Independent Insights, a Health Mart Podcast

Episode 16: Creating Pharmacy’s Future

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The Future Is Now: APhA President Randy McDonough on Leading Change in Independent Pharmacy

What does the future of independent pharmacy look like—and how do we get there?

In this powerful episode of Independent Insights, APhA President and Health Mart pharmacy owner Randy McDonough joins McKesson Health Mart’s Chief Pharmacist Nancy Lyons for a candid conversation about the urgent changes needed in pharmacy—and the bold vision that can lead us forward.

Randy shares his frontline perspective as both a national leader and a practicing owner.

Whether you’re a pharmacist, technician, or pharmacy owner, this episode will leave you inspired, informed, and ready to take action. Tune in and be part of the movement to redefine the role—and the value—of independent pharmacy in healthcare.

Host
Suzanne Feeney, PharmD
Senior Director, Pharmacy Solutions
McKesson/ Health Mart

Guests
Randy McDonough, PharmD, MS, BCGP, BCPS, FAPhA
President, American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and Health Mart Pharmacy Owner

Nancy Lyons, BSPharm, MBA, CDCES
Vice President, Chief Pharmacy Officer
McKesson/ Health Mart

Resources
Health Mart Pharmacies can access Health Mart University (HMU) for: 

  • Helpful CE courses, advanced trainings, and more 
  • Health Mart pharmacists to claim their CE credit for weekly Gamechanger episodes  


The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of Health Mart, McKesson or its affiliates or subsidiaries ("McKesson”). The information provided herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute the rendering of clinical, legal or other professional advice by McKesson.

[00:00:00] 

Suzanne: Welcome to Independent Insights a Health Mart podcast focused on independent pharmacy. My name is Suzanne Feeney and I'm a pharmacist and senior director of Pharmacy Solutions at McKesson Health Mart. So one of the key themes of this podcast is always idea sharing, and I'm especially excited to be coming to you live from ideaShare 2025 in Nashville. And I have a really powerful episode for you this month.

Are you looking for ideas to grow independent pharmacy and make a greater impact in your community? Look no further. Welcome to Independent Insights, the podcast brought to you by Health Mart. Episodes delve into a wide range of topics to provide you with the practical strategies, expert insights, and inspiring stories to help you and your pharmacy excel.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the guest and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Health Mart, McKesson, or its affiliates and subsidiaries (“McKesson”). [00:01:00] The information provided is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute clinical, legal, or any other type of professional advice from McKesson.

Pharmacists are expected to exercise reasonable care as dictated by legal and professional standards and are ultimately responsible for decisions related to patient care and medication management. It is your responsibility to review and comply with all applicable state and federal laws, rules, and regulations governing your business operations. This includes laws applicable to businesses in general, those pertinent to employers, and those specifically regulating the practice of pharmacy.​

Suzanne: So we have with us APhA, president and Health Mart pharmacy owner, Randy McDonough. And Randy, how many pharmacies do you own now? 

Randy: Eight. 

Suzanne: Eight. oh, I got it right. Eight. Finally. It's sinking in. Awesome. And we also have with us Chief Pharmacist for Health Mart, Nancy Lyons. 

Nancy: Hello. 

Suzanne: See my new boss, [00:02:00] so I'll be on best behavior for today's podcast . We do wanna have a generally candid conversation with all of you about the urgent changes that are impacting and needed in pharmacy and the bold vision that can really lead us forward.

So Randy's going to share his frontline perspectives as both a national leader and a practicing pharmacist. And with that I'll go ahead and kick us off. But first I do wanna know a little bit how's your experience been so far at the show, Randy, minus the flight mishaps. 

Randy: Minus the flight mishap. So I got in about two in o'clock in the morning.

Suzanne: That's how dedicated you are to being here.

Randy: But I was on meetings all morning, so I just got a chance to walk around and see all the sites and everything. So I'm looking forward to the full experience tomorrow.

Suzanne: Absolutely. And you're not teaching any CEs this year? 

Randy: I am. 

Suzanne: Oh, you are? Yeah. Yeah, that's right. You were on a panel. 

Randy: I'm on a panel, and then I'm also doing a Pharma talk, and then I'm gonna be on the stage with Nancy then too. 

Suzanne: So just a light week here for you? 

Randy: Just a light week. Yeah. 

Suzanne: And Nancy, how about you? What's your initial impressions at ideaShare? 

