Five Questions with Denise Gonick
Denise Gonick is the former president and chief executive officer of MVP Health Care. She and her husband have partnered with Catherine Hover, owner of Palette Cafe and Palette Upstairs in Saratoga Springs, to open Palette Schenectady, a female-focused cafe and cowork space geared to support women in career and life.
As a partner to Palette Schenectady, Gonick is looking forward to helping local female entrepreneurs who join Palette take their businesses to the next level. Palette Schenectady is planned to open this year.
1. As our community begins to recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 health crisis, how do you imagine your partnership with Hover evolving?
Catherine has already been doing such an amazing job managing, and I know when she is in a position to be able to have in-person events again, the need for that is going to be so intense and she’s going to be ready. I’m going to help her be even more prepared. It is unsurprising to me that she navigated the shift to digital so seamlessly, she is personally engaged with the needs of her members as well as digitally fluent. I know there’s going to be a lot of pent-up desire to get out there, for people to rebuild their businesses and nurture and grow their relationships inperson. They want to work their way through hardships and adjust their business plans.
2. How will you be able to help members at Palette?
Palette has always been about creating a space for women in business to succeed by giving them the necessary support that not all work environments provide. Palette does this in a way that naturally integrates personal aspects of their lives with professional needs. I have always been drawn to ideas and solutions that serve the whole person. This theme runs throughout my many varied business interests. But I am also aware of the challenges faced by women in integrating these two important parts of their lives. Catherine has a natural feel for this that people immediately respond to and that I find incredibly healthy and appealing.
3. Why was a partnership with Palette and Hover a natural next step for you?
Catherine is blazing her own path and the expansion of Palette to Schenectady makes sense because it serves a need that is currently unmet. She is exactly the right kind of leader in the way that she listens to her members and responds to their needs. So, this next step to partner with her makes so much sense for me as I believe in her vision for Palette. It just feels right to be providing this environment to a community of women.
4. What do you hope this partnership does for the community?
I really hope this partnership helps local women build their confidence up. There are so many cultural queues for women in the workplace that they need to “be perfect” and “fit all the qualifications.” If this partnership does nothing else, I want it to empower women and create leaders. In my opinion, what makes a leader great is not only someone who has good instincts and judgement, but who is vulnerable and is willing to allow themselves to be questioned and have their views challenged and to keep growing. That’s what I’m here for.
5. How can female leaders invest in their well-being?
I think it is essential for all of us to invest in our own well-being and it is often true that women put their own needs last. This investment can take different forms at different phases of our lives and as circumstances allow. For female leaders in particular, it is important to create the necessary space for reflection - something that can be difficult in our information overloaded lives. I took up meditation not too long ago, and was fortunate enough to go on retreat before the pandemic started and it is one of the best things I have ever done for myself. I had put it off for a long time thinking both that it wasn’t for me and that I didn’t have the time. However, becoming more mindful has helped me use my time in a more focused way. It has helped me in so many ways and I know that it can help other women. Whatever you choose to do, I also think it is important to rediscover the fun in all aspects of our lives. That’s something we can all work on.