Business Startup Coach | Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD

Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript is generated using speech-to-text technology and may contain errors or inaccuracies.

Mike Koelzer, Host: [00:00:00] Good morning, Dr. Asha morning. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: It's a pleasure. Pleasure to meet you too. Thank you for having me on the show. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Absolutely. Am I calling you? I'm in grand rapids, Michigan. Am I calling you 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: in North Carolina Raleigh, North Carolina. Believe 

Mike Koelzer, Host: it or not. I was just down there. Shoot seven days ago for my daughter were 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: in Raleigh or 

Mike Koelzer, Host: in Raleigh?

Yeah, she got married. She lives downtown and she got married in a place called I think the glass box or something. It was just quaint. We both had our, just our families, their immediate family. But it was 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: really, I love it down here. This is where I grew up. So I'm not going anywhere. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Thankfully we got it.

It's beautiful, it was just a beautiful area. She's been down there a couple of years and thankfully we had a cool week. It was only in the 85 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: hundreds, right? Yeah. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Hundreds. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Thank you for being on the show, Dr. Give us a rundown of who you are.

People have seen you online and so on, but for those that haven't give us give us a little bit of your background and then go into what's hot going on and 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: just so I am a pharmacist. I actually call myself a rebel pharmacist, which I'm sure we'll get into in just a few minutes, what that means to me anyway.

But I am a wife and mom to two little boys that are eight and five. Here in Raleigh, North Carolina. And I've worked in traditional pharmacy for quite some time, about 15 to 20 years. And decided that was not where I wanted to be. And so I went off and did my own thing, which, like I said, we'll probably get into in just a couple of minutes, but so that's where I'm at right now.

Mike Koelzer, Host: What did you when you worked for the 15 to 20 years, what kind of 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: jobs? So I worked in retail pharmacy, mainly independent retail pharmacy, for the entire time. So I graduated from pharmacy school back in 2002 and went and did a community pharmacy residency that focused on diabetes, education and management, but just primary care in general.

And then after that, I came out, jumped right into independent pharmacy. And actually became a certified diabetes educator as well. So that was my focus. I have a very strong passion for diabetes, education and management and pre-diabetes and prevention. Did that in 2004 and then just stayed in my role at the pharmacy.

It was comfortable. I call it the golden handcuffs, because I was good. It was good money. It was exactly where I thought I needed to be. But years into it, I actually worked my way up to management and 

Mike Koelzer, Host: It was this one store. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: It was a, they had other stores, but each store was its own entity.

Yeah. Gotcha. And so I was at that store and I worked my way up to management, doing that for a couple of years. And it was a great experience. I never knocked any kind of experience that you can get. But it was definitely not where I wanted to be in my career. And so that's when things started to change in my head, my heart of what I was doing and right around that time is when I started having children.

And so I call my children my get out of jail free card, because it was one of those okay I'm going to switch gears for just a little bit, figure out what I want to do and then jump back in. So 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, I think sometimes in our life whether it's a financial change or whatever medical or whatever, I think sometimes as Sometimes we don't make decisions because it's hard.

Cause what if you make the wrong one? So when something kind of forces you to make a little decision, you take it because, it's probably going to end up good, but we don't always trust 

ourself 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Exactly. Like my new kind of mantra is faith over fear. And so that's what I always say. And that's what I always believe is I'm just going to have faith in the direction that I'm being led to.

And that's what I did back then without really thinking of it that way. But that's exactly what I did. I just took this leap of faith that I was going to go off beaten, become a mom and figure out what all that means and enjoy that part of it. And they're still really young, but now I feel like I've had that time.

And so then along that way, I started realizing or figuring out what it is that I was called to do. And so that's where it all started. And I started really thinking back to 2002, when I left school to where I thought I would be. And we are wanting to be, and so going back to those dreams and goals and passions, cause once you get into kind of the daily grind of things, you don't really think about those things.

Very often, you just don't go with the flow and you're doing what you need to do to survive and those kinds of things. And so I just got back to dreaming a little bit 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Were you doing any part-time work while the kids were before they were eight and inside are [00:05:00] not that, that's earlier, but were you doing any part dabbling and part-time while they were really young or not?

Or did you 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: know? And I didn't. I'm definitely not one somebody that can just hand off everything. And so I always tend to have my hands in a lot of different pots, to be honest with you. So 

Mike Koelzer, Host: you were still very active in pharmacy even as I 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: was. So I worked part-time just for a few years after I had my first kid in pharma and then I got into network marketing with a dermatology based skincare company.

So I did that really to be able to stay home. It was dermatology based. So it felt really good to, with my math background and knowledge to just get into that. I wanted to learn a new skill set of sales. I had never, I used to joke with people and say, I don't, I've never sold a thing a day in my life because I would just give people the drugs that somebody already told them to take.

Yeah. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: It's nice. It's always been nice when even as an independent owner myself as that's it's not really sales when someone comes into you and is asking you for something, but, 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: And so I did not have a cold sale. Exactly. And so that's why I joined that company and had been doing that since 2012.

So I'm still doing that seven years later. So that's still a part of my repertoire. But what I started to do was look at all the other skill sets for that. And that I've accumulated all these certifications and things over the years. What could I do with that to really help as many people as I can, because that's what I really originally got into pharmacy for.

