Milad Pezeshki
Episode 138

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'm delighted with our guests that we have connected online virtually, which is the new world these days. I'm glad to be able to do that still and good to see them on camera. While you'll only listen to us, I get to see their beaming smile. If you're brand new to the podcast, we have 100 questions that are about stories and experiences that shape this particular leader into the leader that they are today. I'm going to ask the first 10, and then hand over to them and they get to pick between 11 and 100 where they want to go. As you get closer to 100, it becomes more vulnerable and more open, so we'll see where our guests will go today. I'll begin straight away. Can I ask you to tell us your name, and does anybody ever mispronounce it?

Milad Pezeshki: Yes. It's great to be here with you. My name is Milad Pezeshki. Yes. There's a lot of opportunity for mispronunciations. I get Mah-lad, Mih-lad, and all kinds of variations, which I answer to all of them.

Japhet De Oliveira: You do? Okay. Milad is the correct one. I am good with that. I think your last name will be a little bit difficult for everybody.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes. The last name is interesting. A lot of people with the ending think it's Polish, but it's actually S-H-K-I, Pezeshki.

Japhet De Oliveira: Pezeshki.

Milad Pezeshki: Which is a Persian-Iranian background.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic, man. Hey, great. All right. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us, doctor. It's wonderful here. I'd like to just begin with, could you explain to us what you do for a living?

Milad Pezeshki: Sure. Yeah. I'm the director of outpatient operations for Adventist South Simi Valley. That basically means I'm over our outpatient clinics. It's about seven clinics ranging from primary care, urgent care, cardiology, surgery, radiation oncology here. Within these seven clinics, we have about 40... Actually, 25 physicians and nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and about 100 support staff members.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic. You've been doing this long?

Milad Pezeshki: Pretty much. Yeah. I've been in the healthcare field for about 12 years now. I've transitioned through various aspects of healthcare. Obviously, I started off after I went into medical school. On the clinical side, I had some research and then I discovered the healthcare administration side of the field, which was an unconventional route for some physician to go into health administration right away, but I really found my calling there to be able to make a broader scale changes and really improve our healthcare to our community on a broader scale.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's fantastic, man. I'm glad you found the path.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: You're enjoying it as well. Tell me, where were you born, Milad?

Milad Pezeshki: I was born in Tehran, Iran.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really? All right.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: When you were a child growing up there, what did you imagine you would grow up to be?

Milad Pezeshki: Growing up, we moved actually fairly quickly during my childhood to Germany.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. All right.

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah. I grew up in Germany. I went to school from elementary to high school in Germany.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, really? Okay. All right.

Milad Pezeshki: I always thought I was going to be an astronaut. My goal was to... I knew at the time, only the U.S. had really a program at NASA. My goal was I want to go to the U.S., and go to college and pursue that route to becoming an astronaut.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic. I guess you speak English obviously, and you speak Persian. Then, you must speak German as well?

Milad Pezeshki: I do. Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: Okay. That's great. You speak any other languages or...

Milad Pezeshki: No. Just those three?

Japhet De Oliveira: No? Well, that's a lot already.

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah. It was interesting story because in high school when I came to the U.S., they wanted me to take a foreign language. I said, "Well, I speak Farsi, Persian," which they were like, "Well, we can't really test for that." I said, "Well, I also speak German." "Well, we only have French, Italian and Spanish." I was like, "Okay. Well, I guess I'll take Spanish." I started to take a little bit of Spanish, but it's very elementary until my college counselor finally was able to test me out of Spanish by taking a AP German test. When I scored really high on that test, they were like, "Okay. We believe you don't have to take Spanish anymore."

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Now, what language do you dream in?

Milad Pezeshki: That's a great question. I think it's predominantly English now.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, yeah?

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Then, this is the real test. This is bonus questions. When the World Cup is on, who do you support?

Milad Pezeshki: I would say Germany or the U.S., but usually the underdog. I tend to support the underdog. A lot of times, it's been the U.S. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's awesome, man. That's fantastic. Thank you for taking on those couple of bonus ones there. Hey. Personality, when people describe you as an introvert or an extrovert, and would you agree?

