Career Growth Advice from Tracy Nolan, Fortune 100 Executive | Career Tips for Women in Business and Tech

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 141
Featuring Tracy Nolan

Episode Title: #141 From Retail Racks to C-Suites: Tracy Nolan on Values-Driven Leadership, Mentorship, and Transforming Industries

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Tracy Nolan


Mary Killelea (Host): Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the 2B Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and tech. 2B Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you. Encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

Hi, thanks for joining today. I'm excited to have with us a wonderful, successful woman. Tracy Nolan is a Fortune 100 executive who's made bold career moves in industries not always known for being welcoming to women at the top. She's held leadership roles at Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and now Humana. And throughout her journey, she stayed grounded in her values while driving massive transformation and mentoring the next generation of female leaders. Today's conversation, she is going to share how she found her voice, what it really takes to lead through complexity and change, and why her latest mission and passion project of lifting as you climb is more than just a motto. Tracy, thank you so much for being here. I'm excited for our conversation.

Tracy Nolan (Guest): Thank you for having me, Mary. I'm excited to be here today.

Mary Killelea: Alright. So, we always start this off with a look back on where you started and kind of a little bit at a high level your journey here to give people kind of that kind of 500 foot view of the career path.

Tracy Nolan: Mary, I'm going to take you way back, but I promise I won't go on for that long. So, I always seemed to be someone that was always kind of challenging the status quo or wanting to put myself in a kind of discomfort zone. So, you know, back in college, I went to an engineering school. The ratio was six men to every one. I went there not to be an engineer, but I went there because I wanted to put myself first. I wanted to go to the best school I got into from an academic perspective, but I also wanted to put myself in a situation that would not be super comfortable to see how I would thrive. And so, I've always been kind of one of those that is challenging the status quo, putting myself into different situations. You know, right out of college, I was like most people. I didn't get a job right away. So, I had to figure out how to go through interviews with a college wardrobe. So, I said, "Hey, let's go work in retail." So, I started working in retail part-time to get these clothes to go to this wonderful interview for this job in marketing. And I ended up staying in retail because I really loved the idea of how I could learn about how not only to sell, but how do I make women feel super confident in the clothing that they had for work? I started kind of my own shopping, you know, mystery shopping business for them. I'd help them pick out wardrobes and things like that. And then, you know, I got this crazy call one day to go and work in in telecom and into telecommunications back in the day when wireless phones were, you know, were big and clunky and the start was just coming out and you couldn't clear here and my whole family thought I was crazy because I was doing so well in the retailing space. Like, why would you ever go to this telecommunications company when you got all this going on? and took a leap because I saw the vision of where I thought wireless was going to go to calling instead of calling places we were going to call people and that sounded super interesting. So I spent many years in wireless and you know going up the ranks in you know it was Frontier Cellular that became Bellanic Mobile that became Verizon. When I left there I was like hey I did a little startup turnaround scenario where they were starting up a wireless business for and then got into business development. spent some time actually over in Asia and Korea negotiating contracts which was another time that I learned like hey I was a woman in an area where they didn't really like to to negotiate with women and it was technical so they didn't you know they'd always go to the engineer versus me for negotiations but that was super interesting and then I had an opportunity to go work for Cox and I was like hey I can get all around telecommunications not just, you know, just not wireless in local long distance and voiceover P, which I got through that startup, but now I could get cable and then I'd be full rounded. So, I spent some time at cable really redoing the whole customer experience piece and sales and from there I did a couple other things. got back into wireless for a while at and led through that unbelievable merger during COVID and got a call one day about a job going into Humana into healthcare and kind of full circle. My dad was in healthcare and worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield. So it was like a full circle call back to like my roots to get back into what I do today. So, that's kind of my background in a nutshell and where I've come. But I've always put myself in what I call in comfort zones and challenged myself and not been afraid to step out and try and realize that the worst thing you could do is not try. So that's really what has skyrocketed what I've done and where I've gone.

