Rx for Podcast Success with Pharmacy Podcast Network’s Todd Eury

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I’m Eric Chemi and this is Politely Pushy. Welcome to Politely Pushy I’m your host as always Eric Chemi today we are joined by Todd Eury. He’s got many roles I feel like you’re one of these multiple slash people doing a lot of things the the main thing that we can talk about today

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you’re the head of the Pharmacy Podcast Network you’re a podcast host in your own right you I’m sure know more about podcasting than I do which is which is impressive that might be the first time I’ve interviewed someone on the show who knows more about podcasting than me so

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so Todd thank you so much for joining me today thank you for having me Eric and um I actually disagree I come right out of the interview and we’re already disagreeing um I actually don’t know a lot about I would say podcasting as in in and of itself like I have difficulty

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with the whole RSS feed situations and things that are happening and thank the Lord for my support team but what I do know is I know how to take the traditional communications that has been part of humanity forever uh since language was invented or or discovered

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or whatever that is we could do the philosophical question comment on that but I I think what I am have been really good at and as a first obviously in the pharmacy profession is taking podcasting specifically as the as the as the pen and and as the deliverer of the

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communications and I’ve taught a lot of people more pharmacists on planet Earth have have learned to podcast from me and from what we do than really anyone which is fun to say that because I’m I call myself the RX Pod Father and and because I’m so passionate to get communications

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out to B2B to um pharmacist to physicians pharmacist to nurses pharmacist to educators to teach them that you can take so much of what you know put a good quality that’s what I said people out there get a good quality mic and and and talk about your mission

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of what does it mean to be a pharmacist that answer Eric is not what it was 10 years ago or 20 years ago because the the new age of pharmacy is here and I’m podcasting it so first off I go in your LinkedIn I don’t see you ever having been a pharmacist unless I’m

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missing something here so so how did you get into how did you get into this if I go way back I see hey you you had kind of corporate jobs and and they were in the Telecom industry but nothing about either being a media host or a pharmacist so how did you get here yeah

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that and it it was the stoniest uh windiest um crappiest pathway to to get where I was in so many ways and my entrepreneurial spirit’s been around since I’ve been young um probably I think 10 uh was my first concept of an idea it was called sink or

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swim and sink or swim was to teach kids that were afraid of the water how to swim but do it in play and so as a 10-year-old I hung out at a n at a neighborhood pool it was very nice pool called Pen Valley in in Western Pennsylvania and um I like these kids I

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like these five-year-olds and foury olds and usually four or five six years olds not three I don’t want anybody that’s in a diaper or coming out of that or anything and we’d all be in the shallow end of the water and they’d be all scared and they’d have the stupid

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floaties on um and I’d get them to take the floaties off and just play and and I started started teaching them to swim in playing and I called that business sink or swim I think I was my first business so he put me into telecom somebody that’s still hyperactive and I

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really liked telecommunications did it for eight years but I hated it because it was transactional there was no spirit in it there was no joy in it it was so so you like the content of it you liked the the the stuff the components of it but you didn’t like the function that

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you had is that fair to describe that there was nothing creative about telecom Eric I mean we’re talking about frame relay this is before internet I’m getting old Eric um you know this was before internet so everything was being delivered by something called frame

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frame relay which was private networks that were set up for small medium and these conglomerate International businesses private lines private communication lines and then when the internet sprouted and the .com gold rush took off that’s what got my mind

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thinking about the future and I was like wait this internet thing is freaking wild and this would have been like 1999 2000 it’s like what people say right now about crypto or AI like this AI thing is really wild AI thing is crazy and we’re gonna look back 20 years from now so um

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I took a a leap of faith as making a ton of money by the time I hit the 2004 era and it was miserable and uh had paid off my small little house out of um you know small town where I was and um and I said that’s it I’m moving into healthcare because I heard that that’s really a

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future and I can be more creative in it so I took a position with a small software company that focused specifically on long-term care pharmacy software and was the first Software System that was built on SQL which was on heart of meaning you could extract

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your data and put data in take data out do things with the data data data back in the day before that these were closed closed computer software systems that you could only do a label or you could only manage with from minute there was nothing discussing there was nothing

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being shared it was all internalized so put me with this hyperactive way of thinking and I started creating work flows in my mind and I started working with long-term care pharmacies and started digging into their businesses and it just opened up my brain that I’m

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like oh my gosh like there’s so much to be done here in this industry that’s crippled by the most intelligent people that are out there running these pharmacies aren’t good at marketing they’re not good at thinking outside their box because they’re keeping people

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alive for God’s sakes our pharmacists keep us from dying every day people have no idea how many if they do it right if they screwed up then then you know that’s true so it was my job to um it was to help take them to another level and I was doing that through blogging at

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the time about all kinds of technology stuff about different interfaces and people didn’t know what APIs were and I had this wonderful blog and then I started traveling a whole bunch for work no time to blog so I said that’s it I’m I’m gonna start this stupid thing called

