Trisha
I've had um, really great opportunities to meet with celebrities even in in my experience in rehab and how to make that a learning experience. I've played volleyball with an Olympic athlete, um, in rehab. I played the piano with people, you know, who were, who were doctors there. And I think it's just meeting people where they're at and really seeing how each interaction can be playful, can also be healing.

Jeff
Hello and welcome to Love as a Business strategy, a podcast that brings humanity to the workplace. We're here to talk about business, but we want to tackle topics that most business leaders shy away from. And we believe that humanity and love should be at the center of every successful business. I am your host Jeff Ma. And as always, I want to have conversations and hear stories with real people about real business, the real world. And my guest today is Trisha Choi. Trisha is a deeply empathetic leader whose 25-year journey through healthcare has been grounded in service, healing, and heart. Her work centers around patient experience, leadership coaching, and organizational transformation. And of course, I believe love being put into action. She's held influential roles at institutions like Duke University Hospital, Cone Health, and New York Presbyterian, where her focus wasn't just on metrics, but on humanity. During the pandemic at Duke, Trisha led a team of 100 with humility and grace, helping sustain top tier patient experience scores while prioritizing emotional care for both staff and patients. And her leadership became a steady force in some uncertain times, guided by passion, collaboration, and connection. At Cone Health, she supported communication and care strategies during surges, and over 17 year and at over 17 years at New York Presbyterian, she built programs and teams that shaped the hospital's culture and patient support systems. But her story goes beyond this resume, the tragic loss of Dr. Lorna Breen during the pandemic inspired her to speak out, to lead with vulnerability, and to make space for others to heal, which set her on a path of sharing and influencing to help others, which is why she's here today. And today, she pours her heart into coaching leaders, not just to grow professionally, but to bring love into their leadership at work, home, and in their communities. Her new concept of Bahay Kubo is a reflection of that vision, a place where people can play, heal, and reconnect with themselves and each other. She believes in the power of joyful, honest connection, and through her work, she continues to create ripples of care, courage, and love wherever she goes. And wherever she goes happens to be here on the show today. So, Trisha, welcome to the show. How are you?

Trisha
Thank you. I'm doing wonderful today. Thank you.

Jeff
Thank you so much for joining. I know we've had some chats before this. We've had an interesting, um, connection. Um, but it's good to see you.

Trisha
You too.

Jeff
Um, I have a question to start, just to kick things off. And I want to know, and I would like you to share, what is your passion and how did you find it?

Trisha
Sure. Interestingly enough, I found it through a recent reduction in force, which is the first I've ever experienced in my, uh, 50 plus years of life. And it is this whole concept of fun employment. So through finally finding time for myself to put my own oxygen mask on first, I've been able to do things that I equate to as being fun, like playing golf, bowling, um, singing Acapella, um, which I joined a group again that helps to regulate my, uh, vagus nerve. And then most recently playing like you, the love of uh table top board games. And I've been doing that with friends who created um a board game and we play it everywhere. So at restaurants, at parks, literally on the beach, um, a couple weeks ago. So that is my passion is to bring happiness, joy through play to

Jeff
I love it.

Trisha
people.

Jeff
I love that. And you use the term, just now you use the term oxygen mask, obviously referring to like the the airplane instructions when when something goes wrong, which is still just a a like a like a a fear of mine that that ever happens if those ever pop down. I don't I don't know if I'll remember to do that. Um, but can you talk a little bit about why you see that as an oxygen mask? Because we're talking about play, we're talking about fun. Um, help help complete that analogy for me a little bit.

Trisha
Sure. Um, well, because my background is not only working in healthcare, but also working as a celebrity assistant and public relations and marketing. And if I am exist to help others, I have to help myself first. So, um, I know that they tell you on the plane and every time I hear it, put your own oxygen mask on first and then help your child next to you or help the person next to you. But you you really truly can't take a breath and um help the person next to you if you're not breathing, right? And so it's something that I've learned through my healthcare career is that in order to coach executives in the healthcare space or uh, you know, coach executives in the hospital to do their utmost best, you have to help yourself first and you have to put your own health first.

