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Join Dr. Sue Ojageer, a pharmacist, influencer, and mother of five, as she shares her journey from retail pharmacy to becoming a leading voice in the pharmacy world. Discover her insights on balancing passion projects, the power of networking, and how she built Pharmacy Mentors to inspire and connect professionals in the industry.
This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.
Mike: Sue. Introduce yourself to our listeners.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: I'm Dr. Sue Ojageer. I'm a pharmacist by profession. I'm a mom of five and in the pharmacy world, I'm known as the pharmacy influencer. My main project and my baby at the moment is the platform Pharmacy Mentors, where I host a number of pharmacy professionals across the
Spectrum of Pharmacy, and many additional projects that stream from that as well, including children's book writing, projects with the children, just to name a few.
Mike: So we got to start here though. was looking through the social media kind of preparing for the show and I saw that you were with Dr. Phil.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Yes,
that was one of my, most recent projects I was working on, it was kind of last minute where I was a guest on the show discussing the topic of weight loss.
Mike: I thought they could ask me, too, and then ask you, and then maybe have like a before and after kind of thing.
How'd that come about with Dr. Phil?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: That was one of the fun projects. So they had a live segment where they had the audience members inengaged the most common topic right now going around is weight loss.
Mike: did that come about though? I mean, did someone call you? Did you call them? Did Dr. Phil call you? How did this come about?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: was an outreach from my publicist team. Based off the work that I have online and what connections you make, one project leads to another project. So it's just basically getting your foot out there, getting something in the realm of social media, once you have a collaboration with one brand, you get recognized and you have more and more outreaches from different areas or different departments that want your expertise on that specific topic.
Mike: On this show, all my guests are important because the conversations are important, but someone with a little bit more, maybe recognition comes on. And then I like to think, well, when I ask this guest to be on, they might look back a couple of guests and see that this person was on.
And I imagine that with brands too, if they see a certain brand connected to you, if someone's saying, Hey, should we do something with Sue? They're going to say, well, brand does that. So they must've done some homework and found out that this was a good spot to be in.
So let's, do that also.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: It's so funny you mentioned that because as much as it's important of what you know, it's who you know as well. And networking is so important in our industry , across all industries. It's so important that you need to network and make those connections. And you don't have to stay within your field, within the pharmacy spectrum.
You have to broaden it to, I don't know, go into entertainment, go into the medical space, going to the children's space. And just start meeting different individuals, and that's how you learn from each other as well.
Mike: Sue, tell me about publicist, because all of us, I, a number of people online, we know the importance of social media for, whatever we're doing. did you decide to make that leap? First of all, who is this? It's not the person's name, but is it a team and so on? And then when did you decide to make that leap? What was the impetus to say, I'm going to do this
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Okay. So let's start back when I was a retail pharmacist, I started my entire social media journey just making a couple of posts and videos online and just throwing it out there into the space of social media,
at Walgreen's at Walgreens. Yes, I was currently at Walgreens. It was starting to get into the height of COVID.
So I'm like, I need something to fuel that energy and fuel, fuel it in other directions where I'm going to make this fun and interesting and what I'm doing as a pharmacist. So I started creating a couple of educational videos. I started off with very simple things like what's a copay, what's a deductible, what's a medication, prescription, going to different, you know, forms of medications.
It started off very simple, and it was getting a lot of traction, I was getting a lot of comments and questions, and I was getting the negative comments as well. You get the good, the bad, and the ugly online.
you start with one thing and you open up a door with many different streams that you could take this down. And once you get traction with one topic, it leads to another discussion, Outreaches from brands specifically wanting to collaborate or want you on their platform to discuss what this means and how they could work with you potentially and breaking their brand out to the public because you're a credible source.
Mike: All right. So a publicist, obviously cost some money And you just mentioned you had picked up some brands along the way. So I'm assuming they're paying you. I know there's some people that could maybe publicity who are not yet getting anything from the business. As far as you're doing that. When was that crossover where you said, I'm, I'm getting enough where then I can invest in this a little bit.
