Month: July 2022

How One Pharmacy Entrepreneur Started a Keto-Based Medical Practice

Dr. Jodi Nishida shares what significant health event led her to a keto-based diet, why she saw an opportunity to launch her business and keto-based practice, and lessons she’s learned through helping over 1500 patients with medically-guided keto as a pharmacy entrepreneur.

About Today’s Guest

Dr. Jodi is a Doctor of Pharmacy and accredited Metabolic Healthcare Practitioner who’s been in healthcare for over 25 years. After experiencing the ketogenic lifestyle’s effect on her own autoimmune condition, she decided to build a keto-based medical practice so others could benefit from it, too.

Over the last few years, she’s helped over 1500 patients realize the benefits of clean, medically-guided keto.

With certifications in ketogenic nutrition, cardiovascular disease management, pharmacogenomics, and medication management, she works closely with each and every patient to tailor keto to their medications, medical conditions, lifestyle, and socioeconomic situation. She is also in training for processed food addiction recovery as this is America’s true pandemic.

Episode Summary

This week, YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, is joined by Dr. Jodi Nishida, a Doctor of Pharmacy and accredited Metabolic Healthcare Practitioner who’s been in healthcare for over 25 years. They discuss a significant health event that led Dr. Jodi to a keto-based diet, why she saw this event as an opportunity to start a keto-based practice, and the lessons she has learned through helping over 1,500 patients with medically-guided clean keto.

Dr. Jodi talks about her diverse experience as a pharmacist and the impact that stress had on her health in a retail role. Upon leaving the retail space due to stress and its effect on an autoimmune condition she developed, she found keto by chance when looking for solutions for a family member who had experienced a health event. In support of her family member, Dr. Jodi started a keto diet.  After seeing her condition go into remission, she knew she had found something, if done correctly, could benefit others. Through meticulous planning, including building up her emergency fund, Dr. Jodi started her business – now the first cardiometabolic clinic in the state of Hawaii – with the annual goal of helping her patients collectively lose 10,000 lbs. and come off of 300 medications. Listeners will hear about her business challenges to date, and what success looks like for Dr. Jodi in the next five years.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• YFP Planning: Financial Planning for Pharmacists
• Schedule a free Discovery Call with YFP Planning
• YFP 134: One Couple’s Coast FI Journey
• YFP 196: How Cory Uses Improv to Create a Better Healthcare Experience
• Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners
• SMHP Symposiums & Other CME Events
• TheKetoPrescription.com
• Follow Dr. Jodi Nishida on Instagram: @theketoprescription 
• The Keto Prescription YouTube Channel
• Your Financial Pharmacist Disclaimer and Disclosures

Episode Transcript

[INTRO]

[00:00:00] TU: Hey, everybody. Tim Ulbrich here, and thank you for listening to the YFP Podcast, where each week we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. 

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Jodi, owner of The Keto Prescription. During the show, we discussed what significant health event in her own life led to pursuing a keto-based diet, why she saw an opportunity to launch her own business and keto-based practice, and the lessons she has learned in launching and growing her business, where she has helped over 2,000 patients realize the benefits of clean, medically-guided keto. 

Before we jump into the show, I recognize that many listeners may not be aware of what the team at YFP Planning does in working one on one with more than 250 households in 40-plus states. YFP Planning offers fee-only high-touch financial planning that is customized to the pharmacy professional. If you’re interested in learning more about how working one on one with a certified financial planner may help you achieve your financial goals, you can book a free discovery call by visiting yfpplanning.com. Whether or not YFP Planning’s financial planning services are a good fit for you, know that we appreciate your support of this podcast and our mission to help pharmacists achieve financial freedom. Okay, let’s jump into my interview with Dr. Jodi. 

[INTERVIEW]

[00:01:17] TU: Jodi, welcome to the show.

[00:01:19] JN: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:21] TU: Well, I’m really excited for this interview. Cory Jenks, a friend of YFP, a guest on the podcast episodes 134, 196, we’ll link to those in the show notes, connected the two of us, and I’m excited to have our listeners hear about your career and your entrepreneurial story. So before we get into all of that, tell us about your background, where you went into pharmacy school, when you graduate, and what ultimately drew you to the profession.

[00:01:46] JN: Yeah. Well, I graduated from USC, University of Southern California. This was way, way back in 1996. I’m actually pretty old compared to you guys, and I did all of my schooling there. I did my residency out there in LA as well. I was just drawn to the profession because anything in medicine that didn’t require me to have to look at anything too gross or cut anyone open is what I was pretty much interested in.

[00:02:15] TU: It reminds me of my journey into pharmacy. I had a guidance counselor. I said, “Hey, I love science, love math. I don’t want to see blood, so point me in the right direction,” right? That was in part how I got down the path of pharmacy. Let’s jump in to 2011. You’re working at big box retail pharmacy in Hawaii, where you currently live. Tell us about your experience working there, and what happened at that moment in your life and in your career that really led you to be reliant on medications, and we’ll tie that to the work that you’re doing now.

[00:02:46] JN: Yeah. It takes a special person to work retail pharmacy, in my opinion. I give them so much props because it’s a grind, as so many of you out there know. I had a horrible boss. She was a little crazy. I’m going to be honest. I was just – It was very soul-crushing for me. Working in retail pharmacy, it’s so busy and it’s just – I didn’t enjoy it at all. 

I was going through some stuff with my family, my parents, single parent, and just at work I was miserable. My health was deteriorating pretty quickly, and I got diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. It literally was interesting because I woke up one day with it pretty much from head to toe. They say that because it’s autoimmune, it’s triggered by stress. So just all of these storm of events combined that happened at one time really is what led me away from retail pharmacy, really just to fix my health and reduce stress. 

I did spend a little bit of time in Big Pharma. I actually did spend four years in pharmacogenomics and then by chance discovered keto, the keto diet. 

[00:04:13] TU: Tell us about that discovery of what happened. We’ll talk a little bit later about what exactly is the keto practice, the model, and what you’re employing with patients. I think there’s a lot of preconceived notions out there about keto, and we can dig into some of that. But how did you get introduced to keto in that moment, which had become so critical, 

not only to your personal journey in your health, but also to the work that you’re doing now? What was the introduction to keto? Where did that come from?

[00:04:40] JN: Yeah. One of my first degree relatives actually had a massive heart attack and almost died. His LAD, his artery was 99% occluded. Just in casually mentioning it to a colleague who’s a pediatric neurologist, he was like, “Dude, you should put your dad on keto.” I was like, “What’s a keto? I hadn’t even heard of it.” He goes, “I know how you are.” He goes, “You should research it.” 

