Most Powerful Women Summit 2024: When Business And Personal Crisis Collide
Rachel Romer, Co-founder and Executive Chair on Leave, Guild, Bijal Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Guild
Moderator: Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune
Moderator: Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00So, Rachel, thank you so much for being here, and if I'm correct, this is your first time
00:05doing something like this since what happened the summer before last, is that right?
00:10That's right, yeah.
00:11Amazing.
00:12Well, I think I speak for all of us when we say we really appreciate the chance to hear
00:14from you today.
00:15So, just to start, how are you doing today?
00:22I'm doing pretty well.
00:24Last time I saw you, I was still in the wheelchair.
00:25Now, it's just me and the cane, so I feel pretty good.
00:28That's huge.
00:29So, as we just heard, on an evening in August of 2023, you were on your porch when suddenly
00:39you collapsed.
00:40So, can you tell us a bit about what happened that night and the next day?
00:43Yeah, so what I remember is feeling like I collapsed, to use your word, yeah, and then
00:50not being able to get up off the ground, and at some point that night, I fell asleep, I
00:57think, or blacked out, maybe, and ultimately was found by my aunt, who's a nurse, the next
01:03morning, luckily.
01:06And she found you?
01:07She just happened to be walking by?
01:08Yeah, she was walking her dog, which is the last thing I remember thinking about before
01:12passing out, was knowing that she and a neighbor of mine often would walk by my house in the
01:16morning and kind of feeling like this prayer of sort that they would walk by the next morning
01:22and find me.
01:24And she's a nurse, right?
01:25So she knew exactly what was going on and what to do?
01:27Yeah, she immediately knew I had had a stroke, because she could see the paralysis on the
01:31right side of my body, yeah.
01:33Wow.
01:34And she called 911 and paramedics came, yeah.
01:38And they took you to the hospital, and what happened after that?
01:41Yeah, they took me to the hospital, where I had a thrombectomy, where they identified
01:46that I had a blood clot in my brain, and they pulled it out, which was surgery number one.
01:52And then they decided that they needed to take my skullcap off and relieve the pressure
01:57and the swelling in my brain, which was the next surgery I had.
02:00Yeah.
02:01Thank you so much for going through that and telling us about what happened.
02:04Bijal, do you remember where you were when you heard about this?
02:06I believe you were on parental leave at the time.
02:08What did you hear?
02:09What was going through your mind, and how did you jump in to help?
02:12Yeah, I got a phone call.
02:14I was on parental leave.
02:15I was roughly three months postpartum, and I got a phone call in the morning, a missed
02:22call actually, from someone in Rachel's family.
02:24I thought it was odd that someone was calling me.
02:27I was also on parental leave.
02:28And I pick up the phone, and yeah, they were like, Rachel's gone to the hospital.
02:35I don't have more details for you right now, but can you please call the board of directors?
02:40Wow.
02:41And you came back early from parental leave.
02:43Yeah, so over the weekend, I got more information on what had happened to Rachel and what was
02:49going on.
02:50I was working on this continuity plan, and so Friday is when I got the phone call.
02:54On Monday morning, I stepped back into the business.
02:57Wow.
02:58Yeah.
02:59Yeah.
03:00Claps for Bijal as well.
03:02Rachel, you described that early first few months and the medical procedures that followed,
03:08but what about the months that followed?
03:10You were in and out of inpatient care and therapies and all kinds of things.
03:14Can you describe what that time was like, and what was required for your recovery?
03:17Yeah, so ultimately, I was in a medical coma to let my brain rest and recover for a couple
03:23of months, and then started inpatient therapy for a few months.
03:27And now I'm in outpatient therapy still, recovering a lot of the nerve damage that the stroke
03:32caused.
03:33Wow.
03:34And at that time, you obviously spent so much time building this company, and you spend
03:42a lot of time as well in the healthcare space now as a patient, which is somewhere that
03:46you had also spent time in your role at Guild, thinking about how to transform that industry's
03:51workforce.
03:52So what was going through your mind?
