Latest / The Long Burn / Episode 20 - Adam Moore

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Episode 20 - Adam Moore · The Long Burn

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_03: The Long Bird.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, everybody.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome to another episode of The Long Bird.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: I have with me Mr.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_03: Dr.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: Professional Dr.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_03: Mr.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Dr.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Jonathan Wade.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, Jonathan.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, Joel.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_03: How are you today?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I didn't introduce myself.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: My name is Joel Mellon, licensed therapist in Jacksonville, Florida.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: And today we have a special guest.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: We love our special guest episodes.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: We have Adam Moore with Hogan's Pharmacy.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm forgive me for not knowing this.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: Is that in Valdasta?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, it is in Valdasta.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, I do have that right.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_03: I did my did enough homework.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know there's going to be a test.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: I'm testing myself.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: Well, thanks so much for joining us today, Adam.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh uh Dr.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: Wade, um, you kind of if you would just kind of give an introduction of why did you reach out to Adam about coming on the podcast with us today?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I was probably back in 2014, 2015.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: I had moved over here to Nashville.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Adam was was the uh clinical pharmacist here in the local hospital.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then it was all the buzz that he was leaving and gonna go to the retail side of things down in Hogan's, and he broke a lot of hearts and you know, caused a lot of tears.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I remember he and I talking at the nursing station kind of about the move and and the change.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was really great.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: I have an entrepreneurial spirit and I thought it was fantastic that he was gonna go go kind of chase a dream.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so when we started thinking about possible guests, I mean he he came to mind right off the bat because I I I know there's a great story in there.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, he he did what we talk about um our listeners doing, and that's that's following a passion um and and seeing it through.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think his story would be a great one, and and we'll learn a lot today.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: Well, um, so Adam, I don't know if you have a nice starting point of how you like to jump into it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Do you just want to do one, two, three, go?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: How you want to handle it, man?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, we can just go right into it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, so so like kind of going back, I I I grew up in Adel, and my dad owned a pharmacy in Adel.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was long line of drug dealers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, long line.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he bought it the year I was born.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: The funny story, he bought it, like he he worked at the hospital in Adel and would fill in for that guy.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And back then, I think horse racing was popular in this area, and you had some of these, I guess, breeders or or guys who owned it who wanted to get a competitive advantage, so they kind of got into uh some illegal activities obtaining uh steroids for the horses.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, the DEA came and shut that pharmacy down.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when they do that, they give uh there's like a three-day window where someone can buy it and and they could keep that DEA certificate and keep stay in business, and it doesn't require it to be shut down for an extended period of time.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: So my dad kind of scrambled around, was able to buy that pharmacy, and he ran it, you know, for my whole, you know, until he passed away.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: So my dad, uh, when I was 21, that was when I decided I wanted to go to pharmacy school, and the plan was to come back and take that over.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: So your dad changed it up.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: He started doing moose testosterone, right?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Very lucrative market for that.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: Black market moose testosterone.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, I was in the process of uh applying to pharmacy schools, and my dad had a stroke, and so he passed away.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had not even been accepted to pharmacy school at that point.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: So uh my dad's uh accountant, he advised my mom that you know she would be wise to sell the pharmacy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So so we ended up, she did that.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Chansey drugs, uh, Hugh and Bert Chansey are the ones who they bought that from my mom.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so, anyways, like at that point, I got accepted to pharmacy school about a month later.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I had no clue how to run a pharmacy, so it was it was the best move for my mom and for us.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, so once I I said, well, all right, well, I'll go to pharmacy school and try to figure out what path I want to take.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um I got there now, I think in my second year, uh they had elective, so there was one that was called pharmacy ownership.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I took that and it kind of got me excited about the possibility of owning a pharmacy.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: So uh took that, and then as I got into my fourth year, I still kind of wanted to do that, but I didn't really know how to go about doing it.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And had a friend who knew Ronald Hogan in Valasa, who owned Hogan's pharmacy, and and just said, hey, you might want to reach out to him.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I know he's at some point going to sell it because uh none of his sons were going into pharmacy.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: They were all you know in their professional careers, you know, doing other things.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: So reached out to him and just kind of introduced myself and and he was you know super open and kind.