Milad Pezeshki: I would say for the most part, introvert. I agree to some degrees. I think it depends on the situation. I think at work, I'm a little more on the extrovert side. It all comes depending on what situation I'm in.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Hey, that's good. That's good. I like that. Habits, are you like an early riser or late night owl?

Milad Pezeshki: I transitioned from a late night owl to an early riser right after medical school. Then, with work and now kids, I'm always up. I don't need an alarm. At 6:30 a.m., I'm up.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah. Just go, go, go. The kids do that to us. Yeah.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: No worries. Then, this morning when you woke up, first thought that went through your mind?

Milad Pezeshki: First thought was just looking at my schedule, preparing for the day, making sure I didn't miss any emails from last night that have come through for the clinics.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that's good. That's good. What about this? In the morning, do you have tea, coffee, water? What's your first drink of the day?

Milad Pezeshki: My first drink usually now in the Southern California heat is a freshly brewed iced coffee.

Japhet De Oliveira: Nice. Nice. That was good. That's good, man. All right. Hey. Last one now, leadership question and then I'm going to hand it over to you. Are you a backseat driver?

Milad Pezeshki: I would say not. I don't like micromanaging. From the leadership perspective, I'm either the driver or I am letting my team do the work and just trust them that they're able to do it. No, I wouldn't say much of a backseat driver.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. All right. Hey, that's good. That's good. All right. The floor is open now. Which number would you like to go first?

Milad Pezeshki: Wow. Okay. Well, let's start with something easy. Let's go to 12.

Japhet De Oliveira: Twelve. All right. What's your favorite movie or book of all time?

Milad Pezeshki: Wow.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Movie or book?

Milad Pezeshki: Movie or book? Obviously, I have great deal of respect for the Bible because one of the things that meant a lot to me growing up... I went through Catholic school in Germany and being a Christian, I really enjoyed books that had the wisdom and guidance of how to live life and how to improve oneself. I think that's got to be my number one go to. Besides that, I really enjoy the book, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah.

Milad Pezeshki: I think it was such a motivational book in overcoming obstacles and achieving your dreams. That really put a lot of things in perspective for me. It was a lot of similarities with his goals and dreams that it resonated with me and getting through the challenges of moving and me going through three different continents as I grew up. Yeah. I really liked that genre, the motivational self-help.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's really interesting. Did you find the book yourself or did somebody recommend it to you?

Milad Pezeshki: I actually came across a clip on YouTube talking about the book. Then, I realized there was an audio version of it. When I was commuting to work, I started listening to it.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. I don't know if you do the same thing. I get an audiobook. I listen to it. If I like it, I get the digital version. If I love it, I buy the hard copy.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes, I have a few of those.

Japhet De Oliveira: You do, too?

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Is this one that you have a hard copy of?

Milad Pezeshki: I do, yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, okay. All right. Hey, that's great. All right. Hey, that was 12. Where would you like to go next?

Milad Pezeshki: Let's go on the 20s. Let's see. Twenty-eight?

Japhet De Oliveira: Twenty-eight. All right. If you had to give an impromptu 30-minute presentation on a subject, what would it be?

Milad Pezeshki: Impromptu subject, I would probably talk about efficiencies of running a clinic and the lessons that I've learned so far with getting the right stakeholders involved in the decision-making, creating a process, and then designing the space to fit the process rather than... A lot of times, we see a space that's already pre-made and we try to force our process into that space. There's a lot of redundancies and inefficiencies that's going into place. I noticed that makes a big difference, especially with the clinical world.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Now, in the clinical world, we're constantly adding new clinics to Adventist Health. We're acquiring and building relationships. When you look at a new clinic, what is one thing that you're going to always look out for straight away like, "I'm looking for..."?