Nancy: The energy is incredible. Dolly's Pharmacy, Main [00:03:00] Street, all of the vendors, all of the customers just asking questions, getting solutions to the problems that they have. 

Suzanne: A hundred percent. I just am so inspired all the time. It's really fun to meet all the pharmacy, health mart pharmacies that I know and colleagues here, and just really leave feeling inspired.

And that's what today's session is about. Randy, your theme for the year as APhA President: Create Your Destiny. I love that I have my black notebook with that every day, and it keeps me grounded and inspired as to why I'm doing what I'm doing. But for you, walk us through how you came up with that message. I know it reflects your personal journey, for sure. When I heard that theme, I was like, this is Randy. But tell us why and how you came to that. 

Randy: No, I appreciate the question. As you said, it's been probably my theme for my whole life. So when people kept saying, what is your theme? I wasn't sure what it was going to be. And then it was actually at an APhA board meeting and I started talking to people about, we gotta take responsibilities for our own career. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: And I also talked to people saying, society does not owe us a [00:04:00] living. It's up to us to demonstrate our value to society. And I still think pharmacists are striving to do that.

So it came to me, during that discussion at the board that really it's about we, as individuals, have to create our own destiny, we have to take charge of our careers. We can't expect our organizations, we can't expect our associations, we can't expect others to be the ones who say, here's what you're gonna do.

We need to take control of that. And I felt you know what? That's what my theme should be about. 

Suzanne: I love that because, wherever you look in any walk of life, there's barriers, there's roadblocks that are gonna pop up. It's never gonna be smooth sailing. So taking control, doing what you can with the situation feels like a lot of what I tell my kids every day. Maybe some of that came from your parenting expertise too. 

Randy: Absolutely. 

Suzanne: I love it. Nancy, how does this theme resonate with the work being done at Health Mart pharmacies nationwide? 

Nancy: It starts because customers like Randy are inspiration. And so all of the work to drive the profession forward, every time we go and look at a new solution, it's always with the customer [00:05:00] at the forefront.

Is this gonna work for them? Is this gonna be cost effective for them? Are they gonna care? And how do I have the conversations with the 4,300 plus CEOs who know their business better than any of us? And we really have to always hone into the listening first, which is part of McKesson ideaShare and where can we put solutions?

Randy just said that associations can't do it for any of us. As a pharmacist, I believe that completely, but I also think whenever we can leverage resources that are available, come together as communities come together as a profession. The one home with APhA. We have to leverage what we have in front of us.

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: If I can add to that too, Suzanne, and I totally agree, Nancy, so I appreciate you saying that. So what I, when I tell, talk about that, I'm like, I don't wanna rely on McKesson or APhA or any other organization 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: To figure it out for me. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: But I want them to provide me with the tools with the [00:06:00] experiences that's gonna help me be successful in what I'm doing. And then having meetings like this always is energizing, right? Because you feed off of each other that way and you listen to the innovators, the people are doing some things. It's very cool to see that. When I say it, it's not to say that I don't believe the role of the other organizations. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: I just want people to understand that you can't worry about someone coming in to save you and save your practice.

That's still up to you to do that. 

Suzanne: Yeah, it really is. And what works in one practice may not work in another. Different communities, different settings. So it's important to prioritize, find out what works for you, and then like you said, go take those key tools and resources from partners and implement them. 

Randy: Absolutely. 

Suzanne: So one of your key tenets is about challenging the status quo. And anybody who knows you, knows that is your motto, right? I think if you had a tattoo, it might be that. So what are some of the more specific areas you believe disruption is most needed?

And how can independent pharmacies lead that change? 

Randy: Yeah, that's a good question. I've been doing a lot of thought about that more recently because I'm still [00:07:00] frustrated as far as what I see what's happening in practice, how people still are not valuing what we do. The fights I'm having at the national level, at the state level, at the local level, trying to get people to see our value, pay for our value and everything else.

And I start thinking, why? Why is that still out there? Why is that still a fight? And I realized that, I've always believed that pharmacists, regardless of practice setting, should be practicing at the top of the license as a clinical practitioner. And I still think we need to challenge that status quo out there, because I don't think we've quite reached that yet.

And I've had a lot of meetings. I think Nancy's heard me speak about this, in 2016, which is the most recent numbers we have there was a study that was done where it's indicated we spent $528.4 billion on inappropriate medication use in this country. 