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podcasting I did it on Blog Talk Radio uh on March 2nd I remember Blog Talk Radio yeah it was horrible, it was March 2nd 2009 um the very first episode of of any podcast about the profession of pharmacy went out that day was the very very first one and from that point

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forward I said that’s it I’m going to start communicating with my profession through podcasting and then in 2012 I was like that’s it I’m going to take pharmacist to a brilliant they no one’s telling their story and I’m going to build a network for them and I’m going

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to make this the biggest podcast network dedicated to our profession and here we are number one in the world so it’s fun to be in this position but it’s also scary number one in what ranking in podcast in pharmacy podcast like what what is the ranking here the ranking is

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we’re the only network in the in on the global on the on the globe that has done what we’ve done with podcasting from continuing education to uh first to to deliver continuing education through podcasting first to partner with national associations who desperately need

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to know how the hell do we podcast we don’t know what we’re doing uh the first to attend conferences at a POS a podcast covering as press the first to gather up pharmacy students and teach them about different components of learning because they’re sharing information together

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through podcasting and the first to deliver the naplex podcast which was the podcast dedicated to our students that were getting ready to take their uh final test to become a pharmacist so we’ve done so many first and it’s not because of me it’s because of those

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brilliant pharmacists that just needed somebody to herd cats and to put things together and to Market it and to believe in it and to really blow them up because they’ve never had someone that has been dialed in or the to there is no such thing as a pharmacist talking head who

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has been able to take so many multifaceted of our ecosystem of the health care ecosystem and what’s happening and and put that into podcasting. Who is the is the audience I mean this I have so many questions because I’m gonna to say a bunch of questions right now and then

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you pick which question you like and then we’ll go from there I I think pharmacy I think okay all the stuff going on right now with Mark Cuban and Cost Plus drugs and Amazon getting into pharmacy and all the online pharmacies that are competing against both Mom and

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Pop and then the big chains right and then I think about Mom and Pop he’s struggling to fend off the giant chains and these online uh disruptors then I think about okay you’ve got a network of podcasts how many of them are are you hosting versus you’re you’re the business person

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helping them set up how much need is there for multiple pharmacy podcasts do you all work as competition or you working together because how much time can someone have listening to pharmacy podcasts are you cannibalizing yourselves um and I’m curious where is that studio

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is that is that in someone’s house in the basement or you have a real studio somewhere and I’m curious when did you make this your full-time job as opposed to hey I’m doing this on the side while I do something else so so these are all the things coming out of my head and and

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I don’t even know in which order we should we should attack these things I love it um those are great that’s a whole story I should write a book so um I’ll start with my wife because God bless her for putting up with me um and at the point in my life where I’m like

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okay that’s it 2018 rolls around I I hated it and I loved it I hated the pharmacy podcast network and then of course I loved it the the hate came when you worked a 60-hour week and you were traveling all over the nation um in and doing things and then you had to get

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home on a Friday and you had to build out three or four podcasts by yourself edit them you know organize them market them put them together do everything I was a one man band and the money that was coming in to support that side hustle that publication was it was wonderful it

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was finally paying for itself it was giving us a little extra and of course the wife you know my wife liked that too a little more extra maybe vacation time and paying off bills that’s great but there was no way for me to serve two masters and and be able to do that so I

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told her listen I want to do this like if I don’t do this right now it’s never going to happen podcasting’s finally getting popular it’s time to do what our strengths are and really support the industry and support the profession just like the NCPA do you know what the NCPA

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is I know what a CPA is I don’t know what my parents are CPAs but I don’t know what the NCPA is yeah so the NCPA is the National Community Pharmacist Association so that is the association that that focuses specifically on independently owned pharmacies then you

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have the NASP the National Association of Specialty Pharmacies or the APA which is the the king that rules them all which is the American Pharmacist Association these are all the trade associations or the lobbying firms they’re probably all DC based for the most part

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as my guess right exactly most part and they kind of do more than just DC and public relations and but they’re doing things to really change the profession they’re working with boards of pharmacy and they’re doing so I’m the first association of sorts that has taken

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podcasting as a media form and have done things with it within the profession that have never been done before and then I’m creating not me by myself I’m creating through my pharmacist levels of authenticity levels of trust and then the ultimate levels called

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evidence-based podcasting that is something that we’ve invented from day one which follows a very specific guideline of assuring that what you’re listening to is in fact just as good as reading a journal article but for God’s sakes I’m driving 45 minutes to work

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two ways and I have no time to read because I got to get home and get soccer and you know spend time with my husband and you know go out and do whatever I’m going to do who wants to read a journal article on hyper lipidemia some blood disorder and a new titration of a

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medication that’s come out and blah blah blah no let me listen to a podcast that’s just as good as a journal article that has been reviewed peer reviewed checked up on and I’m like as soon as I listen to that thing I’m good so we’ve attracted organizations like Novo Nordisk

