The Power of Offline Networking | Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD, Founder of Pharmacist Women Networking Association, Inc

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

[00:00:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, hello. 

[00:00:15] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Chara hi, Mike. Thanks for having me on charra for those who haven't 

[00:00:19] Mike Koelzer, Host: come across you online, tell the listeners why we're talking today. 

[00:00:23] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: So today we're gonna talk about networking, which is, um, something I'm extremely passionate about as a pharmacist. Um, and I think I have hopefully kind of tapped into a need into what we're, what I'm proposing and doing here in the Chicago land area.

Um, and hopefully, maybe we'll be able to extend it. Um, but we'll see right now it's just in Chicago, but, um, I have. I think we've created something pretty cool when it comes to networking for pharm. D's a lot of people 

[00:00:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: These days, when they think of networking, they think of being lazy, like me of lying on the couch at night, eating my Tostitos and talking to people online.

But I saw a picture and you've got this room just packed full of people, mostly women, some men. And I'm like, I've got to talk to her because this is almost going counter cultural of shifting now, because the last 15 years we've seen a lot of service clubs and different things kind of going down because we always say people have enough social interaction online, but you're kind of taking it the other way of having it online, but also live so.

How did that idea come about? And how did I get to be looking at a picture packed with how many people were in that 

[00:01:52] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: picture? It was a big crowd of over 80 people. It started online. So I, there, I just kind of had this idea. I had seen something similar online, but the need that I saw. What I had seen previously online for pharmacists, women didn't really connect with me.

So I was like, well, you know what, if that's not connecting with me, let me go a different route. And I just created this Facebook online Facebook group called pharmacist women. And I literally just start inviting my friends and I'm like, Hey, like let's connect online. You invite your friends who are pharmacists.

Um, we've kind of now even opened it to pharmacy students. I'm like, let's start connecting. And maybe we can keep this super professional. And this will be about us asking our questions to each other, relying on each other to, you know, to see how you are doing things at your healthcare system may be different from what I'm doing or have a legal question, or, you know, what's new in the law.

In Illinois or wherever state you're in. And I just thought it'd be cool to connect. Um, and I started this group probably about a year and a half ago, and I don't know if an idea kind of popped in my head that like so many of the women in this group are in Chicago. Why don't we get together? Why don't we get together face to face and meet, meet each other instead of just, you know, kind of talking online.

And I partnered with one of my drug reps who I'm, um, Friends with. And we were like, let's do the topic of endometriosis. That's a female disease state. She's like, I'll bring in an OB guide to talk to you guys. And she's like, you post the invite and I'll take the RSVPs for you guys. And we'll just see what happens.

And I mean, I thought maybe 20, if that would come, I, I, you know, really had very low expectations about who or how many people would come. And, um, I came that night to the program and I was shocked that 50 pharmacists came and it was just our very first meeting. Um, in February of 2019, it was crazy.

Did you 

[00:04:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: feel that you had to put a reason for it with a speaker? Did you at any point say. We're strictly going to network. What was your decision on having a program versus not having a program? 

[00:04:27] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Um, so I think I was thinking. To keep it free and they include dinner. And I thought maybe I was like, so if we wanna keep it free and we wanna include dinner, then we need pharma to sponsor it through their proper channels that they have to do to sponsor it, which includes education and having a speaker.

But of course it's not connected to CE cuz it is a sales, you know, it's through their sales team. I gotcha. So that's how that piece came about. I'm like, well, Let the hook be a good restaurant and a good meal, and you don't have to pay for anything. Gotcha. Um, and we'll see what 

[00:05:05] Mike Koelzer, Host: happens and was the most recent one that way too, with the pharma involved 

[00:05:10] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: and so on.

Yeah. So weird. Cuz so part of my role, um, at my organization is I have to meet with pharma quite often. I talk to MSLs, I talk with field reimbursement managers. I talk with sales reps because when you're in the area of specialty pharmacy, it's constantly changing particularly in oncology. So we always have to keep up with, you know, what's going on.

So I kind of had a pretty large Rolodex of people that I could call and ask to, um, to sponsor. The dinners. And so we just decided, or I just decided, I'm not sure why I'm saying we, I decided to, to do this month. You gotta say 

[00:05:51] Mike Koelzer, Host: we, in case you have to blame it on someone later to blame 

[00:05:54] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: someone. Sorry. um, and so , I created a spreadsheet in Excel and I was like, okay, first month, end endometriosis.

We're gonna do it this February. And then I put the months out for the year. And as I would see people, I would kind of pitch the idea. And to my rep, who was my rep for the endometriosis product, the, what was in it for her was that she was gonna get access to pharmacists that she can't just walk in the door , you know, and get access to.

Right. So when I kind of, when I was explaining that to some of the other people who are in pharma, they were like, holy cow, like, this is a genius. This is, you know, this is a great idea. Um, cuz you're right. We struggle to get people to come to our drug dinners and if you can bring the group and we just have to provide dinner and the speaker, and then we get to talk, you know, to these pharmacists who are here in the room, then this is kind of a win-win for everybody.

[00:06:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: All right, I'm gonna play devil's advocate. Somebody says, oh, another dinner, another drug rep, another somebody trying to. Get us seeing the benefits of their product and so on. I wish that Shara would just have an event to say we're just there to, to meet each other and to talk. Do you see that competing?

I mean, maybe you would only have five people show up in that regard if you don't have, if you don't have free free meals and so on, do you see, and, and I'm not saying it is I'm playing the devil's advocate. Do you see it being watered down at all by combining a product or drug rep with it still? 

[00:07:50] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Uh, I, I could see where you're coming from, but I think.

I could see that. So because of that, I typically ask for unbranded talks. Um, I gotcha. So that kind of, a lot of times steers us away from kind of having a product shove down your throat. Yeah. But I think the other thing is I, we are all pharmacists. And so usually my task now is to make it unbranded.

However, they don't always want that, you know, they wanna talk about their product, which is okay. Um, and I think as a phar D. I mean, we're not for the most part, we're not prescribers. There are some of us that do some prescribing in our practices. Sure. But for the most part we're not. And so it really is about being educated on what's going on out there.

And the other thing is, if we can we get a pharm D speaker not always possible, but we do a lot of times have a pharmacist. Who's the speaker? And if you don't have a pharmacist, a lot of times they're bringing in a physician who really is, um, well known or, um, would be a great person to kind of pick their brain on these disease states and, and these products.

