Today we’d like to introduce you to Paige Polakow.
Paige, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I come from a family who had never really been involved in healthcare, so I always figured I would follow in the family footsteps, and focus solely on business outside of healthcare. With healthcare and wellness still being a large passion of mine, I volunteered a lot in my free time. Out of college,, I took a role with Wells Fargo Corporate Mortgage Backed Securities. It was a fantastic job, but I couldn’t help but feel that something was still missing. Being just out of school, I thought that I may have just not found my place yet, and then took a role with LaSalle Network. Working there, many of the senior leaders talked about passion being a key component of work. With how much time we all spend at work, they noted, it is important to feel strongly about what you do. It was then that it clicked for me – I am passionate about wellness and healthcare, and I need to do what I am most passionate about.
I didn’t feel I could jump right into healthcare without providing direct care myself, but I also didn’t want to get another 4-year degree if I knew my goals were to eventually end up on the business side of healthcare, so I went to school to become a Certified Nurse Assistant so that I could work as a Patient Care Technician. I couldn’t be happier about the change I made at that point in my life. Many people around me thought I was crazy to go back and work as a tech, but I learned so much from that experience, and I really wanted to work my way up through healthcare and understand it better. I wanted to be close to the patients and their issues, and I wanted to feel the impact that I know exists in the field. Healthcare and wellness can be so scary for individuals and families. It is a space where you give yourself over to someone else, to trust someone else, to take care of you or a loved one for something impacting your life directly. It is such a vulnerable space, and I felt so honored to be a part of that. The people who work in the arena all seem to share the same passion for helping others, and it is invigorating.
No matter how difficult or challenging, the reason why we are all there holds true, and it makes everyone strong. I went on to become a medical assistant, and then focused in research, and then as a resource coordinator, manager, to where I am now as Director of Business and Strategic Growth for Northwestern Medicine at our Lake Forest campus with the Department of Nursing. During this time and growth, I constantly had the support of my husband, Tom Polakow. He is a nurse, and also now the Director of Nursing at Aspire Home Healthcare. He and I have always had this shared belief and hope that we could work together to positively change the wellness space. He is an entrepreneur at heart. He loves creating and building and thinking of ideas, and I love problem-solving. When we heard about Cryotherapy, we thought that we would have heard about something like that if it truly was that beneficial, so we did what we love, and we researched the heck out of it. Turns out, the research proved true, and when we tried it ourselves, we found out that it really works, and the science behind it made sense.
We agreed that it was crazy to have something like this available that was not easily accessible where we live, and we decided to go for it. Since opening and starting with whole-body and localized cryotherapy, we have added photobiomodulation (light therapy) with Celluma and a full-spectrum infrared sauna, and our latest addition of CryoSkin. We are now, very proudly, a 5-star-rated wellness facility with the most amazing and passionate staff, the best clients anyone could ever hope for, and we intend to continue bringing the latest and greatest of wellness to our community. There is honestly no better feeling than having a client come up to you and speak about how their life has changed for the better because of a holistic wellness therapy they tried in the space you built with your husband. It gives us goosebumps.
And, because we cannot seem to stop ourselves from diving into things where we feel there should be a change or development, we also just started a company called Forth Phase. Forth Phase is a block utilization schedule optimizing software for the perioperative space to enhance the use of operating room time and scheduling to better patient experience, provider, scheduler, and facility communication, resource utilization, and allow for a more efficient process. I feel so lucky for all of the opportunities we have had and the people we have interacted with over the years. The friends we have, organizations we have been a part of, the support of our family, and now with our two pups and our baby boy Hunter arriving shortly, the meaning behind the work that we do means that much more.
Has it been a smooth road?
I don’t think anyone gets through life without bumps and bruises, but those are also what make us stronger, I think. When owning a business, everything can feel a little overwhelming at times. There is one slow week and you think to yourself – “oh my gosh, why did I do this? I will never make it through this, and now the business will fail, and I will let the clients I have down, and the employees who work for me will be so disappointed, and I cannot believe I thought I could start a business.”
But, businesses ebb and flow, and those times where you think you won’t make it, or you are working non-stop and cannot seem to catch your breath, those times are actually what also makes it so rewarding. It is also great to have a support system in place when you do hit bumps in the road. The number of times my husband reminded me of our mission and that no matter what happens, at least we are trying to create some positive change are too many to count, but I am so glad that he did. And sometimes, I did that for him, too. It also sometimes can be tough being taken seriously as a woman in business. Sometimes, it felt like I had to work a little bit harder to make sure people knew that I was serious and strong while still being true to who I am (which is someone who believes that kindness is paramount). Having networks like Blazin’ Babes who support women in business and give women an outlet to talk through their struggles and network were incredibly helpful.