Suzanne: Wait, $528- 

Randy: $528.4 billion. In that same year, in 2016, we spent $340 billion on the drug spend. That meant for every [00:08:00] dollar we spent in 2016 on the drug, we spent another $1.55 to correct the drug therapy. If you go back 20 years there was a study done by Johnson and Bootman that said it was $73 billion we spent on drug spend, and it was $76 billion that we spent on inappropriate medication use. So that was a dollar for dollar. In 2022, our drug spend was $405 billion. We don't know what the inappropriate medication use is, except we know this. Since 2016, we know that therapies has gotten more complicated, more specialty medications. We know that patients have gotten older. We know there's more polypharmacy. We know there's more chronic conditions that we have to treat. So I'm estimating that we're probably closer to $2. Every dollar we spend on drug therapy, we're probably close to about $2 that we're spending on inappropriate medication use.

We gotta challenge the status quo because if we don't take control of that, somebody else is gonna take control of that for us. And that to me is our true value statement. And it's not that we don't still have [00:09:00] a business model, but our business model should be parallel to the clinical services we provide for patients.

And I've been yelling this from the mountaintop for so long, and I just want people to understand that is still your primary role. Is to be the drug therapy expert, which is our tagline at APhA. Pharmacist, the drug therapy expert. We better make sure we're using our thoughts and our knowledge and our skills to really make sure patients are optimizing their therapies.

Suzanne: Yeah. That's a whole nother podcast, Randy, that I definitely wanna dig into. 

Randy: I did go off on that.

Suzanne: But it's so true. It's what we do. We are the guardians. Not the guardians of the galaxy, but the guardians of the medication. 

Randy: And we should be, we absolutely should be.

Suzanne: Yep. And that's our role. Changing gears a little bit, but I appreciate that and I think that is quite a lot to think about. But you've always emphasized the importance of innovative practice models and looking at the things that you've tried, you're somebody who is fast to fail, learn from that, grow, change, and also just moving to the next area, right?

You can't stay stagnant and can't stay the same because times are changing. So maybe share with our listeners some of the examples of models that are working [00:10:00] well today and what innovations you're most excited. 

Randy: Yeah I think what I'm most excited about is, when Aaron, my son was graduating, I saw his entrepreneurial spirit. So I talked to my other partners and said, I know this sounds like it's unusual, but I think we should make him a full partner right after he graduates. And the whole reason why I wanted to do that is I wanted to tap into his entrepreneurial spirit and he had done a lot of cool rotations around the country that were cash-based type of practices, functional medicine on non-sterile compounding.

And I said, okay, what I wanna do is make you a full partner, but your role is to create this cash based practice. So he graduated, he was one of the COVID graduates, so he didn't have a true graduation, but it's relatively young in his career. Yeah. We poured a lot of money into that side initially.

That site now is one of the most profitable, cash based, all cash based non-sterile compounding functional medicine, and cost plus. Our gross margins repeatedly month after month is 60 to 70% gross margin. [00:11:00] Because we control both sides at that point. So I'm very excited about that model. But I think the other thing that excites me is more of the clinical services and the medical billing, what's happening in Iowa, which has already happened in a couple of other states Idaho, Alaska now New Mexico and Iowa. And there's got some others, like Tennessee I think is on the cusp, but the standards of care practice model where pharmacists are able to practice at the full ability of their license and their training, but also full scope authority. And I think that's really gonna offer us a lot of opportunities for medical billing. And I think getting pharmacists to the point of being recognized that they are a true provider, much like any other provider out there who can bill on the medical side.

I think that's the other thing that really excites me, that's gonna be a good future for us too. 

Suzanne: Yeah, those are great.

You're listening to Independent Insights, a McKesson Health Mart podcast with host Suzanne Feeney, Senior Director Pharmacy Solutions at McKesson Health Mart. And guest, Dr. Randy McDonough, American Pharmacist Association President and Health Mart Pharmacy Owner, and Nancy [00:12:00] Lyons, Chief Pharmacist, Health Mart.

Let's continue. 

Suzanne: Education and workforce development. I know you do quite a bit with your pharmacy teams and they've been really instrumental in the success of Town Crest Pharmacy over the years.

So what steps are you and the team, and I know this is probably a lot of what Kelly Kent works on but what are you taking to ensure that pharmacists and technicians are empowered to practice at that level?

Randy: I think that's a great question because I think it's, there's a challenge right now.