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and Moderna and the APA and the NASP and all these organizations that are like we trust this organization this organization because it is the highest level of podcasting that creates a vacuum of Attraction so we’re getting pediatric focused pharmacists we’re

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getting long-term care geriatric focused we’re getting rare disease focused we’re getting marketing how do I market my pharmacy we’re getting entrepreneurial podcasts to teach the entrepreneurial pharmacist how to so it’s it’s an entire portfolio of podcast that’s been that’s

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been captured the essence of these wonderful people who are doing so much more than what the public realizes a pharmacist can do or do and we’re taking it up a level and I keep adding things on to it we’re adding on HLTH and we’re adding on uh which is the biggest you

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know fan-based uh health conference it’s like the new collaborative digital health conference that’s out there we’re adding on Hims we’re we’re doing things that once again podcasting has never done before you know press I the funniest thing when I asked

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for a press pass in 2015 or 16 and they’re like you’re what? like you’re a podcast get out of here like you’re not coming to the we we meant real press not you guys yeah like what are you talking about but now I’m looked at by these organizations where we actually run

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their press podcasting stations how how did you fight through that though what what made you not give up or think hey they’re not taking me seriously they don’t see what I see and you know you’ve been doing it for years and that was years ago what gave you that stamina to

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to fight through all that because I saw what was happening in the consumer world and by the way we’re staging for an overtake which is going to be wonderful so if anybody’s listening that wants to be part of this revolution in audio learning uh we’re going to go after

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consumers because consumers learn bad things from bad information that’s out there we know that we know what happened during covid we know what happened during and there is going to be sources for the public accessing some of the most brightest Minds in Pharmacy who

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don’t get any attention because they don’t have big PR agencies behind them but what you are asking is how does it like not how do I not like get burn out or whatever and what that is is I saw what’s happening in consumer and I saw how podcast is just blowing up iHeartMedia

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is leading they have a new division called Ruby uh we work with Ruby with some of our collaborations we’re working on a special uh new new project with them actually right now and they have honed in to using pharma which is so boring to listen to In some ways

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if you read those inserts those information inserts and they’re taking stories real life patient stories and they’re delivering to the market some really interesting podcast casting but that’s from a consumer perspective I’m all about the HCP to HCP so we perfect

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this and then we’re going to go to Consumer with the HCPs helping to tell those stories so you hear it from the greatest source of medication management you’re going to hear it from the mouth of a pharmacist who does nothing but works on that what Eric well the

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geriatric show the pediatrician show the you know collaborative HCP show the uh cancer show the oncology show the HIV especially rare disease show whatever it is we’re going to have these specialists that are going to be able to to give our public an a reassurance of

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what I’m listening to is timely it’s updated it’s from the latest journal information accessible it’s evidence-based if we want to go that far we have to get sponsors for that level by the way so shout out to the sponsors but if we get sponsors that can fund us

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we can grow more and more cont to connect that with public relations and the public in it of itself to really change the game and and allow allow this to be um the Facebook of podcasting for the entire pharmaceutical market and that’s because it’s not me I’m not I’m

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not going to say no as long as you are in a wackadoo and you can back up what you’re saying especially if it’s medically driven and clinically driven then back it up guy or gal you know or whoever you are I’m ready to go but I don’t want to ever stop somebody from

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talking about something that would be controversial and bringing it to to I think transparency is the is the new form of health care and Mark Cuban you mentioned him shout out to Mark Cuban and cost Mark Cuban Cost Plus drugs and Dr Alex they are doing things that are

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really going to help change the entire pharmaceutical marketplace and I want to be the podcaster of it all who who are the good guys and the bad guys because I feel like as a consumer right I I’ve never worked in a pharmacy I kind of skittish and squeamish around health

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stuff so I kind of stayed in a math computer lane and not not in a in a biomed lane when so so I think a lot of people just they don’t know I know and they know prices are high they feel like insurance companies are screwing them maybe the government is helping or not

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but it’s all political statements who is the good guy in the industry and who’s the bad guy in the industry that’s an awesome question Eric and it’s both so we are human beings okay and there are organizations that are the um that are taking a lot of punches in the face

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right now because they deserve it and that’s called the PBMs the pharmacy benefit managers and it’s only three pharmacy benefit managers that are very specifically the the culprits right now but inside those organizations are some wonderful people and are some people

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that are dedicated to patient care and there are pharmacists that work with CVS Healthcare and there are pharmacists that work for Optum and there’s pharmacists to work for Express Scripts and these people are part and so when they hear their their business being shunned by

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the government and investigations and the public finally is starting to pull back the wool from understanding what the hell is really going on why are drug prices so high it’s not the pharma manufacturer I mean they have obviously some play in it but the major culprit

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the one that set the stage of how to manipulate pricing and formularies and rebate games and shell pricing and gag clauses which will blow you away what they did what five years ago when the Congress finally got rid of that a gag clause Eric meant that if your if you went to your