Mary Killelea: What a fascinating journey. What do you think makes you so good at trusting your instincts?

Tracy Nolan: It's not easy because it's, you know, it's a lot easier to stay where you are. I remember someone once saying to me, "Hey, you got an incredible job. You've got an incredible title with an incredible company. You're probably never going to have another opportunity like this. Just keep your head down and keep going. And that is what makes me, you know, like that sounds good because it's stable, but I think I realize that nothing is ever really stable. So what allows me is like I just have this belief that it's okay to try. I guess I've come to grips with myself that it's okay to try and what's the worst that's going to happen? My mom used to say to me all the time, this too shall pass. And that 99% of what you worry about or you think isn't going to happen isn't isn't won't happen. So, I think it's just a belief in myself that, you know what, as long as I've tried, I may not always get an A, you know, get an A on my report card, but, it's better to get a B or a C+ than not to try. So, I think that's kind of just installed in how I work.

Mary Killelea: I love that. It's very admirable. A lot of women wait to feel fully qualified before they take on a role in your career. It sounds like, you know, you put your foot into something, maybe not knowing everything that you were getting into. What advice do you have for women who feel like they need to wait until they check all the boxes?

Tracy Nolan: I think they don't even wait. Sometimes they don't even realize what their potential is, right? And I many times, you know, I have the, as I say, I have that instinct, but I also am one that likes to do everything perfectly. And for women in particular, we feel like we have to know it all, right, to you say to take that opportunity. And that is probably one of the things that can hold you back the very most. And I would say that you know what it's it's you are I wish I could just give everybody kind of like you know confidence enough to say try it because you probably can do it much more than you can. And I have a couple mentors. I have a Ron Boylet who was incredible at Frontier Cellular who I took on a new role. He put me in a role I didn't even think I could handle. I was like, "Holy crap, he's going to ask me." And it was running all of the sales and I was fairly young and he's like, "Hey, you got it." And then the next thing I know, he's like, "10 days later, we have to do an interview or you have to go in and give your strategic plan to the new CEO." And it was 10 days after I started. I'm like, "Ron, I don't know anything about things I haven't had a chance to do." He's like, "Go ahead and just put together what you think." And I asked him to look at the presentation, Mary. I was like, "Can you help me? Can you do it?" and he's like, "No." And he would not help me with any of it. And he didn't even want to look at it before we walked in. And I thought, "Wow, he's crazy. Like, this is going to reflect on him. Oh my gosh, there's a way I'm going to. I'm not going to do well at that." I put it together and he had what I learned was he had more faith in me than I had in myself. And the thing I'd say to most women is trust in yourself. You're better than you're giving yourself credit to. And what's the worst that's going to happen? Okay, maybe you get a C++. Okay, that's better than not even having that opportunity. You don't have to wait till you're an A + ready. And most of us do. And I'm so proud of a couple women that I've I mean, there's so many women that I've had this opportunity to have an impact on. I think of one woman in particular who was a single mother. She had two you know she's raising two young kids and she was working so hard and I gave her an opportunity to step up into a role and she was like I don't think I can do it. I'm like oh you can do it and you can do so much more and she has flourished her career ever since. But again it was that whole feeling of like oo I can't do it. I'm not ready. I'm not you know I don't have all the skill sets. I got to tell you most men you know and there are some women like this too. So, it's not just that way, but like there are some that just go out and do it. And you don't have to know everything in a role, right?

Mary Killelea: Yeah. There's so much value in what you just said. So let's talk about mentorship because I know there's a lot of people out there listening. easy for you to say you had a mentor where what advice do you have for them on attracting mentors, having a relationship with mentors that is successful and meaningful?