03:53What experiences did you have as a patient, and how did they influence your view of what
03:57Guild can do for the healthcare system?
03:58Yeah, it was a really interesting time because we had been making the transition into serving
04:03more healthcare workers and their upskilling as a company in Guild.
04:08And then I ultimately got my own residency in healthcare, living in the hospital for
04:12many months.
04:13And it's ironic to follow a conversation about AI, but as technology does more and more for
04:18us, the service economy is going to be a more and more important job that we've got to help
04:21people transition into.
04:23And so every nurse that would come into my room, I would drill them about their career
04:27path and ask them lots of questions.
04:31Yeah.
04:32Some nurses started to get weary when they'd come, and they would say, I heard you interview
04:35every nurse.
04:36And I would say, yes, I do.
04:38And I would take lots of notes on my iPad and send them to Bijal and team.
04:41Yeah.
04:42And the first time I saw her, we were not allowed to talk about work, which if you know
04:46Rachel, it's really hard to not talk about Guild.
04:48And I walked into the hospital room and literally within, she was like, how are you?
04:53And I was like, I'm okay.
04:54And she's like, okay, here's some ideas I have based on what I've seen.
04:59There's a shortage.
05:00Here's what's happening, the schedules.
05:02Yeah.
05:03So yeah.
05:04Yeah.
05:05That's incredible.
05:06And so what about today?
05:07What does a typical day look like for you these days?
05:08Yeah.
05:10I still do about five hours of therapy a day and think about work a lot because sometimes
05:18therapy is really boring.
05:21So I still interview the occupational and speech and physical therapist and then give
05:27Bijal and team every idea I've got.
05:29Yeah.
05:30Yeah.
05:31And we'll come to everyone for questions in a moment.
05:33If you have one, please start thinking, but Rachel, you know, you've clearly found so
05:37much determination and grit to get through this huge personal challenge at such a young
05:41age.
05:42So how do you stay positive and what is some advice for others about how to emotionally
05:46and mentally push through something like this?
05:48Yeah.
05:49Thanks for asking.
05:50It's been interesting.
05:51It's very similar to how we aim to motivate our learners and our students that we work
05:55with.
05:56It's very goal oriented.
05:58So it's all about setting goals and thinking about, okay, what I want to be able to do
06:02by this day or by this event.
06:05So I knew I wanted to walk up here with my cane today.
06:07We've also been working on the shoulder shake.
06:15Yeah.
06:16Yeah.
06:17A personal favorite of mine.
06:20That was not on the goal list for today, but there we go.
06:23We did it.
06:24That's amazing.
06:25Well, honored that we could be part of that goal setting for you.
06:28What are some of the other goals you've set?
06:30I think we talked about this last time we caught up, but getting my hand back has been
06:35a real struggle and it's very hard to get our movement back after strokes.
06:39And I really want to be able to do my kid's hair again for their ballerinas and I want
06:44to be able to help with that again.
06:46But it's very hard because I still don't know yet when I'll get my finger movement back
06:49and I'm probably at least a year out from knowing more.
06:52But walking is step one, so congratulations on that and we'll keep working towards the
06:57other ones.
06:59Bijal, you've spent some time in the CEO job now, so what are your priorities for Guild
07:04in this moment and what do you think are the needs of today's workforce amid a rapidly
07:07changing environment in many ways?
07:09Yeah.
07:10I mean, the environment we just heard about AI, my goal is to make sure that every company
07:14and every employee of that company who needs access to Guild has it.
07:18We have a skilled shortage in this country.
07:20If you took the number of jobs in this country today and the unemployment rate, even if everyone
07:24was qualified for those jobs, they're not skilled to do the jobs.
07:30And so there's a gap.
07:31The gap's only going to increase and more and more employers are going to have to rely
07:36on employees they have already inside of their organizations.
07:40And there's a lot of untapped potential inside of your businesses.
07:44And so the ability to upskill and reskill and provide Guild the way that we work is
07:49for the most marginalized populations.