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pharmacist any pharmacist community chain and you said um hey this is my XYZ medication for whatever um it’s my Statin okay I got you know cholesterol whatever all right so here’s your oh by the way you’re I’m the pharmacist and you say hey uh pharmacist Todd um can I

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get a lower price anywhere else in this so by law pharmacists were never allowed to recommend how to get a lower price how to save money do whatever they had to just stick to these contracts and these contracts were all about the PBM making as much freaking money as

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possible and then now what’s happening is they’re making so much money that they’re undercutting did you know that pharmacists and in especially these community independent pharmacies literally lose money on about 30 to 40% of their business per year in in the way

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that the shell game and the rebate game is is extracting money and they’re charging the patient something they’re charging the insurance plan something and then whatever’s left over the pharmacist gets as a dispensing fee and these dispensing fees are -83

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cents negative -8 negative negative -800 negative where they’re paying to do business so has that ever happened in the history of medicine and I think the answer is no so that’s where the Vault of the PBMs are is happening right now if you go to the PBM Reform Podcast

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which is one of our podcasts PBM Reform Podcast it gives you insiders it gives you the Insider talk of what’s really happening like I want some freaking PR behind that show because it would really help the the the public to understand holy crap now now we know what the truth

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is and it’s the stories that are being told by the Insiders not me I’m it’s them that are telling the stories the pharmacists the pharmacy owners I’m looking it up right now here we are the PBM Reform Podcast How can there be so many podcast like PBM

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Reform there’s one about you know this Political Talk RX but then there was another one that related to law and policy there’s there’s a lot of ones that have these overlapping concepts how can you make so many different podcasts that are kind of hitting on only a few broad themes

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yeah it it really teaches you about how complex the health care system is start getting granular into very specific things from clinical diagnosis and treatment to management of disease states to clinical trials to uh legal and and illegal marketing of compounding

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prescriptions and so when you start when you start splitting the hairs you realize how important some of these individual issues are and I want my love the love of my profession I want them to be able to tap in to very specific segments and sometimes these

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are only series-based maybe they’re only like a six-part series or a 12-part series and then they’re done we move on but at least there’s information there for them to really dig into what we see as some of the most important issues that are happening today and sometimes

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it’s a patient specific discussion like Dr Jenna Quinn who is our pediatrician focused podcaster and she she and her entire four doctor team developed these amazing discussions that they dig into the weeds of some things that are happening to the you know poor the poor pediatricians out

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there who are stressed out and now they’re becoming the sources of vast information in in medication management specifically for our most fragile of patients these poor babies that are two pounds in a NICU and you dial in as a pharmacist and you’re like wow I’m going

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to really pay attention to the sensitivity of this subject because who’s listening other HCPs nurses who take care of babies and these beautiful pediatricians that that have all this stress on their shoulders and it’s the pharmacist that’s the right hand when it

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comes to that sensitive medication management so we could keep building like I only have 42 active podcasts right now Eric I I know this only 42 active podcast yeah but I want I mean I want this to go into hundreds because I want I want specific things to be

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developed from specific perspectives we’re missing the patient uh journey of all of this a shout out to Matthew Zachary who’s who was the the the inventor of uh uh Cancer Sucks um and and just his entire empire of publication from the patient perspective

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um was was amazing and it and it it’s to think where we have to go next is is really I want to be drawn more to the to the patient more than ever we have enough enough subject matter expertise in the pharmacist category and I’ll continue to grow those but it has to

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make sense I have to listen we’ve we’ve said no to a lot of podcasts over the years because I either saw that there was a short vision for it or I talked to the person and I tested them out and being a guest and then of course they died out because by the way people God

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bless them five million podcasts out there in the world only I think a tenth of them uh if even that are truly active podcast and it’s because people think that they buy their Yeti mic from Amazon for $99 and by the way back in the day when I bought this it was

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$325 it was 2010 these things were expensive back in the day podcasting has become so popular people like I’m gonna buy a pod you know buy a microphone I’m going to be a podcaster well God bless your heart I mean you know go to town and do what you’re going to do but they

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quickly find that to produce something that is quality thought through show notes graphics marketing um connecting it to other things um it’s all the other stuff it’s all that production and admin that is totally a different function than being a host true I I really

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dislike all that other stuff like I’m just happy to talk and have conversations and ask questions and and be with the person but as soon as you go down that whole other world and you need to do it or someone needs to do it so it’s either your time or your money yeah

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or or if you don’t do it then no one’s going to find you right if there’s no show notes there’s no transcript links descriptions where’s the head shot are you uploading it properly did you edit it where’s your intro outro music it it’s it’s more time doing that than

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actually to do the interview it’s true yes and to keep it going I mean I I say to our host you have to promise me at a minimum that you’re going to be here 12 months from now and of course the all smiles and excited and they’re smiling and then all of a sudden month six hits

