Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Pharmacy Residency Podcast


Jan 1, 2018

In this episode, Jackie Boyle, PharmD, MS, MBA, BCACP, BCPS Assistant Professor for Community Pharmacy Innovation at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) comes back to help us with goals and planning for the new year. She's also created a planner for 2018 you can find here: https://www.thepharmacygirl.com/shop/

After learning about the challenges that women face in professional life, Jaclyn created The Pharmacy Girl community as a venue for women pharmacists seeking fellowship, professional development, and discussion. As a first-generation college student, Jaclyn is passionate about helping others find their definition of success and work-life integration.

The Pharmacy Girl Blog at: www.thepharmacygirl.com
 
Full Transcript:
 

Male speaker: 

Welcome to the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast, with your host, Tony Guerra. The Pharmacy Leaders Podcast is a member of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. With interviews and advice on building your professional network, brand, and a purposeful second income from students, residents, and innovative professionals.

Tony: Welcome to the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast. I'm welcoming back the Pharmacy Girl from thepharmacygirl.com, personal and professional development. She has a landing site for women seeking fellowship professional development and discussion related to being a woman in pharmacy. We had an interview before and quite a few downloads and it became clear that this was a topic that people wanted to hear more about. So, what we're going to do is we're gonna go through five of her most recent blog posts and talk a little bit about goals as we start thinking about it for the New Year.

Jackie Boyle, welcome to the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast.

Jackie: Hi Tony, thanks so much for having me back. I'm so excited to be here.

Tony: Let's just first start with someone that we both know, Christina Tarrantola, and I know her and Adam Martin from the Pharmacy Podcast Network, but what we want to do is kind of go through each of these blogs and kind of talk a little bit about each of them, maybe give a little bit of a summary and then what we can learn from them, so we can get a better idea of what it is to be working as a woman entrepreneur. So, let's go ahead and maybe give a little summary of Christina Tarrantola's journey.

Jackie: Sure. I had the privilege of meeting Christina when we were both speakers at a career development talk in Indianapolis. So, it was kind of interesting, she's from Pittsburgh I'm from Cleveland, and we meet each other in Indiana.

Tony: I'm from Baltimore. This is the worse he worst football mix you could possibly pick.

Jackie: I won't even go with the Browns, I can't. That is a whole other topic. Anyway, I heard her story, we each spoke for five minutes, but I was so intrigued by what she was doing that I had to connect further with her. So, she has an entrepreneurship model that incorporates nutrition and helping people who are trying to take control of their health care. She realized during pharmacy school that while we receive a little bit of training about how to help patients with their lifestyles, she didn't feel like there was adequate training because as we all know most chronic disease states are caused by lifestyle issues.

So, she wanted to help solve a problem and fill in a solution of entrepreneurship where she really is a coach for her patients that helps them take better control of their healthcare and maybe even get off some of those prescription medications that they're taking.

Tony: Yes, I've heard her, and Adam talk, and they seem to have a good connection and that they both care about nutrition and things like that and maybe a little bit opposite for my wife and I which have two completely disparate entrepreneurial journeys. I've got the book in Top 200 and then she's got skin care with Rodan and Fields.

What about your own entrepreneurial journey? How do you work on your part and then does your partner have his own or is it just it's you?

Jackie: So far, it's me. I think he thinks I'm a little crazy at times, but he's supportive so he helps me you know send things out in the mail or gives me some downtime to be able to work on things, but I'm much of a morning person so I usually get all my entrepreneurial stuff done in the very early morning hours before work or on the weekends. Him and my daughter sleep in a little bit later, so maybe you know 9 or 10 o'clock they're sleeping in and I'm up at 5:00 or 6:00. So that's my sweet spot as those morning hours.

So far, he hasn't ventured into entrepreneurship though he has crafted a few things for the holidays, but I'm like you know we should really be thinking about Etsy with these for the family right now. I think he might have a little bit of craftiness in him that we can capitalize on.