And typically. After the program's closed out. You really can. Um, if you wanna go off topic with a provider, you can, um, and, and, and talk to them real talk like, okay, if I have this patient, like, what do you think? So there is some, you know, perk to having some of these experts come in, um, and talk to our group.

But I will say that regardless of what the topic is, The most important thing. And I think the thing that I, I probably didn't emphasize the first couple of months, but I think after probably about month three, I was like, look, this is about networking. Yes. We're gonna take 30 minutes to be educated about some topic or some product.

Right. But what I really. What you guys need to do is stop sitting with your friends. You already know what your friends do. You need to sit with people that you don't know and get to know the other ladies at the table. So you can 

[00:09:58] Mike Koelzer, Host: sort of combine those and maybe someday in the future, as you start to raise that up first, you wanna sometimes get the numbers.

You can stress more or less of that, depending upon, you know, what the numbers are doing, 

[00:10:12] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: but that's cool. And, it was really my goal and I kind of led by example, cuz I think. What happens is we just get comfortable and we just wanna sit with our girlfriends and we wanna catch up. Right. And there's nothing wrong with that.

But the point is, we are in a room of anywhere from 25 now to 80 people who are pharmacists or pharmacy students who are doing really phenomenal, amazing things. Like we would be crazy not to spend our time trying to get to know who these people are face to face. And, and I'm sorry, you can LinkedIn all day long, but I can't refer you to a job if I actually don't even actually know you or know what you look like.

you know, so, so 

[00:11:01] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah, because on LinkedIn you'll, you'll see somebody and you'll say, wait, that's the same. That's the same person. And then you'll say, yeah, I guess I can see that. I guess that photo kind of matches them and so on, but you make these ideas 

[00:11:16] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: up in your head. Yeah. Um, and the thing is, is that it, I have people reach out to me on LinkedIn, you know, every day, all the time, but, and they'll be like, Hey, you know, I see you work for this company and, or you've worked for this company and would you refer me in?

And sometimes it's just hard to do that because I, I, you're a random person. Um, and I, you know, and I have a reputation, you know? And so you don't wanna just, you know, refer to anybody and you don't actually know the person, you know? So I think sometimes it's, uh, a little bit difficult to make. I certainly don't mind making connections for people. I'll connect with them.

Right. Like, oh, Hey, I can connect you. But I can't necessarily. Refer you into a position. If I, if I don't know you, 

[00:12:06] Mike Koelzer, Host: I got a reputation too, but I think when you referred to your reputation, you were talking about having a good one.

[00:12:15] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: right. Hard working. Good, good one. And I don't wanna mess that up. 

[00:12:21] Mike Koelzer, Host: Here's what I wanna complain about to you. All right. You've got a profession. That's two thirds women, and

women have had their struggles in history, just like men have, I suppose, different struggles and so on. But right now I would say women are doing. Pretty much okay. In pharmacy. Why are there all these women support groups and nothing for us, men? And now, listen, before you answer that, don't gimme that answer.

Like, well, some of the guys could come to this and so on. It's like, no, but this is called women in pharmacy. Why are you leaving us poor men out of this?

[00:13:08] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: You know, I, you know, I, I actually am not sorry that I'm leaving you guys out, but I say this I'm not gonna, I'm trying to stop apologizing for things that I'm really about.

So here's the thing you're right. The world of pharmacy has for sure changed and the classes are now becoming mostly female. And I think for sure it's shifting, but. What hasn't shifted is leadership. Oh, right. So I, if you look at the leadership structure and most organizations and, and where pharmacists men actually have gotten in their careers, we have not gotten there yet.

And yes, and we're ne and it's unfortunate because the leadership should be a representation of the people who are what I call the worker bees, you know, us kind of at the bottom, we're the worker bees. , but we're not represented in leadership in the same proportion that we are in the workforce. Yeah. 

[00:14:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: That makes a lot of sense.

That makes a lot of sense. So, Chara, you had some individual goals going into this, and one was meeting people face to face. Now, at what size does this get? That you say, this is defeating my own personal purpose of meeting more people. For example, let's say that you're having this event and, and 5,000 women show up in theory, it kind of almost starts to become like LinkedIn, right, where you've got all these connections, but with 5,000 people, you sort of have to spread yourself out because you're the leader.

So you need to connect and so on. When does that feel too big for you or does it ever, and you're probably always able to go off and have your social group be the administrators of the larger group, but when does this happen? Too big if ever, 

[00:15:12] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: you know, I don't know. I, I will tell you that, um, the room of 80 was probably too big for me personally, um, because, uh, being the organizer, uh, and, and it's weird for me because I don't see myself as a person that's doing anything amazing or anything so unique, but people wanna talk to me, which is, um, very, I I'm very, just surprised , you know, when it comes to that.

So it actually was very difficult for me. Yeah. To talk to, I had a, you know, like several people at a time waiting to kind of get in and, and, and I mean, they were very gracious and even just like, We wanna thank you for providing this forum for us. It was, it was a lot, um, at 5,000. I mean, obviously I can't talk to 5,000 people individually, you know, in a day, but I mean, I, I can't even imagine 5,000, like, I mean, I think that would be amazing.

And the point, and, and this is actually one of the other reasons, and one of the other points that I wanna bring up is that because I am contacted on LinkedIn so often about my role, my job, um, do I have a job? I was like, this came out of that. And I said, you know, I personally cannot help everybody. I, I don't have enough roles, pharmacist roles in my position to help all of the number of people that, you know, want.

Unique positions. I just, I don't have that. But what I can provide for you is a forum to meet other people that have that, or perhaps you have it and you're looking, you know, for right. You know, someone to hire. So that was really the purpose. If it's, the purpose is bigger than me. It's not about me, me or talking to me.

I don't have that many positions, you know, open at a time. The purpose is to be there, there are female pharmacists doing far more amazing things than me to go meet them too. Like they're, you've given them that, 

[00:17:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: that opportunity to do that. Absolutely. I never had people looking. to me for a job. I've always thought it's because they know we don't have so many jobs at my independent pharmacy, but I think it's getting to the point where it might be personal.

They just don't wanna work with 

[00:17:33] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: me. Are you a bad boss, Mike? I don't know. 