What was that point where you said, I'm going to get outside help? Cause I think that's fascinating. personally I've got a face for radio. And so my joy and my love Is my own publicity and marketing. I do it for my business. I do it for this. That's a big kick and a joy for me. So I've never thought about a publicist, but how do you jump over that? chasm of saying, I'm going to now invest in this. How does that happen?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: It's honestly trial and error when you're out there trying to manage everything that you're doing and I'm going to be completely honest. I don't have anything perfected. my schedule is not set where it's so consistent on a daily basis where I know that there's no hiccups along the way.
So this is just my story and my journey. What's worked and I haven't perfected it.
Mike: trust me.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: So
Mike: I mean, look at who the host is. So this is just all from our own experiences.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: I learned a lot. I definitely do based off the interesting conversations and, you know, exactly what we were talking about before networking. So I'll tell you exactly how this started.
I try to do everything all by myself. I try to have every CRM, I try to mimic what other influencers or whatever anyone else is doing in the space. Just reaching out to them, asking them, how are you able to manage this? What exactly are you using? Or do you have help? Do you have an assistant? I've tried every single thing. I even had the kids schedule my posts. They would write content for me just to keep them involved and excited. I would even pay them a little allowance to get them motivated. I've had a system where I would schedule my post or schedule my content out for a good, maybe a couple of months.
And then I realized, okay, I have all of this content and I have outreaches from brands coming in, but how do I manage that? And there's many areas as well. There's brand managers, there's content. Managers, there's social media managers and there's publicists. So that's very new information for me there as well.
What a publicist does is that they're able to put you in the public space and get you to be connected to different news, outlets or media outlets, so that's what their job and their role is. So it's a balance between all of those different teams. So it's not just one sole team that says, you know, this is your publicist.
They'll take care of everything from one year to like five years. it's a juggling act that you have to work with simultaneously with your brand managers, with your content creators and a publicist. once everything started rolling in, I would say I needed extra help around year two, where everything just kept going.
snowballing in where it was becoming unmanageable for myself alone. It was hard for me to say I needed help, but then realizing once their help does come in, you feel so much at ease and you're able to honestly be able to understand the whole process and enjoy it while you're creating it.
Mike: a lot of the listeners here might be business owners and pharmacy owners and entrepreneurs and things like that. And it's something that we all do already. We hire someone to sweep our back lot and we hire someone to take our products out front and, you know, technicians and things like that. But I think when it comes to some of these outside goals and I call them fun goals, they're kind of. see what challenges you can conquer and so on. think there were maybe a little bit more hesitant but it's the same concept where unless you love that part of it. Unless you love the first context and the,
Dr. Sue Ojageer: The engagement letters
Mike: all the technical of setting up the times and all this stuff. If you don't love that, then you've got to hire that out and do, the things that you're at
Dr. Sue Ojageer: yes.
Mike: you love in the process.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: because it has to be fun. You have to enjoy what you're doing. And if you're just going to stress, Oh my gosh, I have to go connect with the XYZ and I have to make an appointment. I have to do outreaches. I have to check my inboxes. Then it becomes very stressful and you don't want to have additional stress when there's someone who knows exactly how to manage all this.
And that's their job. That's their role. So you have to be able to know when to just pull that plug and say, I need additional help and just take it.
Mike: So now I'm going to guess you tell me if I'm wrong, were working at the chain. And you said, okay, but I kind of like the social media stuff. I'm gaining some attention on it and I'm making some impact. And you said, after a couple of years, I'm actually getting some money from this. I'm going to see if I can get the hell out of this retail store and with what I'm doing write the book and do some brand things in that. So, first of all. I right there? And then number two, where does it go from here?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: You are 100 percent correct because as a pharmacist in the community space, I would love connecting with my patients. If I could counsel my patients and just spend time laughing and having a conversation and just having that one on one pharmacist patient interaction. I absolutely love that.
my store was very busy. we did about 400 plus prescriptions a day, and I love meeting my patients. I want to greet them by their first name. I want to know them. I want another story.
