Chase Aalborg
Episode 175

Narrator: Welcome friends to another episode of The Story & Experience podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira with his guest today and discover the moments that shape us, our families and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, welcome friends to another episode of the Story & Experience podcast. I am absolutely delighted to be able to have our guest today because not, well, I'm going to reveal too much, so I'll hold back. I'm excited. I'm excited.

I'm here at Adventist Health Castle in Hawaii, and you're going to get to meet this person. It's going to be a really fun conversation. If you're brand new to the podcast, we have a hundred questions and they progressively become more vulnerable about stories and experiences that shaped this person into the leader that they are today.

I'm going to ask the first 10 and then I'll hand over to them to choose beyond that. So first one, could you tell us your name? Does anybody ever mispronounce it?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah. So my name is Chase Aalborg, and yes, my name gets mispronounced all the time.

Japhet De Oliveira: Already. Okay.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah, so Aalborg with two As. You start up, it's very confusing for a lot of people. How do you pronounce that? And I'll be honest, I don't even know if I say my own last name right if I'm being ... I'm sure in Denmark someone's just looking down on me right as I say that. But yeah, so it's pretty easy. But one of the fun things out here in Hawaii is you pronounce every vowel in a word here.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really?

Chase Aalborg: Right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay.

Chase Aalborg: So when I showed up day one, they had no idea how to pronounce my last name, is it Aalborg, trying to get those two As in really hard. So yeah, it's great. It's curious.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good.

Chase Aalborg: I've always been first in every list.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, that's true. That's true.

Chase Aalborg: So after my name gets called, I just zone out after that.

Japhet De Oliveira: With a double A you're guaranteed that.

Chase Aalborg: Guaranteed pretty much.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. So Chase, what do you do for work?

Chase Aalborg: I'm the president here at Adventist Health Castle.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right, all right, that's good. So now unpack, what does the el presidente do?

Chase Aalborg: Oh gosh, there's so much to that. Not only am I the "official" leader of the hospital and I get to help guide strategy and make sure from an accountability perspective we're living into making sure our community's well taken care of. I'm also the biggest cheerleader of this place. You just get pulled into so many different situations as a president.

My background, I'm not clinical in the least. I can push a wheelchair down a hallway. And then after that, it ends, it stops. If I'm doing anything more than that, you need to get security there. Get me pulled out.

But no, I mean, I think too, I'm that connection. I'm that glue that tries to hold, make the world go around here, and then help bring people together to take care of this community.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. That's fantastic, man. Good.

And what did you do before you came to Castle?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, man. So I kind of worked for a sister organization to Adventist Health out East. My career has kind of revolved around Chicago and Denver multiple times, so I'm definitely happy to be out of the cold this winter where I'm not shoveling snow somewhere. I'm literally sitting on the beach in my free time and really enjoying it.

But I grew up on the finance side of life, so number crunching, and I like to say I was always good at number crunching. I never enjoyed it. This is like the real love of an Excel spreadsheet just ...

Japhet De Oliveira: Never got you.

Chase Aalborg: It is what it is. But I just had a unique skill set that eventually got me into operations and then here as a president. So it's exciting.

Japhet De Oliveira: And you love connecting with people.

Chase Aalborg: Love it.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, I love hearing their stories. I hear this already from, having met a few people. They're like, "Oh, it's great."

Chase Aalborg: Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, people are what make the world go round. And plus too, as a president, as any leader, it doesn't have to be the president or someone else. We ask people to do such incredibly hard things. And if there's not that trust there, if you don't know someone in a tough situation, it's hard. It's hard to go ask people to go do tough things. So that doesn't get lost on me, just as a leader. We've got to be there for our people.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's good man. That's good.

All right, Chase, are you an early riser or late night owl?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, I go in waves.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay.

Chase Aalborg: I go in waves.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right.

Chase Aalborg: So for a couple days I'm a night owl and then I switch.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really?