Tracy Nolan: Yeah. So this is a great topic because I didn't even know there was a thing called a sponsorship which is different from a mentor. And Ron is an example of a sponsor, someone who believed in me more than I believed in myself. And I didn't even know I didn't ask him to be a mentor. He just kind of was there. But one of the best examples I have of what a great mentor could do is I've had a lot of people ask me, "Hey, will you mentor me?" And then I say yes, we'll get on the phone and then they'll be like, "Hi." And it's like, "Okay, now like what are you waiting for me to do?" Right? I had one individual to this day who is still a mentor of mine after I'm still mentoring him after seven years which is quite rare because I usually want to do you know lift and have them go find someone else. But what's unique about this relationship is that the first meeting I had I was a couple minutes late. We had it for 30 minutes. He had a clock. He was watching the time and he's like okay this is what I've got. He came with a presentation and not that it always has to be wasn't a perfect it wasn't anything but it was like Tracy here's my goals here's what I'm thinking and he asked me for advice on what he was thinking and he went through here's I want you to know about me here's my personal goals here's my professional goals here's what I'm doing about it and then he would every time come back and measure to that but not only did he talk about that then he would go in and Tracy, based on your role and what you're doing, here's one idea that I think could help you in what you do. So, he always came with something to give back. And the best example I'll tell you is and then we would go through, you know, and we would do it. But one of the times he came in, he said, "Hey, Tracy, I know there's something that's happening within your work group that I think you should, you know, that would be a great you know, way you could enhance engagement and productivity on this item." Which was great. But then he said to me, Tracy, I got to ask you a question. You accomplished so much, but do you have your own vision board? And what is your vision for this year? And I went, you know what? I haven't done a vision board in 15 years. I just kind of go with what I do. And he's like, well, you know, it doesn't matter what level you are. You know, you have one life and you have one, you know, you have a new year starting. Why don't you put together your vision board? And I was like, I got off the phone and I was like, wow, that was insightful. So, you know, Mary, what I'd say is he gave me back and gave me advice as much as I gave him. And I think that's what's missed in this whole mentorship, we think it's like, hey, you're going to mentor me. So great. And even if they come with, like here's my three areas of issues, I have to remember that person's giving up time for you. So if you can give them something back and it could be just a question. It could be like, have you thought about this or hey, I've noticed in your work group or in the industry this is happening. Here's a great article for you to read. like you got to give back. It's not a one-way street.

Mary Killelea: I love that. So as an executive, you know, you've risen to the top and done really well through, you know, everything that you've done, mergers, acquisitions, leading companies, all that all the stuff that typically is dominated by males. How have you stuck to being true to yourself, keeping your values, owning your identity and walking into a room confidently.

Tracy Nolan: It took a while. It was not definitely there when I started my career and also I come you know coming from upstate New York where I had you know I had a very prim and proper upbringing not you know just because I had a minister grandfather who was a minister and my mom was just you know very big in manners and how you did things and so I used to do things like walk into a meeting and make sure here I am an invite it's not my meeting but I'd walk in And I'd go around the room and I'd make sure everybody had drinks. So I'm like, "Hey, do you need water? Do you like the party? I became like the party planner and I realized that I'm a participant. I'm not the host for this meeting." And you know, I used to go in also. I teach this to women all the time. I used to go in and sit down and like to make sure I only took up so much space. You watch fellow men, they come in and they spread out and they take over their seats and they come in, you know, two minutes before, a minute before, they're not early. And, you know, at first I was trying to be this hostess with the mostess because I thought, well, that was the way to entertain, you know, be. And then and then I decided, you know, I decided I'm going to try to do the men thing and take up space and walk in and do it. And what I realized was I just had to be myself. I didn't have to like to study the sports games last night so I could talk and be like everyone else. I needed to show up authentically. Show up and not be afraid to put my like my voice. If you're invited to a meeting, you are invited to participate. You're not invited, you're not on the CC list or you know or or that like you're you you own it. And I have realized that when I try to not be one way, be the hostess or be like everyone else but be myself and be authentic, it is okay and actually it's well perceived. That and that is something that is whether it's a room of, you know, I remember one meeting with Samsung where I was the only woman in a room of 22 men. There were 23 of us in the meeting and I was like, I'm going to sit in the middle of the room. I'm going to take my space up and I'm going to make sure that if I have something important, I'm going to, you know, I'm going to ask the questions or I'm going to give feedback. It's it's not about being anything other than than yourself and not feeling because that's the other thing sometimes we feel like oh we don't want to say anything in this big room or oh you know oh I need to say something you know just so that I'm seen and if you can get out of your head all that and just be you can be so much more authentic and you can feel so much better about what you're doing and you'll be taken seriously.