That just sat me down the whole rabbit hole. I mean, YouTube, books, everything. As I was doing my own learning, it was interesting because all of these things that I had learned in school way back when it started to resurface, and it made me realize like, “Oh, my gosh. We are completely practicing medicine backwards.” Just the whole western model of do labs, look at a number, write a prescription, right? 

There’s not a lot of thought into that outside of, “Okay, am I going to use atorvastatin or simvastatin?” You know what I mean? Like that’s the degree of thought that goes into medicine right now. So I decided in that moment that I was going to try the keto diet. I was going to put my relative on it as well and do it together to support him. In doing that, my autoimmune condition completely went into remission. Where I had been injecting myself weekly with Enbrel for 13 years, I was now completely off of it, and it was just mind-blowing for me. 

[00:06:11] TU: It’s interesting when you say, Jodi, do labs, look at a number, write a prescription. I was reflecting on this recently because I think for all the modern revelations that have come from medicine, which is incredible, and you worked in the industry. You know a lot of the research and development was done, and the advances that have been made over the last 75 years and much shorter is really, really incredible. 

But I think we have forgotten about all of the time before any of that even happened. I think one of the things that I’m learning more and more in my journey, and I think keto here’s a good example, are the principles of keto or looking at other cultures in medicine and how there’s thousands of years of experience. When I think about the PharmD training and folks that are in school for six or eight years, we get very little, if any, on the foundation prior to some of the first medications in the 1900s. 

We get a whole lot and, obviously, the advancements that have come in the last century, which have played a very, very critical role. But I think we often may be blind to some of those other opportunities and open to some of those other opportunities for how we may look at treating conditions. You mentioned kind of a backwards approach of do the labs, look at the number, write a prescription. 

When you say keto, help me. I’m a person that I would say is probably lay understanding of keto. I’ve dabbled a little bit in keto diets and books, and I have found some of the science fascinating. But I have found there’s a lot of opinions out there. There’s a lot of definitions about carb intakes and monitoring the values. Like when you say a keto-based diet, tell us more. What do you mean by that?

[00:07:49] JN: Yeah. So let’s quickly differentiate. Most of what you see on social media I would call dirty keto or lazy keto. It’s like tons of bacon, huge burgers. Everything is covered in cheese. That, in my professional opinion, is actually not keto. So the definition of keto is a low-carb, moderate protein, high healthy fat diet. Healthy fat does not include eating a lot of cheese. The problem is that everyone is getting these ratios wrong of the carb, the protein, and the fat on their plate. So it’s giving keto, which – 

I mean, I see it every day in my own private practice, is it has the power to literally reverse so many medical conditions from head to toe. It’s important that the right messaging about the diet get out there, and that’s why organizations like the one Cory Jenks and I belong to is on the leading edge of helping to define and validate this as a legitimate medical approach because it works. It really works.

[00:09:00] TU: So I find it really interesting that it’s one thing to try something in your own health or for the health of a family member, as you mentioned, to help keep them accountable and support them as well, and to see the positive impact and effects. It’s another thing to kind of share that story and that word with other people, get them excited. It’s a whole another level to say, “Hey, I’m going to make a business out of this. I’m going to start a practice, and I’m going to begin to really implement the transformation I’m having in my own life, but also be able to help serve other folks.” 

It’s another, I think, great examples. We’ve shared other stories on this podcast of pharmacists that are using their degree in somewhat of a nontraditional way. But one of the things I’m really passionate about is that the PharmD is an entry point to many, many, many, many different pathways and opportunities. I think you’ve built out a really unique niche in practice. My question for you is what led you to make that transition from, “Hey, this is really having a positive impact in my own life,” to, “I’m going to take a huge step forward and actually start my own practice.”?

[00:09:59] JN: Yeah, which at my age, I’m 49 this year, that’s a risky thing. It’s a huge career pivot. Long story short, I started making these videos on Facebook about keto, how to do keto. What I did was I did 30 live videos in 30 days. It was like a contest that I was a part of, and I decided to do keto as my topic. I amassed like a pretty big following in that 30-day span. As people started messaging me and asking questions, that’s what made me realize like, “Wow, I think there needs to be an actual like keto clinic.” 

Luckily for me, I’m out in Hawaii. If people don’t know that, it’s a smaller place. I’ve been in different facets of the healthcare industry for many years out here. So I know a lot of the right people, and I met with the head of Blue Cross Blue Shield Hawaii, and I said, “Hey, this is what I want to do. But I’m a pharmacist, and we are not recognized as providers out here. How do I do this legally?” 

They literally sat down with me one day and helped me figure it out. Really, all I needed to do is partner with an MD, right? So I could bill incident to this physician, write up a collaborative practice agreement, and I got picked up. So just through word of mouth, people mentioned it to this one GI doctor who I’m no longer with, but that was how the whole thing started. Now, I’m with a cardiologist, and she is amazing. Like she has really embraced it. We just sent out a flyer to all the docs in the state of Hawaii that we are Hawaii’s first cardio metabolic clinic, and we’re using the keto diet to basically reverse metabolic syndrome in patients. It’s a win-win win-win all the way around.

[00:12:01] TU: So the business model there is partnering with a physician. You mentioned first an intestinal doc, now with a cardiologist, incident to collaborative practice agreements. You don’t need to share details, but I’m sure there’s some type of revenue share with incident too. You look at overhead expenses, other things at the clinic. But you’re operating in tandem with a physician incident to collaborative practice agreement. Is that right?

[00:12:26] JN: Yup. That’s the model. I mean, just I think pharmacists should know this because our pharmacists’ association out here, I am co-chair of our government affairs committee this year, and we are introducing a bill into our legislative season at the beginning of next year to be recognized and reimbursed as providers in the state of Hawaii. We’re using my clinic as one of the main examples of really the depth and the breadth of what pharmacists are trained to do clinically and how in something like diabetes, we make such a huge impact because only my clinic in the entire state is reversing diabetes. I tell people I don’t manage diabetes, When you come to see me, we’re going to reverse that sucker. Do you know what I mean? I don’t play around with that, so yeah. 

[00:13:17] TU: Well, the audacious goal and the vision behind that. So that relationship with Blue Cross Blue Shield is you become all that more important, as you guys are able to move that provider status stuff forward.

[00:13:28] JN: Yeah. So that, hopefully, and you know what happens is the insurance companies will deposit my reimbursements into the cardiologist’s account, and all she needs to do is cut me a check for that. It’s pretty straightforward.

[00:13:41] TU: So I don’t want to gloss over. I talk with a lot of pharmacists that have really cool ideas. It could be for a side hustle. It could be for an aspiration of a business. Or it could be a product or service-based thing. But very few actually start, and I always talk with individuals about we get paralyzed in the big vision. We get overwhelmed. There’s fears. There’s insecurities, whole lots of reasons of why. But very few are willing to take that first step to say, “Hey, I’m passionate about this, and I’m going to see where it goes, and it’s okay that there’s some unknown territory ahead of me.” 