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm just a kid who's still in pharmacy school, and he he shared information with me that he didn't have to, and you know, just kind of told me the benefits of doing it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: And also Hogan's hero.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: Anyways, um, he he said it's an old school reference, man.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_04: That's right.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: So he um he said, you know, he gave a good piece of advice he gave me was where if if you do end up buying his pharmacy or any other pharmacy, that it would be a good idea to try to work there beforehand just to see if it's a good fit.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um so at the time, like so when I got out of pharmacy school, I went to work for Chansey's and didn't really have availability to fill in anywhere else.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that for about a year, and I left them and I took a job at Ride.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: So back then they paid a lot more.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: It gave you sign-on bonuses, so I was kind of chasing money at that time.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh, but but working there, you work you would work seven days out of every 14.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So it you had some availability during the weeks, uh weekdays, and um, so anyways, eventually got to where uh Mr.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hogan needed me to fill in on Wednesdays, so I'd work like every other Wednesday for him, and really got to where I enjoyed, you know, the clientele, the the employees he had there, enjoyed working with them.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so we did that for about seven years.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I say I take that back.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it that was a probably a seven-year period, but while I was at Ride Aid, I got sick of that.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: So then that's when I moved to the hospital in Nashville.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: That they had an opening for uh the pharmacy director position.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I I was I was tired of the corporate you know structure of working with the chain.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So when I joined the Barrian Hospital, uh they were still privately owned at that time.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: There were there were, I think, two uh guys from Tennessee.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: I never met them, but they they were the owners.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so really enjoyed working there.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: I I felt like I was able to use the the knowledge I had acquired in pharmacy school, you know, where you're uh calculating dosages, you know, had to I had to refresh myself on Venkomycin dosing and all that good stuff.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: But it and I really enjoyed that, enjoyed working with the folks there.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so that rocked on for probably two years.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: I still, you know, like I I still knew that I if if Hogan's pharmacy be became available, I wanted to try and buy that.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then what kind of I guess made it more enticing to leave was was when SGMC bought out the hospital, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we kind of went back to that corporate structure again.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: You had you know five or six people kind of telling you this is how you need to do things, and it that didn't always work in Nashville like it would at their campus.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, it was you know, it got to be a little frustrating doing that.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, that that kind of I'm glad it made me uncomfortable at at where I was at.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was like, all right, so this is a sign that I should, you know, still pursue that.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then so I I just approached uh you know Ronald.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: He had said that he wanted to, when he was 66, is when he wanted to retire and sell out.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a few months before then I approached him, I said, Hey, are you still looking at doing that?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah, yeah, I am.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And because I knew it was gonna be a process to go through as far as you know the loan process and all that.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So then we kind of began that whole deal, and it it took a while, but you know, we were able to move through with all that.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: So, what year did you actually uh buy out Hogan's pharmacy?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh twenty it was uh Halloween day on uh uh uh 2014.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, oh wow, okay.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it was I I left the hospital um I can't remember.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was probably April or May of 2014, and we we began the uh process.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: We went through a local bank, but they worked with the SBA uh you know in the loan process, so that like kind of guarantees the uh certain percentage of their loan so they don't take as much risk on someone like me who doesn't have any money.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to I was able to you know acquire the loan through them with the SBA backing it.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I guess I assume that it was a more recent thing.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't realize it's over 10 years you've been doing this.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: So this it'll be 12 years uh this October.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: So how was that during COVID?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, did y'all actually sell a lot of ivermectin?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: We had a few doctors that they they it and so it was kind of a you you had you had like these chain form, excuse me, these chains pharmacies, they they wouldn't fill prescriptions for it.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: I guess they were you know ordered not to.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean now we're back to a horse tranquilizer, horse horse wormers.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we're back to the horse story.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean it's amazing.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we we did like, you know, we would get prescriptions for it, and and it became it's it's crazy how it it was real cheap before all that, and then the price skyrocketed on it, you know.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: So but you still have fun fact, there's a lot more people than horses on the face of the planet.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I imagine that did go pretty much to the roof, supply and demand and all that.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, yeah.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we we were uh most of the the independent pharmacies like us would fill those prescriptions.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: And but yeah, COVID was uh it was kind of a uh a real strange time.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I bet.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: So uh y'all had a voodoo aisle too, voodoo and witchcraft aisle.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, we um probably two, I'm trying to think, in 2017, um so my my pharmacy did not have a drive-thru.