Mary Killelea: Was there a moment because I assume that took time and was a gradual process. Was there a moment when you go, "Wow, I'm now I'm no longer doing that intention like that aha moment like, oh, I got this kind of, you know, like it it was just like natural now.

Tracy Nolan: It took a while. It took a while of testing and learning through the process and then I think it came down to letting go the fear of what would happen if I wasn't perfect or if I wasn't you know I stopped thinking about what others were thinking and thinking more about being the engaged and being part of it and about the problem. Like a lot of times we go into meetings and we're thinking about how we're being perceived or what we're doing instead of I always say like I love this because it's helped me a lot is when we're in a meeting we're usually dealing with a problem or something we need to solve. So I like to not think about it as about who and how I'm being perceived but I think about it as a puzzle. So, I always think of it like when we're talking in a meeting like this is a puzzle on the table and we're gonna figure out how to put it together and it lets all that other clutter about everything else go. And so, I think it's that mindset shift of not worrying about perception or how I'm being seen, but more about the problem at hand, which sounds so basic. I would tell you that I think if you look around the room in most meetings, people, especially in big companies are thinking about all the other things that are probably not the thing at hand, right?

Mary Killelea: Oh, so true. Oh my gosh. Your leadership style is a combination of strength and grace. What have you learned about balancing those two forces and how do you model that for your teams?

Tracy Nolan: Again, it's through being authentic and real and not trying to be something that I'm not because, you know, that's the other thing is growing up to your point in the around, you know, in male-dominated industries for so long, healthcare is not. So I'd say this is prior to Humana, but I would say that it was you know always trying to like is is being soft considered you know good good or you know bad and a lot of times you feel like you have to be dominant and for me what I found is caring about people and listening is probably one of the most critical points to a leader. You can still be demanding and I am high like people who work for me will say Tracy's highly demanding. Matter of fact, sometimes I think what she's asking for is kind of like it's pie in the sky, but then we achieve it and we're like, "Oh my gosh, couldn't believe we did it." Sometimes we don't achieve it, but it's still like we've done better than we thought we could. But grounding that with remembering that everybody like when you don't know what's going on in a person's life and you don't know what's going on at home with their families with their parents with kids like you don't know what else is out there and just having a personal touch and caring and asking and listening to others is so critically important. So I was not always a good listener. Like I was always like, "We got to get this done. Well, let's go. Let's go." But I make myself realize that if I am talking the majority of the meeting, that is not an effective meeting. I need to step back. I need to listen because that's where you really learn what's really going on. And so that's really where my leadership came from is that I realized showing that I care, remembering that somebody's mother was in the hospital and had surgery and just reaching out and saying, "How's your mom doing two weeks later can mean the world to someone that you even remembered or cared for, right?" And so, I also realize that most people don't come to work. I'd say 99% of the people don't come to work to do a bad job. So, if something isn't going well, it's probably because either the expectations weren't set and weren't aligned, the communication was off, or it's a skills issue. And all those things can be solved, right? And I'm sure most people don't want to feel like they're having a bad day every day. So, fig helps them figure out what it is. And maybe it's that they're in the wrong role and there's nothing having those hard conversations are actually very helpful to people versus ignoring it and having both be miserable in it. So, you know, caring goes a long way and you know, it's just open and honest and realizing people aren't coming to work to do something wrong.

