Riding Cancer with Courage: Adrienne's Unwavering Strength and Leadership - Adrienne Woodward

In this deeply moving episode of Coffee in the Barn, host Casey Bradley welcomes Adrienne Woodward, a leader at United Animal Health, to share her remarkable journey as a senior figure in the swine industry and a cancer survivor. Adrienne’s story is one of resilience and strength, detailing how her battle with cancer has shaped her leadership, life, and passion for helping others.

Adrienne’s background is both diverse and inspiring. Growing up in Texas as a self-proclaimed “horse girl,” she studied equine sciences at West Texas A&M University. Her career took an unexpected turn toward the swine industry, where she flourished professionally. However, her diagnosis with cancer was a pivotal life event.

Key Takeaways from Adrienne’s Journey:

1. Strength in Vulnerability: Adrienne explains how embracing vulnerability helped her manage her fears during cancer treatment and as a leader. "It’s not about being fearless; it’s about feeling the fear and moving forward." This openness influences her leadership approach, where she now values transparency and humanity.
2. Compassionate Leadership: After her treatment, Adrienne reflects on how her illness enhanced her empathy as a leader. She now prioritizes understanding both the professional and personal challenges of her team members, fostering a culture of support.
3. Balancing Career and Health: Adrienne shares the difficulties of managing a demanding career while undergoing treatment. She credits her support system, both at work and at home, for maintaining balance, reinforcing the importance of self-care and delegation.
4. Adaptability in the Face of Uncertainty: Cancer taught Adrienne the unpredictability of life. She encourages adaptability and resilience, stating, "You can’t control everything, but you can control how you respond."
5. Diversity and Inclusion: Adrienne discusses how her experiences have reinforced her commitment to diversity and inclusion. As a leader at United Animal Health, she promotes an environment where every voice is heard, emphasizing trust and respect for diverse perspectives.
6. Mentorship's Impact: Adrienne has mentored many throughout her career. "Mentorship isn’t just about professional growth; it’s about personal growth as well," she says, highlighting the critical role mentorship plays, especially for women entering male-dominated industries.
7. Navigating a Male-Dominated Industry: Adrienne recalls how she overcame imposter syndrome and the evolution of the industry, where more women are now taking leadership roles.
8. The Legacy of Cancer: Adrienne concludes with a reflection on how cancer continues to shape her life and career. "Cancer doesn’t just go away; it leaves a mark," she says, but that mark is a reminder of her strength.

This episode is a testament to resilience, compassion, and leadership. Adrienne’s story will resonate with anyone who has faced adversity and emerged stronger.

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Transcript

Casey
0:00:00
Well, welcome to this week's episode on Coffee in the Barn. And it's a pleasure to have a friend, colleague, and fellow Spartan alumni on with us today. I know it's Big Ten rivalry, football season's starting, Morgan. You're probably cheering for the Badgers, and we're here for Spartan tears, so two to one there. But thank you, Adrienne, for being on the Coffee in the Barn.

Adrienne
0:00:27
Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm really honored to be here, and go green.

Casey
0:00:31
And we're wearing our green. Well, I'm wearing green, you're not, and you got always green in the hair, so it's fabulous.

Adrienne
0:00:38
Yeah, that's one of the ways I can support them down in Indiana, since they don't have green hair,

Adrienne
0:00:43
it's terrible.

Casey
0:00:44
Well, you have green gorn.

Adrienne
0:00:45
That's true.

Casey
0:00:46
But it's gonna change until, you know, Brown here soon.

Adrienne
0:00:50
Yes.

Casey
0:00:51
But anyways, would you mind introducing yourself to the audience and give them a little bit of a background? Because you didn't, I don't think you set out to be a swine nutritionist, but you are today. Yeah. So just as an introduction, my name is Adrian

Adrienne
0:01:06
Ligurd. I am currently serving as a senior manager of discovery and novel products at United Animal Health located in Sheridan, Indiana. I'm from a small town in Texas, grew up as a horse girl 100% through and through, went to West Texas A&M University for my undergrad degree where I studied equine industry and business, so all horses all the way.

