How to Adapt and Excel in a Fast-Changing Pharmacy Landscape

Shahida Choudhry, PharmD and owner of two pharmacies in the Tampa metro area continues to make her presence felt in our industry. It’s no secret independent pharmacy is ever-changing, sometimes by the day. Rather than resisting change, Shahida has chosen to embrace it.

In this podcast you’ll hear about new products and service offerings she’s had success with, how she leverages social media, and her takeaways from industry events like the NCPA annual conference. After listening to this podcast, you’ll come away with new strategies and tactics you can implement today.

Sponsor VO (00:03):

Founded in 1983, GeriMed continues to support independent pharmacy servicing long-term care L T C and L T C, pharmacy Medical at-home patients. Traditionally group purchasing organizations only offer clients’ contract pricing on pharmaceuticals and other products. GeriMed exceeds that tradition by offering unique pharmacy programs and resources to compliment our competitive contract pricing, including L T C A Medicare Part D Reimbursement Network. GeriMed strives to be a leader in service development by actively developing programs, resources, and tools to help improve our customer’s patient care. Find out how partnering with GeriMed can position your pharmacy for optimal growth and success, visit GeriMedgso.com. That’s GeriMedgso.com. You are listening to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.

Introduction (01:15):

This is Pharmacy Crossroads with your host community pharmacy business veteran, the road trip guy. Bruce Kneeland Community Pharmacy is at a crossroads. Pharmacy owners across the country are evolving their pharmacy businesses and making a bigger impact on their communities. Bruce talks with the most innovative community pharmacy owners, pharmacy industry experts, and people who are passionate about the business of pharmacy and its impact on community healthcare pharmacy. Crossroads is a member of the Pharmacy Podcast Network. And now here’s our host, Bruce Kneeland.

Bruce Kneeland (01:54):

Well, hello again friends and neighbors. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Bruce Kneeland with another episode of Pharmacy Crossroads, and I’m running out of fancy titles, embellishments for the guest that I have. So today I’ve got Shahida Choudhry, the proud owner of Palms Pharmacy in Florida, Southern Florida, Tampa, someplace like that, right? Shahida? And I’m going to brag on her for just a little bit. She and I did a podcast about a year and a half ago, and I had never met or heard of her. She was just recommended to me and she was kind enough to do a podcast. And then shortly thereafter, I was able to attend a trade show, the IPC Conference in San Diego where she was a presenter. And I’ve got to tell you, she captured the attention of the audience for a full hour, and I left impressed and thrilled that I’d had a chance to just interview who are on my show. So she’s back for a encore performance. Totally different agenda, but I’m proud to have Shahida Choudhry. And take a second or take a minute and tell us a little bit about who you are and where you are in your pharmacies with a plural, right?

Shahida Choudhry (03:23):

Yes. So thank you, Bruce for having me. It’s an honor to be on this podcast again with you. I mean, Bruce, you are a legend. Okay, so me chow owner of Palms Pharmacy, it’ll be about eight years in April. We’ve been open, we’ve opened our second pharmacy, one Source pharmacy about a year ago. We are an independent concierge pharmacy. Yeah, we’re in Tampa. Tampa, Bruce Tampa, Florida.

Bruce Kneeland (03:56):

And that’s great. And one of the dirty secrets is that we keep track of how many people download my podcasts, and I average about 2000. I got my report last month and they extended a little bit more than the year. And Shahida had 4,000 downloads on the podcast we did with her 18 months ago, which just blew us away. So we wanted to have her back. So the first question is, what have you done new or different at Palm’s Pharmacy in the last 18 months that you find is working for you?

Shahida Choudhry (04:37):

Well, the last 18 months have been a whirlwind for us with Covid tests and just transitioning out of that and then transitioning again with all the weight loss products and transitioning again, pivoting. There’s a lot of pivoting happening in the last year and a half, and I’m sure other pharmacy owners have pivoted twice over the last year. So just trying to find their footing really. So the new products that we have brought to the market are private label supplements. That is one of our big exciting projects that we’ve brought. So you’ll be seeing us on social media promoting our private label. So we brought in a really awesome multivitamin, iron, magnesium, and berberine to the market. So you’ll be seeing that on social media. Another big, big thing that we’ve brought to a lot of our patients is we’ve been compounding semaglutide. An oral solution is what we brought to our patients because they were on the injectables for over a year.

