Growing up in nearby Clarksville, Kriste Goad gravitated toward the written word from a very early age. Naturally curious and a bit of a risk-taker, she was always interested in the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind most any subject and unafraid to go find the answers.
“I think I was a bit of a pest growing up because I was always asking questions,” Goad said with a laugh.
By middle school, she already had decided to become a journalist and pursued her degree at Auburn. Goad reflected that while the future of the field is being widely debated, the need for great journalists and journalistic training has never been greater. “Our world has never been more content-focused nor more content-driven,” she pointed out, noting that “the ability to spot and report on trends, write well and tell a great story never goes out of style.”
Goad’s early career was spent as a reporter for the Nashville Banner and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. She went on to serve as speechwriter, and later press secretary, for Gov. Don Sundquist before making her first foray into healthcare in 2003, when she made the move to Healthways to lead corporate communications for the publicly traded wellness and disease management company.
“Our business intersected with every major player in healthcare: health plans, hospitals, physicians, self-insured employers, PBMs and consumers,” she noted. “That work allowed me to understand the highly complex business of healthcare and the various levels and types of education and engagement that are necessary and needed across the industry.”
From that point forward, Goad has been passionate about helping organizations grow and promote their brand through strategic marketing communications. “It’s amazing how many stakeholders in healthcare have to communicate with each other to make the delivery of care possible, much less a good experience,” she noted.
After five years on the corporate side, Goad made the move to agency work, applying her specialized industry insight to clients across the healthcare spectrum. In 2011, she was recruited to help start Nashville office of ReviveHealth, a communications firm that was founded in California with a sole focus on clients in the healthcare space. Now headquartered in Nashville, the agency recently was acquired by global communications and engagement firm Weber Shandwick, part of the Interpublic Group.
“I love being creative, both in terms of how to solve problems and in how to tell a story visually, emotionally and with words. I also love figuring out how to reach, engage and influence people using the latest media channels and marketing tools and platforms,” Goad explained. “I feel like my field really calls for innovators and trend spotters, and I love to stay ahead of the story. I think my training as a journalist taught me to always be looking for the story, the new angle, the early signs of shifts in society or politics or the overall zeitgeist.”
With the agency’s deep B2B expertise, Goad said ReviveHealth is helping clients navigate the massive changes in how healthcare organizations must position themselves to deliver on the goals and mandates of value-based care and reimbursement. “There is a huge need for strategic, effective marketing communications to help enable and drive those changes and shifts,” she said.
A growing area of focus is personalized marketing. “How do you engage patients before they are patients? There is a lot of complexity to that challenge,” she said, adding it requires innovative approaches and staying on top of the constant influx of new communications tools to build long-term relationships and brand awareness.
Being on the cutting edge of media channels also helps her stay on her toes raising a teenager. Son Jack Wilson, a rising sophomore at Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet, is on the swim team and enjoys video gaming. In addition to staying connected to friends and family, Goad said she loves checking out the latest restaurants in town and cycling. Two of her goals in the next decade are to bike across Italy and “to see my son have an awesome college experience and enter the world prepared for its challenges and opportunities.”
Her advice for her son and others considering their future is simple, “Pursue your passion, and the rest will take care of itself.”