Jeff
So is is so I guess play to put it simply is the oxygen. Uh, where, where do you see this kind of situation centering around in terms of as a problem? Is it that work doesn't have enough play? Is it that we see is that society sees work a different way? Like where where is the issue and why do people need this oxygen so badly?

Trisha
Yeah. So I think in my last role, you know, leading a team of 100 in a hospital, an academic medical center, it can get really serious and especially during the pandemic. It's, you know, work, work, work, but it's so important to have that importance to play. So, for me, I moved six years ago from New York City to North Carolina and learned how important it was to exhale. I didn't know that I could exhale until I left New York City. And here in North Carolina, I go on hikes all the time, except for right now, I think I shared with you, there's so much pollen that there's literally like green everywhere and it's it's a really big challenge to my allergies. But it is important to get out there, um, and to be in nature and play. So, I think that's an important, uh, way to balance oneself and that's what led me to this concept of Bahay Kubo, which is a space within conferences where leaders can self-select and just take time for themselves and play creatively.

Jeff
So your concept is to set up at conferences that are work-based conferences, but you have dedicated space for attendees to kind of disconnect, maybe check out, and what exactly happens in that space?

Trisha
Sure. So there's opportunities for these attendees of conferences to play music, to finger paint, create pinch pots, all the things that you used to do as a child that might have brought you joy, maybe play a game. Um, and then, um, go back into the conference space and hear something that you would then take back as an idea of change to your home organization.

Jeff
You know, I take my my young kids to birthday parties all the time and whenever they do stuff, I'm always like, man, I wish I could I wish I could just join in. And it's like you look around and it's like, well, the parents' job is to kind of sit here and watch. So I don't, I love the idea that maybe it would be accepted and kind of appreciated in in a context like that.

Trisha
Yeah, I'm actually going to be holding an event, um, in the coming month with parents and children and it will be a Bahay Kubo event to find home within yourself with your child. So you would be as a parent accepted to actually get on the floor and get dirty and um build something with your hands, maybe even make a fort out of a refrigerator box and draw on it. Um, be really creative, something that you maybe haven't done in a long time, which is so important to your work life, right? If you could just come back and say, hey guys, this is what I did. I want to bring that same creative energy to what we do here every day in our jobs.

Jeff
That's beautiful. Tactically speaking, I can't help but wonder, you know, is it is the element of play important because it is a separation and a break, a true disconnect away from the work or is it more important that we find ways to incorporate play and to include play as part of work. I I guess I see those as two different approaches and which one is more aligned to what you're thinking and why?

Trisha
It's yes and. So it's a reminder and it's a restorative action that then um clicks something in your brain back to memory and saying, this is something that I should be engaging in all the time. And there's no reason why I can't be like my seven-year-old child at that birthday party. Why can't I bring that into what I am? And that's exactly what love is a business strategy was about. It's about vulnerability. It's about being truthful and honest to yourself, right? And how can you show up as your authentic self and bring that with you wherever you go, which is the concept of Bahay Kubo. So it's a Filipino home that is lightweight, it's made out of bamboo and nepa leaves, but you can pick it up and take it with you wherever you go. And so that's the concept. As a leader, we should be able to pick ourselves up and bring ourselves to every group that we're a part of.

Jeff
That's beautiful. I love that. Uh, you use the term authentic self and I find that to be, oh, not only so important, but also loaded with, I guess, problems at times as well. I mean, because once you say I want to be authentic self, I I I find that in this day and age, people less and less really can define who their authentic self is at times. At least some people, I think we struggle to understand that. And in fact, when I think of this concept of play, I can see a lot of leaders responding with, well, I don't want to do that and I don't have a part of that as my authentic self. I don't have an inner child or whatever it is, um, that resists it. What do you have to say kind of in that, in that space?