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and I’m like dude where is your monthly episode because I go on frequencies of 30 days usually and um unless it’s a special series or something and it and they’ll be like oh my gosh I’m so busy I’m like I know you’re busy but like you you made a commitment to this you have

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to keep going it’s like I’m your like gym um spotter or your trainer like I’m like let’s go pump it out like let’s go and then when you blow past that period of that one year that two year period it starts to become um almost addictive there’s a lot of podcasters out there

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that are the hardcore OG podcasters like Joe Rogan Joe Rogan is just what he’s built as an as an MMA fighter and he built his brand and everybody thought he was a meat head but he’s one of the best interviewers I’ve ever heard in my life and he has to be with how successful he

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is and I look up to that but there’s think of this it’s the element of digging down in an intimate way with your audience and that’s the key to podcasting is being as transparent and as intimate as possible with a niche and that’s you have to pick a niche you have

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to say where do I dial into and I accidentally picked pharmacy I mean I I didn’t do this on purpose I’m not going to ever say I’m some brilliant guy like I just know I’m finally I’m the master jigsaw puzzle pie put put together-er and I’m the RX Pod Father now because I

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see the Matrix of all where this is going to be able to go and there’s a lot of money behind it and that’s the exciting part because I’ve been doing it for 15 years and I’m still in the red for real you’re still in the red well I mean if I took up all the money

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that accumulated accumulated from day one in the red or the annual like this year would still be in the red no I’m I’m okay this year but I mean if if I were to my poor wife if my wife is like have you ever made up what which we’ve all put in and I’m like not really like

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there’s there’s still those times where I was chunking in money to get this going and and I don’t really look at it anymore because it’s it’s I’m always a a Forward Thinking person but it is it’s it’s it’s now being blended with public relations and that’s where I’m going

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I’ve learned so much from um Finn Partners which was a a great um teacher uh to me as a as a as a public outsource trusted news source trusted way of getting information out there and now it’s time to grow this and we’re going to be doing combos and we’re going to be

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working with other publications we have partners that we’re we’re aligning contracts with right now that they’re like hm why am I doing this myself when I could just partner with the PPN and dominate an entire um uh theme whatever that theme is and I’ve already baked in

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60,000 listeners per month like are you kidding me like how does that work so give me an example so let’s say so who would be a possible let’s say client of yours would it be someone who’s in the industry some company let’s say I’m I’m a pharmacy chain or I’m a PPN or is it

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let’s say I’m someone like that right is that who might come to you and say hey we either have a podcast right now but it’s not going any or or we want to start one can you help us what what would the transaction look like they’re paying you guys and then you get it on

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the network because you already have the pharmacy audience like what what is just help me help my business mind think through this yeah that’s an awesome question so um multiple things within that so first of all I would ask if someone let’s take an insurance company

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for example um uh you know a PBM PBM a transparent PBM comes to us and says um hey we want to start a podcast and I’m going to say why like take me through the marketing plan take me through the infrastructure of what you already have out there and your brand and your

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mission and take me through all that first like we’re not podcasting yet I’m like all right and I’m like all right I take I take them through take there have been times Eric where I have said no to businesses that wanted to give me money why because it was going to be a

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reflection of my failure as someone who three months out or six months out or nine months out had died off and now I got to actually do short term projects with the same organizations who are now paying us on a regular basis but it’s more of a project thing and they’re like

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okay because it’s a lot of work for God’s sake oh you’re saying instead of committing to an ongoing perpetual podcast just say let’s do a six episode series a 10 so we know there’s an end and we can complete that you’re right because a lot of people think I’m gonna

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do a podcast I’m gonna do one a week forever and they’re toast in three months whereas if you just said I can do 10 then you get 10 done that’s right and it feels like a win we get the money out of it and then we get we show proof of of concept we also blow it up where

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they’re getting downloads that they’ never get I think the average you go to Google right now put in Google what is the average number of downloads in 30 days for a podcast and I think it’s 141 listeners okay so that means if you get 141 listeners in 30 days to one episode

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in your podcast you are on average okay so we’re getting somewhere between 600 800 per month and we’re this micro micro micro podcast that wants a specific audience I’m not after necessarily yet the consumer audience not yet but it’s coming but now I’m after the pharmacy

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profession that’s a very small niche so if you’re already getting above average true numbers but only going after a small niche then you’re getting a huge proportion of the people who care about that niche the number one in the world number one and who’s number two who are

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you competing against so there’s wannabes um it’s hard to say because there’s publications out there that are my are here this is strange listen to this Eric I have a publication out there that is my competitor a really good competitor um in ways not not podcasting um they’re my

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client and then they’re a bunch of my friends so it’s like I want them to win but I want them to stop trying to podcast and just give it to me so I can do it for them and then white label it because I do that too and then by the way the internal podcast shout out to