When you say, “I put myself out there. I did 30 videos in 30 days. I met with Blue Cross Blue Shield,” like those are a big deal, right? So my question for you is what led you to the mindset? What led you to the willingness to take those steps? You mentioned, yeah, in your opinion, it was somewhat of a risky move. Knowing that, hey, maybe this succeeds, maybe it doesn’t succeed, like what allowed you to have that motivation and to take that step forward or those first few steps forward?

[00:14:48] JN: Well, of course, it was my own experience with the keto diet and what it did for me and having the ability to tell that story. Because of all the videos I had done on Facebook, this was five, six years ago, and people taking my advice or just I was saying don’t eat this, try to eat these things. Then I was getting all these testimonials through DMs of girls who had been deemed infertile are all of a sudden pregnant because they took the advice that I had shared and all this stuff. I started to see how much this would impact people. 

Then it’s, of course, thinking it through, having mentors, right? What are the pros and cons? What is this going to cost me? Then having a basic business plan is really important too because you’ve got to understand the risks. I’m going to be honest with you. I was doing pharmacogenomics at the time, which I loved, by the way, that. I can’t wait to start doing that in my office too eventually. But I was doing really well, and I put away enough money in the bank to cover my mortgage and all of my expenses for 12 months. I made sure I had that in the bank before I did this, just in case it didn’t pan out. 

[00:16:14] TU: I’m so glad you bring that up because, obviously, this is a financial podcast, and one of the things I like to ask aspiring entrepreneurs or folks that are looking to make this transition is I think for many pharmacists, good reason could be debt loads. It could be other expenses and things. Or there’s somewhat of a golden handcuff of being able to take a “risk” and make a transition. So that was your strategy, 12 months of savings. Give yourself some cushion so that you could really approach the business with confidence. Is that right?

[00:16:42] JN: Yeah. Because when you’re now billing insurances, and you’re working through all the medical billing, and Medicare doesn’t reimburse right away. Sometimes, it takes three months. Like these are all the things that you have to think that pharmacists don’t realize because if you’re not functioning and billing as a provider, and you work in a salaried position with benefits, you would never realize that. So there’s just a lot of pieces too to think about. 

It’s interesting because Low Carb USA, they also go by the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, they have their annual conference every August in San Diego. The talk that I’m giving on stage this year is the four pillars of a successful low-carb clinical practice. Honestly, Tim, my hope is that a lot of pharmacists think about attending this conference or attending it at some point in their career because this model of PharmD is working with MDs in the low-carb space, and MDs are looking for PharmDs to partner with. It’s like one of the greatest segways that we can get into to get out of the pharmacy and get into clinical practice. 

Like I was saying earlier, I graduated a long time ago, and I’m dealing with every disease state medical condition from head to toe now. It was amazing how much of what I had learned came flooding back. You know what I mean? Just in diabetes management and all of that. I tell people that I’m the luckiest pharmacist in the world because I have the opportunity to use every single skill that I learned in all of my schooling and all of my residency in my own business now and the ability to help so many people. So it’s a lot of fun. 

[00:18:38] TU: Transformative impact on others, right? I mean, that’s awesome. Pharmacists love frameworks. So your four pillars really resonate with me. I think that partly why I asked you the question of what led you to take those first steps is that even when there’s a strong motivation, often we want something a little bit more. So a few things you said that really stood out to me, number one is that strong why and motivation. You mentioned your personal experiences, that sense of obligation to serve and help other people. 

The second thing I heard you say was really some mentors that could be a sounding board, that could provide guidance and I think probably some accountability. That was there as well. Then the third thing was really having a strong business plan to be able to understand. Moving this from idea to projections is a really important step, right? Because I think we can all become somewhat naive and optimistic about our idea, but rubber meets the road in the Excel document. 

Pairing that with mentors to say like, “Where did you come up with this number? That sounds great but like how are you actually going to generate that kind of revenue? Oh, okay. I got to get a level deeper, a level deeper, a level deeper. Well, what’s that going to look like cash flow for the next – Oh, I need to have some cash flow saved up because of delays of billing insurance.” I mean, these are the things that for folks that have an idea, so much wisdom there in what you shared. 

I want to come back to the importance of a strong why. I wrote a blog article recently, talking about how your why has to be greater than your motivation. You why has to be greater than your motivation because there are days, weeks, seasons in business when things are going to be up and things are going to be down. I really believe the why is the anchor, and I’m looking behind you, as we’re recording this, and you have a sign up that said, “Our patients will lose 10,000 pounds and stop 300 medications in 365 days.” That’s incredible. I mean, that is a guiding anchor of what you’re doing. How important is that vision to you to motivate you to keep going during those seasons that might be challenging?

[00:20:40] JN: Yeah. That’s my annual mission statement. It’s always my goal every January 1 for the last three years. I’ve come very close every single time, and it’s okay if I don’t hit it exactly, right? I mean, shoot. Last year, I think we did 8,800 pounds collectively and 265 medications. But when you look at those metrics compared to what you see in every other medical practice out there, this is the type of data that the payers are going to need someday to see the value that our profession brings.

So kind of back to why statement, it’s not only about what this can do for patients. I’m also personally working very hard to transform our profession because I think if we don’t, it’s going to die out pretty quickly. It’s a very pivotal time right now for pharmacists. So I allow pharmacy students to rotate through my clinic. They do rotations. Something – You’re talking about framework and pillars. If there’s a word of advice I could give to a lot of the younger pharmacists out there is pharmacy can be very siloed. You’ve got MDs. You’ve got lab. You’ve got your pharmacists. You’ve got nursing. A lot of times, these silos don’t talk to each other. 

You have to be that pharmacist that knows how to go out and network. Very honestly, it was time I spent in Big Pharma in different positions that taught me how to do that. That came in so handy when I was thinking of starting this clinical practice. Having the ability to bounce things off of all of these different areas of specialty in health care and having connection is such a critical part of being able to move forward because you’ve got to get buy in. You’ve got to get buy in from key people. 

[00:22:43] TU: That’s right. Yeah. Building alliances, having physician advocates, having relationships with payers, having folks that can help speak on your behalf. So when you’re introducing a bill in Hawaii, you’ve got physician advocates that are speaking to that. So I’m really hearing two big buckets of what you’re working on. One is the practice, the business, helping individual patients. Then the other is really the impact on the profession and really elevating what pharmacists can do as providers. Sure, that helps the business. But ultimately, that expanded scope is going to allow for expanded services and a greater impact on patients.

My question for you is how important has your involvement been? You mentioned a role in the state association. How important has your involvement been in the state association and that work in terms of the connection to what you’re trying to build and do in a practice? Because I think we’ve lost some of the juice behind the value of associations, and I am able to sit firsthand on the leadership team of the Ohio Pharmacists Group and really see the value at the state level. So I’m curious to hear your perspective there as well.

