Making Pharmacy Profitable | Lisa Faast, PharmD, DiversifyRx

Speech to text:

Mike Koelzer, Host: [00:00:00] You're listening to the business of pharmacy podcast with me, your host, Mike Keer,

Lisa, for those who haven't come across you online, introduce yourself and tell our listeners what we're talking about today. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I'm Dr. Lisa Faast, founder of DiversifyRx and the Pharmacy Profit Summit. And what I love to talk about is profitability of independent pharmacies, cuz I do think that every pharmacy can be profitable.

So I'd love to dive into all the different aspects of that. Lisa, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I think pharmacists are afraid to make a profit. I think they're not used to it and they've been beaten down and almost like profit's kind of a dirty word to 'em, which of course it's not, but I think people feel that way. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: One of my favorite sayings that I, that I tell pharmacy owners and I preach for my soapbox is profit is not a four letter word because you're absolutely right.

Many pharmacy owners feel icky making a profit, or even talking about making a profit that you somehow must be doing something wrong. If you're making a profit. Now, certainly just like in anything in life, there's a right way and a wrong way to do things. But I firmly believe that there. So much more opportunities right now in pharmacy than ever before, to go out, make a profit and really take care of your patients all at the same time.

They're certainly not mutually exclusive. I actually think they're very much mutually inclusive. You should be doing both, but yes, you must make a profit in your pharmacy. If you're gonna stick around for years to come and maybe even create a generational pharmacy, that's gonna pass on to your kids and your grandkids, you have to make a profit in order to stay afloat, stay in business so that you can be there to serve your community.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Generational. That's sad for me. I have a number of kids and I don't think any of them have really latched onto pharmacy, but I tell them, I say, if you wanna go into pharmacy because of the science, go into it. Don't go into it depending on this business and this building to be here. And that's sad for me, not really sad because I don't know if any of 'em would anyways, but it's just sad that that idea isn't there.

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: It's not even an option. I know. Right. I get, I get the tingles too, because when I first opened my first pharmacy, I had envisioned it being around for hundreds of years. Like, I, I don't think any of us open a pharmacy to like, say, Hey, I wanna quit in five years. And so it is kind of sad because those types of community pharmacies are really the staple in so many cities and so many areas.

I know so many of us think of the hop and urban areas with all the chain pharmacies. Yeah. But frankly, there's far more tiny little towns out there with pharmacies that have been around for a hundred plus years and that doesn't happen unless they actually can thrive. Like, you know, everybody has to make a living.

We all have to put food on the table. And so. I'm gonna say it again. I think there's more ways now than ever before, but you can't do pharmacy. Like you've always done it. Like the old way of pharmacy is gone and we all need to mourn and say some words for that. but yeah, you, there, you kind of have to look at it completely different going forward, you know, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: As far as pharmacies, I think there's more independence than chains in the us.

Is that 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: right? Yeah. I, I think, I think I've heard that exact thing too, because if you look at some of the numbers from some of the chains, you know, they have 4,000, they have 5,000, they have 8,000, you know, they have these really big numbers, but if you total up all of the independence, it's actually a bigger number than all of those major chains combined.

And so it's, we really are the backbone of healthcare. And I think that that's really where I see the opportunity is that, you know, a lot of people talk about pharmacies as. Destination places. Well, most of us aren't offering those services. I mean, let's be honest. Most of us aren't that healthcare destination, we are a dispensing destination.

And that is really what limits a lot of us in our profitability, in our pharmacies, on 

Mike Koelzer, Host: your LinkedIn, you may not even know this, but one of the people that you follow on there is mark Cuban. And I've been watching a lot of, uh, shark tank for some reason, you know, how you get into those habits. Like for a while I was watching pawn what's that called?

Pawn stars, pond stars, pawn stars. I was watching pawn stars and I do it online because I don't like to see the commercials on TV. Then somehow it went from paw stars for a few days over to shark tank, but. Mark Cuban. He was getting after at least one company I saw because he said you are not selling.

You've got your marketing set up. You've got your ideas set up. You've got your executive set up and you even have distribution set up, but you're not selling yet. And basically it's like for a pharmacist to make it these days until they go out and sell. They're not there yet. And I suck at that because I'm a marketer.

[00:05:00] I don't consider myself a salesperson. I can sit back and market the store, but I'm not a salesperson, but I think you have to be a salesperson these days. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I couldn't agree more. I think pharmacy owners need to become BFFs with marketing and selling and for some reason, and I know cuz I think many of us think of them like used car salesmen or something like that.

But when you say selling it, it just people kind of cringe like, oh, I don't wanna have to go sell. And it, and I think it's implied that you're somehow forcing something on someone that they really don't need or want. And that. Couldn't be further from the truth, especially when it comes to independent pharmacies, you have the opportunity to provide such unique services and solve problems in such unique ways for your patients that selling them on it is really doing them a service.

You're actually doing them an injustice by not doing that. And I think we all need to get very comfortable with marketing termin. Selling terminology. Um, probably read some books, listen to some podcasts, you know, all of those different things to brush up on those skills. And it's okay if you, as the pharmacist and the pharmacy owner don't have those skills, I often say pharmacists are the worst marketers and sellers out there because our, the, the attitude and kind of the personality you need to succeed at those don't tend to lend to the type of people that go into pharmacy.

So it's okay. So now you need to know, go out and hire those people, and then you need to know how to manage 'em and pay them and all those other kinds of things. So it certainly brings in, um, additional things that you need to be concerned about. But absolutely if you, you could have all the profitable strategies in the world, and yet if you don't implement them, if you don't tell people about them and you don't get them to actually buy, then it doesn't really 

Mike Koelzer, Host: matter.

Lisa, you're lucky you're in pharmacy because with your skills and your personality, Not that you wouldn't stick out in any other industry, but in pharmacy, you shine because so many people don't wanna do the stuff that you're doing. You know, if you were a real estate agent or I'm trying to think of something else that the average person you think is more gregarious and things like that, but pharmacy's a great place for people like you to 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: shine.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I do get really passionate about it. Telling pharmacy owners about new things that can help them. And, you know, frankly, a lot of people don't know this about me, unless you actually really, really know me, but I'm actually very introverted and don't really like talking to people.

But for some reason I get that spark in me when it comes to pharmacy owners to really help them learn new skills. Um, you know, just, I wrote a blog a couple weeks ago about how to have an unlimited marketing budget. And I had a couple of people reach out to me that their minds were just blown. They had never looked at marketing from that perspective before.