And I know that sounds a little cliche. Everybody says, I want to help people, but that's truly why I did this. I really wanted to help people. And so for me, I've always been that person when I was in the pharmacy, I felt like I was feeding people's illnesses and I never really felt like I had an impact on their health and wellbeing.

I just was doing what other people were telling me to do for them. And so that's where I started really thinking, how can I do this? So during that little hiatus with my kids, I got a little bit into corporate wellness. So I started doing some corporate wellness programs for small to medium-sized companies in the Raleigh Durham chapel hill area.

And enjoy that, but it's still quite, wasn't where I wanted to be. All right. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Now, wait a minute. When I hear corporate wellness, when I hear corporate wellness, it sounds terrifying because you're thinking of a corporation. I know you said small, but I can see going up and say, okay, I helped, I finally went over to Mrs.

Smith's house today and helped her with this. But to say corporate you've you obviously had some selling skills to go in there and say to some leadership and say I can do something for you. How did you even go about that? That even the small setup? Yeah. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: I attribute a lot of that to the sales experience that I accumulated up to that point.

And knowing, I think the biggest thing is knowing that what you have to offer means something. And can do something for whoever it is that you're trying to talk to or sell to. And so I created a corporate wellness program that I went in and I found I did a lot of networking.

I do a lot of networking in general. And so I met a lot of HR people and just spoke to them about what it is that I can do for their employees, for their bottom line and and was able to do that. Now, for me, it was very small because of what I was trying to do. I was trying to be a mom too, which is, trying to integrate it all is definitely an artwork in itself.

So I started that and I did that for a few years. It still was not quite where I wanted to be because it's, I wanted to impact individually. On a larger scale. And I feel like with corporate wellness, there's a lot of red tape and there's a lot of hoops to jump. And it's just really, it's a tough game.

It's a tough game. So I still have those clients that are up and running, but I knew that there was more than I wanted to do, and I really wanted to get more on the preventative side for individuals. And I do really feel really strongly in my heart that I believe that people are individuals and it needs to be personalized.

There's no cookie cutter way to do any of this. And quite honestly, after I had my second child, about five years old, he's five. I ran into my own health problems and that's where I started to notice where our healthcare system is and where I wanted to see it go. And so that's where all of this happened because I started slipping through the cracks.

I didn't fit into this nice, neat little bit. If healthcare people would, I've been dismissed from practices. I was being told I was a medical mystery and I knew one number one, I couldn't be the only person out there that was being told this stuff. But number two, that there just, there had to be answers.

You can't just tell somebody there's a medical mystery and just shove them off. But with my background, I knew I was able to go and find the answers in rep through reputable sources and really dig into various aspects of my health, history and lab work and all that, all that jazz.

And so that's where it all came to, came out, was through my own journey. And I [00:10:00] wanted to be able to help you. In that realm, I specialize in diabetes and pre-diabetes because that's where my specialty has always lied. And my family, it's a very strong family history of that. So it's just a passion that I have.

But that's kinda where it all started. And so then last year I started focusing on my own practice. It's a holistic wellness practice looking at a person, basically 360 degrees of their life and helping them through this journey and this process because it's a journey. And so that's where it all started in the night.

In the midst of all this, I wrote a book about it all. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah they they say you can't judge a book by its cover, but your books got a really nice thank 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: you.

Mike Koelzer, Host: And I think you can judge a book by its cover. No, your book's got a very nice cover. All right. So let's back up a second. Dr. Asha. So you're doing, you are doing corporate corporate people now that, that wasn't still enough individual contact for you because you're always going, you were doing maybe corporate programs and things like that, but not dealing with all the individuals in the 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: corporation, right?

Yeah. So the corporate programs are great and they, I think they help people identify errors in their life that they need to work with. But having access to them outside of that or them being, giving them what they need to really fix those issues or maybe get on that journey was difficult. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: So you're doing like presentations that launch and different things like this, but you're not actually grabbing each individual and following 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: correct.

Correct. And I would even do screenings and things like that. So it would help people go, Hey, you've got maybe some elevated blood sugar, elevated cholesterol or blood pressure or whatever it is. And it would give them a reason to maybe go visit their primary care physician or find one if they didn't have one.

But I wasn't able to do any more than that in that setting. And so I like to tie the two together, but it is difficult to do. And so that's why I was like, okay, I'm going to start. I'm going to create an actual program for people to help them through this journey. So they don't end up with X, Y, and Z.

Mike Koelzer, Host: How long ago does that thought come to you to say, I got to get into 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: this industry? I thought it started, honestly it started when I graduated from college, like that's kinda where it all started and then I lost it. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: And then, so where does the realization come after you're doing 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: corporate?

It was actually about a couple of years after I was having all my health issues and I started realizing there was a missing link in our healthcare system. And so that's actually the tagline to my company: where is the missing link in your health journey? Because I realized even for my aging parents, that we had troubles with the different doctors, different pharmacies, different diagnoses that they were going through.

And I felt the right hand didn't know what the left hand was. And so I really wanted to bring that all together and I'm always there to put the pieces of the puzzle together for them. And so I wanted to do that for more individuals. And because most of them, most people just don't know.

They don't know what they don't know, and then, with Dr. Google, I call it Dr. Google because everybody that's the first place 

Mike Koelzer, Host: people go, 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: So that's what I call it because that's where we all go. I do it. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie. I go to Google and I look things up.

