Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast

EP.27 - From Lakes to Labs: How Jeff Pohlig Builds People-First Clinical Research

• Roy Richardson / Sean Murphy • Season 2 • Episode 27

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What does it really take to turn science into hope?

In this episode, we sit down with Jeff Pohlig, Co‑Owner and CEO of Charter Research, for a deeply human conversation at the intersection of clinical science, leadership, and purpose.

Jeff shares his journey from Rollins College alum to leading a multi‑site clinical research organization operating across Orlando, The Villages, and Chicago. With therapeutic focus areas ranging from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to mental health, liver disease, and weight loss, Jeff explains how Charter Research balances scientific rigor with genuine care for patients and families.

The conversation goes far beyond clinical trials. Jeff opens up about his personal connection to Alzheimer’s, how that experience shaped his leadership philosophy, and why patient experience is just as important as data integrity. He also unpacks the realities of scaling a research organization, debunks common myths about clinical trials, and explains how trust is built with sponsors, participants, and communities alike.

You’ll also hear:

  • Lessons Jeff learned from competitive water skiing—and how they translate to executive leadership
  • How Charter Research navigated COVID, including a bold decision to cut pay temporarily to save jobs—and later repay the sacrifice
  • The four core traits Jeff hires for when building high‑performance teams
  • Where AI is actually making a difference in clinical research (and where it’s still hype)
  • Why culture truly does eat strategy for breakfast
  • Practical leadership advice Jeff wishes he had acted on sooner

This episode is a masterclass in resilient leadership, ethical growth, and building organizations that serve both mission and people—especially when the stakes are deeply personal.

Whether you're a CEO, operator, healthcare leader, or someone whose family has been impacted by disease, this conversation will leave you inspired to lead with more clarity, courage, and compassion.

To learn more about Charter Research or explore current studies, visit charterresearch.com.

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The Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast is brought to you by Aurora InfoTech, a Cybersecurity Firm that serves the information security needs of small—and medium-sized businesses.

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Roy Richardson

Hello, I'm Roy Richardson, and this is the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Welcome back to another edition of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. I'm your host, Roy Richardson, joined by my insightful co-host Sean Murphy. Today always great to have you here, my brother. Today, we're diving into the world where science meets heart. Our guest is Jeff Polig, co-owner and CEO of Charter Research, the clinical research organization running trials across Orlando, the villages and Chicago, and therapeutic areas from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to liver disease and mental health. Jeff's path runs deep. Rollins, undergrad and MBA, leadership stents that honed his operators' toolkit, and a personal connection to Alzheimer's that keeps the work human. He's helped scale a multi-site operation that sponsors trust and communities can feel good about, while reminding us that a trial isn't just about data, it's also care, insight, and hope for families. And he brings a champion's mindset, literally. He's a two-time national water ski champion. So you know grit and recovery are part of the story. Before we jump in, today's episode is brought to you by Aurora InfoTech, protecting growing organizations with cybersecurity that scales as fast as you do. Jeff, we're excited you're here.

SPEAKER_02

Happy to be here, guys. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Well, welcome again, Jeff. Can't wait to talk about the mission behind Charter, the lessons from leading through COVID and how you're building a culture that serves patients and sponsors with excellence. And um I've known you for a while and I'm looking forward to it. So let's get into it.

Water Skiing Lessons For Leadership

SPEAKER_00

And let's kick off with uh a little something fun before we get into the science and the scale. On weekends, uh what looks like Peak Jeff these days? And how often is waterskiing still included in the process?

SPEAKER_02

Um yeah, I I love to water ski, so I try to get out there as much as I can. Usually on weekends is is our best time. You know, I love just spending time with my family and being outdoors, so that's kind of like my peak of like things I love to do. So snow skiing, water skiing, hiking, like I love those types of things. We've been really into wake surfing in the last few years. So spend some time doing that. And my daughter's big time into gymnastics, so I spend a lot of time at the gym and at her gymnastics meets over the weekends as well. So when I'm not at the office, I try to be active outdoors. I don't get enough of it, but I try to squeeze it in.

SPEAKER_00

Got it, got it. And what what what does non-work skill from competitive water skiing that actually helps you as a CEO, man? Is it balance, focus, recovery, after fall? Give us a little bit of that.

SPEAKER_02

I think there's so much you can learn from competitive athletics, any sport. And you know, mine has been water skiing in my past. You know, I've been involved in competitive water skiing. But sports in general, I mean, you just it teaches so many life lessons how to win graciously, how to lose graciously, how to manage emotions and sort of focus on your task at hand. So it's a skill I've learned from it that you know I can apply to to business, I guess, is really honing in on specifics. And I'll give you an example. So in water ski jumping, I'm a I've always enjoyed water ski jumping. You your balance position on your on your skis is to be on your toes. Like your weight is on the ball of your foot. You don't want to get too far back and slip out of the back, and of course, you don't want to go too far forward either. So that's the weight position. So coaches are always you know telling their skiers, like keep keep the weight on your toes, keep the weight on the ball of your foot in your binding. And so that's the general lesson, but like, how do you quantify that? Like, what does that really mean? Like, how far is too far? How much of your weight is there versus your heel? And so I'd heard this advice like my whole career skiing and like trying to be in that spot. And then I had an opportunity to ski with a the world's top water ski jumper, Freddie Krueger, and he taught me this lesson. He had quantified everything down to like a very specific. And he doesn't say keep your weight on the ball of your foot. He says when you're positioned correctly on your skis, the water is going to be breaking six inches in front of your right binding on the inside edge of your right ski. And that's the measurement. Like he had figured out like the measurement for where the water breaks on the ski as you're turning, right? That is amazing. And and for me, I was like, that's amazing. Like it was like all of a sudden there was an objective way to measure it. And and I could, and I could do it, and I could I could even look down and see where the water was breaking. And and you didn't have to look down because you develop a feel for it, but and you could just think, that's where I want to be, and then you are. But it was it hit he had taken the time to really think it through clearly and put it into something that's that's really meaningful and specific. And so I guess the lesson from that that can be applied to business is clear specifications are going to enable great, consistent performance. And it was one of those tips, you know, sometimes you get these things in athletics or in any area where it's it's a new sort of aha moment. And that was one for me that really took my water ski jumping to the next level.

Roy Richardson

So, speaking about water ski jumping, let's let's go through some quick lightning here. What's your favorite lake? My favorite lake?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I live on Lake Winata in in Winter Park, so that's my home lake. So that's one of my favorites. I like Okaheely Park in West Palm Beach. They host a lot of great championship water skiing there. Here, more locally, out in Groveland, Oka Humph area, Jack Travers is like I love that lake. Great competition lakes. I grew up skiing at Lake Laura in Minnesota. A meaningful lake spot for my family is Lake Palmer, Palmer Lake in Minnesota. So I don't I like any lake that's wet. Where are those lakes in Minnesota? Central, southern, what what what part of Minnesota? I'm from sort of central slash northern Minnesota in Alexandria. But the lakes are all over. I mean, the they're they're carved, you know, long ago by glaciers, and there's lakes all over the state of Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00

Well, let's um rewind it back a little bit to how Jeff got to this point.