And all that is, is I try to absorb as much information out there. A lot of what I take is from completely different industries, not in healthcare at all, a lot of eCommerce and a lot of other, uh, kind of solar per types of businesses and bring those lessons back to pharmacy owners because we just haven't had that in our industry, frankly, we haven't had those people to really mentor and learn from when it comes to marketing and selling.

When you talk 

Mike Koelzer, Host: about adopting things from other industries, I had always gotten my head somewhere along the way that if I wasn't doing something unique that I've never seen before, I felt like I was kind of copying. But one time I heard someone say, I forget who it was, but they were saying genius or. You know, smart thinking is really taking something you've seen from somewhere else and adopting it into your world kind of seems like cheating to me, but you said it too.

So I guess it's right. , 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: you know, it's, it's funny you bring that up. Cause I actually feel that's exactly what I do. I watch a lot of other super successful people that are in completely different industries and I try to bring those exact strategies and those exact lessons to pharmacy owners. But honestly, there's nothing new under the sun.

I mean, gosh, we've, we've all done it before. There's no special secret sauce that I make. Or any of these other, you know, executives or gurus or anything you wanna call it really it's, it's all just recycling of information and it's just, our industry has so Been thought of as pharmacist first, like I'm a pharmacist first and business owner.

Second, a lot of these business strategies haven't really been adopted in the industry. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: How old are you, Lisa? 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I am 42, almost 43. All right. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: So I stopped reading a lot of business books when I got to 40. Cause I figure that as an American male, I'm gonna die when I'm 80, probably a few years before that, but I'm an optimistic guy, I guess, with my life.

But you know, you'd read these books and to your point about hearing the same things, you hear a lot of the same stuff and there's only so much out there for business. So I figure I soaked it up for 40 years and now I'm putting it out, but there's not a lot new [00:10:00] under the sun. they're repackaging it and you giving it to people when they're ready and ready might be believing in themself and ready to absorb that.

So I think one thing you are giving is you're repackaging it, but it's hope that you're giving to people. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Absolutely. And the repackaging is very important because you can hear things. And if they're just not in the right way, you don't vibe with the person. There could be lots of reasons why it doesn't sink in.

Uh, but you listen to it in another way or from somebody else. And it blows your mind. 

And one of my favorite books is the magic of thinking big. And it's an old book. It was originally written. I don't know, I think like in the fifties or something like that, I mean, it's been around for forever. Um, and many people have made many iterations off of.

But if you listen to it, it's almost like a living book, whatever world or happening or problems you're in. I get different things from it. Yeah. Every time I go through and I reread it. And so you're, you're absolutely right. The listener has to be ready and the person delivering the message has to be a good fit for the listener.

You 

Mike Koelzer, Host: do a great job in your blog. I like your blog. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Thank you. Thank you very much. I work hard on it . Yeah, I can tell it's it's I, I put a lot of effort into it because people, I, what keeps me going is there's positive messages that, you know, pharmacy owners messaged me and said, I never thought about it that way.

Or I finally had my aha or I finally understood, you know, something and it's, and that's what keeps me going, you know, it's really is I get my dopamine hit, you know, you get that little buzz whenever I help somebody else accomplish something. Like I don't even get excited over my own accomplishments.

I get really super excited when somebody else has accomplished something. Lisa. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I know that all your clients are perfect, but let's imagine that one of them wasn't what kind of personality would really grade on 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: you? Yeah. So the thing that gets under my skin about pharmacy owners is we love to complain.

Like we love to wallow and put on our coat of complaining about all the things that we cannot change. And that's fine. You need to have those sessions every once in a while, but you know, then it's time to pull your big girl panties up and then go do something about something you can control.

And so for me, the people that aren't willing to. Take control of the things they can control. So then you can overcome the things that you can't control. Those are the ones that I just kind of like, well, I, there's not really, I can do. Cause if you're not willing to go focus on the revenue streams that you can get ahold of, because you just wanna complain about DIR fees or complain about the recent audit or something like that.

Um, you've, you've got to learn to get past the things that you can't control and focus on the things that you can control. You know, one of my pharmacies, I just had a big Optum audit and it was terrible. Terrible audit made no sense. Luckily, uh, we were able to get it remedied, but it went from $62,000 that we were fighting for about three months to all of a sudden we got an email to the right person and it got knocked down to $400 in, you know, an hour.

And, you know, I, I could have looked at that very negatively, but I kept like, I know we're right and we're gonna keep going. So I'm just gonna keep emailing new people. And that was like a small little thing, but it really became a global problem with pharmacy owners as we love to complain about all the bad things cuz good Lord knows.

There are plenty of bad things happening in our industry. Um, but there's also a lot of good and I think we need to get better at focusing on the good and moving towards that when I 

Mike Koelzer, Host: growing up, it always just seemed normal for me to talk about other people behind their back. And just say nasty things about people.

And it didn't go along with my faith or being a nice person, but I just said, that's what you do. You talk about people Naly behind their backs. Everybody does that. And it wasn't till like four years ago, when finally life hit me and I realized, wait a minute, that's not normal. I mean, I shouldn't be doing that.

And it changed me. It changed me to being more honest and truthful and not having a need for some of that and taking life by the horns and all that kind of stuff. But it was a whole paradigm shift and it wasn't just like stopping. It was like a big paradigm shift. Yeah, we pharmacists and I take pleasure in that here.

Because if I have an hour-long show, I can bitch for 30 minutes and have some answers for 30 minutes. So I get to do that. That's my right, but I'm guilty. I mean, I, I sit there and bitch all day at the pharmacy and I suppose if nothing else at least knows, you should be wearing two hats, know [00:15:00] that you should wear a bitch hat and let's be positive and take some action.

Lots of people. They don't know where that hat is anymore. Unfortunately. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah. I really didn't gain that kind of awareness until I went through some deep leadership training, uh, cannot recommend Kelly Babcock and Terry Noel anymore. I'm probably one of their biggest fans, but going through their leadership training and really understanding that almost that neuroscience of, of kind of how you think I had some big aha moments there and I've become a much more positive person in that, in, in that sense where you said like, you know, you put on your hats and it's okay to have those grumbling sessions, we all need to vent.

You all need to get rid of that, that energy, but you've got to follow that up with action towards creating a better life, creating a better pharmacy, creating a better staff. Uh, you know, at the beginning I was telling you that I was having an issue with one of my picks at one of my pharmacies. And I could grumble about it.

And I did for a few minutes, got a little angry, but I've already sent out messages. I've already posted on, you know, some job boards. I've already done some other things that are working towards a positive resolution in that. And I probably would not have pivoted so quickly, you know, 10 years ago. It, it would've, it would've ruined my day.