Adrienne
0:01:31
I was also part of their horse judging team there and was part of their NCAA equestrian team. When I was there, I really didn't want to go do any research because I had helped with a research trial that I didn't particularly like. So I got my MBA, also from West Texas A&M. While doing my MBA, ironically, I did some more research that I really appreciated and

Adrienne
0:01:55
really liked having to do with, particularly with the gut and what the gut could do and that really sparked something in me that I thought, okay, yeah, this research I can do. This is not digestibility research. This is something that really affects the whole body. So I decided then that I did want to go to grad school and pursue upper level PhD, masters, MS, masters, PhD.

Adrienne
0:02:21
And at the time, nobody had any funding for me. So I took a year off and went to Italy and rode horses. So I did that instead and then I came back and went to Michigan State University where I got my MS in equine industry or equine exercise physiology and nutrition and then my PhD in equine nutrition. Doing that it was we started to use the pig as a model for the horse because they're both hindgut

Adrienne
0:02:47
firm runners and that kind of got me to shift away from using the horse and seeing the horse as a model because that's my hobby. And I didn't want my hobby to ever be my job or something that I always had to. I know you're supposed to do what you love and you never work a day in your life, but I loved the gut.

Adrienne
0:03:03
And, you know, cutting open horses and getting to their gut was not something that I really loved to do. So, pigs are a little more available for that because they are part of the food chain. And you know, they have the meat laboratory at Michigan State, and because of that,

Adrienne
0:03:19
we could get gut and we could utilize that for my PhD work and use that as the model for what would happen on the horse. So that kind of got me, I guess people would say to the dark side or to the right side, whatever you want to call it in the pig industry.

Adrienne
0:03:33
So graduated from there, went to the University of Alberta up in Canada and did a postdoc looking at the guts and E. coli and did a presentation that kind of got the copy eye of some people at United and they interviewed me and the rest is history. So now I'm down working with United Animal Health.

Casey
0:03:55
Oh, that's awesome. But I want, let's talk about riding horses in Italy. I love Italy anyways. What was that like going over there to ride?

Adrienne
0:04:06
That was exciting times. I mean it was something that was very different. I was training horses there. They had one of the foremost, the best quarter horse barns, one of the only quarter horse barns in Italy. And I just kind of stumbled into it because my professor at the time said, who wants to go to Italy and never one to not be a smart ass, use my language. I was like, Ooh, pick me, pick me. And he said, well, this could work cause you're not doing anything right now that's that important.

Adrienne
0:04:39
And I was like, thank you. I think I don't really know. I'm not really sure how to take this, but yeah, so it was a Friday and by Monday I was dropping the classes I was taking. So I was just trying to stay in school and take some classes. So when I went to Michigan State, I would have those credits. So I always joke that I'm also a college dropout.

Adrienne
0:04:59
So I dropped those classes and was on a plane in a month and headed over there and writing and showing and just... What an opportunity. It was great. It was wonderful. And now I can listen to Italian, but I haven't still don't... I pick like four words out of it.

Adrienne
0:05:15
Occasionally.

Casey
0:05:16
Yeah. Google Translate has changed world travel.

Casey
0:05:19
Yes. They did not have that when I was there.

Adrienne
0:05:21
How did you come so you didn't speak any Italian when you were over there? I did not speak any Italian when I was there. I took a course which was good for me. I could understand it by the time I left. And they say it takes about a year and I was over there for about nine or 10 months. So I was finally at the point where I was just understanding

Adrienne
0:05:45
and not translating. But most of the people there wanted to practice their English on

Casey
0:05:49
me. So, you know, that's kind of right. Right. What I mean, looking back in your career, because obviously you have basically, you know, become a senior leader in the discovery innovation part of United Animal Health, and I always want to call it United, JBS United, but yeah, we've changed names and stuff. But how do you think that helps you into becoming that leadership and confidence as you went on with your studies and different things?

Adrienne
0:06:21
I think any new experience is going to help you with that, because I've had to engross myself in completely different places everywhere I've gone, moving from Texas to Michigan. That's not an easy move, moving from Texas to Italy, moving from Michigan to Canada. Every place I've gone, there's been a change

Adrienne
0:06:41
in how I'm going to approach things and who I'm going to approach things and who do I ask for help. And I think that kind of helps shape the path that you're going to go down throughout your career. So any time you can kind of put yourself in an uncomfortable situation is typically good.

