From Death to Life | Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA, Skippack Pharmacy

Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript is generated using speech-to-text technology and contains multiple spelling errors and inaccuracies. It is only intended to capture the essence of the conversation. 

[00:00:15] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Well, hello, Maya. Hey Mike, how's it going, buddy? It's going 

[00:00:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, my, for the people that haven't come across you online, tell our listeners who you are, why we're talking. 

[00:00:28] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: What's hot. Sure. So, my name is Mayank Amin, uh, people commonly refer to me as Dr. Mac in this town. Um, people also refer to me as crazy.

Um, but that's why I'm here. Um, I'm a wedding planner. I'm a dancer. I've been in a couple of movies. Um, but I'm also a pharmacist. And the reason why I'm on today is, uh, I think it's my pharmacy aspect of my profession. Um, and with me opening an independent pharmacy in an area where, uh, there was a drought and a large Shane ended up closing the last independent that was here.

Um, and now I'm here. Skip back for me. You know, you're lucky. 

[00:01:06] Mike Koelzer, Host: I didn't know about your dancing or I would have saved this interview until I was doing YouTube videos. We would have had you down for that 

[00:01:16] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: in the future. We'll make sure that happens. What do you mean you're a dancer? What do you mean by that?

I started a dance company in college. Um, a part of me, um, loves the whole aspect of enterprise. Um, and also taking care of people. Uh, for me, the entertainment aspect and pharmacy school was starting a dance team. Um, and that dance team, lo and behold, we worked very hard at it. A lot of challenges, obviously you're a pharmacy student, um, classes are not easy to say the least, but you have to juggle your time and anything that I want or that I put my hands on.

I don't just want to do it. I want to become the best at it. So our dance team at that time became one of the best dance teams in America that did Bollywood dancing and saw the Indian version of Hollywood. 

[00:01:54] Mike Koelzer, Host: I see a lot of Bollywood in the last four or five years, 

[00:01:58] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: lo and behold, from that, and ended up getting some acting opportunities.

Um, I was a stand-in double for Def Patel, the main actor of, uh, the last Airbender avatar, um, a film by M night Shyamalan that actually came right out of pharmacy school. So it was a lot of fun and all these experiences, they kind of add onto the possessiveness or, um, the difference of me being a pharmacist that actually has a different side.

Uh, and those are all things I incorporate a stunt, double, a standing double. What does that mean? I had the, a similar look, figure, uh, skin texture, uh, pretty much it's called body double in short for as a synonym for a standing double, um, and lo and behold, right next to M night Shyamalan. They used you for 

[00:02:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: all the nude scenes.

Why do they need a double, if it's not for the stunts? 

[00:02:49] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: A lot of the things that people don't get about the movie industry is a 32nd scene. Can take a few hours to record when you have a scene where they don't require the main actors, full body and face to be running away from the screen. Someone like myself who has the same figure, a body skin type can be running away from the screen.

To the viewer that looks like it's the main actor, but in reality, it's myself. 

[00:03:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: If you at a restaurant, they might have your back or something over your shoulder or something where they're not showing your face, but no sense of wasting the time of the, the main actor for 

[00:03:25] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: that. Correct. But it was a phenomenal experience.

And it was actually my last year in pharmacy school where I got a call from the casting director and I thought it was a joke, but lo and behold, it was actually true. And we got to work on the main set with all the actors, actresses walking the red carpet. And I thought I was famous at that time because all my friends, I was working for a chain pharmacy at that time.

And my boss ended up. It was one of the things I actually hid from him for awhile. But afterwards, when I told him that I was a part of the movie, um, they ended up putting me in their magazine and they featured me all over the place. So it was actually a good thing instead of me having to hide it from them.

I looked 

[00:04:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: on your website and would it be safe to assume that you know how to throw a wedding best for your culture? Because I saw the Indian beautiful garb of the bride and the groom and all the colors and all that stuff. And we just have like, from grand rapids, we're like white and black, you know? So do you specialize in the Indian culture, weddings, which are so beautiful or do you do anything?

I 

[00:04:39] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: never intended to be a wedding planner. Um, I went to business school at Villanova, uh, after graduating from the university of sciences as a pharmacist. And when I went there, we had to come up with a class project. It was a class about. So I was already in healthcare. I didn't want to create something in healthcare.

I wanted to do something different and I already had an entertainment background. Um, people thought I was good at event management. So I was like, you know what, let me make an event management. Um, or a wedding planning company. Um, as a business idea, just for the class project, make a PowerPoint, do a sample wedding and then report back to the class.

And when I did that first sample wedding, um, that's when some of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were like, we're getting married in two months and you're our wedding planner. And then I was like, no, I'm just doing this as a project. They're like, we'll pay you. And I was like, all right, let's talk. And, uh, here I am five years later, over 120 weddings that we've done throughout the world.

Done all kinds of weddings, everything from, uh, Indian, south Asian weddings. Um, that's kind of what we specialize in. Um, but we've also done, uh, Hindu with Jewish. Uh African-American with India. Caucasian with Caucasian at some of the largest venues, uh, in this country and throughout the world. So it's a fun experience.

And right now, obviously with COVID, uh, this year has been shot, um, completely basic. All of our weddings have been canceled due to COVID. And the average size of the wedding I do is 500 and up. That's not happening. Indian 

[00:06:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: culture typically has bigger weddings than we're seeing in grand rapids weddings.

What's the most political way to say non-Indian weddings? 

[00:06:10] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Most people just refer to them as American weddings, even though I'm American. I was born here. Yeah, you're an 

[00:06:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: American. So I can't say American weddings, you know, let's say, let's say, let's say boring weddings. Let's just put it that way. Our buds of Indian culture they're typically bigger than American boring weddings.

[00:06:30] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Well, definitely they are larger and a large part of it is larger than. Most of the time, uh, Indian parents end up paying for the weddings and they never had this kind of money when they were younger. So when they got married, it might've been like 10 people, um, in the local town. So this is an opportunity for them to also celebrate their wedding indirectly.

So of the 800 people that I had at my wedding, I would say more than half were my parents' friends. And even then my dad was kind of disappointed in me because he's like, you're a wedding planner and you only found a venue that could fit 800. You wanted to invite like 1200. Um, but the only old 800 is what we ended up having.

Um, the largest I've done is 1400. I know that many people. 

[00:07:16] Mike Koelzer, Host: Okay. Let's say I had my friends and family. I could triple that number by inviting my enemies. But even that then is not 1400. How do you get that many people that you even 

[00:07:28] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: know? It's a lot of, uh, I guess, relationships that have lasted over the.

And that's what I stress to people, my students, and everybody is never to burn a bridge. Um, and cause you never know who's going to come back and help you out like today, for example, on my LinkedIn post, um, the president past president of the university of science has just commented on my, um, posts that I had.

And he's also the person that wrote me my recommendation letter for business school. And he was the president of a university, um, as a suit. And all I did was I kept in touch with him while other students might, might be afraid or not have the time to, uh, go and meet someone of that sort. I would make it a different aspect in terms of, you know, why not?

I'm sure he doesn't normally have students come and talk to him. So why not be that one student that goes and says, Hey, how's your day going? Or are there any projects that I can help with? Um, and that's kind of helped me, uh, keep those connections and build my personal network. Yeah, yeah. Right.

[00:08:23] Mike Koelzer, Host: Pharmacists are listening right now and they're saying, all right, we've got a handsome actor, a dancer. A guy with 800 friends, a guy with an MBA, who's got a business, a wedding planning business. And now the next thing they're saying is why the hell did he open up a pharmacy? So Maya tells the inquisitive crowd right now, what happened?