But knowing what's the right information, not only what the right information is, but what the right information is for you is so important. And to have somebody that's going to look through all of that and take the time and listen, and really do good research for you. It's hard to find. It's hard to find.

And I struggled with that myself and that's why I know that there's a missing link. And so that's what I want to be. I want to be the missing link for people. So that's what started for me. I actually started fishing, I was doing it unofficially here or there prior to last year, but towards the end of last year, about September timeframe.

So it's almost been a year. I really jumped into this and created my own practice. And that's where I'm at. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Tell me the name of the the missing link is more 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: your tax. That's the tagline. So the name of my practice is called the PI wellness group. PI's my maiden name, but it stands for patient advocacy initiative, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: efficacy initiative, all that's cool.

What's your website? 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Wow. Hi, PAI wellness group.com all spelled out. Okay.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Was your book, a M D did you feel your book was the necessity due to coincide with that to give you some this is author Dr. Asha or was that right in [00:15:00] with that? Or was that before 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: it was kind, it was right in, it was right in line. The book actually came about, because I had always wanted to be an author since I was, I don't know, 10 years old, never really knowing what that topic would be.

And when I sat down last year, when I was actually thinking through this, I started thinking about the process that I put myself through and what I was going to be doing for my patients. And it all just was a soap box about healthcare that I've had for 20 years since I graduated. And I didn't feel like we've made enough strides.

And so I decided to sit down and I found a company that helps people that were. Practices that they wouldn't, we're trying to transition and transform people's lives. And so that's where it all came about. So it helped me put into practice what I had already been talking about for years and put it down.

And so that's where the book came out of and it's helped me. Now, it's an advertising tool. It's been great to allow people to know that there's other options for them. And that's really what I wanted to share in this book is that there are other options where we're not cookie cutter and we need to figure out what's right for us.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. All right. Walk me through then. What, so what kind of give me an example of a pretend person that tells me what their first outreach is to you? Do they find you, do you find them and then. W what's the process in terms of their first day with you?

What are they doing? Sure. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: So it can be either or of, I find them or they find me, maybe they've seen my book. Maybe they've heard of it, maybe the Reddit that would be an indication maybe for them to come and talk to me for free consultation. We would do a 30 minutes to an hour consultation depending on what their problems are or issues are.

And then we would go from there. So that's where it all starts. So whether I find them or they find me, we have this consultation to make sure that we're a good fit for one another, because honestly, this health journey is personal and you have to feel comfortable with who you're talking to. And so that's where it started.

And then I created it in three months. I call it the three months to harmony. And basically, we spent 12 weeks together. Hand in hand, I'm walking alongside this person on this journey. And we go through what I call the seven steps to harmony. So it's an acronym that I have created which is all in the book, but it starts all the way from age, which is health history, a very comprehensive health history and health profile.

So digging back far deep, not just a checklist of what you have right now, or what you have had in the past? So we dive in, and then through these seven steps we go through all the physical characteristics of eating and physical activity. I'm also a certified personal trainer. So we D we can delve in deep into that.

And then all through what I call the internal growth opportunities. So it's stress management, personal relationships, professionalism. Mindset everything just the whole 360 degrees, which is what I was saying earlier of a person, because it all impacts our health. And then by the end, we go through an exercise.

The Y actually stands for you have the power to make the train of lasting transformation in your life. And the power is yet another acronym. I love acronyms. I think that's the pharmacist in me actually. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I gotta tell you though. I was somewhere I was at, I dunno, one of the pharmacy things might be.

I might've been to a wholesaler convention, which isn't difficult for me. I don't sit through them anymore. Cause you can only take a couple of dog and pony shows. But someone said in pharmacy, it's very important to have the five RS and I'm thinking, all right, this is going to be good.

What five hours are there that you could think of our pharmacy and the person says you have to have the right drug, the right doctor, the right. And I thought you can't do that. You can't make, you can't say it's ours, but just by saying right in front of everything. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: So I didn't cheat. I actually made 

Mike Koelzer, Host: no, you actually had work.

You didn't, you actually, yeah. Alright. So I just had to get that in. All right. So you had the acronym, 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Acronym harmony, and then by the end you have the power, which is another acronym to show you that you can take out. And change them individually, but make them lasting. And so P stands for the problem that you're going to be solving, or maybe the habit that you're going to be changing.

Oh, is the overall goal that you want to get from changing that the w is what are you willing to do to make that change? E and then in the, I'm sorry, let me go back to, oh, you actually also create a timeframe. So the goal, but you have a timeframe to, when you want to make this change, w is the willing, what are you willing to do E is to evaluate, were you able to do it during that time frame?

You said set up and then [00:20:00] if you were the R is a reward for what, whatever it is. And I usually, I usually say don't reward yourself with food. Cause that's usually what we do, but most of us are trying to avoid that kind of thing. So it's, get them, get yourself a massage, take yourself to a movie, something like that, buy a new outfit, whatever it is, but reward yourself for doing it.

And that's how. Individually, you can go through and change these habits over time. But we've through these three months, we've already given you a very large jumpstart into that. And so you've basically seen results and you're S you're seeing, and that's what as humans we need, we crave to be seeing results to actually make a move, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah. Yeah, definitely. What is the so are they meeting with you or talking with you, like every so often for these or how what's the timeframe every time you meet them or whatever, it's 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: weekly, we have weekly meetings and they're one hour sessions that could be in person one-on-one one-on-one one-on-one.