Trisha
A couple of things. I'm have like these rapid fire ideas. Uh my, one of my most recent ex-bosses, so I worked with him in New York, was just in a play of Annie and he starred as Daddy Warbucks. So he's constantly that same fun person that he is on stage that he is in my work experience with him. And in my last job at a large academic Medical Center, the chief nursing officer was constantly her laughing goofy self. Um, another uh chief nursing executive would hand out candies, big sizes, not the little ones you get, fun sized at Halloween, but like the big sized Twizzlers and just made sure that people knew that she was there. And that's a way to bring fun in her own authentic way. And I thought about that reading love is a business strategy when Frank was talking about how he had his limiting beliefs. Like you need to truly exist in this world by being authentic or you have too many masks, I think. Not that same oxygen mask, but too many masks that you put up in in front of yourself and it's hard to, you know, remember which one if you're not being your true self.

Jeff
Do you truly believe then that everybody has I guess that that fun side to them that is yet to be unlocked?

Trisha
So, I don't know if it's just me, but in my work with others, but even especially in my coaching and, you know, working in healthcare, I was an internal, um, change management coach leader. So trying to make change from the inside. And even, you mentioned it in your intro, but even in working with Dr. Breen, um, she was so excited talking about her new bicycle gadget that she got, or if I brought in a really cool thermos that was like maybe 12 inches long and just two inches around. She was like, I want one of those. And she showed me hers when I got mine. So there's always an element of fun if we can connect with people and that's what I strive to do in every relationship, working or otherwise.

Jeff
That makes a whole lot of sense. I like that. I'm wondering for people who are listening to this and saying love it on board. Are there any rules or guidelines in in how you practice this and how you this quote-unquote implement it? I know it's meant to be playful and fun, but let's say I'm, you know, I'm all on board. I want to find myself and my authentic self in this play and in this enjoyment. But how should I begin? How do I actually get myself out of this rut?

Trisha
So I had a um coach within the chief HR officer at my last organization and she worked for Nike and she said, just do it. And so that's exactly what I my answer is to you. So there is there are no rules. Um, I'm also very entrenched in the study of group relations conferences and I'm talking to leaders around the world that are playing in the space of meetings that have no agenda. They're conferences that people learn about their own leadership. I'm not sure if you're familiar with these, but um, it started in Tavisstock, England in the 1960s and they last for several days or weeks where you can just learn about your um authentic leadership style. Um, and there's no no agenda and you can totally learn how to um how you show up in these spaces. And there are no rules and that's what I'm learning about life and about this business is just try it. I do intend to implement um surveys at the end of every session. So there's going to be a survey in the event, three weeks post the event, and then three months post the event to see what you've actually learned in this experience. Are you taking it home to your work experience and to your life experience?

Jeff
You mentioned in your intro and I think you openly share about this relationship and this impact of Dr. Lorna Breen. Can you talk a little bit about the path that started there? Um, for the listeners to really better understand what drives you in some of the stuff that you do?

Trisha
Sure. So, we met when I was working at a small hospital in New York City in the upper upper Manhattan area. Um, together we worked on improving patient experience. And we were able to take that little hospital from the lowest scoring hospital six years later to the highest scoring hospital. Um, so she was a very, very serious leader. She she ran the emergency department of 16 beds. And um in her story, um I was no longer working there, but during the pandemic, there was only 16 beds and hundreds of people coming in uh with COVID with and we didn't know what it was at that time. And she was trying to see what she could do to best care for them. Um, in her true perfectionist style, she wanted to save every single person and couldn't. And so she ended up leaving to take care of herself with COVID, um, and then came back too soon. And then when she, um, was out, she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital. And because doctors are supposed to be perfect, especially emergency room physicians, she ended up taking her life because she did not know how she could re-enter into the world and be taken seriously. So, um, you know, I too suffer from a diagnosis of mental, I don't call it illness, I call it mental wellness because I've learned through the years from diagnosis at 19 years old, uh, with bipolar disorder, how to take care of myself. And that's been several opportunities after opportunities of, like I told you, engaging with people in learning through play. I've had, um, really great opportunities to meet with celebrities even in in my experience in rehab and how to make that a learning experience. I've played volleyball with an Olympic athlete, um, in rehab. I played the piano with people, you know, who were, who were doctors there. And I think it's just meeting people where they're at and really seeing how each interaction can be playful, can also be healing.