How Jeff Entered Clinical Research

Roy Richardson

Yeah, you've been in clinical trials for about 16 years now. What pulled you into this world in the first place? And at what point did it shift from being a job to something that really felt like a calling?

SPEAKER_02

Well, interestingly, I guess I got connected through water skiing. Some good friends that I have water skied with for a long time introduced me to a couple of guys that were running clinical trials. And I didn't know anything about it. I had been involved in another industry prior. It was in automotive collision repair systems, and I was water skiing. And we sold that business. I was looking for my next step, and I was introduced to two men that were running a local clinical trial center, and we really hit it off interpersonally. They had a small research center and really knew how to run the research, like the operations, but it was growing in terms of the number of people and the size of the revenues and the business, and they really weren't experienced and didn't enjoy the business management side of things. So we had complementary skill sets. I would, I handled more of the business administration. They focused on the on the clinical trial execution. We both learned a lot from each other, had fun doing it, and and built a great company. So yeah, I got into it just kind of as things happen in life by luck and by connections of people, you know, mutual friends. For me, it shifted into a call-in like immediately. I love everything about clinical trials. It wasn't for me something that was like a gradual, like, and I think that's that's common in our industry. You get into it and you either love it or you hate it. Uh for me, I love it. I like the I like the mission of what we do, of really, you know, helping, we're doing something good in the world, discovering new medications that can really benefit a lot of people. So I love the mission and I love the challenge of it, just the day-to-day organizational work of pulling together the teams and the patients and the study opportunities and all the details that have to be coordinated to make it successful. So, I mean, for me, pretty much like right out of the gate when I started 16 years ago, I I fell in love with it.

Roy Richardson

Wow. So you got in on the business side, and I guess that's where that Rollins, you know, education comes in, right? You you did your undergrad and MBA at Rollins. Were there any professors, classes, or projects from those years that ended up shaping how you lead or scale an operation like Charter?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I so I did my undergraduate degree there in economics, and then I went to the the Crummer Graduate School and did a master's in business degree there. So many people I met, so many classes I took and opportunities I had there that have that have been significant for me. I had a meaningful mentorship opportunity there. I was partnered as a student with Harvey Massey, uh the late Harvey Massey, who who founded Massey Services Pest Control, and had an opportunity to sit and learn from him. Great entrepreneur, great business leader, really dynamic man. And that was a great honor and privilege to do that. And I had professors at, you know, at Rollins that really made an impact on me and that I took lessons from that I use to this day. There was a professor in our master's program that taught brand management. And I was in part of a small group. We were working on a project that we were really struggling with. And I I brought, I brought it to him. I said, Look, here's what we're trying to do, but I don't know how to do it. And here's the challenges we're running into. And I laid out all this, like this, these questions at his feet. And he looked at me and he said, Yep, Jeff, he says, just keep asking those questions.

unknown

And I was like, What?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, come on, I'm I'm coming to you for answers, man. And and he said, just keep asking the question. And I didn't understand it at the time, but it there's something to that when you're wrestling with something. And it was shortly thereafter that I kind of realized one day, I was like, oh, we've kind of solved it. Like those things I was wrestling with and trying to figure out by just keeping focused on them, you can get through them and almost resolve them before you realize it. And it was just sort of a moment where that's something that stayed with me, you know, all my life that I've taken into things where when I'm struggling with something, there's lots of resources available and people we connect with that we can pick each other's brains. And if we keep doing that, keep looking at data, keep researching, keep focused on it, just keep asking the question, you'll get there.

Rollins Mentors And Learning To Ask

SPEAKER_02

So there's a valuable lesson in that. The answers don't always come immediately. Yeah, so I can't stand off. I've had really tremendous opportunities that that came out of Rollins College.

SPEAKER_00

That's what's up. Got it. So Alzheimer's very personal to you. How did going through that personally with your family member shape the way that you think about patients, participants, care, and even how accessible you believe clinical trials should be for families dealing with something so overwhelming?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so you're referencing, you know, I've like a lot of families, it's such a common thing. I've I've had Alzheimer's in my family. My my grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease when I was young. And this was years before I, or even decades before I ever thought I'd be involved in clinical trials and working to find a cure for the disease. It just sort of something you experience in life, like like many people have. So I watched my grandfather, you know, with his memory loss and cognitive decline as I was growing, and and he died with Alzheimer's disease shortly after I finished college. So I had that personal experience that was, you know, I was there was a connection to it like in my heart. And so then when I got into the business of conducting clinical trials specifically for Alzheimer's disease, there's just a connection to the patients and to the people and a knowledge of like, we work with real people. Our job is to collect data. You know, we we collect clinical data that we provide back to the study sponsors. And the data is important. There's a lot of work to be done to make sure it's collected well and scientifically valid and all that. And so that's the product we're providing is these medical insights through data. But the data comes from people. Like we have real people coming in our doors every day that are living with Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease or liver disease or depression or you know the different areas that we work in. And so for us in a charter research, like there's a real focus on making sure the patient experience is great because we have a deep and personal understanding and these are real people, and clinical trials are meaningful. Clinical trials offer hope. So I guess that's the tie that you're speaking to, Sean. That like the making sure we provide an exceptional patient experience is is core to who we are.

Roy Richardson

Wow. And that that personal why sets the tone for the work. So let's get into the mission and the machine. Jeff, for listeners who may not be familiar with charter, give us a quick snapshot. What do you do for your sponsors and who and how do your clinics in Orlando, the villages, and Chicago work together to strengthen the way you run studies?

SPEAKER_02

So Charter Research conducts clinical trials of new potential medications. We we test medicines. So we're working to discover the future of medicine across numerous different therapeutic areas. I mentioned some already, like Alzheimer's disease. We also work in depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorder, weight loss, liver disease. So we uh we work in a number of therapeutic areas. We're probably best known for our work in Alzheimer's disease, because that's a large majority of our research, but we are multi-therapeutic.

Alzheimer’s Personal Why And Patient Care

SPEAKER_02

And as you mentioned, Roy, we've got we have three research clinics here in Orlando, in the villages, and also in Chicago. And our customers are major pharmaceutical companies and small biotechs and everything in between to invest in new drug development and contract with us to collect detailed medical data regarding their new investigational medications. So that's sort of a synopsis of what we do. Our three sites work together to have streamlined processes across them to enable fast startup for our study sponsors and to just recruit more patients. The number one thing for clinical trials is getting enough participants to really move the science and the medicine forward. So having three sites helps us do that more effectively.

SPEAKER_00

So how did you decide to um which therapeutic areas to focus on? And in your world, what does excellence and data collection really look like?

SPEAKER_02

The first part, you know, like how do we decide what to focus on is really where our passion meets the pipeline. And it's it's you know, what are we passionate about? Me personally, my business partner, our physicians, our staff, like what are we passionate about that we really want to pursue? And where does that align with the pipeline of where there's a good pipeline of work in clinical trials? We, as I mentioned, we do a lot of work in Alzheimer's disease, and the other therapeutic areas I mentioned are areas where there's there's a lot of work, there's a lot of research being done. So there's a business opportunity there, and it aligns with things we're passionate about, that we're connected to, that we want to be a part of, a small part of helping solve. So deciding on therapeutic areas is really driven by those two things. So our data collection, since that's what we're really doing, is providing data, is that's the lifeblood of what we do. We have data quality standards and methods and processes that we utilize to ensure that the data we have meets our quality criteria. We have a six-part criteria for it's an industry standard. It's an acronym, LCOSC, that everyone in our industry would be familiar with, which stands for attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, accurate, and complete. And they are the criteria of what we must have that defines what good quality data is. And so we look to always meet those criteria. And so that's sort of like the what of the data, but it's not just what the data is, but the process for how we collect it that's also important. And so we we keep track of that. So if you want to nerd out on data, we could talk a lot about that.

