Transforming Adversity into Purpose with Toni Sova-Corfee

🎙️ Welcome to another inspiring episode of the Timeless Vitality podcast, where co-hosts Amber Stitt and Kate Beck take you on a journey through resilience, innovation, and personal growth.

🛡️ In today's episode, we are joined by Toni Sova-Corfee, a transformative leader who has seamlessly transitioned from a 37-year career in financial services to the cutting-edge world of health tech.

🧬 Toni shares her incredible story of overcoming professional challenges, rediscovering her true self, and finding new purpose through her work at Grail and their innovative Galleri test—a multi-cancer early detection screening that could save countless lives.

❤️ With deep insights and personal anecdotes, Toni highlights the importance of doing the work, embracing resilience, and making intentional choices, especially as we age.

💼 Whether you're curious about career transitions, health innovations, or how to thrive at any age, this episode is packed with actionable wisdom and motivational stories.

📻 Tune in to learn how Toni's extraordinary journey can inspire you to live a life full of vitality and purpose.

🎧 To watch the video podcast: https://youtu.be/8h5yQ8eUbe0

#timelessvitalitypodcast #AmberStitt #KateBeck #ToniSovaCorfee #Resilience #HealthTech #FinancialServices #GalleriTest #EarlyCancerDetection #pathwayswithamberstitt

🔗 Connect with Toni Sova-Corfee:

📲 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toni-sova-corfee

📲 Women in Insurance and Financial Services: https://www.wifsnational.org

📲 Email: tsova80439@gmail.com

🔗 Connect with Kate & Amber:

📲 Website: https://www.timeless-vitality.com 

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Transcript

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Kate Beck  [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Timeless Vitality podcast where co-hosts Kate Beck and Amber Stitt explore the unique journeys, inspiring stories, and timeless wisdom of those who embody vitality and resilience.

Amber Stitt [00:00:17]:
Together, we discover what it means to thrive well beyond 100, sharing insights that empower you to live with purpose and create a lasting legacy.

Kate Beck  [00:00:27]:
Let's get started with today's episode.

Amber Stitt [00:00:30]:
Hello and welcome to the Timeless Vitality podcast. I am your host for today. My name is Amber Stitt and I have my co-host, Kate Beck with me today.

Kate Beck  [00:00:39]:
Hi. Happy to be here.

Amber Stitt [00:00:40]:
And we have an amazing friend, colleague, leader in the industry, the financial services industry, but also now in healthcare. We have Toni Sova-Corfee with us today. Welcome, Toni.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:00:51]:
Oh, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate being here.

Amber Stitt [00:00:54]:
You're a very important guest to this podcast because of the work you've been doing, and I'd like the audience to get to know you a little bit better. Let's talk about where you've been, which Kate and I know you from more of that financial services industry. Also being a leader at the Women in Insurance and Financial Services organization as current president, but also because you've had a transition in the last few years, I really want to talk about where you've been and where you are now. I think the audience would love to hear about this journey. So do you mind sharing a little bit about yourself?

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:01:27]:
I'd love to, it inspires even me, and I'm living it, right? So I did, as you just mentioned, I had about 37 years in financial services before transitioning two years ago into a health tech company. And that's not a very logical transition, is it? You know, how does that happen? And what I've learned, and I marvel at this every day, I marvel at the opportunity I have and the inspiration I can provide, the care that I can give because of my lived experiences outside of financial services and the way it all comes together. And so my financial services career was wonderful, but it came to an end sooner than I had intended. I had a grievance and battled through that, and the company and I decided to part ways. And then I thought, okay, now what? My whole identity was really wrapped up in the role I'd been playing and the years in the industry.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:02:19]:
And I also knew, like many people who face a crossroads, what else is there? What can I do with this? You know, I went on a journey like everyone does. I did a lot of story work and we hear that often. But I can't say enough about It. Am I allowed to plug an author of a book?