[00:23:51] JN: Oh, man. I envy you. You’re with Ohio because you got a lot of great things accomplished out there. Hawaii is so far behind, and we are a dying association out here. I’m going to be very honest with you. What we’re working on this year for the next legislative session, and really at the end of the day, it always boils down to just three of us that are doing the brunt of the work and me calling on every representative and senator in the state that I’ve known or grown up with. Again, it’s that networking thing, partnering with professional organizations like the American Diabetes Association, to get their testimony of support at the right time, beginning of next year. 

All of this is so intertwined. It’s fascinating to me. If we don’t fix it, I fear what’s going to happen, and it’s so interesting because I see a lot of this where we’re on our monthly call, and it’s that problem where the hospital pharmacists only know hospital pharmacy things. The community pharmacists only know community pharmacy things. But they don’t necessarily know people outside of that. So we keep hitting this wall, and I think it’s because I took such an unconventional path in my career that I have all of these connections, and I know who to talk to, at least, if we’re trying to figure out how to do something. 

I would strongly encourage people to just get out of the pharmacy. Get out of the pharmacy. I love what you’re doing, by the way, your podcast. You’re really good at it. 

[00:25:31] TU: Oh, thank you. Thank you. 

[00:25:33] JN: To get people to think beyond counting pills and doing IVs is so important because we’re poised. I don’t know if our pharmacists realize how perfectly poised we are right now to make a giant pivot. But we have to collectively do this. It can’t just be three of us. Do you know what I mean?

[00:25:56] TU: Absolutely. Yeah, we have more than 300,000 pharmacists across the country that are positioned in every community across the country that is trusted by the – We are perfectly positioned to have a grand impact on the health and outcomes of the country. I think your comment about being able to kind of get out of our silos is so important because at the end of the day, like we need to talk with the payers and the legislators with one voice, right? We can’t be having a conversation with a payer or legislator about this from a community pharmacy, this from a hospital pharmacy. We’re not big enough to start to splice and segment those things. We have to have one voice of what we’re trying to advance and do for the population. 

Obviously, when it comes to the payer perspective, can we advance the outcomes and the work that, obviously, you’ve been able to do in your own practice? So 8,000-plus pounds, I heard you say in this past year, 250-plus meds that you’re able to prescribe. What does that look like in terms of number of patients that you’ve touched? I’m trying to get a scope of what the week to week, year to year looks like. How many patients have you reached through the clinic that you’ve established?

[00:27:04] JN: Yeah. So in just under three years, I’ve now seen over 2,000 people. I see roughly 40 to 50 patients a week. I try not to work more than four days a week in clinic. The reason why is because I’m dealing with food and eating behaviors and a lot of food addictions because sugar is in everything now. I do quite a bit of psychology in each appointment, whether I want to or not. After 14 patients in a day, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a lot. 

[00:27:36] TU: That’s a lot. 

[00:27:36] JN: It can be very draining. So my average day is 12 to 14 patients, and it usually takes about six appointments for me to teach them everything. Really, the people that come to see me, they are like ready to make a change. A lot of them have already had gastric bypass surgery. A lot of them have gone through different weight management programs, and they’re ready. They get it. That’s why through my social media outlets, I’m very thoughtful, and I’m very intentional of the words that I use and the vibe that I put out because it’s only those types of patients that I’m trying to attract. My saying is I don’t want lazy and I don’t want crazy. Those people can go somewhere else. I want the people that really want to change their health. 

[00:28:25] TU: Yeah. It reminds me of the readiness to change spectrum that we all learned about in pharmacy school, right? Whether it’s weight loss, tobacco cessation, there has to be a readiness and a mindset. Obviously, you’re helping to facilitate that change there as well. What has been one of the more challenging or a couple of the challenging things of running and growing your own business? 

If you think about the scope of things from you’re setting up cloud practice agreements, you’re working with payers, you’re trying to figure out the financials of growing the business, the referrals, provider relationships, your own mindset as a business owner, what has been one or two of the most challenging things as you’ve grown your business?

[00:29:05] JN: Oh, man. I already know the answer to this. Okay, the first thing is, you guys are going to love this, two doctors who run weight loss clinics filed a formal complaint against me with the state of Hawaii that what I’m doing is fraudulent because I am not allowed to call myself doctor. I am not a doctor, and so I guess they were so threatened by what I was doing. 

[00:29:32] TU: I was going to say fear anyone fearful.  Yeah. 

[00:29:35] JN: Yeah. So that sucked because I had to – Luckily, I have a great attorney and just having to put all the dots. I mean, come on. Like we’re PharmDs. They were so upset that I was on social media. My patients, they call me Dr. Jodi, and I like Dr. Jodi, instead of Dr. Nishida. To me, it’s less formal. If feels more personal. So that was the first thing that really kind of threw me, and my attorney laughed. He goes, “Well, Jodi. This is how you know you’re doing something right because if –”

[00:30:09] TU: That’s right. 

[00:30:10] JN: Yeah. If no one’s paying attention, that means you’re not making an impact. The second thing that happened that I want, hopefully, people can learn from this, is that first doctor I mentioned, the GI doctor that I partnered with, he ended up stealing over $50,000 of my reimbursement. So the incident to billing model is they deposit it in his account. All he has to do is write a check. Well, he stopped writing checks and was really such a jerk about it because – This guy makes like 2.5 million a year. 

I remember, he looked me in the eye day and he goes, “What are you going to do? Sue me? You can’t afford it. I have all your money.” But if that didn’t happen, if that hardship didn’t happen – Remember now, luckily, I put enough money away in the bank for one year, and that floated me during this very difficult time. That led me to the cardiologist. So everything happened for a reason. But that’s a valuable lesson, and that’s why I’m working so hard on getting us that provider status here is so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.

[00:31:24] TU: Yeah. What’s really interesting, and I want to call out for a moment, is your mindset through that difficult situation, right? Because I think that someone could look at that and say victim and tap, right? I say for 12 months, and I was going to start this business, and here I am this first big challenge. You know what? Like I’m just not cut out for this. This isn’t going to work out. I’m just going to fold it in, get my paycheck back, and keep moving. 

So I think the financial foundation helped you be able to weather that storm. But despite those funds in the bank, you also had to have the resilience through that scenario to say, “My mission and my why is greater than my motivation and the situation that I’m going through in this moment,” right? Because you knew that you had a bigger mission to serve and, ultimately, patients to take care of.

[00:32:13] JN: It’s not just me, right? As pharmacists, we tend to focus a lot on medications. But our value and actual disease state management and what we do for people’s lives, I think we lose sight of that so many years after we graduate. But we can’t do that because we’re really good at what we do, whether we realize it or not. You’re not going to realize it in retail pharmacy very often. But if you can find these little niches, we are so valuable. I mean, really, we are.

