Hi, I’m Damian Walker.
My early career started at Towne Park as a manager of a small valet service at a hospital in Wisconsin, Over the next year, we grew the usage of the service from 3 patients per day in the early days to 110 a day after the first year. The hospital had its own weekly newspaper, and about 10 months into the contract ran an article in which they interviewed me about the service and how the hospital was receiving several compliments a day about the valet team and the level of service we provided. I was promoted to larger and larger locations, then to regional managerships. My responsibilities increased rapidly, which allowed me to develop my skillset quickly. Eventually, I was the person the company brought in whenever a dissatisfied client threatened to cancel a contract, to recover that business relationship. I saved twelve contracts.
When the time came for the next chapter in my life, I put in my notice, started packing, and fulfilled my dream of moving to Denver. I was hired on as a project manager for an advertising agency, which allowed me to expand my operational knowledge, better understand branding and marketing, and enhance my skillset of working with other disciplines. Up until then, I had mostly worked with other business minded individuals. Working with creatives was new to me, and understanding how to communicate effectively with the group was a learning experience. This is a group not persuaded by numbers and analytics. I would be the bridge between the client and the creative team, since clients and the designing creative team often have different ideas of what an end product should look like. Convincing one side or the other about certain changes is a skill unto itself.
After that, I accepted a position of director of operations for an e-commerce company with an online platform for hotels to order their convenience store products. It was very much a start-up environment, and I pitched in everywhere. During this time period, I really started to ramp up my data analysis and ability to build operational tools, and I gained entirely new skillsets about supply chain, negotiations, and warehouse logistics. This was where I built and understood the power of what a great operational tool could do: a daily accounts receivable log that allowed us to have a record of all daily transactions, gather data points and identify trends.
I then accepted a position with Concentra (then owned by Humana) as an operations director at their Boulder location at a small occupational/urgent care practice, where we would go on to have some of the best customer experience scores and lowest turnover in the region. After my first year, I was promoted to the second largest location in the region. I continued to hit financial goals and operational KPIs at that location. After a year, I was asked to take on a location that had been struggling with hitting budget, turnover, and patient satisfaction scores. Within a few months I was able to turn that location around, and it started being one of the top 3 performing locations in the region. I was then promoted to having a territory of clinics in the Denver area. I took great pride in my area becoming the top-performing area in the region.
During my time at Concentra, I really started to develop the skillset of coaching and mentoring others. Several of my assistants were promoted to directorships of their own centers, and other teammates would go on to lead and assistant ops roles. I would also find coaching and mentoring to be one of the most rewarding parts of being in business operations.
I would then go on to being the regional operations director at Eating Recovery Center (ERC). I started out overseeing the mountain region with a focus on staffing and financial turnarounds. The following year the mountain region exceeded budget by 2 million dollars. Having helped put the mountain region on strong financial footing, the company started the process of recapping by the end of the year. At that point, the vice president and I were given the Midwest region, which was underperforming financially. In order to assist the company to recap, we needed the region to start meeting financial goals quickly, which we were able to accomplish within 3 months. The company recapped at the end of the year in large part due to our performance in that region. During my years at Eating Recovery Center, I was named employee of the month twice for my ability to be flexible with constantly changing environments and my willingness to help out the company any way possible.
On the personal side, I just finished celebrating my first marriage anniversary, and this past year we bought a home. This means a lot of my spare time has been dedicated to home improvement projects. Who knew that if you choose to do curtains, they don’t arrive like they look in the pictures, and that a lot --- I mean a lot --- of ironing is needed! When I do have spare time, I love to cook and try new recipes. I also enjoy cycling, fishing, and camping when I want to get away from it all and refresh my mind. My wife and I have a rescue dog named Boosh, and we enjoy taking her for walks.
My Approach
Hire Right
Hire individuals with different backgrounds, personalities, and perspectives, from your own. Coachable and positive mind sets are huge on the hiring front. Let their talents shine and don’t micro-manage.
Coaching / Mentoring
Spending time and understanding what the career goals and motivators of each individual on my team is important. Keeping an eye to the future and who’s going to backfill my role.
Goal Setting
Setting a target and tracking results and allowing the team to see the progress daily/weekly/monthly.
Communication / Feedback
Being transparent with information and giving knowledge and tools away rather than hoarding out of self preservation.