07:52And so we deliver value across your entire workforce.
07:55And so my goal is to get Guild in as many hands as possible and to support employers
07:59on their journey.
08:00Amazing.
08:01Do we have any questions for Rachel or Bijal?
08:05No?
08:06Okay.
08:07Well, if you think of any, raise your hand.
08:11Rachel, you still obviously are very involved in Guild and think about it all the time and
08:17serve on the board.
08:18So what is top of mind for you with Guild?
08:20Where do you see the company going as you've reflected over this past year?
08:23See, top of mind is a lot of gratitude for this soul sister who's taking care of my baby.
08:36And that's how you talk about Guild.
08:37You've kind of referred to it as your other child.
08:39Yeah.
08:40Wow.
08:41Yeah, when I woke up from the first medical coma, the first thing I did was I saw my dad
08:46in the hospital room and I said, someone called Bijal and put her in charge.
08:51And then I asked about my kids, but yeah, that was, that's how my brain went.
08:56Yeah.
08:57Yeah.
08:58It speaks to how important the company is.
08:59Oh, we have a question right here.
09:02Thank you for sharing your story.
09:04What one wisdom would you like to share with us if we were to encounter something similar?
09:12If you were to encounter something similar, I think first thing I would say is surround
09:15yourself with positive people.
09:18And the thing you can do today in advance of that is have your soul sisters in your
09:23corner because, you know, as parents, we often have a dad with our children or a partner
09:29who helps take care of our children with us.
09:31But if you run a company, having somebody who you've sat side by side with for 10 years,
09:35who you know can take care of it is a blessing.
09:38Wow.
09:39Amazing.
09:40On that note, Bijal, you alluded to this, but the company had done some prep for kind
09:44of a crisis preparation.
09:45And even for, if leader was out for something routine, like parental leave, can you talk
09:49a little bit about how Guild had prepared for something like this even unintentionally?
09:53Yeah, I actually didn't realize how prepared we were until we were in a crisis.
09:58So there was a business continuity plan.
10:00Rachel and I had talked a little bit about when she goes out on leave, what she had,
10:05she took a sabbatical, who steps in, how they step in, what decisions are, can be made,
10:10what decisions, you know, should we should wait on, et cetera.
10:13And when I went out on leave, she knew there were three things.
10:15If this, this, or this happened, please call me, otherwise I don't need to be called.
10:20And so we kind of had been in a rhythm, and obviously no one expected something like this
10:24to happen.
10:25But the ability to kind of, you know, be out on a Friday, step in on a Monday, and then
10:29have the executive team just like kind of hug you and lift you up behind me and just
10:37not skip a beat was a pretty incredible sight.
10:40Yeah.
10:41Yeah.
10:42Did we have anyone else who, oh, we have a question right here.
10:47Hi, Carrie Baraki from Workday.
10:48Rachel, anyone that has watched you grow this company, I know you're a total badass.
10:49I just want to thank you for being so vulnerable and brave today on stage.
10:50You're amazing.
10:51Yes.
11:14And I'll name that having physical disabilities has really reinforced my belief in vulnerability.
11:22How so?
11:24You really have to be more disclosing with people about what's going on with you, which
11:29is something I've tried to practice at work and in my personal life before the stroke.
11:33But like today, I had to ask for help on how I was going to get up on this stage.
11:37To no one's fault.
11:38There just isn't a railing here on these stages.
11:40And so you get used to asking for a lot more help and telling people why you need help.
11:44And vulnerability's been a tool for me for that.
11:47Yeah.
11:48Rachel, why did you want to be here today?
11:49Why was it important to you to make it to this point and join us here?
11:54Well, I think to that same point about vulnerability, I feel like telling the story of how we've
12:01been able to keep GILD going has been important to a lot of female founders that I've talked
12:05to.
12:06And I appreciate your work, Emma, in helping us tell the story.
12:09Well, thank you so much, Rachel.
12:10Thank you so much, Bijal.
12:11We really appreciate you being here, as everyone does as well.
12:14So thank you.