[00:32:46] TU: So, Jodi, if we fast forward to 2027, five years from now, right now, you’ve got this bold vision. You’re obviously making great progress towards 10,000 pounds, 300 medications that you’re going to stop. What does success look like for you five years from now, as you continue on this journey?

[00:33:03] JN: Honestly, I also do a lot of restaurant collaborations here in Hawaii. So I help them keto-fy menu items. 

[00:33:10] TU: Oh, that’s cool. 

[00:33:11] JN: Yeah. Or have a keto section. For me, that’s the real fun part of what I do outside of the office. I really would love to have my own little keto cafe. It’s more so like I can just hang out there too. But I think it would go really well, and I think I’ve built enough of a brand and reputation out here. But that would just be something fun. So the clinic aspect, growing that, bringing more PharmDs on board, number one, so that I don’t have to be in the office all the time. Then I can build this additional thing as well, which is a dream for me.

[00:33:49] TU: I love that and, obviously, the advocacy efforts you mentioned, being able to train up the next generation of pharmacists on this podcast. I know you’re going to motivate others that are out there to consider options in their own journey as well. So I love that. If you get the keto cafe up and running, I’m making a trip out to Hawaii. 

[00:34:05] JN: Please, yeah. Come out. 

[00:34:06] TU: Count it. I’ve never been, so this will be my first trip out there. 

[00:34:10] JN: You got to come out. 

[00:34:12] TU: Well, this has been fun. You’ve been an inspiration to me, and I’m so glad Cory connected the two of us. Where can folks go to learn more about you and to follow your journey?

[00:34:22] JN: Yeah. My website is theketoprescription.com. I’m on Instagram @theketoprescription. You can also type that into YouTube, and I have a bunch of videos up there that talk about different things. I talk a lot about food and the origin of the food that we’re eating nowadays, so it’s pretty interesting. You guys should educate yourself on that because the food industry is pretty crazy. 

[00:34:47] TU: Well, this has been great. I really appreciate you taking time, especially with the time zone difference and early morning for you. So thank you so much. 

[00:34:55] JN: Yeah. Thank you. 

[00:34:56] TU: Looking forward to following your journey. Thank you. 

[00:34:58] JN: Thanks, Tim. Same to you.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[00:35:00] TU: As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist, unless otherwise noted, and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward-looking statements that are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you, again, for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week. 

[END]

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10 Lessons Learned: Employee to Entrepreneur

On this episode, sponsored by Insuring Income, YFP Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, shares ten lessons he has learned on his journey from employee to entrepreneur.

Episode Summary

This week, Your Financial Pharmacist Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, shares the top ten lessons he has learned over the past five years while taking Your Financial Pharmacist from a hobby to side hustle to a full-time business. Tim shares his most impactful takeaways on his journey from employee to entrepreneur and advice for those looking to take the same path. Tim shares how he found the motivation and inspiration to get started, the importance of the foundational why of the business that transcends motivation, the mindset required to move from employee to entrepreneur, and the incredible value of partnership. Tim shares ways to build on and nurture business partnerships and shares a helpful resource for maintaining successful business partnerships that help your business thrive. He shares why it is crucial to establish your core values early and how and why you must embrace the role of CEO. Considering growth and expansion, Tim outlines the need for implementing systems and processes. More specifically, he mentions having a system for evaluating the business. Tim shares a common theme he has discovered in the last five years interviewing pharmacist entrepreneurs, a passion for learning that drives entrepreneurial success. Lastly, Tim shares how identity and role differ and how embracing failure is necessary for business leadership.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Register for the YFP Employee to Entrepreneur Virtual Summit
• Insuring Income: Get Quotes and Apply for Term Life and Disability Insurance
• I Was a Confused, Trapped Pharmacist Living Paycheck to Paycheck
• Seven Figure Pharmacist: How to Maximize Your Income, Eliminate Debt, and Create Wealth by Tim Church, PharmD and Tim Ulbrich, PharmD
• Start.: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters by Jon Acuff
• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
• How I Built This Podcast
• Chris Caldwell Conscious Growth Coach
• The Partnership Charter by David Gage
• Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
• YFP 145: How Samm Built Doc Station to Increase Value-Based Care
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
• Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
• The End of Jobs: Money, Meaning and Freedom Without the 9-to-5 by Taylor Pearson
• The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) by Don Miguel Ruiz
• The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level by Gay Hendricks
• Procrastinate on Purpose: 5 Permissions to Multiply Your Time by Rory Vaden
• The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster: It’s Your Turn to #JoinTheRide by Darren Hardy
• The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
• The Surrender Experiment: My Journey into Life’s Perfection by Michael Singer
• A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle
• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
• Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You by Henry Cloud
• Your Financial Pharmacist Disclaimer and Disclosures

Episode Transcript

[INTRO]

[00:00:00] TU: Hey, everybody. Tim Ulbrich here, and thank you for listening to the YFP Podcast, where each week we strive to inspire and encourage you on your path towards achieving financial freedom. This week, I fly solo to talk through 10 lessons learned through the first five years of starting your financial pharmacist and making the transition from hobby to side hustle to business. 

Before we jump into the episode, I’m excited to announce that we’re doing our first ever virtual summit, employee to entrepreneur building blocks for starting and growing a business. The Employee to Entrepreneur Summit is designed for pharmacists who are planning or actively working on a side hustle or business idea. The summit will be hosted live via Zoom the evenings of Tuesday, August 30th, and Wednesday, August 31st. Topics and activities will include how to hone your mindset and uncap your potential as a business owner, how to grow a business from a position of financial strength, retirement savings and tax optimization strategies as a small business owner, how to develop a system for achieving business financial goals. 

We’ll also be featuring several examples of pharmacists that have made the transition to entrepreneur and are monetizing their clinical expertise. Some awesome bonuses for those that sign up by August 23rd, including a one-on-one implementation meeting with myself or certified financial planner, Tim Baker, access to a live goal setting workshop that I’ll be leading to help focus on setting and achieving big personal and business goals. Finally, on-demand access to several bonus expert interviews, including how to sell with confidence marketing strategies and how to evaluate healthcare insurance options as you make that transition from employee to entrepreneur. You can learn more and register at yourfinancialpharmacist.com/businesssummit. Again, yourfinancialpharmacist.com/businesssummit. 