Milad Pezeshki: I think number one that I look for is clinic culture. I think it's the people that make the clinic. We've been really blessed with the clinics that we've acquired and that I've overseen. We've had great people joining our team. Really, that just makes our job so much easier when we have the right people in place, going back to not having to micromanage and just being able to trust your team and guide them when they need the help.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. That's fancy. That's fantastic. Brilliant. Good. All right. Milad, where next?

Milad Pezeshki: Let's see.

Japhet De Oliveira: That was 28.

Milad Pezeshki: Let's go. Twenty-eight. Let's jump a little bit to 48.

Japhet De Oliveira: Forty-eight. All right. Tell us about your best personality trait.

Milad Pezeshki: Best personality trail?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Milad Pezeshki: I would say just being relentless and not giving up on any task or project. I may not be always the smartest person in a room, but I feel like I am the one that gives up the last. I just continue until I get a result. Really, hard work pays off and it's paid off for me.

Japhet De Oliveira: Is that something you have? Is that something your parents had? Is that like resiliency?

Milad Pezeshki: I think it's something I've just developed over the years, because I really had to be resilient and adaptable to change. On the broader scale of just, you grew up in one country, you speak one language and then you brought into a different culture, different language, different alphabet, and you have to start from scratch. Then, going from Farsi to German was a big change. German is not an easy language. Just from an early age, I just had to be very adaptable and resilient because it's easy to give up and get frustrated and it just wouldn't have made me progress in life if that would've been my route.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. There are two big schools of thought, right? On resiliency. One is that people are born with it. Another, that you can develop it. Do you lean one way or the other?

Milad Pezeshki: I think it's a mix of both. Yeah. I think you can't have one without the other. It'll be very difficult. I'm probably in the middle there.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right. Like it. Good. All right. We're next off to 48.

Milad Pezeshki: Let's start with 50.

Japhet De Oliveira: Fifty. All right. Share about who has influenced you professionally.

Milad Pezeshki: I've been blessed to have great mentors. I think just with Adventist Health, Chip Owens, one of my first mentors here, was amazing at helping me guide me through it. Now, most recently, Jennifer Swenson has been amazing, amazing leader and just helping and supporting me in our ventures with so many things going on with clinic acquisitions and we're moving and changing and we're doing construction and we're building a new consolidated clinic. It wouldn't have been possible having great mentors like that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Exciting times.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes. Definitely.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Hey, that's wonderful. Does Jennifer and Chip, do they both know that you feel this way about them?

Milad Pezeshki: I don't know. I hope.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Maybe you have to go tell them. It's nice when you have people who have been good in your life, just to say thank you to them.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. That's good. All right. That was 50. Where next?

Milad Pezeshki: Let's see. Let's go to 70. I hope I'm not going too fast.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, no. You're doing fine. It's great. It's all good. It's all good. You can go up and down. It's not a problem. Yeah. Don't feel like the train has gone one way. All right. Tell us about one thing that you are determined to accomplish.

Milad Pezeshki: I think personally, I would say just to be a great dad. Professionally, I just want to make sure I'm able to leave the world a better place by being able to impact the community's healthcare needs. Make it more accessible. It's one of the main reasons I got into medicine is because I thought healthcare, that's the most precious thing we have. That's where I want it to be. Just this notion of being able to make these broad changes that can impact thousands of lives just by providing access, more access. People tend to get their healthcare checked more frequently.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yes. That's true.

Milad Pezeshki: That's really been one of the main things that I wish I can continue accomplishing.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Tell me about your kids. You have one kid or more than one, or...

Milad Pezeshki: I have two.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah?

Milad Pezeshki: I have a two-and-a-half-year-old and a six-month-old.

Japhet De Oliveira: Wow. Okay.

Milad Pezeshki: Two boys.

Japhet De Oliveira: Enjoying the pressure and the joy of being a parent?

Milad Pezeshki: Yes. It's definitely been something you couldn't have expected. It's parenthood. It's still fairly new to me being a dad. It's been amazing. It's helped me grow as a person, and the ups and downs and just worrying about them and making sure they're okay. Yeah. It definitely changes your perspectives.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's fantastic. Yes, it does. Priorities change, right? They shift instantly.