Shahida Choudhry (05:37):

And then when that fell off the market, as everybody knows in June, we had to pivot and offer something to those patients. So we had brought that to market and that’s been doing well for our patients. Also, the front end, since Bruce, you know how much I love the front end. I attended the Natural Product Expo a couple weeks ago here, not here, but in Philly. We met a bunch of NCPA owners and we brought a bunch of new products into the pharmacy. So in social media you’ll be seeing that as well. Really cool ones.

Bruce Kneeland (06:09):

I’m going to back up on the Natural Products Expo. I attended that once about 10 years ago, and I’ve been in the business for 50 years, been to a lot of trade shows. That was the most humongous show I have ever been to.

Shahida Choudhry (06:25):

I think I walked three miles in one day.

Bruce Kneeland (06:28):

And you saw stuff that you couldn’t imagine was available. And can you tell us a thing or two that you’ve brought back that you’re excited about?

Shahida Choudhry (06:40):

Oh, I mean, this time around, this is my second year attending, and this time around I was very selective and I knew what I wanted when going in. So one item, which I think every pharmacy should carry, since we all deal with patients with ADHD for kids, we’re bringing in this protein for children that would like to grow. It’s called True Height, and it really helps children make sure they have protein and parents are like, oh my God, my child is not growing. So this protein supplement, we have gotten great feedback from parents, and that’s a great add-on to our ADHD medications. So that is one of ’em. But we have many natural deodorants spa products. We’re private labeling gummies now. So I mean everybody, all pharmacy owners, I definitely recommend going to the natural product expo. They have one on the east coast and the West coast every six months

Bruce Kneeland (07:36):

Before our listeners get a misimpression. How big is your front end?

Shahida Choudhry (07:44):

Oh, it is so small, but we utilize our space wisely. It is what, 1800? No, 800 square feet. Sorry, 800 square feet. It’s super small.

Bruce Kneeland (07:55):

And you have turned that into an absolute magnet and personality generator for your pharmacy, right?

Shahida Choudhry (08:05):

Definitely. Definitely. We have, and we turn our products. That’s what we do. We don’t let anything sit stagnant. We always turn our products because our patients come in every month. So I want to make sure when they come in, every time they see new products and not just the old Tylenol sitting on that shelf, that’s about to expire. So we try to keep it fresh and we are offering it now on our website, so we’ll have e-commerce coming up in November.

Bruce Kneeland (08:29):

Well, and let’s flip the topic a little bit to social media and digital support. You’ve mentioned your website. Let’s start there. You’ve done something to turn it into an e-commerce site. Tell us how that works.

Shahida Choudhry (08:46):

So we’re in the process of building that site, so that should be launching November 1st. We’re adding our private label products, a bunch of supplements, and our over-the-counter products, just a great add-on to our patients getting their prescriptions. And so overnight when we are sleeping, hopefully patients are online and just looking at our stuff, but they’re great. This is a horrible segue into that, but patients have always asked us, Hey, can I just purchase it online? And we’re like, oh, you have to call us or text us. So we’ve been working on this for a while, but I think we’ve finally got it right now. Hopefully in November it’ll launch. And I’ll let you know, Bruce, so you can order stuff online for your height.

Bruce Kneeland (09:36):

And speaking about letting people know, building a great website and having a feature like that is neat, but how are you going to let people know about it?

Shahida Choudhry (09:44):

Oh, social media, you’ll be seeing me and my staff as you know, my staff, and we post crazy posts about every week. We don’t take ourselves so seriously, and I’m sure you’ve seen our posts.

Bruce Kneeland (09:55):

I remember the chili eating contest that had burned mouths and people running to get drinks of water. So I remember seeing that one.

Shahida Choudhry (10:05):

Yes, we try to stay on trend with TikTok and Instagram and all this stuff, and my staff loves it. And like I said, we don’t take ourselves so seriously. A lot of our posts don’t really are not medical and all that boring stuff. We try to stay on trend. So that’s what we do.

Bruce Kneeland (10:24):

Well, and let’s back up and talk about that. Who decided? I mean, this is a big decision. Pharmacies wrestle all the time with what their image is. Am I going to be conventional? Am I going to be clinical? Am I going to be personality driven? And you obviously decided personality driven. What was the thinking on that? I mean, that’s a big risk when you start trying to do that as a professional.