I'm a 

[00:08:53] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: believer in the fact that things come along in your life, that you may not have planned, um, about two and a half, three years ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed me and believe it or not. The first thing that I did when I walked into that room, they said, play some music and dance for us. And they started taking photos.

So that's definitely happened before, just for the record. And those are the photos they used on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 

[00:09:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: knowing you were a pharmacist, they wanted you to dance 

[00:09:19] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: for them, of course, because that's what pharmacists do. We do things differently. But the last line that they wrote in that.

And they had actually called my professors and my Walgreens pharmacy manager, a few different people to get their thoughts, because a big part of it was a Jack of all trades. Is he possibly a master of none? Does he do a thousand things? And he's just mediocre at all of them. So they had asked those questions.

The last thing that they wrote in the article, uh, they had asked me about what I wanted to do in the future. So I talked about the whole thing of, I don't plan to be a master of everything, but I will work very hard at whatever I do and whatever Columbia comes along the way in my life, I will dedicate myself to fully.

And I said that I want to create something that can help patients that don't have money or that can give patients better access to better health. I never thought I was open. Not in my wildest dreams. If I had to ever imagine myself, I want to be a movie actor. I wanted to be a basketball player. I wanted to do everything else.

Besides opening a pharmacy, you can say it was probably on the bottom of my list of things that I want to do in my life. How long 

[00:10:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: had you been out of pharmacy school at that point? 

[00:10:30] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: About eight years. Eight years. Okay. And my path was actually heading towards a non pharmacy route. I was going to quit my job at Pfizer.

I was working there as a safe drug safety associate. I was gonna quit my job at Pfizer to become a full-time event and wedding planner. And I told my wife and my parents and everybody else, um, that I was going to do this. And they all thought I was crazy. Um, but they also saw how popular I was and how popular our company is in the events and wedding industry.

So they said, you know what? You might be good at it. Let's move forward with that. And I walked into Walgreens cause I was still working for Walgreens. Um, I was covering a shift for an employee that was sick and this was Walgreens. One of the pharmacists that have helped open the store right.

By my house. I walked in closing time, nine o'clock walked out and I saw on the reader board, it said, welcome to skip back pharmacy patients. And I was like, no way that pharmacy closed down. It was like the busiest independent pharmacy in the area. Um, and I just thought to myself, like, how did that happen?

And I didn't know anything about independent pharmacies that are struggling or what that aspect is. I just thought that they serve people that have more needs, um, that want particular care. Because for me, all I thought of was Walgreens, CVS right here, the chains, that's all, it was drilled in my head throughout school and after school.

Um, and I actually had never walked into an independent pharmacy in my life, but I was like, you know what? I went home, kept on thinking about it and maybe it was just the light bulb, but it was like something drove me saying, why don't you drive over there and just see what happened. So the next day I drove by the pharmacy and I sat outside in the parking lot.

Cause there were a whole bunch of people, um, looking through the winter. And there were red signs all over the windows and the door and the right side was telling people that their prescriptions have been transferred over to CVS, to these people. It didn't make sense. They were still trying to open the door as if they're going to be able to open the door, even though it was locked into this pharmacy that just shut down overnight.

And you know, you could see these people. It was almost as if they had lost someone important in their life. Like a death had happened in their family, because for them, it was 50 years of coming to this place, walking down the same aisle, grabbing their newspaper, talking to their friends, grabbing milk, all the things that you see in traditional pharmacies that people might've done.

This was the first thing in this town. So all of a sudden to have that broken and shattered, um, it was a heartbreaking experience for them. And I was just sitting in the car. You can say kind of like a creeper, just observing these people. I just wanted to see what was going on. And then enough of that happened in the 30 minutes that I was sitting there, that I was like, something needs to have.

Um, I wasn't going to let this just sit there. And so I looked, started looking more into it, and then I realized that this pharmacy was bought out by CVS. And I also realized that all the other pharmacies in the area, even though CVS bought them out, were all trying to capture the patients because I was trying to figure out why Walgreens would put a sign out, even though they didn't buy them.

Right. Likewise, all the other pharmacies were putting signs out saying welcome to skip back pharmacy patients. And at that time I was like, you know what? I have nothing to lose. What if I just looked into this more, a little bit and then asked people, uh, you know, would you want this pharmacy to come back?

If somebody had the guts to reopen it? I didn't look into the whole aspect of profit actually of how the independent pharmacy model works, uh, how they make money. None of that crossed my mind and actually none of it did even after, um, I signed the contract or the agreement that we're going to open this place back up.

I met with the landlord and. The rent was extremely high and is probably higher than a majority of the independent owners. I would say more than 90% of the owners might be listening to this podcast. Um, we're not in downtown Manhattan, but our rent is pretty high to say the least. Um, but I was like, you know what, let me just take that risk and try to open up, open this place back up and worst case, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.

But at least I tried fighting for these patients. Um, because I looked at all the reviews. I reached out to every person that had commented on Google on Facebook. And I just messaged them saying, I'm looking to open this place back up. Would you guys come back? I reached out to doctors, um, and everyone was like, yes, this place was so important to the people of this town.

Definitely something to look at. But then I asked some other independent owners and they were like that rent, forget about it. Don't even, you know, don't risk it. It's too much work. A lot of the veteran pharmacy owners, they were the ones that told me. Yeah. It's not a good idea because you're going to have to put in so much work and the profit aspect might not be there.

But I like kind of going into those situations where people tell me that you're not going to be able to do something. That's what happened to my school. Uh, one of my counselors told me that you should cut back on your dancing activities and this and that, because you're not going to make it in school.

Lo and behold, I did pass school somehow. And Forbes quoted me on that. When, when I had an interview with them saying that, what was the, one of the most remembering moments of your pharmacy career? And then I told them that the whole aspect of someone told me I can't do something. And I said, I'm going to prove it, that I can do it.

And that's what I, what I ended up doing with this pharmacy is I just literally, and I, yes, I did quit my job at Pfizer. I still planned 40 weddings last year. So that aspect hasn't changed now. I just have two jobs and I don't sleep that much to say the least. 

[00:15:54] Mike Koelzer, Host: So let me think about this CVS. The files and maybe some of the inventory or something.

And I imagine that the owner had some kind of a non-compete and then when you came in, you didn't necessarily buy a pharmacy at all. You're paying rent and you're opening up a pharmacy. And you're just using a name that was sitting in the laundry heap. 

[00:16:20] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: It was kind of interesting in the way that the past owner, um, the pharmacy manager and the owners were different.

So it was like a group that owned the pharmacy and then a pharmacy manager that managed it. Um, two people, husband, and wife, managed it. So they must realize that this thing was tanking in the sense that they had other issues going on outside of, uh, the pharmacy. And I don't know those issues nor do I, I care about whatever was the reason that happened.

But in the meanwhile they opened a pharmacy nearby because they did not have ownership over here at this point. So they closed, they kind of like, all right, this let's pull a smart move here. We're going to shut this place down because our owners actually want to get out of this. They see where, which direction this is headed.

Right. They want to get out. Meanwhile, I still have all these patients. Why don't I just open up another independent, like five miles away. I already have all that data. Technically. You're not supposed to do that. But you know, let me contact those patients on the side and say, Hey, we'll deliver to you. 

[00:17:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: When you say I have the data you're talking.

That's what they were saying. 

[00:17:22] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: The past pharmacy manager, you have a past pharmacy managers, not only was CVS, not happy that I opened this place, that other owner was not happy that I opened this place because now all of the patients that he thought he was going to just keep at his pharmacy five miles away from here.

Um, they were going to start coming back here cause you're not going to drive five miles more to go to a pharmacy. So. Obstacles along the way. And, and also, and that's the sad thing, um, which I've come to realize with this and with this industry is that you have owners that really want to help each other.

