Find Your Purpose and Passion | Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

[00:00:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, good morning, Aaron. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. My pleasure. Now I know you've been all over the United States lately, but I think you're at home this morning. Do I have that correct? 

[00:00:23] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: You do. I am live in my studio, which is also my closet, which 

is 

[00:00:29] Mike Koelzer, Host: also your closet. That's right. Well that's perfect.

Sound, sound dampening. 

[00:00:33] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yes, a lot of the big podcasters use their closet or started in their closet as well. So I'm still in the closet. 

[00:00:42] Mike Koelzer, Host: You're still, you're still in the closet. Aaron, if people have been online on social media in the pharmacy area, they know who you are by now, for those that don't though, give us a background of, uh, who you are.

[00:00:57] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: sure. So, well, first of all, thanks Mike, for having me on your show. And I'm always excited about talking about the business of pharmacy. Um, again, my name is Aaron Albert. I grew up in south bend, Indiana under the golden dome of Notre Dame. Ah, I, uh, actually took my organic chemistry there one summer as well when I was in pharmacy school.

But nonetheless, I graduated the first time from pharmacy school at Butler university. I then, uh, worked on a bench. I worked at Kroger pharmacy, had the wonderful opportunity of setting up a pharmacy in teeny, tiny Plymouth, Indiana after our graduation. So I worked the bench for a couple of years there.

Then I moved out east for some personal reasons and started working in the pharmaceutical industry, working out there in a variety of capacities, such as pharmaco, vigilance, uh, clinical operations for a biotech company, which is now part of Johnson and Johnson. It was se cor originally. And then moved back, uh, to the Midwest.

My family is still here and continues to work in pharma. First worked for, uh, one of the bigger pharmaceutical companies as a field based medical science liaison. I really love that role. And for your listeners who aren't familiar with the MSL role, it's a wonderful blending of business and scientific acumen.

So, uh, I really loved both sides of, or both aspects of that job to the point where I started benchmarking across the industry, that particular role's job satisfaction, because it is kind of a unique position. You are a field based scientist. You work from home. You have a lot of autonomy, you have a territory, you're working with academic thought leaders at the top of their games.

So it's really a cool job, but there's also, um, some issues with it and challenges as there is with any job. Sure. Things like, how do you do succession planning? How do you move up the corporate ladder without having to go to home office challenges like that? So, yes, that actually led me to writing and publishing and coaching and getting people.

Other pharmacists, PhDs, even physicians in some cases, uh, interested in the role and then moving into that entry level position within pharma 

[00:03:23] Mike Koelzer, Host: and, and Aaron says that role again. What was that? How did you 

[00:03:26] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: define that? It's the field based medical science liaison or the MSL. Okay. And, uh, yeah, I wrote my first book around kind of the benchmarking of.

Survey data across the industry. And I was working as an MSL at the time for another company, um, here in the Midwest. And they originally were cool with me writing and publishing and coaching and doing these things on the side. And then, um, it was just time to move on for various reasons. Sure. And I happened to meet my department chair.

uh, at an academic meeting in pharmacy actually. And I had never considered moving over to academia, but I really liked her jam. Her name is Julie Taylor, by the way, cuz I'm working for her again today. Oh. But. Yeah. So I joined academia and I went all the way back to Butler. So it went full circle.

I ended up back at Butler. I taught full time as a clinical, uh, position for 10 years. Non-tenure track. and, um, got a little bored honestly, and decided to, um, look at other opportunities. And I did a few other things, but today, fast forward to today, I am back at Butler teaching one day a week as a clinical instructor.

Again, reporting to Julie Taylor. Uh, I guess one of my messages is be careful, uh, how you, , how you work in the world of pharmacy. It's very small. 

[00:05:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: and someone who might have been your, uh, employee might be your boss the next year. 

[00:05:05] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Exactly. 

And so the other four days a week, I serve, uh, the American society of consultant pharmacists.

So we're all about senior care out of Washington, DC as the senior director of education. So I'm in charge. all of our board certified geriatric pharmacy recertification credits as well as our continuing pharmacy education. So have they thought 

[00:05:29] Mike Koelzer, Host: of changing? Um, as I was going through the acronym you sent me, I said, boy, that's a nice American senior care, uh, pharmacist.