Okay, let’s hear from today’s sponsor, Insuring Income, and then we’ll jump into the show. This week’s podcast episode is brought to you by Insuring Income. Insuring Income is your source for all things term life insurance and own occupation disability insurance. Insuring Income has a relationship with America’s top rated term life insurance and disability insurance companies, so pharmacists like you can easily find the best solutions for your personal situation. To better serve you, Insuring Income reviews all applicable carriers in the marketplace for your desired coverage, supports clients in all 50 states, and makes sure all of your questions get answered. To get quotes and apply for term life or disability insurance, see sample contracts from disability carriers or learn more about these topics. Visit insuringincome.com/yourfinancialpharmacist. Again, that’s insuringincome.com/yourfinancialpharmacist. 

On November 6th, 2015, I wrote the first blog post under the name Your Financial Pharmacist. That post was a chronicle of the journey that my wife, Jess, and I took into and out of $200,000 of debt. Furthermore, it was an acknowledgment that there was a need to develop a community of pharmacists that could encourage and inspire one another on their path towards achieving financial freedom. Fast forward to 2022, the YFP community is now 13,000-plus strong, but it started with a list of less than 100 individuals that I twisted their arms to say yes to receiving my first blog post. Those blog posts led to some speaking engagements and more pharmacists coming forward to share their own stories. 

After that, I was invited to do some speaking engagements, which would eventually lead to relationship with a National Pharmacy Association that helped increase the awareness of the mission of the work that we’re doing at YFP. Shortly thereafter, I would co-author the book Seven Figure Pharmacist with Tim church. Not too long after that, I would connect with my business partner of now five-plus years, Tim Baker. Funny enough, we recently discovered that Tim began his work to start a fee-only financial planning firm for pharmacists within the same week that I wrote that first blog post in November of 2015. Tim Baker, after we met, we would decide to launch the YFP Podcast in July of 2017, which was the beginning of a friendship and a partnership that was essential to grow the business to where we are today.

When I reflect on the past five years and the ups and downs of going from hobby to side hustle of business to making that transition from employee to entrepreneur, here are the top 10 lessons that I’ve learned along this journey. Number one, start. In July of 2015, I was traveling to the AACP Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland. The book I selected for the trip to read on the plane was Start by Jon Acuff. It’s a special moment when a book collides with your life path, and this was one of those moments. You see, at the time, I had been thinking about the idea of YFP but was struggling with what to do with the idea. I was reflecting on my first business venture, a company called Farm Forward, and the lessons that I learned from taking those initial baby steps into entrepreneurship. It was the words Jon Acuff penned in Start that would push me over the edge to formalize the initial idea of YFP to get the name established, to set up the legal entity to build the first prototype of the website. It was rough, and to ask 100 friends and colleagues to join the start of my email list and ultimately published that first blog post. 

I needed the words of encouragement from Jon Acuff to just start. I knew I had to heed this advice because the idea of YFP would not leave me alone. I couldn’t stop thinking about building a platform for pharmacists to learn more about personal finance, to bring a community together. I knew it was needed, and I knew it could have an impact. But fear still crept in, with questions like, “What if it doesn’t work out? What if nobody likes the blog post? What if this is a good idea only in my head, and who am I to write on this topic, not being a financial planner myself?” 

Speaking with many entrepreneurs over the last five years on the YFP Podcast, this theme of just start keeps coming up again and again. Those who have built something that is solving a problem and serving others all had to work through their own fears, anxiety, and unknown to take the first step. You see, many great ideas never see the light of day. Too often, individuals get paralyzed in the analytical phase where passion gets muted by excuses, questions, and doubts. Sometimes, you just have to jump in the deep end and figure it out. The idea of just start has stayed with me through the entire journey so far of YFP. It doesn’t just apply to getting a business off the ground. 

As I reflect back over the past five years, we’ve evolved from three companies to one company. We’ve changed our logos and branding, we’ve redesigned our website multiple times, we’ve reformatted the podcast, we’ve identified better tools and solutions inside of the business, and we’ve taken the lead to grow our team. None of these were smooth-sailing, and the only way we were able to identify and grow is because we ended up in the first place of just starting. There had to be a beginning. So that’s number one is start. 

Number two is a strong why, a strong why. In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek talks and says that every one of us has a why, a deep-seated purpose, cause or belief that is the source of our passion and inspiration. Making the shift from employee to entrepreneur will inevitably include bumps along the way. Challenging days and seasons are to be expected, but getting stuck and being a prisoner to your motivation is not an option. Motivation alone may not provide enough fuel during the challenging seasons. Therefore, it’s critical that the why of our business and its offerings transcend the level of motivation that we have on any given day. We need a strong enough why that drives us to commit the time and effort that the business needs. 

One of my favorite podcasts over the past several years is How I Built This with Guy Raz. On this show, Guy takes the listener behind the scenes with a founder to hear about the movements that they have built. Many of these stories have trials and tribulations, and it was in those moments, in those trials and tribulations that the passion behind the idea and the problem the product or service was solving would help propel the founder through that difficult time. 

At YFP, our mission has helped pharmacists achieve financial freedom. Why? Because having a financially well pharmacist workforce is in the best interest of the profession and, ultimately, the patients that we serve. Furthermore, the profession of pharmacy needs big ideas. We need disruptive ideas, ideas that are going to improve the health and wellbeing of our nation. But the problem is big ideas, disruptive ideas, these rarely come from someone that is living in a state of financial stress. 

If someone’s overwhelmed with student loan debt, if someone’s confused about how to best save and invest for the future, if someone’s frustrated by the fact that they’re making a good income but not progressing financially, or if they’re anxious that they feel like they’re financially behind, any one of these is a killer of a dream, a killer of a big idea. So we’re on a mission to change this narrative and to empower pharmacists, to ensure that future generations of pharmacists are financially well, and to embed financial literacy into the core and fabric of our profession. I remind myself of this mission every day, and this propels me through the highs and through the lows. Our mission is greater than any one challenging season of the business. 

Number three is mindset, mindset. Since leaving my work in academia most recently in a position at Ohio State to work full time on the business, I did not anticipate the growth that would happen and that was needed related to my mindset. Thanks in large part to an incredible coach and mentor, Chris Caldwell, I would begin a journey that dug into some serious self-reflection that was stimulated by some really deep questions, questions like why is achievement so important to me and my identity? Why have I struggled to just be present, without work or accomplishment? How could my life look if I embrace the purpose of just being the best version of myself? What do I actually want? What are the stories that are telling myself? In what ways am I showing up as an inauthentic version of myself? What artificial ceilings have I created in my personal and professional life, and why have I created these ceilings? 

Over the past year, I’ve come to appreciate that I’m just beginning a lifelong journey of digging deeper. This journey of leaning into some hard questions with the goal of living to my fullest potential and being the best authentic version of myself that I can be has been one of the greatest gifts of entrepreneurship that I did not see coming. 