[00:17:38] Mike Koelzer, Host: I, I, uh, what I started to do is I think if I can be more forthright and honest with people that makes me a better boss, cuz I've always kind of held back a bit thinking that there was going to maybe create some peace or motivation or something.

But I think if I could have done things over, I would've been more honest and forthright along the way. And let people decide maybe earlier in. Career, at least here, whether I was the right fit for them or not, not, everybody's going to be of course, you know? 

[00:18:15] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Absolutely. 

[00:18:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's so true. When you have these women then show up, do you then use any tools of the trade?

Do you suggest that they bring their business cards? Do you teach them? How to network at all, or is it like, Hey, I've done my job by putting all you ladies in a room now it's your 

[00:18:38] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: responsibility. Well, you know, I don't, so I don't guide them or direct them to bring their business cards or, or bring their resumes.

And the, and, and that's on purpose. The point of this networking event is to create relationships. So to me, it comes off very disingenuous. Sometimes if you're like, Hey, here's my resume. Can you hire me? Right. You know, the point is to let's organically, naturally connect, actually connect. Yeah. I mean, friendships have been formed.

People have gotten jobs by meeting people, you know, out of the group, but it's, you know, it, it's not this formalized, like speed dating, let's meet , you know, if you're a fit for my company kind of thing. 

[00:19:25] Mike Koelzer, Host: When do you decide with this group? When do you have the break off group? We're going canoeing

[00:19:36] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: I dunno. Or is it always gonna stay like, 

[00:19:39] Mike Koelzer, Host: or is it always gonna stay, you have to have a canoe party, you know? Or is it always gonna stay like, is it always gonna be like this formal? 

[00:19:46] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Um, you know, I, I don't know, like, it's, it's weird that this thing has happened to me. It's weird. You know, now I'm like, okay, do I create a website?

Do I make it a 5 0 1, 3 C? Like what, what do I do with this thing? You know? And then people contacted me, like, I wish this was in, in Dallas. And I wish we had this in Atlanta and I wish we had this, you know, in all these other places. And, now I'm like, holy cow, is this like a thing that I need to pursue on a bigger scale, cuz I never really consider myself a business person in that sense or I just never.

Even thought that this thing would happen the way it did. 

[00:20:33] Mike Koelzer, Host: You don't consider yourself that, but I know that you run six clinics and you're doing this and you're doing that. So you've got a ton of stuff already going. 

[00:20:45] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: That's true. I speak for like six drug companies and I'm all over the place already, you know, as it is.

So, you know, I, I honestly don't for myself, don't really know what my future holds. Um, but I will say the cool thing is that, um, I think everything I've, that I've kind of gotten an opportunity to do was just like this group came out of like, well, this other thing doesn't really fit me. So like, let, let me try to do my own thing.

Right. And so I kind of. You know, that's how it came about. All right. Chara. So what holes 

[00:21:24] Mike Koelzer, Host: Are you filling? Because I'm gonna, I'm gonna go back to the devil's advocate. CHAA there are drug reps that already are trying to get groups together. There's the Illinois state pharmacy association. What county are you in?

DuPage. All right. There's a DuPage county pharmacist association. And so on there 

[00:21:47] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: is that exists. 

[00:21:50] Mike Koelzer, Host: what hold do you think you're filling that they're not. Do you think it's the woman angle? 

[00:21:58] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Uh, I don't think, I don't know. You know, that's the, that's the crazy thing about it is that I didn't know that I was fulfilling a need of, of anything besides I can't give you guys all jobs.

Like let's try to get some other people in the room who maybe, you know, need people. I didn't realize really what this was until people kept telling me. So people kept coming up to me and said, I can't believe no one else thought of this. I, you know, this has been so much fun. And I think the other thing is, if you have ever been to a conference.

You pick it? I don't wanna name any, but you name your favorite conference, right? Pharmacist driven conference. People don't wanna talk to you. you'll sit down at a table. They don't talk, they don't talk at all. Don't talk. And it's like pulling teeth to get the person next to you, just to tell you like where they work, what they do.

Like no one wants to talk to you. And so the fact that I think I. Into this obviously being an I'm an extrovert clearly. Uh, it's probably obvious, but I went in, not even, you know, I'm I went in with the purpose of, you need to connect with other people. Like, that's why we're here. We're, you're not just here to talk to your girlfriends.

I mean, if that's what you wanna do, great, but then you're, you're missing out on the reason that we're getting together. And I think having set that as a precedent and then even me taking my own advice and not sitting with my friends and sitting with people that I don't know, and purposely talking to women that are doing other things, I think, I think that's what's different.

[00:23:47] Mike Koelzer, Host: Chara I think that's a pretty big assumption on your part to say that girlfriends get together and like to talk a lot.

I've never seen that before. You're killing me, 

[00:24:00] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Mike. You're killing me. I've never seen that before. 

[00:24:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: Why? It doesn't, it doesn't seem that you should make that, that assumption on, on behalf of all women 

[00:24:09] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Well, you know what, let me just tell you this. I get paid a lot of money to fly across the country, to speak for all different sorts of things.

And even my own husband cannot believe someone pays me to talk.

[00:24:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: It's true. What do you say about you? Don't always know a lot of times you just have to get out in front and people will come to you and tell you what their needs are. For example, with the podcast here, it's. Maybe not very well known, but there's not a lot of listener interaction with the podcast host, because if you think about it, when you listen to a podcast, there's not a lot of places like comments because people can listen across the board, right?

On a dozen different podcast apps. There's not really a good way to then respond to someone like there would be on a, maybe a blog or different social media posts or YouTube even and so on. But occasionally though you just get the people that will pick you out through social media and just tell you some things.

And then once two or three, maybe repeat that same message you say, okay, I've been out leading here. And now I understand more of my mission from listening to who's giving that, that back to 

[00:25:34] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: us. Totally. I, yeah. I mean, I totally agree with that. I, I think you don't , I think there's probably a lot of people that, you know, go into something, not really knowing if it's gonna be successful or knowing if people are gonna, you know, if it's gonna be a thing for a month or two and fizzles out, like you, you just don't know.

And so that's why I think it's so surprising to me when the rep called me before last week's program, freaking out like, oh my gosh, I have like 90 RSVPs. And I mean, cuz I told her 40 people. Yeah. We didn't know we were gonna like double that. So I mean it that's the part that I think is so surprising and I, I think I say it almost to every program.