Adrienne
0:07:01
Like most scientists, I am in fact an introvert, so that could not work well for me if I was going to do anything of substance in any of these places I've gone. So I had to force myself to be a little more extroverted, to learn some things, to take a step out of the comfort zone and just kind of be a little different. And then I could go back and rest

Adrienne
0:07:24
and be an introvert for a little while, but then step out of the comfort zone again and make sure that I had to learn something through those experiences.

Casey
0:07:33
I think that's awesome. And you touched on another point, and I tried to also younger professionals or people going to school didn't want my hobby to become my job and I kind of like that because especially if like if you're going to become an equine vet and I you know I spoke to a few of those like you love horses that's obviously why you want to

Casey
0:07:55
become an equine vet but you know, Al, I was like, you should probably work in the fairling house. It's going to be better on your body than working in the gestation or breeding barn all the time. And he was probably actually right. But just because he told me that I, you know, wasn't going to say he was right, you know, and prove him wrong. But I think that kind of also goes into it, like you can enjoy your horses and then yet you still have passion because everything you do cross

Adrienne
0:08:34
applies to your horse. Yeah it does and I find it interesting to me now because you know I'm very much in feed ingredients and specialty products and so I've become the voice of nutrition within our barn in a way. So it's a lot of people ask me, well, what if I use this? Will this work?

Adrienne
0:08:54
And I do get to dig back into my horse background and try to think if that's gonna be something that could potentially help the horse's issues or even taking the pig stuff and saying, well, that might not work, but thinking about an ingredient

Adrienne
0:09:09
that we've utilized in the pig side, looking at something else that's specifically made for horse but does you know it's the same kind of ingredient that we use some pig just say this would probably work better let's let's try that in a little bit so it's it's a good utilization of kind of all of my degrees coming together and and still working the way it should work so that makes me excited and then I'm also working in

Adrienne
0:09:31
poultry and ruminants as well so we're really getting an expansion of knowledge and I think it helps me stay advanced in my career and keep learning and I think that's That's important for me for sure

Casey
0:09:47
well, and I would say you're probably not the typical Texan cowgirl because you do discharge and jumping if I follow you properly

Adrienne
0:09:56
Yeah, I started out doing Western and then yeah, now when I moved to Michigan it was hunter-jumpers and now I mean, I didn't start, I talked to some people lately and I said, I just started jumping in my 30s and they're like, what? So I even have to tell my trainer sometimes, like, I haven't been doing this that long. I'm not one of those kids that was riding when they were, you know, jumping ponies at three foot when they were like eight and they're fearless.

Adrienne
0:10:29
I'm like, that pole is really too high off the ground. If we could like put that down some, that would be ideal.

Adrienne
0:10:35
But it's fun. It's a, again, it's challenging.

Adrienne
0:10:38
And I've got a good horse that helps me out. I think that she calls me aunt amateur hour half the time. So it's good. Mom amateur hour now.

Casey
0:10:51
Well, talk about that relationship between horses and the trust you've had. You've ridden all your life, and you're a horse girl. How has that translated over into you becoming a leader?

Adrienne
0:11:03
I think that that's just, I think the thing with the horses is you have to read them and understand them. And you have to, it really is that helps build that trust is, you know, try to understand what they're thinking and they're doing and why they're reacting the way they're reacting.

Adrienne
0:11:20
And you can take some of that same thing to people skills. It's, you know, obviously people are more vocal than horses. I'm not gonna sit here and say I'm a horse whisperer and know all these things, but if you can just still watch the same things, how people are doing their tones

Adrienne
0:11:37
and really listen to what they're saying, it's easy to kind of figure out where their issues are, where their scare tactic is, what really is the problem. So you can kind of, there's a lot of cross-fostering there of, you know, is the horse scared of something or are they being just, they don't want to work? And so, you know, you can kind of translate that into people, are they frustrated with just this one issue, or are they frustrated with something much bigger? And what is the bigger issue that they're frustrated with? So it's all

Adrienne
0:12:11
about listening, learning, paying attention, and just kind of staying out of people's way sometimes and letting them figure it out themselves, which I think is important too.

Casey
0:12:21
I'm no crazy horse lady. My sister has a horse, and I kind of have dabbled here and there. But I think what's interesting with horses, and I mean you can kind of apply it to other species, is they can't talk, so it's all based on body language. And even with humans, there's a lot that humans can say through their body language.