[00:05:38] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: We actually have had a lot of debates about that internally. and it was long before I joined the association, which was back last October. Yeah. Um, seeing it's a nice pro it's a nice thing to have. Yeah. A couple of the challenges associated with that. We still wanna honor, of course, the traditional long- care pharmacists that founded the association 50 years ago.

This is our, and that's where the. 

[00:06:01] Mike Koelzer, Host: And that's where the name consultant comes from, not an individual consultant, but more of the, the, um, senior living consultant. Yeah. Or, or, living as a general consultant, but to the industry. 

[00:06:13] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yeah. And consultant means a lot of different things to a lot of different people now.

Sure. As does senior care, because a lot of seniors don't necessarily wanna live. In an acute care facility or an assisted living facility. Yes. They still live out in the community. Right. So just like pharmacy is evolving, so is senior care. And so is what it means to be a consultant pharmacist. 

[00:06:38] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Right. Well, what, what, um, Aaron, um, what things are you? I know you are working on some projects that, that you're always cause, cause I know you're always moving towards something. What are you moving towards? The most exciting thing is that you personally are moving. Towards in the ASCP what kind of, um, I know you have some research things going on and some, um, you know, looking at, um, and, and you are preparing for the annual meeting every year and stuff.

What, what do you have on your plate right now? That's what's hot in the organization. 

[00:07:10] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yeah. Thanks for asking Mike. Um, so our annual meeting is coming up. November 7th through 10th in grapevine, Texas suburb of Dallas this fall. And one of the projects that's been, um, a project of love and care, both of myself, as well as our CEO, Chad words, and, uh, Bri PICH, who is our director in professional.

it is something we're calling spic. It is the business and entrepreneurship in senior care pharmacist certificate. It is a longitudinal program of over 20 hours of continuing pharmacist education in and around kind of two prongs first. And for. The business of starting your own senior care pharmacy. Now that could be brick and mortar.

That could also be you as the independent senior care pharmacist, the concierge pharmacist. Okay. The supply chain pharmacist. The second prong of that is showing and demonstrating real world pharmacists out in the real world who are. Already operating in these kinds of new forms of senior care pharmacy.

So again, transitions of care, concierge, pharmacy, MTM, those 

[00:08:29] Mike Koelzer, Host: pharmacists, stop there a second. Aaron, stop there with the, uh, concierge. I've done a little bit of reading on that. Gimme a snapshot. What is that? 

[00:08:36] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Well, it can mean a lot of different things. The, uh, first kind of place that I've seen recently.

Inside a primary care provider's office. So you have that pharmacist embedded in that practice and seeing patients individually as referred to by the primary care provider. Gotcha. So we've got a couple of pharmacists that are already living that dream. The other idea of a concierge pharmacist is totally.

Kind of out there on the range as a cowboy or cowgirl on their own. Um, no brick and mortar pharmacy. They do it all. Cash pay. Um, it's typically in the senior care world anyway, the adult children of the patient who kind of seek out and find, oh yeah, that's part senior care pharmacists. So right at a SCP, we have a directory of senior care pharmacists, and we of course share that resource free with the universe.

But I, I. As time goes on, you're going to start seeing a separation, not necessarily in a bad way, either between the pharmacist and the dispensing function versus the consultative function. Sure. 

[00:09:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: And actually a separation, cuz for years, they've been trying to merge those, but that gets a little bit, um, even just mentally, um, messy, you know, having not having.

[00:10:03] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Separate things well, and absolutely, you know, there are states that absolutely segregate those as well. If you look at New Jersey, for example, they have a separate kind of requirement for those in long term care facilities to have the dispensing function done by a separate organization, then the consultant pharmacist.

So interesting. They believe there's a potential. Conflict of interest there. And so they kind of lead the way as one of those states that has a separate, uh, certification or requirement for consultant pharmacists. And there's about seven states now that have some kind of different level of either licensure certification or some other process by which the consultant pharmacist needs to go through in order to be recognized by the.

[00:10:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: Oh, that's interesting. So when I hear the word concierge, that's, that was kind of the person that is, uh, will sort of do what it takes to make things right. Almost. And so it sounds like this, this is, is that where the word is from, with the concierge pharmacist that it's, it's gonna be, uh, maybe a, maybe a new need that, that they can help by a family with and 

[00:11:12] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: so on.

Yeah, I think it came. Primarily from concierge medicine, where you have that concept. See, I don't know what, I don't know what that is. What is that? So a physician, you would sign an individual contract with that physician for him or her to be your primary care provider. Um, with that they either come to your home and do medical exams and checkups, or you can, um, have priority scheduling with them if you're under their concierge care, kinda the same concept with pharmacy, but I gotta say too.