We've been short almost four FTEs, a pharmacist for about 18 months now. So a long period of time. And I was on a panel, which I think Nancy Raf, the National Academies of Science, engineering and Medicine. And the physician that was on the panel with me when we were doing our pre-work and getting prepared for the panel, we were both talking about how there's a shortage of primary care providers, specialist and, for other healthcare providers like pharmacy. And initially you just say it's the generational thing, right? And [00:13:00] he said, that's what I thought too, Randy. And he goes , my aha moment was, maybe it's not about the generation, maybe it's about the job.

And I started thinking about that and that was a huge aha moment for me, 'cause I'm like, you know what? They're right. People do want a better work-life balance. So how can I create a good work-life balance for them that still gives them meaning? True meaning of the position. And I think most of us went to healthcare 'cause we wanna make a difference for patients.

So we started exploring about new types of models to hire people. Okay. So we came up with an idea, it's called the 2, 2, 1. 

Suzanne: The 2, 2, 1. 

Randy: Everybody goes, what is the 2, 2, 1? I said it's catchy, first of all it people ask me about that. The 2, 2, 1 is this two days a week we're gonna have you practice in some of our more rural sites, 'cause it's unique. You have a good relationship with patients and you have a unique role as a healthcare provider who you may be the only healthcare provider in town. Two days a week you're gonna be more of our corporate area, but you have a chance to work at TWA, which is our cash based practice. You have a chance at our long-term care closed- door pharmacy and you have a chance to be in our community pharmacy.

We're doing a lot of clinical things. And then one [00:14:00] day a week, it's not a free day, but it is a flexible day. 

Suzanne: Oh. 

Randy: And that day is you take your passions along with what we're trying to accomplish from a practice, and you get to use that time to help us achieve those goals and help you achieve your passions. And so I was very fortunate because when I came up with the idea, I started recruiting and I had gone to a national meeting and was telling people I was recruiting for an individual, she's starting on Monday. She's coming from Palm Beach Atlantic residency.

Suzanne: Wow. 

Randy: And she's got family that lives in St. Louis and 

Suzanne: Okay. 

Randy: Her grandma lives in Southern Minnesota. So it's a straight line. So I'm like, hey, we may have an opportunity. And she agreed to accept the job and she loves the idea of the two two one. 

Suzanne: I love it too. It makes so much sense.

Randy: Actually, that's one of our positions now that we're really promoting and we're looking for other things to give that work-life balance, 'cause the aha moment was, it's not generational. We didn't like not having a work-life balance. So why should we assume that everybody else just should accept it? Because that's just what you do. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: We had to look at it from a different perspective and we're excited and I think it's gonna make us stronger [00:15:00] as a practice. 

Suzanne: Yes. Yes. I love that. It's really creative. I think it has a lot of flexibility. And one of the things people want most at work is purpose, a sense of purpose that aligns with they're passionate about.

Randy: And then technicians, yeah, that was on the pharmacist side. So our technicians, we wanted to create a different type of career path for them. So you start off as a technician in training, and then in Iowa, within a year, you have to become a certified technician. We make it six months to give them some kind of cushion there, just in case. But then we said, what else can we be doing? If you could become a checking technician where you can do technician product verification, you get a pay raise for that. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: We want you to be able to do immunizations and so they can get trained in that. And so there's a raise for that. They could become a community health worker and we actually promoted one of our technicians and she's actually our manager for our long-term care.

So we create these career paths to say it's not just you become a technician. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: And it's not that you're just a technician 'cause technicians have a very important role. But you have a career path that you can go down these different roads. And get different responsibilities. So we're really excited about that too. And that's attracting us to a lot of new people.

Suzanne: Yeah. Take some [00:16:00] ownership, have some stake in what's happening. 

Randy: Absolutely. 

Suzanne: Have input into shaping your job. 

Randy: Yes. 

Suzanne: Yeah, I really like that. Yeah, that's awesome. Nancy, a follow up for you on that. How is Health Mart supporting continuing education and professional growth for the work staff? For both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians? 

Nancy: Pharmacy technicians last year's show, I think focused on that and the year before we had, a whole bunch of focus on community health worker training. McKesson is a proud sponsor of community health worker training for pharmacy technicians. Another 30 scholarships are getting released in partnership with CE Impact. That is just one of the steps though. There's tons of courses in Health Mart University, both to help them maintain if they already have either certified technician credentials and have to get those hours or just learn more, get into some of the roles. We heard one of the Health Mart Pharmacy of the Year finalists talk about having a marketing technician. 

Suzanne: Yes. 