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everybody listening right now the internal trainers podcast for for taking an HR um manual or taking a sales process or taking a marketing process or a president’s message the future of internal podcasting is going to explode like when people internal within a

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company you mean like the audience is only our actual company we don’t want anyone to hear I see it’s a training manual it’s it’s standard operating procedures we don’t write it up anymore we just do a podcast and listen to it and you’ll be all set there’s a few

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there’s a very few companies I know of one I’m not going to say their name because I want them to work with us but they are um they are internalizing podcasts and it’s it’s standard listening meaning you have to go into your HR thing because you get a mail an

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email that says your podcast is due to listen to within the next three days or something like you have to listen to and that is driving assurance of policy and strategy and marketing messaging and communication it’s just brilliant that whoever came up with that but the reason

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why I shot out is because we’re already starting to do it in the pharmacy market we’re going to be working with some buying groups we’re going to be working with some of our clientele I could see some of our um other organizations realizing holy crap I could I could sit

34:39

down as a CEO or as the HR Director or as someone in clinical definitely clinical and do a quick 10 minute 20 minute update hey team you know it’s Todd here you’re VP of clinical um listen we want to talk about the H1 N1 V1 P1 um you know vaccine or whatever

34:59

and blah blah blah blah blah so it’s it’s I think podcasting has I think we’re still in that new age you know it’s it’s it’s the .com gold rush and when everything settles down I’m going to still be here but at least we’ll have like this infrastructure in place to

35:15

really help people take it from zero to 80 miles an hour within an overnight realm rather than you saying like go please go Eric go start a you know how it was go start a podcast right now and God bless you of how long it’s going to take you to grow it and to but if it’s a

35:33

if it’s a hobby goodness gracious do it because there’s a there’s something about podcasting like I said about podcasters that are into it that it’s very therapeutic and it’s it’s a great way of getting information and ideas out but from a business profession and from

35:48

a from a from a authority perspective and in a medical perspective and clinical authority perspective um this is where it’s at how how do companies let’s say they don’t want to start a podcast let’s say they want to just be featured on it or they want to

36:06

be a guest or they want to be mentioned they want the pr value but they don’t want to do the work if that makes sense what’s what’s the what’s the in for those guys or is that even a worthwhile approach to do it on such a small scale it is I had to create that almost two

36:23

years ago it was called Twirx uh so if you want a Twirx Twirx Twirx T W I R X, if you if you go ahead and Google that as a hashtag if you Google hashtag Twirx uh you’ll find a lot of Twirxing going on so Twirx stands for This Week In Pharmacy and so This Week In Pharmacy

36:43

is that magazine style catch all show that I can easily test um ideas on I can experiment with people’s I you know ideas around um what they’re talking about and the evolution of Pharmacy care uh we can preview uh organizations that don’t want to take on uh the full

37:02

commitment because I’m I’m very you know when you sign our agreements like I I become the the weight trainer the the the bodybuilding trainer where I expect you to make this part of your communications and PR strategy it becomes part of the whole thing so

37:18

giving them the Twirx and giving them the opportunity to to experiment on This Week In Pharmacy is a is a great way to usher in new things but then it’s also deliver ing something that’s never been seen in the pharmacy profession and that is a weekly show that delivers updates

37:34

every single week that’s very timely we’re talking about the new sometimes I have news come up within 30 minutes of of publishing and I’m like holy cow like this I have to get this on Twirx so we try to get those out every Friday sometimes when I go to conferences we’re

37:49

not able to to get it out but for the most part it’s every single Friday a new twerks will come how many shows are you hosting that how many different podcast are you the host of so I hate hosting I want to disappear I do like Twirx to tell you the truth

38:04

it’s my it is fun so that’s my one specific show and then I’m a guest host every once in a while because we’ll have a lot of clients that will either their host has something going on usually a pharmacist so I’ll jump in for them um that’s happened on a couple occasions

38:18

like the Softwriters which focuses on pharmacy management software by the way the company that brought me to pharmacy I was with them for almost four years called Softwriters out of Pittsburgh the first pharmacy software system dedicated to long-term care

38:34

Pharmacy on SQL um they’re now our client so it like came full circle and and it’s it’s amazing to see how they’re using podcasting to differentiate themselves and and educate the market to a very specific sector of pharmacy which is our our geriatric senior care and

38:52

that’s exploding like if you think of how many baby boomers are coming out over the next 20 years how how intense that’s going to be for our health care system we have to rely on our pharmacist to kind of make up some of that that the physicians are they’re under so much

39:08

pressure and then mention again that you’re like the weight trainer you’re the one pushing is it typical let’s say company says we want to start a podcast we’re going to run it through your network they’re providing the host and then they’re bringing the guest and then

39:19

you guys do the production or what is the typical absolutely flow of that I have so many versions because we’re very custom I give someone if someone asks proposal it gives them a menu of options that are just like black and white and I’m like listen you can take these

