Shanna Adamic Podcast Transcript
Shanna Adamic joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Shanna Adamic. Shanna Adamic embodies audacious optimism as a way of life. As an executive for Oracle, she has dedicated over two decades to leading corporate philanthropy, global nonprofit work, and community engagement at the intersection of healthcare and technology.
Her optimism fuels her personal drive for a healthier, more equitable world. Where intelligent and connected health care is reality. Shana’s story transcends professional accomplishments. It’s a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Her journey took an unexpected turn when she faced a rare, benign, yet life threatening brain tumor diagnosis.
Now partially deaf, but with an unyielding spirit, she emerged as a survivor. As a result of this experience, Shanna’s health journey became a source of strength, refining her optimism and deepening her commitment to the change needed in healthcare. Shanna is also a former NFL cheerleader for the Kansas City Chiefs and was a proud athlete for the organization for eight seasons.
Now as a speaker and published author, she channels her energy into storytelling to ignite hope and spark change.
Well, good afternoon, Shanna. Welcome to the show!
Shanna Adamic: Hi, so I’m so excited to be here. Thank you so much, Brian. I appreciate it!
Brian Thomas: Absolutely. Love the energy. Love the joy. Starting out a day with a podcast is one of my favorite things in the whole world and get to talk to someone locally today.
Normally I’m traversing the globe, 50 countries plus now, but do appreciate that.
Shanna Adamic: I have to tell you too; I love that you’re local as well.
Brian Thomas: Yeah, it’s always nice to come back to Kansas City virtually because I’m always doing these all over the world. So, thank you.
Shanna, jumping into your first question here, you’ve had an extensive career at Oracle, formerly known as Cerner, leading corporate philanthropy and community engagement. How has your philosophy of audacious optimism shaped your approach to your professional roles?
Shanna Adamic: Yeah, absolutely. I love that question. And you know, I have had quite the career there and, you know, collectively it’s been about 22 years actually. And, you know, I started just soon after I got out of college.
grew my career within a small foundation that was attached to the corporation at that time called firsthand. And when that boomed into a much bigger foundation, a global foundation focused on pediatrics and removing barriers to healthcare for children around the world. And then we were able to make the shift into, into the second largest acquisition of its kind in healthcare it.
With Oracle and moving into Oracle and, you know, there’s such a value in what we’re doing and what we’re bringing to health care from a philanthropic view. And also, you know, from that social impact view, and we were able to grow and expand and evolve our foundation into Oracle Health Foundation. And so, through that time, I mean, I say it in such a short way that it seems like, oh, it just kind of happened.
And here’s this natural ladder that just occurred. Through that time, you know, it’s honestly, Brian, it’s felt like six or seven or maybe even eight different careers. There has been so much movement and so much change and so much growth, so much opportunity. So, so many challenges to along the way that I’ve really had to have been tested.
I’ve had to apply this; this deep understanding of what optimism is and how to actually approach optimism. Thanks. Not in a way that that makes you feel like, Oh, I feel positive, or I feel happy in these moments. Cause you know, during moments of change, you don’t always feel positive or happy, but really tapping into it in this audacious way.
That is gritty. That is bold. That is finding that. Hope and that confidence in the future, even when you don’t really know what step is next. And so that’s, you know, it’s been a journey along the way, but I’ve really learned that as one, someone who’s grown in the, in her own career, and then two, as a leader of people.
And there’s been lessons learned over and over again, but audacious optimism has really been a thread through my entire life and, and my career being one of them.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And we’re going to jump into some of those challenges here in a second, but I appreciate you highlighting that with growth comes challenges.
And sometimes you got to put a smile on and sometimes you don’t have to put a smile on, but
Shanna Adamic: absolutely,
Brian Thomas: but I appreciate the backstory. I really do. So, Shanna, jumping into your next question, then your personal health journey, including surviving a rare brain tumor is incredibly inspiring. How has this experience influenced your professional focus and your commitment to help others?
Shanna Adamic: Yeah, you know, that journey was whenever you go through a health journey, it’s not something that you ever invite in your life. But if anyone’s ever experienced a health journey of their own, or a disease, you know, you can’t turn away from it. You have to, you have to actually fight it, go through it. You have to overcome it.
And, you know, that’s exactly what the health journey became in my life. This moment where it’s I had to dig deep and find that optimism again, that audacious optimism and really understand what it meant that it was a journey. Choice that that I had to choose in that dark moment. And, you know, my health journey is 1 that spans about 6 years from 2011, 2017, where I visited with my PCP, a specialist, or even visited the ER 109 times.
Until actually pushing once more to visit a specialist and getting a diagnosis of a brain tumor, a brain tumor. That was rare and it was benign, but it was considered life threatening because it was compressing my brain stem and then exercising my right as a patient and getting a 2nd opinion. 1 that that changed my story.
I think and just. And just really saved my life. I’ll never forget those sitting across from the doctors that I went to. And they looked at me and they said, this is going to be a big surgery with a big outcome. You’re going to go to sleep. You’re going to wake up and you’re going to get your life back.