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I remember reading uh uh an article in some journal, and it was I think it was somebody who sold shelving who wrote the article, and it said, if you if your shelving looks outdated, you should up, you know, get new shelving because it uh lets your customers know that you you know are dedicated to having a nice uh looking area and all this.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I called this guy and he comes and I said, you know, I I would actually, if there was ever any way to add a drive-thru to this building, I would I would like to be able to do that.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: So he uh had like the the CAD uh program where he could like he had my whole building on there and he would like trace out how it would look.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean our building was not made for one, so we could stick one on the front of the building.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so he kind of drew it up and we got it approved.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was a huge ordeal having to go through and like remodel while we were still working.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we were we were like moving around for a month or two here, and then we'd move over to another spot.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So it but anyways, when it was all finished with we had a a drive-thru that was you know nice to folks utilize it from day one.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: They started you know figuring out how to do that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: But so when COVID hit, it was nice to have that.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we had we did that, we did the whole curb side deal where you know you could just call us and we'd run it out there to you.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but yeah, it was uh it was a trying time to say the least.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: So so it sounds like you know that that driver for you was kind of like for me, it's it's the that corporate working for the the man per se, that bigger business where you just become a cog in the machine and and you didn't like that.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't like that for I guess from a personal standpoint, from a business standpoint.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um was was there ever a moment in that transition, because I I imagine it wasn't from day one you stepped into what you're doing now, uh, where where it was kind of the oh oh crap, what have I done?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Or or that that that concern of man, it was it was kind of nice.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, though the corporate job told you what to do, you maybe felt like you had the handcuffs on, there was that certainty or reliability of the paycheck regardless of what happened.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah, yeah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: That was to that that was you know kind of a big major cause of stress, like the unknown going into it, because I I knew the pharmacy, it was well established, and you had a fear that all right, if they know that someone new is now the owner, am I gonna lose people just because of that?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, so I I kind of that that that kept me up at night.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and then just you know, like making sure like all the different regulations and licensing and all that stuff that you know I'd never really had to be the one in charge of making sure everything was the way it's supposed to be, then it was kind of like all right, so but but luckily uh Mr.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hogan he stayed on with me uh and and I could I could ask him anything, so that that helped out a lot having him around.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's what I was gonna do.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, Jonathan.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, no.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: I just so yeah, you bought the building and the the business.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh essentially, and and Mr.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hogan stayed on board to help.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh initially uh I did not buy the building.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: He he wanted to keep that and uh like have monthly uh rental income coming in, but then when that when that I made the or I had the desire to update the shelving and do the remodeling, I I approached him and I said, Look, I know having monthly income is important to you.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: I said, but upgrading this place to make it uh better for what we want to do, that's important to me.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, would you consider selling it?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: So he you know, he he was a little reluctant to begin with.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um I didn't I'd never threatened to move to a different building, but that was an option.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: There were a few uh spaces available where I could have bought.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm glad I'm glad I didn't have to go to that point.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, he he he eventually uh you know agreed, you know, like he didn't expect like as I because I spent probably$150,000 on the remodel and the upgrades and all that.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: I told him, I said, I don't want to spend that much money on somewhere I'm renting.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And he understood.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So so he was very gracious in in agreeing to that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the progression of the story is interesting to me because it sounded like your initial like entry into this career field and everything else, it's you started with a done deal, essentially, with your your dad buying, you know, the uh the the pharmacy and everything else, and then that all fell apart.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I would say that probably the majority of people are like, well, I guess we're gonna go a different route, you know.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: That that that's gotta be really discouraging to see that that that almost guarantee.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because, like you said, you were about to go into school, yeah.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I mean years before you would have that opportunity again, and like you still stuck with that through the different, you know, working in the corporate world, working in the hospital field and everything else to finally get back there.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, what would you say was your main motivation to kind of see that through over that period of time?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, go going back to that elective I took in pharmacy school that was it was just called pharmacy ownership, and you know, the the professor he he was kind of uh renowned on his knowledge of the whole like he he there he had formulas where you could you know get a good value for a pharmacy based on you know script count, revenue, uh the inventory, all that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it was always uh it would you would come up with a good fair price for the the seller and the buyer.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you felt comfortable knowing kind of what a pharmacy was worth, and then him hit he kind of would go through different ways of someone with no money being able to acquire it.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like there was a a junior partnership type model that that he was real big on, and that was originally what I was gonna try to do, but then um as when I was talking to uh my accountant, he you know was tied in with uh a bank and they got to talking.