SPEAKER_00

It's not like I listen to the sound of music, you know, with that.

SPEAKER_03

It rolls right off your tongue, doesn't it? Right.

Roy Richardson

That's that's impressive how you go about the the data collection and stuff like that. And and you know, one of the things I would say is there's there are a lot of myths out there about what it's like to participate in the clinical study. What are the biggest misconceptions you run into and how do you help clear those up when you're out in the community?

SPEAKER_02

There's a lot of because a lot of people have heard of clinical research, but they may not have participated in. So there's a lot of myths about it. I think one of the one of the big myths is that clinical trials are only for people who have exhausted all other options. And it's really not true at all. There's some trials that focus on advanced illnesses, but lots of trials are per are for prevention or to improve existing treatments or are for newly diagnosed patients. So clinical trials are really a viable option at any point along a person's health journey. And so that's a big one, is that it's it's not just an option of last resort. I think another thing that people worry about is the cost of clinical trials and that it might be expensive or that their insurance won't cover it. And the truth is, study participants don't pay a single penny to be involved in a clinical trial. And we don't take insurance, we don't bill insurance, so that every every participant in our in our trials, we don't even ask for insurance. You come in. And in fact, it works the other way. Our the study participants are paid for their time. So, and sometimes people are curious, like, how does that work, Jeff? The study sponsor covers the costs of everything. They're working to collect this medical data. And so we work under contract for them to provide the the data, and they pay for all the costs, all the medical attest, medical tests, everything that the patients receive as part of their participation in the trial is fully covered, including the patients that receive a small stipend for for each visit to our clinics. So that's another another myth that's out there that people worry about. So we spend a lot of time covering these these types of myths and and others, just educating the community to share with them about clinical trials, how we do it. And you know, once people learn more, then they then they're like, oh, this is it's not so scary.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. And and and clearing the air on some of the myths that are out there. And I I'm I'm a huge component uh proponent of healthy lifestyles, but I do believe that there's a major, major need for what you do. I actually had a guy called me uh a little over a year ago and was telling me about his wife dealing with Alzheimer's. And I actually'm like, you know, I just got off the phone with Jeff. Charter, why don't you call them? And and so he's told me about the great experience that they've had as a family using our services. So anyway, yeah, uh shifting gears a little bit here. I was at a conference yesterday and um 50 100, 200 CEOs at the conference, and there's sixteen round tables, and there's like two of them that didn't

Charter Research Model And Site Network

SPEAKER_00

have AI in their title. They were the empty seats, they were the empty tables. Everybody wanted to be at the AI table. It's like AI, AI. Exactly. It's everywhere now. You know, in clinical research, where is AI actually helping today? Like screening, protocol adherence, and where do you think is still more hype than reality?

SPEAKER_02

So we're definitely in that with everyone else. You know, we're in the early days of AI, and AI is pretty powerful, but I think we've only sort of scratched the surface here of like what we're gonna see coming in the next few years. We're using artificial intelligence now as part of our uh screening process where we screen medical records. So this is a process that we used used to be just a very laborious human process years ago, looking through medical records to try to find potential study participants that would fit the eligibility criteria to participate in a clinical trial. And today we have AI tools that help, you know, scrub through the records, help find patients a little more quickly. So it doesn't get us all the way there. It's a really helpful tool because it it kind of filters it down for us. But then there's still the art of the conversation and you know, a real human connection of connecting to people and talking to them about whether they want to participate. So that part won't ever I don't ever see that being replaced by AI, but the AI tool definitely helps us with screening medical records. And we've also started using it just this. Year in digital cognitive exams at the patient's initial assessment. This is a pre-screen where we're sort of learning about each other and making an assessment as to what clinical trial might be the best fit for them. And so we have a cognitive exam that the AI tool can pick up on some subtleties that humans don't. And it's we're still learning it. So I'm I've got my fingers crossed that it's going to be a significant force for us. We'll see. But I hope that it helps us to you know sort of enrich our population of patients so that more can move successfully forward. So I'm excited about AI. You know, I'm not a real technically skilled person, but but we have a lot of people here that are run circles around me and that can put these tools in place. And I really am a big believer in integrating technology into the growth of charter research.

SPEAKER_00

Right, yes. So behind every strong operation, there's strong culture. Let's talk leadership a little bit.

Roy Richardson

So, Jeff, you've sat in both the CEO and COO seats, even health COO roles at Bioclinical Research and COMPAS research. How did those different roles stretch you as a leader? And what leadership muscles did each one help you build?

SPEAKER_02

The more experience you have, the better. Just time in the seat, trying new things and working with different people on different projects. So the COO roles at Compass and Bioclinica gave me really neat opportunities to work across areas of the business in finance, budgets and contracts, the clinical trial agreements, business development, patient engagement, pre-screening, the recruitment, the community event management, physician partnerships, marketing, clinical operations, compliance. There's so many aspects of what we do. It really takes a big team of people working together to successfully run a good clinical trial. I've enjoyed the opportunity to be in a role where I get to work broadly across those different areas. With Bioclinica, we had when I was COO there, we had 30 clinical trial centers across 14 countries. And so I was working that, and there's a lot of inefficiency too that I saw, where you know, we're working in across different regulatory bodies in different time zones with different currencies and different labor laws. And so there becomes a lot of administration that just of necessity from all those differences. And part of my frustration with that sort of led to charter research where we're focused in the United States in two time zones with one currency, with one regulatory body. Like it's it's much more focused. And so there's a there's a layer of what is necessary administration in a in an international research organization that we can just entirely remove that layer with how we're doing that at charter. And so, you know, you ask about like what leadership muscles are being exercised there. It's just for me, it's just the more experience the better, and sort of gaining those insights that inform your decisions on how to what's the strategy for moving forward at charter research? Is you know you you pick up on things that that help you again there's no right or wrong, it's just different people have a preference for how they want to do it. And so for me, I was like, let's focus here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Very, very cool. Well,

Data Quality Standards That Matter

SPEAKER_00

listen, that that's on the the organizational side. You've also served on some boards like the Brain Fitness Academy, the Alzheimer's Dementia Resource Center, and also the Alzheimer's Association's board. What did those experiences teach you about building trust, especially with patients, caregivers, and the broader community?