And they can either be in person if they're in town or we do a, like a zoom call or video conference of some sort and. Just really have those sessions. And I really, in between, like I said, I'm actually walking alongside on this journey with them. So there's no it's not just that once a week, they have access to me during these three months.

They can ask questions. They can, when they're having a tough time, they can reach me because I'm there for them. And so it's very personalized. This is, and then I, we may have a set schedule for how I think things should go, but they never go that way. Like I have a schedule, so I could go into that, but it, and that's what the book is about if you want an overall view of what we're going to be going over.

That's what it is, but it's really going to be based on that person. What are their issues? Where do they lie? What do we need to really hone in on and help with versus this is what I think it should be. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: It sounds to me like I always thought I wanted to be a teacher, but then I realized when I would train employees after about the second person that maybe the day, if I had to hire two in a row, I'd forget what I was saying. And I'd start looking off into the distance . 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: I think there should have been a teacher, like in a, maybe in a former life. I probably was. I love education and I love learning and teaching and that kind of thing. It doesn't bother me, but I don't want to waste time during that precious time one-on-one teaching somebody.

That's not, you can get a block, you can do whatever and learn this information. It's how do we dig into that person and what they need out of this? Not what I think they should need. Yeah. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Do they what was going to ask something about the oh all so here's the question.

As I put on my business hat, what's your, and don't give me. Private details, but just give me, give us an overview of what your are these non third party people, are that, are they out of pocket and how does that work? Yeah, 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: so everything is completely out of pocket. I do not work with any third parties.

You pass their right. There is no. Yeah, I was trying to get out of that when I got out of the pharmacy. But I, unfortunately this is where the rebel pharmacist thing comes in. Where, when I said that at the beginning let me describe that to you. It's because I feel like we all think that they're, we should fit in this box when we come out of pharmacy school.

There's just a couple of boxes that we can fit into. And unfortunately, like I said, 20 years ago, I thought pharmacy would have progressed way farther than it has. It's come a long way, but it's not where I thought it was. 20 years later. And so it's either we sit back and let this disruption in pharmacy just pass us by, or we do something about it.

And that's where I was. That's where I was standing last year at this crossroads, do I? And I know a lot of my colleagues and cohorts are probably gonna listen to this and be like, oh, that's where I'm standing right now. You're standing at this crossroads of, do I go do something else?

Do I, like, get another degree or do I just quit and retire early? Or, what is the deal? And to me, just retiring early, number one, isn't an option, but number two, it's not what I wanted to do. I didn't go to school for all those years and get all this knowledge and do all this stuff to just roll over and play dead 

Mike Koelzer, Host: right.

To stay there or to think that retirement 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: getting out of this. And so that kind of and I'll be honest, like I'm going to rabbit trail just for a second, but it actually has spurred on a site. Program business that my husband and I have actually created from the fact that I was able to establish this wellness practice and become successful at it.

And it's actually a program that we call biz RX and it's it we're the prescription for your business and we are targeting we started with pharmacists entrepreneurs but we're getting into healthcare entrepreneurs, but pharmacists mainly just because of clearly that's my passion.

And there's a huge disruption that we're in the middle of, in our profession. So what, yeah. So I'm going to share that with you, cause I'm sure. Cause I, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: [00:25:00] cause my concern is you're going to start getting into some medical stuff with your patients knowing it's going to be over my head, so we're gonna stick with this.

We've got to 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: stick with this. Oh, that's why I was like, okay, we're going to the rabbit trail for a second, but yeah, no, I think that's the reason why. We did. This was because I created my own wellness practice and was able to do and am still doing it. So that's still okay, so you're able to be successful, so let's go and help other people do the same thing.

Mike Koelzer, Host: You're not like the guys on TV that they make. They make so much money selling these flipped houses that they're going to share it with everybody. Instead of saying, I'm thinking if you're making I'm joking, cause I know you like doing this, but I'm like, if you're making so much, why are you doing this infomercial?

But you've got the, you've got the success behind you to then go and teach them. This program, but not the same. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Exactly. So it's taking what is there. So let me tell you a little bit about my husband. So to try to say why we are doing this together. So he did an undergrad in undergrad, in business got his MBA really focused on finances and financial realm, but he works for a very large I T company doing their strategic marketing and planning for their services department.

It's a good spot to be in that, not a bad shabby gig but what we found and I'm very passionate about pharmacy and where we're headed and where we can go. And I am what I call a personal development junkie. So I really love mindset training. And how do you do this and the tactical pieces of how do you run a business day to day?

How do you be a mom? How do you be a wife? How do you be a daughter who's helping aging parents like all these different things and yet run a successful practice. So we joined forces to create this bizarre X program. It's a 10 week program where we literally do all the heavy lifting for somebody who's interested in starting a business.

So you can come to us with zero ideas. You can come to us with a really good, solid idea. And we're going to walk you through our 10 week program, which is everything from strategic planning, business development, and marketing, as well as all the tactical things that go along with it. Yeah. So that's the plan.

So by the end we've niched you down. We've got your target market, we've got competitive and market analysis. For profit loss statements. You've got the entire business plan in, in, in a box. Like a dossier here, you go with a go-to-market strategy and plan all, all spread out for you.