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, well, you know, the best way is to to you go through the SBA, you know, we'll we'll provide the loan, the SBA will guarantee it, and so so that way you become 100% owner you know when you sign the paper versus doing a small percentage over you know 10 years or something like that.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: So gotcha.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: So so if we compare uh to you know 2014, you go there, you take over, Mr.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Hogan's still helping out.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: How much of the working in the business versus working on the business were you doing, and how has that kind of matured or changed over the past 12 years now?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So initially, well, we we call it in pharmacy where it was like working the bench, is you're the pharmacist up there filling the scripts, counseling patients, you know, all that.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I was immediately, I mean, that's what I had been doing when I the days I would work there.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was working the bench.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So so when I when I got when I took it over, uh Mr.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Hogan, he he would work a day or two a week, and then I had um another pharmacist who worked I forget how I think she worked three or four days a week, maybe.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so I was I was really kind of doing that role while juggling the what the stuff I needed to be doing as a business owner, you know, like you know, dealing with inventory, uh bookkeeping, all that stuff.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and that was all you know kind of new to me uh at that point.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: I remember telling Ronald, I said, you know, I I've never taken any kind of business classes.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, you'll figure out what you need to know.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, that was kind of like throwing yourself in the fire and figuring it out like that.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that that's that building that's got no parachute on the way down, yeah.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_03: I've got little experience working with insurance companies.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so as a mental health therapist, I've always pursued positions that were more salaried where I didn't have to deal with insurance.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I worked private practice briefly and didn't really care for it.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: So, how difficult is that working with insurance companies?
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because I know a lot of people file their claims for their, you know, their medications, you know, with their insurance company.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: Is that a big difficulty or a hurdle, or is that something that you've found a way to easily navigate that with some consistency?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, like, so it is um, you know, like when it's not the same as like Dr.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Wade, you know, like I don't know exactly how medical billing works in a healthcare practice like that.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: But so us, when I enter a prescription and I submit it, I know immediately how much I'm gonna make on it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so the problem is that so so uh prescription or pharmacy insurance that folks have.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So like if you have United Healthcare or Anthem, uh Blue Cross Blue Shield, any of that, they have a uh PBM that handle what I mean, PBM is a pharmacy benefit manager.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you've got there's three.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it it's it they they handle like so that so say United Healthcare is the insurance company.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: They contract out the prescription benefit to say optimum.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so optimum says, okay, we'll handle that benefit.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're going so United Healthcare pays them a fee, and then in turn, so so they are the ones paying for the prescription when it gets filled.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: So when we submit it, it it goes to optimum.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so you have these contracts with these PBMs, and and they're and they've gotten worse and worse.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like they they continually are kind of squeezing you.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gotten to the point like a brand name drug, say the the craze is the GLP one, so Manjaro, you know, everybody wants to be on that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: So they will cover, they're like, okay, yeah, you can fill it at Hogan's pharmacy and we we submit it and we get an accepted claim.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's generally those claims are what they're going to pay us.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: So their amount they're paying us plus the patient's copay is less than what our actual acquisition cost is.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: So just say that drug costs$1,200, I might get reimbursed$1,050.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you're losing$150 on a claim.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: So though, you know, and in the pack, like technically, we are, if we're contracted with them, we can't turn someone away based on uh what we're making on it.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: But any business, if you're sitting here saying, oh, I'm gonna lose$150 on this transaction, you cannot take those because if you take it and you've got other pharmacies down the road who are saying, oh no, we can't fill that, then all those folks are gonna come to me as well, and then you're just gonna just be piling loss on top of loss.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you have like, and I and I don't like um, I've never like the the customers that we have had, like if it's somebody new, say I I don't have a relationship with them, then you can be like, all right, we know we cannot fill this prescription.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um the folks who I've I've been taken care of, if they come in and it's a situation like that, I'm honest with them.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, all right, look, your insurance company is causing me to take a loss on this.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so here's our option.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: You can get this, you can get this filled with your mail order because I think that's their their goal is to get folks to do that.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you got some folks who are like, well, can you just charge me an additional amount?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Which is really I'm not supposed to do that, but we found some ways around uh that uh to make it where if they really want to get it from us, then we'll still uh accommodate them without.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: So y'all got that y'all got that good guy discount built in.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey, come on, man.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a good guy.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, can't you help me out?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, all right, all right.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean it it is uh I mean it is honest conversations going on saying, look, if you want to call your insurance and report me, then they can kick me out of their network.