SPEAKER_02

Our business is all about trust. It's it's trusting the you know from our sponsors for the quality of data we provide and our reputation for that quality and for our ability to enroll study participants in their trial. With our study participants, there's a huge amount of trust where they come in and learn from us about how trials work and ultimately make a decision whether they want to participate and try a new investigational medication that that may benefit them or may benefit future generations. So it's all about trust in our business, in our industry. And having the opportunity to join some of those boards and be involved in the community is I like giving back to the community. I like working with great organizations that always need help from good teams of people and good boards. So I like doing that. And it's a way just to connect with the community. And I think for us it's it comes full circle. We have the opportunity to give back and also to connect with more people and establish that trust. That's like you build the relationships, and it might be years down the road that someone's like, hey, I I'm uh in a spot now where I want to participate in a study. So it it's just sort of a full circle moment, I guess, for building trust.

Roy Richardson

Impressive. And you know, you you you mentioned here about the importance of building trust. But in order to build that trust, you have to have the right mechanisms in place, right? And I'm talking about the people skills and and the peopleware, so to say. You've mentioned in the past that there are four key skills you hire for most often. What are they? And share with us how do you actually spot those qualities in an interview?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so those four are critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and the ability to create something that didn't exist before. It's sort of my favorite and big one. So the first, like critical thinking is really like the ability to reason through problems and sort of look at things from an in an outline format and say, okay, what are our options here? And to think it through critically and to poke holes and things, ask questions, having a sense of curiosity is all part of that. So critical thinking is really just having a conversation with people and really kind of pushing them in interviews to sit to challenge ideas and see how you know how critically are they thinking about this? How do they how do they react to alternative viewpoints and and challenges in thinking? And so start at the art of just conversation to understand how somebody can think about things. And then if you can think critically, you also have to be able to communicate it verbally or in writing, have precise, clear, timely, and professional communication is really important. It's it's great when people have have good writing skills and can communicate well in that method. Teamwork is the you know the third thing we really look for. And that's such an important part. As I mentioned, we have big teams of people that are necessary to run a trial. So it's not about a single individual at all. It's it's you have to have a sense of team where you put the team, the team is above any single individual. And you have to have that self-sacrifice mentality that like you do whatever is needed for the good of the team. And then finally, is like the fourth one is the ability to create something that didn't exist, which is what have you created from scratch that didn't exist, that now exists because of you? Having the ability to think big and take bold action toward achieving a vision. I love to hire people like that. It's fun, it's everybody loves to have good teammates. So the challenge is building that team. And we've been really fortunate. We've I feel really blessed. We've got a tremendous leadership team here. I

Clinical Trial Myths And Community Education

SPEAKER_02

it's a privilege to work with every day.

Roy Richardson

That's that's that's amazing. And you know, I would say that first of all, putting together a team and maintaining culture is very, very those are two hard tasks because as you start to scale, you know, you need to work even harder to maintain those, you know, those principles that you've uh instilled. But of course, you know, when when you talk about growth and looking back now from where you were to way where you were to where you are today, uh there's always headwinds, of course, that you've had to overcome. And so, Sean, take us down there a bit in terms of what some of those headwinds may have looked like.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Jeff, COVID hit in 2020. Everything basically froze, and studies paused, patient flow dropped, revenue majorly hit. You made some calls to cut pay by 33%, you rebuilt the business, and um then not only restore pay, you gave everyone back what was sacrificed plus five percent more. Walk us through the reason, the plan, the communication, and how you kept the team believing in the mission through all of that.

SPEAKER_02

So it's a big story. We I remember the date, March 16th, 2020. We had a major sponsor that called us on March 16th and put their study on hold. It was the first the first of our sponsors to do that. And at the time, we were just getting the business going, you know. I mean, we had we had started in some significant work in 2019, and we had made investments. We we leased a new larger space, we'd hired a lot of people, we had these new studies, and we we going into 2020, we thought it was gonna be a banner a year for us in January, right? And and so then COVID just boom, like out of nowhere. So in March, we had our first study sponsor put their trial on hold. And it was the first study where we had steady patient flow. At the time, it represented 70% of the company's total revenues. And so it was huge. When it stopped, it was like 70% of our revenue is gone, like overnight. That's a big deal. We hoped we could pivot. You know, we're like, okay, well, we can, it's okay, we've got other contracts, we can pivot to our other studies. But in the next nine days, six additional sponsors called us and stopped their studies. So we found ourselves like, you know, looking at all that, we had all these contracts and we thought everything was starting the year well. We ended up with only four studies open. And we had to call and plead our case and convince those sponsors to, you know, keep the studies open at our sites because they were looking to follow suit. So even just hanging on to those four trial opportunities was hard. And then, of course, we had newly issued stay-at-home orders, and you know, it wasn't, of course, just charter research. I mean, this everyone's going through challenges at that time. But in our business, like our new patient flow dropped to almost zero in April. We did one screen across our entire team working together, we screened one patient in April of 2020. So it was it was a tough time in terms of the business, like just dropping off a cliff when COVID hit. The bank had not yet approved our requested business loans, and it put us in a just a tight spot. We'd assembled this really talented team to launch a new site, and we didn't want to lose any of them. And so, you know, as Sean sort of summarized there, we looked at that situation and said, hey, we we have a great team. We need this great team to get where we're going and to grow the research business in the way that we wanted to. So we decided we didn't want to lay anybody off, but instead we just reduced the entire team's pay by 33%. At that point in time, like my business partner Jessica and I were not taking a salary at all, but but we were paying our team, and our our philosophy was like it's better for everyone to sacrifice a portion of their pay than for anyone to lose their job entirely. And so we're just the mentality is just like, hey, we're gonna suffer as a team and we're gonna rebuild as a team. And that was the message you you asked about the message and you know, leading that conversation. You know, you're just going into the conversation and being open and saying, hey, I've got bad news. Like, let's just start with like none of what I'm about to say is good. And we have had these significant losses in business, we've had these studies put on hold. We've got lots of challenges with recruitment right now because of the environment we're in. And here's where we're at financially, and so this is what we're gonna do. And I think just having an opportunity, you know, we sat around the table with our team and had the conversation, and it's not fun, but I think the team appreciates just having an open conversation about it. So that's the way we did it, and and we had a plan too. It wasn't just like here's the tough times. We said, we believe with an intense focus on these four remaining studies that we can come out of this. And we said, here's a four-month plan for how we're gonna do it. And so we had a plan for like the the go forward. And the team we had a wonderful team. They dug in, they worked hard, we executed on that plan. And just a couple months later, we boosted pay up a little bit to like only a 20% decrease. And then we returned everyone to normal salaries by the end of June, one month faster than we had projected. So, I mean, we worked it's super stressful at the time. I guess it makes a fun story to tell on a podcast now, but um at the time, it's a you don't know what's gonna happen exactly, right? So, you know, it took us but seven months later, I would say like we had fully recovered, our studies were reopened, our patient flow was back, we had new contracts coming in, the bank approved our financing. Like we had like worked together through the darkness and and and come back into like everything being somewhat back to normal. And so that was then in in October of that year that we, you know, the team had sacrificed and worked extraordinarily hard. And we we pulled out of that bad spot because of how everybody pitched in and worked. And it put us, the hard work of the team put us in a position where we had the cash. And so it was like, hey, everything that you sacrificed, like here's here's that money back, and and we felt like it was just the right thing to do. Then when you have sort of the team, you know, making a sacrifice like that, that that they should they should get a little extra. And so we were able, that's why we we said it's just the right thing to do to give them five percent on top, which I think people appreciated, but having had the chance, no one would want to go through that, you know. Yeah, yeah. So well that was tough, and we but we came out of that. I mean, since then we've our team now is like 15 times bigger. We've built two beautiful research facilities in Orlando and the villages. We've contributed data to three FDA-approved medications. You know, in that year in 2020, we finished about 670 patient visits that year, and so a little under 700. This year we'll do well over 7,000. So it's, you know, sometimes you got to go through the darkness to to you just gotta keep going. So that yeah, that's that's the story of of what we did during COVID. And it probably matches a lot of, I mean, there's so many people in the community that that worked hard and supported each other through through a really tough time. So our story is just one of the thousands out there, but but that's how we did it.

