Dr. Warda Nawaz discusses what led her to leave her full-time pharmacy job just 3 months in, how and why she pivoted to a career in writing, and what she has learned about herself in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
About Today’s Guest
Warda Nawaz is a freelance medical writer and a creative writer of YA fantasy fiction. She is also the owner of her online medical writing business, Jasmine Medical, which empowers women to take ownership of their bodies by communicating health content that educates professionals and consumers. Warda also currently has a young adult novel set for publication, which discusses women’s experiences with misogyny, predation, and violence. Her goal is to promote the perspectives and experiences of minority women and to encourage other women to embrace creative endeavors by placing their narratives, fiction, and non-fiction, in the publishing space.
Episode Summary
In this week’s episode, Co-Founder & CEO, Tim Ulbrich, PharmD, is joined by Dr. Warda Nawaz, a freelance medical writer and creative writer of young adult fantasy fiction. In their discussion, Warda shares what led her to leave her full-time pharmacy job after just three months, how and why she pivoted to a career in writing, and what she has learned about herself in the early stages of entrepreneurship. After walking through her pharmacy journey, Warda details how the start of her career aligned with the initial events of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, making for a challenging and unusual career kick-off. Just a few months into her pharmacy position, Warda experienced a life-altering event that changed her career and the trajectory of her life. No longer able to endure the physical demands of her pharmacy job, Warda poured herself into her passion: writing. Now, as a writer, Warda has found herself in the medical and young adult fantasy fiction spaces. Her new career in writing has afforded her more work/life balance and allowed her to focus on her health. While she may have more flexibility, this new pathway in writing has not come without challenges, which Warda explains. Warda details how, through entrepreneurship, she has grown along the way, taking courses and coaching to improve her online presence, mindset, and marketing in her new creative career.
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode
- YFP Planning: Financial Planning for Pharmacists
- Schedule a free Discovery Call with YFP Planning
- Connect with Warda Nawaz on LinkedIn
- Jasmine Medical Writing
- The Happy PharmD
- YFP 259: Building a Medical Writing Business with Megan Freeland
- 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 interviewing Dr. Warda Nawaz, as we discuss what led her to leave her full-time pharmacy job just three months in, how and why she pivoted to a career in writing, and what she has learned about herself in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
Now, 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 for 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 at 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. Warda Nawaz.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:01:10] TU: Warda, welcome to the show.
[00:01:11] WN: Hi, Tim. It’s so nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:14] TU: Yes. I’m excited to share your story with the YFP community, and really talk about how and why you pivoted to writing for a living, maybe a more nontraditional career path. We’re going to talk about that journey, why you made that pivot, what you’re currently working on, some lessons that you learned along the way as well.
But first, let’s start with your pharmacy journey. Where did you go to school? When did you graduate? And what drew you into the profession of pharmacy?
[00:01:41] WN: Yeah. So I graduated in 2019 from pharmacy school. I went to California North State University. I’m from California. I’ve lived here most of my life. So I just went to a local pharmacy school, which was nice. It saved me money, somewhat. I originally had plans to do residency, but I didn’t do that. I got into pharmacy because I majored in neurobiology, physiology, and behavior. So I had a scientific background, a very strong one.
The next logical step to me seemed like, “Okay, let’s build on that. Let’s do something with that.” At that time, I was really struggling with either let’s – Do I go the writing route? Or do I stick with the sciences? I have loved writing all my life, and it was always a passion of mine. But I also come from a community and a culture where the arts and the sciences are kind of looked down upon, and they’re not really taken very seriously. So I didn’t know if I could build a very serious career out of that, and I was discouraged from pursuing it.
So it was a very big struggle right after undergrad to figure out, well, what do I want to do? So I stayed one extra year in undergrad to figure out which health profession do I want to go into. I chose pharmacy in the end because I ended up taking a class on the neurobiology of addictive drugs, and I got so fascinated by how drugs can change the human physiology and the behavior. I also noticed that there’s a really big problem in this country with substance abuse and drug addiction. I wanted to play a role with that as a pharmacist.