We help you through all of that. We give you all your information. So it takes all the heavy lifting out. And I say that because when I've been through a lot over the past seven to 10 years, I made a lot of mistakes. And, I did a lot of what I call nonsense, unnecessary things that I had known better.

I could have saved a lot of money and I could have saved a lot of time. And so I have the mindset that if I made a mistake, I want you to learn from them. I don't want you to make the same ones. And so when people are coming to us and we've been able, we started this business back in April and we've helped several people already go through this Toni program who are launching their businesses.

That literally had no idea where they were starting from. Yeah. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. So it sounds like, so it sounds fascinating. Let's go on. Let me just let me just say, or think through this a second, that it sounds almost close to the the wellness program of taking them through these weekly, 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: your weekly sessions.

So they're weak, they're two weekly sessions. So they get one with me and one with my husband. So they, he does all the business stuff. The things that I feel like pharmacists have no idea about. We were not given any business classes back in, in college. Most of us have, and it's all the stuff that I have no idea anything about.

And so he, they get a session with him every single week for 10 weeks. And then they get a session with me where we're going through, like I said, the tactical stuff. So we're looking at organizational things, systems, processes, clinical aspects, what it is that you want to do, because this is what I know about pharmacists and I'm, this is how I was.

And I, what I've seen through a lot of other people is that we analyze things too much. We really do. And it's what, oh my gosh, I'm not ready. I need this certification or I need that certification. Or I'm going to have this website or that, a lot, it just goes on and on, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: we, yeah, for sure.

Even setting some, I even see some of that in setting up some guests for the program. It's somehow I really want to know it all, like really and I'm not that way I can appreciate it, but it is certainly a skill that pharmacists have. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Yeah. But there's something that's called an analysis process, right?

Yeah. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: It's it's yeah. It's like here, it's like when I started even starting this up and along with that, the sister to that is that perfection is the enemy of good enough, you can go forever. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Absolutely. And that's how we are trained. I think that's just how our brains are wired.

And I was that way for so many years. So I'm not knocking that at all, but what I know, what I [00:30:00] found was you just get up and do it and you'll figure it out along the way. And I know that's so difficult, but when you have somebody who's helping you through that, This is what we're going to do. Stop.

Okay. Stop, slow your roll. We're going to get it, this is the process to trust the process. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: We have such a, yeah. W we have such a different mind because in pharmacy you can't typically just go with it. You either have to double check with the dose or double check with the doctor or whatever.

It's a very objective thing. Real I've sometimes it helps in the business because unlike a lot of things where if I was like a painter or something, I know people would be calling my business and saying, this color is just not quite right. The nice thing about pharmacy is once you've made the decision, I guess that objectivity is there.

This is correct. There is no way this is not correct, but it can hamper us for business. Yeah. Dreams. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Absolutely. Because that is how we were trained is that there's a black and white. There's no gray. Really and that's what this, there it's gray, all of this is gray. But it's, the people that want to go out and do this can go and do it.

You just have to have that little push and that little push. And that's what we want to be is we want to be the prescription for your business ideas, because we want them when we want to be that little push for you. Because I think unless we get that, you get stuck in, what do I need? What do I need? What do I need?

What do I need? And you keep going that you're never going to do it, or it's going to be so far down the line and you've done all these things that you should not have started. And I tell people, I'm going to be completely honest. I've had this wellness practice for almost a year. It'll be a year in September.

And my website for it literally just came out two weeks ago. I did not have a website. And, but that was how I started my world. My mom has practice. Saw my original website. I think you would've been like, ah, yeah, I don't want to talk to this woman. Because I thought that's where it should have gone is you start with a website, but you don't need that.

You need to be able to talk. You need to know what to say. You need to know, you need to know these key things. Who's your target market, like all these things. And what I also found is I spent those years and I spent those dollars on programs to get the information that I need to do. But as a pharmacist, I don't think like that.

I can't think through profit loss statements and competitive analysis and whatever. And so that's where my partnership with Eric has come in. That he's amazing at that stuff. And he can tell you down to the penny, what things are gonna, things are gonna happen. And so it was finally when I partnered with him on my business, that's why I've become so successful right now because of his, that benefit to that.

And then putting in the fact that I'm able to do this around. The 50 million other hats that I wear in a day. Cause that's what we all do. Especially because we all do it. It's allowed me to spend the time with my kids that I want to spend. It's allowed me I'm PTA president for next year.

God helped me but I'm very passionate about education and kids and young children. And so that was something that I wanted to do, but I wouldn't have been able to do it. Had I not put all of the things in place that I needed to, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned the website quite often now because I've made it, I'm not a special computer guy just with the programs that are out, the Weebly in those things.

I may come quickly cause it helps me think along those lines, but I've seen a lot of. People, even people on my team, it's like we gotta Polish this off. It's no. Cause that's your safety net. You're polishing that really? Cause you don't want to jump into the next step of saying let's experiment, re regroup, experiment, regroup, and but we can tend to want to have things, perfectly like that.

Dr. Asha with your program, the biz RX you say that you say that your, like your health one, they're getting little tips all along and health is the obvious goal with the RX, with the biz RX. The goal is obviously learning business skills, but you said people can come to you without an idea, even when they finally do.