Jeff
That's beautiful and I I, you know, I know we should have probably started the interview with this this context, but I'm glad we got to it because I think, you know, so much about today's day and age revolves around authenticity, finding ourselves again. I I I at least for me personally, I feel like the world has become more and more complicated, more and more misrepresented and confusing to to navigate and there's this hunger and a deep, deep desire for more authenticity, more genuineness and connection with people and I think these stories including the tragic ones, including the the tough ones really shape what it means to be human. So I really appreciate you sharing that part of you for the listeners today because I think it's important.

Trisha
Yes, thank you. Um, you know, I've for those who are not on um camera and can't see us, um, I will also share that part of my story is that I had a wonderful marriage to um, a American born Chinese man, ABC, which I think is also you in your story. And part of my experience was that there was a certain sense of also needing to be perfect and if not quiet about that. So I think that um our relationship was a was a good one but couldn't get me to where I am today where I can talk about this openly and on several social media platforms. And that shows a sign of growth for me as well that this is something that I needed to do for me in order to to grow and um that's been part of my experience when I went to do my masters in change at Columbia Teachers College. You know, they said there's going to be change and that's when my my uh you know, separation and the divorce took place, but it's been tremendous good growth. And um I'm really happy I did that. And my experience in this program was it was adult learning via almost a playful um Montessori like experience because I couldn't do the program I was doing of industrial organizational psych at NYU was very didactic. But at Columbia, we played. We played by doing personality tests, a lot of things that you guys offer at Softway and Culture Plus. And um, you know, we really looked at the person within the organization and we dealt delved into the work by doing it ourselves. We we were the test subjects so that we can do it with other people.

Jeff
I love that. And you know, great that you bring up this ABC element. I don't get to I haven't had a lot of ABC's on the show, so it's cool that you bring that up because I relate. We may not have had the same experience, but we definitely have a unique perfectionism about us. I think we have some expectations put upon us at a young age. And you're right. Like, you know, you doing the work you're doing and even I would say myself doing the work I'm doing is is a departure from what's expected, what was kind of considered normal for us and I think let's pat ourselves in the back a little bit, you know, you and I. We can celebrate our our journey a little bit.

Trisha
Yeah, though I am Filipino because that's why the name of my company Bahay Kubo is Filipino but yes, we have roots that are en.

Jeff
very very similar Asian American born Asian kind of expectations. Indeed. Uh, with that, we actually are out of time, which is unfortunate, but I do appreciate everything you shared today and I wanted to give a little bit of space for you to make sure you can, you know, plug if you can. How do people reach you? How can they learn more, especially about your work, uh connect with you and by Kubo.

Trisha
Sure. So, you know, as I've shared, um, I know that the work is a very iterative process. It's lean where you put yourself, um, you put others first. And so, um, my website is everchanging, but it is currently www Bahay Kuboretreat.com. And um, you can reach out to me there. There's my contact information and I hope to be invited to conferences literally across the globe so that we can make a change with the individual finding home within themselves before they then go back to their home organization and even to their families to make change.

Jeff
Awesome. Thank you once again for being on the show and we appreciate you and our listeners for spending this time. As always, our time is really valuable, so spending it here is meaningful to me. And I hope you have checked out Love as a business strategy. There's a second edition out if you haven't already checked it. Please check that out on Amazon and other retailers. Awesome, if you have your camera on, just showing off that she has both copies. is very, very kind. Um, but if you haven't already, subscribe to the podcast, share with a friend and we are posting every two weeks. So we'll see you in two weeks. Thank you again and thank you.

Trisha
Thank you. Jeff.