That’s where my initial interest sparked. So I decided to go work in the community setting, and that’s what I was doing for the past two years. I was working on the frontlines of the pandemic. It was odd because I started working right when the world changed. So I never knew what a normal work situation looks like because everything was changing by the time I had just been hired. I got hired in March when the pandemic was announced. So everything had already changed. So it was odd, but it was interesting. But, yeah, that’s why I got into pharmacy.
[00:03:48] TU: So you mentioned 2019, you graduated, worked a couple years in community practice, and made a transition, which we’ll talk about here in a moment. Obviously, you’re in the thick of it in the pandemic. I’m curious, though, you mentioned a culture where some of the arts may not be as highly regarded and, obviously, we’re talking here about a career in writing. Where did that interest in writing come from? Can you remember back to your youth, having that love for writing? Where did that come from?
[00:04:16] WN: So I grew up in Pakistan. As you know, Pakistan was colonized by the British. So English was part of our language. In our culture, at least, I know growing up, I did not grow up reading books or novels per se, not like fiction novels anyway. I mean, there are books, obviously. There’s books in every country and nation and culture. But I realized there was something missing in my culture in regards to self-expression. I just didn’t see as much of people pursuing writing careers or scholarly kind of pursuits, and I had this burning desire to write stories, to share experiences.
I remember sitting down when I was like seven years old, and I was like sitting right next to my mom. One of my assignments was to write like a story in English. My English then was very like broken and not very good. My mom had done a master’s in English, so she basically told me the story, and I just wrote it down. But it was all her ideas. I realized when I grew up, I want to have my own ideas. I don’t want somebody to tell me what to do or what to write. I want to create my own stuff. I want to write my own stories. I want to create my own material and then be able to share it with the world.
I just didn’t have that power growing up. Like I was told, “This is what you need to memorize. This is what you need to know.” Then you just spit it out on a test, and I didn’t like that method. I didn’t like that way of learning. I wanted to compile different pieces of information and put it together, but I want it to be my own idea. I got that critical analysis and thinking, kind of learning more so when I came to the United States because the United States has a very different educational system and, I would say, approach to learning.
It’s very different from my own home country where over there, it’s more about regurgitation and memorization, which that works too for sciences. You got to memorize some things. But over here, there’s a little bit more, I would say, freedom to analyze and to criticize and to create. There’s more opportunities to publish, to write, to do things. I needed that freedom, and that’s what I was seeking.
[00:06:37] TU: Yeah. What a great time in 2022. We’ll talk more about this. But when it comes to opportunities for publishing and writing, it’s a much more open space than it used to be in 15, 20 years ago. So you have this initial flame through this experience as a child that uncovers this desire to really tell your own story, to write your own story. Then you go down this path into the sciences in the pharmacy school. But sure enough, this flame would remain and would come back.
So a few months ago, on LinkedIn, of which I really enjoy following you, and I hope our listeners will as well, you posted about a brutal wakeup call that you had in 2020 that ultimately changed the trajectory of your career and your life. Can you tell us about that, and what shift started to happen career-wise through that experience?
[00:07:26] WN: It was actually kind of sad because I was only three months into my pharmacy, first professional job as an adult, first job. Just imagine, you’re entering, and you’re so excited, and all you want to do is go and help people. I mean, this is what I’ve been training my whole life to do, right, or at least my four years in pharmacy school to do. I was traveling as a pharmacist. I worked in the Northern California region, so I had to travel a lot. I got into a car accident while driving to work.
The accident ended up damaging my foot in such a severe way that I couldn’t stand or walk for a couple months. My job, obviously, required me to be on my feet and to be very mobile and to move around. It was a very physically demanding job, and I was like, “Well, how am I supposed to do my job if I can’t even stand? I can’t even drive.” I couldn’t drive for a very long time. So that was a bit traumatic and also just PTSD. I didn’t want to go out and drive anymore. I was like, “I’m done.”