Amber Stitt [00:02:35]:
Oh, yes.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:02:36]:
It really helped me out. So Dr. Dennis Rebelo has a book called "Story Like You Mean It" and I would highly recommend it. When I mentor people, I refer people to this all the time because we get those of us who've been in a career, or a role for a long time, we start to identify with it and it becomes our identity. When someone says, "Who are you?" Or, "Tell me about yourself," we give them our title and we tell them about the great work we do with these products, or these practices, et cetera. That's not who we are. That's not who we are at all. That's what pays the bills, right? And even when we're really good at it, that's not really who we are.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:03:09]:
And so I needed to get to the core of who I was for a couple of reasons. I needed to heal myself from what had taken place. That was rather abrupt and I hadn't seen it coming. And then I needed to figure out what next. And I knew if I took the time to do the work and peel back my own layers, you know, when you're mentoring people, you're always helping them peel back those layers. And I hadn't spent nearly as much time being mentored through my career as I should have. I highly recommend it for everybody. And so I had a couple of mentors during this process, one of whom referred me to this book.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:03:41]:
And I did the work and I learned some things about myself and I revisited my entire life and kind of figured out how did I get here? So that I could answer two questions going forward. I could answer the question, "Tell me about yourself," or respond to that, and "What are you looking for?" Because two or three months post employment I couldn't answer those questions. I kept falling back on this is the job I did, and this is where I live. You know, I wasn't talking about me. So I started that healing process. I started evolving my story and an opportunity popped up and I thought, this is interesting with this company. This company reached out to me in LinkedIn and said, "You have the kind of a background in life insurance company distribution that we're looking for someone for. We're a health tech with a multi-cancer early detection screening test."

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:04:29]:
And I went, "What?" Even though it almost sounded like this can't be real, this is some kind of hoax, why would anybody in health tech, biotech, science be coming to a sales and marketing financial service person? Right? That makes no sense. But I pursued it. And after the first conversation, I was totally hooked. And I was hooked because I lost both parents and a brother-in-law and a grandfather to late-stage diagnosed cancer.

Amber Stitt [00:04:56]:
I didn't know that.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:04:58]:
So I have lived the pain, the suffering that just flows over in such horrible abundance to everyone, not just the family, the friends, the community for that experience and to know and to learn that it doesn't have to be that way, that there are tools that technologies have advanced and that there is actually a blood test that someone can take and it is quite good at detecting cancer early. And cancer that's detected early, has more treatment options and is potentially curable. So that was just too compelling. And it was, you know, it was this nexus point. So here I was, I had this career in financial services that I wasn't sure I wanted to keep doing that anymore. I needed something and along comes something I would never have seen. I could never in a million years have, you know, guessed that I would be in this space. And it's because of my lived experience outside of my profession that I'm effective at what I do and that it's so exciting and I'm truly passionate about it and I get to stay in financial services with it.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:06:00]:
Because we're working with life insurance, right? We're working with life insurance companies. And so that's the connection point. It's like, "Wow, this is perfect."

Amber Stitt [00:06:07]:
When you were trying to explain that to me why these carriers are now interested in this and they're the ones selling life insurance, it's like, "Wait a minute, it's amazing." So you have this self-reflection window that probably was necessary, we all need it. So you are hitting a pivot of we're doing this now through LinkedIn. Someone reaches out, so you never know who's watching and looking.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:06:25]:
Right.

Amber Stitt [00:06:26]:
I mean these are some interesting things that are just not as common, you know, or they might not feel common to us. But the life journey that we talk about on the podcast, the goal, especially having you on this episode, is to have people just rethink how things can and should be. But we do need to be learning more. We need to know, you know, I love talent based planning. We need to know who we are to the the core, but then be open minded and learn and just evolving. But very excited that you're after quite a while in financial services you could still blend that in and it's still integrated. So that's really cool. You never know what kind of solutions, or positions could be out there for us and we can create anything.