Chase Aalborg: To an early riser. Oh yeah. No, it's the worst sleep pattern in the world. I'm sure it's not healthy. I'm sure I'm taking years off my life.

Japhet De Oliveira: I've done hundreds of episodes. I've never had anybody tell me this. I'm like, "Okay, waves." You're the first.

Chase Aalborg: Oh yeah, for three days I'll be up until midnight, just doing whatever. And then the next three or four days I'm asleep by 8:00 PM.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: I got kids 12 and 10. So God forbid I fall asleep. I get horizontal in the evenings when I'm around them 'cause then it's just lights out, you know, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Sometimes. But no, I switch. This morning I was awake at 5:00 AM, you know, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: But I was up until 11:30 midnight last night.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. Okay. All right. All right.

Chase Aalborg: So we'll see where tonight takes me.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. So this morning at 5:00 AM when you got up, first thought that went through your mind was today?

Chase Aalborg: What's going on at the office? That's usually where it starts, is okay, just tune myself up for the day. Obviously just, okay, between now and by the time I get to work, what do I got to get done? And just immediately start. That's how I process. I'm not a get up, take it easy, let's just mosey around. I'm a get up, get ready. How do I get out of the door type of person.

Japhet De Oliveira: Go for it.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's good. That's good.

Now, do you have coffee in the morning? Water, liquid green smoothie? What's the first drink of the day?

Chase Aalborg: So I've tried so many times to get into coffee, and I just, I've never been able to make the transition. I've tried so hard, Japhet, so hard.

Japhet De Oliveira: You are so blessed.

Chase Aalborg: But no. Unfortunately I have a soda addiction.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really?

Chase Aalborg: Like that carbonation.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh yeah, yeah. So carbonated water?

Chase Aalborg: Yeah, yeah, just anything.

I won't lie. I've opened up a Coke at 7:00 AM in the morning just to get the day going.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, yeah. That's good, man. That's good.

If people were to describe you as an introvert or an extrovert, what would they say, and would you agree with them?

Chase Aalborg: Oh. So I think naturally people would say I'm an extrovert. And I would definitely agree with that. I love being around people. I do have FOMO, just a lot. I want to be included in things. But I know when I go for really extended periods of time, then I've got to pull it back.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, just a little bit.

Chase Aalborg: I just do a little bit. So I do recognize that about myself. But no, I'm an extrovert through and through. I love being around people, just that energy. It's a good thing.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's good. That's great. All right, now where were you born?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, San Diego.

Japhet De Oliveira: Really?

Chase Aalborg: California. Yeah. I was actually born at that point in time in an Adventist Health Hospital, Paradise Valley way back when before. It's no longer part of the system.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: But born in San Diego.

Japhet De Oliveira: Wow, okay. And did you grow up in San Diego or ... ?

Chase Aalborg: No. Only lived there for a couple years. I'm the son of a hospital administrator. So the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Wasn't planned like that, but no I ... So born in San Diego, grew up in Texas, Florida, Louisiana. Eventually moved out to Colorado as a teenager. So I've kind of lived all over the map.

Japhet De Oliveira: All over the place. All right, so now as a child growing up, what did you imagine when you grew up to be?

Chase Aalborg: Well, sitting around the dinner table, 'cause my dad was a hospital administrator, my mom was a nurse and then went to home health. And then we actually had our own staffing agency as a family for a while. So every night around the dinner table, I heard about healthcare, this physician or the joint commission or this problem or the nursing shortage. And sitting there, I told myself, "This sounds like the worst industry ever. Why would I ever?"

So I really wanted to go. I thought it'd be really cool to go into oil and natural gas or anything with satellites. And then it just didn't happen.

Japhet De Oliveira: It just didn't.

Chase Aalborg: It just didn't. It didn't happen. Got my first job as an analyst in healthcare and ...

Japhet De Oliveira: You went in.

Chase Aalborg: Well, I wouldn't even say I was committed for the first couple of years. It really wasn't until we had my daughter to where I would say we were fully or I was fully in. I'm never leaving healthcare in that case.