Roy Richardson

You kind of led me here into the next question perfectly, uh, Jeff. And when you said you stuck together through the darkness and you came out at the other end, a much stronger team, a much stronger organization uh that was poised for success. But to even have gone through that and to have had your your team members actually agree to to what you proposed and stuck with it is actually, you know, uh I would say uh an underlying or underscore of your leadership, you know, and and their belief in what you were doing. So kudos for that. And speaking about leadership, how did that entire experience change you as a leader and what has shifted in the way you scenario plan, prepare for uncertainty, or build resiliency into the business now?

SPEAKER_02

Anytime you go through something difficult, it it gives you more confidence to manage through the next unexpected difficulty. So I think it's it's given me some you know just some confidence. I don't think these are new learnings per se. The things I'm gonna share with you in answer to your question are not like new aha moments that came out of COVID. They're kind of basic principles that that I knew that everyone knows. But it gets ingrained in you more when you go through something like that. So one obviously is you know, in business, don't rely too heavily on a single revenue stream. You've got to diversify. Now, that really wasn't a mistake that we made. At that point in time, the company was yet young. We were just getting off the ground. And so you take the contracts you can get, and you get a big one, you're not gonna turn it down. Our customer concentration, as I said, was like 70% in one study. So that was not really a mistake we made. It was more just a result of the timing of all this, but you still learn that lesson, right? Because you that is a precarious place to be. And when you're starting a company, you've got to go through that growth stage of like you're gonna have times where you're you're really concentrated and that's how you grow. But you learn the lesson and it gets ingrained into you through things like this, where you want to be sure that you're well diversified and have a, you know, as we talk about in our industry, a strong study portfolio of variety of studies to manage that. And the other thing is just strengthening the organization financially, you know. Again, we were in a spot early in our growth, so we weren't really there yet. But today we you know are able to maintain a much stronger balance sheet so that we can weather through tough times. And so it's taken us, you know, like any organization, take some time to build that. And we've used debt to help scale our business, but we've kept that really manageable in proportion to the size of the business. Last year we paid off all of our debt. Today we're 100% uh debt-free as an organization, and we're able to keep sufficient cash on hand to weather us through tough times. And so I wouldn't say I learned about that from it, wasn't a new process,

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SPEAKER_02

but yeah, it's something you take away from it when you go through it. You're like, gosh, like it it'd be great if uh if we could have been in that in the position we're in today. You know, it'd be easier to if COVID hit again, we'd be in a better spot to to weather it than we were then. Got the memory muscle now.

SPEAKER_00

Much sounds like a much better spot. You know, COVID was was just you know, that's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of event.

SPEAKER_03

We hope so, right? Right, right.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I don't think it is. But anyway, I don't I don't want to digress on what one belief that you held before 2020 that you don't hold anymore. And what what's one belief that only got stronger because of what you went through in 2020?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I don't know that there's a belief I held that I don't anymore, but a belief I hold stronger is is belief in team and in culture. It's a critical uh part of a strong organization. You can have a good strategy, that's important too, but you've got to have a good team and and the right culture to be successful. Like in that example, like the only reason we got through that is because we had a strong team of people that believed in the mission, believed in supporting each other, wanted to work through a tough time together, and and that's that makes all the difference. So, you know, there's the saying in business that culture eats strategy for breakfast. And I think it's really the the strongest thing is having a strong culture and a strong strategy that you're executing well. So I think that's a belief for me that that strengthened through that time.

Roy Richardson

Awesome. So, Jeff, the challenges you navigated really highlight how complex your world is. And you know, you're running uh multi-site trials across different states, different cities, so to say. Resilience isn't just uh operational anymore, it's it's digital too, and especially in this world. So let's touch on that for a moment. Since I run a cybersecurity company, I'm always saying that every modern organization is basically a data steward. But in clinical research, that's amplified. You're protecting people's health stories across your Orlando villages and Chicago sites. How do you build data protection into the everyday rhythm of the organization?

SPEAKER_02

As I said earlier, data is our lifeblood. I mean, it's it's our product that we provide to our study sponsors. So we work with several systems that we utilize to secure that data and ensure it's secure transmittable to the study sponsors, our clients. We work with the electronic source system source, meaning the system where we collect all the raw data. It's an electronic system called CREO, one of three sort of big systems players in our industry. We also enter that data into electronic data capture systems or EDC systems. And these are generally selected from third-party providers that are selected by our study sponsors. So we have some technology systems in place that we use to capture and secure and transmit the data. And then we just have practices here. You know, our data, like at charter research, the data is never shared or sold. The data never goes anywhere except to the study sponsor. And all the patient data is de-identified. So, of course, you know, if you were to come in and participate in a clinical trial at Charter Research, our staff would know you as Roy and as Sean, but your data would go out to our partners on the on the trial, um, our study sponsors, as you know, patient number 235. And you know, here's the clinical data on this patient. And but it's all de-identified. There's no there's no name or identifying information in there. So there's there's data practices we have and and data management technologies that we utilize. Protecting the data is is key to our business.

Roy Richardson

Don't use 235 for me. That's my sweet number here from my office.

SPEAKER_03

I have a camera outside your door, Roy. Just to be clear, that's a made-up example.

Roy Richardson

I'm gonna hit you up after this with a lot of numbers, man. Right.

SPEAKER_00

I love it. Yeah. It's been like that with Jeff and I. But listen, on on a practical level, and I love, you know, teams, team, teams. That's you know, I've been that way for a long time. It started with the military and it's gone through my career here. What what actually moves the needle for your teams? Is it the training, the systems you use, or just everyday habits that keep everyone um sharp?

SPEAKER_02

Well, there's so many aspects to that question, depending on so I I'll if we're sticking on that sort of the data path, there's a lot of systems that keeps everybody sharp. There's they become, as you're saying, Sean, like everyday habits. So as we think about data, there's data quality standards. I mentioned some before. We have we have quality standards

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SPEAKER_02

that we follow. We have processes. I mean, it gets very particular, right? So even like if there's a change in data or there's a data error made, we have a we have a process for how that should be handled. And that the the mistaken data would be lined through with a single line, but not obscure the entry. The corrections written right there, it's dated, it's initialed. There's a there's a process for every aspect of how we collect data, how we how we record data, whether it's handwritten as in this example, or whether it's entered electronically. There's methods too, not just for the data itself, but how you collect it, the process of how we consent people for for participation in clinical trials. So the team is absorbed in all these processes. There's ongoing training and and it becomes habit day-to-day.