And maybe it's different for the different clients, but when did they finally, you and Eric say, Hey, sounds take this road. Is that like sometimes not until the very end with their bundle stuff? Or are you thinking of that? 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: The first within the first two sessions? So mostly by the end of the first watch, because we've got to have a direction on where the service offerings are going to come from, that kind of thing.

So we create this, literally the service offerings, we create them, we price them. We do everything based on all of the analysis and what we're hearing, but I spent the very first session with the two of us. So we are, it's a dual session because we're both pulling [00:35:00] different information, but my strong passion and purpose is to find other people's passion and purpose.

And so a key phrase that I always use is what sets your soul on. So what will make you jump out of bed? Cause I know going into that day to day daily grind, most of us have been in is not what sets our soul on fire. We're doing it because we feel like we have to. So what is it? So we dig deep and then we figure out what it is that's going to make.

You want to jump out of bed every morning and do it. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. And I imagine you guys are, you said within the first or second session, I imagine you and Eric are bouncing stuff off each other all the time after that first session saying how do we, 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: It's funny because, just like my wellness practice, I do a consultation.

We talked through this with anybody who's interested in the bizarre X and I have an hour 30 minutes or an hour to consult with them prior to them ever signing a contract or doing anything. Yeah. So I'm just that way where, it's all very similar. In that you're digging deep and defining things.

We're all paleontologists, if you will, like you gotta dig deeper. So in that first consultation, I'm already, I've already got ideas rolling. Yeah. And so that's where, that's how I'm, I'm sharing these with the person that I'm talking to because that's how they're deciding whether this is a good fit for them or not.

If I can't do anything for them in that first session, then there's no reason for them to move forward. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. So you're already with your helping instinct and you're already probably throwing out some valuable information and some may not use you for that, but you're already, you're not holding back.

Like I'm going to give you this secret in session two. You're already. With them 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: the first time. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And I share that stuff with them then, so that again, I'm not here to withhold information. I have nothing to hide. So I think it's if they feel like it's a good fit, great.

They'll move on. But my idea is I just want as many people, especially, particularly in the pharmacy profession to follow their dreams and then do something more. And I laugh because yeah. I tell people all the time in, in pharmacy, we're keeping, we're holding onto our jobs because you're in retail or, whatever, because so many, again, disruption, so many things are happening.

I feel like it's our turn to do this and allow the young kids that are coming out of school to be experienced because that's the experience that they need to be able to grow up and do this. That's, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah. Yeah. You see a lot of people coming out, and they're.

22 years old and nothing against 22 year olds. I got a handful of them that are my children not all that age, but up and down from that age. But yeah, a lot of the people and, unless it's maybe social media or something, if you haven't, you really can't tell me you're an expert yet in retirement savings or this or that.

It's you need to get some, you need to get some years under 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: your belt. Yeah. That's exactly how I feel. I think it's the work, the real life experience that they need and we've had it, and we're able to go off and do finally follow our dreams. And I am not, I think the biggest question that I always get is whether I need the income.

And so I wanted to address that real quick that you can do, you can create your own business on the side of whatever else it is that you're doing to make the income. And then what we do is we flip flop, right? Like the idea. It's to flip flop this business to be your main income, and then maybe you can eat out of your job.

That's the idea. But you can't do it 

Mike Koelzer, Host: unless you start. Yeah. And it's so cool what you're doing, because I don't know about you, but I feel like I can go into, a hundred businesses and I'm sure my wife has gotten sick of it and I tried to be more positive, but I'll go in there and just start, just thinking how they can improve this or that, or, and it's like, when I see my own, you're like, just cause you're so close to it.

You're just like, you're so close to it. You don't realize your own skills that other people can point out, and your talents and that. And so it's so neat to have someone from the 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: outside, and it's the same with the health and wellness practice. It's you don't know what you don't know or you see your own self doubt and your.

Lack of self-confidence and what you're doing. It's all the same. It's the same concept. And it does, it takes, people have a tough time asking for help. Number one, but number two it's there for the taking, if you and that's, again, this is what I was, I'm trying to do with all these businesses is just really educate people that there are other options that you're not in this world alone.

You've got, you can figure this stuff out with the help of somebody else. And so that's really what all of this was about. And that's why Eric and I were so passionate about this bizarre X program. Yeah. Yeah. So 

Mike Koelzer, Host: It's good. You guys have separate angles. So then you're not the whole time saying, don't listen to what he said.

Now you got different. It was like, Hey, he said 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: it, I'm not going to right now. So we came together. And so there, the process works [00:40:00] that they work with me first. I tee him up. The business aspects, because like I said, most pharmacists or healthcare professionals don't really understand that.

So I am giving them what I call the lightweight version of what he's getting ready to talk to them about. And so it prepares them mentally for what's coming. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: And you've probably talked to you've you've talked to him so that you're not coming out with something that he gets there and says, what that, what the hell is she talking about?

We can't read through it. There's no way we can make this financially work. So you guys are working and be ensure that it's gonna not sure 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: no guarantees, but 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Dr. Rashad tells me, this sounds a little bit like I love how I saw a show. I don't know if it was on YouTube somewhere, but it talked about creativity and it was telling us how even inventors, we don't have to be.

