Purpose Before Profit: Heather Campbell Of Ready Set Recover On The Benefits Of Running A Purpose-Driven Business

An Interview With Chad Silverstein

Know your runway — I’d love to tell you that this is easy, and it will happen quickly, and it’ll be an overnight success. Most likely, that’s not the case. Financially, and emotionally, what can you afford to put into this? There is a limit, and you’ll want to be honest about yours.

In today’s competitive business landscape, the race for profits often takes center stage. However, there are some leaders who also prioritize a mission-driven purpose. They use their business to make a positive social impact and recognize that success isn’t only about making money. In this interview series, we are talking with some of these distinct leaders and I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Campbell.

Heather Campbell is the CEO & Co-Founder of Ready Set Recover.

Prior to founding Ready Set Recover, she held senior leadership roles as VP Synergy and Brand integration at ESPN, VP of Alchemy at Audacy (an audio content company), and Chair of the School and Education Committee in D2 of NYC where she founded a new school. She’s a motivational public speaker and engaging consultant who uses storytelling to open people up to possibilities and outline actions they then feel empowered to take. She competed for and won a full merit scholarship for her MBA at NYU’s Stern School of Business and has her BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Heather lives in The Berkshires in Western MA with her husband, 2 daughters, and dog and is thankful for their support and energy in life.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in Milwaukee, WI, where I had a really great childhood, despite financial limitations following my parents’ divorce when I was very young. My sister and I were raised by my mom, after she and my dad divorced when I was 7 years old. My mom was a public school teacher and we didn’t have a lot of money, but it never felt that way. She worked really hard but was incredibly dedicated to being there for us as well. She was one of eight kids, so we also had a lot of aunts, uncles and cousins around, and I always felt loved and supported by a lot of people. They were my social safety net. As a parent, I sometimes think about how difficult it must have been for her and how thankful I am that she always handled it with such grace and resilience. I’d like to believe some of that rubbed off on me.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

When we first launched Ready Set Recover, (which is an online wellness program vetted by physicians and backed by scientific research that empowers people to prepare for and recover from surgery so they get better, faster and with less stress), I was talking to one of our users, and she told me she was a nurse… which made me incredibly nervous because I thought she’d tell me she already knew everything covered in the program. It made me even more nervous because that’s EXACTLY what she said. My heart began to sink. However, she followed up by saying that even though she knew the material, she never would have done any of it without a framework that RSR provided. She also indicated it was shocking to see via our dashboard, how little sleep she was getting.

We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?

I went to work for an organization where there were red flags all over the place. For example, during 3 of the 11 interviews (requiring that many interviews is a red flag all by itself…), I wish I had stood up, shaked their hands and said goodbye. I like to ask questions because I’m interviewing the people as well, and the responses I was getting were really inconsistent and in some cases very negative. I could see the company was definitely not aligned from a brand or employee values standpoint, but I chose to ignore the warnings.

I took the job and was able to make a positive impact, but ultimately I learned I need to trust my gut. I also need to be inspired by senior leadership — which is critical for driving employee engagement, and is the key to bottom-line profitability.

As a successful leader, it’s clear that you uphold strong core values. I’m curious what are the most important principles you firmly stand by and refuse to compromise on. Can you share a few of them and explain why they hold such significance for you in your work and life?

I want to help people be seen, heard and celebrated. As a leader, it’s my job to make everyone I come in contact with feel that way because if everyone’s foundational needs and a little more were met, and they felt seen, heard and celebrated, the world would be a completely different place. Now that I’ve answered this, I’m having the epiphany that this aligns with the circumstances of my childhood. Whoa!

What inspired you to start a purpose-driven business rather than a traditional for-profit enterprise? Can you share a personal story or experience that led you to prioritize social impact in your business?

Right now, in the U.S., we have ‘hurt care’ not health care. I started RSR because it should exist. People should have the ability to participate in their wellbeing during a scary time of change when everything feels out of control.

Can you help articulate a few of the benefits of leading a purpose-driven business rather than a standard “plain vanilla” business?

Of course! It’s pretty simple…if you could make money AND help people in a meaningful way, isn’t that a great thing? Even in jobs where it’s not as clear cut, I’ve always tried to find small ways I could help people. Maybe that’s doing something nice for a co-worker or customer. It makes a difference to them, and it makes me feel better. Who doesn’t want to feel better?

How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?

Absolutely. Any time we tell a surgeon or medical professional what we’re doing, they actually take a breath and say ‘thank you’. One doctor, in fact, told me ‘God bless you.’ (And no, I hadn’t sneezed…) They want to work with us because they understand that our program gives their patients purpose and positivity when they’re often scared and/or non-compliant, so it helps everyone involved.

Our north star metric is customer satisfaction. We believe if we deliver a valuable product to our end-users that ultimately we have a winning formula.

Can you share a pivotal moment when you realized that leading your purpose-driven company was actually making a significant impact? Can you share a specific example or story that deeply resonated with you personally?