Shahida Choudhry (10:53):

I agree. We wanted to do fun and trendy posts, but then I would say in between all that, we do have a little clinical portion to it. So we are close to the edge, but I mean, we’re still serious. I make sure that I’m not in the crazy post that people still know that I’m a pharmacist and my pharmacists are doing crazy posts as well. But still, we still have our clinical and our serious side as well. But we have our young 18 to 24 year olds, and then we have our 24 to 36 year olds. So we have to hit all markets. And plus my 65 plus year olds love these posts, so everybody enjoys laughing at us, so that’s okay.

Bruce Kneeland (11:32):

Yeah, and I hear my wife talking to friends all the time about something she saw on Facebook, those little reels videos or whatever. And we’re not youngsters. I turned 76 this year and my wife’s not far behind me. I won’t disclose that age. So we’re that demographic that people think isn’t there. And we are. So are you doing the Facebook stuff totally on your own or have you got a professional person who’s helping you at all?

Shahida Choudhry (12:05):

No, we do not have any. Well, we think we’re professionals. Have you seen us? No. It’s just us. Each week we try each technician slash whoever’s here, whoever’s one of the 15, 20 people that we have here, we come up with an idea and we just roll with it. And we have one or two people that really know how to use an iPhone that knows how to edit. Listen, it’s, we keep it in house. We do not have any professionals. Professionals. How’s that?

Bruce Kneeland (12:35):

That is great. So the big difference between this year and last year is insanity struck and you opened a second pharmacy.

Shahida Choudhry (12:46):

Yes.

Bruce Kneeland (12:46):

Tell us a little bit about how you did that and is it a duplicate of yours, or are you doing something different?

Shahida Choudhry (12:56):

So this opportunity came to me about two years ago to partner with a DME company. So they are a DME company. They’re medical supplies, but they did not have a pharmacy. So when a doctor sends over a prescription for a DME, Dexcom Omnipod, that sort of stuff, they send it to the medical side, and then a lot of patients insurance are switching it to the prescription side, so medical and prescription. So they didn’t have a pharmacy to catch those prescriptions. They came to me and said, Hey, can you assist us in opening a pharmacy? I’m like, okay, let’s go. Yeah, it’s been a crazy ride. Great education. I had no idea about this side of pharmacy, but I’ve learned a lot. We’ve grown the business. We really ship deliver to the whole state of Florida now. So I think everybody should get in this side of the business. And who knew that DME companies were looking for pharmacies? So I definitely recommend pharmacies. Go ask your local DME company. Hey, who’s catching your prescriptions? When it is a pharmacy benefit, usually they send it off to the big companies. They prefer to send it over to little pharmacies, independent pharmacy, not little, you know what I mean, independent pharmacy. So it’s been working well, and we’ve been opening a year. Now,

Sponsor VO (14:17):

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Bruce Kneeland (15:09):

Well, I had a chance to visit a nice little pharmacy in Chico, California last year that the owner of the pharmacy actually owns a DME company. And it’s just a wonderful synergy between those two things. And the doctors now know they can call the pharmacy for anything, and the pharmacy can help ’em get it from the DME company. So they’ve just really become the point of contact for the prescribers in the community. It’s kind of a neat thing. So the second pharmacy, I mean, is it five miles away from you or how far away?

Shahida Choudhry (15:46):

I mean, it depends who’s driving? It can be 45 minutes, or it could be an hour and 15 minutes. So it’s about, let’s just say an hour away from us. So it’s in a different area of Tampa, but yeah, it stays busy. How’s that? It stays busy.

Bruce Kneeland (16:03):

Well, that’s great. So we’re recording this early in October. It’s my understanding that in a few days you’re going to take off for Orlando, a long trip for you from Tampa and go to the NCPA meeting. I suspect many people who aren’t listening to this podcast are the same people who aren’t going to the meeting. So we may be preaching to the choir, but take a couple minutes and tell us how and why you go to a trade show like this, and how long have you been going to trade shows?

Shahida Choudhry (16:43):

So I’ve been going since I would say 2016 since I opened the pharmacy just to see what’s out there. So since 2016, I’ve been going to NCPA for, yeah, every year now. So why I go is your question is I really enjoy the CEEs because we do all these CEEs, right? They’re new topics. NCPA, their ES are pretty cutting edge and they’re really on trend. So that is one thing. Another thing, why, a reason why I go is networking with industry leaders. I would never have met Amina before if I didn’t attend NCPA. And I can tell because Amina is a friend of mine, Amina of Avant Institute Pharmacy in North Carolina, right?

Bruce Kneeland (17:36):

Remarkable lady. So go on. What’d she teach you?

