?

Christina Noble

Yes, in my experience, personally, as the Growth Officer, knowing and understanding the operating margin in each kind of piece of the business, and specifically getting even more detailed understanding, what is it that's driving the expense line in each of these, and I would say, you have a lot of CEOs that I admire, and one in particular that I listened to quite a bit when she does her earnings reports that really resonated with me is...she did say, you know, there's all this focus on driving operating margin and driving top line. But if she were to do it all differently, she would have started her career with a focus on the expense line, and really getting a very, very detailed understanding of what is driving each of those costs. Because I can grow the business, you get a top Growth Officer or a top growth professional, you can grow the business, but if you aren't managing them, that foundational expense line, you can't always grow yourself out of it. And so for me, yes, it's the operating margin Maureen, but it's also the detail on the expense line.

And I'll give you some examples. Going in and I'm looking at contract labor month over month, quarter over quarter, sequential quarter over quarter, and I'm looking at that every month. I'm looking at SWB every month. Salaries, wages and benefits. I'm looking at that every month, then I'm looking at what are our variable expenses, and what's driving those variable expenses. And then importantly, if we're going to make an investment, let's say in technology or an investment in people or resources, I need to see the proforma, I need to see when we're expecting to see that ROI. And then I also need the requester to be accountable to come talk about okay, we were expecting the ROI to show up in Q4. It's not there, what do we need to do to kind of write the ship.

So, it is very hands on very involved. I just can't tell you how grateful I am to have had this experience to you know, kind of by default, need to get into this level of detail. And I think I'm gonna carry that with me for the rest of my careers...focused on the cost side of the equation, which is kind of, I would say maybe surprising coming out of the mouth of a growth officer but because I do have responsibility for a large portion of operations as well. That is super important. So getting back to your original question. We were talking about resiliency, we were talking about engagement I was sharing with you, you know, this creativity factor, this financial acumen factor is important. Courage, being okay, making a decision. That's a very tough decision without having nearly all the facts ideally in front of you in order to make that decision, because in this joint venture environment that I've experienced, is extremely fast paced. And with healthcare, again, referencing the McKinsey article that we started this conversation off with. We have updates that are happening, it seems almost weekly at the federal level, the state level, sometimes even the county and municipal municipality level related to health care. And we in order to to, you know, be sure that we're a winner in this space and that we, you know, remain relevant. We absolutely need to have our ears and eyes on what's happening at a governmental level. And then we need to be Have the pivot quickly to either capture market share or capture opportunity very, very quickly ahead of our competition, or provide ourselves a hedge against what we see to be an oncoming risk. So that I think is also an important characteristic, just kind of staying on top of things legislatively, but being able to move quickly. Finally, kind of the the second part of this courage factor really goes into your question about resiliency.

And Maureen, you and I know, because we've talked about this a couple of times, just, you know, the pandemic has affected all of us. And I think, especially those of us serving in the healthcare space, especially those with employees and colleagues that are serving on the frontline. It was, you know, something that I don't think any of us could have imagined. And so it took some real courage on the frontline, as people and their families were suffering from infections themselves, but also, you know, serving patients on a daily basis, doing things in ways that we had never done before. And a specific example that comes to mind for me, is actually taking COVID testing out into the communities. So you know, we had to rethink our entire business model, we couldn't have people that were potentially infected or infected, coming into our patient service centers. And sometimes those people were so ill, they couldn't have done it anyway. So, what we decided to do is we partnered with some of again, remember, I was referencing this ecosystem, some of our collaborators that were already established, we already had these shared value systems, we knew we were going after the same thing, which is improving health outcomes and serving communities that may not have access to health care in the same way that other groups did, is taking that testing out into those communities. Furthermore, I thought this was a really amazing feat for our team...nobody on our team had been trained as far as how to perform these COVID collections, that was something that we didn't do. So, a couple of leaders on my team, with the supporte of myself and the rest of the senior leadership team, our risk and compliance team said, Hey, we're willing to get trained to do this. And we want to do this.

Maureen Farmer

All hands on deck.