I like the people who come are what makes this thing great. It's not me. It's the people who come. Right. I'm just the coordinator. That's all, I'm the coordinator. Yeah. But these ladies that come out month after month and then invite their friends and, and I had one girl say on LinkedIn, she's like, she's like, I am, I don't know how old she is.

Probably in her thirties or early forties. And she's a mom and has kids. And she said, she used to love to go to the club when she was younger. And she's like, I used to love to go to the club. It was so much fun. And she's like, I kind of equate your dinner program, like going to the club, but without coming out, smelling like smoke and my ears ringing cuz the music was so loud.

yeah, 

[00:27:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: exactly, exactly. Well, and, and I think part of the, I'm just guessing this, I think part of the challenge of this. Total guess is that if you were to take this, let's say all of a sudden that you, this went crazy and all of a sudden you needed more help and you had to get more official. And so on.

Sometimes that can play tug of war with the nature of the group. And what I mean by that is mm-hmm, part of the appeal of this group is probably because it's not part of a, maybe let's just say it's not part of a state or federal association. It's not part of something that already has a lot of boundaries and red tape.

And so on that it is just, it seems more social and more like pop up as soon as let's say, all of a sudden you had millions of dollars in this CEO comes in and this and this and this pretty soon, it almost starts looking so structured that. The next person, like you is gonna come by and say, let's do something unstructured.

I think people like that , you 

[00:28:20] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: now. Yeah, no, I, I see what you're saying. I, and that's why I said I don't, I'm kind of just riding the wave. I don't really know where this is gonna take me because I would hate to lose the spirit that we have right now. I mean, it's, it's, it's a lot of fun. I mean, you come away, people call me or email me the next day.

And they're like, this one girl called me and she's like, oh my gosh, that, that last night was just so good for my spirit. It was so good for my soul. I had such a good time. And I'm like, what, what do I do with that? Like, that's insane. Like, you know, I just, I don't know, cuz I certainly don't wanna lose, lose that, you know, years 

[00:29:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: ago.

And this is, this is like 15, 20 years ago. The real big. Things were always like a mission statement, a vision statement. I mean, you couldn't turn around without hearing about the mission statement and vision statement, but there is a beauty to that because like our county pharmacy association, we were always trying to say why we were together.

And finally, I don't know if we ever approved this, like with the state or anything, but we finally told our group, one of the main things was to socialize, you know, that was it. It was like socializing. And I think that we're always tempted with our mission and vision statements to make it sound like it's something more noble, but like in your case, I would think, well, first of all, before I get my hand slapped, have you guys have you set that time up to say here's our mission and vision statement?

[00:30:02] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: No, I haven't done anything, you know, in that, in that regard, you know, at all, I haven't, you know, I, that's why I said, I don't know where this is gonna lead me. I haven't thought about it as deeply as maybe I should. 

[00:30:15] Mike Koelzer, Host: Here's my advice to you jar. My advice is if you get around to that or just in your head, what, what the purpose is that you don't try to get too fluffy with it and say that it is a way to improve your knowledge and keep updated on this and this and that, because the way I see it is that if you were able to attract the same amount of people and get a free dinner, you know, which is always nice and focused on pharmacy, somehow, if you were able to do that by.

Having a, you know, bingo or something like that, I'm being facetious, but you know what I mean? It's like, it's like the purpose of your thing is to be social and, and you don't have to make any apologies about that. And the professional stuff that comes there, it, it's not necessarily part of your mission necessarily.

It's really just a means to get to your mission. 

[00:31:24] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: You know what I mean? No, I, I, I, I think that's great advice. I mean, I didn't think about it. People try to be too fancy. No, I think that that's awesome. That, that, that, that is actually really good advice because I think that's what makes it such a good time is that it's.

Anything, like, we're not trying to save the world, you know, we're not, we're just, we really are having a good time. And I think you could probably see that if you saw the video or see the pictures, I mean, it truly is to connect, to make real connections because yeah, you just, that I can't stress that enough for pharmacists, like to connect with people and don't be fake and don't be phony.

Like people don't want you running in with their resume and their business card and your face. Right. And don't make any apologies about that. No, I, I, I think that's great. The main 

[00:32:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: thing is truly face to face 

[00:32:22] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: networking. Without the context or the pretext in your mind that I wanna get something out of this.

It's not about getting something out of this, you know? Yeah. I think when you naturally and organically network with people, those things come later, you know, you've gotten to know somebody you've gotten to know what they do. You can connect on whatever other level it is. You know, that, that of common denominator that there is that, you know, that you like to do or talk about, you know, your kids or your pets or your, I don't wanna have kids or, you know, whatever it is, you know, there's other things that you can connect on, but it's, it's, it's not trying to like, get something out of somebody cuz that comes off as really fake you.

[00:33:08] Mike Koelzer, Host: And I hold a lot in common with that. Right now, just like you, I've got my own source of income. I wish it was higher, but I've got it in the pharmacy that I own. So my goal right now, and I've been talking to some people about this, but my goal with the podcast, I've got some deeper goals that someday may come out.

But for the first year, my goal is simply to give. And I enjoy it. So it's not like I'm begrudgingly giving or feel noble for doing this. I enjoy it, but it's just to give, well, let me put it this way. It's not to take anything. If anything, it's neutral or it's giving, but it's not to take anything because you see it all the time on LinkedIn, people connect with you.

And then either three minutes later, or three hours later or something, they want something. And so I. On this day of mistrust, that is all around us, that I'm committing to a year of this, and I'll probably eat my words and come out and beg for something in a week. But right now on my podcast, I don't ask for anything.

I don't try to promote anything. I don't tell people to share my podcast. I don't tell people to listen in and so on, or that it's the best or this or that. My goal right now is just to be interesting and entertaining. Arguably, I'm not even close to either of those, but at least I'm not, you know, I'm not pushing anything.

And I think that's where you are right now. It's like, let's give this some time, see where it goes and just see, see what comes from it. And someday you can do more with it, but let's not give people a chance to feel like they have to hold onto their wallet 

[00:35:01] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: at this point. Yeah. I mean, I, I agree. I think, um, I think I, I definitely went into it with the idea of, for now, like the, I, I really wanted this to be free.

