Women Of The C-Suite: Melissa LuVisi of tab32On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
There’s always another opportunity.” I recently had to miss out on an executive meeting because I had family stuff, and while I was frustrated with it, my CEO said “there’s always another opportunity” which is absolutely true and something I think we can all benefit from remembering more often.
As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa LuVisi of tab32.
Melissa LuVisi is an entrepreneur, advocate, and the Chief Strategy Officer at tab32, a cloud-based practice management, data warehouse, and technology platform solution for dentists. Melissa drives corporate strategy across account management, sales, marketing, and R&D. She is the recipient of the 2022 Sacramento Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business award.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I started my career “slinging salads” at a restaurant start-up in Los Angeles named Tender Greens, right out of college. They were seeing 100% growth year after year, and it was a fast-paced environment that I was excited to be a part of. Very quickly I found myself working directly with the c-suite where I got to observe and learn the skill of executive decision-making. Tender Greens ended up selling for $100M and I went on to start my own marketing firm. While I was running the firm, I eventually met my current CEO. Let’s just say he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse and I joined tab32.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
We’ve always taken a patient-centered approach to building our software. The retail nature of dentistry requires it. How else will we get patients in the chair if we don’t meet them where they are at? What is interesting is I’ve become acutely aware of my experience as a patient. I’ll never forget filling out paper forms outside of my dental office during the pandemic thinking to myself, “If you were on tab32 you could have just texted me these forms.” It made me question the efficacy of the practice; if they aren’t tech forward what kind of dentistry are they practicing? Experiences like this only reaffirm how important our work is. We were the first in the industry to include things like two-way texting because we know that contemporary patients expect an elevated tech-forward experience.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
As a woman in tech, I like to always make sure that my clients and colleagues see me in a professional light. When you are demoing software, it’s important that you keep your desktop clean and I once demoed a practice and forgot to clean up my desktop which had a very large and swoon-worthy photo of a local musician on it. I was embarrassed but we laughed it off and I will forever have a professional clean desktop for future demos!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
tab32’s CEO and founder, Kiltesh Patel, has been an amazing mentor and friend. I recently had my first child, and while most people keep their pregnancy to themselves for a while before telling their workplace, Kiltesh was one of the first people I told and he was also the most excited. Heck, he knew even before my parents! As a company we are committed to supporting female leaders in all stages of their lives and I’m thankful to work with leaders like Kiltesh.
As you know, the United States is facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?
Outside of the obvious, it’s the right thing to do. Studies have countlessly shown that diverse teams are the highest performers in organizations. I truly believe that diversity is a cornerstone of innovation. Working in tech we are developing, creating, and solving problems constantly. We can’t have that high-level critical thinking if we all share the same background and think the same.
As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.
We have a long road ahead of us but I think the first step is simply acknowledging who’s in the room and inviting those inside who would otherwise not have an opportunity to be there. Then, it’s our job to support and back them.
One of the initiatives we are implementing at tab32 is creating clear career paths with soft skills training, and with actionable goals so that the opportunity to grow has a clear and unbiased path. It will take time but we have an amazing and diverse team who are currently helping us build it.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
Chief Strategy Officer is a relatively new role for the c-suite. I’m responsible for providing oversight, implementing strategies across the organization, and helping the CEO execute their vision. Executives make a lot of decisions and the responsibility of whether or not those are executed across several departments falls on their shoulders. Executives are responsible for people’s livelihood and it isn’t something to be taken lightly.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?
I think the popularity of tech CEOs like Steve Jobs painted a grim picture of the c-suite. In my experience, I’ve found that CEOs who are more compassionate and kind tend to be the most inspiring.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I can only speak to what I’m experiencing now. While I work for a company that is wildly supportive of my career, I’m still also a new mom. Work, travel, and pumping has been rough. This year I had to take a step back and decline some amazing opportunities to speak on-stage or to meet with clients. On the other hand, it has allowed me to lift up our team members.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
So many meetings. This post-covid world has shifted the way we work with our teams and I don’t think any of us could have predicted it. If there is one thing I’ve learned as an executive it’s that we must always be nimble.
Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
I would never tell someone to avoid their aspirations but I do think self awareness is important. In my experience, executive work requires a lot of grit, flexibility, and systematic thinking. It requires strong relationship and communication skills. Executives are constantly working with all parts of the company and have face time with colleagues, clients and new employees.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- The Dunning- Kruger Effect. It is so valuable to listen, ask questions, and absorb information as it comes in. You have to always be learning in order to innovate and many of the wisest people know that there is always more to learn. It’s easy to get defensive when others share information or opinions that might go against your vision when you’re solving for a large problem, but it’s important to understand where others are coming from and that you do not have all the answers because you do not have all the perspectives, just your own.
- The importance that technology plays in healthcare and dental. Technology has evolved dramatically in the past 10–30 years, and I wish that myself and others understood earlier on just how large a piece it is to solving for disparities in healthcare and dental treatment. I’m glad we’ve finally caught up!
- There’s always another opportunity.” I recently had to miss out on an executive meeting because I had family stuff, and while I was frustrated with it, my CEO said “there’s always another opportunity” which is absolutely true and something I think we can all benefit from remembering more often.
- When to let an employee go. It’s okay to fail fast and to understand that not everyone is a fit for your organization. It’s important not to hold on too long and to allow both them and your organization the to freedom to find something that fits them better.
- Self-awareness. One thing I’m really good at is understanding if I’m choosing the path of least resistance and making sure that I keep my ambition. It’s important to have soft skills like knowing when to have boundaries with a client and knowing when I need to bend over backwards in order to get something done. These are the differences between making and breaking growth. It’s important for everything to have a self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses.
I work in the beauty tech industry, so I am very interested to hear your philosophy or perspective about beauty. In your role as a powerful woman and leader, how much of an emphasis do you place on your appearance? Do you see beauty as something that is superficial, or is it something that has inherent value for a leader in a public context? Can you explain what you mean?
This is such complex and vulnerable conversation. As a millennial woman who was raised in the shadows of Victoria Secret’s unrealistic expectation of what a woman should look like, I certainly believe there is too much pressure on young girls and leaders to look a certain way. I’m probably somewhere in the middle, I do follow that credence of ‘dress for the job you want,’ but I also try to be self aware. We are programmed to judge other women based on this ideal set by the male gaze. What’s really beautiful is leaders and women dressing for themselves, feeling beautiful not for the sake of anyone else but themselves.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I truly believe that diversity is the cornerstone of innovation. In order to truly help people, we need to have an understanding of how generational wealth impacts our communities and how we can lift everyone up.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them
Yes, I have a few inspirational women that I would love to connect with!
Poet and Activist, Amanda Gorman
Designer and Activist, Aurora James
Founder and CEO of Black Girls Code, Kimberly Bryant
Painter and Visionary, Kara Walker
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Women Of The C-Suite: Melissa LuVisi of tab32On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.