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um, they're like, oh, I would never do that.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: So so so we're you know, it it it I have those conversations with folks that I know, you know, enjoy doing business with us.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: There's a there's a coming to an independent like myself versus going to you know some of the big chains, there's a level of service that you know they they're not gonna get there that they are gonna get with me.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's worth something.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so that they're usually willing to do that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Even the ones who might say, I don't want to spend that much, I'm gonna go elsewhere.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them will come back and say, okay, I will spend that much because I can't handle dealing with you know these other you know big box stores that you know just don't care.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_03: So well, you know, you and I small town difference, I'm sure you know when they walk in the door that you know that that's the person that they're they're fine with that.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: They they want to do business here.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: Right, yeah.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_03: And it's probably why you want to do it is having that connection.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that that's that's the reason I went into this was to be able to take care of folks.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it you get uh a level of satisfaction with your job when you feel like you're making a difference.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: So and you know, it may sound cliche, but it it's it it is exactly why I enjoy doing what I do.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: So if I can help someone out, you know, it just makes the me even you know more satisfied with what I do.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: So well, you know, we we've had that conversation about patients and and the GLP ones, and I think what it is is it's all smoke and ears on the insurance side because then they're mad at me or they're mad at you, or they don't understand why there's so much money to pay.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then we try to explain look, it's it's a business decision.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, nobody's gonna do that and tank their business over you losing weight, you know?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, so it's there's there's a lot of legislation uh pro-pharmacy and pro patients.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just us wanting to make more money.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: We want to you what patients need uh you know, some change in the way PBMs operate because what they'll do is they'll charge patients uh an exorbitant amount of money.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, so that there's way like these PBMs are some of the richest companies in the world, you know, they're like Fortune 50, I think, is like those three that I named.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um so there's a lot of legislation that would help kind of rein their practices in a little bit.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's it's like it anytime we have something passed that would make a difference, so that it's like whack-a-mole, so that they'll come up with another way of kind of getting around what we're doing.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: So Jonathan's good at whack-a-mole.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's my workout.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 26:56
  unknown: Yeah.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I got I gotta say, I gotta, I'm, I'm impressed by your commitment because I'm I'm pretty sure you get medications at cost, you know, and you still don't use finasteride or monoxidyl.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that's that's commitment, man.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's ball by choice.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to disposal.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: I could treat something that was going on here.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: If there was a magic pill, I'd probably take it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: But uh or you go to Turkey.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_03: You go to Turkey and get some hair plugs or something like that.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: You're toupee looking like sod up top.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like that's uh, just got a good look.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: Just own it.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's I went bald when I was 19, man.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_03: I've been buzzing my head since I was 19.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: I haven't looked back.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I saved so much money on like shampoo and hair stuff.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, got over.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: I'm telling you, man.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: You got the you got that good shine on it too.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: Mine's dirty.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: I've been working, so mine's dirty.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: You got the good shine.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: So Adam, let's transition kind of along this journey, right?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: 12 years.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: So you've got two college-age sons.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we were talking before the the the we started on the podcast.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're both playing, you know, one's a baseball player, one's uh one's a punter uh for Tulane, and he's on a video game, which is so cool.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: I wish I was a video game character.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: But uh I think it's it's fascinating that you uh bought a business, own a business, ran a business, but there was the family side of the business.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, he's breaking up super slow.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: My bad.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, it's because we're here in NASA.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_03: All that garbled out on our end.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: You you grew up, you you you but b bought the business, have grown the business, but along the way, you've got the two boys playing sports, running them all over God's creation, I'm sure doing AAU ball and different travel balls and and and punting camps and all the things.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: How did you manage all that?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you got a wife at the house too, I assume, right?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: So my my wife actually, she was a dental hygienist.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and she probably seven or eight years ago, she decided to come work with me.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and everybody said, Don't don't do that.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but it it has actually worked very well.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: She she is the hardest working person I know.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: So she doesn't work in the dental field anymore?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, she doesn't.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: She keeps her license up just in case Was it because she couldn't handle the tooth?