I did take the time to, obviously, recover and do everything the doctor told me to do. But then I went back, obviously, because I wanted to get back in the game and do what you’re supposed to do. But I realized I kept suffering. My suffering had not ended. My pain was persisting. I was having more injuries at work. I was suffering with more stress and more setbacks. My car was vandalized, which was lovely. I mean, I was seeing like signs after signs after signs that like, “Maybe you’re not where you need to be because you need to do something where you can thrive and you can – You shouldn’t have to kill yourself for your job, essentially. You should be thriving and having a good time.”
That’s not what was happening. I was not having a good time. Every morning, it was like waking up to like some dark abyss. I was like, “What have I gotten myself into? This is not making me feel excited.” During that time when I was recovering and I was just immobile and just sitting on my couch, I picked up my manuscript that I’ve been working on for many years, and I started working on it again. I’m like, “I have nothing else to do. I’m going to just work on my book. I’m going to pick up my writing and work on it because it doesn’t require a lot of driving. It doesn’t require me to be physically like on my feet.” I’m like, “I’m being productive. I’m using my mind. I’m using my research skills. I’m creating something. I’m being productive. Why don’t I do this? Well, why did I like leave this? Why did I abandon this?”
That was wake up call. It was me realizing that you can lie to yourself about all that you want. About like, “This is not what I’m supposed to do.” But I think life will always try to push you back to where you need to be, sometimes in traumatic ways. But I think you need to listen to yourself and your intuition, and that’s basically what happened but in a more, obviously, very sudden way.
[00:10:23] TU: Yeah. I want to read for a moment from that post because one of the things I really appreciate about your journey is that, obviously, the impact that you’re having through your writing and will have through your writing but also the impact and motivation you’re providing to others. One of the things you said in that post was, “This, my friends, was a wakeup call and a much needed setback in my life that reset my life and career goals. Today, I no longer travel for work. Today, I write for a living. I wake up every morning, looking forward to having control of my life, building my medical writing business, and working on my debut novel, and feeling alive in the process. I don’t put myself in dangerous situations daily so that I can bring home a paycheck. I live my life with more uncertainty but also more freedom and reward. I also live with a greater appreciation for adversity and embrace it for what it has taught me.”
So as you hear those words now, a few months later as you’ve made this leap, what jumps out at you? I mean, I’m sure this has been a challenging season. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies, right? You made a significant jump from a very known entity in terms of the work that you were doing. But how have you reflected on that over the last few months, since you made that post?
[00:11:34] WN: I feel the same way. Everything that I said in that is 100% still true, still true, holds true. There is a lot of uncertainty in, I guess, my line of business, freelancing, because it’s not a set job. You’re not working for a company, and you don’t have set hours per se. You are your own boss. You have to go out and find clients. You have to take the initiative. You have to be constantly showing up for yourself. So you have to divide your time and block out your day and block out your schedule. There’s a lot of self-initiative that you have to take in order to do this work. There is uncertainty in that sense because you know that every day will look a little bit different, and you don’t know how much work that you’ll be given or that you’ll be blessed with.
Then for the novel writing, I mean, it’s something I have to block out time for that as well. Finally, after 10 years of putting it away and finally picking it up and doing it and I’ve actually tried to come up with a routine. I’m going to write in the morning, and I’m going to write in the evening, and I’m actually taking classes to help me learn how do publish authors who are successful and who’ve been in the business, how have they been doing it? Because I know it’s – How have they written like 50 novels? Like they must have a method, right?
So I’m learning from the experts, like what did they do to make themselves so productive? Because you only have so many hours in a day and so many years in your life, so I’m doing what I can to make my time most efficient. I also use these last few months to recover. I had surgery in June. So I was also taking this time to improve my health. All of that is in your hands when you are your own boss. I mean, you decide when do you want to take a sick day, when do you want to be like working like crazy. I mean, it’s all up to you. But you have to show up every day for yourself.