Number four is the value of partnership, the value of partnership. In the summer of 2015 after meeting on Twitter, yes, that is a real thing, I had the chance to connect with Tim Baker in person. We met at a Bob Evans of all places off I-71, about halfway between Cleveland and Columbus. As Tim Baker likes to tell the story, he found me on Twitter and is wondering, who was this other Tim that was talking about personal finance in pharmacy? At the time, Tim Baker was living in Baltimore and was visiting his sister in Columbus, which provided the opportunity for us to connect in person. 

The timing was perfect because at that time, I was struggling to connect the education piece of what I was doing around personal finance, with a sound financial planning offering. I knew that was going to be an important piece of the puzzle of transition to work into a viable business, and I knew that service was needed in our profession. I was in the process of talking with several planners in Northeast Ohio, trying to understand the lay of the land and how the industry works. You see, at this time, I was not aware of terms just fee-only and fiduciary, and I quickly realized the complexities of the industry after having several conversations with different planning firms. I was frustrated by the lack of transparency in pricing and how the industry historically has not served folks in the early stages of their career, since how much one has an assets was usually a prerequisite for a planning relationship. 

When I met Tim Baker that day in Bob Evans, he shared his journey starting in the United States Military Academy at West Point that would lead him to a career in logistics for a major retailer and then a construction company in Ohio and California. After realizing that he wanted something different, he made a pivot to a career in the financial services industry. After working at a small independent financial planning firm, he decided to take the leap to start his own business, offering fee-only financial planning services focused on the pharmacy profession. At the time, the business was Script Financial. Through a friend at West Point, who was married to a pharmacist, he identified that there was a gap in the industry in serving pharmacy professionals. 

Now, I was hooked when I learned about the meaning of fee-only and the fiduciary standard, and that combined with the alignment on values and growing a small business led Tim and I to start collaborating on the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. This collaboration furthered our friendship and respect for one another, which led us a step further towards eventually becoming business partners. 

Now, growing up in a family business, I observed firsthand the challenges that can come from partnerships, especially when it’s family members that were involved as partners. From that experience growing up and hearing many other individuals’ words of caution about partnerships, it shouldn’t have given me a pause, but it never did. I knew if there was alignment on vision and respect for one another, we could thrive and work through challenges. That has been exactly the case, and I’m so grateful for the friendship and partnership that Tim and I have. 

One resource that’s been key to our partnership is the Book Partnership Charter by David Gage. This book takes two or more individuals going into business together through a series of activities and challenging discussions that lays the foundation then for the operating agreement. Tim and I have made it a priority to annually review and update our charter and check in on the health of the partnership. 

Number five is establish your core values of the business early. Establish your core values early. When starting a business, it’s easy to be off and running in the day-to-day such that activities like strategic planning or vision setting or setting core values might not be the priority that they deserve to be. I’m so grateful that early on, we decided to set a set of core values that several years later serve as the guiding path for the culture of our company, for the benefits that we offer our team, for how we hire, and for how we evaluate our team members. One resource here that was really helpful was the book Delivering Happiness by the late Tony Hsieh, the Founder of Zappos. 

Number six is embracing the CEO role, embracing the CEO role. I can easily fall victim to squirrel syndrome. As the founder and leader of a business, it’s a fine line between identifying new opportunities and getting sidetracked and losing full focus on the core mission. A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Samm Anderegg, CEO of DocStation, and he would provide some advice to me that has stayed with me and helped me to refocus when I’m feeling overwhelmed or sidetracked. The advice he would share that is at the end of the day, the CEO has three main responsibilities, and that is vision, people, and resources. 

For vision, it’s the CEO’s responsibility to ensure there is a compelling vision and that the vision is core to the business and well-understood and accepted by the team. The products, the services should be aligned to the vision, and new opportunities should be evaluated for alignment to that vision or perhaps lack thereof of alignment. When it comes to people, as a business grows beyond its founders, the success of achieving its mission is dependent upon the people that are hired. I’ve come to appreciate how important it is to build the right team and to ensure those team members have alignment with core values. Beyond the minimal technical expertise for one to be able to do their job, it’s the other things that matter most. For us, that includes alignment with our core values, including be kind, value team, optimize, you serve the community, and embrace ownership. 

When it comes to the third component, that third main responsibility of the CEO, in terms of money and resources, the CEO has to have oversight to ensure the resources are sufficient to keep the ship moving forward. Cash money in the bank to keep the lights on, pay the payroll, and keep that vision going in the right direction. Now, depending on the nature of the business, one may have cash flow, decide to cash flow the business, or they decide that they’re comfortable taking out some type of debt or additional capital from investors to be able to fund the business. 

Number seven is implementing systems and processes, implementing systems and processes. When starting a business, it’s all hands on deck and all roles. It’s natural to wear every hat there is, and the energy behind the idea typically sustains us through this phase. Whether it’s content creation, marketing, sales, finances, HR, IT, we do our best to wear every single hat. But at a certain point, if the goal is to expand the mission and reach of the business beyond yourself, naturally, two things need to happen. One, you have to be comfortable delegating that work to someone other than yourself. Two, you have to download that information in your head in such a way that a process or service can be replicated and built upon by someone else. 

Let me give you great examples. I think my business partner, Tim Baker, has a really good mind in this area of the importance of systems and operations and being able to document those systems and operations. In 2020, we realized that in order for us to achieve our mission of helping as many pharmacists achieve financial freedom as possible and being able to transform the financial wellness of the profession of pharmacy, we were quickly going to run into a barrier if Tim Baker remained a full-time financial planner. That was eventually going to be a ceiling for us. 

One problem here is that was going to quickly lead to burnout, as he was trying to be an owner and a full-time planner. Two, him stepping out of that seat was going to force us to develop the systems and processes to replicate the financial planning model and approach in a way that could be scaled. This was really our first aha moment of needing to fire ourselves from various roles, and that has been our mantra ever since. What should we be doing next to make the business less dependent on us so that we can further expand the mission of the offering? 

Not only does this mindset allow the business to grow, but it also makes the business more valuable because it’s not just dependent upon you. It also increased the likelihood the business could go on when you decide to retire or take an extended break, and it reduces the risk that you will become a prisoner to your own business. Two books that have really helped shape my mindset on the value of systems and processes inside of a business are The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and Traction by Gino Wickman. 

Number eight is developing a system for evaluating the business. Now, building upon the previous concept, which was implementing systems and processes, once you begin to systematize and process the processes and operations and bring others into the business, we need to make sure that we have a system to regularly evaluate the success of the business. Now, this will naturally evolve over time, but this would include things like key performance indicators, KPIs, and a method to track and review those. 

In the book Traction by Gino Wickman, he recommends developing a scorecard that has 5 to 15 of the most important metrics that can help you quickly identify the health and direction of the business. Now, naturally, the question is, well, what are those metrics, right? He proposes a great question in the book to get you thinking about what those 5 to 15 metrics might be, and that question and scenario who presents is imagine you’re on a desert island somewhere. All you have is a piece of paper with a handful of numbers on it. These numbers must allow you to have an absolute pulse on your business. What are all of the numbers that must be on that piece of paper, right? That activity is designed to help you come up with what those 5 to 15 metrics might be for that scorecard. 