I didn't want anyone to have to pay anything to the network. I think pharmacists are tugged in so many different directions, with different organizations that do require, you know, to, you know, you, to, to be a member and to pay, to be a member. I, you know, there's lots of great organizations that, and, and you can get a lot out of those organizations.

And so I definitely went in with the purpose. Right now, let's just keep this free. Let's keep it, you know, um, no strings attached you know, and let's, let's just see what happens. I, I, I honestly, um, didn't know it was as popular as it was, but I, I still. You know, I think as pharmacists we're, so we're used to doing everything for free, right.

That's what we do. We talk to people for free, you know? And so, I mean, and, and I think, you know, there's something about something in us sometimes that, that likes to just, you know, do it all for free and don't charge anybody. But, um, yeah, but, but yeah, I mean, I think in this forum, I'm definitely keeping it free.

I think I have changed my mentality. By listening to some other people, I've kind of changed my mentality about always doing things for free. So I, um, you know, I, I do advisory boards and all these other things, but pharma needs to pay me. like, they need to pay me for the advice that I'm giving , you know, at some 

[00:36:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: point whatever direction the good Lord has put you in at some point, one of the things you're doing has to be.

Income coming in now, if, if you want to do some things in another way, without that that's, everybody's prerogative to do that, but there's gotta be some way for money 

[00:37:03] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: to be coming in. Yeah. I mean, especially if this ends up probably growing, obviously it would , you know, there's some, like we would have to figure something out.

I don't, I don't know if that's, you know, that we get sponsorship, you know, there, there's lots of different ways to do organizations and I'm kind of looking at all of those different things, but, um, but yeah, for now it, I, I, I don't want, I, I don't want people to feel like they have to pay to get value out of this, the point right now.

It is just, it is what it is. The only thing you have to do is sit down and listen to the lecture. that the drug company is. Sponsoring, you know, 

[00:37:45] Mike Koelzer, Host: because you started this, you always probably had in your system, like, okay, it's good to know other people. It's good to have connections and so on.

What are some? Personal ways that you have felt that you have networked well, maybe above the average connections. 

[00:38:05] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: So two things. So I'll tell you the thing I did most recently to kind of stretch myself and put my money where my mouth is. So I joined an organization that is for healthcare executives. So it is for people who, you know, there's all sorts of different backgrounds and roles there.

Certainly I think. Networking event. I went to, I was the only pharmacist there and, and I did that on purpose. So they had a networking event. You did have to pay for it. So I did pay, I think it was like 50 bucks to go. I didn't really know what to expect, but I did know that the CEO of one of the big hospitals in the area was speaking.

And I was like, well, you know, I'm, I'm in healthcare and I'm in administration. I think it'd be good for me to put myself out there. Go to a program with no expectation that I'm gonna know anybody there. And I'm just going to get to know people who are in healthcare in other roles. Um, so I did that recently, um, and, and it was great.

It was cool. And I actually, from that encounter, actually joined the networking committee for that organization. So I'll be doing some more things, um, in that realm because I think I've got it down, locked down here on networking with pharmacists. I think I need to stretch myself and network with other healthcare executives and other healthcare professionals.

Um, and just see where that leads. And then the other thing that I, I think. That I do really well, is because, uh, a lot of what I do on a day to day basis does involve industry and pharma and understanding what, what they have to offer. I think I've sort of become the industry advocate for pharm DS.

And I, I'm passionate about the fact that I have sat through all these drug dinners and, and, and to me, it's kind of ridiculous that I can bring together a group of all pharmacists. And I'm speaking to these companies and they don't have a pharm D speaker. To me it is just like mind blowing, right? I'm like, we, you guys are again leaving us outside and Le you're not giving us a seat at the table.

You can't create education for healthcare professionals and don't consider, uh, the pharmacist, you know, so, yeah. Right. That's been kind of me. My mission lately is that whenever I get a chance to talk to pharma, I talk to directors or executives, even VPs that, you know, I come across, I, I make sure to kind of drive that home, which, you know, it's funny because a lot of the companies are like, yeah, you're right.

We don't have pharm D speakers. So do you want the job? you know, so I get a lot of, you know, just because I think I'm, I'm so passionate about advocating for pharmacists. And I think the second layer of networking is to be an advocate for yourself. I mean, I did it to you. I was like, Hey, you're talking about your podcast.

You haven't had me on. like, We need to talk you 

[00:41:17] Mike Koelzer, Host: said where's my picture on that thing. And I was just gonna, I was gonna be like, you know, just gimme your damn picture and I'll put it up there. No one says you had to do the show, but I'm like, all right, well now Char, now Char's already, she's already had the vision of her talking to me and I'll be damned if I'm gonna ruin that vision for her.

So I had to call you up and get you on 

[00:41:37] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: here. and, and that's the thing is that sometimes you just have to UN unjust UN unashamedly advocate, whatever that word is. Right. Advocate for yourself. And, and I think that has been my second thing that I think I'm, I'm getting better at. Yeah. It looks like I'm doing really cool things here and people need to hear about, you know, what I'm doing.

Right. And so, and because of that, like, you gotta advocate for yourself. So I do that all the time with pharma. And it's so funny because you'll be sitting in a room of marketing, you know, executives, and they just are like listening to your every word, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe we haven't thought about this yet.

Yeah, exactly. And it's like, yeah, you gotta have an education that targets pharmacists. We don't wanna sit. I mean, granted, we love our doctors and we love our nurses. Right. But we wanna listen to pharmacists and we wanna learn about this product or this disease state from someone who understands what we do for a living.

I'm 

[00:42:40] Mike Koelzer, Host: a believer in this. I think that if you join a group, To truly join a group. You really don't get the most networking out of it unless you join one of the committees. 

[00:42:53] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Yeah. You know, I, I think that was, I think that kind of was, is, I don't know if I like just naturally, I, I don't know if it's, I'm a first born type a yeah.

You know, I don't know what it is, but when I connect with an organization, I really believe in what they're doing. Automatically I'm like, I need to be on a committee. Yeah. Like that's just, that's literally the very first thing that I volunteer myself from. And that's what I'm talking about though. That's why you gotta put yourself out there.

So it's not just, you know, connecting, this is great, you know, we're networking with other women, but like, you have to put yourself out there, you have to advocate for yourself. You gotta do some extra work. It's not easy to like, you know, on these committees. It's not like you're getting paid. No, you know, to do these things, you're, you know, you're doing it for your career.