[00:13:26] TU: Warda, when you made this transition, was there any overlap? Had you been working on establishing some of the medical writing business or even perhaps some of the novel work? Or was this a hard like, “I’m out and I’m going to begin to build this thing from scratch.”?
[00:13:41] WN: No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. I was already – There was some groundwork already done. For the novel writing, I had already finished my novel or my book in pharmacy school. So that was already done. That was a said and done thing. That was something on the backburner. I neglected it because I was now in the sciences and had zero time to write. I realized I can’t be writing full time and doing my day job. So I had to pick something. Obviously, the accidents and all these other events made me eventually choose one or the other.
Then for the medical writing, actually, I had done coaching in 2021, when I was still in my pharmacy day job with Happy PharmD. That kind of helped me figure out and establish myself a little bit better on LinkedIn and also build my network a bit more. It also helped me connect with other medical writers. I met Brittany Hoffmann, an RX author, and I met Sophie Ash as well. I followed her for a very long time. I followed her content, her story, and I connected with her. I messaged her a couple times, just asking her questions about, “What is it like to have your own business, and how do taxes work? I don’t know what this is like. Can I actually make a living doing this? Do you ever find it struggling to pay bills?”
So I asked these kinds of questions before I totally jumped because I didn’t want to jump and then not be like, “Oh, my God. Now, I’m all alone. What do I do?” So I had kind of done the groundwork, and I was talking and asking questions, and I attended webinars for medical writing as well and on LinkedIn, through LinkedIn, through people in the industry to help me learn more. I was following all these successful entrepreneurs, and I saw what they were doing. I’m like, “Oh, my God. Why is everybody starting a business? I guess this is the thing now.”
But I was like maybe this is like the modern age. It’s like where you have to be your own boss because nobody wants to be in the pharmacy setting. Maybe everybody wants to create their own thing. But it wasn’t just for me like following a fad. It was also knowing that like I was being very honest with myself. I’m like, “If I do open a business, can I maintain it? And it also has to be a business I’m passionate about.” I was like, “What kind of business should I start?” I was like, “The only one I can think of right now is medical writing.” So I got into the medical writing coaching program in January 2022, literally January 1st, 2022, first of the year. A month and a half into it after I got one client, I know that doesn’t sound very successful now does it? But –
[00:16:14] TU: Well, yeah. You got to start somewhere, right? Yeah.
[00:16:17] WN: Right. So I actually started having people approached me and asked me for projects and things. So I was like, “You know what? I think I’m going to do this. But in order to do this, I need to let go of my day job because there’s no way in heck I can split my brain in like for my day job and do this.” At that point, I had to make the difficult decision of jumping ship and putting my resignation for my day job, so I can focus on my business. Because I was like, “There’s no way I can do both.”
I mean, I do like the income side that comes with that security of that day job. But then I was like, at some point, you have to take a risk. From every advice that I’ve been given from the people who are way ahead of me, for these entrepreneurs, they say that you have to take calculated risks. You have to take risks. There’s just no reward if you don’t even try. So I was like, “I have to try at least.”
[00:17:10] TU: That was part of the reason I wanted to ask that question was because I hear from a lot of pharmacists that may have an idea, but they’re caught in between. When do I potentially take that risk? Can I bridge this and do two things at once? You mentioned calculated risk. Did you consider at one point like a part-time role, and then you’d work on the business part time? Or apparently, if not, like what really led you to this path of like, “I’m going to go all in.”?
[00:17:38] WN: It was at that point, honestly, my health was suffering so much, my mental and my physical health. There was no way I could have kept going at my day job. I couldn’t drive for long periods of time already. I had work restrictions. Standing on my feet hurt my foot. My work condition actually got worse as a result. So I knew if I chose my day job, just in order to keep the income and the sense of security, I was only going to dig myself deeper. I had already done that for the last two years. So I knew at that point, I had to pick me, even if it hurt me financially a little bit in the beginning anyway.