Nancy: 'Cause they had a community health worker, so Randy, it goes right along with, they have to have a purpose, to not just show up and then [00:17:00] when they show up, they bring their full self and their passion and I want one of those job opportunities the 2, 2 1 sounds fantastic. And it's a model that I think some of this success in the past has happened. 

Suzanne: Yep. 

Nancy: Where others, they didn't have the catchy names. I'm not surprised. You have a catchy name for it and it's innovative and you've sold it as well as you have. But now I wanna see the outcomes because you're gonna build something for the future like you've done your entire career. Showing us a pathway that works, no matter the practice setting, but to drive community pharmacy practice forward. Pharmacists, we do the same. We have immunization training, all those foundational skills they can find in Health Mart University and my team is inside the door in McKesson ideaShare right now asking questions, having them fill out surveys. What else do you need? And we are gonna build it. We are going to bring them things faster because the time to wait is gone. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Nancy: Our [00:18:00] practice needs so much more to get to standard of care across the country. If we have the knowledge, experience, training, and desire to go after services, we need to be allowed to go after them and paid fairly for them when we provide them.

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: We are a beneficiary of the scholarships that Health Mart has provided to us and we've had three technicians have gone through that, so we're very excited. So thank you. 

Suzanne: That's amazing. 

Randy: The support that you've given us, so that's very exciting. 

Suzanne: It is. I'll take a little detour here, but with community health workers, knowing that you have three at your pharmacy, Randy, can you talk a little bit about, what does their day to day look like in the pharmacy?

Randy: It's evolving. That's a good question because we're still trying to figure out 

Suzanne: Yeah, that's what I hear. How do it sounds like a great idea, but how do I use 

Randy: Yeah, we're actually, we're really excited because we're gonna be part of a national program that's from CMMI. But we're gonna be working with patients with dementia.

And, how do we help keep them at home? And so we're trying to figure out now how can we use our technicians, not just as a community health worker who can get them connected to resources, but as a [00:19:00] navigator, right? To help them navigate through a very complicated system. So our technicians have gone through the training. We're very excited being part of that program, but we also started a pharmacy care at home program. And we don't, even though we have a closed door, long-term care pharmacy, we take care of no facilities. And people are like how do you become closed door? I'm like that was the model we went after.

But we do have about four or 500 group home individuals, patients that we take care of, but we have a growing model of our medical at home patients. So we started talking about one of our technicians who's gone through the community health worker training go and doing home visits and identifying issues before they become issues, and then connecting the patients to resources or letting the pharmacists know that we should be contacting some organizations, but again, utilize their training expertise to help us do that.

Suzanne: Yeah. Randy bringing it back to your theme of creating your destiny. A lot of times when you take this first step, you don't know what the next step is going to be, but you still jump, you still take that step. Community health worker, it's not all figured out, but you're taking that step, you're connecting it to practice, you're [00:20:00] seeing benefits.

And that to me is sometimes what's really hard to do because there is no guarantee. So talk about how you have the courage to do that in the face of this environment today, because it does shape your destiny. Of course you have a one year plan and you have a five year plan, but you also allow a lot of adaptability and risk in that. And I think a lot of us inherently as pharmacists, have a little aversion to risk. 

Randy: Yeah. 

Suzanne: So how do you find that comfort zone? 

Randy: Yeah. I've, I felt like that as I was progressing through my career, that there was something wrong with me, to be honest because I did challenge the status quo, but I told people, I said it wasn't that I wasn't afraid. So when I left my academic position, and that was almost 20 years ago now. It's almost 20 years ago I left my really nice academic position. It was a perfect job. And there was no reason for me to leave except I wanted prove the concept that this could happen.

And were you afraid? I said every single day. 'cause that's a heck of an investment. 

Suzanne: It is. 

Randy: Because I not only left a job that was very secure and well paid, [00:21:00] I left a job that provided me with benefits and I went into a job that didn't have healthcare benefits. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: I had a young family, I had to make sure that, so I had to figure that out for everybody too.

And that was scary. But then I had to figure out how do I make sure I pay off my debt to this. I gotta do it in a different way, we gotta bring in new services and new revenue to be able to do that. So I tell people every day, I was afraid, but I said the difference that I, over the years that I've read about people who have been successful, it's this.

Everybody has fear, the people who succeed don't let the fear stop them. And that was part of my tenets too, that I had with APhA, because there's a lot of voices, a lot of noise that's gonna be out there. 'cause people don't want you to succeed sometimes because if you succeed, that means, Ugh. That means it can happen.