Yeah, right down the street from me 3.4 miles away, there's an owner. Uh, his name is Greg of ran pharmacy, RaNN pharmacy. They have a pharmacy that's been around for ages as well. He welcomed me with open arms and he probably knew that, okay. Some of the customers from this area must have shifted over to him and that they'll probably come back.

Now that someone's opening. He walked in the first time I met him, such a happy jolly guy. He brought me a counting device, like a script prototype thing. Uh, he brought me a machine over and then I looked at the price of it. And it was a couple of thousand dollars that he gave me. Um, he was willing to help me and that's what independent pharmacy owners need to do.

So on one end, I had independent owners that were like, we're with you in this fight together. And then on the other side, I had, uh, the previous owner of this place writing negative reviews on our. And if you see our Google skate bag pharmacy, you'll probably see an initial, like one or two Google reviews that were negative comments before we even opened our doors.

Um, you also, you also see that while we're skipping back pharmacy, if you Google skip back pharmacy right underneath, skip back pharmacy on Google, you'll see something called skip back pharmacy services. So the guy played his cards, right. He took the old phone number of this pharmacy, the old fax number.

Um, and he, you know, took this pharmacy over to a neighboring town called it, skip back pharmacy services, the manager. Yeah, the manager to this date one and a half years. They still answer the phone on that old line, and things get back to the pharmacy. Can I help you? So this is where things get juicy and it's like, this is part of the story that our patients know about it.

Um, because we're honest people, I don't, if it's, something's true, I'm going to tell people the truth. And these are the kinds of things where to this day I have doctor's offices, the old phone number, the old fax number are still in people's Surescript data. So prescriptions still get sent there by accident.

Doctors are still calling in scripts to the old pharmacy by accident. Um, and that must have happened at least a hundred, 150 times in the last year, year and a half. So we always have to tell people this is the new skip back pharmacy, the real one, the only one located at XYZ address. Here's our new phone number.

Here's our new fax number. Please make sure you send it to the right one. So this is not just a challenge against everything else that independent owners face. It's a new type of challenge if you're going to have other independent owners who aren't happy. I think personally that if we're all in this fight together, that kind of nonsense shouldn't happen.

The owners 

[00:20:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: that used to own this don't care, they're done 

[00:20:30] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: kind of interesting. And I, and I guess some of the owners who have sold to CVS or the other chains might realize this, but when you sell your pharmacy to a large chain, if they retain a certain percentage of customers in the first year, or I don't know the full details, right?

They get X, Y, Z amount of money. It's like a little bonus. So guess what? Now you have this guy who is willing to work 20 hours a day, and literally it changed what people viewed of this pharmacy. You know, he's in a break that quota, that CVS is going to retain that amount of people. I'm not letting that happen, not 

[00:21:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: the managers, but the owner, the actual owner, he hasn't been upset, but when his bonus goes down, he might understand what's happening.

What's odd to me, it seems like the managers who now own. Other one, they weren't under any kind of a non-compete or something. Could they have opened right. Where you were and said skip back. 

[00:21:25] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Yes, but I think that the whole aspect was that once this place got sold to CVS and the files technically got switched over there, it would have taken more time for them to kind of get a new license.

They play their cards right. In terms of opening one already like a year before, six months before. So that way there's no gap in coverage. The patients are literally smooth transitions, following XYZ managers over to this place. They 

[00:21:51] Mike Koelzer, Host: knew it was coming before it actually closed. So they were able to leave and do that.

[00:21:56] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Correct. And I learned a lot of this from the old employees that worked here before, um, a part of me just interviewed them and I want her to know what happened. Um, and it w what's kind of interesting is, um, when I signed the agreement for this pharmacy and I got. NPI number and things like that. It comes on the public website.

I got a phone call at 11 o'clock at night from one of the previous owners, not the managers. One of the owners saying that if you cancel your contract, um, in terms of with the landlord, we will pay you X, Y, Z amount of cash, 

[00:22:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: because they want to get that bonus from the main one. Exactly. And they've already going to lose some of the bonus to the other one that moved a few miles away, but they don't want to lose more to you then also.

[00:22:42] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: So it's kinda crazy. Like one day there will potentially be a movie about this with my movie background. I do want to create a movie one day, cause this is like, it's kind of interesting and there's so much juice behind it, right? And to this date, like we've had our pharmacy students come and they see all this that's happening.

So for them, it's not like they're just coming to work at a pharmacy. People don't choose to get back to the pharmacy as their rotation site because they get to be a technician and just count pills, all. Their projects are like, okay, we're going to be writing a letter to the state board of pharmacy, because there were 10 cases where a prescription got sent to the old number that answers us, get back pharmacy.

Let's work on that. These are all different challenges that we face, but, you know, regardless, I think they're just humps along the way that you have to maneuver around up until this 

[00:23:30] Mike Koelzer, Host: part of the story. We're going to talk more about some revelations of pharmacy business in general, but up to this point of the story, I know hindsight's 20, 20, but not knowing what you didn't know.

If you had to come in somewhat blind again, is there anything that you would have done differently 

[00:23:51] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: if I had to do it again, I would say, or if anyone's considering it sometimes the less, you know, the better, because if anyone literally gets a paper out and kind of analyzes this industry and everything.

Um, and they have things like kids. For example, if you want to see your kids and your family members, you really have to calculate things. And for me, I guess I didn't have a lot of those other factors, needless to say, um, and I'm kind of that entrepreneur, that's like, all right, you know, here's a ball, figure out what to do with it.

And then we're going to make it move. Um, and you learn along the way, um, maybe not the best quality about me is that I learned along the way as I'm doing things, instead of trying to determine ahead of time. And that's not what they taught us in business school, 

[00:24:41] Mike Koelzer, Host: the stuff up until right now, with this, with the owner and the managers and CVS and all that stuff.

Would you have done anything differently or is it just like, Hey, stuff happens and if it wasn't this happening, something else might've had. 

[00:25:01] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Yeah, I think, uh, that, that question about what I've done anything differently with this whole drama aspect, 

[00:25:06] Mike Koelzer, Host: not counting all the struggles of an independent pharmacy, but just all the drama up to there.

Is there anything you could have done differently still not knowing all the background? Is there anything you would have done differently if you came in again without the 

[00:25:20] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: information I likely wouldn't have done too many things differently just because of the aspect of these are all things that give you learning lessons.

Sure. Um, you know, you're going to open a business. You're going to have someone that's possibly not happy. Right? Well, you gotta figure out a way to work around that. You're gonna have some people that are happy and are going to be helpful. And then you're going to have some people. That wish you didn't exist on this earth?

The whole aspect for me was that it was all a learning lesson. If it would have been smooth sailing that I don't think I would have a story, I would just be like every other owner out there, nor would I have all these life lessons along the way. Right. Um, because my goal is not to succeed by putting someone else down a part of my religion, my background, my culture is not, it's not that we believe in karma.

Uh, you do go to others. Good comes to you, you do bad to others. Bad comes to you. That's never my intent or goal with anything I do. And why really don't speak about it to too many people. Um, but once. You know, enough builds up where you want to tell someone about it. And that's why today you're that guy. I'm like, you're hearing our story.

This is the story that has not been told. 

[00:26:26] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, it's, it's, it's 

[00:26:27] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: fascinating. But then again, I'm a wedding planner and I'm an event planner. Well guess what, when it rains outside, the bride wants me to stop the rain from falling. So if we can figure out problems like that, or you have a thousand people outside and it's raining or you're in Mexico and the bride's about to walk out and all of a sudden, you know, something goes haywire.