Tony: Okay, that's awesome can you tell me maybe a little bit about how you establish that time? After 10 years, my wife and I've been married 10 years, and we do an interview on the Pharmacy Podcast Network where I asked her about her entrepreneurship and she comes out with this, "Well that 45 minutes after I get home where I'm feeding the kids, that's really just a time suck for me and it's just really brutal" and I didn't really know -- I don't know if I knew about it or I didn't really understand the impact of it. So, since then I now take the kids after school on Wednesdays and Fridays for sure, so that she has those two afternoons to do entrepreneurial stuff meet with their friends or go work out.

I think there's kind of this fiction that he drops them off five days and then I pick them up five days that somehow that makes it 50/50, when it'll never be 50/50, and guys are prouder of their five percent than you guys are of your 95 percent.

So, can you tell me how you guys came to that, "Okay well this is the time I really need", how did you have that conversation?

Jackie: I think like you mentioned the first thing that needs to happen is a conversation and finding out what each other's needs are, and I know Tony we were talking a little bit about the five love languages. Mine are the acts of service does and any time my husband does anything like cleaned the kitchen it's the best thing since sliced bread really.

So, once we identified what we need and for me it's any time that I can capitalize on being productive or doing something or him being productive and doing something, that's when I really love him even more, not that I don't at any other time, it's just those acts of service are great for me. Then I had to identify from his standpoint what does he need, he needs quality time.

So, with that alone time in the morning when I'm not missing out on family time because they're both sleeping I'm still able to get my priorities taken care of and then we have time at night that we spend together as a family because I know that that's important to both of us, but more so I could see that that's what his needs really are.

Tony: Okay good. That kind of gets us into our next blog post where Michelle, is it Louise Vardi? Empowering female entrepreneurs. Tell me a little bit about what she did and what she does uniquely to empower female entrepreneurs.

Jackie: Yes, absolutely. So, she has a great Facebook group that is all about women entrepreneurs. She's in the United Kingdom and I've never met her personally. I connected with her on a women's entrepreneur Facebook group and I asked her she wanted to blog for me because she just seems so motivational and doesn't have a specific business niche but really helps coach women who are entrepreneurs to make sure they can fit it all in and feel good about what it is that they're doing in the entrepreneurial space.

Sometimes we as women have guilt associated with giving our time to certain things. So, she motivates people to believe in themselves, pick a situation in an entrepreneurial venture that fits for you and your lifestyle and then once you picked something be consistent with it.

Tony: Can you explain me time because as a guy that's not a word that we use. I just say, okay well I'm gonna go to the bar to sit down and type out these recommendations and I was drinking soda not beer. Just so I had an hour before we went to church and kind of started all over again. But that term was not familiar to me. I don't really understand that term. I did look it up and it said that the average mom gets 14 minutes a day.

Jackie: That sounds about right, maybe a few more minutes on other days more than some, but it could be that instinctually our instincts want us to nurture. So, I know Tony we talked about both being in obligors and you and your wife are I'm guessing me and my husband or as well, but we're constantly giving of ourselves to others and perhaps that goes along with our profession, right? We're pharmacists, we want to help other people, but if we don't remind ourselves that we also need a little bit of time for self-care then that 14 minutes can quickly become four and that that's not a good thing.

I'm going to go back to mid-year for a second because I loved Michelle Obama's recommendation of putting yourself on your calendar first. So, you open up 2018 calendar, book out your vacations, book out the time you're gonna go to the gym. Actually, put your hair appointments on your calendar so that you actually have some me time that's more than 14 minutes available throughout the year.

Tony: That's good. I'm probably gonna sound like a broken record, but we don't even use the word record anymore, but you talked about daily reminders and this was your blog post, right? The daily reminder?

Jackie: Yes.

Tony: So, a little bit about kind of what we take for granted and how we take for granted maybe that we have so much time, but I got to tell you I feel like I just had my kids and they're almost seven now.  Like what just happened? I was just in the NICU with him and all of a sudden, I'm taking him to first grade and they're going ice skating and doing all these things.

Can you talk about maybe how we can slow down a little bit as we get to the New Year and this kind of turning point?

Jakie:1 Yes, absolutely. I think sometimes it takes a great conversation to remind you of what our circumstances are and that some of the things that we might complain about, other people are either praying for or wishing for that they could have in their life. As pharmacists we have really great jobs, we have great income, we have great opportunities to help others and sometimes I think those things can fall by the wayside.