Amber Stitt [00:07:02]:
But it's really neat. They found you through LinkedIn too. Interesting.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:07:05]:
We can create anything, but there are three critical words in that, "we can create." That means we have to be willing to do the work. We can't lean back and say, "Well, I know a lot of people, they'll come and find me." Because that's not how it works. This is my perspective. All the people who love you, who know you, who know the great work you do, they're not worried about you. So they're not looking for you because they're not worried about you. They're saying, "Oh my gosh, you're going to kill it anywhere.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:07:29]:
Let me know where you land." That's what people say, right? And then you have to dig into that work. And then in the course of digging into that work, you realize you have to prepare yourself to have the right answers. You know, sometimes we have an opportunity where we get to make a very conscious choice. And if you're more mature, if you're in your late 50s, when you're making those choices, you're probably...I was thinking, "I want this to be my last stop. This is chapter two. I'm riding into the sunset on this one."

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:07:57]:
And so what an opportunity I had though, that I got to make a conscious choice. I had other options, kind of a sidebar, funny, my husband said to me at one point...a large, well known company had offered me a position and it was a lot of money. And when I said, I don't want to take that, and I was in the interview process with Grail, he goes, "You don't have an offer, yet." I said, "No, but I'm feeling really good. And you know, I know I'm a top candidate and yeah, I'm going to pass on that one and I'm going to pursue this." And he just looked at me and he goes, "It's a lot of money.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:08:26]:
Are you sure?" And then he said, "Okay, great, go for it." So anyways. But it's because of the intention. It's because of the work, doing the work.

Amber Stitt [00:08:35]:
I'm feeling that vibe here, Kate. So we have to do the work to take care of our own health, too. We have these resources now. Can you speak a little bit about...

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:08:43]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:08:44]:
If we're moving into some testing, or having the access points to this, you don't want to hear the results. Let's find out at stage zero because we can have some opportunity here. Can we talk about that a little bit?

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:08:54]:
I can. I think that what really strikes me is our screening test called Galleri with an "i". Our screening test is today, mostly for people over age 50. Anyone over age 50 is eligible for it. And what I know about the 50 plus population, because I'm one of them, because my parents were those people, because I have friends who are those people, is many people who are over age 50, especially those over 60 and 70, aren't great at advocating for their own health. They weren't raised in the same space we're living in today, where if I think about relatives of mine in their 70s or even 80s, they don't question their doctors, they don't spend a lot of time looking at innovation and what's on the horizon and what's coming, because they really count on the medical profession to alert them. And so that's their source of information. But as we all know it, the world has changed and innovation happens at the speed of light now.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:09:52]:
And it's really remarkable, what with AI and machine learning, the advancements that can take place. And so what I see is that we have an incredible tool, an incredible screening test that's directed at the age 50 plus population mostly. And that for financial, financial advisors, for wealth managers, where most of their income is coming from, are those clients over the age of 50. And what they don't know, they're learning now because of the education we're providing. But what most people don't understand is that for the over age 50 population, in a life insurance company, the leading cause of death is cancer. And that's because if we're over age 50, we're 13 times more likely to get cancer. In fact, aging, this is so unfair. Aging is the most important factor in getting cancer.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:10:37]:
And it's one thing we can't control. And I don't know, maybe you guys have the solution, maybe you can stop time, but I haven't figured out how to stop time. Right? And so the one thing we can't control, because with heart disease, diabetes, other things we've learned, diet and exercise, lifestyle, and the medical profession and technology has taught us who's at risk. But we aren't, we're not there with cancer. We don't have nearly that level of information. And so the best we can do for longer term survival is to find it early. And I'm going to answer a question before you ask it. There is cancer screening.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:11:12]:
We screen today in our standard of care. There are five recommended screenings, right? Prostate, lung, breast cancer, cervical cancer, right? Colonoscopies. We're familiar with all of those, those five cancers. This is so startling, it hurts my heart. We find cancer early and we save a lot of lives by finding cancer early, or at least prolong lives by find finding cancer early. But those five cancers that we're screening for actively only represent 30% of cancer deaths. The other 70%, there's no standard care screening. And so what the Galleri test does is it's screening for cancer.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:11:52]:
It's finding a shared cancer signal in the DNA and is able to with high accuracy, when a cancer signal is detected, point to the region in the body the diagnostic process should begin. And our performance metrics are pretty incredible. We're really good at finding the 12 deadliest cancers on the list, of which is pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer, the cancers for which there's no screening. Our Galleri test is not trying to replace screenings at all. We believe more is better. You know, colonoscopies, find precancerous lesions. So it's super important.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:12:26]:
Every day I'm inspired because I think this is one more level of healing for me because of my life experience with my family. Every day I get to persuade and educate and talk to people about the importance of this screening that's available, and how to access it and what it could mean. You know, of course, I reflect that if only this had been a tool that existed all those years ago. But that's okay, right? It exists now. So, I'm just all about more people knowing it exists today.