Well, they're looking at me to figure it out. Likewise, I've been troubleshooting problems all my life. This is nothing different. It's just a matter of diffusing the problem without, um, Anyone who really dislikes us. Where did you get 

[00:27:00] Mike Koelzer, Host: your tenacity from? Is that something that is just born in you?

Because we all have different personalities. Is it something handed down by your parents? Is it anything to do with your culture, your religious background, or could I speak to your brother or sister? And they're like pissing and moaning all the time? Or is it something deeper that gives you this attitude?

[00:27:25] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: That's funny that you asked that this morning before I walked into the pharmacy, I told my wife one thing, not because she whines, but I was like, there's one thing that absolutely like perks me in that like destroys me. It's like kryptonite to me, is that when people are negative or they whine a lot, I'm like, if you're negative or you want a lot, you have all the reasons in the world to go out there and do something about it.

Sure. Sometimes I say I don't have time, but then I tell them about myself, stop making that excuse, you know, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, all these. How do they become the best players in the world? Yeah. They had the same amount of the day as everyone else, but they used their time. According to what their mission is 

[00:28:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: from culture.

Is that from parents or is that just who you are? That's your DNA? That you've been gifted 

[00:28:11] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: with? A couple of people that I get that from my parents being one, they came to this country, uh, 40 years ago. Uh, and in, in our area, there were some of the first Indian people that came from India, not native American, Indian, but India, Indians, immigrants.

[00:28:25] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yes. Children of immigrants and immigrants are tough. 

[00:28:30] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: There are so many stories from our parents that, um, you know, when we think of our excuses, like, all right, we really don't have excuses. Because the stuff they went through was out of this world, my parents came here with $5 in their wallet and two pairs of.

My mom used to sit on my dad's, uh, bike handlebars, and that's how I used to drop her off to work. And they had two or three jobs per day. Um, see, 

[00:28:56] Mike Koelzer, Host: As we get from our parents it is like they walk uphill to school both ways. I mean, that's, as much as our parents, you've heard that story, you know, that's as much as we get from our non-immigrant parents, you guys, the immigrants and your children, you guys are fighters.

[00:29:11] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: It's all part of the learning and the culture that we're raised with our parents, like literally from a young age, we saw them, uh, working labor jobs and they'd be doing jobs. And that was painful to say the least, working in factory settings. And then somehow they made enough money to buy a store.

And that's a story they are family used to. So in dollar stores, when we were. Um, on the weekends or after school, we would go to a dollar store and fill the shelves. We would blow up balloons. And that's actually funny because today someone came in here to get balloons. We're a pharmacy that has balloons. Um, not because we make money on it, but for me, it's a, it's like a pastime.

Like I used to blow up 20 dozen balloons every Saturday morning and I can still blow up balloons faster than the average balloon 

blower. 

[00:29:55] Mike Koelzer, Host: Do you do the whole bending of them, like the clowns do or do you, or are you just a 

[00:29:59] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: blower? That's a little bit beyond my capacity. 

[00:30:04] Mike Koelzer, Host: You can't, you can't have every talent 

[00:30:06] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: the world.

No, I can do balloon art, but just with the strings now, in terms of making animals and such, then I'd have a line out the door. If I could do that and I could count pills and counseling. 

[00:30:16] Mike Koelzer, Host: Is there anything inside of that store that brings you back to the childhood of your parents owning a store and knowing customers by name and being inside of an enclosed building and all that kind of stuff.

Does that have anything to do with you wanting to get back into a store or was that just coincidentally? 

[00:30:37] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: It was a coincidence. Um, but I do from time to time, think about the days that I had at the dollar store and the dollar store was actually about five minutes away from here. So we had a couple of them and they were fairly close to this area.

So some of the patients what's crazy are one of the, um, owners of the property that our dollar store was that became a patient. He came in here one day and he was telling me he owns such and such complexes. And then I was like, wait a second. My dad used to own a pharmacy, or he used to own a dollar store in that complex.

And then I, we made the connection and I was like, yeah, that was my landlord. So like, some of the things are still coming. In that regard. And also, I know my parents spent many long days at that dollar store. Right. Um, sometimes we'd be there until midnight. So when I'm here till midnight, I really don't have a reason to complain because I know my parents did it.

And, uh, they did that for us. We didn't have that many loans or anything. When we came out of college, they practically paid for our schooling, which was a couple hundred thousand dollars. 

[00:31:37] Mike Koelzer, Host: I'm going to start from the end and work backwards. You know, how to make money being the wedding planner and all that, all that stuff.

You can make money. I don't know your finances, but just for the sake of argument, I'm going to call this a hobby for you, a hobby to see if you can conquer it. How long. Do you picture yourself owning a pharmacy? Because most people would say, well, I'm gonna own it until I retire because I built it. And this is my best moneymaker.

I'm going to do this. But for you, from my limited knowledge, I see it as more of a hobby. When do you say I tried it? I conquered it or I didn't conquer it. I'm onto the next thing. How long do you expect to own the pharmacy? 

[00:32:19] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Along with the reason why I opened this pharmacy, that's also one of the unknowns.

I wish I had a number or an idea in terms of, you know, I want to keep this pharmacy for this many years or work here for that many years, but I think my role will change over time. Like right now I'm here making, and after this interview I will be going out and making deliveries and it'll probably be 9, 9 30 that I'll start making deliveries and I'll be out till 11.

I don't want to do that down the road right now. I want to meet every single patient. So I have a couple of new patients that switched over. Wow, I don't have to go out there and go deliver this medication. But when do you have it? Where a pharmacist comes to your house with a smile on your face and actually cares about you and wants to know your story?

That's part of my childhood is that my parents are so talkative. My dad can have a conversation with a rock. I will go out and initially I want to be able to have that connection. So I get to learn about them. Um, but over time as this builds and we have more patients and, uh, we want to implement new clinical services as in such, I don't want to be that person that goes out to every single person's house every night, make sure deliveries I'll have to hire more staff, but there's also that whole aspect of when do I hire more people?

I don't know anything about independent pharmacies in regards to, you know, the, the script to technician. I have to ask my friends everything. It's like, you're, you're put into a school and you're starting from preschool. I feel like I'm that soon. And I'm, I'm still in preschool. We might have thousands of patients here in a year and a half.

Um, but I still consider myself in preschool. And that's why I ask questions from other independent owners. Everyone's on speed dial every day, they're getting questions and they might be the dumbest questions in the world. But I'm asking that question because I need to learn more about this and what I'm doing, because while I'm here and this is definitely a passion of mine, um, I, I can not say that I do this, you know, just because we're making money.

Um, because if I, if I said that, that we're doing this to make money, I would have sold this place already. I wouldn't spend 18 to 20 hours a day behind something and do it because you're making 3 cents on a prescription. Right. I know what I value my time as when I worked at Walgreens or what I charged as a wedding planner, So if I had to put that into perspective here, that means that I should make 300 to $500,000 a year.

That doesn't happen. Um, and it's, it's, it's been a year and a half and I still don't pay myself. Um, and I work literally 18 to 20 hours a day, not to say I'm complaining because I, once again, the whole aspect of, if I complain, I can do something about it, that thought always passes my mind. Um, it's just putting things into perspective where, um, someone who had no idea to try to open this place up.

Yes, I've built a huge following in terms of the community doctors, um, and just social media following and things like that. But the goal here was to create a story and show that if you put your heart behind something and you literally worked so hard, you can make it happen. You can bring back something that people thought was dead and bring it back to life, um, and be able to, to, to make it successful.

While I sometimes joke with patients saying that, um, We are the local non-profit pharmacy. Um, and that, um, the nonprofit founder, um, you know, at some point, you know, people feel terrible when they hear your story, because I don't want to tell a patient that, Hey, I just filled your prescription. I just lost $300 on it.