So I was a people person, and I felt like, you know, Is this all that we're able to do as a pharmacist? And then I would hear other stories of, the burnout, I would hear the stress and, you know, during that time, there was the whole shortage of pharmacists, but in true, there was just pharmacists who were very burned out.
many pharmacists were even thinking about going back to school or changing their profession because, you know, we didn't know what we don't know because we're just stuck in where you are and we're afraid to make changes. you're making a good salary.
Why ruffle any feathers? Why make any changes now? For me, it was about 14 years as a pharmacist in one location, one setting. I'm not willing to do anything different. So social media was my venue to vent and just get that little side of what exists out there just to kind of see what other people are doing.
I'm Oh, they look like they're having fun or what are they doing to, you know, Just find some excitement. Mind you, I didn't completely pull the rug and say, Hey, I'm quitting pharmacy and just jump right into making TikTok videos.
So you have to make sure you're budgeting this properly and be mindful of your expenses to slowly make that transition. If this is what you want to do full time.
Mike: Slowly make the transition as some of these dollars come in from the branding, And then I imagine at some point you're able to say, I'm either replacing my income or I'm replacing enough of it. And I know that this might be happening where I think I can make this work out.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: that's definitely true. And a lot of social media, like we tell our children, it's not what it seems to be like where everyone has a million dollar house the next day, or they're able to just get a very high salary or just make their entire living with just social media. Making it look very simple.
A lot of it is smoke and mirrors . I'll be completely honest with you. And it does, they do glamify and, um, make it seem like it's such an easy thing to do, but you have to really put your attention and focus because it is a lot of work and you're not going to be able to do this within just a couple of days or weeks.
It does take time. That's exactly what I tell my kids. not everything you see out there is 100 percent true.
Mike: \ So Sue, let me tell you this. So a while back I set up more sponsoring for the show At one point, a company was trying just to ask me a question and they accidentally filled out a sponsoring spot, which would have been fairly lucrative for me, but was a mistake on their part.
They were just trying to ask me a question. they were from a foreign land. I don't even think they knew what the hell they were doing. They were just trying to get ahold of me, but that morning. I said to my wife, if I did X of these, I could fly to Saudi Arabia , and it's like, I'd make money on that but I don't really want to do that. I want my pharmacy. I want my family. I want to be the guy that's doing the podcast and, telling these, these stories. Silly stories and things like that. At some point it's like, I guess I'm going to. Comfortable where I am. So with that thought, Sue, what is your goal? And I imagine it's financial, like replacing your job and so on, but where do you go from here? and why?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: I love this question. My goal being a pharmacist and being out there in that space and loving it My ultimate goal is not to Leave what I do as a pharmacist. Stopped being a pharmacist and just take over the social media world and make a videos that get millions and millions of likes.
That's not my goal. My goal is to enjoy what I do as a pharmacist , I'm still exploring all the different specialties that still exist out there. Finding the passion that I have and loving what I do as a pharmacist and showing that to the world. And I'm using social media and using my voice, to have that ability to do so. So it's 100 percent still and always be loving what I do as a pharmacist. And if I'm able to express that and show the world through social media, then that's an easier way for me to do so.
Mike: All right. That's interesting. I think that's a true answer. I can buy into that. Now,
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Hmm.
Mike: would I answer that way? not. I used to be a male, no, I was going to tell you I was a male swimsuit model, but you're not going to trust it anyway. So why even go down that road? But for some reason I was doing this.
And I'm just going to say the podcast, it could be a million things. Let's say it was social media. Let's say it was writing a book on business. Let's say it was a number of things outside of my role as a pharmacy owner. And somebody said to me, Mike, you can do what you do, but you can 10X your listeners or 100X your listeners and this and that.