And if you're serious about your career and you're serious about doing these other things, then, then you do have to put in the work. And I think, um, that's one of the things that I do is I join committees. I do the work I get on the conference calls. I will do my best. Presentation part if that's what they need.

Right. Um, when they ask me and those things actually lead to speaking, you know, at the conference, I'm going to a conference in a few weeks and they're like, Hey, we need someone to speak on this and this. And so I'm doing a couple, um, speaking sessions for this other particular conference. and joining those 

[00:44:16] Mike Koelzer, Host: committees, it's easier than it used to be because someone you'll join a committee and they'll say, we need to have so many people volunteering for this, or we need to find out what people think on this and so on.

And, and it's not the days of old with phone calls and trying to, you know, play catch and things. There's enough programs out there of, of, uh, volunteer scheduling programs and all that stuff. It's really typically the things that you get tasked with in these organizations are not that, not that tough to do.

And I put my money where my mouth is. So in the neighborhood association, I've been the vice president neighbor association, the president of our Kent county pharmacy association on the marketing committee at the state of Michigan pharmacy association. Not all at once, but the head of the, the president of the school board and so on is that it's not all that tough.

And you just get it. So much out of it and if it's really, when you're working together, it seems where you bond with people more when you're working together more than just. Being together or knowing each other. 

[00:45:24] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Yeah. I mean, that, that, that is so true. And that's the thing is that I've, I'm, you know, president of the alumni council.

So when I go to alumni meetings, we are, you know, talking about different things and, and from that work encounter, I can refer you , you know, to a job because I'm like, Hey, this person works so hard on this. Or, you know, I've spent some time with them. So it's a much easier sell to be like, Hey, I'll put my name behind you.

I'll email them and I'll let them know about you. Um, and, and, and believe it or not even that, that has worked, you know, I've referred someone in who I actually never worked with at a traditional job, but we were on alumni council together. 

[00:46:06] Mike Koelzer, Host: The only place that working for me has not resulted in having.

More involvement or a higher say has been at my home because it's, you know, it's my wife, then my dog, then my five daughters, then my five sons. And then dad, I get to like the last say I get the last say, yeah, yeah, I get the last say and stuff. And it's like, I just worked all day. And it's like, well, you know, you get the burnt, you get the last burnt piece of this or something like that.

It's fair enough 

[00:46:37] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: though. No, I know I'm the least, most important person at home. They 

[00:46:42] Mike Koelzer, Host: call that servant leadership or something like that. I haven't figured it out, but at least that's what I tell myself. 

[00:46:51] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: No, that is so funny. It's so true. Um, yeah, there, there's nothing more humbling from, you know, this day where everyone's telling you how fantastic you are, yeah.

Then going home and like your kid hasn't done their homework and lunches. Not making the house exactly is a disaster. Exactly. Exactly. It's. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm not actually that important and this is 

[00:47:13] Mike Koelzer, Host: something you could talk about forever where you get, let's say, I won't name any names because we could all fall into this where you get these Hollywood stars who are saving the world, you know, but they're on their fifth divorce and they're, you know, this and that.

And so sometimes it's easier to do things like the good Lord says, he says a prophet is not accepted in his hometown or something like that. And it's like, yeah, I know that when I walk inside the home and no one says hi 

[00:47:39] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: to you, I tell my kids that I'm like, you know, your mother is actually a really important person.

I know you don't actually, I know you don't know that right now. 

[00:47:49] Mike Koelzer, Host: yeah. Okay. Mom, could you go downstairs in the basement and reset the modem? 

[00:47:55] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: yes, that's it? It is. It's so true. When we 

[00:47:59] Mike Koelzer, Host: talk about pharmacists not being real social, sometimes. Is that the chicken or the egg, do you think that pharmacy has maybe attracted this?

There's a lot of stereotypical industries, you know, let's say accountants or engineers, things like that. Do you see it more in pharmacies than other places of people not socializing? And why, why is that? If you do, 

[00:48:31] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: um, you know, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's pharmacy driven. I, I think, I think it's just the culture.

Like we're not, we don't have to socialize. Right? We can, you can, we don't have to have an online group of friends, you know, Tight with those you never met. Um, and that's just the way that the things are now is that we are not, we don't always have to connect in person and that, and I think that's the beauty of, you know, what we're doing is that, um, I honestly don't care how great of a relationship you have online with someone, um, that does not, uh, that, that just doesn't take over, take the place of getting to meet people in person, cuz you could portray yourself any sort of a way, you know, online, you and I do and so, and then if you, but then you're like, wait a minute.

I know you and uh, your husband's a jerk. So it's really shocking that you're constantly posting about how amazing he is. yeah. So, 

[00:49:36] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well you see that with these, some of these families. family, suicide murders, you know, they're posting all this beautiful stuff. And then three days later, you know, the whole family gets wiped out usually by a jerk of a husband who, you know, decided not just to take himself, but wipe out his family with it.

[00:49:55] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Yeah. That's crazy. 

[00:49:57] Mike Koelzer, Host: What advice would you give people in general that people maybe could do in their daily life, whether it's social or whether it's in person? To at least pretend to be networking. Don't 

[00:50:12] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Look at the person who's doing all these crazy, you know, amazing things that you're seeing and be like, Hey, I wanna do that too.

If you're not willing to do the work. So none of us got to the positions that we're in overnight, right. It is years of, you know, work and connecting and forming relationships. So yeah, I get messages all the time. Like how did you get to speak for all these companies? Like, I want to do that too, which is great.

I think it's great. Like, and I'll tell you what I did, but. Part of what I did was I spent three years talking to pharma about having pharm D speakers so it's not like it didn't happen overnight, you know? So you do have to be patient, put in the work, put in the work, be patient, put yourself out there, and there's a million different ways to do it.

There's so many different ways. And so many different things you can get involved in that are pharmacists associated or business associated or right. Whatever it is, your thing is, put yourself out there. And I think you'll, you'll be sh you'll be surprised at, at what, what can come your way from how comes and 

[00:51:21] Mike Koelzer, Host: putting in the work.

There are no overnight successes in the world of networking. at all. You'll have to take my word for it. That I'm not a bodybuilder and I don't have an Instagram. Are you sure? I build it, but it's not muscle. Um, , don't feel bad if people are rising through social network because of their looks, because looks are not gonna be the person that can go up and use some of the, how to win friends and influence people, traits of talking to people and asking questions about their life and their, and their family and you know, those kind of things.