And just the story around that is my wife, 29 weeks pregnant, she went in for a routine visit. The very first pregnancy, as the husband in this totally naive. She goes in for an appointment 29 weeks. Her physician takes one look at her and just says, "Hey, we got to get you admitted to the hospital."

Japhet De Oliveira: Wow.

Chase Aalborg: So I get a text saying, "Hey, I'm down in room 302," or whatever it was. That was the floor underneath my office at the hospital. And over the course of 24 hours, we went from, "Okay, we're going to shoot for five to six weeks bed rest," to a couple hours later, "Hey, we're going to shoot for two weeks bed rest" to a couple hours later, "Hey, we're going to have to do an emergency C-section tonight because we just can't get your levels going in the right direction."

And so my wife was severely preeclamptic. Probably days or not days, hours ... or maybe days, days away from probably having some form of a stroke that would've been life changing in some way. And so ended up having my daughter 11 weeks early. She was two pounds, seven ounces.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh my goodness.

Chase Aalborg: So just a tiny thing.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's so young, so delicate.

Chase Aalborg: So delicate. Thankfully she was just a feeder grower. She didn't need surgery. She just needed more time. And so we spent 62 days in the NICU at the hospital that I was at at the time. I call it the best 62 days of my life. And why I just say that is my wife had conveniently quit her job a few weeks before this. And we didn't know, it just didn't make sense, but we just went with it.

So we had this baby. My wife's recovering. My daughter's in the NICU. So every morning at the hospital I got to show up, run through the NICU, make sure everything was okay. My wife usually showed up mid-morning, pop in between meetings, have lunch. We'd spend the evenings there.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, you lived there?

Chase Aalborg: Yeah, just lived there for 62 days. You get cabin fever. Right after a while you're just like, "I want to take this baby home." But we got to ease into parenthood. That was kind of the joke of just like we got to go home every night and have a great night's sleep.

But it was really after that where I really became committed to healthcare 'cause at that same point in time, my father-in-law, who was an amazing individual, was going also through a number of health problems.

He grew up with childhood diabetes, which led into multiple transplants. He had multiple forms of cancer. He had a heart attack.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh goodness.

Chase Aalborg: I mean, this guy, when he said, give you my medical history, he pulled out a novel.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's a book. Yeah, yeah.

Chase Aalborg: I mean, he's that guy. And through the powers of modern medicine and just sheer will and determination, he probably lived 30 years longer than he should have. And so ...

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great.

Chase Aalborg: I think I've just, I've kind of developed this little tagline.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh yeah?

Chase Aalborg: Well, it doesn't matter where it's at the beginning of life, whether it's extending life or whether it's in those last few moments of life that we as people who work in hospitals and clinics and stuff that we get to participate with people in that. That means so much.

Japhet De Oliveira: It does. It does.

Chase Aalborg: It means so much. We are changing people's lives.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yes.

Chase Aalborg: And that's for me why I love showing up every day. Because even though I don't hear all the stories, I have my own personal experience with it, and I know what that means for me.

Japhet De Oliveira: Chase, for our listeners, we at Adventist Health, we offer foundations before our meetings, our big meetings. And a foundation is like a thought, a devotional thought, something related to who God is. You, you've got to share this as a foundation. And I mean, God spoke to you through this moment. That's amazing.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah. That's beautiful.

Chase Aalborg: I hope my career never takes me out of healthcare. Right? I truly hope that. That's my goal.

Japhet De Oliveira: You live in God's love. I mean, absolutely. You experienced it for yourself and your family.

Chase Aalborg: Totally.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. That's fantastic. All right.

Well, then that's pretty clear where we're going with that. Hey, leadership question here. Then I'm going to hand it over to you.

Chase Aalborg: Oh yeah, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: So are you a backseat driver?

Chase Aalborg: Man, I try not to be. I don't think I am. I think it's one of those things where I really, as a leader, I want to see people soar on their own and just be able to lead.