Casey
0:12:42
And I think that's the biggest translation that I've learned from animals to humans,

Adrienne
0:12:45
is you can, there's a lot people say with no words. Exactly, exactly. I agree with that 100%. I love this conversation. What has pigs taught you about people management? Oh man, them little pigs. They're so cute. I do like to walk in and walk into a gestation lactation room and go, bacon bits. And they and they don't tend to like that very much. I think the pigs, you know, they're super smart. They're really, they're interesting animals as well.

Adrienne
0:13:24
I think they also, it's the same kind of thing where you just watch them and try to understand if they're feeling well, if they're not feeling well, and I think they give the same kind of vibes that any other animal would give or any human would give. If they're doing okay, if they're happy with their place, if they've eaten enough, if they've had enough to drink, are they feeling cruddy, do they have something wrong with

Adrienne
0:13:45
them. And again, it's that underlying just watching and paying attention that you can get so much more out of than even, you know, sometimes just having a conversation with somebody, you get so much more out of, like Morgan said, just body language and if they're quiet and they're typically not or something like that that's just different than the personality that you're used to and you can definitely

Adrienne
0:14:06
get a lot out of that and it'll translate. I think we're talking about

Casey
0:14:10
active listening too and obviously we don't listen to words coming out of our animal counterparts per se but we do I mean with people we get words as well but we also have to be in tuned I'm really in tune to people's auras and energy. So if I'm around a lot of negative people I start feeling that and it drains me because I'm an introvert as well. And positive people that picks me up and inspires me. So that's some of the things I've picked up on as I've aged and become wiser as I say. But yep, yep, I

Adrienne
0:14:47
can't. Yeah, if people come to me, I understand there's a place to vent and sometimes you just need to vent. But if you vent to me about the same thing seven times and you haven't come to me with a solution, I get very frustrated. Like, what do we want to do now? We're just repeating ourselves and I can't handle it. That's the whole letting people do their own thing. But, you know, where do you guide them into making a solution or where do you guide them into just into, you know, let's let's figure this out. Let's make a solution. I am trying to be solution driven.

Adrienne
0:15:16
But it's yeah. Yeah, I understand. Let's not be negative all the time. I need to be positive.

Casey
0:15:22
I was going to say, we really both kind of started

Casey
0:15:25
our industry career around the same time and you came into a company. I thought you were very brave to go in there. You were, I think, the only female nutritionist at the time at United. And you've rised through the ranks even in the industry. How do you think that's changing with more women becoming nutritionists today and seeing some of that in your experiences through your

Adrienne
0:15:56
career? I love seeing women taking over these senior roles. I think it's great. I think they bring something very different to the table, a lot of organization and thought process and empathy and caring and things that, you know, men just aren't wired to see sometimes. So I love to see that the women are coming in

Adrienne
0:16:19
and taking these roles and seeing the big picture and understanding what's going on, but then also seeing some little things that their attention to detail is so great and awesome and the way that they can take things and move them that haven't been moved before. With our company, you're correct, I was one of the first ones. I still sometimes worry

Adrienne
0:16:42
that am I one of the first ones still in management, but there are some other women in here that are in management. It's great to see. And it's so refreshing to see as well. And, you know, I don't think about it very much, but I know that some people in my company have reached out and said, it is amazing to see you rise up through these things. And you're such an inspiration.

Adrienne
0:17:05
And I just find that, you know, it's twenty twenty four. Like this shouldn't be inspiring. This should be every day. Right. Like it shouldn't be something that that groundbreaking. Right. Yeah, exactly. Like, I appreciate it, but this should just this should just be an everyday thing.

Adrienne
0:17:22
Like, OK, we've got men here. We've got women here. Everything's working. So I really hope that it continues to change and we continue to see women in these roles and that these companies understand, you know, how much we bring to the table and and how seeing things differently is not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact, it's going to be what's going to drive a lot of change that needs to happen within the industries.

Casey
0:17:46
Have you done anything internally with your team to kind of help bridge that gap between men and women or even like on the mentoring side, mentoring females that have come in and kind of, I don't want to say grooming them, but what tips would you give them early in their career to kind of help them get to the point that you're at?