Roy Richardson

So that's how we do it. And what you're describing is is as a parallel to what we focus on here at Aurora InfoTech, you know, and cybersecurity when we help organizations innovate and move fast without ever putting trust that you know that they've earned, right? And so repeating processes, making sure that it becomes muscle memory, but not only focusing on the technology, but also the training aspects of it and the human aspects. But I digress.

SPEAKER_00

Let's do some rapid fire here, Jeff. One book you gift most and why?

SPEAKER_02

Uh Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Porris. Old book, man, it's it's been out a while now, but it's probably one of my favorite business books because it talks about building enduring great companies and their guiding philosophies, their core values, setting big goals. So I like that. I've always found that inspirational, and I like sharing that with others. So built to last, I would say that's one I gift the most. Most recently, we provided our team with the Measure What Matters by John Doerr, which is about goal setting, you know, objectives and key results.

SPEAKER_00

So um, favorite place to think big? Is it the lake, your office, at home, or on a flight?

SPEAKER_02

At the lake or anywhere outdoors that's big and open. I like to be up high and like on a mountain, on the lake. Like I feel like it's easier to think big thoughts when you're in a big arena. I I like I don't like the walls, I don't like to be enclosed in a flight in an airline, or I like to be like somewhere that's spacious.

SPEAKER_00

What's the most overrated buzzword in healthcare right now? And not AI.

SPEAKER_03

No. AI is overused everywhere.

SPEAKER_02

Um in healthcare, patient centricity. I think if you have to tell people that you're patient-centric, then that's a sign that you definitely are not. So it you know, it's like it's used as a default marketing term, and like it's without any substantive changes to the patient experience. And so, like, come on, be real about it. And it's not patient patient centricity is overused.

SPEAKER_00

And what's the habit that makes tomorrow easy today?

SPEAKER_02

Planning and execution.

SPEAKER_00

And finally, this is a cool one, I think. Uh water ski. Is it slalom trick or jump? Jump. Okay.

SPEAKER_03

I like them all, but jump's my favorite.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right.

unknown

Yeah.

Roy Richardson

So, Jeff, you you talk about work life, not as balance, but alignment. Tell us what does alignment actually look like when you're running a heavy ops multi-site research business?

SPEAKER_02

Well, being an entrepreneur is a nonstop 24-7 effort. So there's a certain blending of work and life. Like you, it's not like you go home and the business just shuts off. Like it's always on. And so if you're an entrepreneur leading that, like that's the life you've committed to. And that's why I don't see it as a balance between them when people talk about work-life balance. I don't like the idea of a balance because it implies that you're trading one off for the other. And so I think of it more as alignment, like everything working together in unison, each part supporting the other. And I it might sound counterintuitive, but you can't really succeed in one area until you succeed at least to a certain level in everything. So, for example, if you don't get enough sleep, you're not going to be effective at work. And if you're not effective at work, you're not taking care of your family. And everything sort of intertwines. So I see it that way, and I just try to think of it as being aligned. It's just the idea of work-life balance just doesn't resonate with me. So I think the biggest aspect of being aligned is is really being engaged and and present in what you're doing at the moment. So that's that's the way I think about it and like to approach it because there's not a lot of work-life balance as an entrepreneur, but you can you can achieve some alignment though.

SPEAKER_00

Cool, cool. Uh now tell us about a meaningful connection. You you mentioned um the great Harvey Massey earlier, uh, but maybe a mentor, maybe your spouse, um, a business partner. I was at the opening of your your complex there, and you talked about your business partner. But who really shifted the way you make decisions? What changed for you because of that relationship?

SPEAKER_02

There's a lot. I think there's so many people along the way that serve as mentors or that give examples, little lessons here and there, new insights, new ways of successful communication or leadership. So, you know, I try to take examples of small lessons I observe and that that I can use to change how I manage things that I either want to emulate or things that I want to avoid. My wife is, you know, I we met at Rollins College, and she's always been someone who's really courageous with questions and with like she doesn't shy away from confrontation. Um, so I remember being when we were students together at Rollins, we were in a mathematics class together, and the professor was explaining some new concept, and she raises her hand, so everyone turns to look at her, and he he calls on her, and she just says, I don't get it. And it's like there wasn't a question there, you know, and there was kind of a chuckle in the room, but I was like, it takes guts

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SPEAKER_02

to ask a question and to like move your knowledge forward and just acknowledging, like, I don't get it. Like everyone else, no one else in the room was understanding what was going on either.

SPEAKER_03

But they didn't no one else would say it.

SPEAKER_02

And she just like, hey, like you got to go over that again because nobody here gets that. So I think part of that is like having you know, the leadership lesson is like, you know, having the courage to not really care what others think about you and to have conviction in what you believe in. And honestly, a lot of other people are gonna thank you for it later. Like, people are coming up to her after class, being like, thanks for saying that, because I had no idea what was going on in there. So I like I like people that are courageous, and maybe that's part of you know how you know my wife and I connected. It's she's she's a great, she's really courageous about that. I can I can share with you one other story that's completely different. I I remember in my previous business, I learned a lesson about keeping sales simple. So my former business was collision automotive collision repair, and I was working in a sales role. We were we were making sales presentations to our customers, and the sales manager and I were meeting with a general manager at his place of business to close a sale. And I had done all the work with this customer up to that point, talking to him about the equipment. He was going to buy a big bunch of equipment from us. And so I knew we were close to getting assigned purchase order for what would eventually become the largest sale in our company's history. And so the sales manager and I had a conversation with the customer. We're in his office talking, right? And we're at his desk, he's behind his desk, and our the sales manager and I are on the other side, and we're talking. He has the printed purchase order in front of him on his desk, and he's ready to sign it. He has the pen like in his hand and is like, he's leaning forward, he's he's got the pen like a quarter inch from the paper. He's just about ready to sign on the line, and he stops and he just hesitates and he looks up, and the pen kind of pulls away from the paper, and he says, Hey, what about the training? And and I went, Oh my goodness. Like in my head, I'm instantly thinking about the product training. And I had gone through all sorts of things with him about the product and ensuring he knew and understood our product and how it how it compared and was better to our than to our competitors, every imaginable topic on that. But I'd completely forgotten to tell him about the training. So in my head, I'm thinking, oh no, like because our training, there was a lot of training that comes with this product. Very detailed training that lasts several days, covers the the product use in detail. It's hands-on training in the shop with a full-time team member with years of experience. It's a there's a big part. And I I'm like, how did I forget to tell him all this? Like, we're never gonna close this sale without this. I need to unpack

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SPEAKER_02

this. I I've got to make a big presentation right now. And so I thought about all these details, and I'm thinking, like, where do I start? And before I can get a word out, the sales manager goes, he just waves his hand. Oh, all that's included. And and and the general manager said, Oh, okay. And he signed the purchase order. It's just like that. And so here I was, like thinking about how to make a giant presentation. And the the man I was with who had a lot more sales experience than I did, he he answered it in three words. He said, All that's included. And and I thought about that later. I was like, man, if I were to sum up this giant presentation that I'm envisioning in my head that I never gave, that would have been a perfect summary of it. All that's included, because it was. And so, you know, in many cases, the fewer words, the better. And so he answered in three words, the customer accepted it, and we walked out with the largest sale we'd ever made.