It would've really brought me down. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: When you signed up for that leadership, did you know what your downfalls were? Did you know your negative things or did you go in and say, oh, I didn't realize I was negative and here's what I can do with it. Like I know that I'm crazy sometimes and I'm negative and I'm lazy and all the things I can do, it's like, yeah, I'll sign up so I can learn the difference.

But did you know going in that that was a downfall of you like a negative slant. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I certainly didn't have the same awareness. I might have had some assumptions about some things, cause I'm a pretty straightforward person, probably a little too aggressive sometimes. Um, so I knew I certainly had some rough edges you might say.

Uh, but I didn't have this awareness, that inner saboteur and that inner negativity that we all just battle with. I really truly didn't. Where some of that came from, and even my drive, you know, I have a huge work drive. Like I love to help people. Always say, I can't believe how much you can get done.

You know, I, I run divers. I do a bunch of consulting. I'm a mom of four and I do all this stuff and it, I, you know, some people tell me, I make it look easy, even though I, I know I bust my butt. Um, but it also, that comes. My insecurity, the insecurity that I have of people gonna like me, are they gonna appreciate me?

And so I compensate that by overworking and, you know, so the leadership training in this particular leadership training was a really kind of neuroscience type of way. And I really just resonated with that because when I've, I've done some other things where they talk about meditation and that kind of stuff, and I just, I just never grabbed onto that.

I just never, never did. I wanted to, but I just never did. And so this really kind of science based leadership development, I just, man, I just, it just spoke to me. And so I really did have some breakthroughs kind of there that not only helped me in the position I was in at the time, but have changed me now.

And I think has made me a better business owner now than I could have ever been without. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: have you solved for your outside validation and, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? The, uh, overachiever. Yeah, 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: no, , , I'd, I'd like to say I'm so mature and I've evolved and all that kind of stuff, but no, mm-hmm, that's, that's where I get my, like I said, my dopamine, like, I, I just understand that about that's where your drive is from, which just helps me just to be aware, I think, but yeah, I'm 42 years old.

I'm not changing 

Mike Koelzer, Host: you're not gonna change now. Well, and it keeps you right on the line between, I don't know, outside approval and your own approval and so on. It's right. That kind of cool line. The ying yang of how you operate. Yeah. Cuz 

I 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: could put out good material and not try very hard, but then I wouldn't.

No, I would know that I didn't try very hard, you know, so you're absolutely right. It's internal approval and external approval. Um, there's, there's definitely both levers in there for sure. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: That's funny about us. How, like you'll paint a room and you'll know there's a thing behind the desk, you know? No, one's gonna see it, but you just don't feel complete about it though.

And there's a lot of things like that. You've gotta the saying of good enough or you don't have to be perfect kind of thing, but it's hard to do sometimes you just don't feel 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: right. Yeah. Uh, one lesson that I have learned, so I am a, I. I am a recovering perfectionist. When I was eight years old, I had stress ulcers because I was worried about being perfect at eight.

Like it's in me, it's just in my DNA. However, I have gotten much better about Don is better than perfect and really understanding the difference of priority. And this is where I think pharmacy owners could [00:20:00] really use, uh, as a whole, a whole bunch of help in this area. Is that not everything has to be perfect when you're filling prescriptions, you wanna be perfect when you're doing marketing, you don't need to be perfect.

Like it really is okay for trial and error. And that's when we talked about hats earlier, when you have your pharmacist bench hat on, you strive for perfection, all of that, learning from school and everything and errors, and all of that comes into play and, and you should be striving for perfection.

However, when you take your pharmacist hat off and you put on your pharmacy owner, You cannot bring that bias and that thinking into pharmacy ownership, because you will never grow in business, you grow by doing. And when you do, sometimes you fail and sometimes you succeed. And if you're so afraid of failing that you never do, then your business never grows.

You become stagnant and eventually you'll fade away. You'll either fade away slowly and sell your pharmacy and, you know, maybe go to work for somewhere else or you'll fade away in a glory of flames and, you know, have a debt of, you know, in front of you. And so you really do have to learn sometimes that done is better than perfect.

And you have to understand. How to differentiate those things, because if I obsessed over every blog or every email that I send out for a level of perfection that is really in my DNA, I would never send one out. I would always find a better word. I would always find punctuation or something like that that is wrong.

And so we really do need to just separate out those tasks. We cannot perform at that super high level in every area of our, of our, uh, being. And we have to have some grace for ourselves. I think that's something that has come with age is forgiving myself on the little things, you know, perfect actual example.

So a couple weeks ago I sent out an email. It was actually on me, how to have an unlimited marketing budget. And I had a budget misspelled. I had swapped the D and G I, I never noticed somebody emailed me and was like, Hey, you know, in a circle. Cause I think the week before I had talked about being a perfectionist and so they, they kind, I said, you know, I'm much better at that.

Had it been five years ago or, or longer that would've ruined my day. I mean, ruined my day. I would've been upset. I would not have been able to do anything else. I probably would've been a terrible mom. When my kids came home, a terrible wife to my husband, it literally would've ruined my day and I would've ruminated about it, of all the other things that I probably did wrong too.

And instead where at least where I'm at now is I laughed about it. And we had some little banter going back and forth in our emails and I forgot about it. And, I got over it and life went on and I know that something small and silly, a typo and an email, but it really is a symptom of the larger disease of perfectionism that I think exists in pharmacy owners.

And that perfectionism holds us back from trying new things, and holds us back from profitable revenue streams. So many pharmacy owners have missed out on COVID testing and COVID vaccines and, and a lot of revenue generated around COVID because they were afraid of not reporting something right. Or not doing something.

Right. Yeah. And so they just let that money walk on by. And I just, I feel very sad that that's what holds a lot of, a lot of pharmacy owners back. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: The best thing for procrastination that ever came along was Christmas because, okay. I love women. I'm married to one, I've got five daughters and a female black lab.

I love women. But if they had their way, I think Christmas would keep moving back. You know, it would be in February, then March, then June. There's nothing better than just having that date of Christmas on December 25th, come hell or high water. It's there. It's a great thing for perfectionism. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yes, 

absolutely.

Um, giving yourself a deadline is the best way. Like I have to have my newsletter out every Friday. So like whether, whether I like it or not, that things gotta go. And so having some of those things. And so when you're looking at your to-do list, I mean, we're sitting here early in 2022. Um, still plenty of time to plan for an awesome 22, but don't just have a goal and let it hang out there because you're, you're never gonna attack it.

You're never gonna be done with it. You gotta, you gotta put a finite, uh, ending to that goal. You know, what does success look like? What, what does making progress look like? And I think once you do that, that almost gets our, um, Our student instinct cuz we're all students, you know, obviously those of us that were pharmacists and pharmacy owners, we all had those deadlines.