So I had started to save up, and I was being very careful with how I was spending my money. Obviously, the coaching was an investment as well. So I calculated everything like, “Okay, how much have I spent? How much am I planning on actually making a return on this investment?” So I had to put all of that into consideration before I jumped. But at some point, you have to do it because there’s – You can’t predict all, everything that’s going to happen, right? You cannot. There’s no way. But you can just look at your bank balance and be like, “Do I have enough to kind of keep me going for the next few months? Is my lifestyle –” Like change your lifestyle. If you think you – You have to change who you are as well, right? You have to change your own lifestyle and habits that might be contributing to your financial distress.
I’m no financial expert. You are, so maybe people can come to you and ask you about that. But I don’t invest money or anything. But, I mean, I know people do. People go into real estate and things like that. I, obviously, am way too young and early in my journey to know about all that. But I just make smart decisions and know what you have and save some for the next few months or maybe even a year ahead. It’ll help you so much during times of uncertainty or during times when you’re not getting any work.
[00:19:37] TU: Let me follow up on that because one of the things I often hear from pharmacists I talk with that have an idea and that could be a different position, that could be a business that they want to pursue, it could be a variety of nonprofit they want to start, is I can sense the passion and the idea. Then it’s often their financial position that really gives them pause about whether or not I should move forward. I think for many 2019 grads, such as yourself, they have an idea. They might be thinking, “Yeah, I have an idea. But I’ve got $200,000 of student loan debt. I feel like I need to be saving and investing for the future. I’m trying to buy a home. I’m trying to do other things.”
So my question for you is how are you able to reconcile some of that tension personally when it comes to the finances? Obviously, position and community practice can afford some of that safety net and some guarantee to be able to overcome some of those concerns, financially, personally, to be able to make that leap into the business. Was it coming up with a certain amount of savings? Was it evaluating other parts of the plan? How were you able to think through that and ultimately make that decision, despite perhaps some of those financial stressors that were there?
[00:20:48] WN: So I’m blessed in that I do have family to support me. I don’t have to pay rent. I don’t have a mortgage. I didn’t buy a home. I don’t have kids. I can’t say that for everybody. Everybody’s situation is different. If you’re a single mom with kids, I know your situation will be totally different from mine, and my advice will, obviously, not be helpful. But it kind of helped that I was single, and I didn’t have tiny kids to take care of, and I had family to lean on to help me during this time.
That being said, obviously, it was still a decision I made, knowing that maybe my family will not approve because it’s a risky one. So, yes, in the beginning, I was getting resistance and kind of side-eye look like, “How could you do this?” But ultimately, it was about them knowing that my health matters more than finances ever will. There is no point in being alive or having a six-figure whatever job if you’re not alive tomorrow, and you’re going to spend your days in the hospital, or you’re going to be going back to the medical office again for an issue that was exacerbated by your job. You have to ultimately pick and choose what is most important to you, what’s important right now, and what’s going to be most helpful for you in the long run. In the long run, my health was most important.
Also, for me, writing is very important. I can lose my ability to walk. Fine. But I do not want to lose my ability to write. I don’t want to have like a hand injury. I don’t want to have a brain injury. I want – There are certain things I know I will not compromise. So you have to as an individual choose what are you willing to compromise and let go of and sacrifice in order to do what you truly love and what makes you feel alive. That even if you lose one of those things, it’s not going to like ruin your day, and it’s not going to ruin your life.
Did my accident ruin my life? No, I think it just set me on a better path, and it helped me realize and reset my goals like, yeah, this is fine. Yes, I’m kind of in a financial rut right now. I’m not – I don’t have a six-figure income right now. I am struggling financially, right? But I have put the steps in to connect with people, which people are your wealth, essentially, right? Like your network is your net worth. So you don’t know what opportunities might come through the people and the relationships you’ve built.