In addition to Traction by Gino Wickman, I would also recommend here the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. We’ll link to all these books in the show notes. The Profit First methodology has really been instrumental for how we handle our business finances and really helps expose whether or not you are accounting for all of your expenses. It ensures that as a business owner, you’re taking some amount of profit home each quarter, even if that’s just 1%, that you’re putting aside money for your taxes, and that you’re paying yourself a sufficient wage for your time and efforts. For many, this model helps expose the true financial health of a business and often can shine a light on a business that is not as profitable as it thinks it is or that is not charging enough for its services. 

Number nine, become a voracious learner. Become a voracious learner. In conducting over 200 interviews for the YFP Podcast, I’ve noticed a common thread among the entrepreneurs that I’ve talked with. Those interviewed often demonstrate humility in knowing that no matter what credentials they carry or success that they’ve had, there is always room to learn and grow. They are hungry to learn. This is evident in the books they’re reading, the professional development courses they’re taking, and the time and money they’re investing in services to grow personally and professionally. 

In the book, The End of Jobs, author Taylor Pearson argues that we are rapidly moving into a time period when one’s credentials and degrees have limited value, thus requiring continuous learning and growth. The good news is that we live in a time in history when learning is more accessible than ever, and I’ve come to appreciate that one of the greatest things I can do for my company, our team, and the community we serve, is to continuously learn and grow. 

This has led to a constant growing list of podcasts and audiobooks, and here are some of my favorites from the past year. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden, The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster by Darren Hardy, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, and Changes That Heal by Henry Cloud. Again, we’ll link to all these books mentioned in the show notes. 

Number 10 and perhaps most important is identity versus role, identity versus role. I alluded to this a little bit in number three when talking about mindset, but it’s worth coming back to this one a little bit further and another shout out to Chris Caldwell for bringing this concept to my attention. Based on the IR theory, identity and role theory, it’s common for us to believe that our identity, our self-worth can be derived from how well we perform in various roles. That could be as a spouse, as a parent, as a pharmacist, as a business owner. If we can’t separate our identity and our roles, our self-worth can ebb and flow with how well we have or have not performed or a perception of that in various roles. 

This is natural, considering that we are taught from a young age, many of us, to tie success to the affirmation we receive from others. But here’s the problem. We are naturally going to experience failure in our personal and professional lives. Experiencing failure and being a failure are two very different things. Experiencing failure and being a failure are two very different things. But if we’re not careful, through experiencing failure, we can convince ourselves that we are a failure, and this can lead to a shake in confidence. This can lead to playing it safe and avoiding future risk. 

But in my mind, that’s not the biggest threat. The biggest threat and tragedy is when we let failure escalate to a feeling of less than and a feeling of having a diminished self-worth. Without the right perspective and accountability, these feelings can quickly creep into every corner of our lives, and we must not let this happen because experiencing failure, again, is not being a failure. That does not equal being a failure. As many leaders and entrepreneurs know, experiencing failure is to be expected and can be welcomed with the right mindset. Albeit painful at the moment, through failure, there can be great growth. If we can begin to accept that there is growth in failure, we can entertain the idea that failure is essential.

I’ve struggled with this mindset shift, which is also true, I suspect, for many of my peers in the profession because it’s drilled into us from our education and training that mistakes should be avoided to prevent medication errors as close to 100% accuracy as possible is the goal. This makes sense for patient care, but this mindset of getting it right all the time shouldn’t carry into all aspects of our work and our lives for that matter. That mindset of 100% accuracy all the time is exhausting, and it prevents real growth because it doesn’t embrace failure. But if we can anticipate and welcome failure, our mindset shifts from disappointment to learning and minimizes the likelihood that we’d let the experience of failure creep into our identity and our self-worth.

So those are the 10 takeaways, the 10 lessons that I’ve had in this journey of starting YFP back in 2015 and making the transition full time and reflecting back on the past five years, from hobby to side hustle, to business, from employee to entrepreneur. That’s why I’m so excited. We’ll be digging into these points and so much more during our upcoming virtual summit, employee to entrepreneur building blocks of starting and growing a business. 

The Employee to Entrepreneur Summit is designed for pharmacists who are planning or actively working on a side hustle or business idea. The summit will be live via Zoom the evenings up Tuesday, August 30th, and Wednesday, August 31st. Topics and activities will include how to hone your mindset and uncap your potential as a business owner, how to grow a business from a position of financial strength, retirement savings and tax optimization considerations as a small business owner, how to develop a system for achieving business financial goals. Also, we’ll be featuring several examples of pharmacists that are monetizing their clinical expertise and have made that transition from employee to entrepreneur. 

Bonus content for those that sign up by August 23rd, including a one-on-one implementation meeting with myself or certified financial planner, Tim Baker, access to a goal setting workshop, I’ll be leading to help focus on setting and achieving big personal and business goals, as well as access to several bonus expert interviews, including how to sell with confidence marketing strategies, evaluating health care insurance options, and more. You can learn more about the summit and register at yourfinancialpharmacist.com/businesssummit. Again, that’s yourfinancialpharmacist.com/businesssummit. As always, thanks for listening and have a great rest of your day. 

This week’s podcast episode is brought to you by Insuring Income. Insuring Income is your source for all things term life insurance and own occupation disability insurance. Insuring Income has a relationship with America’s top rated term life insurance and disability insurance companies, so pharmacists like you can easily find the best solutions for your personal situation. To better serve you, Insuring Income reviews all applicable carriers in the marketplace for your desired coverage, supports clients in all 50 states, and makes sure all of your questions get answered. To get quotes and apply for term life or disability insurance, see sample contracts from disability carriers or learn more about these topics, visit insuringincome.com/yourfinancialpharmacist. Again, that’s insuringincome.com/yourfinancialpharmacist. 

As we conclude this week’s podcast, an important reminder that the content on this show is provided to you for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for investment or any other advice. Information in the podcast and corresponding materials should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any investment or related financial products. We urge listeners to consult with a financial advisor with respect to any investment. 

Furthermore, the information contained in our archived newsletters, blog posts, and podcasts is not updated and may not be accurate at the time you listen to it on the podcast. Opinions and analyses expressed herein are solely those of Your Financial Pharmacist, unless otherwise noted, and constitute judgments as of the dates published. Such information may contain forward-looking statements that are not intended to be guarantees of future events. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. For more information, please visit yourfinancialpharmacist.com/disclaimer. 

Thank you, again, for your support of the Your Financial Pharmacist Podcast. Have a great rest of your week. 

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