Shahida Choudhry (17:40):

So she was on stage in 2016, and I was in tears. I was like, oh my God, there’s someone out there that knows my pain. So I tell her the story that I met her in the bathroom, and I said hello to her, and she said hello back to me. And I was like, oh my God. She said hello to me. So I repeated this story to her last year and I said, oh my God, Amina, I’m just letting you know the impact that you have on pharmacy owners is just, you have no idea. She is such a trailblazer. And those are the folks that you meet at NCPA. I definitely recommend anybody that can go to NCPA. I mean, it’s just amazing all the industry leaders that are there. I mean, there’s so many, I can’t even name them. And the pre-con that’s coming up, there’s a bunch of owners there that are going to have a panel, and they’re all good friends of mine, just innovators. So everybody go to NCPA.

Bruce Kneeland (18:41):

Well, here’s my editorial comment from, as I try to persuade people to go to a trade show, the impression they have is the big successful owners go. But the little struggling pharmacists, and I argue the big successful pharmacies got there because they went to the meetings. And you would be a poster child for that. I mean, you just opened your store and you were off to NCPA within months of opening, right?

Shahida Choudhry (19:15):

Oh, definitely. And just a lot of owners are just very shy. They don’t want to talk. It’s just talk to everybody. Everybody wants to share their story. So just talk mingle, and if you have a question, just ask. Everybody’s there to help each other. And don’t be intimidated. We were all in the same boat. We’re still in the same boat.

Bruce Kneeland (19:34):

Well, it’s a big show. Do you go with any kind of a pre-planned agenda as to who you might want to see? I mean, have you got an outline, a plan?

Shahida Choudhry (19:45):

I mean, I should have a plan. I try to make a plan, but those plans, no, they never fall into place. But I mean, I do catch up with vendors and find new vendors. I mean, I do have a plan this time around because I would like to get accredited for part B as in boy billing. So I do have a plan to go find a couple vendors, and also I want to really take away a couple ideas and implement them in the pharmacy. So I’m going to go and talk to again, movers and shakers. But yes, I should make a plan and I will make a plan. Usually the day before or the night that I get there, I’ll map it all out.

Bruce Kneeland (20:21):

And a plan is nice, but exploring is nice too. I mean to find something that you didn’t know you were looking for, you looking for any kind of technology or do you think you’re set with technology?

Shahida Choudhry (20:35):

Technology? I think we’re okay with, we did sign up with Red Sail for part B, as in boy billing. We did sign up with them. Technology wise, there’s some great technologies. Ugo is one of them that I have signed up, but I will go talk to them again. Also, my staff is they’re attending the show, so there’s about six of us that are attending. So it’ll be great to hear and see what they see and how they experience it, and something that I’ve missed. So it’ll be great that they’re attending. So they’ll be there on Sunday. So if you see us with crazy T-shirts on, that’s Palms Pharmacy.

Bruce Kneeland (21:10):

Well, and crazy T-shirts back to that personality thing. And the word marketing is one of those that intrigues and frustrates me. Too many people think marketing is advertising. And the biggest part of marketing is a little bit about what you’ve talked about, deciding what your image is going to be. How are you going to convey your pharmacy to the public? And having decided that, then that opens up doors as to what you’re going to do. So you go to the trade show with crazy palms. I mean, not a whole lot of pharmacies do that, Jada. I mean, that’s a unique thing. And it reflects on the personality of your store. And I’ve been pondering a little bit about what’s important about stuff. And the thought that’s been going through my mind is feelings or what’s important. You’re in the business to help people feel better. And you do that in a number of ways. The products and services you provide help them feel better, but the way you treat people helps them feel better.

Bruce Kneeland (22:32):

And it is just a joy to see you. The listeners won’t be able to see your smile and your face and your enthusiasm, but you’ve just got that glow about you. And I drop in when I travel unexpected to pharmacies all across the country. And every once in a while somebody knows who I am. But most of the time they don’t. And they’re just sad and downtrodden. And this is a tough time in the business. And I guess I’d like to ask you for a minute, do you have any problems? Do you have, you look so happy and you’re so optimistic. Are there things that PBMs are doing to you that you hate?

Shahida Choudhry (23:23):

I mean, do you want me to cry? You want a river?

Bruce Kneeland (23:28):

Just want people to know you have a real pharmacy and that you have real issues.

Shahida Choudhry (23:33):

Oh, we have issues galore. I can name them all, but I’d rather not because everybody’s in the same boat with me.