Adrienne
0:18:11
I think that some of the things that you have to do is just stay true to yourself no matter what. It gets a little difficult sometimes to really, you know, how am I crossing the line between being a boss woman and being a grumpy woman? How do I tow that line appropriately where what I say is going to be taken seriously and not

Adrienne
0:18:36
be heard as she's just having a PMS attack or something like that, right? I think some of the things that I try to tell people are be true to yourself. Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself. And when you do speak up, make sure you know what you're going to say.

Adrienne
0:18:53
If you stumble over your words, if you put in too many words, if you say, um, a lot, then you don't come off as really serious about what you're trying to get across. And if that means practicing, that's okay. If you have to type it out, that's okay. I mean, there's things that I'll write out and go away for a while and come back and rewrite it and figure it out again and make sure that what I am putting

Adrienne
0:19:16
across stays true to me but also gets the point across. And I think that that needs to happen a lot with women because that's going to help them have the confidence to stand up and believe what they're saying and they're going to come across more as this is what I want, this is what I need, this is how it's going to be done and nobody's going to question it because it's just a leadership thing. And I think that that's important.

Casey
0:19:40
And how many direct reports do you have now, Adrian?

Adrienne
0:19:42
I have technically only have two direct reports, but they're both teams. So they're both managers. So I've got two direct reports. And then, and then I think about seven that are under, under them. So that's good. And yeah, we've had, you know, there's team building activities. Both my managers that report to me are great.

Adrienne
0:20:06
They are very good about making sure that their reports are happy and how do we make sure the teams get along and what do we need to do to have a team building day one day and, you know, if they have issues or they have problems, they'll come to me.

Adrienne
0:20:19
They know that their people are allowed to come to me and talk if we need to. So the good thing I think about United is that we're very open to having discussions on how do we make sure mentally everybody's okay. I mean it's starting to be a big thing, mental health is starting to be huge, so how do we make sure people are happy in their workplace and is it something

Adrienne
0:20:40
that we can control or is it something that we need to help you in a different way. So I think that that is something that we're really open to and that both my managers that report to me are open to and and the people that report to them are also really good about coming up and and saying hi and working on things to make sure that they're happy

Casey
0:21:04
when they come in to work. I mean that's important. Well I would say the United Culture is pretty amazing because most of the people that have worked there, have been there for a long time. You include it. You didn't have to leave your company to get a promotion for one thing. Right. You have leadership opportunities. But the salesman, the staff and Matt's come in as a leadership role only because, you know, Ronnie retired and he had big shoes to fill and stuff. And so there hasn't been a lot of turnover in United. Talk to us about what, I mean, there's a lot of advantages to that, but the culture required, the leadership required to have a stable, loyal team.

Adrienne
0:21:49
I think that that's important. It's really, it's nice to have that security. When you bring up the people that have been there for a long time and they've seen a lot. They know a lot. When something changes, they have a voice of reasoning so you don't panic.

Adrienne
0:22:09
Panic? I don't know.

Adrienne
0:22:11
Something's different. So they've been through things quite a bit and that sustaining force that we have within the company to make sure that it's going forward. Sometimes it's hard to get them to change, but I think that that's where some people like Matt coming in with a different perspective will help them see things a little differently

Adrienne
0:22:30
and change the way that we're hoping to grow and aspire to be within the next, you know, 5, 10, 20 years. United still wants to be around. We don't want to go anywhere, so how do we make sure that we're available to do that? So I think that we've got a good mix right now of the people that have been here for a long time and are still driving Mr. Swisher's vision of the company as well as the family's vision

Adrienne
0:22:57
of where the company is going to go. But then we also have some change leaders that we've brought in who are going to be able to help, you know, marry that what we need to do with change with the vision with the family and how we're going to be able to drive everything with the growth there. So I think that you know it's great having a little bit of both coming in and the big thing about the culture is that we're all pretty loyal to it. We trust the products and that helps. We know the

Adrienne
0:23:25
research that has been gone into these products and that helps. And everybody kind of feels like family. I remember the first Christmas party I went to and Mr. Swisher was like, who's sitting by people we don't know? And nobody raised their hand, but it was kind of like we all knew each other, right? It wasn't that we were not getting to know anybody else.

Adrienne
0:23:46
It's just that we knew each other. If we didn't know each other right away, we'd all meet each other right away and say hi and do something like that. And so that was kind of eye-opening for me to be in a room full of people and be

Adrienne
0:24:02
able to name quite a few of them and really have only been in the company for like a year. So I think that that just speaks to what kind of company I'm working for.

