Dr Anne Peled On The Self-Care Routines & Practices Of Busy Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders
An Interview With Maria Angelova
Daily exercise is my favorite type of self-care for myself, and to recommend to others. Exercise has so many positive health effects, including amazing mental health benefits — for me, given the known significant decrease in cancer recurrence with regular exercise, I consider it part of my treatment regimen.
All of us know that we have to take breaks in our day to take care of ourselves. “Selfcare is healthcare”, the saying goes. At the same time, we know that when you are a busy leader with enormous responsibility on your shoulders, it’s so easy to prioritize the urgent demands of work over the important requirements of self-care. How do busy entrepreneurs and leaders create space to properly take care of themselves? What are the self-care routines of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders? In this interview series, we are talking to busy and successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, and civic leaders who can discuss their self-care practices and self-care routines. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Dr. Anne Peled.
Dr. Anne Peled is a board-certified plastic surgeon in San Francisco, California, who specializes in breast, reconstructive, and cosmetic surgery. She is uniquely trained as both a plastic surgeon and a breast cancer surgeon. In addition to her clinical practice, she serves as the Co-Director of the Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center Breast Cancer Center of Excellence, and she is a breast cancer survivor herself. So when it comes to not only performing but also undergoing breast surgery, she gets it.
I sat down to learn more about nerve-preserving mastectomies, how this is not only changing the lives of patients around the world but transforming the world of plastic surgery, and got to know the incredible woman behind this revolutionizing practice. To say she’s a busy entrepreneur and thought leader is an understatement.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! It is an honor. Our readers would love to learn more about your personal background. Can you please share with our readers your personal backstory; What has brought you to this point in your life?
I grew up with two parents who were both breast oncologists and so passionate about what they did, which played a huge role in my sister and myself not only becoming doctors, but also breast cancer specialists. After my residency and fellowship training, I started a private practice focusing on breast cancer and breast reconstruction surgery and was happily building my practice and raising three children with my plastic surgeon husband when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 37. Being diagnosed with the disease I treat every day has been so transformative in so many ways, primarily around the ways I relate to my patients, encourage everyone around me to advocate for themselves and their health, and share my story to hopefully inspire others through their journeys.
What is your “why” behind what you do? What fuels you?
I love helping people through their cancer journeys and empowering them to advocate for better care for themselves. Sometimes this means educating our community about different treatment choices so they can ask their healthcare teams about potentially better options; other times, it’s sharing parts of my cancer story and showing what healthy and happy survivorship looks like. I also love innovating in the cancer space and partnering with mission-driven companies to develop new techniques and technologies so that, hopefully, breast cancer care 10 years from now looks dramatically different than it does today.
How do you define success? Can you please explain what you mean from a personal anecdote?
For me, it looks like making sure the choices I make and the life I build are driven by passion and, ideally, all change the world for the better to some degree. If I can look at what I’m doing in any given week or month and feel like most of the work I’m doing or commitments I’ve made fall into these parameters, that feels like true success. A dream week for me in terms of really feeling successful would be one where I’m taking care of my patients, actively helping out with my kids’ activities, exercising daily and educating on the importance of exercise to our cancer community, and teaching advanced breast surgery techniques to other surgeons with my husband.
What is the role of a growth mindset in your success? Can you please share 3 mindset mantras that keep you motivated, and sane, and propel you forward?
I always want to be improving and innovating the treatment approaches I provide to help elevate and advance care not only for my own patients but for others.
- We can do hard things.
- Everything is possible.
- Lead with love.
You are by all accounts a very successful person. How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Growing up with parents who were both breast cancer doctors, I saw every day the joy they got from taking care of people during an incredibly difficult time and supporting them and their families through it. I brought similar feelings into starting my breast surgery practice, which was only strengthened after going through my own breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 37. Being on the patient side opened my eyes to so many things, particularly about how disruptive a cancer diagnosis and treatment are to people’s lives and their families. Going through the experience myself has driven me to get to really know my patients and try to guide them toward treatment decisions that fit with their values and goals. It has also led me to become a vocal advocate and educator in the breast cancer community to make sure people are getting information and access to all treatment options.
Can you share a mistake or failure which you now appreciate, and which has taught you a valuable lesson?
Because of my passion for educating other surgeons and patients on breast cancer care, I love to participate in speaking and teaching events around these topics. However, I often get overcommitted as a result and recently had a stretch where I was traveling multiple times per week for several weeks in a row, which took a significant toll on my family. I sat down with my kids, apologized, explained to them what had happened and why, and promised them that it wouldn’t happen again — having their happiness as a motivator to help me make better choices is so compelling.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Drive — I often think of drive as having the innate deep-seated desire to be the very best version of yourself and bring all that into the world to change it for the better each and every day. I honestly start thinking about what I’m going to add to the world each morning right when I open my eyes and take a few minutes each morning to plan out how I’m going to make that happen in my day — for me, having that clear intention and plan really sets the tone for the day and makes the likelihood of success so much higher.
- Empathy — I have the ability to really feel other people’s emotions deeply, which I believe plays a huge role in successful interactions with others, from colleagues to collaborators to patients. It allows me to tailor discussions to best fit where others are coming from, which I think leads to overall better outcomes, particularly in conversations with patients about surgical decision-making.