S, just a little bit of mindfulness looking around and thanking someone for what they've done for you or maybe paying it forward and buying the person behind you their Starbucks drink for the day. It's some of those little things that I think can help us realize, "Wow, I'm grateful that I'm able to do these things every day as a result of where I've gone in my life and my upbringing".

Tony: Okay. So, let's go to the visualization blog post and I feel like we're kind of I went to go see Star Wars so I'm thinking Luke Skywalker on the mountain doing the kind of yoga pose and visualizing and that kind of thing, but I don't think that's exactly what you're talking about. Can you talk about visualization as part of your goals? I know we talked about SMART goals where they have to have certain attributes, but how can we visualize what we want and kind of stay on track?

Jackie: Yes, absolutely. So, I'll give an example of this because I think it is kind of a very abstract concept to grasp, but let's say you have an uncomfortable feeling when you think about public speaking. Well if you remove your own discomfort with that situation it really isn't a stressful situation, it's just people gathered in a room. One person's talking, and the other ones are listening, but it shouldn't necessarily be stressful.

So, in order to prepare for a situation like that I've been reading a lot about how you should visualize what that situation would look like if it was an ideal setting. So, if you were calm, if you were collected, if you weren't nervous at all, if you didn't stumble upon any of your words. All the things we think about when it comes to public speaking, what would that actually look like, and as you're preparing for that next time that you're in front of a group of individuals really visualizing and taking time to notice how you would feel in that situation. Your heart rate would be lower your breathing would be slower your words would be articulate and even thinking about those things has shown that it actually helps you perform better.

So, it's really fascinating to me this concept because I've tried putting into practice a few times recently and it actually works. So, I wanted to help people understand that they can really do anything that they set their mind to and by the process it may even become more achievable.

Tony: Tell me a little bit about the vision board because that was something that was a tangible thing I could do. So, I guess I say, "Okay we'll visualize the goal" and so forth, but that's kind of a thing that I could do maybe with my kids because a lot of times if there's something that I can do, and my kids can be involved and it's something that I can actually probably get done.

So, tell me a little bit about a vision board.

Jackie: Yes, so a vision board would just be a collection of photos of your goals. So, whether that's a trip that you want to take or maybe it is a public speech that you want to give or a job that you're pursuing, anything that can be a visual reminder of where you're going with your goals. So, let's say one of your kids wants to be a firefighter. Just having a picture of that might get your children to start thinking about being that vision someday and working towards that goal.

So, it's something you can put by your desk or your workspace and there's really no one right way to do it, but it's just a visual representation of where you want to go with your goals.

Tony: Okay and let's go to I think which is the I don't wanna say the toughest one, I think it's both the easiest one and the toughest one. It's the stretch goal. That's when we're getting to something where -- well actually if you can maybe define stretch goal first and then we'll kind of go through. 

I want to take the time to go through each of these five points that you put in because a stretch goal is kind of what people really want but usually the biggest obstacle was themselves where they just say, "Oh there's no way, no way that could be me".

Jackie: Yes, absolutely. So, a stretch goal it should be something that puts you a little bit or maybe a lot outside of where you are comfortable. So, identifying either a job or pursuit that you're seeking that really at this point you may say, "I don't know if I can get there". That's how you know that it's a stretch goal. So, it's something that doesn't seem readily achievable right now, but with a little bit of work and a little bit of talking through some of the fears of achieving that goal you may be able to get there.

Tony: So, let's go through these five pieces. The first is that mental and physical preparation.

Jackie: Yes, so preparing through the process of studying a stretch goal you really have to remain positive throughout this whole journey. So, I don't know if you've ever read the Confidence Code Tony?

Tony: I have not.

Jackie: It’s a great read especially for women I think because there is some literature out there to show that women will actually wait until they're a hundred percent qualified for a job to apply to it whereas men sometimes will be 60 or 80 percent qualified.

Tony: Its much lower.

Jackie: Yes. I think this is a kind of overall challenge to women is to apply for that job that you're not a hundred percent qualified for and just try it out. You never know what will happen. But mentally and then physically it could be visualizing, as we mentioned, before visualizing the process of what it would look like if you had that great interview or if you had that great public speaking event.