Casey
0:24:10
Yeah. And I mean, I've been competitors against United. You've been my customers. Ronnie and I have served on a committee together. And you know, so I've gotten to know the company quite a lot and you know, for the most part, it's my backyard growing up and things. And so it's just unique to see that company rise up, family owned,

Casey
0:24:32
you know, under that direction change and evolve because you're not just a nutrition company anymore. You put the health in there because you've developed other products outside of nutrition as well.

Adrienne
0:24:44
Yeah, that's right. And you know, we're, we're, we've got a partnership with Genvax, so that's something else we're getting into. And then we've got our specialty products across species where really we know it's just about keeping the animals healthy. The more we keep them healthy and make sure they're growing, the better the producers are going to be.

Adrienne
0:25:05
And I know Mr. Swister has stepped away, but Ellen Crabb has stepped up, and she is an amazing, amazing woman. She's got a fantastic backstory on what she's been able to do. So having her start to lead the company as the chairman of the board has been really neat how she goes with Mr. Swisher's vision. And then, but again, what the family wants, it's, it's really cool.

8
0:25:28
That's cool. Well,

Casey
0:25:29
there's a topic I want to talk about because this is why you're one of my heroes out there that, you know, I would have never known until you said something, but you fought cancer and you won. Walk us through that journey for you and how you kept your career going, kept your sanity, got your health right, and give us some insights on that so we know how to support others going through similar experiences.

Adrienne
0:25:57
Yeah, so this was when I was actually, 37 was when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer. So I think, you know, saying mammogram when you're 40 gets kind of scary because that could have been that could have been missed by me. So I think one thing that I am going to say right now, women, is to make sure you're doing your checks and going to your doctor because they're starting to find cancer a lot earlier and earlier you get it diagnosed, the better you're going to be.

Adrienne
0:26:28
One thing that I was trying to think about, you know, how I handle cancer versus how other people could get the news, and I don't know if it's just being a scientist or just being somebody who wants a solution and wants a plan, but it was never a, I never thought of it as a death sentence, I guess. I don't want to say it that way. When I first got the phone call that, you know, my biopsy had come back and it was cancer, it

Adrienne
0:26:53
was like, okay, what's the plan? Who am I meeting with? What do I need to do? Where are we going? You know, I didn't, I didn't even shed a tear until somebody gave me a hug, which is why I'm not a hugger. Don't hug me. But it was it was never a, it was always a what's the plan to defeat this? What can we do to defeat this? How do we just get rid of it? I went through a lot of biopsies and that helped shape my decision to go ahead and just have a double mastectomy because they were doing biopsies on both sides at that point in time and I

Adrienne
0:27:29
didn't want to have to deal with anything in the future. So I had a double mastectomy, of lots of surgeries after that. I think the important thing is, is to know your doctors and trust your doctors. I love my plastic surgeons, he's the best. And she made sure I was comfortable with everything we did

Adrienne
0:27:49
after having the double mastectomy and the reconstruction surgeries that we had to have. I've been through several oncologists just because of some hospital changes and administration changes that went through. But all of them have been very good about asking questions,

Adrienne
0:28:08
making sure that the treatment that they planned, plan that they had for me was really good. I was pretty good about asking them questions when I didn't understand, making sure that I knew the treatment plan was good for me and what needed to happen too.

Adrienne
0:28:22
As far as kind of mental health things that were good for me was my mom came and stayed with me, which was nice because I didn't have to adult for a little while. So that was good. But, you know, they did a meal train for me. Lots of people from work would come and drop off the meals. Friends would come and do a meal train for me. And it was nice to have the people from work come and check on me. And, you know, if I was feeling good, we'd sit and chat for

Adrienne
0:28:52
a little while. If I wasn't feeling good, then, you know, at least I knew they were thinking of me and trying to make sure I was still safe and happy and things were getting taken care of. The good thing about working at United is that there was, it wasn't that I wasn't going to come back to work here. It was just let us know when you're ready to come back to work. I did go on short-term disability the first time I had cancer. And that was just kind of nice to not have to worry too much about the job. I did try to write an

Adrienne
0:29:23
email one time that took me an hour to do about three sentences. So chemo brain is real. And it was pretty entertaining. My mom was laughing at me. She was like, I'm trying to write an email.