All the advent of all these. You know, specialty molecules and biologics and gene therapies that are coming that are exciting and really novel, but have a very hefty price tag. There's this whole kind of pathway that a pharmacist can help that patient actually get access to those high dollar specialty patients.

[00:12:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: Right. So they almost turn into a, uh, you know, for better or for worse, or almost almost if we don't want to, the pharmacists have to have to be on that business side as the, in, as the, um, retail, pharmacists have known all the years when people pull out their insurance card, but certainly with these expensive ones and working right with the, the manufacturers 

[00:12:27] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: and things.

Yeah. I almost think of it as the concierge pharmacist as almost like a travel agent where instead of you're getting access to an air airline. Or an airline you're getting access to really novel, but very expensive therapies as well. And making sure that they're appropriate for the patient, right? Yeah, 

[00:12:47] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah, yeah, exactly.

Aaron, tell me, so, so, so, so, so , with the ASCP that, that, that sounds like enough to keep one person busy and, and have we covered have, have you covered the exciting stuff now? I mean, I know everything's exciting, especially if, uh, if it is Julie. 

[00:13:04] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Uh, Julie is my boss over at Butler. Chad Wes is my boss over at a SCP?

Yes. All right. 

[00:13:10] Mike Koelzer, Host: So, so if, of course, if Chad's listening, everything's exciting there and, and, uh, you're doing it all. Um, anything else to point out on the, as S C P? 

[00:13:19] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yeah, I mean, we still are one of a handful of providers, a board certified geriatric pharmacy board certified. Credits for pharmacists. And so we're doing that this year.

We rolled out for the first time ever a novel leadership book club. We've got folks like Admiral Pam, um, Schweitzer, who was the highest ranking pharmacist in the country on the public health service side. We have Lenny Parker on a pill pack. Uh, we've got phenomenal leaders that are taking our students.

Not only their career paths, but also one of their favorite leadership books. And we've literally been reading about half a dozen books this year on leadership concepts outside of pharmacy as well. So, yeah. Right. Um, that's been exciting and fun and really engaging. We meet up on zoom, um, once a month.

Okay. Yeah. So, we're gonna meet live for the first time ever at our annual meeting as. Oh, that's 

[00:14:16] Mike Koelzer, Host: oh, that's great. That's great. I heard a podcast, um, a couple weeks ago. Creativity is not always like creating something new. Oftentimes it's seeing something used in a different industry and saying, how can that work for what I needed to work for?

And so, yeah, that's great that it goes outside of that area and it, uh, opens up a lot of minds. I'm sure. 

[00:14:41] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yeah. And you know, we've tried some other methodologies of continuing pharmacist education, cuz let's be honest. You can get it anywhere. You can go to, you know, any website and get it for free practically.

So we've been trying to. What I call doing edutainment. So it's educational and entertaining at the same time. So we had a chef talking about eating well, especially if you have immunological disorders. Um, so we've shot her in her kitchen, cooking up healthy meals, and that

It was exciting. We're bringing our journal, the senior care pharmacist, to life. Wrapping board certified geriatric pharmacy education into and around some of our clinical review articles. We'll have one coming out very shortly exclusive for your listeners about food drug interactions in the senior care patient.

So. You get credit, not only, uh, for, you know, listening to the case discussion and taking the high stakes exam, but you also get credit for reading the article, which I love. I'm a, I love reading. So to get pharmacy continuing education for that, I think it is. Um, huge. So we're playing with some different modalities and different, uh, ways of delivering content that's relevant.

Not only to, you know, those that have been well established in pharmacy for a long time, but as well, the next generations that are coming along. 

[00:16:06] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, that, yeah, that's cool. That seems to really relate. All right. Speaking about edutainment, I saw a picture hot off the press yesterday of a lady up on stage as a co-founder of an un-conference and she was dressed like she was having fun in, uh, a bright outfit.

Nice earrings and so on. And that, that person was you. That was, that was yesterday. Where 

[00:16:30] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: were you yesterday? What is this? Yeah, thanks for bringing that. 

[00:16:32] Mike Koelzer, Host: What is the annual social? Social media deans. And I know I'm not invited cuz I'm not to blame. Well, actually we 

[00:16:39] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: had one brave dude in the audience. Yes.