I look at it that way. If you just look at the balance sheet, then you’ll always feel disappointed in yourself. You’ll always feel like, “I’m not good enough.” I had a six-figure income, but I was not happy. So that, to me, was enough evidence to know that it’s not just about money. It’s about your quality of life. If you don’t have the quality of life you want, it doesn’t matter how much income or how much work is being sent your way. You could still be having a very bad day. So look at the quality of life, rather than just the balance sheet.
I know in business that’s when most people like to follow the paper trail. It’s like, “Oh, how much money?” But it’s like that’s exactly why I did writing because I’m running away from that. I don’t want it to be all about that. So I’m okay not making six figures, as long as I am getting by, and I can change my lifestyle accordingly, like stop living so lavishly, stop buying unnecessary things, and lean on others. It’s okay to lean on others. You don’t have to have it all figured out. People assume that you hit a certain age, you have to have it all figured out. That’s not true. It’s a myth. Society told you, you have to have it all figured out, and you don’t have to.
[00:24:25] TU: That’s right.
[00:24:26] WN: Lean on your tribe. Lean on people you love.
[00:24:29] TU: That’s right, especially people. You mentioned a couple of folks earlier, Brittany and others. We had Megan Freeland on the show in 259. But others who have been down this path that you can lean on and learn from that have been down a similar journey. We talk often on the show that a good financial plan really has to be able to, yes, we got to take care of the future and plan ahead and think about 15, 20, 30 years down the road. But we also have to live a rich life along the way, and part of living a rich life is doing work that you love and contributing in a meaningful way based on the gifts that, obviously, you’ve been given and the impact that you can have. I think our work is often a piece of that. That can be so important.
I’m curious, Warda, because I enjoy writing as a hobby. I won’t claim to be a great writer. I just – It really is a fun creative outlet. I like to do it. But there’s a whole different level in terms of like writing for enjoyment as a hobby to like going pro, right? This is like my main thing. So I’m curious, and you mentioned writers that have published 50 books and others. But how has that journey been where you’ve got to now have the discipline, the schedules, and making sure you’re writing so much per day? Like do you still maintain the energy and enthusiasm for the work? How do you build those disciplines and routines into the schedule each week to make sure that the production’s moving forward?
[00:25:54] WN: I’m actually part of a writing mastery academy. It’s basically a website created by a very successful bestselling author. She’s written like 20 novels, and she has a lot of content and coursework on there about exactly the questions that you asked like lifestyle, routine, things like that. But also like how to write quickly and efficiently so you can actually make a living out of doing this, how to sell your work, marketing because these are all these skills that, obviously, I did not learn in pharmacy school, right? These are new skills I’m learning and developing constantly.
I have talked to authors as well. Then I’ve talked to publishing experts about like writers conferences and where you can meet people and you can develop yourself. So it’s basically like in pharmacy, where you go to conferences. You network. You talk to people, right? There’s just like that with the writing industry as well. There are so many writers conferences. I was like googling it the other day, and there’s like a million of them. I’m actually scheduled to go to one in LA. God willingly it works out in August. There’s another one in Kauai in November that I’m planning on going to. It’s, obviously, editors will be there. Agents will be there. Published authors will be there. There’s webinars, master classes. There’s workshops. You get feedback on your manuscript. I already have a manuscript, and I’m like I’ve prepared a pitch. You just kind of prepare yourself.
For me, the daily routine – Right now, because my manuscript is done, my focus is more on preparing my manuscript, you could say, for sharing to an agent. So it has to be like polished and beautiful. So I’m like doing those last minute look through and read through on that. I’m also part of a beta reader and critique partner group in the community as well. So I have like a group of writers who are writing in my genre to read and provide me with feedback. All of that is happening simultaneously. So you have to start thinking of your writing as a business as well like, “This is my new identity. This is my career.”
Then you start developing yourself. Go to conferences. Connect with beta readers. Connect with other writers. Have them give you feedback. Improve your work. Don’t take it personally. It’s not about you. It’s about the work and the quality of work that the publishing industry expects you to produce. I used to be like that. In the beginning, I used to take everything personally like, “Oh, my God. They hate me.” It’s like, “No, it’s not about you.” There’s certain standards in every industry, and you have to know about them, and that’s what I’m building myself. I’m learning from experts. That’s what I’m doing right now.