We all had the final exam. And so we're used to operating up against a deadline and I think you hit it spot on. And so when you make yourself a goal or you make yourself a plan, put that, even if it's a created deadline, put that on there. And we all are kind of conditioned from our years in school to kind of work up to that deadline.

You 

Mike Koelzer, Host: mentioned a bit ago, you said you do some consulting and then you diversify RX. Now [00:25:00] in my mind, from what I've seen online, I kind of think, Hey, that is kind of consulting, cuz you're not necessarily selling, you know, stuff outta your trunk as far as merchandise. So tell me about that. Where's the divide?

How do you see those differently from being consulting one and then the diversified RX. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: The reason I clarified it that way is I do some consulting for companies, for corporations, not necessarily in pharma. Um, like for example, I helped a solar company with their marketing and, you know, helped them get on, you know, get going.

So I, I sometimes pick up other gigs as I call them better, you know, outside of pharmacy, not really in pharmacy owners. And I love actually doing those cuz I, they make sure that I kind of stay sharp and I'm, I'm kind. Ingrained in what other people are doing and other companies are, are working on. So diversifier X for me is everything to do with pharmacies and pharmacy owners.

So I have divers fire X. I have the pharmacy profit summit, which is our in-person conference. Um, you know, that diversifier X puts on. And then I, I kind of put consulting in another bucket, which is kind of my corporate consulting. So tell 

Mike Koelzer, Host: me about corporate consulting. How do you land 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: those people?

Just reach out to me. It's kind of weird. , uh, you know, I think it's that LinkedIn profile that, uh, people just see me and they're, and then I know a lot of people, you know, you just. Even in this industry, I've been referred to people outside of this industry from how I've helped pharmacies. So there's a ton of companies in this industry that I have, quote, unquote, probably you could say consulted for, I don't charge for a, a lot of the things that I've done in the past for maybe there was conflict of interest or something like that, but I just, I love helping.

So I've helped a ton of companies and you know, when somebody else is having a similar problem, you know, my name gets circulated. And so it's, it's that it's very organic, very by referral. Um, and I think that that's actually a lot of marketing that pharmacy owners don't take advantage of because when you start to put content out there and you start to put value out there, people gain trust in you before they even know you.

And so a lot of times people will hear my name. They'll go to my profile. They'll go to my social media pages. They'll go to websites. I do a ton of videos. It's like people know me before they even get on the phone with me. And 

Mike Koelzer, Host: your comment there, you were saying that pharmacist. Don't do that enough just to let people know them before they want to serve 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: them.

Yeah, absolutely. And you have so much knowledge. I tell pharmacists, just go on Facebook live. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Are you pointing to me or do you mean in general? Because I'm gonna have to argue if you say 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I do no, I, I guarantee you there's something that you could talk to patients about and teach them. I guarantee there is, but no, I'm, I'm talking about the global we, um, or the global you, um, because we all have value, whether it's a supplement.

I mean, even if it's just your B, C D supplements, could you go on Facebook live twice a week and talk about why somebody might need vitamin A or why somebody might need vitamin C? Absolutely. You could. And then guess what people are gonna come in. They're gonna talk to you about those supplements.

They're probably gonna buy those supplements. They're gonna ask you about other supplements. And next thing you know, you're a supplement expert, um, quote, unquote, because we as pharmacists, don't see ourselves as. Because our level of expert is so high and I'd like to tell pharmacy owners, you're the expert in the conversation when you know, somebody, when you know more than the person you're talking 

Mike Koelzer, Host: to.

Yeah. We put expert ways up there. Yeah. We put 'em up there like the author of the best book we read. No, you just have to know more than the next person. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yep, exactly. And so we, as pharmacists, have a global amount of information that could really help our patient, meaning how many of us could help patients lose weight if that's what we really wanted to do.

Right. We absolutely know that information. And what's really cool is we know the prescriptions and we know what their other prescriptions are causing. And maybe there are other prescriptions that are actually causing their weight gain. Like it becomes this really awesome snowball effect. When you just start talking to your community and start talking about the things that are passionate to you about that, that organic marketing really starts to paint you as the.

Mike Koelzer, Host: if you were to put adjectives into diversify RX, is it hope? Is it confidence? What else is there? Those adjectives that you're really selling to people more than just let's say knowledge. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah, that's a really good question. I mean, I think as fundamentally diversified RX is a very ambitious company because I'm a very ambitious person.

I mean, I really do mean our mission is to save every independent pharmacy. If you wanna stay open, I wanna give you the strategy and tools that you need. Um, I think diversifying, our X is discerning. Um, and that's something that I have developed over many years. I've made probably every mistake you can make in pharmacy.

I've made all the big ones. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Gotcha. So you're giving confidence in that discernment you already went through. Yes. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Um, I've and I, and the thing is that my, my past lives and my current life give me access to a lot of companies, um, [00:30:00] and a lot of pharmacy owners. So I hear feedback on companies. I do. Kind of able to peek behind the curtains and see what companies are doing.

I have learned how to spot the good from the bad so to speak. And I think that's a big fear that many pharmacy owners have. I just talked to this sales guy and he just told me all this great stuff. But are they really gonna be able to do it? Are they just gonna take my money? Like the last guy did mm-hmm and so I think discernment is a really, really big part of, I think of the service that we provide is that I sift through all of that stuff, sift through the strategies.

I don't pick the best for you and you individually, or you as any pharmacy owner. I, I feel like really, I was put on this earth to create a buffet of strategies, a buffet of companies that are all kind of vetted and kind of get my stamp of approval because what's gonna fit your pharmacy. Mike is completely different from what might fit my pharmacy.

And I have three pharmacies, and I can tell you that the strategies are different from them. We don't run them all the same because they have different demographics. They have different staff and different circumstances. Um, I really love the hope that you give, and I'm glad that you've picked up on that because, um, that, that means a lot to me, just, just personally, that I'm able to give those pharmacy owners hope, um, And I think the other one is hopefully a little bit of, uh, brazenness uh, boldness might be more than 

Mike Koelzer, Host: even confidence.

More like let's go get 'em kind of stuff. Yes, 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: exactly. So there's a reason I use the term pharmacy badass. Um, and my digital membership is called pharmacy badass university. I think it's it. When you, when you wear that title, you, you immediately get an emotion. You. Feeling you get almost a visual picture of a badass.

And to me, an average pharmacy owner is not gonna last long in this day and age anymore. It's just, you can't be average and win. It's just, it's just not possible. And you really, you need to become something more. And that something more really, truly is a pharmacy badass. Somebody who you are gonna go after your goals, you're not gonna let anybody stop you.