If you broke off and just were talking about, I don't believe this, but if you were just talking about something in general, business in general, or something in general, I'd say. Yeah, sign me up. I like pharmacy, but if I'm able to fun on a bigger stage and things like that, I probably ditch pharmacy for a while.
I've been doing it a long time. I don't care if it gets out of my blood, you're the opposite. If somebody said, Sue, we're going to take you away from pharmacy. We're looking for someone to, be a voice of the, whatever, and, we can a hundred times what you're doing now, even at that point, would you say, I still want to hold on to pharmacy.
I still want my message to be out there and all, kind of stuff. or is there a point where you're like, ah, screw pharmacy for a while, I can always come back to it.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: when you say it like that to you, because my, the way I kind of gauge what I'm doing, if I'm having fun, or if this is what I'm truly supposed to be doing, I'm like, if I win the lottery tomorrow, although, Winning the lottery be the ultimate answer. Do you feel financially you have it all?
So you don't have to financially worry about that. The way I consider my success is having time because I feel like with time, I can never find a value with that. When I have time and I'm able to say, I a hundred percent.
could do whatever I want to do because I have enough time to do it, then I feel like I honestly won the lottery there. And trust me, like a billion dollars would definitely be amazing, but I feel success is truly valued in time because I can never get time back.
Mike: That really hits home. years ago I had a crap load of time. I wasn't working very much. I own the store, but I wasn't going in very much. That was nice. Kind of have my own schedule and I'm probably from three to years away from getting rid of the store and I'll have all kinds of time then. So. Yes. I think the answer I would have given five years ago, if I was just grinding out day to day in the pharmacy would be anything I do has potential to do something bigger than the pharmacy I would do for more time. That rings true in me. doesn't right now because I don't need the time and I know I'm going to hang it up maybe not the podcast.
I don't know, but I'm talking store. But yes, that would be number one, I think the time, I think that would be the big one of being in control of my time.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: For sure. I mean, I always say, to the kids or say to myself, I would be able to do so much more if I just had an X amount of time or a little bit of more hours in the day, and that's how you start squeezing in more projects or you're able to do something else. And I feel like sometimes I overburden myself taking on too many things or trying too many things at once.
And it's a lesson to be learned. no one has the right answer to, in the beginning, we trial and error. You see what works out. when to close the book on that specific thing you're doing, and it's not worth it anymore. you have to enjoy it. you have to love what you're doing and find passion in it.
Mike: All right. So Sue, at this point, You've left the pharmacy day-to-day job, and you're building this up, have you hit busyness saturation? And if you do hit saturation, and let's say that someone's trying to out another 10% outta you 110% at that point. If I'm doing it, and if it's a business at that point, I say, okay, well, I'm going to go back down to a hundred percent and I'm going to drop off the 10 percent that I either don't get paid enough for or don't like to do, but I'm not going to stress to 110%. Where are you at that point? Would you do the same thing? Would you get rid of some, you're already got rid of some time users like, the, uh,publicist and things like that. But would you start cutting? Is that what you would do?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: It's always constantly changing. You have to evaluate what's happening in your life right now. So month one is not going to look the same as month three or five. You always have to evaluate and see what's working out for you. And I'm honestly able to say that, that things that I do, not all of it, it's going to be the best thing ever. So you have to know when to say to yourself, don't spend any more time in it, move on to the next thing, or just don't even bother with it anymore.
It's a learning lesson.
Mike: Scott Adams, he's the author of Dilbert. , the office we always hear like, do what you love and the money will follow. And he said, no, it's kind of the opposite of that. You're kind of doing it the money followed and then you kind of grow to love it, maybe you don't love. Everything about it, but it's getting you more time with your family. And that's why you love it. maybe you'd love to be doing something more than that, but it's that whole package that you begin to love because it's getting you towards a goal of some sort.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Yes. So true. That is so true. Either way you spin it. I mean, I say it's like marrying someone. You, you have to put all of yourself into that relationship and you have to love that person to make it work. And if you're not going to be 100% , then it's not going to work either way.
So it's definitely like a relationship that you have to keep on working on and always being a hundred percent there.