[00:28:35] TU: Warda, a couple of weeks ago on LinkedIn, you posted something about reaching out to an author that you’ve looked up to and was somewhat surprised, I think, by the response that you received. Can you tell us about that story and what you learned through that interaction?
[00:28:50] WN: Yeah. So as an author, a teen fantasy author that I had read her books when I was a teen, and I reached out to her, basically asking her like – I’m not asking her anything, but just kind of telling her, “Hey, I’ve read your books my whole life. And, oh, my God, I really admire you. And now, I’m starting to also become a published author. And do you have any advice for me?” Then she told me that like, “The best advice that I was given was that you should never stop writing.” She also told me about writers conferences, and she told me to develop myself more and to meet people in the industry.
It just basically told me that even if you’re like the only person in your family or whatever who’s pursuing this path, don’t feel discouraged and just start. I think, for me, at least, I know I’m a perfectionist. I’m very hard on myself. I’m very self-critical. I’m like, “Will I ever be good enough?” But I think it starts with you not trying to compare yourself to people who are already well-established and knowing that everybody has to start somewhere. Yeah. I just loved her response because she was so supportive. It’s, obviously, a very big deal when it’s somebody that you actually read their works, and you really admire it. A lot of her stuff actually helped inspire me to get into this genre as well. So that was cool.
[00:30:15] TU: I love that that story because I think that for whatever reason, when I talk to aspiring pharmacy entrepreneurs, and I encourage them to do what you just did, reach out to someone who’s doing something, along the work that you, obviously, admire and can learn from, there’s this perception that like people are unreachable, untouchable. I think more often than not, not always but more often than not, people are willing to share. People are willing to be encouraging. That might mean other pharmacists. Or in this case, it might mean not pharmacists and, obviously, other people that are out there.
I think taking a little bit of a leap of faith to reach out to 3, 5, 7, 10 people, and get some input, feedback, someone that will be willing to take some time to bounce some ideas off and not necessarily just make the assumption that, “Oh, they’re too busy. They’re not going to take time to listen to what I have to say.” So I was glad to see that. That was a neat example.
Warda, when I think about the transition to starting your own business, it can be exciting, and it can be overwhelming. It’s, obviously, exciting as you explore an area that you’re passionate about. But it also can be overwhelming. That there’s just a lot of things that you have to do and to put in place, and that could be things like setting up the actual infrastructure of the business. That could be now you’re having to market yourself and sales and reach out to folks.
As you reflect on this journey and making this transition from employee to entrepreneur, have there been one or two areas that you can identify that have really been opportunities, whether you want to call them bumps in the road or opportunities to grow and to learn that you really have experienced and learned about yourself through this transition?
[00:32:00] WN: Yeah. There have been a couple of opportunities, where I’ve definitely learned new skills that I didn’t have before. Well, number one is, obviously, social media and being comfortable being on that platform. Figuring out, well, what’s the best platform to develop your presence? Depending on what kind of business you’re setting up, it will be different. For medical writing, I mean, LinkedIn is good enough. I could explore other options. But right now, I’m just staying focused on LinkedIn. It’s a very intellectual platform. I think, yeah, LinkedIn is just good for meeting other professionals because it’s focused more on your career development. So I like that.
Then for my author platform, that is something I’m still looking into. I know a lot of authors use Instagram for that and also Twitter as well. So I was actually going to enroll myself in a master class to figure that out. There’s also a conference in San Francisco coming up in which a couple of speakers talk about what is the best platform that authors can establish themselves prior to putting their book out there. But the important part is to promote yourself and to be constantly present. That is the best way to grow. If nobody can find you, nobody – You can’t grow and your business can’t grow. So you have to be comfortable being in this space, in the public space.