And you know, when that happened, when you go through this moment of, you know, you have to kind of come to terms with, I’m going to lose something and you’re going to wake up different. And I woke up partially deaf. I woke up with paralysis on my right side. I woke up, you know, having to, to relearn some things and to regain my confidence and to get to know myself again.
But, you know, through my life, I’ve not only done this serendipitous dance with learning and relearning what audacious optimism meant, but also. The serendipitous dance with health care and having been in the field of health care, working with a company who was digitizing it, who was who had the goal to transform it.
And we’re still on that mission and we’re doing it and then working with the foundation who was leading the efforts to remove barriers to care for health for health care for children worldwide. And then experiencing that story myself. It was, it became so personal, and I’ve heard that many times from, you know, a long, long time ago, when I first learned that health care was personal, I felt it to my very core.
And so, I felt like, when I came back from that, that it was the fuel I needed to continue to push forward that I was in the right industry. I wanted to change health care for everyone involved in it. The patient, the physician, everyone who touched the entire story, because at the end of the day. We’re all going to be a patient and I wanted the next person not to have to go through six years of finding answers.
I wanted them to get the answer. And then on the other side of my story, I wanted everyone to have the outcome. I did because I had the resources. I had the opportunity, and I had the privilege to get the care that I had.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. That was such an inspiring story. Their health challenges. I feel are The closest to us touches us the most and changes us the most.
And, and I appreciate you being vulnerable and sharing that today, Shanna.
Shanna Adamic: Absolutely.
Brian Thomas: Shanna, you’re known for your ability to unite hearts and minds throughout storytelling. What are some key elements that you believe make for a compelling and impactful story, especially when addressing people that might be going through some professional or personal challenges?
Shanna Adamic: Yeah, absolutely. I think that some of the key elements and kind of crafting a powerful story and one that connects the people is first relating to people. People want to see themselves and stories and they want to feel, and they feel that connection through that. And when I talk about my health journey, the health journey is not about the facts.
And this is what I went through. This is what I did. It’s about something that other people can relate to. Everyone has experienced the moment when they haven’t been looked in the eye by their doctor, or they have felt dismissed along the way by something else. Everyone has experienced a moment that maybe not be a health journey, but could be a loss of a job, a loss of a relationship, a major shift in their life that leaves them feeling like there was a moment before.
And then there was one moment after when their life drastically changed. And so when I talk about those stories, I dig deep in on that connection of feeling and this feeling that we can all come together and know that we have in this opportunity to make a choice on how we react, how we respond and how we go forward in living our life.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. Thank you. And you are such a great speaker and storyteller. People can relate to you. I think stories is the best way to get people’s attention and also, they can connect better with you or your audience as well. So, I appreciate that. I really do. And Shanna, last question of the day. Could you briefly share some thoughts on your upcoming book, Audacious Optimism, including its release date?
Shanna Adamic: Absolutely. Well, I’m so excited. This is 1 of those bucket list things that was in my heart and in my mind for years. And as I was journaling through my health journey and other points in my life, it just kind of all came together. This book is built on the idea that adversity can be a catalyst for transformation.
And so, I take the story of my health journey, plus other stories and the younger part of my life. Going into that and I pulled this thread of optimism through and then this moment where I really found audacious optimism and that’s that gritty optimism that I talk about that. It’s like you’re finding that and you’re choosing it in the dark.
It’s a place. It’s a choice. It’s about trusting yourself. It’s about embracing the unknown and it’s about tapping into mental toughness. I also talk about in there. My time as a professional athlete as a cheerleader for the NFL, for the Kansas city chiefs and how that all ties into. To everything that has built what I consider me and finding me and all that in my journey and how I live my life as a, as, you know, as a choice of practice and a strategy as an audacious optimist, and so that book is really something that I started as a, just something that I was doing for myself and my family.
And then it became much more, and it started to become about these people I was connecting with. And so, it really is for anybody who’s ever. Experienced a moment where they need to be able to choose hope and confidence in their future. And I hope everyone does. And so audacious optimism is a labor of love and the release date.
It’s actually on pre-sale right now. You can, you can buy that on, you know, whether it be Amazon, Barnes and Noble, there’s several other outlets. You can actually go to my website AudaciousOptimism.com. And it’s going to be released later this fall officially. And Brian, you were the first to know, I just got a notice yesterday that I’m also going to be creating an audio version of that, that will be found on audible around that time as well.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. I love that. And I’ve talked to a lot of authors on this podcast and there’s nothing more exciting than that. To hear an author talk about a release date of just their labor of love, like you mentioned. So, I appreciate that. And we’re going to get this shared out. And when we get this published on our platform, we’ll definitely share the link to Amazon and Audible.
Shawna, it was such a pleasure chatting with you today, and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
Shanna Adamic: Thanks so much, Brian. I really appreciate you and everything you do.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Shanna Adamic Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