So, getting your mind set in the positive way and then carrying out maybe some visual or even practical practice runs of what you're going to do. I know sometimes before I public speak I'll go into the room and just stand where I'm going to be speaking and practice my speech so that I get that out of the way. I have that that mental block kind of out of there because I know that can be intimidating sometimes.

Tony: Yes, and to speak to that whole ignorance is bliss. I think for many of us we'll just apply for something having no idea if we're qualified or not and I applied for a faculty position in the School of Pharmacy, there was no way I was going to get it, but I had no idea and so I just went in and applied for it and then ended up teaching years later in a bit of a different role, but I think you're absolutely right, it's not as much preparation, but just even going up to the rostrum going to the room and knowing where the room is, it just takes kind of some of those pieces away like am I gonna be able to find it in time? Will I be able to get there in time? So, going through the motions a little bit.

Now the next one was one that was really one that I feel like it takes a little time to figure out exactly what that purpose is, but once the purpose is there that's really kind of the fire and the fuel that keeps things going, but talk a little bit about ensuring your goal has a purpose.

Jackie: Yes, sure. So when you start thinking about these stretch goals you may find that you have 10 that are looking really attractive or may sound really flashy when you tell other people about them, but at the end of the day try to think about how this is actually gonna line up with either short-term or long-term career goals because you could maybe end up pursue something that doesn't really help you progress or takes you down a totally different path that you didn't anticipate.

So, I agree Tony, this one is probably going to require the most time and reflection to make sure that once you commit to this stretch goal that it's something that's going to serve you either personally or professionally.

Tony: Yes, and when we're talking about social media and things like that often some people get it a little bit wrong and end up doing advertising or keep asking like, "Well why aren't people following me? Why aren't people engaging with me?" and it really comes down to value. If you consistently kind of go back and like okay well am I in the spirit of providing value for them or do I just want them to buy what I have, follow me, whatever it is and then just kind of sticking with that value so that really if it comes from the right place it’s going to be successful.

Then comes the next point which is to ignore the skeptics because there's a thumbs down button on YouTube and there's a thumbs up button and I'll see something that has like a million thumbs ups and there's maybe a thousand thumbs downs and it's so hard not to think, "Wow a thousand thumbs down" and you're like, "No no but there's a million thumbs up".

So, tell me a little bit about the skeptics and getting past that.

Jackie: Yes, absolutely. So, once you set this goal there is some evidence to say as well as if you tell someone about it then you actually are more likely to achieve it. So if you get a goal that you're really excited about you might share it with others and you may have some individuals that say, "You know that's kind of crazy" or "That's way too out there" or "That's really not a good idea" and you have to find a way to kind of tune that out if you really want to achieve this goal because what can happen is those you know 1,000 thumbs downs can stick with you and then you might not progress towards the goal like you would have if you just kept on that positive mindset.

So, I know it's gonna be difficult to tune out on some of the negative talk that you might receive but our minds are a powerful thing. So, if you let certain things get to you then your goal might be hindered a little bit.

Tony: And when we're talking about this a lot of times the people that are the skeptics are the ones that are actually trying to protect you and they're trying to protect you from being hurt. So, tell me how we can find that support system and some of the people that are the skeptics might be those that are closest to us and that might get a little bit tough. So how do we get this support system?

Jackie: Yes, that's a great question because it could be that our mentors are the ones that are saying, "I don't know about this”, but it might be having a conversation with them to reiterate the purpose of why you're pursuing this and why it's going to help you in either your personal or professional life or maybe even both. So, at times well while the ones that are close to you might be the ones who are saying, "I don't know", if you have a good conversation about your own purpose and how you've come to this conclusion you never know you might change their mind.

Tony: And then I heard this is true or not true Cortez burning his ships, but that's kind of the visual we hear when you say consider not having a back-up plan. Tell me a little bit about why you would recommend not having a back-up plan.

Jackie: Yes, so this one is a maybe you do it maybe you don't do it and stuff because if it's a really risky decision you might consider having a back-up plan if you don't achieve that goal for some reason. So, for example, if you're pursuing a new job I would recommend not taking it until you're sure that you have it, so that you're not quitting your first job until you achieve securing the second one. If it's a low-risk goal like maybe it's getting to the gym five days a week, well you don't really need a back-up plan, you just need to identify what barriers might get in the way that prevents you from achieving that goal.

