Sarah McLeod, CEO of Activate Health, discussed her expertise in marketing and public relations with Abe Alon from Medium, a platform that delivers insightful perspectives, valuable knowledge, and life wisdom to over 100 million readers. Explore Sarah’s path from working with Fortune 500 companies to running her own marketing and PR agency focused exclusively on healthcare clients in Medium’s Q&A series on becoming a thought leader in your industry.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I grew up in Wisconsin with a family focused on medicine and healthcare. But I felt drawn to the business and creative side. At an early age, I was entrepreneurial and independent. At 15 years old I was managing college kids at Olive Garden. Before that, I worked on an alfalfa farm by day and sold Mary Kay by night while having business cards at the ready for my babysitting company. There was always a drive to do more.
My entry into the healthcare industry began when I started an internship at the University of Wisconsin Health–Hospitals and Clinics. Following that, I got some experience in the nonprofit sector when I sought warmer temperatures in Arizona and landed at CIGNA Voluntary in a marketing role. My next position took me to a private equity-backed healthcare company that sold to payers. There, I was thrown into a fast-paced environment with lots of M&A activity and got exposure to niche sectors within healthcare like specialty pharmacy, long-term care, durable medical equipment, home health care — you name it.
By this time, my former boss from CIGNA had founded her own healthcare marketing agency where I had the opportunity to help grow the firm. It felt risky at the time to leave the stability of the corporate world, but I’m so thankful for the chance and that I said yes.
Can you briefly share with our readers why you are an authority about the topic of thought leadership?
I’ve spent two decades supporting marketing, PR and communications efforts for healthcare organizations. With that specialized industry expertise, I’ve learned the importance of cutting through and not adding to the “clutter” in a crowded, diverse and dynamic space like healthcare. Today, at Activate Health, our firm has nearly 15 years’ worth of success stories about how we’ve accomplished this on behalf of our clients, who are some of the biggest brands in the industry.
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