Shahida Choudhry (23:40):

PBMs, of course, with the negative reimbursements with the DIRs that are coming up, saving to make sure the apocalypse or whatever it is that’s coming next year, got to prepare for that. So we did prepare. We do watch all of our dir, my staff, they’re well trained to look at all every transaction to make sure the DIRs, everything’s correct. So yes, on our end, the DIRs, the PBMs. Okay. That’s why we have to pivot. That’s why Pivot is my term. Just in June, we had to pivot. We lost a lot of patients in June, so we had to pivot. That’s why we came up with the semaglutide, the whole weight loss program regimen, all that stuff. So we back, so we have that staffing issues. I mean, come on. Who doesn’t have staffing issues out there? The quality of folks out there, the work ethic of folks is just, oh my God, what happened to the world after Covid? I don’t know. And I, I spoke to my children yesterday. I said, you are going to work as soon as you hit 15, because I don’t know what happened to people. I don’t know what ethic. So everybody knows how this feels. Just finding quality people now is just so difficult.

Bruce Kneeland (24:52):

And that’s enough to prove that you have a real pharmacy and you’re not in some la la land. No, no. Is there a single or cluster of advice you would give to other pharmacy owners who are listening to this podcast? What’s the sage advice from Shahida Choudhry?

Shahida Choudhry (25:16):

I would say take a risk. You won’t know until you try Bruce. I’ve said that forever. That is one thing. You have to try something. I’ve tried and failed. I’ve tried in 91, but you won’t know until you try. I mean, you can keep it safe, but safe. You stay on the path. You got to veer off and find another path. And also don’t go by what others tell you. You have to experience it on your own. You got to walk the walk. So I always tell folks, you got to try it yourself. Don’t just listen to whatever this person said. You got to try it. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

Bruce Kneeland (25:56):

I will take an opportunity. I heard a little triad from a pharmacy I visited on a road trip a little while ago, and along this theme, the guy said, you have to try something new. You have to drop something that’s not working. And then you have to find out how to make something that’s kind of working work better. I think that the principle that a lot of pharmacists don’t study is how do you drop something? How do you finally walk away from something that takes time, energy, and isn’t producing a reward? I don’t know what that would be. The easy answer from 20 years ago was doing personal charge accounts. You drop those when they get too bad, but there’s people who still do ’em, and it’s a wonderful thing for ’em. So it depends on the personality, your pharmacy. But if you’re going to grow, you have to bite off and stop doing something

Shahida Choudhry (26:59):

Like the negative reimbursements. Everybody’s like, oh my God, the negative reimbursements, the GLP ones. Oh my God. Oh my God. But then you have, I mean, how we function at Palms Pharmacy is that, okay, we have a negative reimbursement. Let’s see if there’s other prescriptions that make up for it, or we’re going to sell supplements our services. So we kind of look at that individual patient. So it’s not that, oh my God, we lost $18. Oh my God, that patient, that prescription’s gone. We have to look at the whole picture. That’s what we do, and that’s how we keep our patients, and that’s how we try to stay in the positive. So yes and no, I get it. But a negative reimbursement can sometimes be positive. So it depends how you look at it.

Bruce Kneeland (27:38):

Yeah, it is. And there are patients who I think you do have to let go. Oh,

Shahida Choudhry (27:44):

Oh, yeah, please. I’m more than happy to get rid of a whole bunch of ’em, so don’t worry. I do do that.

Bruce Kneeland (27:49):

Okay. Yeah,

Shahida Choudhry (27:51):

I do. I do. Don’t worry. And my whiteboard shows that we have a whiteboard. We have team meetings, and we go over all this every week with the staff.

Bruce Kneeland (28:00):

So back to your private label for just a minute. I mean, it is labeled Palms Pharmacy. And how many SKUs did you bring in, and how did you decide on that?

Shahida Choudhry (28:14):

So we brought in four to start. We just decided what our patients have been asking, because what I recommend, whenever patients come in for us, our base is a great multivitamin, and there’s supplement companies out there. You have to take 4, 5, 6 per day. I’m like, oh, no, we can’t do that. Bruce, do you take four capsules a day for your multivitamin? Do you do that?

Bruce Kneeland (28:43):

I take a multivitamin. I take a D three, and I think that’s what I’m doing multivitamin wise.

Shahida Choudhry (28:54):

But your multi is just one capsule. It’s not four.