SPEAKER_00

Got it. Well, look, you had started it with I, then I'm asking you like we made.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I have to, it was definitely we. Because I I I might have messed that up, Sean, if if uh Eric weren't there to save me.

Roy Richardson

But but it's a it's amazing on times how we can, you know, how our our mind will would just take us down that path where overthinking things, you know, we we go on this this big thoughtful journey when you know the solution to the problem is is literally three words, right? That that would would solve it in close. Right. Yeah so interesting. Let's go big for a moment. And I asked this question to every one of our guests, and you know, Sean and I, this is a an exciting moment for us because we're we're building competitive boards here. So if you were building your dream board of advisors, anyone from any era, who makes that list for you and what would each of them add to your journey?

SPEAKER_02

I've heard you ask this question to previous guests, and it's a hard question. It's a great question. Um, so I've had opportunity to think about this. So there's four people that I admire that I think would be excellent on a board of advisors. So are the two of you competing for the best board here? Is that what I heard, Roy?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I won a I won a long time ago, so let's just be real.

SPEAKER_02

So I I would put Jim Collins would be one, the author of uh Built to Last that I mentioned earlier. I like his focus on research-based, timeless principles of organizational greatness. And so I think his guidance would be really valuable and love to work alongside him. Number two for me would be Warren Buffett. He's really focused on, yeah, I like his, I mean, he's obviously such an incredible investor, but has a focus on high quality operations like over the long term and on keeping an even temperament, you know, even during times of adversity. And I think he'd just be a really sound advisor through pretty much any business situation. And my last two, Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, would be I like the you know, the customer service training that that he's led and focus on people and consistency and just excellence in operations. So I put Truett on the board, and my fourth one is Philip Crosby, the author of Quality is Free. Yeah? Yes. Like, who is this? He he's actually he's actually local here, Sean. He so Philip Crosby, he he lived in Winter Park. You might know the Crosby YMCA. It was torn down a few years back, but it was there was a Crosby Y named it named after him. So he wrote a book called Quality is Free. And he was one of the leaders of sort of the quality revolution years ago, like you know, when the Japanese were really beating the United States in terms of quality and in automotive. And he he was a leader in that in quality management and popularized a performance standard of zero defects and an emphasis on doing it right the first time. And I've always liked you know his work and his his thinking on that because I like high quality stuff. And so I like I like a quality champion like Philip Crosby. Interesting.

Roy Richardson

That's uh I would say that's a that's a powerful board, uh, very powerful. And I would I would say what what do you say, Sean? That would that would rank up there and and probably top three, right?

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

Uh top three? Are you guys the top two? At least you didn't give us I gotta find out who's on your board that beats mine.

Roy Richardson

At least he didn't give us some uh Steve Jobs. Steve's been on many, many boards. I mean, like there's you know, tw at least 20, 20 out of the 26 boards already. So right. Uh you got very creative. Really?

SPEAKER_02

You got some good ones.

Roy Richardson

Really?

SPEAKER_02

So I haven't so wow, that's uh Steve Jobs is on 20 out of 26. You're keeping track, you're gonna you're gonna have stats on who people want on that board.

Roy Richardson

Yeah, it's all about the data. Yep. Awesome. Hey Jeff, that's powerful stuff, and you know, those kinds of relationships and the way they shape who we become as leaders, they're the things that you know you can't always capture in a bio. And it actually sets up the perfect place to go next because one of the things our listeners love about this show is hearing the practical wisdom that comes out of journeys like yours. So let's shift into that. Let's talk about the lessons you've learned, the advice you pass on, and the things you wish someone had told you earlier. Sean?

SPEAKER_00

What are the three most valuable pieces of advice that you'd pass on to other leaders? And even more importantly, what's the story or moment behind each that made it stick for you?

SPEAKER_02

Uh the first one I'd say is start now. Anything you think you can do or believe you can, like start it. You know, there's no shortcuts to any place worth going. You know, it you're never gonna regret having started right away, but you might regret having waited. Mark Twain says the secret to getting ahead is getting started. And and I love that quote. And and so for me, it's like start now. Two

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SPEAKER_02

words, go, like let's go. And I like it too, because it's action-oriented, you know, it's like there's a bias for action in those words, and that appeals to me. So I think it's it's great advice. You can learn a lot from doing market research, but the best market research is a purchase order. Like, can you go sell something? Like, that's you don't need a lot of market research if you have orders in your hand. So start now. That's that's my first one. I guess the second would be don't be afraid to fail. Or I would phrase it, rephrase it this way: do it like you don't care if you're going to fail. I learned that actually from a coach that I was come this see, everything comes back to water skiing at some point. So I was I was I was water skiing and and a coach, I was I was working on a water ski trick ski pass. In water skiing and competitive trick skiing, you have two passes each 20 seconds long to do as many tricks as you can. So you want to land each trick and go very quickly into the next one so you can get as many as you can in time. And so I was working on my on my runs for competition. I was doing them, standing up the runs, getting through all the tricks, and and he said, Okay, Jeff, like that looks good, but it just looks cautious. Like he was he wanted, he was trying to get me to go faster. He says, just do them again like you don't care if you're going to fall. And that kind of clicked with me, and it was just about like having the confidence in what you're doing, and even above confidence, just a conviction, like to take appropriate and bold risks. And, you know, be comfortable with the potential for failure and just be like, I don't care. I I'm aware of the risks and I know I can do this and I'm going. And so his words have always stuck with me. And of course, they applied in that moment to water skiing, but I've used it in business too, is to do it like you don't care if you're gonna fail. Of course, you do care, but there's a there's a spirit in there that's like, don't be afraid of it. Like, let's go. Another action-oriented one, I guess.

SPEAKER_00

Take away the guardrails. That's right, that's right. I just I just gotta I just gotta chime in and say, hey, you like the way we use stick, how you made it stick? You know, isn't that isn't that like when you're doing your water ski jumps, you're sticking it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so you don't have to stick it in jumping. Like as long as you land and ski away, um, it counts. Even if you crash all over the place and lose a ski, if you can, if you can hang on to the handle and ski away on one ski, they give it to you.

SPEAKER_03

So no style points, it's just pure distance.

Roy Richardson

Yeah, I was gonna say, I was gonna say either when you're landing.

SPEAKER_02

So you're well, hopefully you land on your skis and take that bone jolt on your skis and you know, not on your head.

Roy Richardson

That's true. That's true. Hey, so Jeff, for for younger operators who are out there who, you know, are listening to your story and are inspired by the journey that you've had, what's the the one skill you think they should focus on building this year? And what's a real project or situation where they can actually practice it?

SPEAKER_02

I think you know, it depends on on the person and and the situation that they're facing. I think the the advice that can be applied broadly to young people in in their careers is to dive into whatever you're doing, whatever the opportunity is in front of you, dive into it in a deep way. There's opportunity to learn. Like you want to, whatever the opportunity is, like really go after it, give it 100%, dive into it, learn it really well. If you're working toward a successful outcome, even if you fail to achieve it, you will learn a lot. And hopefully you succeed. If you fail, you're gonna learn and you can apply that, those learnings to your next attempt. And so, you know, success is often sort of a series of failures to get to success. So I would I would just encourage, you know, if I was speaking to a younger version of myself, is like, hey, just dig in and like do everything you can and every opportunity you can, like go after it and apply yourself 100% because it's more fun and you learn more when you're going hard.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Jeff, let's peek around the corner a bit, Roy.

