A Conversation with Paula Blomquist, Chief Experience Officer at GoHealth Urgent Care
What does great leadership look like? My conversation with Paula explores her leadership philosophy, values, and approach to building inspired, empowered teams. This post—full video interview included at the end—unfolds her leadership journey and the insights she has so generously shared to set other leaders up for success, exemplifying what great leadership looks like.
Born in the middle of a shopping center, Paula knew she was going to grow up a retailer—and love it. After many years in marketing, customer relationship, and technology, she is now Chief Experience Officer for GoHealth Urgent Care.
Paula started her career in actuarial science but soon decided to bring her love for data and pattern-finding into the marketing world. She spent most of her career in customer relationship marketing on both the client side and agency/consulting sides. Her industry experience spanned retail and education before she later found her way to healthcare.
At this stage of her career, she shared that what she’s truly seeking is to impact not only her teams and companies but also people in more genuine and crucial ways. “It’s time for me to give back,” Paula said, noting that this role, over the last almost five years, has given her the opportunity to talk about healthcare in new ways and to help guide GoHealth Urgent Care and its clinical partners toward next-generation care and treatment.
“It’s time for me to give back.”
As the firstborn, and first daughter of a very tight-knit New York Italian family, Paula says she was the Dundi Alutz—the “little doll”—who, by age four, was leading around her brother and three cousins, all boys. After the passing of her mother, the family’s glue, ten years ago, Paula became the matriarch of her family.
As the Chief Experience Officer for GoHealth Urgent Care, Paula now runs the IT organization as a marketer, realizing her passion for technology and products and remaining curious at this stage in her career. Her fourth Chief Marketing Officer position has essentially transitioned into a CIO position in healthcare. She shared, “I’ve empowered these technologists to be their best, and I’m very proud of that,” realizing that she’s accomplished this without a lot of formal experience but through her own leadership principles. Paula says she was raised with “tough kindness,” something she remembers watching her father demonstrate. He, too, was a CIO, and loved by his people. Paula reflects, “No matter how rough, I try to just lead with kindness.”
“No matter how rough,
I try to just lead with kindness.”
As an admired leader since the age of 25, at Reader’s Digest, Paula believed early on that leadership is about listening, having two ears and one mouth. “Listen and build trust immediately. That’s first step for me.” Reflecting on her time at Reader’s Digest, she said, “We became a powerhouse to be reckoned with.” For her, trust builds mutual inspiration, which in turn motivates and fuels teams. Once that foundation is in place, Paula believes the next step is empowerment. She explains that when leaders feel empowered and inspired, they transfer that down to their leadership teams.
“Listen and build trust immediately.
That’s first step for me.”
This philosophy has driven extraordinary results at GoHealth Urgent Care, where engagement scores reached 99%, with double-digit gains in key areas like learning and development, collaboration, and autonomy. Paula emphasizes, “If you have good leaders, you have to inspire them, you have to trust them and empower them.”
“If you have good leaders, you have to
inspire them, you have to trust them
and empower them.”
With newer managers, Paula is intentional about paving the way for them, fostering their confidence and growth. She ensures exposure by bringing them into leadership meetings, giving them the stage, and showing her confidence in them. Development conversations are ongoing and adaptive. “If a goal doesn’t make sense anymore, because something has shifted, we change it. Or if they’re not exposed to something they feel strongly about, we’ll add it.” For Paula, great leaders also share recognition and when they do, engagement increases and the “remarkable” happens.
Great leaders share recognition and when they do, engagement increases and the remarkable happens.
Today Paula leads 150 people and proudly notes that three of her protégés have gone on to become CMOs. Her model for success—two ears, a little encouragement, a little empowerment, a little course correction—and always trusting your gut. She wants her teams to be proud of their work, take accountability, and focus their energy on the true levers of the business. Just as importantly, she believes leaders must recognize when someone shouldn’t be in a leadership role stating that when you take people who have poor leaders and give them a great leader, you’re helping them find their potential with better leadership.
“Two ears, a little encouragement, a little empowerment, a little course correction—and always trusting your gut.”
For Paula, great leaders maximize potential. They view their people not as expenses, but as assets. They never stop learning, and they give timely feedback to ensure their teams’ work reflects their very best.
She believes the top three qualities all leaders need are humor, patience, and discernment—knowing what to hang on to and what to let go. The best part of leading, she says, is hearing her own influence reflected back through her teams. She sees this as them taking what she views as a gift she’s trying to give them.
Paula leads with values she considers non-negotiable: Diversity, including diversity of thought, Honesty, no matter how hard the conversation, Kindness, Courage, and Integrity—“I think being brave to speak the truth and to speak your mind in a professional way—having that courage and integrity—I love that.”
Her career has been defined by alignment to those values. At Limited Brands, she ultimately chose to leave because her personal values conflicted with the company’s. Even though she tried to lean into the culture, she found she couldn’t compromise, sticking to kindness even though it was viewed as a weakness. She believed her leadership wasn’t fair to her team—“I was going to do them more harm than good, because my beliefs were not aligned with that company’s beliefs.”
“I was going to do them more harm than good, because my beliefs were not aligned with that company’s beliefs.“
Throughout her journey, Paula has been shaped by other leaders. She credits Sheila Darnborough, a friend of her father’s, for teaching her to lead through problems. She acknowledges her CEO at Michaels, John Menzer, for pushing her to find truth during a time when digital marketing was still dismissed as a “myth.” Michael Bender reminded her, “You can do anything, Paula, but you can’t do everything.” Another mentor, Ron Klausner, was tough on accountability and spoke to Paula about the “positive viral coefficient.”
Her mentors also taught her the value of curation and preparation. Once, she saw pre-meetings as “politicking.” Later, she realized they were often about preparedness and collaboration. She believes preparation is key, and it’s something important to teach. A self-proclaimed data geek, she trusted the numbers but eventually learned—“You have to pay more attention to what the data isn’t saying, than what it is saying.”
“You have to pay more attention to
what the data isn’t saying,
than what it is saying.“
If she could advise her younger self, Paula would stress the importance of focusing on doing two or three things really well. She admits she tried to take on too much to prove herself and later learned the value of delegation. She now encourages leaders to avoid micromanagement—instead of giving people answers, give them space and time to shine.
Instead of giving people answers,
give them space and time to shine.
Paula also believes in the power of fun. “I love to entertain my teams—like throw wacky things out there.” At Michaels, she once announced, “We’re going to pimp out an 18-wheeler, and we are going to drive around the country and go to fairs, and we’re going to build bracelets with people!” That creativity led to sponsoring The Ellen Show and meeting Ellen herself. Team members from those early days are still with her, having followed her across three different companies since.
She believes in balancing hard work with fun, insisting you always need to keep some dollars tucked away in your budget for it. For Paula, fun moments with the team create space for vulnerability, deepen relationships, and ultimately drive creativity, trust, and better work—“100% of the time.”
Vulnerability deepens relationships, and ultimately drives creativity, trust, and better work—100% of the time.
Ultimately, Paula believes leadership is about kindness, accountability and curiosity. She tells the next generation of leaders—Be yourself. Have patience with yourself. Surround yourself with people who inspire you. And remain as curious as a six-year-old your whole life.
“Remain as curious as a six-year-old
your whole life.”