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: God, yeah, yeah, good work.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: No, but she You can tell her I said that, and she's gonna be like, who is this guy?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but yeah, she um, you know, like it she I think she kind of got dealing uh, you know, working on an appointment-based day was stressful, you know, because when you have X amount of time to do something, somebody comes in with some jacked-up teeth, and it takes you longer.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it um she she dealt like she's a perfectionist and wanted to get everything done right and didn't want to not finish the job.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a lot of stress.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: And but she was she was a did very well at that.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so then when she finally she started having some, you know, some neck and shoulder issues from always like been over, you know, doing that.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: So um she said, I think I want to come work there.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, you know, we'll do that.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: So she it's been great having her there, uh, just because she has learned every facet of the business and is is kind of like a built-in office manager.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: So so it's great having her.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I guess the only problem with that is when we go home, it's hard to unplug, you know, you know, when we're you know, she's because she's she'll she'll say, you know, be talking about a situation that was, you know, got her frustrated.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then we talk talk about it at home.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, there's nothing we can do about it right now.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: So like let's try to leave leave that at work and and we'll do this here.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so so having her there, it it my goal.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when my dad, when I was growing up, he never he never had another pharmacist that he would bring on with him.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: So so to run a pharmacy, you have to have a pharmacist there.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: You can't be open without a pharmacist.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: So if you don't have another one, then you're the one who's there.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: And he kind of got burnt out because he was always there.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: And if he wanted a day off, he had he would he had a few pharmacists that he would call and say, Hey, could you work for me on a Tuesday?
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes they could, sometimes they couldn't.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and he like so I when I was in high school or growing up, you know, I played football and baseball, and so there was a lot of games that he couldn't make it to because he was having he was open until like seven o'clock at night.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of times if we had a game, it was over with by then.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: So when I went when I decided this is what I want to do, it and and you know, after my dad's passed away, I was talking to my mom about it, and she was like, no, don't do that.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you remember how your dad was, you know, just always stressed out.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I said, Well, I the thing I'm gonna do different is that I'm gonna always have a pharmacist on staff with me.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: That way, if I want to go to a ball game or do whatever, I can say, hey, I'm I'm gonna leave at two o'clock today or you know, whatever.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: So so I I did that intentionally, you know, just so I would have because I wanted to be there, you know, when my kids were playing a game, or you know, if I needed to take them to practice or anything like that.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be able to do that.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's gotta feel more sustainable.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and and that and I want my employees to do that as well.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so so I've got uh I've got three pharmacists that they they work you know either three or four days a week.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: So they have days off, but when they're they are scheduled to work, you know, they have children who are now getting into sports and all that.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, if there's ever a volleyball match or whatever they're they're into, if there's ever anything like that going on, I'd you better not miss it.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so so we will cover whatever you need, my technicians the same way we've got overlap with that.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I've got a good staff that can they're flexible.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if somebody needs to go to a school event, they can.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: We cover for them, you know.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: You've created a culture.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's like don't dread coming to work because I feel like I'm missing out on my life outside of it.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I want it to be where they can experience everything, you know, earn a paycheck, but they can go do whatever they need to to be there for their kids and their and their family.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: So it sounds like you set it up well.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that was my phone ring.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, what do you say, Jonathan?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to start moving into the uh firing line questions?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Adam, any any last gold nuggets or anything before we get into these three risk, just really riveting questions?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no, I mean, it was just, you know, doing this was kind of I didn't know it was my dream until I kind of got into it.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and, you know, working at other jobs made it where owning a business seem more appealing to me.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, so that's kind of you didn't realize that's what you want to do until you you worked a few places and you feel like what you know, if if I owned it, I would do it this way.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so being able, being in my position, I can, you know, practice the way I want to do it.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you got to do you got to do it right, but you can, if I want to focus on uh, you know, vaccines or you know, whatever, that's what we'll do.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: But if I don't, you know, if there's certain things that I'm like, I don't, I don't really want to get into that aspect um right now, then I'll just put it on the the back burner.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I see that it's okay, well, that might be something good for our business, then then we'll you know adopt it.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't know.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: Well, there's there's headaches on both sides, you know.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like I I would rather, instead of accepting a headache that someone gave me, I would rather have a headache that I choose.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_03: Right because I'm I'm way more likely to deal with that headache better, you know, versus like somebody imposing a rule or a policy or this uniformity on you that just really takes the joy out of what you do, you know.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a lot on your shoulders as a business owner, but it's also it's a challenge that you chose.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm such a proponent for if you like, especially with the younger generation, they're waiting for somebody to challenge them versus the challenge that you choose for yourself is your passion.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and so it's hard for kids that that I've worked with that to find their passion because they're waiting for that to originate from someone else, and it just never will.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: It'll just be something that you hate that that they impose on you.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: If if you can give them some ownership over that, then they'll you know run with it versus like saying this is what we're gonna do, I don't care if you like it or not.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: That they you give them an opportunity to give you some feedback and and say this is what I want to do.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: What are your thoughts?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: How do you how do how can we accomplish this?