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: And so I had a lot of noise where people were like, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. You gotta believe in yourself. You gotta dig deep, shut out the noise, and then go after what you believe in. But have a plan. People think I just go off the cuff. I'm like, no.

It's just that I, when I pull the switch, it goes fast. 

Suzanne: It [00:22:00] does. 

Randy: But I've done a lot of thought in advance of that. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: I'm saying, this is how we're gonna roll this thing out. So when people see all these things that we're doing, I said, this didn't happen overnight. This was months and months of thought, planning, and putting a process together. 

Suzanne: And you have the team that challenges you. You have a lot of trust in your business partners. You guys have been together for a very long time. And they're not afraid to push back, and I think having that kind of treasure trove of people around you to bounce ideas off of to really challenge you and then allows you to see it from all sides, it's critical.

Randy: Yeah. Totally agree. 

Nancy: And if I can add just one thing too, I think I've seen you also not be afraid to fail and when things weren't going, not be afraid to pull the plug. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Nancy: And that no sacred cows kind of approach. It is what has made you and your team so successful. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: I appreciate that. And I totally agree.

I tell people all the time, I was like, I've learned more in my failures than I have in my successes, which made me better the next time. 

Suzanne: Yes. 

Randy: And sometimes it's just the timing of [00:23:00] everything , 'cause I think about how everybody is getting the employer groups and having them pay for services. I could tell you back in the day, when I was at Main and Locust, that door was shut so many times, but I'm a patient guy, it's just the timing. It's the timing. And now you're seeing that come back.

Suzanne: Yeah. That's really true. Maine and Locust. I remember being at APhAs at some 20 something fresh outta school and I need to get those worksheets that guy from Maine and Locust has if I can do those services in my pharmacy.

Randy: Yeah. I've got a funny story about Suzanne. So Suzanne and I were working on a program called Make Every Encounter Count. And so she and I were talking about marketing strategy. She goes, Hey, there's this really good paper. She goes, I can't remember who the author is. I go, what? What's it about? She goes, it's called personal selling. I'm like, Ooh, that sounds interesting. I said, just look it up. And so she's looking up and it's, it is, it was my paper.

Nancy: I knew that punchline. And it's funny, every time I hear that story. 

Suzanne: I'm turning like eight shades of red right now.

I know, like I use this with everyone. I have this reference. I just, I can't remember who wrote it. You just letting me go on.

Nancy: Perfect, [00:24:00] Randy. Perfect. 

Suzanne: But I do think, honestly, that personal selling, I know as a skillset that pharmacists can shy away from. I'm really grateful for that article early on in my career because everything you do in life is getting buy-in, selling it to yourself.

It's just that whole process is important.

Randy: I teach that process. I still teach at Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy when I give them a shout out. And I've done it since 2019. So I've been doing it for a number of years now. And I teach innovation and entrepreneurship as an elective, but I also teach their required pharmacy management course.

And I do talk about personal selling 'cause I'm want them to understand, maybe we shouldn't use the word selling. It truly is just good personal one-on-one communication skills. 

Suzanne: Yep. 

Randy: And what you find out with those pharmacists who can do that well, and sometimes it comes naturally for people, but doesn't have to be, you can be taught the questions, those pharmacists and those technicians who can ask the right questions. It's amazing how you just change the whole narrative from a patient perspective where they come up with a solution that you're leading them to. 

Suzanne: Yeah. 

Randy: [00:25:00] And it's really cool to see that, 'cause it's no longer where they're saying, sell me something. It's them saying, what do you have for me that can help me with this?

Suzanne: Absolutely. 

Randy: And that makes a whole different story. 

Suzanne: Because we have a lot of things that can help, but sometimes we let our own inhibitions not show that. As we close this powerful conversation, one thing is really clear. The future of pharmacy isn't something we wait for, it's something that we create.

And you two have shown that here today. I think Randy and Nancy have really reminded us. That leadership is about action. It's about standing up for what's right, challenging the status quo, which has gotta be your tattoo. Randy, I'm holding you to it. Believing that even in the face of uncertainty, we have power to shape a better tomorrow.

So to every independent pharmacy owner, technician, and student listening, you are the heartbeat of your community. Your courage, your innovation, and your relentless commitment to care are what will carry this profession forward. So let's not wait for change. Let's be the change. Let's create our destiny together.

Thank you so much, Randy, for your time today. Thank you, Nancy, for you as well, and for our listeners on Independent Insights. Until next time, keep leading, keep learning, and keep believing in the power [00:26:00] of pharmacy.

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