Mike: All right, we got to get back to the start though. Dr. Phil. So you go on Dr. Phil. Now, if I go on Dr. Phil. I'm going to be kind of schmoozing up to him a little bit, trying to meet him, trying to make connections with his publicist, this and that, writing him a thank you letter, writing his publicist a thank you letter, and all that kind of stuff. Did you do some of this? I mean, it's pretty cool to take that step and you just let that go? What's your next step with that?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: It's definitely big up there for sure. You're, very grateful for the connections you make and seeing someone that you only see on TV or just being able to know that they exist in that realm of media, that when it actually happens, it's, Very humbling and very gratifying.
You feel truly honored too. And I was going to tell you when I was on the stage looking into the audience and that surreal moment, like they're all looking up to you, they're wanting your advice, and then it clicked. I was sitting there The cameraman and all the different shots and angles were, directing us.
it brings you back to your moment when I was working and the same thing, as soon as you have someone walking up to the counter, they're giving you that same attention, that same look, or that same advice that they want from you as a pharmacist. So as much as It's really amazing and really cool.
It's coming back down to what your true love is. want to be out there to give that advice, that attention, that service to your patients and anyone willing to know more about pharmacy or know more about medications. So you have to understand truly as much as it's amazing to be up there, you're doing it because of your love of really doing it
That's true. I can see that because, well, first of all, let me get this out of the way. Was this Dr. Phil's show or was this like a special one hour or something It's his network.
Mike: Oh, his network. That's right. He's got like a Oprah kind of network
Dr. Sue Ojageer: yes, it's his network. So it was special on weight loss. It was called the Great Weight Debate.
Mike: And so that might be like a one off show where once in a while, you know, Barbara Walters would have her weekly show. You remember Barbara Walters? All right, some of the young kids are not going to start remembering her, but then once a month, she'd have some special and that's what this kind of thing
Dr. Sue Ojageer: a certain topic of, public interest.
Mike: Party wants to do stuff just to do it and get more. People involved, but if you're not doing what you, you know, like back when I was a swimsuit model,
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Tell me about those days.
Mike: Sue, it didn't happen. It's just an example. All right. Just go with me on this.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: We came up a couple of times, so it
Mike: I can dream and. So back in my swimsuit model days, if all of a sudden I went out there and people saw me as this swimsuit model, it's fine. But if I wasn't doing the stuff I like, like having these kinds of conversations and speaking the truth as I saw it and letting people know who I was from the inside and stuff like that, that stuff might get me going for, You know, a month or something.
And then pretty soon I'd say I got more eyes on me, but this isn't, I don't like, I don't like this. I'm not doing anything.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Exactly. You could have a million followers and a million listeners and all eyes on you, but what's your goal? what is the purpose? So there has to be a reasoning or.
An ultimate goal. What are you trying to achieve? What are you trying to gain? So you have to define your goal and know what your purpose is,
Mike: It does seem sort of. Empty not because it's wrong or anything just because you're not expressing yourself.
Really? You see that a lot with the stars, you know, I like Jim Carrey's going through, you know Jim Carrey Jim Carrey goes through that and I think that Chris Farley went through it, that people just see them as this But they don't really know them. And I don't think the world has to know you by any means, but when it just sees a shell, it would get pretty lonely. It seems inside.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: perfect word. You've become a shell. You just have an empty space or a void that you're just there representing, but you have to stay true to what your bigger purpose is and what your ultimate goal is, because it's very easy to get carried away. And like you mentioned previously, It's very easy to say, okay, I'm going to quit everything I'm going to do because I just made 20, 000 on this one sponsorship that I got and easily go out there and start chasing another 20, 000 or 50, 000 or whatever amount.
Right. It does become very addicting in that way where you're just chasing after brands and deals. And you're not staying true to what you truly believe in. You have to be very careful who you're representing and what their values are what their ultimate goal is because you become tied to their beliefs and what they want the public to be.