And so for all of those that were not blessed, maybe with social media, Presence has nothing to do with your real life networking that you can do. 

[00:52:15] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Absolutely nothing takes the place of a face to face, um, connection. And I think, I mean, I would love to have a charge to these other very well established pharmacist organizations to encourage people to talk to each other.

Yeah. Like I just, it's the perfect forum and the fact that everyone just likes walks around in their own little world and, and, and, and it's just not encouraged to like, To meet all the people, you know, sitting at your table, like, don't just sit there. And I, and I know I'm not the only one that's experienced that.

Or you do start to talk to someone and it's like one word answers and you're like, oh, okay. Um, yeah, so they don't wanna talk to me. 

[00:53:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: someone told me on the earlier podcast, they said, try to get to a different convention, you know, or, or show other than pharmacy, like either a podcast or, you know, business or technology or something.

And they'll say, it's just like, , it's like night and day between the interaction, you know, some of it's from the. The nature of a pharmacist being usually fairly precise in their, in their thinking. And, and a lot of, a lot of structured thinking. Part of it is the current financial stresses on the industry of, especially in, in community pharmacy where people don't have maybe a lot of positive outlooks on things and so on.

So it can be a struggle at those. But on the other hand, if you do stick out a little bit, it's like more power to you because you're like a, you know, big fish in a small pond or a, or a rose among thorns, I suppose. Yeah. 

[00:54:02] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: I, I mean, it, to me, that's so sad that we would be at some place and don't get to know each other, it's just right.

I mean, and, and you're right. You know, and I love multidisciplinary organizations, you know, I'm part of some, you know, an oncology multidisciplinary organization and some of my. Best friends or acquaintances or whatever you wanna call 'em right. Like we're excited to see each other twice a year are not pharmacists, you know, there are other healthcare professionals.

Yeah. And so it's just, um, just to not, not limit yourself, I think, you know, I don't know how I made those steps cuz I, I certainly didn't have anyone guiding me to, you know, any one particular thing. I just kind of stumbled my way through. And that's why I'm like right now, like I didn't have someone talking to me when I was a.

P three or P four saying like, you need to do this and you need to do that and you need to put yourself out there. You need to, I didn't have anyone telling me those things. Yeah. And so, you know, now that I kind of have this platform, I'm, I'm so vocal about the fact that don't look at my LinkedIn profile or CV and be like, holy cow, like she's so special.

I'm not that special. I'm the same as everyone else. It's just that I have done some work, you know, to you've done the work, you know, to get to some of the, you know, I've done a lot of work, you know, and I'm, and I'm grateful and, and, and blessed and, you know, in a sense that yeah. You know, that I've been given these really cool, you know, opportunities, but just because of that, like there was work involved.

It wasn't, yeah. Nothing just landed in my lap. The only 

[00:55:44] Mike Koelzer, Host: group that you would like to have, see that the opposite way is if your kids happen to come across it. You're LinkedIn. You're like, you're damn right. I did that. And if you're not impressed enough, I'll show you pictures. Let's go over to Facebook and I'll show you even.

Cheesy awards. I've won. If you want me too. 

[00:56:05] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: I'm special. I'm telling you no one and I have four kids. So I'm, I'm TAs off to you with 10 . But like no one in my house gives a care of what I get up in the morning and walk out the door to do, including my husband. He's just like, did you bring me home dessert?

you know, so like, nobody really cares. It's payback for 

[00:56:31] Mike Koelzer, Host: us knowing our parents who, our servants, you know? So, um, it's, it's payback. 

[00:56:37] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: It's so much payback. It's payback. It is. It's a lot of payback. 

[00:56:44] Mike Koelzer, Host: if you had the choice right now and you were coming outta high school, would you still pick pharmacy two? If not, if someone said you can't do pharmacy, what would it be?

[00:56:58] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Um, I think I would still, well, I didn't pick pharmacy outta high school, but I think, uh, if I had to do it all over the, again, I think I would still do pharmacy, but if I couldn't do pharmacy, then I think I would've done medicine. Um, because I think I just would've been good at it. Um, I know I would've been a good physician.

What'd you do outta high school? I was a teacher. I went in early childhood education was my major really, so I fulfilled that by having a lot of kids. Yeah. And now I teach all over the country, so I kind of, it has come full circle. 

[00:57:38] Mike Koelzer, Host: How long was it before you realized you hated other people's kids? 

[00:57:44] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: uh, not long ago I changed my major.

[00:57:50] Mike Koelzer, Host: did you teach for a while? 

[00:57:52] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Um, I, I didn't actually, I changed my major after about two years. I changed it to pre-pharmacy. Gotcha. And the reason I changed my major is cuz I was working at Walgreens at the tender age of 16. Wow. Um, when I was in high school, they would always need help in the pharmacy, so I would always help out.

Wow. Um, and so a couple years in, I was like, Hey, you know, I think too, the pharmacist kind of convinced me. Yeah. I think back then, cause I'm a lot older than I look like. I started at Walgreens in the early nineties so this pharmacist. That I worked with was the super bowl. I'll never forget her. Shout out to Nina, who Nina convinced me to change my major to pre-pharmacy.

And then, one of the biggest things she told me is she's like, you're gonna make a lot of money and you'll get to travel. Because she traveled all the time. and I was like, Hmm that's you know, maybe that's what I wanna do. I, my education, doesn't always, you know, it's not always the money grabber, uh, career. Um, and yeah, I was like, you know, I think, I, I think I like this.

I like working in the pharmacy and of course who doesn't wanna make a lot of money. Which actually is not a lot of money when you're an adult. It's really not a lot of money. . Was that a good choice to choose pharmacy? Yeah, I mean, of course it was like, it was booming back then. the field of pharmacy. I mean, when I graduated, I graduated in 2004.

I mean, there was all the overtime you could get. There were the sign-on bonuses. I mean, you could write your ticket. All right. Now 

[00:59:23] Mike Koelzer, Host: This is a tough question right now in 2020, let's say you're coming out of high school. What would your choice have been now? 

[00:59:34] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Uh, you know, I don't know. I, I think I am not jaded against the profession and maybe that's just cuz of, you know, what I get to do.