Like, that's not a fun thing to tell a patient. And they're like scanning because they actually love you as a human being. Um, our patients don't come here because, um, you know, we're, we're giving them better prices or this and that that's, that happens regardless. They come here because they love us.

They actually have a person they can connect to. Yeah, all the, I have my patients follow me on Facebook. You have my cell phone number. They're texting me, they're inviting us to their parties. Um, and that's the whole thing that they've never had really. And now to have that for them, it's like, if, if you're losing $300 on my prescriptions, I want you to tell me because I would not be able to sleep at night, knowing that you like, you know, some people think I'm like their son or their grandson.

They're not going to let their grandson lose $300 on a prescription, right. Uh, that would break their heart. And the patients that come here and tell us, Mac, whatever you need us to do to make sure that you stay here, let us know because we'll do it. If we have to put signs in our yard saying switch, let's get back far.

Missy, we'll do it. And lo and behold, someone gave me the idea. I printed out 300 yard signs and skated back and forth to Montgomery county. It was plastered with yard signs. There was literally when we would go out and make deliveries, it was crazy. Cause I show my wife like, look, there's our yard sign. Look, there's our yard sign.

And these are all of our patients. Pudding, no kidding. A pharmacy yard sign in their yards. I didn't even have one in my own house. I mean, I didn't tell my patients that I didn't have one in my own house lawn. And these guys and girls had it in their lawn. They have bumper stickers on the back of their vehicles that say, skip back.

Pharmacy has my back. Really? Who does that? We're not a sport. 

[00:37:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: How do you, if you're working 18 to 20 hour days, when something doesn't go your way, how do you release that 

energy? 

[00:37:41] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: I think, uh, one thing that I've learned in, in the video, you can see this, you see that red dot on my forehead 

[00:37:47] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, 

[00:37:48] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: it's funny. I have, I've always had, uh, questions, like Whenever people ask, like, do you have questions for the pharmacist and this and that?

It's the funniest thing, because while I was at Walgreens or here, they're like, we don't have any questions about the medication, but can you find out without being offensive? Why does he have a red dot on his forehead? 

[00:38:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: Um, and for me, it's like, 

[00:38:11] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: this is my religious symbol, 

[00:38:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: So I have no fear. 

[00:38:13] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: I actually wear it, hoping that people ask me the question of what is that symbol on your forehead?

I think my religious background has kind of shaped who I am as a person. Um, while I said my parents have been the driving factor, um, for us, my go-to so go to is like a Pope. How there is a Pope and Catholicism for us Gudo means a guiding light. Like they take us from darkness to light and I feel like I've been in a lot of dark situations in my life, whether it was with the pharmacy, um, or just at school, different situations.

I'm being guided constantly to do the right thing. And when I'm about to do something wrong, there's that red stop sign right on my forehead saying, stop, like, you know, you're complaining or you have these issues, just think about that patient that walked into your pharmacy and their daughter has cancer and they have six months left to live.

Is your life really that bad? That it's as bad as that, you know, like you're hurting as much as that person. And I always try to think that I might have a bad, but somebody must really have a bad, there might be someone that has a drug problem and that's taking so much oxycodone or so depressed. They're taking so much, so many medications and they just can't figure it out.

Um, that I remind myself that, um, I've been blessed with what I have, even if I don't have money. Oh, well, it's not going to change my life. I could have a mansion or I could live in a shack. You will go and you ask someone that's, you know, that might not have that much money and lives in a little tiny apartment.

How did you sleep last night? Versus you go ask somebody that has millions of dollars, right? They're celebrities. How did you sleep last night? Yeah, you're probably going to get better sleep from the person that didn't have anything. Yeah. Um, and the person that has everything in the world, and they're got a million, a million followers on social media and their life, so glamorous to the outside world.

But meanwhile, they're taking all these drugs and about a year later they just overdose and they die. Right. So I don't think I don't, um, connect happiness with money riches, um, all of it, like, you know, the materialistic things. Yeah. Like having some of those things, having a nice convertible car and things like that.

It's fun, but that doesn't make me happy. Happiness is in the aspect of helping people. So what if I don't make money immediately? Right. I think the whole aspect of karma, if I'm doing enough, good things for. At some point, God will reward me. It might not be with money. It might give me another opportunity.

I didn't, I never thought I was an open, uh, a pharmacy. Well, in less than a year and a half, I've gotten four people asking me to buy my pharmacy. And I'm like, I've only opened up a year and a half ago, and these are chains. These are independent owners and they want me to be a part of their team, uh, to do different things.

Not saying I'm going to do that, but there's always another opportunity that comes along the way. And these are learning experiences. Who knows, maybe I'm going to develop some other kind of innovation out of this. That's going to change the way people view an independent pharmacy. 

[00:41:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: There's gotta be a scientific name for that.

Gotta be more 

[00:41:11] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: than just a red dot. Yes. I just refer to patients as the red dot, because that's what people ask me. What's the red dot on your forehead? What's the official name? The official name of it is DELAC John law. DELAC T I L a K. And then the second word is John Lewis. C H a N D L O. So the dealer is the.

You represent the feet of God and the red. I don't see you every morning. I put it on. So about 18 hours later now it's faded away. 

[00:41:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: Oh, it's not, it's not 

[00:41:44] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: permit. It's not permanent. No, every morning I have to pray. And I tell my patients, if you see me without this red dot and the you on my forehead, that means I haven't, I didn't, I didn't get a chance to pray.

And that means I haven't eaten anything. So in the beginning, patients have seen me without the red dot, like Mac is 6:00 PM. You still haven't eaten a single thing. Go home, get your feed, get you something to feed you. And I'm like, I know in the beginning it was really tough cause I woke up, uh, so early in the morning, got to bed so late and I'd have to rush out the door.

Um, but now I've developed a sense of normalcy after a year and a half. Um, and I, and I get to pray and my prayer is that time of meditation and peace. So any of the stresses I have in this world, It's just me and my Google and my God at that time. And I don't think about anything else. Um, and that really calms me down.

That's a person, an actual person. Yes. An actual person that you're with. Yes. He's actually in India. Um, so, but he travels the world and a lot of my time is dedicated to volunteering. Like if COVID wasn't happening right now, I would spend probably 15, 20 hours a week volunteering, uh, for our, for our organization.

It's called bap, S B as in boy, a as in apple, P as in Paul, S as in Sam, I 

[00:42:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: looked that up and on LinkedIn, you've got about 800 groups you've been on. I don't know if you know this, I don't want to break any news to you, but you do know that you went to a Catholic college for four 

[00:43:11] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: years, right? I do. And what's even more amazing is they were so appreciative of me as being the Hindu with the red dot on the forehead and everything.

That's great. That's what I actually loved is I love people coming together for a cause, because if it's for something positive, now, imagine the Dean of Villanova school of business said any class that I want to take at Villanova post-graduation. Just send them a message. And this is the Hindu kid that was in the school, send them a message and he'll waive the tuition and I can go right into class.

[00:43:46] Mike Koelzer, Host: I cut you off, the use stands for what and what does the dot stand for? 

[00:43:52] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: You are lucky. And that represents the feet of God. The red that is a John law. And that represents devotion. So devoting me bowing down at the feet of God and staying within the confines of what he would want me to do. A lot of the principles of our Hinduism are similar to a lot of the religions in the world.

It's doing good for people, uh, not stealing, not cheating that line, all the regular things that a lot of religions have are very synonymous. I'm actually glad you're asking these questions because these are the kinds of questions people ask me. And sometimes with faith, you don't know the reasoning behind a lot of.

You just trust the process, you know, like there's, there's a rule behind this. So I just follow it. Uh, likewise, I don't know if there's a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, um, in the pharmacy, but trust the process work hard and hopefully there is something at the, at the 

[00:44:45] Mike Koelzer, Host: end of it, you trust the process.