Milad Pezeshki: Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira: All right.

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira: Hey, that was 70. Where next?

Milad Pezeshki: Let's go to 80.

Japhet De Oliveira: Eighty. All right. How would you like to change in the future?

Milad Pezeshki: Change in the future? I think to continue on the same trajectory that I'm on and just day by day, to continue to improve. I think that's probably the most consistent thing that I can change in the future. It's hard to pinpoint a specific thing where I want to be something specific. I just want to continue improving every day. It's kind of abstract way of looking at it.

Japhet De Oliveira: I like it though. I like it. No, that's good. That is good. I like that. That's good. All right. Where next after 80?

Milad Pezeshki: Let's go to 87.

Japhet De Oliveira: Eighty-seven. All right. When you're under incredible stress, what do you do to ground yourself?

Milad Pezeshki: I think prayer is number one. That helps me look back or step back from the situation, pray and know that the things I can control in a stressful situation, I can control. The things that I can't control, that's up to God. That relieves some of that stress from me to be able to differentiate, "Well, what can I change?"

Japhet De Oliveira: Yes.

Milad Pezeshki: Then, focus on that. The things that we can't change, I think that's up to God. The Lord knows best. It helps me not to get stuck in a stressful situation and just be able to focus on what I can change and move past.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's really good. I like that. Prayer is really good. That's fantastic. Where next?

Milad Pezeshki: Let's go to 90.

Japhet De Oliveira: Ninety. All right. Oh, tell us about how you overcame a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. Something's like, "That's just impossible," and you overcame it?

Milad Pezeshki: There's a really good story there that... I think it's a while ago, but it really shaped me, I feel like. The first time, we had moved to the U.S., and I was probably four months into being in the United States. I enrolled in high school here, and it was going great. I was doing well in my classes. Through wanting to go into college, and at the time I still wanted to go and pursue this NASA dream of mine, I was like, "Well, I have to get to college." I spoke to a few college counselors and they said, "Well, you need to have certain classes to get into college. I realized I was in the basic high school classes, whereas you would need to be in honors and AP classes at the higher level. I said, "Okay. Well, can I switch into those classes?" Because my goal isn't to get into college.

I remember at the time, the college counselor said, "Well, you're only getting A's because you're on these classes. If we put you into honors and AP, only after four months of being in the U.S., your grades are going to go down and we don't want that." I was kind of disappointed and thought, "Oh, what can I do? The college counselor is saying this." At the time, my mom was very much of an advocate for my education, and I was like, "Well, let's go talk to the principal." The principal, to our dismay, agreed saying, "Well, the counselor has a valid point. We can't have you changing classes because you're not going to get A's anymore and we need to keep your grades up." I was disappointed and my mom decided we're going to change high schools.

Japhet De Oliveira: Wow. Okay.

Milad Pezeshki: I was afraid because I had just gotten used to this and she is like, "No, there's an open enrollment through a high school about 20 minutes away and we're just going to have to drive there." We went down there. We met with the assistant principal at the time, Taft High School, and she said, "I'm going to switch you into these classes, but if you get one B, I'm changing them back."

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

Milad Pezeshki: I was already nervous of my English wasn't that good, but my math and sciences was solid. I just trusted that I can do this. I got a lot of motivation from my mom that, "No, you can do this. I believe in you." I really needed someone at that time to believe in me.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Sure. Our moms, eh?

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah. I never looked back. I got As and I got into UC Davis after about two and a half years in high school and did well on my SATs. That, at the time, seemingly insurmountable object was, "How am I going to get to college with having such a short runways?" I looked back at my peers and they had all this time to prepare for high school and college, and I had gotten in at the latter end of ninth grade, so almost 10th grade already. Once I accomplished that and I got the acceptance letter, I was like, "Okay. Anything is possible at this point." That really changed my perspective.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's really great, man. That's really great. Hey, fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. That's encouraging to people who are maybe in the same place. Maybe they've had a lot of time and they're thinking, "Oh, how do I do this?" Yeah, I agree. That's great. All right. Where next, sir, after 90? Yeah.