For that I saw, 

[00:16:42] Mike Koelzer, Host: I saw a, I saw a guy there. I said, what's he doing? Yeah. Dave maker. He looked older than I, yeah. He looked, 

[00:16:46] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: he looked about like I do. So yeah, we, we sometimes let. The guys into the club, but basically it's, 

[00:16:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: just, just sounds 

[00:16:54] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: like we're in third grade. Doesn't mean, sounds fair. So Amy, we deserve it.

We deserve it. I know Amy Stark and I a long time ago, started a Twitter rant one night about the fact that there was a porosity of women sharing their stories here in Indiana on social media. and this was 2012 way back in the day. And, uh, she and I started, we didn't know each other. We just started tweeting about the fact that there's very few women on social media with a huge presence here in Indiana.

And we just decided that, you know, we could either sit around and whine and complain about it, or we could do something. So social media Dame's unconference series was born yesterday on. Second we had our eighth on-conference, uh, in the series. Yeah, since 2013. And I can't take any credit for yesterday.

I just spoke a little bit about podcasting. Amy Stark has really been the owner of that unconference series throughout the years. Um, she runs a company called digital game and she helps particularly women and entrepreneurs get their voices on social media channels. We had 18 speakers. Uh, we talked about a variety of topics, everything from the novice to, I am a business owner, but I don't really know how to handle this social media stuff all the way through to the super sophisticated social media professionals in the room who are talking about kind of what's coming in terms of second life and virtual reality and all these things that are even way over my head.

I haven't gone into virtual spaces yet. So it really was. It was a fun day. Um, that dress I wore was actually made out of hemp. So that's my first hemp dress and a farm bill. Yeah. So it was a lot of fun and, you know, being in pharmacy has to be, I think, somewhat conservative and I dress a certain way at pharmacy meetings and events because I'm a professional, but.

I was a professional in a different way yesterday. So it was a lot of fun. And Amy really did a phenomenal job. We, uh, actually had the conference this year at a coworking space in Fishers Indiana called launch fishers, tons of small businesses work out of that co-working space. So it was really a great day.

We had a room full of amazing women. Um, it was one of the best, I think, thus far. Um, they just seemed to keep getting bigger and better every year. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:19:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: It looked, yeah. Then, it looked like you were having fun. Yeah. On that point, you know, at our, at our pharmacy, you know, basically over the years, I've had to tell people, look, we're not gonna, we're not gonna dress up for Halloween.

And I, I don't, I didn't like seeing it, but I don't, I didn't like the thought of someone going out with a big. Red nose talking to someone about, you know, whose mother is in hospice or something like that. So, but it's neat when you get with a pharmacist, because you can let down a little bit knowing that you're, you know, not with someone, hopefully that's, you know, moments from death and so on.

Yeah. And 

[00:19:57] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: I, I really appreciate people like you, Mike, that are doing independent podcasting as a pharmacist because. Pharmacy doesn't do a great job in promoting itself, I think holistically. So I think it's really important for more professionals and specifically healthcare professionals to start sharing their expertise on and through social media as well.

And you know, there's a lot of bashing right now about social media. It's terrible, you know, we're living up to impossible standards, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But is it like anything else? It's a tool you can use for good or evil. So. We just choose to use it for good. And we wanna empower other people on how to appropriately use these channels.

[00:20:41] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, my, yeah, my family, it was. Uh, was arguing with me when I brought up the point that you're every, every, um, media that has come through, whether it's, you know, when written word came through, it was gonna destroy the cavemen because they were gonna be not as good at telling stories around the fire, you know, they've lost that skill.

And then when. Books came along. It was gonna ruin people's memory and then newspapers and knowledge all the way. And so it's, it's just a long trend of people seeing the, I guess, the glass half full or, or empty, but it's, it's communication. How, however you slice it. 

[00:21:18] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yeah. It's heresy. Right? All the heretics are like heresy.

Yeah. You know exactly. Why, why would you do this new fangled thing? Well, I think especially for pharmacy. I think our industry right now, our profession is undergoing such dramatic change that we need to keep up. We need to proselytize the best practices out there. And that's why I get fired up about my day job is that I have the tremendous honor and opportunity and responsibility to show other pharmacists what's possible, you know, with these recent layoffs, I think a lot of people panicked and the good behind that is you need to get educated.

All the variety of opportunities available out there, cuz there's so much more than community practice and hospital, and there's nothing wrong with those two career paths, but there's just so much more out there now. 