And this is coming from a guy who on Ash Wednesday, he's got a big black smudge on his head all day. 

[00:44:54] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: That's actually the one day of the year that I absolutely love because there's so many people in this world that already have symbols on their forests. Like, yes, now I'm not the only one. Because all of us together have symbols and I get excited when they come into the pharmacy.

I'm like, thank you. yeah. 

[00:45:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: Oh, that's cool. How do you still do your wedding stuff at the pharmacy? Are you able to Peck away at stuff while you're there? Or when do you, when do you do your, um, communicating and stuff? 

[00:45:21] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: The more you do something, the better you become at it? Sure. More efficient. It used to take me weeks to come up with a wedding timeline for a couple.

Yeah. Now, if I have a conversation with a couple, for 10 to 15 minutes, I can pretty much plan out their entire wedding. And then do you do any of that work at the store after hours? Kind of how I'm talking to you right now? So after the doors lock at 7:00 PM or 8:00 PM, um, that's when a majority of couples, it actually works out because most couples work during the daytime, they're busy and stuff.

They want to talk in the evening between eight and nine o'clock. And this does, the pharmacy aspect does not interfere at all with the wedding aspect because on the weekends, um, I have a pharmacist, uh, that comes in and that's during wedding season. So I have somebody come in and I'm out planning weddings on the weekends.

Most people, most Asians , don't have weddings on the weekdays. Um, it's just a Saturday or Sunday event. So, uh, physically going to the weddings is all on the weekends. All 

[00:46:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: right. You're in the pharmacy now you're starting on. What things an independent pharmacy hit you like a ton of bricks? Like what things are you're like, I can't believe this is part of this.

What things just blew you over, well, not blew you over, but potentially could have blown you over. 

[00:46:37] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: When I started like day one, everything, you know, patients started flooding back in here and I'm saying, when they flooded in here, it was like they were celebrating the best day of their life after their wedding.

When they heard this pharmacy opened up. Um, they were patients coming in here crying, and I was capturing these stories because while they're telling me their story, things are being documented in the profile. So I know a little bit about the patients. Um, I was learning all that aspect. Um, but I didn't get the whole insurance aspect.

Um, we also didn't have all the insurances enrolled in the beginning. A lot of people, I was like, what was the co-pay you were paying for this before. And it's kind of crazy. There's a there's pharmacies that operate without accepting insurance. One guy in a Pittsburgh blueberry pharmacy. I got to meet him.

So if you're out there listening, I want to meet you. Um, he opened a pharmacy that doesn't accept insurance. So we were kind of that kind of pharmacy in the beginning. Just finding out if it's a generic drug, what were you paying? I'll do the same. And that was the model. So I didn't realize anything about insurance companies.

And then, um, we started, you know, we got our contracts enrolled and everything was good to go. Um, we started running claims through, and then I saw the whole aspect of what someone told me, like pharmacies used to get $10 per prescription back in the day, um, for filling prescriptions. I have a system called pioneer.

Um, yeah, we apply in year two. I looked at it and I asked my account manager every question. I think that if there's any pioneer user that calls or hits that software button more in the country than more than I do, I'd like to meet them because at least two to three hours a day, I'm on the phone with them.

Um, and they actually appreciate me asking all these questions to people. Yes. Um, so, uh, I asked him the question of what it is like, you know, that this is all these amounts that we are submitting and they're all high volume. Like, it seems amazing, but then how on this side, the amount that we get back is like, so minimal, it doesn't equate, like we're sending something for $400 and on the other end we're getting like 10 cents back or zero back how's that makes sense.

And then they started slowly explaining to me that, um, they might reimburse you 5 cents per prescription. And I was like, wait, You're telling me they think we're worth 5 cents a prescription. Um, and I don't know, like in what country, even the third world country, they might value a pharmacist more than 5 cents per prescription.

Right. Um, so that kind of blew my mind in the beginning. Considering we have doctorates, people call me Dr. Mac and I'm like, all right, Dr. Mackey. Yeah, it sounds cool. Yeah. Dr. Max made 5 cents a prescription and that blew my mind. Um, but once again, it's just one of those things that, okay, this is what it is.

I can sit here and complain about wine all day where I can figure it out, something around it. So at that point I was like, great. They value me at 5 cents, but at least I'm not losing money. And then I started seeing these red lines come across my screen. I like to hit the software button. What is this red line that I see next to the GP?

I remember GPN in business school meeting gross profit. Why are these lines red? Why are they right? And then this parentheses around them and he's like, Mac, that means you're losing money, filling that script. And I was like, wait, you're telling me I signed up to own a pharmacy and I lose money. How's that possible?

How can I give someone a service? Uh, I understand the 5 cents is positive at least, but how can I give someone medication and end up losing money? And then I saw like once in a while, I'd be like minus $2 minus $4. And then I was like, okay, those minus two or four. That's fine. Um, I guess it's just part of the business.

And then I started seeing like minus 700 and minus 500 and I was like one guy's planet thought that someone can offer a service and lose $500 a month filling someone's script. Yeah. Like that's not a sustainable model that does not mean. No pharmacy will be able to stay open if they're filling prescriptions and losing $500 a month on that one patient. Now imagine multiplying that by X amount of patients and you have a big problem.

Um, so then I, I called and asked and I was like, how can we reduce that minus? And then he taught me some strategies. Um, I reached out to other independent pharmacy owners and, um, some of the Facebook groups that I'm a part of. I learned a lot from other owners. And I think my biggest resource and teachers were other independent owners cause sure, yes, you have those that say, oh my God, this thing is tanking.

We're dying as an industry and we're going to be extinct, but then you have those people that are. They might not be the ones complaining, but they're, they're figuring out problems in the background and saying, all right, this is what we're going to work around by doing this. Um, so we felt we got creative and we also realized we have a patient set that will literally do anything.

They'll sell those souls for us. They'll put yard signs. So what's, even if they have an inkling that, um, you know, we might be out of pharmacy again, if this profit loss thing keeps happening. And I didn't want to tell them because I don't want to break their hearts. Right. Uh, also certain insurance contracts, um, it says in the fine print that we can't tell a patient if they're losing, if we're losing money on that.

So I follow the rules. Um, I want to make sure that we don't violate any of our contracts or agreements. So we don't tell people that, you know, we might be losing money on a script, but on the backend we have to figure out, oh, there's actually other ways to get drugs for cheaper. And that, that doesn't mean going on the corner, the corner of main street and broad street to buy them from somebody there's a lot of different wholesalers.

Um, Uh, conglomerate is called farm saver and Trek say, and all these things that I never knew about, I didn't know about until six months in. So I was paying full price for medications. And then I was like, well, this one medication is $90 on this company and it's $20 on this company. So that minus $50 that I was losing by filling it at the actual cost I was getting, I could potentially make $5 over here.

So I was like, all right, we figured this system out. So now when we actually order medications, nothing's set to auto order because everything changes one day, um, an epi pen could be $50. The next day it could be 300, um, or Valsartan can be $5 one day. And then all of a sudden it's like $300. Um, so I don't want to set an auto order system in our place where one day I can be charged something.

And the next day it changes like 15, 20 times more. And that's not considered a violation of any kind of pricing rules, that's just part of the game. Sadly as this industry is a game, it's a game. If you don't know how to maneuver around it, your 

[00:53:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: games over, we're talking about the prices and things like that.

I'm not an expert on this, but I know that the president a couple years ago allowed more talk to go on about prices and so on. He got rid of that gag rule. And so there's more leniency now for years and years, you know, you can never talk about that stuff. And now there's some more leniency there. 