You're not gonna let anybody derail you. And you are on a mission that you were going to accomplish. And to me, that boldness, hopefully I'm imparting into pharmacy owners that gravitate towards that. So I think that's a good rounding. I hope discernment and, and, um, boldness, uh, if, if I could give that gift to every pharmacy owner out there, that would be a pretty good world.

Mike Koelzer, Host: How important is your ownership either externally or internally to you right now? Like, let's say I said, Lisa, here's a ton of money. I'm buying those three pharmacies out. Would that not make you? As strong of a leader of diverse RX for people seeing you no longer own a pharmacy or might it also not let you perform as well.

You don't feel like you are in the trenches. So how important is that ownership still, you 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: know, were you in my brain earlier this week? Because I was actually just having that conversation. Um, cause, uh, I, in the past it would've meant a really, a lot like that label, that label is pharmacy owner was just very important for my personal identity.

When, when there was a time in my life, when I didn't own a pharmacy, I felt a little lost, um, and felt a little, it was just very awkward, not having that label. Um, as I've matured, I really have come to understand that I don't need that label anymore. It's nice to have, you know, when I see the prime, the.

Contracts come in, then I can bitch about something super relevant to them, yeah. To the industry. But I, you know, for my own personal confidence, I don't think I need those pharmacy ownership labels anymore. Like I did in the past, they were kind of a crutch for me. Um, and uh, I think going forward, I have enough exposure to the industry and I have enough, um, close relationships with pharmacy owners.

I mean, gosh, some of the pharmacy owners are my, you know, best friends out there. Um, That I, I could go on very successfully with, without that, um, how people might look at that, the fact that I've owned pharmacies for so long and in and out mm-hmm , I, I don't think I really need it for credibility. It certainly, you know, when I'm talking to them, it gives me relevance because I can complain about that contract that just came out.

But frankly, it's not absolutely necessary. So if you would have asked me that question a year ago, I would've answered completely differently, but I think I'm getting to the point where I can shed that label and still feel really good about myself and still feel really confident, but that hasn't always been the case.

Mike Koelzer, Host: I find at this stage in my life. And let's say I'm anywhere from a year to eight years away from selling at this stage in my life. You'd be as valuable if you said I sold. Three pharmacies one, five years ago. Here's what I learned one, two years ago. Here's what I learned. And I sold one six months ago.

Here's what I learned. I mean, because now I'm [00:35:00] not looking for an owner anymore, I'm looking for a seller and what does that mean? And what is life and that kind of stuff. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: So, as I said before, I've done just about everything wrong you can do in pharmacy. And I've done just about everything, right. You know, mm-hmm, , I've gotten in trouble with the board of pharmacy and I've also made millions of dollars, you know, like it's the, the, both, both extremes I've, I've done it all.

And I now actually own that past, you know, it used to be very shameful of the things I did wrong because again, we're perfectionist mm-hmm and we don't like doing things wrong, much less. Bad things on a big scale. And so, uh, but I just, there, I think as I grow and mature and, uh, I, I learn how to deal with my own insecurities better so that we can kind of get past that, but I've sold a pharmacy before, you know?

Yeah. I've been there and done that. Um, I've bought pharmacies from other people, so obviously been on the other side of, of the selling process, you know, so I think I, I've learned to love my. really crazy history in pharmacy. You know, I've, I've worked for big companies, worked for small companies in pharma, done the entrepreneur thing and actually done the entrepreneur thing and lots of other, uh, businesses.

My husband and I are just serial entrepreneurs and all of that just creates experience. And I love bringing that experience to pharmacy owners. So I almost look at it as an advantage now, like when I have an experience, like my last pharmacy in Texas was a horrible experience. I definitely have some PTSD after it.

The board of pharmacy did some things wrong and all kinds of stuff. I now can use that experience to help another pharmacy owner. And so that's the way I look at it. Now. I don't look at it as good or bad black and white like I did before. And I, that that's, that's the big change that has happened in the past few years.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Do you ever get anxiety or have you had anxiety in your life? 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yes, I have. And it takes a lot for me to get there, um, because I can, I can just, I handle a lot of stuff really well. Um, I mean, even right now, like I, I've got a lot of things, maybe not all good happening. Um, I don't get anxious over that, but there there's been just a few times in my life.

Um, there's been two things that have been major enough that really has caused me anxiety, but, um, I try to take good care of myself, um, in the sense of vitamins and, you know, supplements and that kind of stuff. But, um, I'm a doer. So I, I just that's when I, when I'm probably getting anxious and probably a symptom of my own anxiety is I do more stuff.

Uh mm-hmm I, I cross more things off the list and I do more things because then that gets me out ahead and I alleviate that feeling. So I don't suffer from anxiety in a lot of the traditional sense, but I certainly am not unaffected by things when they have, uh, high pressure and high consequences. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: When I was a kid, I always thought of mental illness as like, you'd have to be certifiably crazy.

And as you get older, you put enough stress on someone sometime. And you know, they can pop at a seam, whether it's depression or anxiety and. But here's the thing that you've got going, Lisa, you could put yourself up against somebody else and your anxiety and depression would come from not having something to do, you know, or someone else would be the opposite of that.

Yeah, 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: absolutely. I think it's really important, you know, that the double edged sort of social media is, you know, I get to compare my best day with somebody's worst day. Yeah. Or I get to compare somebody's best day to my worst day. And we're all making these comparisons, whether we are consciously aware of it or not.

And there's so many people that I follow both in and out of pharmacy and they have great successful wins and, and you, and I'm happy for them. And I, and I love them and they're near and dear to me, but then I also think, oh, I'm, I'm hardly doing anything. I'm just over here building my website and I haven't launched and I haven't made any sales and you know, you start to get down on yourself and, and you, all of us are at risk for that.

We're human. We, we, we. naturally like to, I think, compare ourselves to others. Sure. Um, it's, it's tough, it's a tough thing because yeah, when you're looking at somebody's awesomeness, something that they just achieved, that's probably their, their highlight of their day, the highlight of their year. Yeah.

Highlight of their decade. And yet you don't know what they went through to get there. You don't know how many nights they cried themselves to sleep or how many times they went bankrupt or, you know, you don't know all of the pain. And so that's what, where social media gets a little funky. Is that. You don't see the behind the scenes.

No. And yet for our own life we do. And so you're always comparing, oh, they, they did that so easy. They didn't have to do any of that. And here, here I am working. And so that's where that comparison comes from. I think pharmacy owners definitely fall into that too. When they look at somebody's success, for sure. And they opened another store, they bought another store.