Mike: we both talked about the value of your time and things like that. And I suppose some people can go through that. for a while, if it brings them they can use that to think that's going to fulfill themselves.
And it may, it might buy a more time with their family or it might buy them. Who knows?
I suppose you could get through that shell for a while, but eventually you got to have some value. It seems
Dr. Sue Ojageer: sure. I mean, look at what's going on in our media with politics with Hollywood. We see it in real time. We see these empty shells are just people who don't have a true voice or what their true representation is. And you have to stay true to what you believe in and what your passion is and not just, be a follower, to be a leader.
Mike: it'd be hard to do because you get some of these. and they got popular by acting.
but then they start dabbling in the politics and social movements and things like that. And for them, want to do that. but I don't really give a rat's ass about their views.
That's why someone like you Sue it's, cool that you stay true to your roots. All through this, because, you know, if you rise up the ranks, then you try to bring your purpose out later. And it's like, , I don't
Sue for, I don't know, Mike, for that. he's just a body on the beach to me, you know?
I don't know what's inside of him. It would be hard to do that later because. People might not care.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Exactly. You have to, stay true to your reasoning for being out there, especially in the public eyes, because you're out there in front of the entire world. Basically, the internet connects you with everyone out there. So you have to 100 percent stay true to yourself and not just bend and twist in every direction because Then that's where it starts getting crazy
Mike: Have you ever had a time during this where kind of disrespected you, like said, well, just shut up and do it, We just want you to do this and we don't want you for the pharmacy thing.
We want just someone to represent this, you know, photogenic and that kind of stuff. Have you been the victim of that yet? Have you had someone that, you thought you for your package and we're just like, ah, we don't need all that scientific stuff, just show this and show up and we don't want you for that.
Have you felt like that ever? Or, has there been enough of a filter going in where you've protected yourself from that?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: when you're going to be out in the public eyes, you're going to get collaborations from fashion, from makeup, from beauty, anyone, right? So you have to know what the deliverables are, what the brand represents, what do they want out of you? What are they asking? what do they need from you to represent them?
So you have to know, again, does this align with my values and my purpose I'm trying to put out there. you have to honestly research the brand and you just can't, just because I'm going to give you, I don't know, a thousand dollars just to. Put a post out there. is this something that you would honestly buy have in your household?
Is this something that you are true, truly going to be able to say 100 percent that I stand with this or this is something that I do, or Because when you're tagging your name to something, then you're honestly supposed to be true to what you're saying to the public because they're putting you on this pedestal and they're looking to you as information.
I'll give you an example. I went to church this past weekend and one of the ladies that I've connected there, she was talking with my husband and we were just Like she's telling us the story of how much she really follows my content, loves the information about pharmacy and all the prescription advice and all the little tidbits that I do.
And it was interesting because the kids were looking too and they're like, Oh, someone's actually using this advice or they're actually taking it seriously, meeting someone and hearing that from a stranger, they know that this is reaching a real person.
They know this is what I do, but hearing it from a stranger or hearing it from the public,
they know that it reaches someone, they use that information.
Mike: I had this guest on and I realized after this, I've got to do a little bit better job in screening some people. And I, think I do a good job that I'm like, Oh, that's something I never thought of.
I got a screen for this one too. This guy came on. And basically all he was trying to do was promote his stock for his business. And he couldn't say anything wrong about the stock. He couldn't say that he had any other goals in life. It was like, no, I do this kind of like invest in my company. And I thought, well, that's not going to help this people bring in here because we've got real conversations.
We don't want just a, you know, a hour infomercial, then. To add salt to the wound, the guy was like multitasking on me. He was like looking at texts on his phone while he's talking to me. A lot of people ignore me, but I'm not an idiot. I know when he's trying to, glance off at his phone. And I just felt like I got used for that. I'm a professional. It's all part of the ball game, but yeah, I just felt kind of used.