[00:53:46] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Yes, indeed.

And because I don't know the rules fully, I just err on the side of caution, um, until I actually fully know, because being a kid in preschool, you don't want to make the wrong mistake because you didn't know. And all of a sudden now you're in trouble because you know, So I always try to be cautious and my wife's a lawyer, so that's our first auditor.

If we're doing anything wrong, I just go home. And my wife is there too, and not only that, she's a pharmacist and she's a lawyer. And what she does for a living is she helps independent pharmacies fight some of these, uh, you know, some of the wrong practices that are happening out there. Um, that's her day to day.

And once again, she never signed up for that. She got an opportunity from, from her boss, um, who recognized that she has strengths as both the pharmacist and the lawyer. And he saw her value and he said, I have a project. And that project is, you know, a lot of these independent pharmacies are struggling. Um, they're getting audited and there's so many different things happening and they're reaching out to us more and more, and we think you have value.

And that's why my wife has now. She also started on ground zero when it comes to independent pharmacies, but she's solely learning so much about the industry. And so many people reached out to her about it. I'm lucky that I have her on my side, basically. Like I can ask her a question, like, can I do this?

Can I not do that? Because she studied the contracts, um, from the insurance companies and the other, the other governing body. So I have that reference to that resource. Um, but then again, people that don't have a wife are lawyers. We have each other, like if I have no fear in asking any other independent owner, cause we're a family and we're in the same fight together.

So you want to help a brother or sister out, um, when they're reaching out and they don't know what to do. And we have so many people in the group, I could say we're like a family of like 3000 people that everyone just helps you. 

[00:55:35] Mike Koelzer, Host: And that's true. And before we started recording today, Mac, when we were meeting each other, you said, you know, you feel like you knew me.

And I feel like I know you. And a lot of that's from, you know, we share the same, uh, the common background and social media certainly has helped all that 

[00:55:51] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: out. Yes, indeed. And I, and I think that's, that's the great thing about us. Um, even if you look at the people that serve for our country, um, you know, there's a lot of war veterans, but I've seen the way they interact when they come in and see another war veteran, even if they're wearing a hat or a shirt, right.

They have been through the same kind of struggles, the battles. Um, they might have fought in different wars or done different things and I'm really observant of their behaviors, but it's like two brothers meeting, even if they don't know each other, they, they kind of connect and gel together and you might have a friendship that just started in the pharmacy, but in the same way, I think that's the thing with us.

Independent owners are that, um, we've had similar struggles. Some might have had them for 50 years and someone like me might have had it for a year. Right. We're going to jail. We're going to help each other out because that's how brothers and sisters help each other. So Mack 

[00:56:39] Mike Koelzer, Host: an 18 year old comes to you and says, Dr.

Mac two questions. Do I go into pharmacy school? And after pharmacy school, do I go into independent pharmacy? How do you answer 

[00:56:53] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: that? It's funny because a lot of people have asked that question and a lot of younger students have asked me, should I go into pharmacy school at this point? And what I did was I actually took that question and asked more veteran, independent pharmacy owners to get their thoughts.

Um, a lot of them I'll be very honest and candid. They said, no, don't do it. That's what, that's what they would tell me. Um, because there's so many unknowns, uh, they would say, don't do it. I would say do it, but don't do it. If you're just gonna be a regular independent pharmacy owner, because you might not make it, you have to be.

I see these sad stories of pharmacy owners, like Gadi pharmacy. I've looked up to Stephanie since the moment I started a pharmacy because she embodies community service, patient care. She is an expert when it comes to that human aspect and touch of let's do all these clinical things and do everything right.

She literally followed that model. You could say they recently closed. Uh, this was in the last couple of weeks and, uh, she was a person like, you know, PBCN PA pharmacists and CPA. She's like the head and leader of all these organizations and did everything according to, you know, what is the right for the patient?

And she had a closer pharmacy after she did that model of letting me do everything that I needed to do for my patients. And she's, you know, she's there sharing her story and that's what really hit me. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe she's living. The cookie cutter approach to how someone should care for a patient.

And that required them to shut down, kind of shakes you a little bit. Those things are just fuel to add to my fire. I let that anger out in the terms of like, alright, you're playing this game. Let's go. I'm ready to do something different. You don't have anything to lose. If you see my LinkedIn or Facebook, we try not to rant too much.

It has to be a balance of positive and educational. Um, I think our role now is, uh, there's going to be independent pharmacy owners that are scared. That's fine. I actually pulled, uh, an independent pharmacy Facebook group. I wanted to find out why so many people are scared to talk. Right? Overwhelming response was that they're afraid of losing their contracts, getting audited and this and that.

And that's understandable. Um, and then you have some people that like it. A rat's ass of what, uh, these people do. So you have two sides of the spectrum, and then you have the middle that's like, I want to educate my patients, but be very professional about it. But when all this builds up, it's hard to hard, medium to graphs.

And which side am I going to choose? Like, do I just sit there and be quiet? Do I stand up and voice? Or do I just go in the middle and just tell my patients? And then hope they spread the message. Um, for me, I feel like I need to educate people and I will indirectly expose any companies or things like that.

I'll just let people know about what's happening. And it's up to the viewer. Um, you know, where we fill in that VPN pen and we lose a few hundred dollars on it. This person needs it, or they're going to die and they can't get it in a chain. You think that's right? That we will lose a few hundred dollars on this.

If you think that's fine, then go ahead and continue supporting this kind of business. If you think something's wrong, but then take action because until people take action, um, everyone can sit at home and judge. Uh, critique things, but you have to actually take action. Like I've actually started supporting small businesses more than wasn't made before.

I'm like a guy, let me just support these large businesses. Not supporting them is fast, easy, and convenient. Um, let me just do that method. And then I was like, wait, all these people are supporting me, even though they have more accessible options. There's thousands of these chains, but why are these people? Why are someone driving 45 minutes away to come to my pharmacy and passing like 10 other pharmacies along the way?

So I started thinking more about, um, human psychology and what makes people do what they are doing. And that's when I realized that it's the whole aspect of care. They care for us. So why shouldn't I share that care back? And if it requires me to go a little bit above and beyond and do different things, so be it.

And, uh, that's why I've complained a little bit. I leave, I leave the complaints in my mind. Uh, one crazy thing about me is I don't really see. Um, and that sounds insane. I don't stress during the daytime. Maybe I do in my sleep. I don't realize it because I guess a little of it, uh, and it doesn't wake me up.

I feel like, uh, they say, uh, one of my friends is like sleeping when you're dead, because you'll be sleeping for a while at that time. Um, that's why I know sleep is very important, but for me, it's like right now, this is my time. Uh, one day I'll have kids. I'm not going to be able to do this kind of thing when I have 10 kids and that's so admirable that you can manage all these things.

I think it's a, it's a little bit more challenging when you have other obstacles along the way or other things that are coming about in your life. Yeah. There's 

[01:01:41] Mike Koelzer, Host: a time Mack sleeps when you're dead. What happens to you when you die? What does your faith teach you? 

[01:01:46] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: So for me, we go to a place called Oxford. Yes.

Similar to how there's heaven for us. It's a place where God resides. Um, and our guru, our guide who's here on this earth, uh, for me. It's good, his name is Martin Swami Mirage. So he's the one that will take us from the earth and basically take us to God's abode. And we call that up to them. And there there's no names.

You don't have a name. You don't have money. No, one's, you know, it's just you and God and all devotees are around you. And you're just, it is almost complete peace and happiness. And that's that the whole goal is that you want to, for me, my peace is not through materialism or through money and objects. It's to develop happiness just through other means.

