The Pharmacist's Voice ® LLC

EPISODE 11: INTERVIEW WITH SUE PAUL AND MICHELLE FRITSCH, MEDIPRENEURS CO-FOUNDERS

Podcast

Mentioned in this episode:
Medipreneurs is a conference for pharmacists and healthcare entrepreneurs. https://www.medipreneurs.com, info@medipreneurs.com
Sue Paul is a pharmacist and co-founder of Medipreneurs.

Michelle Fritsch is a pharmacist and co-founder of Medipreneurs.

Anna Garrett is a co-founder of Medipreneurs.

Dan Krinsky is a Co-Founder of PGX101, linkedin.com/in/dan-krinsky-a8537a
Lisa Larter is a business coach and the 2018 and 2019 Medipreneurs keynote speaker. https://lisalarter.com, linkedin.com/in/lisalarter

Sue and Michelle are role models for pharmacist entrepreneurship. The 2020 Medipreneurs Conference in Cincinnati, OH has been postponed due to the corona virus. It was scheduled April 17-19, and a new date is yet to be determined.

Sue Paul, RPh
Sue Paul is a pharmacist, entrepreneur, and small business owner with over 20 years of experience in the industry. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati, she worked in several practice settings, including community practice, nursing home consulting, and hospital.
Sue founded SyneRxgy Consulting LLC, a concierge pharmacy service, and manages chronic disease states. Her practice sites include a physician’s office, employer worksites, and in-home patient visits. Sue adjusts medications, educates patients, implements and analyzes pharmacogenomic and nutrigenomic patient testing, and reviews and compiles current medication lists for patients. She enjoys empowering patients to take control of their health.
In 2018, Sue co-founded PGx101 with another pharmacist, Dan Krinsky. PGx101 offers pharmacists 20 hours of ACPE approved continuing education and a certificate in Pharmacogenomics (PGx). Since 2016, Sue has been using PGx in her clinic and with home patients to implement patient-centered medication modification in conjunction with their providers.
Sue is one of three Co-Founders of Medipreneurs LLC, along with Michelle Fritsch, PharmD, and Anna Garrett, PharmD. Medipreneurs is an international conference and community for pharmacy entrepreneurs. Current planning is underway for their 3rd annual conference.
Sue is active in local, state and national professional organizations. For example she is a Board Member of the Ohio Pharmacists Foundation. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and four adult children, reading, walking with friends, and brainstorming with others about action plans to get from where they are to where they want to be.

Michelle Fritsch, Pharm.D., BCGP, BCACP
Michelle Fritsch is a Purdue Pharm D. graduate with post-doctoral training in Madison, Wisconsin. She is board certified in geriatric pharmacy and ambulatory care pharmacy. Starting in 1992, Michelle has been a professor teaching pharmacists, physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and physical therapists.
She has a passion for healthy aging and education. She is a specialist in medication use in people over 60. She founded two companies: Retirement Wellness Strategies and Meds MASH, LLC, and works with a broad definition of health – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social.
Michelle is a frequent speaker, lately on topics of safe medication use, falls prevention, medical cannabis, addiction, opioid use, coordination of healthcare, retirement readiness, and the role of medication in healthy aging.
As healthcare is changing, she is also supporting entrepreneurial healthcare providers as a co- founder of Medipreneurs.

Medipreneurs started around the time Sue started her business. She was in a business mentoring group with Anna Garrett, Pharm D. They supported one another and felt the desire to create a community for pharmacists to launch a business. When Michelle joined Anna and Sue, the three came up with a conference that could support a community of pharmacists [and eventually healthcare entrepreneurs] on their respective entrepreneurial journeys. The name of the conference is Medipreneurs.

Pivots and detours are not new to the Medipreneurs conference. The first ever conference was in 2018. It was delayed from Fall 2017 to April 2018.

The “Medipreneurs Detour” is in place over a period of time instead of the Medipreneurs Conference weekend. There are “Detour Stops” where people can come to get information about Medipreneurs and where is it headed. Examples include:

  1. The Pharmacist’s Voice Podcast Episode 11
  2. Online Masterminds, which are small groups with brainstorming and conversation
  3. Webinars provided by the speakers who were scheduled for the conference.
  4. Previous attendees can share what they learned and what they achieved in other ways too.