[00:22:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Yeah. There's so much more out there. And, you know, in thinking about even your, um, social media conference, it's like, it's just amazing.

Even in, even in the social media space where I spent a lot more time than trust me than in the, uh, than in the science, science, uh, you know, medical pharmacy stuff, um, at, at this stage in my career, But that even that moves so fast when you're on top of it every day, I mean, yearly, you think social media, social media, and, and even that you come in and you're talking about this site and that's already old news.

Well, how much more in, in different kinds of jobs there are for pharmacists. And especially when you get. Some of them get into a little bit of a, ah, depression or a certain that's my only angel I can go to. And yeah, I guess, I guess we're all, we all can do our part and especially on social media now to open that 

[00:23:06] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: world up a little bit more.

Yeah. And I'm sure you've had several other guests that have talked about the power of networking and really building your social capital is just as important as building. Your bank account, you wanna save up for a rainy day that, oh, you know, oh my God fund. Right? Like the, the thing, when you lose your job, that's when you need your network the most.

And if you don't have that network to go to, you're gonna be panicking even more. So build the network when you don't need it. Yeah, exactly 

[00:23:37] Mike Koelzer, Host: right. Yeah, exactly. Right. And, and in fact, um, Aaron, this is more of a, I'm sure we'll be talking more in the future. Um, but this is kind of, uh, our first chance. I know I've seen you all bopping all over the place online and it was my chance to, you know, get to know you and, and, and that comes in, in, in stages.

And you never know when we're gonna be, um, you know, like I said earlier, when we're gonna be each other's boss or, or, or. Or, or employee, you know, just don't make me clean the toilets out day. 

[00:24:06] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Right? Yeah. 

[00:24:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: you know, Aaron, tell me, um, let me, let me ask you, uh, let me ask you a couple broader questions. If you, what, what kind of things right now in your career, um, if anything kind of, kind of keeps you up at night or, or NAS at you, um, you know, is, is there anything that.

Ki is kind of tough for you to think through in terms of the career or, or your jobs, what you have to do. 

[00:24:36] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Um, for me personally, it's just the sheer volume. Like, yeah, just trying to keep up with what we promised in terms of delivery. I think what's yeah. Right. Keeping me up at night as an educator is this constant change that we're undergoing this radical change right now to the point where.

I'm starting to see this trend where, and the schools are not doing a good job with it, um, that people have portfolio careers. So I wrote a book called multi patients on this, this concept that a lot of us have multiple things going on. multiple streams of income. I mean the old school book is Robert G.

Allen. Dan Pink wrote about this as well. This concept that you don't just do one thing anymore, you do many things. And again, it's insulation against that. Pink slip that job layoff that crisis in your profession where it's changing overnight. And so I am doing everything in my power to try to do more educating around that.

So back at Butler, the one day a week, I'm there this fall, I'll be teaching a nontraditional healthcare professional elective. Yeah, where we're focused solely on career development for pharmacy and pre-pharmacy majors. We're gonna talk about the wide swath and variety of career paths out there. I'm bringing in actual pharmacists and actual people working in healthcare and public health that are doing super cool things to make the universe a better place.

Um, I think it's really important to show the next generation what's possible. And you don't know what you don't know. Right? Right. So if you're just told, oh, you have to go do a residency or, oh, you're going to Walgreens or CVS. Not that there's anything wrong with those again. Of course. I just think there's a lot more out there, but you have to kind of lead the next generation to the door, open the door and let them go through.

Yeah. 

[00:26:37] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. And, and is that, would you consider that a bit of a, um, because that came off the question of, you know, what keeps you up and stuff? Do you consider that a bit of a, do you see that in the eyes of the students that like, they're, they feel, they're feeling that pressure and you can alleviate that with this like information.

[00:26:54] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Yeah. And so the course is set up in an interesting way. There's a mentoring component to it. So the students will be paired one on one with a mentor, an actual pharmacist. That's done a lot of different things with their career. There's a component of knowing myself, right? So taking all these as self assessments to get really good on understanding what your own unique selling proposition is.

And I know pharmacists hate the word sales, but you gotta know who you are. That's your job. No one else's. Yeah, 

[00:27:23] Mike Koelzer, Host: everybody. Yeah. Everybody's every, no matter what you're doing nowadays, you're, you're really in business. Absolutely. For yourself, even if the, even if the papers don't show up, you know, everybody's in business for themselves, 

[00:27:34] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: they have.

