BROADCASTS.com

b'

Today\\u2019s episode is an interview with Dr. Erin L. Albert. She\\u2019s a pharmacist, attorney, educator, podcaster, and author. Our conversation focuses on thought leadership through writing and publishing so that you can be inspired to share your ideas with the world.

Erin is\\xa0both a pharmacist and an attorney. Erin is an author of over a dozen books, and has served many corners of pharmacy practice--community pharmacy practice, the pharmaceutical industry (in a variety of capacities, such as clinical research, pharmacovigilance, field-based medical affairs, and medical marketing), pharmacy benefits, Medicaid, drug pricing, and academia for over a decade. She taught at Butler University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, where her writing skills transferred into publishing, and she taught/mentored student publishing projects--including several children\'s book publications, adult pharmacy publications, and even founded a healthcare review for students across campus, BU Well. In addition to publishing her own books on a variety of pharmacy, legal, entrepreneurship and STEM subjects, Erin also has written for Pharmacy Times, Pharmacy Careers, and GoodRx. Last, she has podcasted for decades on a variety of topics as well, including writing and publishing, most recently on her own show, The Edutainer. Her books have been featured on DanPink.com, Entrepreneur, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Forbes. Her latest book is Punk Rock Pharmacy: DIY Your Healthcare Career.

Links\\xa0

Website erinalbert.com\\xa0

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinalbert/\\xa0

ebooks: https://payhip.com/pharmllc and on Amazon.

Highlights from the interview

Thought leadership is, \\u201cInfluencing a narrative by understanding what needs to be done or needs to be changed.\\u201d\\xa0 Thought leaders can influence the narrative to affect positive change.\\xa0 Writing and publishing is important for the narrative.\\xa0 We can call out bad behavior; promote good behavior; and solve problems.\\xa0 We might be able to make things better by publishing. \\xa0

Publishing includes more than one venue.\\xa0 Podcasts, video, and anything you put into the universe to consume is publishing.\\xa0

Erin\\u2019s new book is Punk Rock Pharmacy:\\xa0 DIY Your Own Healthcare Career (eBook subscription).\\xa0 Different generations consume content in different ways.\\xa0 \\u201cFan fiction\\u201d is popular right now.\\xa0 Punk Rock Pharmacy is like an experiment. It\\u2019s an \\u201cebook-u-mentary,\\u201d and it\\u2019s like a choose-your-own-adventure book.\\xa0 Part is written and can be purchased now (April 2021).\\xa0 The rest will be like fan fiction where the readers will interact with Erin and help her shape the narrative on what they want to know about their own healthcare career.\\xa0 Erin is looking to other healthcare professionals to help her help them.\\xa0 Erin\\u2019s Annual Pharmacy Rebellion Survey helped with Punk Rock Pharmacy. \\xa0

Who is Erin trying to reach through writing and publishing?\\xa0 It depends.\\xa0 On the Edutainer Podcast, Erin explores the intersection of education and entertainment.\\xa0 The podcast is not just about pharmacy and healthcare; it\\u2019s much broader.\\xa0 In print, Erin sticks more to pharmacy, pharmacy and law, entrepreneurship, and STEM. \\xa0

We need specialists and generalists.\\xa0 Erin is a generalist.\\xa0 She prefers to talk about a lot of things and does not limit herself to one topic in the broad sense of publishing. \\xa0

Recently, Erin attended the California Nurses Association (Virtual) Conference on Policy and Politics. She loved it!\\xa0 Nurses are doing things that pharmacy can use.\\xa0 Pharmacists can elevate the pharmacy profession by taking the greatest hits from other professions and bringing them into our own.\\xa0 Seeing other people do cool things can inspire you to do something different too.\\xa0 Case examples inspire others.

Erin wants to help coach and develop pharmacists into the careers they want. People want to be what they can see.\\xa0 Some career paths don\\u2019t exist on paper.\\xa0 Giving pharmacists a way to see how wide healthcare and pharmacy practice are now will help them reinvent themselves and take slices from others to create their own customized career portfolio.

\\u201cWhat makes you weird is your superpower.\\u201d\\xa0 We need to bring our passions and interests from outside of pharmacy into the profession to create something unique and cool. \\xa0

You must know yourself better than anyone else.\\xa0 Know your Ikigai:

1. What you love to do [and what you don\\u2019t love to do].
2. What the world needs.
3. What you\\u2019re good at. \\xa0
4. What you can get paid to do. \\xa0
5. BONUS:\\xa0 What you value.

Some pharmacists who are unhappy with their jobs panic and start applying for jobs.\\xa0 In the end, they end up treading water.\\xa0 As an alternative, Erin recommends getting clear on who you are.\\xa0 Know your strengths and seek to use them.\\xa0 Anyone looking to change careers needs to do the hard work to figure out what they love/don\\u2019t love to, what the world needs, what they\\u2019re good at, what they can get paid to do, and what they value.\\xa0 Do the work first, then start shopping for a new gig.\\xa0 It\\u2019s ok to search for jobs without \\u201cpharmacist\\u201d in the title [if you\\u2019re a pharmacist]!