So, this would be a great time to discuss with your mentors what type of risk is associated especially if it's career related, but I would say when it comes to personal goals for the most part those are pretty safe because you're working with just yourself and pharmacy being a small world, those are a little bit riskier when it comes to career decisions.

Tony: A number of people are finishing up their residency applications and things like that and then there's going to be a very long waiting period. What do you recommend they do because the numbers are about 50/50 that you're going to get one depending on the way you look at it? It could be a third of them get a residency versus half, but there are going to be people that don't get them, but I don't think there's an anyone that's applying that is really thinking, "Okay well I'm not going to get one".

So, what is a back-up plan that's kind of respectful of the process, but also not saying, "I'll never get one"?

Jackie: Oh gosh. I think since the match has changed a little bit with the second phase of the match now, that's really helpful because even if you don't match in round one now you have round two which you're still able to rank programs, the programs can rank you. So, there's more leverage in that scenario. But really trust the process of the match. This sounds very cliché, but I really think everything works out for a reason including the residency match.

So even if for some reason you go through both phases and the scramble and don't get a residency you can still apply next year and actually the candidates who come in with one year of experience are usually very competitive because they've been working with patients and healthcare professionals for an entire year, compared to a student who might not have had that experience yet.

So, I would say if you're dedicated to the residency pursuit, you will get one you know and just keep pursuing that goal if that's in your career development plan.

Tony: All right. Well is there anything else that we haven't covered that you would want to tell someone for the New Year that we could help them maybe with their goals or their entrepreneurial journey?

Jackie: Yes, sure. So, I would think about planning out the entire year. Set some gear long goals for yourself and then work backwards maybe every three months to set some milestones that you can achieve for yourself and this is a great time of year. We have this week before the holidays get crazy to just sit down with your new planner and say, "All right, what do I want to achieve in 2018 both in my personal life maybe my professional life and my entrepreneurial life if those intermix?" and get something on paper and tell someone about it because you're more likely to achieve it if those two things are done.

Tony: And let's just go over those books that we talked about if somebody does want to kind of maybe listen to them or read them. I don't read I always listen to audiobooks, but we talked about the Five Love Languages and there’s a number of different ones. Which one's the adult one or is it just like the original one?

Jackie: I think it's Five Love Languages. I know it has a purple. The author is escaping me right now.

Tony: Okay so the Five Love Languages and then the Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin which will talk about external expectations whether you are an obligor who does things for others, whether you're a questioner, you have to have questions answered, a holder, you have things the way you want them or you’re a rebel, somebody tells you this is what I want, and you do the opposite is another one.

Is there any other book that you would recommend for the New Year for the entrepreneur? You talked about the Confidence Code?

Jackie: Yes, the Confidence Code Essentialism which is by Greg McKeown, which really helps you figure out what you need to be saying no to or getting off of your to-do lists and I absolutely love that book. It really helped me refocus and narrow down things in the entrepreneurial space. As you know Tony there's a hundred ways you can go with that, but also in pharmacy and personal life it really helps simplify and reminds you to reflect on what’s important to you. So, I would say essentialism is a must.

Tony: And I think you had a blogpost last year on it or maybe way early this year?

Jackie: Yes, it was probably around January of 2017. There was a whole goal setting series and essentialism and doing less was one of those.

Tony: Okay, all right. Well Jackie Boyle, thanks so much for being on the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast. 

Jackie: Are you ready for 2018? Check out my website at www.thepharmacygirl.com/shop to check out the planner I designed to get you a jump start on the New Year. With weekly and monthly page layouts goal-setting areas a place to write your to-do list with each weekly layout and plenty of space for notes each week. This planner will be the only thing you need to get your New Year off to the right start.

Male speaker: Support for this episode comes from the audio book, Memorizing Pharmacology: A relaxed approach. With over 9,000 sales in the United States, United Kingdom, and

Australia, it’s the go to resource to ease the pharmacology challenge. Available on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.com in print, eBook, and audio book. 

Thank you for listening to the Pharmacy Leaders Podcast, with your host, Tony Guerra. Be sure to share the show with a hashtag, #PharmacyLeaders.