My daughter was having surgery (she’s fine) and as we were in the pre-op room, at one point, a nurse said ‘wow, you both are being amazing’. I smiled and said, ‘Actually, I have a company that helps people get ready for and recover from surgery in a better way.’ At that moment, all heads turned to look at me. They started asking tons of questions, and kept reinforcing that what RSR does creates amazing benefits. They could see it. The best part of the story is my daughter looked at me and said ‘Oh my god, did you Ready Set Recover me??!’. ‘Definitely.’, I replied.

Have you ever faced a situation where your commitment to your purpose and creating a positive social impact clashed with the profitability in your business? Have you ever been challenged by anyone on your team or have to make a tough decision that had a significant impact on finances? If so, how did you address and reconcile this conflict?

No. We are incredibly lucky. As a bootstrapped company, we are in charge of how we invest time, energy and money and we’ve been able to make decisions that are completely in alignment with our purpose.

What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs who wish to start a purpose-driven business? What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Purpose-Driven Business.” If you can, please share a story or example for each.

1 . Know your purpose — After being told by my surgeon that he wished all of his patients could be like me, I knew what I had to do. I had to create a company where people have a framework of support, so they not only got through surgery, but could take actions to feel empowered rather than helpless. I listened to myself and others to get to that point.

2 . Know your runway — I’d love to tell you that this is easy, and it will happen quickly, and it’ll be an overnight success. Most likely, that’s not the case. Financially, and emotionally, what can you afford to put into this? There is a limit, and you’ll want to be honest about yours.

3 . Stay curious — I want everyone to have a great experience with Ready Set Recover. I take it very personally. I’m not going to lie, it makes me nervous when I ask for feedback, but at the same time I actually want an unfiltered reply. So it’s this mental dance of loving it when people respond positively, but also pushing to get the bad stuff, because that’s where you can find ways to get better. In general, it’s important to talk to people. Ideas can come from anywhere.

4 . Do your homework — You’ve got an amazing idea. You’ve never seen it before. It makes total sense. It’s going to be so important everyone is going to want to pay for it. Those are your opinions. You need to listen carefully to the opinions of others and try to get honest feedback. It’s not easy. You’re biased, and people often don’t want to be candid. You have to interpret the signal through the noise. You also need to understand a few basic things such as: Who is going to pay for it? What will they pay, and why? And who’s out there doing something similar, but not quite the same, but they could pivot and do what you’re doing in a heartbeat?

5 . Be kind to yourself — This entrepreneur thing is HARD. Rock you to the bone, HARD. You need to do things that make yourself happy inside and outside your company. And when things go wrong, because they will, talk to yourself as you would a good friend, rather than your inner critic (mine is named ‘Blanche’).

I’m interested in how you instill a strong sense of connection with your team. How do you nurture a culture where everyone feels connected to your mission? Could you share an example or story that showcases how your purpose has positively influenced or motivated people on your team to contribute?

We celebrate. A big part of Ready Set Recover is giving participants motivation and inspiration to celebrate, and we do that within the company as well. Sometimes it’s as simple as a real high five with eye contact and a ‘Nice job!’. When we were looking for a CTO, we interviewed a lot of candidates, and the person we ultimately chose was not only qualified for the job, but really believed in our mission. It set him apart and made the decision really easy. And he said it made the decision very easy for him to join.

Imagine we’re sitting down together two years from now, looking back at your company’s last 24 months. What specific accomplishments would have to happen for you to be happy with your progress?

Our clinical study would not only be done, it would show what I know to be true, that Ready Set Recover decreases complications, reliance on pain meds, readmissions, absenteeism and length of hospital stay and stress. And, on the positive side, it will show higher HCAHP scores, increased physical and emotional wellbeing and high user engagement and satisfaction.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I go back to my purpose in life, which is to make people feel seen, heard and celebrated. If everyone could focus on this for others, the world would be completely different.

How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?

They could visit our website at readysetrecover.com and if they or someone they know is having surgery, they can purchase the program for themselves or as a gift for someone they care about.

They could also follow us on social media (Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/readysetrecover, X — x.com/readysetrecover, LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/company/ready-set-recover ) or sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our homepage.

Lastly, we’re always looking for doctors and hospitals who would recommend us to their patients, so any intros are appreciated. Please reach out to team@readysetrecover.com for any questions or comments!

This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!

About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a successful entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience as a successful founder and CEO. He started his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc. a third-party collection agency, out of his apartment while going to The Ohio State University. He grew the business nationwide and represented more than 10,000 clients before selling the company on his 25th anniversary. His second venture, [re]start, is a career development platform that helps people find new jobs, launched in 2013 as a division inside his agency. [re]start was a catalyst to Chad’s team becoming an industry outlier after connecting thousands of people to meaningful employment opportunities. His company was nationally recognized for its social impact, twice being ranked the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. Chad sold [re]start in 2023 and is now a writer and thought leader for Authority Magazine’s Entrepreneur and Sports Editorials. He also offers an exclusive executive leadership program inside his online community at Authentic Authority.