39:34

things and make up your own thing so the FDA podcast through us the freaking FDA like pinch me like I can’t believe that that’s even a thing but they had they wanted to get a series out to pharmacists we having a hard time doing it because guess what getting an audience to listen

39:49

to your podcasts and if I said you want to listen to the FDA podcast I’d probably say no because I would have think that that would be you know boring but when I started listening to what these brilliant people in the FDA were trying to communicate to other health

40:03

care providers it lit my head on fire I’m like I got to get this content out to them and so I put an entire campaign of taking something that was already done and all they wanted was marketing and distribution and connection and I did it for him we had a it was a was a

40:19

home run of a series and it’s wonderful and I’m so proud to say that the that the FDA I like it’s like a love hate relationship there’s world things that the FDA have done just like all the humans that we were just talking about there’s there’s good humans in

40:34

organizations and there’s weirdo humans and organizations but um the the the the division of of the drug division within the FDA is just filled with some of the most brilliant and passionate people and it was so much fun to work with them and I was so proud to get that out for them

40:49

because that I felt like I was serving my country in some way or the government in one and and helping to get their messaging out it was fun I was I was just about to say thank you for joining us you know thanks for coming on but then you just mentioned the FDA and and

41:02

I just wanted to ask before we go how much are you navigating regulatory issues in terms of you can say this you can’t say that we see that with a lot of with banks for example right or certain financial firms you can’t say certain things how much of the regulations

41:17

affect what can be communicated on these podcasts that’s an awesome question so me which is kind of my weakness and my strength okay you asked a really good question about 17 minutes ago um you said hey you’re not a pharmacist what’s up so because I’m not a pharmacist that is

41:34

my superpower I can literally say anything into this microphone right now and no one can sue me because I’m not a pharmacist I am a consumer I am I have freedom of speech to literally say anything I want to say now but you have no license that they can take away from

41:51

you that’s correct and that’s a power but in this network is a power because I’ll push any message through the pharmacist brain brings to me that I can find validity to obviously but there are pharmacists that have pushed messaging through our platform that did not want

42:04

to be named and we absolutely did that because I wanted to service and and be a a a Gong and an amplifier for that pharmacist and for those Pharmacy voices there’s not a lot of that by the way because they check and balance themselves internally you know we’re not

42:20

we’re not coming up with any like super controversial things per se but it’s fun to be in my position in some way because I don’t want to feel muzzled if I want to discuss things and that’s where Twirx comes in Twirx is This Week In Pharmacy I get to give my opinion on

42:36

things that are happening in the news I get to give my educated opinion on on like stuff that’s changing maybe in policy and regulation I really stay away from the clinical because that is where the thickest of weeds are and I don’t belong there I’m not a clinician and I

42:51

have no right to I can give like a a flippit opinion about nitric oxide I’m taking a a nitric oxide now that is supposed to put more um oxygen in your blood and I think it’s working like I’m I’m pepier and um you know it even helps with um erectile dysfunction I

43:10

guarantee it because I’ve noticed the difference myself but um yeah it’s like who would talk about nitric oxide how how could we get the public to understand how does nitric oxide um interfere with statin or how does it interfere with a blood pressure medicine

43:24

blah well guess what there there’s probably a podcast out there on that and a pharmacist is probably some somewhere on our Network I know there actually is I think we’ve done an episode on it do you have time for two more questions I know we’re running a little long okay no

43:37

we’re good because um you mentioned so I feel like the Joe Rogan that I could sit here for four hours and talk to you but I know I know we don’t have four hours but um why are people getting sicker why do we rely on pharmacies even more and more and more is it what we’re eating is it like

43:55

what’s in the water like what’s happening to us as a country that in a way like in a way the pharmacy industry is becoming so big and important as as you see but it means because people need to take all these all these medicines right so it’s like if you step back why

44:08

are we getting so sick that’s a really good question like I first of all I don’t have a good answer because I am not a clinician although I’m an observer and and I’m a um I’m I’m an opinion I have an opinion like I have my opinion I guess I could give you that and it’s all and it by

44:25

some of my opinion is really based based on papers that I’ve I’ve read what’s your opinion what’s your educated opinion based on what you’ve read so I think there’s two things number one we’ve allowed our food system to get freaking hijacked and I don’t

44:41

know when it happened maybe it was in the 80s or the 90s when and when corn syrup and so much of this processing started coming in it was all about money money money money and we got away from you know cooking our um own making our own breads and doing things that were

44:56

more natural driven so so that’s number one is that side of the world and then let’s talk about pharmaceuticals so today there are more NDCs that’s National Drug Codes than ever ever before okay and the reason is is because back in the day your your pharmacist

45:13

would let’s let’s go back to 1850 going into a pharmacist and they would grind in ingredients herbs and a little bit of this thing and some cocaine and some aspirin and they’d grind up this thing because they knew the breakdown of how a how a human being was going to react to