Milad Pezeshki: Ninety. 90. Let's see. Let's go to 100.

Japhet De Oliveira: One hundred. All right. If you wouldn't mind, could you tell us about one question that you don't want us to ask?

Milad Pezeshki: It's a tough question. I think oftentimes, the questions that are a little bit discouraging. One of the ones that I've come across to, not too often, but it's the, "Well, what if this fails?" It's that negative question of, "Well, why even start," basically or why... It gives out kind of a cop out of, "Well, let's not even try." That's a question I really don't want to answer because I think if you do your preparation and you meet with the right people and you have your risks and assessments done, then you should be able to take on a challenge, even if it may fail.

I think those discouraging questions are always tough to answer because I want to be able to say, "At least we tried," rather than say, "Well, we never attempted it because we didn't want to fail." Yeah. It's a tough question because I think it's important to know your risks. Not to say that you shouldn't look at any risks when making a decision, but I don't think it should be at the forefront of things. I think you should do your homework and be able to make a decision, minimizing your risk, but still make that decision and move forward.

Japhet De Oliveira: That is sage wisdom. I like it. I like it. It was good. Thank you for that. I don't think you're alone. I think lots of people feel the same thing. It's a real question. You have time, Milad, for two more? Final two numbers.

Milad Pezeshki: Two more?

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. What would you like to go with your final two numbers?

Milad Pezeshki: Okay. Let's see. Let's go maybe down.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah.

Milad Pezeshki: Let's go to 27.

Japhet De Oliveira: Twenty-seven. Sure. Here we go. Oh, bring us into your kitchen. You're preparing a special meal, and what would that meal be?

Milad Pezeshki: Okay. I really like making complicated dishes.

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

Milad Pezeshki: My favorite ones to do, I think one of them is lasagna.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Milad Pezeshki: The multiple layers and the different structuring and different things. I really like making that.

Japhet De Oliveira: That's awesome.

Milad Pezeshki: Or something like Thanksgiving Turkey. I love preparing those big dishes. They take a long time and it's a process. It's an art.

Japhet De Oliveira: It is an art.

Milad Pezeshki: I really enjoy that.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. Hey, that's really good, man. That's good. All right. Last number. Where do you want to go? Last number.

Milad Pezeshki: Last number. Let's see. Let's go to 64.

Japhet De Oliveira: Sixty-four. All right. When you look back on your life, could you tell us a moment when you thought to yourself, "What was I thinking?"

Milad Pezeshki: I think going back to the story of the multiple languages, now that I look back, I tested out of Spanish because I just felt like, "Oh, I speak already these two other languages." Looking back, I wish I would've just continued taking Spanish because it's so useful and it would've helped, especially being in the Southern California. I've been very talented or gifted with languages, just being able to learn them fairly quickly. Now, looking back, I was like, "Oh, maybe I should have just continued Spanish. That would've been a great asset."

Japhet De Oliveira: This could be your thing about what you change in the future. Take on Spanish.

Milad Pezeshki: Right?

Japhet De Oliveira: Duo Lingo.

Milad Pezeshki: Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of programs [inaudible 00:28:58] for that now.

Japhet De Oliveira: There's so many. So many. Hey, that's fantastic. Milad, it has been a privilege to be able to talk to you. Thank you for taking the time in your busy schedule to be able to share a few of these moments in your life. It's been great.

Milad Pezeshki: Thank you for having me.

Japhet De Oliveira: Oh, fantastic.

Milad Pezeshki: Very excited to be on your show.

Japhet De Oliveira: Yeah. I want to encourage people to do the same thing. Sit down with somebody they don't know, get to meet them. Maybe they could have a cup of tea or a cold brew with them. We should have done something like that, but asking good questions, listening. We learn so much about each other and we are better beings for it. God bless everybody and we'll connect again soon. Thanks again, Milad.

Milad Pezeshki: Thank you very much.

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.