Christina Noble

And it was the first time our team did it. And it started out in kind of this small, you know, group of sort of our high potentials and the high risk takers, and and we got him trained. And then pretty soon, it just sort of grew. And we were able to take that on the move into some communities in downtown Phoenix, South Phoenix, Northern Arizona, and some of the rural communities where there was no access, and just had people driving through these lines. And that was really, really amazing. And so, you know, that goes to this whole idea of creativity that I was referencing earlier. But from a resiliency perspective, one of the things that I took upon myself on top of, you know, becoming this, this registered yoga teacher, right, I decided I wanted to share that some of those techniques with my team. And so one of the things I did was I actually set up a resiliency class for some of my actually offered it to all of my leaders, managers and above, and I said, Hey, I'm, I've put this thing together, and I'm just inviting you to try it out. And during those sessions, I also we ordered, you know, some candles, we ordered some aromatherapy oils, some journals and pens, and I just, you know, my my challenge to them was to take this out into their frontline, take it out into the supervisors, the team leads, and just let folks know, there's options, because all of these things can be done in the field, you don't all have to come together and get off the frontline to practice some of these techniques. The other thing that we did a couple we did several things, it was a multi pronged approach. But one of them was sending out care packages to all of the frontline and just letting them know I think on the cards we wrote, we've got your back. And that is because a we did have their back. And we want to say that we realized what a challenge it was being short staffed and having family members and themselves who were ill, and just pushing through it. And then the last example I have in this happened just very organically, it was unplanned. I was attending one of our thinking it was a supervisor's No, it was a team leads meeting and one of the team leads said hey, Christina, would you mind leading us through pranayama breath practice? Wow, gosh, this is awkward. He was there was a lot of people there. I'm like, oh, like well, what am I going to do say, no? So it was wonderful. And I thought to myself after I led them through this very simple pranayama, slowing down, focusing internally for just a moment, just reflect...

Maureen Farmer

Did you want to do it right now Christina?

Christina Noble

Yeah! Okay. So it's best to do it with eyes closed. It can be done in an airplane, it can be done, you know on the front line, just kind of, you know, stepping to the side for just a moment, in can even be done in a minute. So, with both feet flat on the ground, the soles of your feet touching earth or support, just extending your back and spine straight up towards the sky, just thinking about a piece of yarn, kind of extending from the crown of your head up, skyward. And then just palms down on your thighs for grounding in this moment, or palms up, if you need some inspiration, some energy, something that kind of gets you back into your groove, so to speak, back into your jam, and that would be palms up. It's yogi's choice. So, you decide where those are best placed. And then just a quick four part box breathing.

So, it would be an inhale to the count of four, a hold to the count of four, exhale to a count of four, and then hold again to a count of four. So, I'll lead us through that real quickly here.

So, inhaling through nose, 2,3,4, hold 2,3,4 exhale through the mouth 2,3,4, hold 2,3,4, inhale through the nose 2,3,4, hold 2,3,4, exhale through the mouth 2,3,4, and hold 2,3,4, and pausing here, just inviting your regular breath rhythm back in—just noticing how you feel now as compared to when we started. And you should feel a calmness, maybe a bit more clarity and grounding. And that concludes our pranayama breath practice.

Maureen Farmer

Thank you, Christina. That was fantastic. Being in the moment!

Christina Noble

But on the go!

And it's perfect for the frontline, right? Because they're just I mean, they're seeing patients. Yeah, these are tools that I really wanted to make sure my leaders had an awareness of, and not everyone's a fan. And that's okay. My point to them is, make sure you take the time to check in with yourself. It may be you know, watching a little bit of a sports game from the prior night, it might be taking a walk around the block, it might be petting your dog, which I know you do.

But that was my point and it starts from the top. And if you don't have leadership in whatever sort of business model you're in, that believes in the importance of resiliency, the importance of balance, in order to really take some of these very challenging concepts forward throughout, you know, 1000s of employees across a system, I think that it puts you at a strategic risk, quite frankly.

Maureen Farmer

So, I would love to pop in here with a quick story of my own that happened this week. I'm just so excited to share this story. I feel like you should have been on this panel, I I'm going to recommend you for the next one. So I was in Toronto, Canada at the Toronto Stock Exchange was hosting an event for a professional association that I belong to. And they were doing a panel interview of three women CEOs in Canada, and they all have like a national oversight. Actually, one person was the founder of a private equity company back in 2017. And they were talking about resilience, it was the panel on resilience. And one of the similarly to you that the CEOs were talking about was during the pandemic being present for employees, and so in a very direct way. So when the CEO found out that a particular person may have been having some some issues, with, you know, just showing up for work every day and all the things that you just talked about, about family members who are not well and just the complexities of working in this environment. She would have phone calls with them zoom calls with them to to check in with them and and let them know that she had their back. One person on the panel even disclosed that she was having some of her own issues relating to the isolation of the pandemic. Yes, yes. And they they reported that their employees were very responsive to that because they felt like they weren't alone. And so I know one of the principles relating to Whew, strong leadership and engagement is helping employees feel safe at work. And I think that's what you've demonstrated with the care packages and with the, the breathing practice that that you just shared with us was was feeling, you know, part of the team and also feeling safe and accepted. So I just wanted to share that with you. So thank you for sharing your practice with us.

