We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ricardo Johnson II a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ricardo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Through a host of fortunate and well-timed events I found early professional success. That success was candidly earned through the projection of my potential, not a reflection of my ability and certainly not of my efforts.

Over a period of time, I found myself elevated to a place in business where one could no longer hide behind guile or potential, I arrived at a place where I had to deliver. After a surprisingly spectacular start, I experienced the spectacular end to that chapter of my career.

I lost everything and it took me years to find the person responsible, myself.

Once I found him and took account of what had been lost, I asked myself given all that had happened yesterday, what would happen tomorrow?

In that defining moment, I understood that I could not change yesterday, I could not predict tomorrow, but I could give my all now. Showing up with integrity, humility, effort, and a sincere desire to bring light and not darkness became my daily pursuit.

Along the way I found the defining things you see on your path when you are lighting the path of others.

Great advice, appreciate you sharing that personal insight with us. Before we ask you to share more personal stories, can you take a moment to introduce your business and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the founder and CEO of Muse Health and R2 Business Development Group (R2BD).

R2BD works with early-stage businesses and connects them to large enterprises in the areas of healthcare, college and professional sports, entertainment and media, and a host of other industries.

Muse Health works with health organizations to improve outcomes through organic, authentic, and personal selection of market-tested products and services. Muse Health increases revenue-generating services for payers while scaling down technology costs and improving individual outcomes. We have a strategic partnership with some of the largest health providers in the country; (e.g. Allstate, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Mayo Clinic, Baylor Scott & White).

What makes me most proud about the work I do every day is that we spend the vast majority of our time focused on solving problems that impact the most vulnerable in our society. In this process the “sides” of these challenges are very well defined and yet as my team meets with the stakeholders in the battle to improve healthcare and individual’s health, I get to see the commitment strangers have in improving the lives of people they will never meet. I am also proud that no matter what meeting we are in, payer, provider, and/or solution provider, my company is referenced as “we.” All sides view us as their partner.

As I mentioned, we work with a veritable who’s who of clients and I am often asked, “how did you close that client?” We spend our time focused on doing one thing and one thing only, solving our client’s problem. We are very proud of the features and benefits of our business, but when meeting prospective clients, we only discuss those features and benefits through the prism of a solution for that company.

When we present to a client, we spend the majority of the time discussing their problem and our thoughts around a solution strategy.

So many people walk into meetings eager to explain how great their tech or service is compared to the last or next 100 pitches. This robs both sides of a fundamental truth; if you are talking, rarely do you learn anything new. The clients want to know you value their needs equal or greater to your own.

We have built 2 successful businesses getting what we want by getting others what they want first.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I entered business in 1987. I remember walking out of a movie released that year, “Wall Street” thinking Michael Douglas’ character, “Gordon Gekko” was the hero of the movie. His iconic line “greed is good” became a mantra for me. It would be very convenient to blame GG for the decisions I made early in my career, but the fact was that I was more interested in the destination than the journey, the result more than the process, and the win not the competition. This focus made me first lazy and then, unethical.

What I had to first learn was that those actions never achieved lasting outcomes that I liked and usually outcomes I hated. I had to unlearn that greed is good because it’s not true. Greed limits opportunity. Greed creates enemies. Greed drains the soul.

The destination’s value is determined by the experience of the journey, you will always learn more from the process than you do from the result, and without mastering the competition one will never achieve the win.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience you’ve learned along your journey.

I had a plan about my future. I had entrusted that future in the hands of someone, but found out that the future we both wanted was different. It was devastating to me in ways I do not have the words to provide, but from that devastation came a clarity and a freedom that I haven’t felt in decades.

When you find yourself in a place where all you’ve valued is gone it is remarkable how much you value each new thing added to your life. It puts into perspective how the behavior of others defines them not you, it is not the behavior of others, but the acceptance of self that provides a path to freedom.

This was achieved by not spending too much time looking back, not focusing entirely on the future, and recognizing that now is all there is. Valuing now as a promise delivered. Being present crystalizes the endless decisions of yesterday and infinite choices of tomorrow into one simple idea; this is the only time guaranteed to be the best version of who you hope to be, to deliver on the promise you see in yourself, and to give the world things that will say, “I mattered because I gave more than I took”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mymusehealth.com www.rtwo.me
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardojohnsonii/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/mymusehealth/