When I talk with people that I work with on a daily basis, I kind of make a joke of like, I love discussion. I am not a dictate and you do x, y, z. I want to have that foundational discussion with you. Let's talk it up. And if it takes time, it takes time because you don't know where that conversation's going to go. Sometimes it leads to the same conclusion. Sometimes it leads to other conclusions. But having that conversation is key because not only you're getting everything out there, but at the same time you build people up through that conversation. You learn how to have that and do that well. And we need a lot of good people in this industry. And so anything we can do to help manage people up in those moments, it's huge.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic, man. All right. Floor is open, sir.

Chase Aalborg: Okay.

Japhet De Oliveira: Where would you like to go?

Chase Aalborg: Okay. I'm going to start with my favorite number.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay.

Chase Aalborg: 17.

Japhet De Oliveira: 17. All right, here it goes. Share what day is most special to you in the entire calendar and why?

Chase Aalborg: Oh.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Oh.

Japhet De Oliveira: One day.

Chase Aalborg: One day.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: I'm sure my wife is saying Sarah anniversary, which it's a great day.

To be honest, I'm a big lover of Christmas. And I think it's just because when you get to sit around with the family and just have those little special moments together, and whether it's just me, my wife, and the kids, or whether it's the extended family or my in-laws, I just really enjoy being all together in those special moments like that. And just getting to take a break from the norm and just be together, have a good time, eat great food.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic.

Chase Aalborg: Just be part of it.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good. I'm with you, Christmas-

Chase Aalborg: There we go-

Japhet De Oliveira: ... is the best. Yeah, absolutely. All right, so up 17. Where next?

Chase Aalborg: Oh. Uh, I'll stick with the seven. Let's go to 37.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. 37. Oh, this is great for you. What do you like most about your family?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, oh, my family. It's funny, my kids are 12 and 10, and you don't want them to learn the bad things about you. Right? Yeah, exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, sure.

Chase Aalborg: But at the same time, being a parent, you see those things kind of come out and you're just like, "Oh, I know that comes from me. That's something I need to change."

But what I love about my family is we've just become a really tight unit. And we experience the same things that every other family experiences, but my kids are just ... I love my kids. They're amazing and I love to see how they grow and they become leaders in their own right and how they explore and they do things. And to me that's exciting of just getting able to see that. And then my wife is the foundation of my life. She keeps me straight.

Japhet De Oliveira: Your rock.

Chase Aalborg: She can come home and get me straightened out pretty quick in these situation. And that's what I love is that we've created this little ...

Japhet De Oliveira: Home.

Chase Aalborg: Family unit and we're all friends around that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's good. That's good. That's great. Beautiful man. Love that. All right, 37. So where next?

Chase Aalborg: Okay, let's go to 47. I'm just going to stay on the seventh.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right. Sevens it is. All right, 47 then. You just met someone. What do you want them to know about you and why?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, man. It's funny. I think you actually asked me this question a couple weeks ago-

Japhet De Oliveira: In San Diego, yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Which was great, yes. No, I mean, I would ... I'm an emotional guy. I am not a Stoic individual. I wear my heart on my sleeve a lot. And so one of the things I like telling people is I'm a crier, man. And just these little moments get to me, everything from watching those military reunion videos.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, yeah, I know. I know.

Chase Aalborg: You know, right, to just little moments throughout the day with people, with family, like, hey, I'll shed a tear 'cause when you get to see people do well and be in their element and grow and just all those little life experiences, it's something special and don't take it for granted.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. All right. 47. And where next?

Chase Aalborg: Okay, we'll jump to 67.

Japhet De Oliveira: 67. All right.

Chase Aalborg: I feel like I need to be more vulnerable here.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. What's the best picture you've ever taken and why?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, like a literal picture that I've-

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Okay. Oh man. That's ... Okay. Why did I pick this number? Let's see, a picture that I've taken.

Japhet De Oliveira: The best one.

Chase Aalborg: You know, there's a picture of my wife holding our daughter.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, yeah?

