SENSEI masterful health communications

Susan Wolfson
Founder and CEO

What is your role at SENSEI?
I run it. My title is Founder and CEO, but I always get tripped up on titles because they always seem to reek of pomposity

What made you start your own company?
Frustration with other circumstances in which I found myself. I was unconvinced that the only models that existed, that worked, were the models I was seeing. There were too many boundaries, restrictions, narrowness of focus. In a big company where there are all these entities and attendant processes, you have to stay in your box. I don't like staying in my box. I will if I have to, and it's not like I want to take everybody else's toys, it's just not the way I think. I look at the world a little differently.

What did you say to yourself when you decided to start SENSEI?
Ahhh. Lots of things. One was: All those people that suggested I do this can't be wrong. Another was: Now or never. And, among the most important: If this doesn't work, something else will.

Why 'SENSEI' and not Wolfson Communications?
Every company I'd worked for had the principals' names somehow attached to the name of the company. I'm fascinated by this. It says something about the need to emblazon their name for perpetuity, for a legacy, for some reasons that are not what I'm about. The major forces of worldwide companies --Oracle, Microsoft -- they are names, words that people thought hard about. People spend millions of dollars and hours thinking of the name of a product, about how to imprint that name in the public consciousness -- the relationship to the product, the brand, the drug. Well it seems to me that good communications starts at home. I wanted a name that resonated, that was memorable and that raised questions. I didn't want the company to be all about me. And it absolutely isn't.

You had some working relation to many of your staff in the past. Do you naturally stay connected to people or is this a conscientious effort?
It's both. I think it's organic; it comes together. I'm committed to connection, and if there's a click, I remember -- I really remember -- and people usually remember me. I'm pretty precise, and people are precise about me. Also, I think it's a big fallacy to say there's a work/life balance. I bring everything that's me in the world into this office and the same person walks across the street and gets in my car and goes home into my life. There's not 'work' and 'life.' It's an artificially imposed idea, and it's simply not my reality.

What is your favorite aspect of what you do?
God, I love so much of it... I love the moods of the work we do. The challenges; the changes. I love the frustrations that get turned into the seemingly "unsolvable" problem-solving challenge. And then get solved. I love watching staff grow and share frustrations and get stronger because of them. I love the victories. I love the interaction. I love watching groups meeting and seeming to genuinely enjoy and derive from each other. I love selling. I love to watch a client challenge an idea, demand more of us, propel us to demand more of ourselves ... it's everything.

In what area(s) do you feel like you've made the most impact so far?
We raised the bar of what our clients expected from a communications company. I feel like the depth and breadth of our collective commitment and expertise, and the way in which we practice our profession at SENSEI, is at a sufficiently high level that I would want my daughter to go into this business. And that's a very high bar indeed. As far as impact at SENSEI, I hope that I have some significant impact in helping people understand better what their role can be and then how to really make it be like, you know, Marlon Brando.

What's your favorite thing about yourself?
My intensity.

Do you have a personal motto?
Remember who you are. It's embarrassing that it's so simple. It's from The Lion King, and I have it on an old, rotten pin that I got in the Disney Store for my daughter when she was around four. In business, in life, in the world, everybody's trying to make you forget who you are and have you be somebody else or try it differently or wedge yourself into a particular role. I have learned that that never works for me.

If you could be any form of transportation, what would it be?
The Chunnel. It's sleek, it's refined, it's high-end. It's advanced and evolved technology, but it's still a train. You can have the first-class version or be incredibly comfortable with the regular, economy class. And you really feel like you get some place fabulous and fast.

If you could be any rock star, who would you be?
Cyndi Lauper. She's so real. And she's okay that she's 50, and she talks about it. A lot. She still climbed the rafters at the Beacon Theater. Her mom was in the audience and she said -- and I'm paraphrasing -- "Mom, you're not going to like this but I have to tell this story. We were poor," she said. "And you used to go to work, and I knew you worked hard. We didn't have much. And, and," she said something like "My brother and I used to turn on the music, and we would jump all over the furniture and dance our hearts out. Sometime around then, I made a decision that there were two ways to live in the world. You can live like one of these joyless people who just sees everything sad and bad. Or you could live with a constant, reinforcing, energizing joy. I chose joy." It was just that pure. She touched me so. And then she burst into an explosive rendition of "Sunny Side of the Street." Unforgettable. Just unforgettable. I used to vacillate between Janis Joplin and Grace Slick when I was a kid. When Joplin died, I figured Grace was a better choice. Last year Cyndi's performance sealed the deal for me.

What are three things that you couldn't live without?
I'm the boss so I get to have four.

Flowers, Jordan (my daughter), the people I love -- and SENSEI.