I would honestly feel the same way. You have to be taken serious. This is someone that's coming onto your platform. You're having a conversation with you. You definitely need that respect. I always say when people kind of piss me off, I'm like, well, there's 8 billion people in the world. I can't control what they do to me. I'm responsible for my feelings. And if I let them get to me and things like that, but the same way with this, there's a lot of people that are going to want you to be a part of what they do, and some of them might come in a little bit of sheep's clothing and you don't know.
And so I guess it. It's up to us, your publicist, me personally, to use our skills and our history to do a little bit more digging to see who they are. It's easy to get on the internet and learn a little bit more where they are in the process of building and what they stand for and things like that.
But. it's up to us. I guess you can't prevent a business from asking you.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: 100%. I mean, you have to do your research. you have to do your homework for sure.
Mike: Sue, what's your next step? We talked about maybe getting rid of some business, if you don't like it, or at least I talked about it, maybe off 10 percent you don't like, or it's too hard or something like that. Once you hit saturation point,
next things you'll do for your business, That you could peel off. So for example, right now, I don't know, maybe you, maybe you pick your own wardrobe out. I'm guessing maybe you don't have a chauffeur yet
I don't have a private jet. You're onto the question. What things would you have to start peeling away? this question, I'm like, well, I have an accountant now, not for this, but for the store, I have an accountant. I've got a trash collector. I mean, I don't do all that stuff. What would be your next step of peeling off? Like, okay, I got a publicist. Now I'm going to have someone that helps me with this. you see having to, get help from an artistic side, such as makeup, wardrobe, hair, I'm assuming you make a lot of those decisions for yourself will you ever get to the point of wanting that kind of help or needing it?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: At the moment, I don't need the help unless it's for something for a larger campaign where I need additional help for someone to do it quicker for me, then if it's for a photo shoot, where they have like makeup and hair people there that would help you.
But personally, no, at the moment, I don't have a day to day hairstylist or makeup person.
Mike: you wish you did, right?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Not every day you want to wear makeup though. You sometimes want to just be your natural self. So you don't need makeup every day.
Mike: But that's not something you love so much that you wouldn't give it up. If someone came to you and said, do your hair every day or this or that, you take it? Or do you love that part of it?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: It's nice to know that the option exists, but at this moment right now, no,
Mike: all right, Sue. So we've got the children's book. We got this social media, slash, spokesperson, , kind of thing. we got Dr. Phil. We know that, but I know that you've got some other stuff, going on. Pharmacy mentor. And I've been following that. I think I saw one of your early posts in your, nice looking black and gold, high quality, presentation on your website and stuff.
What is that? What's going on? And what are your for that?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: I love that you noticed the black and gold. That's definitely the area of the field that I'm going for. I want it to be a luxurious platform that highlights pharmacists. I want it to be very upscale when they're referring to the pharmacy profession. Because if you go out there, especially on the other networks, I'm not going to mention all bash anyone, but if you go into other social media networks and you mention pharmacists, it's Like the worst thing possible. Like you hear all the negativity you hear how there's so many different reasons of why you shouldn't be a pharmacist,
Mike: I got to find out who that negative talks from. Cause that's my turf.
Okay, now with that out of the way, please continue.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: So when I started doing my deep, deep dive and exploring all these other areas, wanted something to exist like that out there for the rest of us who were curious and that they still love it, and they're not willing to still give up what they, Done for X amount of years or if they're very new in the space as well.
So thinking back to when I was in school, if I was able to connect with a pharmacist that worked in academia or that worked in nuclear pharmacy or veterinary pharmacy or military pharmacy, and not just reading about their bio or just knowing that they exist out there,
I want to know exactly how they were able to do so or how they were able to get to that point where they are in their career. And I'll tell you a little secret. The name of the platform that I was thinking of was the Little Black Book of Pharmacists.
Mike: Oh,
Dr. Sue Ojageer: a,
Mike: interesting. I like that.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: You know how a dating site would be, has like all the different pharmacists, but it's not a dating site, it's just for pharmacists.
that didn't last too long because not everyone was like, oh yeah, that's a really cool name, and it was too long for anyone to remember, so then it became Pharmacy Mentors.