Bruce Kneeland (28:57):

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shahida Choudhry (28:58):

Okay. So we had to find a supplement company that is going to work with us to make sure that the patient can take, let’s say one or two capsules, not four. So that was important to us. And then we brought in iron. Since our demographics, we have a lot of female patients, and iron deficiency is a huge thing. So we private labeled iron, and then we added magnesium, a magnesium blend for our ADHD patients. We are big in the ADHD community as well. Apparently we do a lot of things. And so our parents have asked us, Hey, can you help us out with another, a supplement? So we came out with the neuro, gosh, what’s it called? Neuro focus is what it’s called. And berberine, of course, for weight loss, for our weight loss patients. So those are our top four for now.

Bruce Kneeland (29:45):

That’s great. And the team knows what they are. And I mean, how do you position a recommendation? What’s the strategy for getting your staff to recommend a vitamin?

Shahida Choudhry (30:02):

So we have social media, which we will see. We will be promoting that social media, but we add it in as an extra add-on to our patients that in their text message, we’ll say, okay, your prescription’s ready for X, Y, and Z. But hey, we have this as an add-on as well. So we really tailor our text messages patient focus. So if they get an ADHD medication, they’ll get a text message for this one, our iron for our female patients that are birth control, that sort of stuff. So we really tailor our text messages to these patients. And also, we have a vitamin supplement of the week, so we’ll be promoting our supplements every week. And at the register you’ll see them. You’ll see them all over the place.

Bruce Kneeland (30:46):

Well, that’s great. Hey, listen, we’re about out of time. I’m going to brag on you just a little bit more and then ask you while you’re blushing to just make a final comment or two. But since we met, you had been named the number two most influential pharmacist on the 50 top influential pharmacist people that and a Dollar will buy you a Coke at seven 11. Right. But no, what an honor to be featured in that regard. And then you’ve just been elected to the board of directors for the Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, the kind people who are sponsoring this podcast for us. And you’ve attended your first meeting and been installed there. Tell us just a bit about that meeting and then give us a final word for our listeners.

Shahida Choudhry (31:42):

Oh, wow. Okay. So yes, I was elected a position a seat at IPC. So yes, last week was my first board meeting in Madison, Wisconsin, which was a journey within itself. And it’s so beautiful there. Who knew Madison? Wisconsin was so nice. The board was so welcoming. The executives were just phenomenal. Just being a part of that whole committee team was amazing. Just all the rock stars that are there and just, I can’t wait to learn from every single person there. I would like 17 stores, and I don’t know how they did it. So just learning from all of them, I just can’t wait. So they were very welcoming the whole time that I was there last week, was it? I don’t even remember, gosh, last week. And we’re very excited about Mark being our new C E o. So we’re excited about the new things that he’s going to bring on and just implement something. We’re very excited.

Bruce Kneeland (32:42):

Well, that’s great. And do you think there’s a future for independent pharmacy?

Shahida Choudhry (32:49):

The future, the future’s infinite. Come on. We’re not going anywhere. Have you seen these Walgreens walkouts that are happening this week? We are here to stay.

Bruce Kneeland (32:59):

To stay, and that is also true. I wrote an article that will be in the America’s Pharmacist magazine that is being distributed, the NCPA show, and it’s kind of my 50 year swan song on the industry. And the point that I try to drive home is that despite all the stuff that’s bad, there are people like you. There are people like Mona Gatis who’s on the board, Vicki Ein Hilling, who’s on the board, John Kohler, who’s on the board, who are figuring out how to make money and to grow. And kind of the point that when I started in this business a while back, the franchises, the medicine shops, the Health Marts, their goal then was to make you look like a chain.

Bruce Kneeland (33:55):

And that was the idea. We thought how you were succeeding and the industry has morphed so that Palm’s Pharmacy needs to look like Palm’s Pharmacy and just spoke with a mountainside compounding pharmacy in Georgia for a podcast last week. She needs to look like mountainside compounding pharmacy. It’s a personality. It’s a dig into your community. It’s find something you’re passionate about and build on it, and you can find success, and you’re the poster child for that. God bless you. Thank you for spending some time on the phone with me today. I still hope I get down to Tampa sometime and see you.

Shahida Choudhry (34:44):

Oh sweet, I hope you can.

Bruce Kneeland (34:46):

Ladies and gentlemen, friends and neighbors, that’s going to be it for Pharmacy Crossroads today, where we always hope that something we say will help you do more and be better. Take care. Thanks for listening to Pharmacy Crossroads. If you’re interested in talking with Bruce, please contact the show visit the pharmacy crossroads website. We look forward to hearing from you.