And then the third component is they have to go out and actively seek an actual job posting and play match needs with themselves and who they are versus that posting. It's almost like a quasi sales pitch slash. Job interview. That's the high stakes final exam in that course. So I will. 

[00:27:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: Okay. We can't, I'm not gonna, that's a whole course behind that.

And, but that sounds terribly interesting. Tell me that again. They're matching. They're matching 

[00:28:06] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: what, say that one time. So they're creating their own kind of personal portfolio. What are my strengths? What do I value? What types of environments do I wanna work in? Who do I wanna work with? What were the last three times in my life that I was working on something that was so engaging.

I lost track of time. And what skill set? Yes. Was I using those three times? And what are those commonalities? And then, and. 

[00:28:32] Mike Koelzer, Host: And then they're matching that up. They're trying to find a job that matches them versus them matching the job, sort of. Yes, 

[00:28:39] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: exactly. Really cool. That's really it. And so the high stakes panel that's really cool will consist of people who actually hire people in pharmacy.

So I think it's so important to understand who you are first. And again, it's back to those pharmacists that were panicking as well. And I've been laid off. I've been there. I've done that. I know how it feels. It's horrible, but you constantly need to reevaluate who you are in those situations. What you're great at is what you can uniquely bring to the table.

And then go find an ideal for you. 

[00:29:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. If you could stop doing everything else because you've got millions and millions in the bank, let's say, what is that thing that you lose time with? Um, you know, the thing that you're telling these guys to do, what is that for you?

Is it writing? Is it speaking? Is it, you know, what is it for 

[00:29:36] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: me it's writing? Uh, I think if I. had my druthers and I don't have millions in the bank, but if I did have millions in the bank, just to be clear we can pretend, pretend, pretend I would be at home in my bunny slippers, just cranking it out, writing books, interviewing people, picking their brains.

I'm a huge reader. So I love reading books, although I don't know if everyone does that anymore. Um, yeah. 

[00:30:04] Mike Koelzer, Host: But that's what you would do. You'd be, you'd be thinking. And then, and then, and then getting 

[00:30:07] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: that. Sure. Yeah. Mean learner has never been in my top five on strengths finder, for example, but I love learning.

Like, I've gone back to school several times. I love taking people on the learning journey with me too. So yeah. 

[00:30:21] Mike Koelzer, Host: I, I, I think you like to, I mean, from what I'm hearing, I think you like to learn, but you, you also like to put it in, you also like to help people right away. You like to put that into action of, of how can you improve someone else's life by what you just 

[00:30:34] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: learned?

Yeah. Like I'm a collector in the. Hoarder of ideas, but I don't really hoard them. I actually share them and people have the opportunity to kind of pick and choose what fits them, but then also do the hard work on who they are individually as well. I think we skip over that in schools of pharmacy and that's a travesty.

We have to have a conversation about the individual first. Yeah. 

[00:31:00] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. That, yeah. Yeah. That's been lost, especially in, you know, the kids, the kids, but they, you know, they get to college and they're in rooms of anywhere from 300 kids, I guess, down to one 50 or something. But, um, but, but that's, that, that sounds, yeah, that sounds 

[00:31:16] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: really important.

It absolutely is. And I think in this era of constant change, we have to make sure that the individuals know who they are. Um, what makes them tick, what they can be great at, and then they can kind of play match.com with themselves against what's going on out in the bigger universe. And maybe that's in pharmacy and maybe it's not, maybe it's in public health, maybe it's in healthcare administration, maybe it's law, maybe it's something else that they can bring their collective knowledge into to get them streamlined and passionate about what it is that they're doing.

[00:31:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, Aaron, what are we gonna do? Well, Aaron, what we're gonna do, we're gonna leave it here, but you brought up the law and so next time we have you on, uh, we're gonna talk about how and why you became an attorney 

[00:32:05] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: too well, something to look forward to

[00:32:10] Mike Koelzer, Host: all right. Thanks Aaron, for coming on a pleasure to meet you and, um, and I'm, I'm thankful for this connection and look forward to, um, to doing more stuff together. 

[00:32:20] Erin Albert, PharmD, JD, MBA: Thanks, Mike. I really 

[00:32:21] Mike Koelzer, Host: appreciate it. All right. Bye-bye thanks, Aaron. Bye-bye.