Mike: I'm going to guess that the mentors coming on there, maybe pay a little bit to show that they're the top of their field.
And maybe you would get some, sponsors in general on the site. Am I wrong with that?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: So this was a year ago, I'm very new to creating platforms. And the only thing I know about creating anything online is just my social media presence and knowing to do that. I don't know anything about databases or actual something with substance like this. And when I launched this, I said, I'm going to have the mentors on, they're going to come on the platform.
They're going to give this information out to anyone who's willing to learn. There are students, pharmacists, 50 years, whatever it may be, they're just providing this information.
So I want this to be free for them. So they're the experts and they're building up this amazing repository. So at this moment, there's no charge for mentors. It's only small charge for mentees on the site, the people wanting the information and as we're speaking at the moment, it is growing and it's always evolving because I'm building this as a process
it's now has an interactive section where you're able to chat with, connect with, have large rooms, have discussions, videos. So it's growing and it's so amazing to create a space for people who are interested. there's many different platforms that are out there, but not everyone is able to do so in a public setting or ask for help.
And when I first launched this, I got almost, 50 DMs from LinkedIn asking, like, this is really, really amazing that I'm able to just meet one on one or just be able to message someone and say, I need your help or I need more information because they know that in that space, it's safe to put all this information out.
And not on the public where it could either go in either direction
Mike: So the mentors, that are on there, they're there with no charge, but the charge is giving them themselves a bit, but also that's part of the reward, giving them themselves and interacting and things like that.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: because they are doing amazing things out there. And their pharmacists who's on that, the mentor database right now, who have a very active voice in the pharmacy space or who are very well known, and they've taken different paths and different routes than the traditional ones that we normally see. Like the hospital route, the industry route, the retail route.
So you want to learn about all those different areas as well, but it doesn't mean that, you know, being in the retail space, the hospital space, you can do really amazing things because you definitely could for sure. So it represents all these different areas that you could practice in and who have a love for what they're doing, or they're able to do something really amazing within that specific specialty.
Mike: Sue, where do they go for that?
Dr. Sue Ojageer: Pharmacymentors. com.
Mike: Wonderful.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: easy it is to remember that one instead of the other name?
Mike: probably easier than a little black book. And that's probably taken
Dr. Sue Ojageer: They probably stole it already.
Well, maybe I'll put it out there. Maybe we just gave someone the idea to create like a dating site for just pharmacists.
Mike: that'd be interesting, . I probably have some of my own modeling photos around still. I
Dr. Sue Ojageer: You see,
Mike: cover of that.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: you can pull those up.
Mike: So I got to ask you this now, being in the public eye I would assume people say, my, you look wonderful for a mother of five.
Right. People are going to say that. I would say, but don't I just look wonderful period. Now I got to ask you this question. I'm a father of 10. And people will say to my wife, they'll say, Oh, you're lovely. then when they find out she had 10 children, they'll say, holy cow. But I don't get that.
don't get any compliments and I don't even get someone that says you look good for a father of 10. Maybe if they said you're a father of a hundred and you look good, they might say that I don't get. Any of that. And so trying to struggle on as being just as voice here, but, I just don't get it.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: for a father of 10.
Mike: that was a damn setup. And here's the thing. people say that I have 10 children and my wife has 11 children. I don't know how that math works out. I've never understood that one. I'm still
Dr. Sue Ojageer: We know how. We know.
Mike: you know how, well, golly, Sue, nice talking to you. I've followed you online. Such a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations, all the things you've got going on. I know you're busy as hell and I appreciate you spending time with me and our listeners, and it was a pleasure.
Dr. Sue Ojageer: It's been an absolute pleasure. It was so fun. I loved our conversation it was amazing. Thank you.
right. So we'll be in touch. You've been listening to the Business of Pharmacy podcast with me, your host, Mike Kelser. Please subscribe for all future episodes.