Personal things in life happen, too, and life is a balance, so we cannot discredit those. A couple of years ago, we had two husky puppies, and they both passed unexpectedly. It was incredibly shocking and very sad for us during that time. Those same friends, family members, networks, and even our neighborhood, our church – everyone came together for us. Our co-workers picked up our slack during that time because we were just not operating at 100%. I was certainly not able to do the hours and activities that I am used to doing. That is what a team is. You build and create a team around you to support one another, celebrate one another, challenge one another, and pick up each other’s slack when you know that they need it. I am lucky enough to have a great team.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the CryoPure Spa, Northwestern Medicine, and Forth Phase story. Tell us more about the businesses.
I am honored to have/be a part of three companies, but all have a similar goal in mind. The goal is to help others and be the very best version of itself and impact the healthcare and wellness field. At CryoPure Spa, our mission is to continuously look for ways to positively impact our clients’ lives through outstanding customer service, unsurpassed holistic services and care, and a commitment to continuous learning and development in our field. We specialize in non-invasive therapeutic methods including cold and light therapy to use the body’s own natural processes to benefit an overarching goal for our client. We take the time to create a personalized experience for each of our clients, learn about their goals, and work hard to partner with them in achieving those outcomes. Our people, personalized process, and training set us apart from others as we ensure a background in wellness, a thoughtful and research-based approach, intensive training for our staff, and a comfortable environment with communication.
Northwestern Medicine is a nationally top-ranking healthcare organization that wants to transform the future of healthcare. NM, and the people within the system live and breathe the NM values: patients first, integrity, excellence, and teamwork to achieve our vision of being a nationally recognized academic, integrated health system recognized for providing excellent clinical quality and outcomes, and highly skilled physicians and employees. I am proud of where this organization has come to today. We are truly a center for healthcare near you, whether that is in Chicago, in the western suburbs, or north and east. There are locations everywhere with the same values, beliefs, and level of service one can expect from the top-ranked facility in the midwest.
Forth Phase, while our newest venture, is a company of ingenuity. As seen in the name, Forth Phase is about forwarding progress in a perioperative space. So much of data available in healthcare these days is just that – data to try to sort through and figure out what to do with. We have all this great information, and it is difficult to discern what to do with it. For a long time, I have wanted to start this company, and we finally had the ability to go for it this past year. I wanted to bring analytics and real-time recommendations and learning into an arena where it has been challenging to make sense of or make progress around those goals. This software will not only give the data and reports that healthcare is used to, but analyze it, make recommendations from it, and create a space where communication, processing information, and making change is easy.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Healthcare and wellness will most certainly change. Technology advances will promote rapid change and improvement (as we are already seeing with telemedicine, alternative medicine, and more outpatient-capable sites). The whole landscape of healthcare is primed to change and develop. People have an expectation, as other fields and industries have done, to have access to the best of the best, quickly, and nearby their home or work. There is an opportunity to enhance communication, learning, understanding, research, and so much more through connection, ease of access, and collaboration for our patients and clients. I see so much for the future of healthcare, and I think that if we work together to see wellness and healthcare as one – we can go so so far.
Even personally, I have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after being in the ICU for a time last year, and already – the advancements and communication through technology has allowed me to learn more about my rare autoimmune disease than we would have been able to determine in years past. I think that this type of understanding and growth will continue in all areas.
I also see healthcare and wellness utilizing the technology available in different ways. I see more applications like Forth Phase being at the forefront of understanding and creating timely and effective change in the wellness space. I see information at the fingertips of clinicians and patients/clients. I know that understanding more about how we all work together and using software to create recommendations is just the tip of the iceberg, and I can’t wait to see more applications like Forth Phase take hold to influence creativity and effectiveness.
Pricing:
- 2 sessions for $60 for Whole Body Cryotherapy, Localized Cryotherapy, Sauna, or Celluma for 1st time Clients
- 10% off for uniformed employees
- 10 Packs for CryoSkin are now available! Check out our website www.cryopurespa.com
Contact Info:
- Address: CryoPure Spa
1849 Green Bay Road, Suite 167 Highland Park, Illinois 60035Northwestern Medicine
1000 North Westmoreland Road, Lake Forest, Illinois 60045 - Website: www.cryopurespa.com, https://www.forthphase.io/, www.nm.org
- Phone: 847.881.6081 – CryoPure Spa
- Email: Paige.Polakow@CryoPureSpa.com, PCarey@nm.org, Paige.Polakow@ForthPhase.IO
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