Chase Aalborg: You know, right? And my wife hates this picture. She hates it. She's like, "I look terrible." But I just remember those moments right after she was born to where we didn't know what the future held.

Japhet De Oliveira: Exactly.

Chase Aalborg: It was this big, scary world at that moment. And all those things are just racing through your mind. And now that time's gone by and we just see what's happened, that's just such a precious memory for me as I remember back on that. And just seeing my wife grow as a person, just in everything she's done to my daughter and then even my son, it means a lot.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's beautiful.

Chase Aalborg: It means a lot.

Japhet De Oliveira: I like it. I like it. The pictures speak to us, right?

Chase Aalborg: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. They bring us into places that we don't imagine.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. It's great.

Chase Aalborg: Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. That was 67, so ...

Chase Aalborg: Oh. Okay. Let's do 77.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Oh, share about one of the most cup-filling experiences you've had.

Chase Aalborg: That's a good one. The one that comes to my mind immediately is over the last two years I had a chance to go to Nepal.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, yeah?

Chase Aalborg: Twice.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, yeah?

Chase Aalborg: In the span of six months, believe it or not, and work with the Adventist Hospital there just outside of Kathmandu and Banepa. And you kind of go on those types of trips and you're like, "Okay, this is going to be exciting." You get to see new country. You get to do a lot of things. And the thing that caught me most off guard is I didn't expect to fall in love with the people there. And you are only there for a week at a time. But it truly, the people there were just so amazing, so welcoming, so kind, so willing to go out of their way for you for anything. It was truly amazing.

And the country's beautiful, don't get me wrong. Everyone needs to put it on their list. This is why I tell, "Go to Nepal once in your life. It's totally worth it." But really the people there is what make it special around that. And I got to go six months later. And I was just so jazzed about getting to see everyone again. Everyone that I've become friends with, they're big into Facebook, so you get to keep up with everyone. And I even told my family, I just said, "Hey, we live halfway across the Pacific now. We're getting to Nepal at some point, 'cause you got to come experience this."

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Hey, that's great.

Chase Aalborg: So that was a big life-fulfilling moment because those people do so much with so little. It's truly remarkable.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's deep. Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: And they're happy about it. If you ever need a reality check, go to Nepal, see what they do, go to any Third World country and see-

Japhet De Oliveira: Perspective.

Chase Aalborg: Have that perspective. And then you come back to America and complain about your life. 'Cause your iPhone's not working right that day or the Internet's down.

Japhet De Oliveira: I know. I know.

Chase Aalborg: It's just one of those things. It's a huge life reset. So I really ... Yeah. That's been a huge cup-filling moment for me.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's really good, man. Good, good. All right, that was 77.

Chase Aalborg: Okay. I'll break away from seven.

Japhet De Oliveira: Seven. Okay.

Chase Aalborg: The seven train.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay.

Chase Aalborg: Let's do ... Okay. No, we're not going to break away. We're going to do 87. We're going to do 87.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. When you're under incredible stress, what helps to ground you?

Chase Aalborg: Especially over these last few years for me, it's really been digging back into my faith.

Stress is ... stress does crazy things to the body.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yes, it does.

Chase Aalborg: You know, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. It gets you in all sorts of places.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, totally. You literally have a physical reaction to stress. And I think too, what has played out in my life, especially over the last 10 years, having that guiding principle of just like, "Hey, there's a plan for you in this life. There's more than you ever know that you can even comprehend. And that God's going to be there for you. He's going to support you."

It may not look like what you think it is. We try to dictate a lot of ... I've always said, "Hey, go try and dictate your career. Good luck." You know, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Mm-hmm.

Chase Aalborg: 'Cause if you would've told me I'd be working in Hawaii, I would've been told you, "You're crazy."

Japhet De Oliveira: Crazy, yeah, yeah.

Chase Aalborg: But here I am. And so that's what I go back to, is you got to trust. You got to trust the process that God has for you. And just to remember that whatever you're meant to do, you're going to do it.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good, man. That's good.