- Flexibility — Training to be a surgeon is definitely one of the most unpredictable scenarios you can be in, and 7 years as a resident and fellow taught me so much about creatively and quickly pivoting to take action in unexpected situations. Having that training serves me so well in my current roles running different teams in different environments, where I frequently need to adapt and tailor my actions very purposefully based on the specific needs of the team or environment.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting new projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, one of the things I was most worried about was losing all feeling in my chest after treatment, which ends up happening in the vast majority of people who have mastectomies. I chose to have a lumpectomy instead primarily because of this, but it also ended up leading to my husband, Dr. Ziv Peled, who is a peripheral nerve surgeon, and my pioneering a technique that allows people to keep their sensation. We did our first sensation-preserving mastectomy 1 month after my own breast cancer surgery in 2018 and now do hundreds of them a year — it feels so good to be able to offer my patients advanced options that didn’t exist when I was facing similar treatment decisions. We also now teach other surgeons across the globe about the technique, which we hope means it will someday be a standard option for everyone. I’ve also partnered with Athleta for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (or, as we like to call it in our practice, Breast Cancer Action Month!) to be a part of their AthletaWell community to help educate people on advocating for their health, breast cancer risk reduction, breast self-exams and early detection, and the importance of exercise.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview about Self-Care. Let’s start with a basic definition so that we are all on the same page. What does self-care mean to you?
For me, it means listening to your body and mind and actively making time to give yourself what you need. I also think of self-care as a type of self-advocacy, where you determine what’s best for your health and well-being and prioritize that by structuring the rest of your life around it.
As a successful leader with an intense schedule, what do you do to prioritize self-care, and carve out regular time to make self-care part of your routine?
I know myself well enough at this point to be aware that I really don’t do well on a physical or psychological level if I don’t make time for self-care. Plus, wellness has also been a huge priority for me since my cancer diagnosis. With all of this, I’ve promised myself that I will make time for self-care every single day and carve it out no matter what, even if it’s sometimes shorter than I’d like. I travel a lot for work, and I find that looking at the meeting agenda in advance to find windows of time where I’ll be able to get in a workout or a walk outside really helps make sure that the time doesn’t get lost.
Will you please share with our readers 3 of your daily, or frequent self-care habits?
I’m lucky enough to live right by the water, and there’s a beautiful path there where I love to walk our dogs with my husband — I try to do it every morning that I can, it’s so peaceful that time of day.
During the early part of the pandemic, when I couldn’t get to the gym, I started working out through Peloton. I have a strong community of other medical professionals who also love to exercise, so we plan group exercise challenges or rides through the program that we all do together — I make sure to do some type of exercise every single day, even if it’s just 10 minutes of core strength before I go to bed.
I have a 25-minute commute to work, and while I usually make patient or other work-related calls on the way home, I keep the drive into work free for whatever I feel like I need that morning the start my day off right. Often I listen to my favorite playlists, but sometimes I’ll pick a podcast or check in with one of my friends or family, whatever feels best.
This is the main question of our interview. Based on your own experiences or research can you please share 5 ways that taking time for self-care will improve our lives?
Daily exercise is my favorite type of self-care for myself, and to recommend to others. Exercise has so many positive health effects, including amazing mental health benefits — for me, given the known significant decrease in cancer recurrence with regular exercise, I consider it part of my treatment regimen.
Meditation is another form of self-care with so many known health benefits. Personally, I use meditation to help settle down all of the thoughts that are running around in my head at the end of the work day and get me to a better place to head into the evenings with my family.
Part of self-care is actively thinking about what you need at a certain moment and then getting yourself the resources to take care of your needs. This is an incredibly important skill that can translate to so many parts of your life and one I’m always trying to help my children develop as they get older. This translates especially well when we find ourselves in the patient role and may need to advocate for our health choices.
An important part of self-care that I think can sometimes get overlooked is connecting with others. This can be reaching out to loved ones, engaging in a group activity, or participating in community events (virtual ones count too!). The feelings of love and support, and acceptance that come out of these settings can have such a significant impact on people’s overall well-being — I love to share the data that having strong social networks can improve health outcomes across a variety of different medical conditions.
My final one is on making time for small moments of joy. This one feels so good and doesn’t take much time — even just spending a few minutes really enjoying a cup of coffee or laughing hard at a funny video can have positive effects for the rest of the day. Snuggling with my kids is always my favorite — even when things get really stressful at work, sometimes, I can close my eyes and imagine being with them and instantly feel better.
Sometimes we learn a great deal from the opposite, from a contrast. Can you please share a few ways that NOT taking time for self-care can harm our lives?
Because there is so much noise in all of our lives, not spending some time every day to quiet that and reset can make it incredibly difficult to focus on both big and small tasks, especially over time. There are numerous health consequences to not making time for self-care as well, from anxiety to poor sleep to increased risk of multiple medical problems.
What would you tell someone who says they do not have time or finances to support a regular wellness routine?
Fortunately, there are so many wellness routines that can be incorporated into your life without any cost, from daily walks to meditation to journaling. Time is often a bigger challenge, but self-care is so essential to being successful in any/all parts of life, that once you truly prioritize it and block out even a small amount of time for it daily, the rewards from it will become so clear and it will become easier to set aside more time.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we both tag them :-)
Abby Wambach — I’ve been very focused lately on growing my leadership skills and leading as a woman, and I have been so inspired by her work in this space and her perspective.
What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?
You can find me on Instagram @drannepeled, it’s my most active platform which also has links to my website, recent webinars, media coverage, resources etc.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher, and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness, and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