Um, life just comes easy to them and they compare it against a, I can't even keep a, a pharmacist on staff, you know, and you're comparing the best to the worst. And it takes a toll. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I have four older brothers and we all swam on the high school [00:40:00] swim team. So I SW like four years after the last brother had gone through.

And I was like a second and a half behind them in certain races. . I was always comparing nobody else was, you know, my dad or none of them. Well, I don't even know if they knew I was on the swim team, but none of them compared me to myself and it was so pleasurable when I got to high school. That's when triathlons had just started.

So I was doing these sprint triathlons, you know, cause I was a swimmer and stuff like that. And that was so cool because, and this is a good psychological lesson. It was so cool because I was comparing myself to myself and that's really all we can do. We can compare ourselves to who we were yesterday, who we were this morning.

Yeah. And that social media doesn't help. Yeah. You only can compare yourself to yourself. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: That's why I'm such a big fan of just that continuous improvement. That whole methodology of just looking for 1% improvement just improves something somewhere by a tiny little percentage. And you do that every day. And at the end of the year, You're gonna be in a whole brand new place that you couldn't have even anticipated it being in because as long as you just focus on improving something, like just always be continuous improving mm-hmm

And I, I love that lesson and, um, that's what that's, what I've chosen to really grab onto is just to be better than yesterday. And I'm a big KPI nerd. Uh, if any, if any of you are listening, follow me, I love KPIs. I love pharmacy benchmarks, and there are some benchmarks where there is an industry benchmark, and you wanna compare yourself to that benchmark because it's gonna help you run your business better.

But so many of the other KPIs there, aren't a benchmark and you really shouldn't use one. You really should be using your own. Mm-hmm . The whole concept is just to improve where you are at and not about comparing yourself to others. And so a lot of times people say, well, what should I be? You should just be better than you were last month.

That's what you should 

Mike Koelzer, Host: be. We talked about this, about pharmacists being too much. Perfectionist. Are there other little things? Intricacies of someone's personality that you see. And I don't, I don't mean just to focus on the negative, but I kind of like focusing on the negative. I can then see where the problems are, you know, because we can always absolutely sit and pat ourselves on the back.

But what other intricacies do you see from pharmacists maybe in their personality or maybe on a team or maybe something during their day or week that they're not progressing or maybe not latching onto your diversification of profit already? We talked about perfectionists. Is there anything else that it's like to get over this hump?

What are those little 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: humps? Yeah, I. Control control freaks, not wanting to delegate. Um, I don't know how many times I've talked to a pharmacy owner about their books about finances. Oh, no, I don't have a bookkeeper. I like to do my finances. Great. When's your last financial year, oh, it's been six months. I'm six months behind

Yeah. Like, well then it's really not helping you. Yeah. Um, but that, that ability to delegate and give control over to somebody else, um, that is really, really hard for a lot of pharmacists and really does hold them back because you cannot do everything. You cannot be the one in charge of every single thing and be able to be San.

Right. Exactly. I think giving over that hump and delegating and outsourcing, uh, you know, one of the topics that I covered at last year's pharmacy profit summit was hiring a VA hiring a virtual assistant. So I brought in an expert virtual assistant person and really walked through with pharmacy owners, unlike hiring a VA and outsourcing some of that.

Some of those people at the summit grabbed onto that. And actually some of them have hired two or three VAs now and are doing a whole bunch of stuff because they learned once you almost like once you do it once getting rid of that control and getting that stuff off your plate actually becomes a little addicting.

Cuz it's, it's like you're cloning yourself cuz you're turning in all these other people and doing all this work that normally you would've had to do. Yeah. And so I think delegating is a really important lesson for pharmacy owners to learn. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: It's one thing, if you like something and you realize that you like it and you say you like it.

And everybody would agree that you're not the right person for it, but you gladly take it because you like it. Maybe a pharmacist just likes to index the back door. They get to look outside, it's relaxing to them. It's three minutes a day. They do something like that. But admit it, say, you know, I could have anybody do this.

I'm not doing it for control. It's just something that's kind of relaxing to me. It's like, instead of a smoke break, you get to have a Windex break, you know, but admit it at least, and don't do it. Like you're a martyr for it, cuz someone else should 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: be doing that. Yeah, absolutely. That's where I've really started to learn your zone of genius.

You know, things you're really good at and things you enjoy. By golly, go do them. Like, [00:45:00] and even for me in my pharmacy and my very first pharmacy that I owned, I did the bookkeeping for years and I didn't do it because I was being cheap or I didn't wanna hire somebody. I'm a nerd. And I love numbers. I loved digging into 'em, but there actually became a time where I was like, okay, even though I love it.

And even though I'm good at this, there's other things that only I can be doing. So I've got to free myself up some time. And so whenever you outsource something, all you're doing is buying back your. And then there's things that you're good at that you don't like, you know? And then there's things that you're not good at.

And you don't like, you know, that's like, those are the first things to get rid of. I 

Mike Koelzer, Host: have a lot of 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: stuff in that category. Most of us do. And most of us do. And if you actually write it down and there's like some exercises you can do, like I said, we went through this at the pharmacy profit summit and everybody had a long list and I guarantee you, Mike, you're not alone.

Everybody's longest list was things that I don't like to do. And I'm not really good at it. . 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I saw your Superman thing was that fiber? No, 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: that's actually, uh, videos. It's a program called videos. You did that yourself. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Uhhuh yeah. By your logo on there, Uhhuh for those listening, fiber is a online 

source 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: freelance, like a 

Mike Koelzer, Host: freelance site.

Yeah. Freelance can do some of that stuff. And it started like at five, $5 and they do stuff like that. But I was talking about. A little video. And so you just add your logo to that. I have to look into that. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah. Video. So it's V I D D Y O Z E videos. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: That's too much for this little guy to 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: remember. I know, I know I'll, I'll email it to you.

Uh, but no, it's a great little program that me and my husband have had for, for, but they have these little video snippets and you just put your logo in there and you, you, you can do some things and come up really awesome. But yeah, our pharmacy badass university promo video is what it was. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: You mentioned VAs, virtual assistance.

What do these pharmacies, what have they had luck with with the person that hired three of these? 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah, so, um, sometimes it's emails, just email management, uh, going through there. That's, that's a lot of it. Uh, travel is another big one. Um, a lot of them actually outsource some of the HR duties, such as creating schedules and, uh, things like that.

A lot, a lot of paperwork. So, uh, when they hire a new employee, it's like, okay, well this employee and they, you create a system, you do it once. Here's what a new employee, all the paperwork that needs to do. So instead of me interacting with the new employee saying, fill out all this paperwork and then me having to track.