Chase Aalborg: My wife shared with me a little internet clip right off Instagram or something, and effectively it says, imagine getting to heaven.

Japhet De Oliveira: Right.

Chase Aalborg: You're at the gates. You're at the gates. And the Lord basically says to you, "I gave you all the days you needed in this world to accomplish the good I needed you to do." And ever since she shared that with me, she shared that with me back in 2016 'cause I was going through a lot of change in my life, a lot of struggle. And I really thought about that of just like, it's not my plan.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yep.

Chase Aalborg: It's his plan.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's true.

Chase Aalborg: In that. And I'm along for the ride. It doesn't mean don't try to work hard or do certain things. Sometimes you just don't know what to do and why you're in certain situations that you are, but you just got to trust that it's all going to work out.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good word, man. That's a good word. For anything that's complex, and right now we live in complex times all the time.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah. That's good. All right, good. Where do you want to go next?

Chase Aalborg: Okay, I'll back down the vulnerability scale here.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right.

Chase Aalborg: Let's go to 50. Let's go to 50.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. 50 it is. Oh. Share about who's influenced you professionally.

Chase Aalborg: Oh.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh.

Chase Aalborg: That's a good one. A lot of people. A lot of people. But there's one individual that comes to my mind, and it was a guy that I worked for. And I'll never forget, it was very early in the administrative part of my career. And I remember him telling me, "Chase, just go out there and do your thing." He goes, "I'm going to back you. And if you go too far, I'll pull the leash back. I'll tug on the leash, make sure you stay in." But he goes, "As far as I'm concerned, you're here to do a job. Go do it," and that.

I didn't really know at that moment how to take that piece of advice, but honestly that was really life-changing for me, of just, hey, just-

Japhet De Oliveira: It's empowering.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah. Oh, it's extremely empowering. And I really appreciated that about his leadership. He was always kind of angling with that with everyone. Hey, I'm paying you to do a job. Go do it. Right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Go do it. Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: And so for me, I hope that I've kind of picked up that same process with people that I work with on a day-to-day basis of just knowing, hey, they can go out there and do what they need to do.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Does he know that?

Chase Aalborg: Yes, he does.

Japhet De Oliveira: He does?

Chase Aalborg: It's funny.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Great.

Chase Aalborg: So we talk, oh, probably once every six months, once a year right now. And he's retired now. And it's fun. So we just get to catch up. But it's funny, 'cause he goes, "Chase, you never went too far, but you sure did push the line a few times." I was just like, "Okay. Thanks."

Japhet De Oliveira: That's great. That's good.

Chase Aalborg: So it's-

Japhet De Oliveira: You stretched the cord.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah, exactly.

But I think too, that's just the type of people you need in your life, just someone to help empower you.

Japhet De Oliveira: To believe in a person.

Chase Aalborg: Yeah. Exactly.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. And unleash them. Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: It's funny. It's funny you bring up the word believe. That's been a huge word in my family for a long time.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really?

Chase Aalborg: Yeah. Yeah. And it just goes back to those moments. It's funny 'cause my mom, literally, she spent two weeks with us out here. I'm driving her to the airport yesterday and she pulls out literally right before I drop her off at the curb, right for Southwest, she pulls out this little rock that she bought for me while she was here in Hawaii and inscribed on it is the word believe.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, okay.

Chase Aalborg: Great. And so that's always been something to believe in yourself, to believe in something bigger, to believe in your family. Don't feel like you're isolated in this world. There's so much more out there.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's beautiful.

Chase Aalborg: You've got a community, you've got partners, you've got all of that. And so for me, that always hits home.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good, man. That's good. All right.

Chase Aalborg: Okay.

Japhet De Oliveira: Where next? Where next?