Amber Stitt [00:12:56]:
Thank you for sharing that.

Kate Beck  [00:12:57]:
I'm curious. So we've talked a little bit about the challenge that we have is that we don't know about cancer early enough. And also you've read some books when you were going through your transition and experiencing challenges. So if I were to ask you today, what are you looking for? How would you answer that?

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:13:16]:
I am looking for a position that pulls from all facets of my accumulated experience and my personality and my strengths and lets me put those first, lets me utilize those first and then all of those other things, those tic tacky things that we all have to do in our professions that we'd rather not do, like, you know, expense reports, data things. For me, it's all things people. It's working directly face-to-face with people and helping people.

Amber Stitt [00:13:45]:
Which we know you do in multiple ways.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:13:47]:
That's what I want to do, you know, continue this journey. And it's like drops of water. You know that saying about many drops of water, if we all just keep dripping, dripping, dripping, it's amazing what can happen. And I want to be part of leading that with this organization.

Amber Stitt [00:14:03]:
So, Toni, I've never wanted to be 50 so much in my life like right now. I want to get access to that.

Kate Beck  [00:14:09]:
I'm like, "Shoot, four years away from that."

Amber Stitt [00:14:11]:
I got five years. Hearing, years ago about this test, I was just always so excited, and it's just amazing that it's out there. So thanks for sharing. Part of the technology that's available, and it's just, it's going to keep evolving. You're working around scientists and engineers and you get to play with the insurance companies like we mentioned.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:14:29]:
It's really my privilege to be among the peer group that I have in my work at Grail because the level of intellect and the diversity of the backgrounds that I've never spent a lot of time around. Having come from financial services, the kinds of people that I was around. And at Grail, I'm around distinguished scientists and they're PhDs, and they're wicked smart and they can explain things that I could read a paragraph five times and still not quite understand what I'm reading. And they can break it down and explain it in ways that's so incredible. And it's also fun. It's fun to be challenged differently.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:15:07]:
It's really great and important to challenge our brains differently to learn new things. And so I've had to learn this new language. I've had to learn go back to biology and life sciences and relearn and learn many things anew and put the puzzle pieces together. And what I've learned through this is I wasn't a fantastic student when I was a young person.

Amber Stitt [00:15:31]:
You're making me think of science class and my tests.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:15:33]:
Yeah, I'm a way better student now because I'm so interested in it. Because, I mean, it's super fun because it's challenging as heck, but it's super fun because I care so much about it and it's my choice, right?

Amber Stitt [00:15:47]:
Yes.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:15:47]:
When we're young, when we're a teenager, or early twenties and we're in college and we have to take this class because we can't get our degree without it, or what the case may be. And so we suffer through it and we don't have the wisdom that comes with lived experience, with age, to know that having time to just sit and read and study is really cool because time passes and you don't get to do as much of that as you'd like.

Amber Stitt [00:16:11]:
Yeah, and we ask people to answer a question, "What could make someone timeless, or something timeless?" Do you think your answer is now different, probably more than ever, because of this journey?