Adrienne
0:29:37
She's like, how far have you gotten? I was like, hello.

Adrienne
0:29:39
So I think just having the support of your coworkers was really nice. They, they would check on me.

Adrienne
0:29:45
They would make sure I was okay. They'd send text messages.

Adrienne
0:29:47
So it was never, it was, I never had a doubt in my mind that I wasn't gonna be able to step back into the role and make sure that everything was fine. So that was the first time I got cancer. I actually was diagnosed again, even despite all the double mastectomy

Adrienne
0:30:14
and the chemo that I went through the first time, it came back in 2020. And that was a little bit different because then we had COVID. So that one, since we were already working from home, I would take the days off I needed.

Adrienne
0:30:32
My treatments were a little heavier this time because it was a recurrence and it was a recurrence within three years. So those, so the second time I had it, I would kind of take the chemo days off and rest. And then the other week, since we were working from home, I would just work because I wasn't

Adrienne
0:30:50
having to come in anyway. And I was a little bit better about not spending three hours trying to compose an email, but it was good. So I kind of knew what to expect the second time. And it was easier to just kind of stay focused and stay working and keep doing what I could do.

Adrienne
0:31:07
So, but yeah, now I've been free for three years now, still seeing oncologists, still on some medications,

Casey
0:31:18
but for the most part everything's looking good. Amazing. What has that changed you about health? And you've talked about, you know, team building, prioritizing mental health. What has changed your mindset of having to go

Adrienne
0:31:33
through that so young in your life? I think I listen to my body a lot more. If you just, we talked about active listening, don't forget to actively listen to yourself. When my body is tired, when my body needs a rest, I know it's fun to go out and do lots of things and experience lots of things,

Adrienne
0:31:52
but if your body is tired, make sure you give it a rest. It's telling you it needs something. It's telling you something's wrong. So just like any other, you know, I work so hard on gut health, I need to work on my own gut

Adrienne
0:32:03
health, I need to make sure I'm listening to myself, and I think that that's been the key takeaway that I've had from the diagnoses that I've had.

Casey
0:32:12
Has there been any other like lifestyle changes that you've implemented, you know, either during or after the fact to kind of either make sure it doesn't come back

Adrienne
0:32:22
again or whatnot? I think there's some, you know, there's some dietary changes that can be done, but there's nothing that's really been proven about it I stay active. I was always active riding a horse anyway, but now I'm more active So I make sure that I'm I'm riding my horse like for you know, five to six days a week instead of just three days A week, you know, I try to really stay active that way And again, I think the other lifestyle changes, I do rest more. I do make sure that I take the time to heal my body

Adrienne
0:32:55
and let it be just calm sometimes and really just rest it and let it heal itself the way it needs to. Well, that's awesome.

Casey
0:33:05
Like I said, you're my hero. I can't, you know, and you're saying strong and I know you're strong and everything, but to lose your sense of being a female and going through all that and then it coming back and like the warrior mentality that I'm going to keep going on is amazing and you inspire me, Adrian. So thank you.

Casey
0:33:30
The other thing I want to talk about because I think you have some really good insights as a leader and I've loved the fact you're in this role and you have this large two teams underneath you, but you're a transplant. Your family is presumably still in Texas.

Adrienne
0:33:46
Yeah.

Casey
0:33:46
My family's in Michigan and I'm in Arkansas. So we're like swapped. What's that like? Because I think this is something we also don't talk about how to support colleagues who have to, you know, relocate away from home. And we have international colleagues, you know, several of them that I know from China and different places are lucky to get home every two years.

Casey
0:34:08
How do you bring that in so they feel included when they don't have a good support structure family close by?

Adrienne
0:34:18
I think the thing in making sure people are included in, you know, you have work family, you know, who your work besties are. You know who your work family is. I used to do, before my friends and coworkers' families moved up here, we would just have Friendsgiving, of course. It's a great way to get your coworkers together. We're also, we've done recently with some transplants, some other transplants here in

Adrienne
0:34:46
Indiana, they've started just some girls' nights out just to make sure we get out and either have a game night or just go to dinner or something to see people outside of the office. And I think that helps a lot. Some other things that I got involved in when I first moved here was I got involved in the Junior Chamber International, so JCI, which was, you know, under 40 people just how to meet people and understand.