The Medical Science Liaison:\\xa0 An A to Z Guide, First Edition\\xa0was Erin\'s first book.\\xa0 (Also see The Medical Science Liaison:\\xa0 An A to Z Guide, Second Edition.)\\xa0 At first, she planned to publish the content in a peer-reviewed journal.\\xa0 After 6 months of waiting to be published, she became frustrated.\\xa0 She pulled the paper and transformed it into a book.\\xa0 She even created an LLC to help her manage her writing and publishing projects. You could say Erin became an \\u201caccidental entrepreneur.\\u201d\\xa0

Erin continues to write because she got onto the \\u201cwriting treadmill\\u201d and enjoyed it.\\xa0 She enjoys the routine, and her goal is to publish one book per year if there is an interesting topic that she wants to write about.\\xa0 She has generally published one book per year. \\xa0

Erin enjoys writing about what she\\u2019s curious about.\\xa0 It\\u2019s part therapy and part investigation.\\xa0 Toni Morrison said, \\u201cIf there\\u2019s a book you really want to read, but it hasn\\u2019t been written yet, then you must write it.\\u201d\\xa0 Writing a book, sharing a video, or publishing a podcast is Erin\\u2019s way of taking people along on the ride with her on her learning experience. \\xa0

Ideas can develop over time.\\xa0 Erin talked about \\u201cidea funnels.\\u201d\\xa0 Something she is curious about might start with a LinkedIn post or blog, then a podcast, and eventually a book.\\xa0 Ex:\\xa0 Erin\\u2019s Rebellion survey on LinkedIn morphed into the Punk Rock Pharmacy book.\\xa0 Look for the Annual Rebellion Survey mid-year 2021 on LinkedIn.

Post-pandemic, people have changed the way they consume content; generational differences impact content consumption too.\\xa0 Erin is trying to experiment with how she publishes content as a result.\\xa0 Writing and publishing is her laboratory, and she is experimenting constantly.\\xa0 For example, on Erin\\u2019s weekly videos, she focuses on pharmacy law, pharmacy benefits, and career development.\\xa0 Erin has self-published books and published books through a publisher. It\\u2019s all kind of an experiment because there isn\\u2019t necessarily one best way to publish content anymore.\\xa0

Promotion is a challenge Erin faces with publishing.\\xa0 No one will ever promote your book like you will.\\xa0 Publishers don\\u2019t solve promotion problems.\\xa0 You need to build your audience.\\xa0 For example, Erin built an audience and a tribe around the book Single. Women. Entrepreneurs.\\xa0 (See also Single Women Entrepreneurs:\\xa0 5 Years Later.)

If you\\u2019re going into a new area, and you\\u2019re not the \\u201cthought leader\\u201d in that area (yet), writing and publishing a book helps you become a self-fulfilling prophesy.\\xa0 You become a thought leader by and through curating a new tribe. \\xa0

At the 2019 Medipreneurs Conference in Asheville, NC, Erin and I discussed reaching a broader audience with her books through audiobooks.\\xa0 Erin narrated parts of The New Pharmacist: 46 Doses of Advice (2014) on her podcast in a mini-series because I inspired to to do it and for the benefit of the Class of 2020 Pharmacy School grads.\\xa0 (Way to go, Erin!)\\xa0 She did not read the book cover-to-cover on the Edutainer Podcast, but the response to reading The New Pharmacist: 46 Doses of Advice (2014) on the Edutainer Podcast was awesome!

Why did Erin write The New Pharmacist: 46 Doses of Advice?\\xa0 Erin says that once her Butler University [pharmacy] students got their first jobs, they would ask, \\u201cDr. Albert, is that all there is?\\u201d\\xa0 The book was her reply to them in \\u201cmini doses.\\u201d\\xa0

Fun fact!\\xa0 Erin\\u2019s writing voice is much like her conversational speaking voice.

Erin also read some of her books for children on her podcast, including He Huffed and He Puffed But\\u2026A Tale of a Wolf With Asthma.\\xa0 Her books for children are a product of collaboration with college students from different disciplines (education, business, pharmacy, and health sciences).\\xa0 They co-wrote, developed, and illustrated the books. \\xa0

Erin is thankful to her readers, listeners, and followers.\\xa0 She feels it\\u2019s an honor and a privilege to have a voice people listen to.\\xa0 We\\u2019re all here to learn from each other.\\xa0 Whether it\\u2019s one-on-one in conversation or in podcasts and books, we can all use our voices to affect positive change.\\xa0 We have a certain level of responsibility to use our voices. \\xa0

Dr. Erin L. Albert inspired me to look into starting a podcast when we met at the 2019 Medipreneurs Conference in Asheville, NC.\\xa0 If not for her, this podcast might not exist.\\xa0 Thank you for the inspiration, Erin! \\xa0