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:16:24]:
I've been thinking about this since we spoke and was sort of funny, I believe there aren't any coincidences. There are no coincidences. And my answer to what makes me timeless is resilience. Because had I not gone through so many of the really difficult, traumatic, sad, really hard things that I've gone through in my life, personally and professionally, things that literally take you to your knees, that curl up in the fetal position, sorrow, and you don't want to move. Had I not gone through those things and had I not gone through other kinds of challenges that life presents, like you didn't get the job you want, or you didn't get to go on the vacation you wanted to, or whatever, you couldn't afford the car you wanted. We have disappointments, right? Had it not been for continuously going at it one more time, trying to find another way, sort of, you know, you keep like, "Where's the door? Where's the door?" Each time you go through that, you get stronger. Each time you get more wisdom.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:17:20]:
And then when you go through the really hard things, like the separation from my previous employer, like the loss of my parents, you go through those kinds of things and you come out the other side and the sun rises and you're still here, and you say, "Yeah, I got to keep going." And then you're proud of yourself, and then your confidence grows and you go, "You know what? I feel pretty good. I'm resilient and I'm gaining resilience every step of the way. I want more of that." So I think that's what makes me timeless.

Amber Stitt [00:17:47]:
You are such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing all of that.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:17:51]:
I say that about both of you. You're welcome.

Kate Beck  [00:17:54]:
Well, how can we find you, Toni? Say we want to support and celebrate you personally, professionally. How can our viewership, if they're driving and they're not watching YouTube, how could they find you?

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:18:04]:
You can find me on LinkedIn. So Toni Sova-Corfee, S O V A - C O R F E E, Toni Sova-Corfee, LinkedIn. You could certainly find me by reaching out to Women in Insurance and Financial Services. WIFSNational.org you could also email me. And my personal email is tsova80439@gmail.com.

Kate Beck  [00:18:29]:
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:18:30]:
You're welcome.

Kate Beck  [00:18:31]:
So much fun to have you today.

Amber Stitt [00:18:33]:
Well, you're going to be motivating people to take some action. Love that there's options for us that you guys are spearheading this innovation.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:18:41]:
So options, yeah, they are unlimited.

Kate Beck  [00:18:44]:
Like, okay, for my 50th birthday, I'm going to request a Grail test.

Amber Stitt [00:18:49]:
I already texted her. I said, "Why can't I do this?"

Kate Beck  [00:18:56]:
Enjoy the moment now, Amber, because here we are. Right here, right now.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:19:00]:
Yeah. Don't wish your time away. Stay present. I mean, that's the other thing that I would say as a closing comment is, I think a lot about this because of the work I'm in now. When you are over 50, especially, this is a spoiler alert for both of you, but you get over 50 and then you start thinking about time very differently because you start to really become conscious of the importance of making good choices.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:19:25]:
Like I've been saying to my kids forever, "Make good choices." They leave the house and I say, "Make good choices." When you're over age 50, you have this realization that most of your life is behind you. You don't have that much left. You don't probably have another 50 years. At least you don't have 50 more years of living the way you're living today. The activity level, the ability level, the resourcefulness for yourself.

Toni Sova-Corfee [00:19:47]:
You aren't going to have another 50 years of that. So make good choices, act with intention, make moments count, and try really hard to let go of the stuff that really isn't that big of a deal. Most of it's not that big of a deal. Right? It just goes too darn fast.

Amber Stitt [00:20:04]:
That's beautiful. Thank you for that.

Kate Beck  [00:20:06]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:20:08]:
Okay. Toni, thanks so much for being here. The listeners are going to appreciate this. Thanks so much.

Kate Beck  [00:20:14]:
Thank you for joining us on the Timeless Vitality podcast. We hope today's episode has inspired you to embrace the journey of thriving well beyond 100.

Amber Stitt [00:20:23]:
Remember, your story is still unfolding, and every step you take adds to the timeless legacy you are creating. Until next time, stay vibrant, stay empowered, and continue living with purpose.

Kate Beck  [00:20:35]:
We'll see you on the next episode!