Adrienne
0:35:12
It's hard to make friends as an adult, right? When you're a student, you go to the university and everybody's your age and you know where to go and you have a good time and you immediately have friends because they're all immersed in the same world that you're in. When you're an adult, it's like, hi, I'm new here.

Adrienne
0:35:31
Anybody want to be my friend?

Adrienne
0:35:32
So I think, you know, like I said, just seeing people outside of the office, you, again, you're immersed in the same kind of field, you have the same passions. That's why you're, you're in the role that you're in. So if you see people outside of the office, or, or some of those young professional organizations are really good. And then obviously being a horse girl, I've got my barn family.

Adrienne
0:35:57
And they're, they're always there for me too. So I was lucky in those ways to have that. But most people are passionate about something, they have a hobby, so find a way to get a group in your hobby, whether that's a running group or a cycling group, or if you're in a knitting club

Adrienne
0:36:18
or a book club, that's gonna help you find friends that are passionate about the same things you are, and that's going to help you find your family in the other area that you're in. So luckily when I was here, I have two cousins that live in the area, so I wasn't as alone as I could have been. And then after my second bout with cancer, my mom actually has moved up here as well. So now we're just trying to convince my brother to move up here, and which I think he might be harder to move away from Texas than my mom and I were, but it's okay.

Casey
0:36:50
And I bring this up because there are some people that I consider friends in the industry and some different people who may be a little older than us that are very, and then you hear this debate out in the world about DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion. And we only assume that's a race card issue. But when we look at company culture, it's we need diversity of people, backgrounds, where

Casey
0:37:21
they're from, the fact that you, you know, were a horse person and transcend it into swine, you brought so much value to our industry, using the pig as a model. And I use that as an example of diversity of background women rising to the roles. And it's, and I just want you to touch on the experiences that we've had similar in our lives, right? You've had scary times with your

Casey
0:37:48
health, I had a scary situation with mine, my son, rising to the top, and people look at up at us as inspiring. And I just think it's a big turmoil right now that that DEI gets a bad rep but it's really you as leaders as you as even co-workers taking that to say hey this person just moved here all the way from Texas how do we help her get involved with different things how do we help her network or you know they're not there at Thanksgiving I'm the one that

Casey
0:38:23
invites the as I call it, you know, adopt family, graduate students, different things to come have Thanksgiving at my house. It's just something I've always done ever since I've been working on the hog farm in the university. And I just, that's why I wanted to bring it up in a positive way that you talked about it.

Casey
0:38:44
And I think it's so important that it's a balance that we're all happy, like you said, and we'll be more successful together.

Adrienne
0:38:52
Yeah.

Adrienne
0:38:53
Yeah, I think anything that we can do to create a feeling of being needed, you know, I think that that's kind of part of the happiness circle, right, is to feel needed and feel included in something and feel like you're bigger than something. And I think it does take all types of people with that diversity. It's not a race thing. It's an experience thing.

Adrienne
0:39:19
Obviously, I am not a pig person. I'm getting there. But I like to eat the pigs. But I automatically, you know, I do like the pigs. It's fine. But I always still consider myself a horse girl, but it's an interesting thing. I mean, we talk about even the pay gap that we have. We talk about

Adrienne
0:39:51
women not having the opportunities, the same opportunities that men have. And that's part of the diversity, equality, and inclusion portion of it, is that we should get those same opportunities and we should be those same promotion skills and we should be making the same amount of money if we're doing the same job. And that's just all there is to it.

Adrienne
0:40:10
And I think that talking about it more, making people aware of it more, that's gonna help more than anything else. Just be an advocate for yourself and for other people within your industry and make sure that you're standing up

Adrienne
0:40:24
for what you believe all the time.

Casey
0:40:26
I couldn't agree more.

Casey
0:40:27
And I know you are another one that would stick up for herself. You know, I've had to in my career, and I think that's the biggest thing. Now I have a platform and ability to stick up for other people. And I appreciate you sharing some very wise wisdom and thoughts. Coffee in the barn.

Adrienne
0:40:45
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Casey
0:40:46
I had a great time. I had a great time.

Casey
0:40:47
Thank you.