I just told the VA I've hired a new person and they know now exactly how to go and get all the paperwork and do all of that. So it's a lot of generally admin type of stuff. Um, obviously, um, cuz you gotta be able to do it remotely and whatnot, but once your brain starts going down that path, you start thinking of all the other things like, huh?

I wonder if I could have them do this. And then, and then like, like when I plan events, so I have a VA in my, in my company and when I plan events, like we're doing drinks, desserts and drugs coming up in February next month. And I have a VA do a lot of that event planning. They contact you, because it's there in different cities each time.

So I contacted them. I have them look up venues and you know, so once your brain starts going, you actually start realizing how much of your day you spend doing tasks that really frankly, someone else can. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Kind of reminds me of like, as a kid, when I would get a new wallet, when I was like seven, you got this wallet and you don't have anything to put in it.

So you walk around and you put in some playing cards and some pictures of people in the Sears catalog, you know, make it look like that's part of your family and stuff. You've got a spot finally. And now your mind opens up and does some of that stuff. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah. So the first time when I first hired a VA, I didn't know what the heck I was gonna have him do.

I thought I had an idea and I was like, okay, here's, here's these two tasks, but man, the floodgate started opening. And so now, he has a continuous task. Uh, you know, there's, there's probably 10 to 15 long. That's always there that I am just constantly handing off to him. And what's really great is, just like any relationship, as you start to work together more, you start to, you know, figure each other out.

So, um, it's, it's been amazing. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Someone calls you up. Like, I don't even know the shows anymore, like 20, 20 or 60 minutes. Let's say 60 minutes. You remember that minutes, right? I Uh Huh you're old enough, right? 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I'm old enough. I'm old enough to remember Barbara Walters, even 

Mike Koelzer, Host: they call you up and you're so successful and they wanna do a show on you.

Okay. They're gonna follow you around like a day in the life of Lisa or a week in the life. And let's say, you really wanna show off. You wanna show the world that you've got it all in order, you know? And, and you're in charge of this kind of stuff. What kind of things would they follow you on? Would they be going down to this, uh, drinks and drugs?

And would they be with you in the morning as you're plowing through stuff? Would they be with you when you're on stage talking to people? What are the cool things that you would like the 60 minute audience to like to look at you and say, that's cool. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah, that's the really good question [00:50:00] because most of my day to day is really boring and I sit and talk on the phone and answer emails all day, but we do do some really fun stuff.

I think the in person events certainly are dynamic. Um, the drinks, desserts and drugs are a profitable networking event. Um, I have one at each of the major trade shows. We just kind of find a place to, uh, you know, have an event at night and. We offer drinks, we offer desserts and we talk about drugs and profits and all kinds of fun stuff.

Those are really fun. Those are really dynamic. Certainly the pharmacy profit summit, where it's a two day conference, a very workshop kind of event where you're not just going there and just listening to a boring speaker up on a podium. Um, you're actually doing some of the work and, and gonna kind of get down in the weeds.

Those are fun. That's life. Yeah, that's live. And in Dallas we have it in Dallas and, uh, that is certainly fun because I think that's where we get lots of. Just organic, really like humbling and opening conversations. When you have those intimate in person conversations, you get to feel the energy of the room.

Uh, but frankly, most of the time it's, um, I spend a lot of time on the phone. Whether talking with the company, I do get to talk to a lot of really cool companies. I'm often, sometimes the first person that they're showing a demo to like, Hey, I've been working on this thing for six months. I'm finally ready to show it to somebody.

I wanna show it to you first and get your feedback. So I get a lot of first look, uh, stuff from some companies out there. So, um, that's really cool and interesting. Maybe just, just pharma nerds, but I think so. And then I, I love talking to pharmacy owners in that sense. Helping them solve a problem.

When somebody calls up and says, Hey, I need to hire a staff, but they want 20 bucks an hour. And my regular tech is only making 15. What should I do? Like solving that for them is always really super fun. But, um, that's a really good question because when you're kind of an information specialist, I don't have any sexy products to sell, uh, for sure.

But, uh, um, that, that's a really cool question because, uh, it's, it's the day in the end and I think what you have to learn as, and as an entrepreneur, it doesn't matter what business you're learning. You have to fall in love with the process. Yeah. And I can get excited and I can smile and I can get glowy talking about my day because I really truly am in love with the process.

Probably not many people on the outside would find it very glamorous, but I have definitely fallen in love with the process and the day in and day out work that's required in order to produce the results. Granted love, love the results, very results oriented, but I've also learned to love the process.

Mike Koelzer, Host: What does life look like for you that week? For example, what does that look like in 20 years when you're what? 62? Yeah. Are you ever hanging this up? Are you ever like, I'm working until I'm in the grave because I enjoy it so much. Are you going part time? What's that look like in 20 years? 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah. So in 20 years, my kids will be arranging an age from 35 to 24.

So I might still have some people in college. But I think for me, I will always be doing something to help pharmacy owners. Now I think the big difference is I do believe in financial independence of, you know, having the ability to walk away and not have to work mm-hmm . Um, but I truly do enjoy my work so much that, I mean, the whole reason that diversified RX started is when I was looking at leaving my company that I was with for many years, I was looking at jobs outside of pharma.

And the only anxiety I had about that was. Oh, my gosh, I'm not gonna be able to help pharmacy owners. Mm-hmm . And so I really started diversifying X as kind of this side gig therapy, um, that I would still be connected to pharmacy owners in some way. And so, um, being there and I, when I sold my pharmacy, I kind of semi-retired.

I could have, I mean, financially retired, but again, I was drawn back into helping pharmacy owners. And so I think in the future 20 years, 30 years from now, I still see myself. I, I see myself like Bruce Neland, you know, somebody who's just like, has his fingers in, likes to keep up, likes to connect.

People like to make an impact. Um, but you're not necessarily doing it for the money. You're not necessarily putting food on the table. You're really just doing it because I, I feel like that's what God put me on earth for. And so that's just like, what I'm gonna be doing is fulfilling that mission.

Uh, but hopefully it's from that financial independence standpoint that I don't have 

Mike Koelzer, Host: to. , it might be a couple hours poking on the computer a day or something like that. And, and being involved. Absolutely. But not, not overworked. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah. AB absolutely. You wanna control you wanna control your day. Yeah. And luckily as an, as an, as an entrepreneur now, I mean, I own pharmacies, but I don't work in the pharmacies.