Chase Aalborg: Okay. Let's go. Let's go. I'll inch up. I want to go deep. Let's go 90. Let's go 90.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. I love how you're like, "We're going to go back. No, no, we're going to go up." All right, here we go. Tell us about how you overcame a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

Chase Aalborg: Ooh.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Ooh.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Man, so many life things to draw on in this moment. So immediately I go back to faith, like we talked about. That's a huge component of just knowing. But I think too, how to get over insurmountable objects is you've got to start asking questions not only of other people, but truly of yourself and stuff. Because I find whenever you get into places where you're just like, this feels terrible, this feels like this is going to have a bad outcome, it just it's not going to go in the way of your favor. And that I think you've got to kind of ground yourself in reality around that. And just so that way when you start working through it, you really have a roadmap of what to do in that.

And I've gone through a lot of career change in my life, probably more than I'd care to admit. And going back to being in different places, different things. And each one of those times I've had to ask myself, what do I truly want out of this? Where do I truly want to go? What's important to me? What do I think I should be doing? And all of that.

And it's funny just how things, you start going and asking questions of yourself, like I said. And that kind of informs you to go ask other people and how you approach those situations and to see where it goes. 'Cause I probably wouldn't be here if that wouldn't have happened, here in Hawaii.

And so for me, getting through insurmountable times, it's incredibly hard, but it's life-changing for the better. And once again, you just don't know how it's going to play out.

Japhet De Oliveira: So I get this impression, Chase, just having talked to you before and now as well, but that you have an optimistic spirit, kind of like nothing's going to stop you.

Chase Aalborg: I try to have that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Right, right.

Chase Aalborg: I try.

Japhet De Oliveira: So now, where did that come from? Did you cultivate that? Did you feel like you were born with this? Just like ...

Chase Aalborg: I don't know if I was born with it per se. But I had two parents that pushed me really hard. I credit my mom and my dad for really pushing me. When I was really young, like 10, just to be a people person. It's just one of those, we'd go to church, we'd always be the last people out of church, we're literally flickering the lights, get out of here, go to lunch.

But as a kid, I learned how to talk to adults really early. I know when I was a little kid, I talked to adults and they're like, "Oh wow, you're very well versed in things." And I'm like, "I don't know what I'm talking about, but ... " I'm just kind of like a parrot, right, just saying stuff. But you learn how to do that.

And then also as well, when you go through a lot of adversity in your life, I say to myself, "Why would I want to be pessimistic about it?" 'Cause that's just going to make your day really suck. I'll be honest, like why do I want to live in this place? But sometimes you have to.

Japhet De Oliveira: For a while.

Chase Aalborg: Sometimes you have to, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: For a while. But then ... So for me it's just like I just want to go out there and try to have a good day, try to have fun. I'm a big believer of you got to have fun at work. Because I think we've probably all been in roles where it's just, it's a total grind all the time, and you're just like ...

I got shared something like company culture. You can tell how good a company culture is by how your Sunday night is.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Are you ...

Japhet De Oliveira: Excited about.

Chase Aalborg: Excited about coming to work the next day? Are you scared? What feelings are you having?

Japhet De Oliveira: That's pretty good.

Chase Aalborg: And so for me, it's you spend five days a week here. You're with people that you're with more than sometimes your own family. You better love them. You better love these people that you work with 'cause they're your people, they're your tribe, they're your community. For me, if I can bring optimism forward, things will figure itself out.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's good.

Chase Aalborg: From there.

Japhet De Oliveira: We have time here for just two more.

Chase Aalborg: Okay.

Japhet De Oliveira: Two more. So where do you want to go with the last two numbers?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, man. Okay. Okay. I'll make a deal. I'm going to go one easy, one hard.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, sure.

Chase Aalborg: Can we do that? Okay. You tell me. Let's drop back down the scale.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay.

Chase Aalborg: Let's go to 44.

Japhet De Oliveira: 44. All right. 44 it is. It is, oh, something that you're proud to have created.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, proud to have created.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, yeah.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, man. Oh, jeez. That's a fun one. 'Cause I do not take slow credit for anything on stuff. No, I mean it's ... I think ... Man, this is a hard question. This feels like an interview question, Japhet. This feels like-

Japhet De Oliveira: You're welcome, Chase.