Creative light from something we've never seen before, but they'd say creativity is even taking something that's been done in another industry or another, not even in business, how you see animals doing something or whatever. And then taking that into your industry, doing the same thing that hasn't been thought of in your industry.

It's fascinating to me how well you've done that or how closely you've done that from your, from your wellness group into this one and you found something that works and you've shifted an industry on it and that's 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: really impressive. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, I think like I said, I had tried different things in the past and most of us, what we're trying to do is we're trying to fill a space. Then you find that white space in whatever market, it can be, swimming noodles for, whatever it is. There was this space that was missing and somebody created it.

And Eric and I talk about it all the time. Nothing that we're doing is completely revolutionary. You can go and find a business program anywhere it has your spin on it and what you're doing to make it different, that matters. And so that's what we do with all of our clients. How are we going to spend this for you to make this successful and to be a white space in the market that you're in?

Sorry. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. And you're coming, you're going to different healthy people. And that background you have of knowing there, the frustrations aren't the same that they've come from, but they're, they're probably close with the different patients where red tape, the government, the, all that stuff.

You've seen it. You've got a lot of the same background, the needs and the wants. Aren't exactly the same, but at least maybe, the frustration. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Absolutely. And I think, the other piece to that too, You do get bogged down on the red tape and all the things that come with that.

And so knowing we're going to start with all of that. So you're sitting here in this pile of red tape, how do you get out of it? And then what's the next steps? And so that's what we come in and do is we're like, okay, here, let's, we're going to chunk this out for you. Here's your assignment.

This is what you, I can't do this for you. You need to go and do this, but here's what you need to do. And then the rest of it, anything that we're able to do, we take off your plate. So you're actually able to focus because in the end, my goal is to work with patients or clients. That's what I want to do.

I don't want to worry about the business plan and the marketing and all of that stuff. I don't, cause I could spend all week working on marketing, trying to get people, but then I don't have time to work with actual clients. So that's the mindset. And I think it's hard. It's hard to relinquish control and as pharmacists in particular, because we're used to being the final, say, you know what I'm saying?

So we have all the control in that setting. And so, I think that's a difficult thing. But once you, if you feel trust, like trust in this person, that's helping you on this journey, then you're going to start to relinquish and you're going to, it's the same thing with wellness practices.

You're good. Once you build trust, you're getting all the info and you're telling them just the pieces that they need to know. They're not getting overwhelmed with information they're not. And that's why I was saying like the teaching, like I don't spend an hour with them teaching them because that's just overwhelming.

Nobody's going to learn anything. So it's, let's get down to the nitty gritty when we're face-to-face. I can give you all sorts of information outside of that, but we're going to get down to the nitty-gritty and that works both ways. And the biz RX, as well as the three months. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. I, I don't know if I, I don't know if I'd be a good fit as one of your cons consulters because I'm, so I know I'm not being invited, but with Eric and you, and because I've, I don't know, maybe it's been that my, all these years in business for myself that maybe I've grown to love the the planning and the dreaming and all that.

Maybe I've gone to, I've grown to love that so much because someone had to do it. Someone had to keep things moving forward. That I've my, my love of the individual solving a problem is not there as much as. Global moving forward of the company. And so I'd [00:45:00] probably, when your people came in, I'd be like you don't need that.

You don't need to help those people just come on, let's work on this. So it's good that someone's got that balance that most of the people with healthcare letters behind their names still loved that patient part. And don't want to spend the whole time doing the 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: business.

Definitely. There's plenty of people like you out there that love that. I was not necessarily one of them. I just. My brain doesn't necessarily want to work that way. Once you get me there, like I can do all of that stuff. I love Excel. I can, that's fine, but I just set up and the thought process and all those things was just not my forte and it's great.

And I like to dream big, like I am that dreamer and I want to, that's where the whole, I'm not going to help you niche down and I'm going to help you figure these things out. I'm very organized and the systems and processes, that's not Eric's forte. So that's why we worked so well together. And we do, we constantly, whatever client we have, we're constantly talking and constantly doing things and pivoting and figuring things out.

But during this time we journey just like my wellness practice, they have constant access to. And so it's I'd constantly have to reign, especially these pharmacists in cause they're like, oh, I had this idea, oh, I had this, thinking this way. And I'm like, okay, we'll wait, let's slow down.

Let's do this first. We're going to, we're going to put a pin in this over here. And then we're going to remove that pin in a little bit, that kind of thing. And it does take somebody to do that. I know that without that it's hard. Th that's 

Mike Koelzer, Host: because that's, because you've got to flush out that idea, see if it's good or not before they've given up or moved on to 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: that.

Because what ends up happening is you're in the middle of something and then you shift to something else. You never get anything completely done, so let's take this idea that you were already super passionate about to fruition, just because you've heard the saying, it may be a great idea.

I might fit right into what we're already doing, but let's just take something all the way through. And then we're going to open up this pen and see, okay, how does this fit in? Do we need to create another service for this? But let's actually get you something to move forward because, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: And sometimes that might be putting the pin away, just Hey, listen, go have for a second and come back and let's take a breather.

Realize we've just worked on this for three weeks. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: I never throw out any ideas. It's not about that. It's more of, let's just, let's go through one thing at a time and then see how all these other pins might fit in. Or do we need to do something differently? Because I have several facets to my wellness visit.