Um, and that means is happiness while your honor it's so if somebody comes in here and they're really pissed about something or upset, well, if I can change that person's mindset and make them happy before they leave, I'm following my goose credo of, in the joy of others lies our own. So if they're happy and that should translate to, I can become happy because I just made that person happy.

Do you have any 

[01:02:55] Mike Koelzer, Host: reincarnation? 

[01:02:57] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: We do. Uh, part of Hinduism as if, if you do enough bad things in this life, we will come back, uh, back to this earth again. But the whole goal of Hinduism is to escape that cycle of birth and death 

[01:03:10] Mike Koelzer, Host: to escape that because you want to stay in the, I can't pronounce it, but you want to stay in the heaven with God.

Correct? You're coming through this again, as almost like the Catholics coming through 

[01:03:21] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: purgatory. Exactly. I might've been here, uh, last life as an and or a monkey or God knows what I was here before, but, um, I've gotten to, you know, now I'm in a human form and the goal is to get out of this cycle of birth and death, birth and death.

Because in this cycle, you obviously there's moments in our life where we're so happy. And then there's moments in your life where like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening to me, but you can cycle 

[01:03:44] Mike Koelzer, Host: through again as, as a human still, right? 

[01:03:46] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Yes. But if I do enough positive things and I truly attach myself to God, part of them is losing your attachments.

If my car were to get stolen outside, as I walk outside and somewhere. I should not have my mindset. Like, oh my God, my car is stolen. My day's ruined my life. Right? If this pharmacy were to burn down after I go home tonight and tomorrow morning, I would wake up and walk here and the entire place would be in flames.

Yeah. If I have that stability in my mind, this was God's doing. God wanted to burn. So it burned. Now let me just move on to the next venture. So a part of me is when I opened this pharmacy, uh, I got guidance from my Google saying, what should I do next? He's kinda my coach in the sense where, um, any decision when I asked to go to business school or should it, should I go to business school or should I do this?

Um, and I got guidance to go to business school. So for me, things happen for the right reason. How many people does he guide? We have over a million followers throughout the world. 

[01:04:41] Mike Koelzer, Host: No. How many people does your group guide? Because he's more individual. You talked to him 

[01:04:46] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: personally, over a million people.

And that's the thing that blows people's minds. Can I have that personal connection with over a million people throughout the world? You don't talk 

[01:04:57] Mike Koelzer, Host: to him personally though, do you? 

[01:04:59] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: We do. So he doesn't just say it like he doesn't just say it. Gotcha during COVID right now, he's in a village in India, separate from people, but normally he goes, he travels the world.

So he was actually supposed to be here right now in New Jersey. 

[01:05:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: No, like how you mentioned the pole he's getting around and he's talking to them 

[01:05:15] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: and so on. Yes. And when he does come here to New Jersey, for example, like he was supposed to be here right now, we actually, as the voters, get an opportunity to meet him and talk to him about any problems.

No kidding. So there's like a line that forms he's in his room and then any issues, one person like the person in front of me could say, I'm seeking, uh, blessings for my marriage. Should I do this or that somebody else could say, I want to start this business. Somebody could ask these most silly questions.

Like, um, I need to, you know, I have this much money. Should I get this? Or should I get that? And there's literally any kind of guidance, but the whole aspect is whatever you, he says, it's not blind faith. Just do it with faith, trust his words, and then obviously do good while you're doing it. So when I asked him, should I take on this pharmacy or not?

I got a letter. Um, cause I got a letter back when I first asked. So right now devotees can write letters to our guru and he responds back. When he 

[01:06:08] Mike Koelzer, Host: responds back. Would you say that, is that good advice or is it inspired? Does he have inspired wisdom to share with you 

[01:06:20] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: our go to, because he has a constant connection with God.

[01:06:22] Mike Koelzer, Host: Okay. So if he has it, so then your pharmacy is not your mission only it's God's 

[01:06:28] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: mission. Yes. This pharmacy and it's not even mine. When patients come in here, this is their pharmacy. I do. While I own the names, get back to the pharmacy. I own this pharmacy, nothing in this world is mine. Everything is, is materialism in one way or another.

And everything is not infinite. Like it could be here today. It could be mined today. It could be burned up tomorrow. Um, and that way, if you have that mindset that nothing is yours, you could lose this pharmacy, uh, in terms of catastrophe, you know, it gets destroyed. And if it's not yours, you're not going to have a change in the stability of your mind.

Yeah. You're 

[01:07:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: a steward of it. You're, you're a manager of it for God, basically Mack. So you die. What do you hope God will say to you? 

[01:07:14] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: Well, I hope he's just happy with the effort that I put in because the whole goal for me regardless, is, uh, to do good for people. And, you know, it'll probably be sitting there like reviewing my checklist to see how many good things that I did and maybe bad things I did.

And hopefully I passed the test. I have, uh, enough good things that I've done for people, um, for the world and for myself, my family, um, and that I also do not have those attachments. So did I live in this world without fully being attached to everything? Like my phone was shattering. It's a phone.

Okay. I'll just replace it. And people, sometimes people might think that's kind of nuts in terms of all you're not connected to this as much, or you don't care about it. Well, if I wasn't connected to this pharmacy, I wouldn't be here 18 hours. I'm here because I have a mission and the mission is to help people and it's to help people.

And hopefully the model eventually changes and that it can become profitable while we don't necessarily make money in our prescriptions. Well, something else positive came out of it. Um, we ended up becoming one of the number one sellers of Mediterra CBD in the country. Now imagine that a brand new pharmacy becomes a top seller of CBD.

How did that happen? We didn't just put the product out there. I had a student sit out there for one of the rotations, his project, shark tank style. Let's figure it out. I want to learn about it. I want our patients to learn about it. And then I want you to be the leader of this. And he made our website.

He sat there talking to patients and we learned so much about CBD, um, that we don't sell CBD because we want to make money. We sell CBD because we want to help someone get off. Um, that whole mindset of I'm trying to change the patient's health for the better. And if it means more natural health supplements, um, doing things like exercise, or just having a positive mind, breathing, whatever it might be that can help somebody.

Awesome. And CBD is a part of that whole spectrum of natural health for me. And, it sparked enough interest where the word got to the CEO of the company. Um, they flew me out and one thing led to another. And now they're head pharmacists. 

[01:09:19] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's proof that you can do something if you keep pushing. Yep.

Well, man, if I even get a chance to talk to God, if I get there before you do, I'm going to put in a good word for you. 

[01:09:32] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: I appreciate that. You're a 

[01:09:33] Mike Koelzer, Host: good man. Hey, Mack has been a pleasure meeting you 

[01:09:37] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: likewise, I appreciate this conversation. You really made me think about things I never thought about before.

And when the opportunity meets and we meet in person or through a video interview or something, we will be dancing. We're going to celebrate because of the way things are headed. It'll change. We have to be positive. We have to be optimistic. We're caring for human beings. We're caring for our lives here.

And eventually things have to change for the better for us because we're doing things that actually care about people and, um, positive things will happen for those that care for others. No matter what, 

[01:10:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: if I tell you, I pray in the morning, can I 

[01:10:09] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: get the we're on the same team? You'll join our club. Can I join the club with the dot a hundred percent?

You're on the same team when we meet, 

[01:10:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: bring that along. And if I dance well, and if I say my prayers, I get one, 100%. I'm not giving up breakfast. So that's the only, that's the only reason I Matt joined you in your faith because there's no way in hell that I'm going to skip breakfast. 

[01:10:32] Mayank Amin, PharmD, MBA: What's crazy is I haven't eaten breakfast, lunch or dinner today.

It's nine 40 and I've been out of my house since eight o'clock in the morning. I've just had coffee and water today. You're insane. Don't do this at home kids. All right, man. God bless. Thank you, Mike. We'll talk, take care.