For me, Medipreneurs was like a mastermind every hour of every day. Whether we were waiting for a scheduled program to start or chatting at the end of one, having a meal, or just bumping into one another, the Medipreneurs Conference was a place to share ideas, ask for thoughts, and get clarity.

Lisa Larter, a Professional Business Coach, was the keynote speaker at Medipreneurs 2018 and 2019. At Medipreneurs 2018, she helped me see value in services I was providing. Then, she coached me to ask if there was a budget to pay me and how to negotiate a fair price. Mission accomplished! I now earn money in place of volunteering.

The Medipreneurs Conference empowers pharmacists and healthcare entrepreneurs to see their value and so they can feel justified billing for services. Examples include smoking cessation programs, medication review services, CBD consulting, women’s health and wellness practices, business coaching, and more.

Pharmacists don’t recognize their value. We are skilled at paying attention to detail and producing precise results. Entrepreneurial life can seem counter intuitive.

Sue, Anna, and Michelle started Medipreneurs to invite other pharmacists to think outside the box and form the next wave of what pharmacy and healthcare could look like.

Michelle talked about the energy in the first conference in 2018. I drew a parallel to the opening ceremony at the Olympics. Instead of representing countries, different disciplines of pharmacy practice and business were represented.

Medipreneurs helped me funnel my ideas down to the one thing that I could move forward with.

Medipreneurs attendees can bring what they know from other industries to the conference and share with others. For example, I can share what I know about rate guides from the voiceover industry. By bringing helpful information from other industries into pharmacy, pharmacists can model best practices and apply them to their businesses, for example, developing rates for services. Pharmacists need to set rates for services and share them with other entrepreneurs so everyone can establish fee-for-service expectations. We need to stop giving everything away!

We discussed idea theft. I was afraid that if I shared my idea, it would get stolen. Michelle mentioned that she heard that concern from others too. There is plenty of work to go around. We can’t reach everyone. It’s ok for someone to take an idea and apply it to a different part of the country.

I asked, “What’s the best thing that has happened since you started Medipreneurs?” Sue said she likes to see someone pick an idea, move forward with it, and become successful. Similarly, Michelle says she enjoys meeting all the people who participate in the conference and watching them find the path to what they want to pursue.
I asked, “What’s one of the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome [with Medipreneurs]?” Sue said, “Being seen.” Branding, marketing, advertising, and getting the word out is outside of her comfort zone. For Michelle, it has been the “leap of faith” and “the unknowns.” Michelle wonders, “Where is it going now? What direction is it going in now? Are we taking it in the right direction? Are we reaching the right people?”

I asked Michelle and Sue respectively about their own businesses outside of Medipreneurs. Michelle left Academia. She has a specialty is geriatrics, meaning people over the age of 60. She likes being on the young end of that and focusing on preventative medicine. Her first business is Meds MASH: Mature Adults Safe at Home. Her intention was to focus on 60-80 year-olds and delay the time until they would need assistance. In practice, her Meds MASH patients are the parents of those 60-80 year-olds, individuals in their 80’s-100’s! Her second business is Retirement Wellness Strategies, which specializes in retirement-aged men who are defined by their jobs. They struggle with retirement. That’s a very niche practice area!

Sue works with a progressive physician’s office and has expanded her services into new areas. In April 2019, her practice expanded to treating individuals with substance use disorder with MAT (medication assisted treatment). Next, she wants to run a Hepatitis C clinic and introduce PREP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) for HIV prevention. Sue also created PGX101, a course to educate pharmacists and primary care providers about the benefits of pharmacogenomics.

Sue has blossomed as an entrepreneur, and she made a great analogy between seeds and business. Medipreneurs plants seeds, so entrepreneurs can start, grow, and operate their own businesses. The conference helps nourish and water those seeds, giving the right environment for growth. It can take a while to germinate a seed and see what kind of plant the seed produces. Medipreneurs is the right place for entrepreneurs to get ideas and be among the right people to encourage growth. Really a beautiful analogy. Sue and Michelle want to see entrepreneurs blossom.

Medipreneurs advocates and educates. They advocate for healthcare entrepreneurs and changes in healthcare. They educate by sharing messages that will be important for entrepreneurs in the various stages of their entrepreneurial journeys.

To learn more about Medipreneurs, visit www.medipreneurs.com.