Chase Aalborg: My piper a job.

Japhet De Oliveira: It's cool.

Chase Aalborg: Sorry, I'll quit deflecting, I'll quit deflecting.

No, something I'm proud to be created. I think for me, just professionally, I guess professionally, I look back at all the people I've had a chance to work with very closely. And I look at those relationships, and I look at just the joy, the amazing things that have all happened out of those. And there's just so many people, just so many connections of bringing people together and around things. And just people that you would not really expect. But when you get people in a room, you find out you've got a lot more in common than you do different and that. And so something that I'm really proud of is when I look back at my career professionally, just being able to connect with so many people and bring people up and just see where they've gone. Right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: 'Cause I just look back at conversations we had in offices one day of saying the what ifs, and well, if this, I would do this if I was that. You get to do all this stuff, and you get to watch things be created around you. And also for yourself.

I remember the days being an analyst and being like, "Well, if I was in charge, I, da, da, da." I was an analyst. I didn't know anything. It's just ... it is what it is. So to build a community around you, to create a community ...

Japhet De Oliveira: That's beautiful.

Chase Aalborg: I think that's one of the most important things in life, is you got who you got around you.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah, you do, you do. That's good. Brilliant. Love it. All right, last one.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, last one.

Japhet De Oliveira: Where do you want to go, sir?

Chase Aalborg: Oh, I feel like we need to go deep on this last one.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right.

Chase Aalborg: Let's do 94.

Japhet De Oliveira: 94.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, why am I scared about this one?

Japhet De Oliveira: If you could change one thing in the world, one thing in the world, what would it be? In the world.

Chase Aalborg: Oh, man. One thing in the world.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Chase Aalborg: I think, I really wish people, we've got a lot of differences going back to there's more in common than there is difference, but our differences shouldn't define everything. And we live in a world right now with so much chaos, politics, religion. And to be honest, we're all just people trying to get by.

Japhet De Oliveira: We are.

Chase Aalborg: You know, right?

Japhet De Oliveira: We are.

Chase Aalborg: We're all people, just, hey, when's the next meal, right? Want to make sure my family's okay, want to try to live the best life we can in whatever context that is. And I really wish we could take down those barriers of just ... And maybe this is the peace, love, and hippie in me, which doesn't normally come out all the time, but I would love to just, if there's one thing could change, it'd be like we could work together as a society, as a world community, a little bit better of just, hey, we're all just trying to make things work, right? It doesn't matter about status. It doesn't matter about any of that. We want the best for each other and ourselves.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's a good word to end on.

Chase Aalborg: Okay.

Japhet De Oliveira: I love it. I love it. Chase, thank you so much. I want to encourage people to do the same thing. Sit down with a friend, ask them good questions. We are not only transformed by it, but we are challenged by it. We become better people for it. God speaks directly into our lives. So thank you for doing this, man.

Chase Aalborg: No, Japhet, you got to know this about you. I love this, as I've gotten to listen to the podcast and now be officially a part of it. You are just, I thought about it the other day, an influencer of words and people and community kind of like we were just talking about. And I want you to know what you've created out of this, going back to what have you created out of this, it's really amazing. It is truly special.

And coming into Adventist Health, only being here for a couple months now, I totally recognize that. But thank you for doing that, for this organization, for the people who work here. Because when we get to talk about all this stuff, I think it means more than you'll ever know.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right.

Chase Aalborg: So thank you for that, Japhet.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's very kind of you, man. It's very kind. Thank you so much. It is my privilege, my privilege. So yeah, God bless you man. And God bless everybody who's listening until we connect again, but fantastic. Thanks, man.

Chase Aalborg: Thanks, Japhet.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right.

Narrator: Thank you for joining us for The Story & Experience podcast. We invite you to read, watch, and submit your story and experience at adventisthealth.org/story. The Story & Experience podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health through the Office of Culture.