We were lucky to catch up with Rebecca Pearce recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rebecca, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

In 2011, I was appointed by the then-Governor of Maryland to be the CEO of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. When I was appointed, we had just over 2 years to implement the biggest change in the individual and small group insurance markets in decades (Obamacare) — with only the initial legislation passed, no staff beyond me, no office location, and no IT system yet on board. I took the job anyway.

In those 2 years, I built the quasi-government organization from scratch, ensured all insurers would participate on the exchange, worked tirelessly to get 3 state agencies on the same page, negotiated with a very active community that wanted this to be the panacea, and navigated the political waters that surrounded this implementation. I could not have believed more in what we were doing or tried harder to make it happen.

Since this is a story about failure, I’m sure you know how this ends.

On October 1, 2013 — the first day the system went live, the system crashed. In those first few months of open enrollment, the system never fully stabilized. While we were lucky enough to enroll 300,000 previously uninsured Marylanders, it was seen as a catastrophic failure. As the CEO, I was responsible and accountable for that failure.

On December 6, 2013, there was an article in the Baltimore Sun, above the fold with a picture, about my failures as a leader.

I was devastated. In those 2 years, being the CEO of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange had become my identity. I believed we were changing people’s lives and had found purpose. Without that, I was lost.

Interestingly, I had 3 job offers within 2 weeks. Others saw in me what I couldn’t see at the time. That allowed me to begin to recover from the ego blow. From there, it was a process of looking in the mirror, understanding what role I played in the failure, what parts were out of my control, what I had given up in my life for those 2 years, and finding myself again. It was only then that I was able to see it for the blessing it brought to my life. My boundaries around bringing work and the stresses of work into the house are iron-clad these days.

Rebecca, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Extend Coaching & Consulting is a firm focused on strategy consulting and executive coaching. All of our coaches are certified and all have prior leadership experience. We specialize in working with C-suite executives and business owners who are used to questioning the status quo and shaking things up but are currently stuck in some way — often in the day-to-day minutiae. Together, we elevate their focus and clear their path to grow so they can change the world.

We do that through individual executive coaching, group coaching (Masterminds), strategy development, ongoing strategic advisory services, and leadership retreats. Each person who works with us leaves with a better understanding of who they are and how they show up as a leader, where to focus their efforts to streamline their efforts, how to lead others more effectively, and how to grow their business.

Personally, what I bring to the table is a balance of bottom-line thinking coupled with the understanding that all decisions are ultimately made in emotion. There are times that we will talk about how the actions you’re taking are impacting your bottom line; there are times that we will talk about the emotions that are holding you back from making the decision you know you need to make. It’s this ability to shift back and forth that keeps business owners and C-suite executives thinking bigger. I’m also paid to tell you what no one else will tell you, and I’m not afraid to do it. When I do, I will do it holding your proverbial hand.

I know how important it is to focus on the growth of your business or career; I also know how emotions impact all of our decisions. It’s this balance that allows you to elevate your focus and clear your path — to you can change the world.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Fall down 7 times, get up 8. This is my mantra.

In 2015, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Fortunately, it was benign and operable, which are the two best words you can hear right after the diagnosis. Unfortunately, brain surgery is still a very big deal. I spent the majority of 2015 learning to walk again. My entire left side was impaired as if I had had a stroke. My face was paralyzed for a year, and will forever be altered because of it. I am deaf in my left ear, mostly blind in my left eye and I have significant balance issues that impact me daily.

I had spent my entire life believing that if I tried hard enough, I could make it happen. But the truth is, sometimes you’re just not in control. Nothing I could do could make my face recover faster. Nothing I could do could give me my hearing back. And learning to walk again was frustrating and challenging in ways I’m not sure I can explain.

I returned to work to prove to myself that I could do my job again and that the brain tumor didn’t win. It took months to return to the person I was prior to surgery. So many things had changed and my body and brain were working so hard, I was exhausted all the time. To this day, I can no longer multi-task and I need to focus more on what’s going on to keep up, but this is also something I’ve come to relish; when you talk to me, I have nothing else on my mind except you. It’s part of what makes me exceptional at my job.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After I returned to work, and once I had proven to myself that I could do my job effectively, and the brain tumor hadn’t won, I began to wonder — is this what I really want?

I have always believed in fate, or that everything happens for a reason. So what was the reason for my brain tumor? I mean, aside from the scientific reason of cells multiplying into a mass. Why me? What do I need to learn from this? I decided that maybe I didn’t listen the first time — that when I jumped right back on the CEO-train after losing my job, someone was trying to tell me that I should have slowed down and changed course and that this time, I had to listen.

But what would I do? I didn’t want to be in charge anymore, I knew that. I wanted to spend time with my daughter and put her on the bus at 9am without guilt of missing a meeting. After all, the most important thing I learned is this: time is our most precious resource — every minute I spend is something I will never get back, and I wanted to be doing what I wanted with my time, not giving it to someone else and missing the most important thing in my life.

And when I looked at my career, I realized that I was often the only woman in the meeting, I was good at understanding people and what makes a good leader, I had always been honest and straightforward, and I now understood how important emotions were. So I decided to become an executive coach. Knowing that I would have to invest in myself before I could make the switch. I searched for reputable coaching programs, decided on the program at American University, and got certified as a coach.

I opened Extend Coaching & Consulting in 2018 after taking a year to determine exactly what I wanted it to be. We now have 5 coaches working with us. As an organization, we help leaders go from influential to inspirational, we help businesses grow faster and business owners elevate their focus so they can change the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.extendcoach.com
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/beccapearce