Roy Richardson

Yeah, so looking ahead, what does success look like 10 years from now, both for charter research and for you personally?

SPEAKER_02

For charter research, we're focused on on growth. I I guess you can maybe from some of the advice that appeals to me that I'm sharing with others, like I like doing things big and I like growth. It's important to us to make a big difference. Our mission is to advance medicine for healthier lives. And so the more people we can touch, the more patients that can be involved in clinical trials helps us move science and move medicine forward. And so we're focused on ways to do that that are meaningful and significant on a large scale that can really contribute. We're a small player in a large industry. And if we can become a bigger player and make a bigger contribution, that appeals to me. And so try to research 10 years from now. We're, you know, we're making investments now in technology and in tools that can help improve our teams. We're we're focused on improving and strengthening our systems, especially around patient engagement. So As we work on that, it's going to create opportunities, you know, for the company to continue to grow. We'll open more locations. We've talked to our team about 10 years from now, having today we have three sites. Our goal is to have 10 sites in 10 years. And so we're going to continue to expand with more locations. And that gives us the opportunity to work together as a team. Streamlined operations for new trial startup, but also the ability to reach broadly to lots of patient populations and bring that into bring that into reality. So our focus is on growth, adding locations, adding technology, just continuing to get better at what we do. I was with a focus on advancing medicine for healthier lives. For me personally, that's just more fun trying to work to build and help organize and lead people to do that. So that's where, you know, I'm focused more. I mean, for me, like the company I mean is sort of like the same goal. Like I'm excited about working toward that vision. And so I guess that's my personal goal as well.

Roy Richardson

Awesome. And speaking of technology, when you look at where AI and modern trial designs are headed, where do you think they're going to make the biggest, most meaningful difference in the patient's experience?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, the patient experience probably in the diagnosis. I mean, if I step back some, like we we work, our work is on the forefront of science. And so broadly as an industry, the use of advanced computing and artificial intelligence can speed up the development timeline of new medicines. And so I think there's potential that artificial intelligence is probably going to alter clinical trials, I hope, by helping bring new products to market faster. And I'm definitely not an AI expert, but it's clear we're in the early stages of the technology. When I use AI, I often feel like I have a well-educated, like 20-year-old assistant that's writing me a summary of the data, you know? And but but the data summary is being written under time pressure without thorough research. So it's going to be well written, but it might be wrong. Yeah. And so

Resilience Planning And Going Debt Free

SPEAKER_02

that's sort of like how I feel, how I feel AI is. But I expect that to change as the technology develops, and it's probably going to change shockingly fast, like as we look at how things are going. So when you think about what jobs will change with AI, it's clear that certain jobs, primarily knowledge work, will be the first to change and change most dramatically. I mean, physical labor is harder to automate. You know, AI isn't going to reshingle a roof, but it can write a paper to summarize clinical trial results. So in my industry, I mean, I artificial intelligence isn't going to replace our clinical work. I mean, it's it's human. It's it's humans serving humans. But artificial intelligence could be used to more quickly aggregate and summarize clinical trial results from across sites globally to spot trends, identify anomalies, maybe recommend next iterations on medications. So there's certainly areas that we're going to be seeing it change. So I guess getting back to what you asked about the patients, probably the AI is going to assist with getting an accurate diagnosis more quickly. And in terms of clinical trials, matching people to write trial more quickly. So I think from a patient perspective, that's where they'll see it. Yeah, I hope they'll see it because that has a real human benefit.

SPEAKER_00

Got it. Final final question. You've you've said before, if you could go back and change one thing, you'd simply start sooner. What do you think that would have unlocked for you or for the charter if you had started sooner?

SPEAKER_02

Time gives you the opportunity to build and grow. And so if you start sooner, you you you give yourself more time to compound your efforts. You know, the everything that we're doing today at Charter Research is built on what we did last year and the year before that, and the year before that. And we're in the next phase of the growth of our business. If we had started sooner, could we have gotten to where we are today a year ago or two years ago? And like so I think it allows you to I think of it in terms of compounding. And you know, if you're building a building and you're laying bricks, like you just you get more bricks in there, it's a stronger foundation. Great things happen over time. So starting soon is always good.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Jeff, man, fantastic, fantastic, fantastic time. Um, getting to talk to you in this kind of setting versus at a networking event or over call for your lunch really lets me see the depth of your mission and what you've driven at at Charter. The compassion you bring to clinical research, the clarity in how you lead, and the way you honor the families behind the data that you have accumulated and that you share with your sponsors. It all showed up today in such a powerful way, man. I've known you for a while and I've always respected how steady, thoughtful, and people-oriented or people-centered that you're. You know, we talked about this uh when I heard you speak at ACG last year, and I was like, I got to get you in front of these CEOs. But hearing the full arc of the journey just took that respect to another level for me. And I've learned a few things I probably should have already known. So thank you for sharing your heart and the real why behind what you all do at Charter Research.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Thanks, Sean. That's kind words. I I appreciate it. It's it's fun connecting with you guys.

Roy Richardson

Yeah, Jeff, what an incredible conversation. Uh, today we really got to explore the human side of clinical research, the compassion, the rigor, the mission, all through the lens of a leader who's turning science into hope for families. We talked about purpose, resilience, operational courage, and what it means to steward not just data, but real people's health stories. And Jeff, hearing how your personal connection to Alzheimer's shaped your path, that really hits home. Your journey from operational leadership to co-owning a multi-site research organization and your commitment to

Closing Reflections And How To Connect

Roy Richardson

educating the community reminds us that innovation just doesn't happen in labs. It happens in relationships and trust and everyday decisions your team make. Even the ones made before coffee kicks in. I I forgot to mention that we we even took a a little bit of a side step today and we journey through the sound of music. So, you know, thank thank you for your transparency, your leadership, and and the heart you bring to this work. To learn more about the studies underway, how to participate, or how charter is advancing the future of medicine, visit charterresearch.com or connect with Jeff on on LinkedIn. And we'll we'll have both links in the uh in the show notes below. And for our listeners, if you've ever had a loved one touch by Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or any condition where clinical trials offer a path forward, remember progress happens because leaders like Jeff and organizations like Charter give people the chance to be part of that future. Jeff, thanks again for being with us today.

SPEAKER_00

And to our audience, thank you for tuning in to the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. And until next time, stay curious, stay driven, and keep leading with purpose.

Roy Richardson

Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Are you a business owner or leader of a successful business? If yes, we'd love to have you as a guest in our program. Our goal is simple: we provide a platform for leaders to share their experiences to benefit others. We want to hear your story, how you get started, the challenges you face along the way, and your passion today. If this sounds like you or you know someone who fits these criteria, then be sure to get in touch with us by visiting the website linked in the episode description below. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell to be notified when our next episode goes in live. Or if you're ready to listen to us during your commerce, you can also follow us on your favorite audio channel using your podcast. Thanks again, and remember, keep crushing it.