Christina Noble

Yes, of course. Of course. Thank you good stuff. Yeah. All right, my friend. Before we go, Can I share a quote, you got a quote 100%. So we just went through a really phenomenal course this past week called on unconscious bias, and so powerful, and one of the quotes just really stood out to me. And it was it was interesting that this particular training was done the day after MLK Day. And one of the quotes that's in here that just really, there's several quotes, but this one, and I didn't look at who said these things, I was just reading through them. But this one just really meant something to me personally resonated for me, it says courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles. Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances. And I would actually argue, cowardice is also kind of when you're feeling you're starting to have those feelings of resentment come up, that's protected point to say, All right, I need to take, you know, some time to have a courageous conversation. But that was actually a quote from MLK, and I didn't know you didn't know. So that that's kind of, you know, one of my intentions is to every day, make sure that I am being genuine to my purpose. And that I'm I'm setting, setting the example. However, I can, whilst at the same time really working intentionally on humility, and be able to connect with individuals, wherever they're at the very authentic way. So anyways, thanks for letting me share that because I, I just thought it fit it really fit for today's conversation around joint ventures around leadership characteristics that have served me well over the decades. And then this idea of engagement and resiliency. So, thanks for letting me share that.

Maureen Farmer

Well, thank you for sharing that with us, Christina. And as you know, we could talk forever on these topics. But our time has come to a close. However, I do have a couple of questions for you. And one of the questions is, when you look at look back over your career, what has surprised you most so far?

Christina Noble

Surprised me...my heavens, every day is kind of a surprise. What has surprised me most? You know, I guess the way that I would answer that is I am surprised. And I think the better word would be grateful to have served in a space of health care throughout pretty much the entirety of my career, I spent a little time in government at Arthur Andersen center at the beginning, but how amazing it is and how surprised I am and how grateful I am. That my own internal purpose and compass and value system that I've been able to really live that in my career. I mean, there's sometimes there's people you know, you're just not executing, it's your purpose in your career, it's a career. In this case, the two are integrated, and it's such a balancing. So I guess my message would be it is possible to be able to honor your purpose in your career, right. And you're doing the same thing, Maureen!

Maureen Farmer

Yeah, I agree with that. And I would say that I believe in work life harmony, because when you are doing work that aligns with your values and your purpose, there is no balance, it's a harmonious experience and existence, you know, it's, it's more about living your purpose and being aligned with, with your values and being in sync with the universe. And I know that sounds Pollyanna and I can share this very authentically, because I didn't always feel this way. I didn't always have a career, where I aligned with the values of the organization, and I wasn't quite sure how to get that. And now not that it's a perfect recipe. But I have found a process that works really well for for me and for my clients. And I feel that when you are doing work that aligns with your values, and you're able to execute against those values, that's where that's where success happens. And that's where transformation happens to I believe...

Christina Noble

That's where we see leaders just flourish, right? I mean, just like wow, I am in my space and owning it.

Maureen Farmer

100%. And then also being able to identify those high potential individuals and nurture them and and help them thrive and help them grow into a place where they can live their value. Use and impact the world in a positive way. So one more question. And we've been collecting for the past couple of years a restaurant list and I would love to get the name of your favorite restaurant that we can add to the list.

Christina Noble

You are not going to believe...actually you will. My favorite restaurant in Phoenix right now is called Local Bistro.

It's just amazing. And it's got this one of those walls that, you know, they're the sliders. So you can completely have in the winter, a closed environment and in the beautiful, you know, spring months here, and fall months, you open it up and you've got the you know, the breeze coming through. It's got a bit of a European flair, which I enjoy. And my favorite dish there is the seafood linguini pasta.

Maureen Farmer

We're giggling because we just finished our 2023 Champagne Bistro. And I disclosed that that was my visionary, celebratory meal. Looking back over the previous years achievement. So yes, I'll make my way to Phoenix. And that will be the dish that I have there.

Christina Noble

Yes. And I'm just gonna do a little shout out for Westgate. And for you. I you know, you and your entire team are just so professional. So authentic claw and I've shared this with you before. And you know, the fact that you take the time to invest in these podcasts to kind of get the word out to reinvest in your listeners reinvest in, you know, your ecosystem, I think is admirable. And I find all of these podcasts to be extremely helpful. I like to like to listen to them when I'm driving from, you know, business meeting to business meeting.

Maureen Farmer

Thank you for sharing that.

Christina Noble

Yeah, definitely. And then I am all about intention setting and having joined your first champagne bistro intention setting, I would highly recommend it. It was very un-intimidating, and the opposite of that would be just very welcoming. Nobody was on camera. Nobody had to say anything. It was very much a self reflective, but also a sensory experience, which I found really helped me to kind of get those intentions ingrained in my body, mind and spirit. So I would recommend it. I don't I don't think that was recorded, if it is recorded, maybe share it. If not...

Maureen Farmer

No, it's intentionally not recorded for just that experiential purpose. I never want anyone to feel as though they are being you know, I don't know what the word is monitored, or whatever it might be. It's intended to be an in-the-moment and very present process.

And so thank you so much for sharing that, Christina. I really enjoyed doing it. And, again, shout out to the person who created it is...Pat Schuler and my former business coach who passed away very suddenly in 2017. So it's living, it's honoring her, her life, her presence and her gifts to the world that I do the the bistro, so thank you for that.

This has been such a pleasure, Christina. And I hope to do it again with you sometime.

Christina Noble

Thank you, Maureen!