45:32

what they were compounding right and then they’ uh they’d say you know what a lot of my patients are are suffering with what I’m grinding up the the the suckatash you know uh drug that they made or something and and they’d take it and they’d put it in these little boxes

45:48

that would create capsules or would create little round circles and then all a sudden they’d start putting those in jars because someone their their Community was was having the same ailments right and then all of a sudden the industry took hold I’m not sure when

46:02

this happened probably you know 1920s to 1940s where the pharma industry was kind of born and they’re like wow you know instead of our pharmacist with ingredients um doing all of this custom compounding let’s just make it you know let’s let’s make it so now you’ll see in

46:22

the news that there’s a battle between pharma and compounding pharmacy because there’s still a desperate need to compound things differently for that tiny baby or you Eric that don’t that doesn’t metabolize medications the way that they’ve been designed um me I

46:39

metabolize super fast so we’re being given the same freaking drug you and me are taking the same drug for the same thing and you’re processing it completely different than me that’s where a pharmacist comes in that’s the future of pharmacy I don’t want to see

46:54

us increase the number of drugs that are out there actually see like to see that decrease but that’s a whole another podcast what I’d like to see is pharmacist doing a lot more dialing in and there’s a ton of pharmacists Eric out there who are deprescribing because

47:08

they’re the medication experts and they’re looking at what the doctor has going on or four doctors have going on and someone’s on 18 medications and this medication the only reason that they’re taking it is to is to combat the outcome of that medication so really it has no

47:24

you know meaning of even being in your system so understand what did I say about humans at the beginning of the show there’s good and there’s bad right there’s some pharma companies out there that are just freaking evil because they’re greedy right but then there’s

47:40

some Pharma companies out there which I like to think the most of them they see a mission to help people live better by either eradicating disease or inventing something to keep us alive based on having such a horrible disease and condition and I think there’s an ebb

47:55

and flow and there’s a fight between good and evil actually everywhere really and and in in this world where we’re so highly medicated there’s pharmacists out there and the majority of them that are out there that are like this sucks like you guys should not be on this many

48:11

medications let’s deprescribe you and let’s get you on a better diet or more of this Vitamin B or vitamin D or you know something else to and that I I’d like to see more people go that route go out and find a pharmacist who’s passionate about pharmacology and about what what

48:30

medications are truly doing to you that’s great no that gives me a lot to think about it gives me a lot to ponder and think about what are we doing in our house with pharmacies and medicines and are we even thinking about what’s in it yeah like should you and I have the same

48:43

medicine different weight or it’s different gender different life story they’re like we shouldn’t be having the same pills so Todd this is fantastic I I could talk to you all day 100 more questions but we leave it there so good thank you so much let me let me leave

48:57

you with a word I want you to study everybody to study this word pahrma so say it with me pharma pharma co co genomics genomics so I want you to say pharmacogenomics pharmacogenomics guess what buddy as soon as pharmacogenomics goes full scale and it’s been bubbling

49:19

for about 25 years now because remember when the the gene testing thing came out and you could find out where you’re from and your ancestry well back in the day day it had all the data like and and and I think it scared pharma and I think it scared the FDA being like we just told

49:35

human beings how their drugs are going to affect them like to the exact way it’s going to affect them and I think they closed that portal up really quick and they put it through a retrousse you know vetting which is there’s some good there’s very good to that you have to

49:52

make sure that things are working as intended so the the science of pharmacogenomics will become the Thor’s hammer remember Thor and the Marvel superhero and his hammer so the that hammer will be the hammer of the pharmacist and they’ll be able to literally know to the

50:11

to the individual how things will affect you how how molecules and drugs and substances will affect you specifically and by the way it’s available today the test is probably anywhere from high side is about $1200 low side you could probably find it for $300 bucks but it’s

50:30

a cheek swab you take a cheek you take a little like a little tissue uh a Q-tip and you swab the sides of your cheek really kind of hard you kind of rub them you put that in a tube you send it to a lab and they do a they do a panel discovery about how you metabolize

50:47

Things based on your DNA and it is freaking fascinating I had mine done so I know what I what I can metabolize fast what I metabolize slow so if if I was taking a blood thinner for example I would not want a specific one because it says on my PGX test hey he

51:04

metabolizes really slow right it’s like here’s my blood thin the doctor’s like get I give him a blood thinner and it’s like um I’ll just like you know I’m just going to take my time letting this drug work whereas you take it and it’s like you it just goes right through your

51:19

system your blood’s so thin thin thin well don’t give Eric anymore because he’ll bleed out so how would you know that difference physicians don’t know that they’re just giving you the medication because it’s designed to do a specific thing pharmacogenomics will

51:32

tell you how fast would you metabolize and break that medication I need to get that test you should get that test Todd this has been fascinating thank you so much for this has been great thank you for having me [Music] thank you to my guest and thanks for

51:50

listening subscribe to get the latest episodes each week and we’ll see you next time [Music]