I think it's cool. Right. But, um, So I'm not probably as jaded as maybe other people. Sure. But I, I don't think you go into it to make a lot of money. No, cuz I think the money is just average. Right. Um, so if you really wanna make a lot of money, I don't know, going to pharma or yeah. Right. Something like that, going to business, you know, if you wanna make a lot of money's, it's not bad, you know, don't get me wrong, but it's not like rolling in the dough.

Yeah. When you have a family. Um, so I don't know. I, I, I still, I like the career path that I, that I, that I have, but I mean, I think had I not gotten to do different things, I don't know. Maybe I would've, maybe my advice would be to do something different, you know, I don't know. You've used 

[01:00:33] Mike Koelzer, Host: the career enough to go in all the different directions you were able to 

[01:00:36] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: go.

Right. And that's the cool thing about pharmacy is that you really, if you. If you do some digging, you really can do almost anything with a pharm D degree. You really can a hundred percent. 

[01:00:50] Mike Koelzer, Host: You mentioned medicine, but let's say that somebody said to you, you could go into anything, medical, what direction would you go?

Nothing medical. 

[01:01:00] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: I think I would be like an event planner. something like that. Cause I like to plan things and I like people to have a good time and I throw my kids insane over the top crazy birthday parties. I think I'm good at that. Nice. I think that's what I would do. I'd be like a wedding planner, birthday kid, birthday party planner, something crazy like that.

That's just like fun. What 

[01:01:25] Mike Koelzer, Host: what would you do right now? If you were listening to this and you thought that lady is really cool, I'd like to reach out to her Uhhuh and. Be maybe one of the more influential people in the next week or 10 days that she's going to hear from what would you recommend somebody do?

And what would you recommend is too far? I mean, for example, you know, we don't want them coming to your house as a singing telegram or something like that. 

[01:01:59] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Actually, if you come to the house, I'll put you to work. So if anyone out there is listening and really wants to meet me, I'll give you an email me. I'll give you my address.

but, 

[01:02:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: but what would be an example? And here's the thing. Here's the thing I know that maybe, you know, let's say 10 people are gonna reach out on LinkedIn. Hey, it was cool here you this and that, you know, connected. All right, well that's 10, but it's not one of the 10, what could somebody do? We're saying this is just a practice in networking.

What could they do to have them be the main person that's standing out over the next 10? uh, 

[01:02:36] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: I, I don't know. Like, I, I, I think I always, I mean, I try to be gracious, you know, with my time. And so when people do reach out on LinkedIn, I usually give them my email address and I, I tell them, well, they usually have a reason or something they wanna, you know, ask me or discuss.

Um, but, but it's usually, um, Me giving. So, but I still do it, you know, I still, you know, talk to people all the time. Um, but I think if you wanted to stand out, I would love for someone to reach out to me that wants to coach me on something or, or give me their 30 minutes of free time. , you know, give me some advice, you know, I would love, I would love that.

I don't get that very often. Yeah. 

[01:03:25] Mike Koelzer, Host: But you're not gonna take a phone call and say, Hey, listen, Listen, uh, char I was listening to you and let me tell you let me tell you 30 minutes of this, 

[01:03:34] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: it would start off by email first 

[01:03:36] Mike Koelzer, Host: Maybe they'd send you a book in the mail and say, Hey, I was listening to this and this is really cool.

You might wanna flip through this some day and, and write it inside the cover 

[01:03:43] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: or something. Oh, I mean, that is, it's very unique and that would be really, really cool. It's for sure that someone would stand out, but like little things, like, even you saying it's okay for your mission statement. If this is gonna become a thing, it's okay for your mission statement to focus around socialization and, and not have this focus of saving the world.

I mean, It's something I'm taking away from the time that you've given me today. And so I would, I would love for people to, to have something and it doesn't mean I'm gonna do what you say. Right, right. But I would love for someone to connect with me, to give me something. Yeah. To give me a word of advice or, or give me, you know, something like, Hey, I, I started a 5 0 1, 3 C and gotcha.

And here's some of the pitfalls that I had that I can maybe share with you. Yeah. So you don't run into these obstacles or whatever it is. Someone 

[01:04:45] Mike Koelzer, Host: maybe give something to you and you would take cold, hard cash. 

[01:04:49] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Uh, well of course, I have Azel. I have a Zelle. You could email it to me. 

[01:04:57] Mike Koelzer, Host: or send you a, a, what is it?

A Ben what's a hundred dollars bill. A Ben Benjamin. No, what? What's a hundred dollar bill? 

[01:05:04] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Uh, Mike, I'm not that cool. I see. So few 

[01:05:07] Mike Koelzer, Host: of 'em, I'm not sure if I've ever had one 

[01:05:10] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: I dunno. 

[01:05:13] Mike Koelzer, Host: Do you ever get any written notes these days? Like thank you, notes or anything? 

[01:05:18] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: Uh, no, not occasionally. Have any of those 80 

[01:05:22] Mike Koelzer, Host: people, did any of them write you a thank you 

[01:05:24] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: letter?

Um, not a handwritten letter electronically. Yes. I, I had people reach out to me and thank me, which, you know, I honestly, I don't need a thanks, you know, for doing, you know, what I did, but it was, I, I thought it was super nice for their, the people and a couple of my closest friends called me and were like this, you know, this was amazing.

It was nice to get a phone call and, and it's always nice, you know, when someone takes the time to thank you. And, speaking of which I had. A, um, drug company hosted us in December and we specifically talked about, you know, we did this, this talk about C O P D and women, and some of the biases that, that, um, we encounter.

And, it was a really cool slide deck and a very innovative topic. And I did, um, take the time and I think people should do this. I took the time and I asked MSL who gave that talk? What was her boss's email? And I said, let me, I wanna, this was very impactful. And I appreciate you guys hosting us. I wanna email your boss and tell her, thank you for you guys, you know, doing such a great job.

Um, and, and I think that stands out to people that you, when you really are appreciative of something to say something, not just complain. 

[01:06:43] Mike Koelzer, Host: I really love thank you emails, because then you usually get one or two interactions going back where you email them and they might email you. And then you finish up with an email.

You get that Interac. Really a pleasure talking to you and I'm, I'm looking forward to, uh, to keeping in touch. It's been 

[01:06:59] Chara Reid-Reed, PharmD: great. Thank you for having me on. All right, we'll talk 

[01:07:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: again.