So I told you about one, three months Tarny but I've got other little things that I do, and so that's okay. But what tends to happen is we never get one thing. And so then you can never launch a business because you don't have anything to watch. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, no, that's right. You don't have anything, you don't know nothing that has the focus and it's better for the, the customers need to see that as to what Dr. Asher, when you talked about the when you talked about the company that ha helped you put your book together, that thought how was that kind of close to what you guys, not in the same scale, but was that kind of close to where they took your thoughts and then they, or was it more to put the book together or did they do the same thing with you burning this down to what?

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Yeah. It was a similar process. Definitely not the, through that process, it was taking us through from idea. All the way through to a finished product. So very 

Mike Koelzer, Host: similar. And if you had the eye and you had the idea though, where some people coming to you without even 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: knowing.

Yeah. I think I even had the idea. Yes. I think even through that process, though, it was very much transformed into what it became because of the way that they strategically did that. And so that was, that was really helpful to me because, I'm, I've never been an author before.

I remember writing papers in high school or college, and so it was great to go through that step-wise process to, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: oh, I see. But their end product was more of the book where your end product is more of a business for your customers. Gotcha. Gotcha. Talk to me about it. It would seem that you and Eric, as you're talking about ideas and so on now I know you've got.

Which is just strange to me, is that you still like people and customers? No, I'm just kidding. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: I am. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I think that part of me, I'm not sure if I don't have it. I think it's because I liked other people's stuff. And the other part I'm lazy with, I don't know if I don't like it. I think it's laziness. But anyways w where do you guys have other thoughts like past this, like three years down the road in five years, as far as these two businesses 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: do we? We've laid out probably the next three to five years where we think things should go or will go.

But we're just honestly, right now, we're just in the moment of we're really enjoying what we're doing. And we want to see where this can grow and go. And we're just going to follow up. Yeah, we'll take that. We took [00:50:00] that leap of faith and we're going to follow that for a little bit and see where it goes.

So there's a lot of 

Mike Koelzer, Host: trial and error and see where the 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: exactly. And so we're in that moment, because honestly I'm like the future thinker, the worrywart, that's always been my thing. And so it's really, it's honestly refreshing to be in a place where I'm like, she can see where this goes.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. See where it goes. And you want to see where it goes. I was, I'm not sure if I have the term. But I always say it's for. R F form follows fashion or something, or fashion falls form. I forget what I say and my kids eat it because they don't know the difference. But, it's like when you buy a new, you buy a new grill and before you lay down the cement and say, this is going to be our walkway to the grill, you put the grill out there for a year and see where the grass dies from you walking back and forth with dripping steaks.

And then you say, ah, that's probably where the sidewalks are. And then go there before you put the sidewalk in and say, ah, we're not, we don't go this way. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: We take a shortcut to exactly. That's exactly where we're at. When Eric finished MBA school, he finished MBA school in 2014. And one of the things I remember asking him right after he graduated was what are like, what do you want to do with us?

And it wasn't, he was already in the services industry for these items. But he made a comment five years ago and I reminded him of it because he forgot my memories. I have an elephant memory, but I reminded him, he mentioned he wanted to be a consultant for basically startup companies to help them with their business marketing and strategy and never knew what that looked like.

Somewhat close to what my book was. My book passion was about how I never knew what that looked like, but I'm gonna, I'm just gonna go do it. And so this all happened this year. It just all fell into place. And I was like, do you remember when you said that we had no idea five years ago, what that was gonna be, but look where this could go.

And so that's why we're like let's play with this and see where this is going to go. And if there's actually a need, like we, we felt, we feel like there's a need and we're starting to see that with the clients that we've already brought on. But, where is that going to lead for us?

Is that going to, is it going to be something that we can do? Or that people are actually wanting. So yeah. Yeah. And 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Sometimes there's an old story. Maybe it's a cliche by now, but it's someone like. It's a business consultant that sees this guy playing a guitar at a bar down on the tropical islands while they're there vacationing.

And they say, they say, oh, this guy this guy's really cool. It'd be cool to see what he does. And repeat that. And they find out this guy's also a fisherman. And so they say we're gonna, we're gonna get this guy. And we're going to build his company up and have, so he can have a bunch of franchises and all of this stuff.

And the end goal will be that he'll make so much money that he can go down to the tropics and play guitar and hang out on fish all day. So you have to be careful what you wish for. Sometimes 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: You are right. And that's been my mantra for sure, is just be in the moment as much as you can.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, be in the moment. Speaking of moments, here comes an hour, Dr. Asha. So let's talk all day and you're very interesting to talk to. So we'll plan this again, but in the meantime give us one give us one thing that people can carry with them and maybe it's just a connection to you if they have questions or 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: whatever, the one thing that, yeah, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: maybe it's your email address or something I don't want to put you 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: on the spot.

Absolutely. So my one thing that I want to leave people with is it's about progress over perfection. So I want you guys to know that, don't be perfect. I know pharmacists tend to be or want to be, but making progress is where it's at. And if anybody hears anything that they're really interested in learning more about, or maybe has a referral for me, you can contact me at Asha.

It's a S as in Sam, H. At PI P AI wellness group.com. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Beautiful. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Thank you. You too. This has been fantastic, Mike. I appreciate it. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Pleasure to meet you doctor. 

Asha Pai Bohannon, PharmD: Thank you. Bye bye-bye.