Um, I do get to control my day, you know, I, I have a calendar and I, I get to say no, or yes. Um, and that's pretty cool, but I think as the future goes, I will personally be looking for more flexibility, you know, as the kids grow up and maybe, you know, they're into. Uh, some of them now, and I got some young ones that who knows what they're gonna be into as they grow [00:55:00] older, but I wanna be able to be there for them and have the financial independence that, you know, if they're playing in college that I can travel with them or, you know, whatever that looks like.

I got one who wants to be in the Olympics one day. So, you know, of course I would wanna go there and do that. So, um, I think it's, I think for me, it's about flexibility. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Speaking of flexibility, when are you gonna get rid of those damn pharmacies? And I know you don't staff 'em yourself, but compared to the flexibility with diversified RX, that seems like a ball and chain.

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Um, they sometimes are. Um, let me tell, let me tell you, I've, I've considered this one in Texas. It's definitely been the problem child. Um, and I might, I, like I said, I, I no longer feel like I have to have that label of pharmacy ownership anymore. So, um, if one, if the partners, like I own all of these pharmacies with different, different ownership groups.

And so if one of them said, Hey, we'd like to buy you out or we wanna sell. I wouldn't probably be opposed to that. Um, because it's moving on to the next life and I practice what I preach. So as I tell pharmacy owners to diversify, I diversify myself. So we invest in movies. We invest in other businesses.

We, you know, wanna diversify into real estate. You know, there's lots of other things that we wanna do as, as a, as a couple and as a, you know, looking into our future that it's like, okay, that time's over with, we get our money back. Um, hopefully plus some, you know, and, and then you move on to the next thing.

And so we're always looking at kind of like those next opportunities of, of what to go. And to me, that's that serial entrepreneurship. Luckily, my husband has it too. Otherwise might cause some problems, but, uh, we're both looking for that next thing to conquer. And so, um, I no longer feel so.

Yeah. If my partners called me up tomorrow, if somebody listened to this and said, Hey, Lisa, we heard that you might, you know, take me for a buyout. I was like, yeah, let's, let's talk about that. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed, but, um, they, they definitely take up some time. That's for sure. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: I've always said I would never want to partner.

And maybe that's when I'm really involved. I wouldn't want to bump heads, but maybe in your case, that's where some partners, you know, help when you're not right there. And it takes a little bit of that stress off, I guess. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Yeah, it's ha having partners in any business is tough and, and having partners, it's not the ideal situation.

I mean, even me, I've, I've had to learn how to deal with, um, partners, because I'm a, I'm a pretty aggressive person. I'm an alpha dog. I like to run things the way that I think that they should be run. And certainly in a partnership, you, you know, you can't do that. And so there's, there's definitely some different choices that if I had a hundred percent control on my pharmacies, we would be doing things differently.

Uh, but I don't necessarily always have that, have that control. And so, um, but no, you're absolutely right. Um, I don't ever recommend partners to people because they mostly go bad. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: So Lisa, someone's listening to this and maybe they're pulling up to their home or something like that or a pharmacy. And they've got a few minutes while we're still on their mind.

What does a pharmacist do? Now, maybe in relation to you, diversify RX, maybe something else. What are they gonna do with those few minutes to act on maybe something they heard today? 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: To me as a pharmacy owner. And if you wanna increase your profitability, my biggest takeaway would be profitable strategies.

Don't just fall from the sky. You actually have to be actively searching for them and looking for them. And so what I think is one of the best ways to do that, you know, I have a podcast they're listening to. Obviously they like listening. Um, I try to keep 'em short and sweet. We have some longer, more in depth ones, but go, just start listening and to get new ideas, you have to have some source.

You have to have a spring to get your ideas from. And once you have ideas, you might come up with something all on your own. You might go implement something exactly as I presented it. But you as a pharmacy owner are gonna be stagnant and you're, this year is not gonna be any better than last year, unless you're actively looking for those strategies and those opportunities.

So I would say flip that switch and instead of just waiting for profit to just magically come from somewhere that you take that active approach and you seek out. Some new ideas and new strategies that then you might implement or might just give you another idea. But so to me, it'd be like, go follow, go subscribe on YouTube, go subscribe to the podcast, do something, whether it's me or someone else I'm, you know, I have no ego in this at all, but actively put something in place and it has to be a system.

Cuz if you're just gonna rely on memory, it's not gonna happen. And that's why subscribing or, or something like that, um, to where you get new information into your brain on a regular basis, cuz that's gonna keep you fresh and that's gonna keep you ready and able to pounce on that next opportunity. That is a good fit for you.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, Lisa golly, great having you on the show. Nice to meet you finally. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: I know. Thank you so much for having me. I am glad that we haven't officially met and it's great because you do [01:00:00] such great things. I love listening to your shows and uh, you have such. A wide variety that it's one of those things. You gotta put that information in your brain.

And so I love hearing from other people. So I'm very honored that you invited me. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Thank you. I got a listener. Sometimes I think it's just my dog and I are my two fans of the show. I 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: know exactly what that feeling is like, because sometimes you publish something and it's crickets and you're like, did, did anybody see that?

Did anybody listen? And, um, and then ultimately then the messages start coming in or you see a comment or something, but, um, no good work goes unnoticed. Even if it's not publicly, it does help somebody. So I, I feel ya, 

Mike Koelzer, Host: like we talked about doing one day better for yourself, and that's what I like about the podcast.

Cuz people don't really know how it's doing. There's not a really good rating system as far as numbers for podcasts. And I like that because it's me competing against myself and not worrying about some social media number of likes and so on. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Couldn't agree more, absolutely. Hands down. Uh you've gotta do something.

And I, I would say also for you, it's probably a good outlet. Like it's a, it's a good way to, um, interact with people that you maybe would've never interacted with. I mean, for sure you had some amazing interviews and it's like what a typical pharmacy owner is gonna go out of the way to talk to this person, even though it's highly interesting.

Yeah. And so, um, it probably keeps your brain busy, uh, you know, kind of gives its topamine hits like learning new things and stuff as well. 

Mike Koelzer, Host: Someone might think that this would be a show where I would talk to other pharmacists, but it's like, I typically would never have an independent pharmacy owner on here cuz I'm one of them. It's like, I don't want to talk to someone like me.

I've gotta talk to people as much as I would like to be in the car with them and driving up north for a couple hours. And it's like, I don't really wanna do that with another pharmacist. I'm afraid I would just sit there and bitch too much with them. well, that's 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: what, that's what happens. That's what ends up happening.

Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, Lisa, thanks for everything you're doing. You're doing some important work. 

Lisa Faast, PharmD,: Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Take care, Lisa. Thank you.

Mike Koelzer, Host: You've been listening to the business of pharmacy podcast with me, your host, Mike Keer. Please subscribe for all future episodes.