That is something that I, obviously, had to learn to do. It doesn’t come easy because I’m an introvert, and I’m extremely shy about being in this open space. It feels very awkward at times, but I know it’s part and parcel of just being in this business, even as an author. We’re very reclusive. We’re like, “Oh, don’t come near me. We don’t want cameras on us. We don’t want the attention.” But we do want our work to be known. But it’s not like – It’s hard. You have to eventually realize the focus is, in the end, not going to be on you but more on the types of work that you’re putting out there. So just learning about that, it’s a mindset shift as well.
Also, another, I guess, hard skill that I learned, besides just developing an online presence, marketing, learning how to sell yourself. I mean, that’s pretty – I’m still developing that. I’m by no means an expert. I’m still figuring out, okay, what software should I use, if I want somebody to like buy something from me? Setting that up and also website. I have built a website, but it’s a DIY, do-it-yourself website. It’s not by any means done by a professional or a graphic designer. So I was learning about like graphic designing a little bit, like what fonts work, what colors work. I was just tinkering with it. I’m not an expert, but I’m figuring it out. What really helped –
[00:34:52] TU: Got to start.
[00:34:52] WN: Yeah, exactly. That’s why I did the coaching program because it taught me all those skills. Week by week, we went and focused on different issues. So the first week, I think we focused on building your online presence. The second week, we worked on the resume. Third week, we worked on writing samples and portfolio, so having an actual thing to showcase. Then fourth week, I think we worked on something else. Then fifth week, we worked on building the website. So each week, we focused on something else, and that’s how I basically ended up building the infrastructure of my business like, “Okay, this is how I’m going to market myself. This is the platform that I’m going to use.”
It’s up to you as a business owner. Do you want to have a website? It is an investment. That’s why I say like save a little bit ahead of time, so you can prepare yourself for this. But just also know it doesn’t have to be all squared away in the beginning. You can always invest more professionally later. But at least I got the basic groundwork. Also, do you want to have a logo for your company? Come up with a company name. Figure out a logo. Logo is not that important. But, I mean, it helps. It kind of makes you feel good if you created something for yourself, right?
For medical writing, if you’re opening your own business or a company, it’s good to register it as an LLC, limited liability company, so you can protect yourself from liability. So all of that.
[00:36:15] TU: That’s great, and I admire your hunger to learn. I’ve heard you mentioned, at least three or four times, different courses you’ve jumped in to learn through new things, different communities that you’ve jumped in. So I think that hunger to learn, that motivation to recognize, it’s one of the gifts we have of living in 2022, right? We can pretty easily, if we’re willing to put in the time and the effort, go out and find opportunities where we can learn and grow our skills. So I love that mindset. I love not only the hunger to learn but also the hunger to just implement and get started, even if it’s not perfect, and really to step outside of your comfort zone.
I would encourage you, and I think you do an awesome job of this that as you continue on this mission and the work that you’re doing, on some level, it’s a responsibility to put yourself out there because, yes, it’s increasing the awareness of your work. But I can also assure you that it’s also motivating others in their own journey. I think that is perhaps equally as exciting.
This has been fun, and I look forward to continuing to watch your journey as you progress with the business. Where is the best place that folks can go to connect with you and to continue to follow your work?
[00:37:27] WN: Oh, that’s so sweet. LinkedIn, I’m on LinkedIn. I’m thinking of actually creating an Instagram account. I was told by somebody in the publishing industry like, “Oh, you should have that if you’re really serious about this.” I’m like, “Okay, cool. I’ll do that.” But, yeah, LinkedIn is a great way to follow me. I don’t have any other. I mean, I do have Facebook, but I don’t really use it. So follow me on LinkedIn. Email me. DM me.
[00:37:53] TU: Great. We will link to that in the show notes. We’ll also link to the website, jasminemedical.com, if folks want to take a look there as well. So thank you so much for taking time to come on the show. I really appreciate it.
[00:38:03] WN: Thank you so much for having me. This has been very fun.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[00:38:06] 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.
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