Mary Killelea: I wish more leaders thought like that because there's so much truth in that. So you're full circle running Humana back at Humana. Tell us about your role and responsibilities and what you love and what you love so much about your current position.

Tracy Nolan: So first of all my husband and family members would say if Tracy could have two careers, she would have been a nurse, a doctor or just volunteer at a hospital where she was when my parents were elderly. They had me late in life. So it was early for me that my parents went through a lot of health issues and since I would adopt Mary I'd adopt the floor. I would see people there that didn't have their parents like elderly people who didn't have any relatives there or people whose parents had to go work and I literally would adopt the floor. I would do things till the nurse would tell me nurses would tell me I couldn't do it for the patients on the floor. Like I have this I care deeply for people. I actually am really interested in just health care and medicine and all that. So when this opportunity to go work at Humana and take the skill sets that I've learned throughout my career, I really run the sales and operations for Humana which is for 65 plus you know healthcare. It is fascinating to me to be back and it feels like it just feels right to the core of who I am to be able to bring the leadership and what I've done and hopefully make the difference in how people understand what their healthcare, you know, insurance needs are and make sure that we're helping build better health outcomes for our, you know, our members. So, it's just really full circle. And what I would also say is this is, you know, a company that has, you know, a very big mix of male and females. And the females in this organization leadership, they all support each other, which is the first organization I've ever worked for where there's really not this whole field of like there can only be one woman that is, you know, to like we're all like big support group and it's it's just a really incredible incredible place that's allowed me to bring my skill set into something that is really at the heart of a heart of who who I am.

Mary Killelea: That's beautiful. And I'm going through that. I'm in that sandwich generation where I've got my younger kids and then my aging parents. I mean it's such an overwhelming concern for the children who are caring for their parents or helping them advocate for themselves.

Tracy Nolan: It's hard. But I remember seeing this tough tough guy who was a CFO at one of our companies and I was like I used to literally almost shake as I'd have to go ask him for money and it was really early in my career because I was like I'd have to go through an ROI with him. Oh my gosh, this is going to be miserable. And one day I went in and he was like not anything I could ever expect. He was so soft and he was so like he had just told me his mom was going through some major medical problems and it really hit me like oh my gosh you know a you know aging parents aging care and people are to your point living longer but they're still having medical issues as they are that whole piece if if I could just help impact that in some way to make that easier you know that would be that would be very fulfilling.

Mary Killelea: You've also launched a platform focused on helping leaders. It's called lift as they climb. Tell us more about that mission and your passion around that.

Tracy Nolan: Yeah. So I, you know, have spent so many years completely engrossed in my day-to-day business that I haven't really had the opportunity to do what also is important to me. And I've now had the ability and time where I really want. First of all I'd love every woman leader to look down and help other women leaders lift as they climb to us. As I said, what I've seen throughout my years is that women don't help women out. Most of my mentors and have been male mentors you know through the years and so I think there's a real space to be able to help others and you know for me if I can be remembered as someone in somebody's career like I mentioned Ron Bolet like if I can help influence and help others in some way by giving a little piece of advice that they use in their career that will be that fulfills my soul. So, this whole thing is really more about I do some mentoring circles. This is not really this is not for profit by any means. This is my way of helping give back. And so, if I can through my experience share some of what I've done that can help others, that's what it's all about.

Mary Killelea: You're also on the board of Dress for Success Worldwide and numerous other boards throughout your career. I know I've been curious and maybe you can unlock the secret behind it. How has being on a board elevated your career? What has it helped?

Tracy Nolan: So, you know, one of the things that's super important, so I do have to just give a shout out for how I got on Dress for Success because I think this is super interesting. As I mentioned, I started in retailing. So, I have watched Dress for Success. always been super interesting because originally it was all about clothing to help other women gain, you know, gain positions to be able to help them be able to be self-sufficient and raise their families. So, like that's how it all started, but now it's gone much beyond that where they're giving, you know, help whether it be financial advice or how to help them start women start businesses. There's a lot more than just the clothing piece to the business. But Mary, I came to realize that I had wanted to get involved in one national or worldwide board. And I made a list and the first one was dress for success. So I said, "Okay, how onto this board?" And this is great advice for anybody who's looking for it. Like make a list of what feels what your passion is about and where you think you can give back. and then start to look through who you're connected to or who you might know that you can connect to. So I literally connected to someone who knew one of them through LinkedIn who knew who the CEO was. Once I got to that person, I said, "Could you make the introduction?" And I went through like six months of literally interviews and everything to get this opportunity for being on Dress for Success Worldwide. And what I find in any board situation is it's great to be connected and you need to ensure that like I always say, you need of course you have the the group that you work in or the PE and the team that works for you. But you also have to make sure you're growing your peers, you're growing, you know, you understand what your customer needs and also what's important to your boss and how you can help him succeed and your whole organization. But the external piece of being connected to others outside who are in different industries like the board for dress for success has so many interesting people and you know board members that I'm always learning from them and it goes back to continuous learning at every level. I think I'm more curious today and I'm doing more learning today than I probably did 10-15 years ago. But just being curious and learning from others is really great for boards and you know what you can gain and what you can also contribute to them.

Mary Killelea: What is one of the best pieces of business advice, career advice that you've received? And I know that sounded like two questions, but I guess career advice for business growth.

Tracy Nolan: My favorite saying is you're either moving forwards or backwards. You're never standing still. So, the choice is really yours. Do you want to move backwards or you want to move forwards? And I love that because, you know, time doesn't stand still. Technology doesn't stand still. And I see so many people in the same roles for years. and they're not growing and they may be doing okay, but at some point something's going to happen and something's going to change. So, you know, I always, you know, don't be afraid of the change because it's either going to come and it's going to come. I mean, you look at businesses who didn't change, you know, a Kodak, a Xerox, I could go down the list, you know, who struggled, whose stocks were super high and then, you know, they're either out of business, you know, Blockbuster, another one. So, like, I'd say just realize that change is always going to happen and run into it and realize to move forward. Don't wait. Don't wait and don't fall backwards.

Mary Killelea: Where do you see the biggest opportunities career growthwise for women today as we are kind of in this enormous time of transformation with AI the economy downsizing you know cuts new things are being re invented that we don't even know you know where should people be focusing their learning.

Tracy Nolan: So of course I do think you know learning about AI is super important but if you're looking for you know I think anyone that is understanding how to manage through change and through transformation because that is not an easy skill set. It sounds a lot easier. And companies are going through so much massive change. They need people who can help them understand how to navigate through a change process. And I think that's the one of the things like again, like one of the things that I've always done is like I don't wait till someone comes and says, "Hey, we need to figure out how to be more efficient and drive more of this." like I'm always moving our organization that way so that it doesn't happen to us that we're making it happen ahead of that right so so process improvement managing through change you can study AI but AI is what's going to is the technology it's the really the transformational piece is where I would get as much information you know there's lots of just even reading like you know reading books about it, reading articles. There's so much information out there today.

Marfy Killelea: Fantastic. What does to be bolder mean to you?

Tracy Nolan: I love 2B Bolder and why I wanted to be here is because we all need to be bolder and not let that fear hold us back from doing what's important to us. And it took me a while to get there, even knowing, you may say, Trace, you had a pretty successful career. Thank you for saying that. But you know, I could have been bolder in some situations. Like just being yourself and to be bold is really critical to happiness.

Mary Killelea: Thank you so much for being here. You've shared so much. I appreciate you and everything that you're doing for women. Thank you.

Tracy Nolan: Thank you, Mary. Thank you for what you're doing and I appreciate the opportunity. Have a great day today.

Mary Killelea: Thank you. Thanks for listening to the episode today. It was really fun chatting with my guest. If you like their show, please like it and share it with your friends. If you want to learn what we're up to, please go check out our website at 2bbolder.com. That's the number 2 little bbolder.com.