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's agency, autonomy, individuality, all that that comes along with it.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, sure, like we said, there there are headaches that come along with it, but it's headaches that you know why you're dealing with it, you know what the outcome is gonna be.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: You can control the usually the timeline or the intensity of the headache versus something that somebody else creates for you that you just have to deal with it.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: Go back to work the next day and deal with it again.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm I struggle with that too.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'm just not as much of an entrepreneur as Dr.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: Wade is.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: I got him.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_02: You're right.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: All right, so number one, Adam.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: What's a failure that cost you more than money, and what did it change about how you operate today?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I guess a fail, I don't know if it's a fail.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I guess it's a failure.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: So so when I bought the pharmacy, um Hogan's pharmacy had been servicing uh this particular uh assisted living facility.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: So so with that, that's just kind of recurring business every month.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: You package their meds, um, it it's good.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know it's gonna be there.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: If someone leaves or passes away, they fill the bed pretty quick.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's good built-in revenue.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so this particular home was um they we Hobie's pharmacy has serviced it for 30 years.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so we probably three months after I bought the pharmacy, I get an email from an owner, like so, so that facility changed ownership.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so I get an email from the guy saying that he wanted to change it.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: So so there's a there's a it's called an EMAR, it's an electronic medication administration record, so it's an EMAR system, so they can chart on a computer that they gave medicine and all this.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, anyways, we had one of those in place, and he wanted to use a different one.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I said, okay, well, I'll look into doing that.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so he while he was telling me that, he says this other pharmacy down the road already has it in place, so if you can't do it, I'm gonna probably move all my patients over to them.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so that this facility accounted for about eight percent of our total revenue.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, so anyways, I I really looked into doing that.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was gonna cost me because I was gonna have to change pharmacy software that would integrate with that software.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I was gonna have like eighty thousand dollars invested in that.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so I talked to some folks I really uh looked up to and I said, yeah, this is what he's wanting to do.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: And and they said, No, under no circumstance would they ever do that.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so, anyways, I so I talked to him, I said, Look, I said, I I cannot feasibly do that.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything that we can do to make the current system work?
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so he kind of, I guess, gave a half-hearted effort into making it work, and then so, anyways, probably another few months down the road, he says, Okay, yeah, this is not working, we're gonna move over to this other pharmacy.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, six months into owning it, I lose a facility that accounted for 8% of my revenue.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm like, you know, thinking to myself, all right, I say that my goal was to not screw this up, but I feel like I have screwed up, you know, kind of regretting, you know, I regretted not spending the money.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: But then, um, so, anyways, when when it all was said and done, that you know, those those patients and Trent we had transferred all that out, um, though though, I I got to look, I talked to Mr.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hogan, and he he felt terrible, you know, that it had happened so quick to face some adversity like that.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um he said, you know, the only thing I can tell you is you got to find other areas of the business that you you can make more efficient to maybe offset that loss.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, so one thing that pharmacy software that you know that we use that we weren't utilizing was that it would keep a perpetual inventory of every drug you had in the building.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we didn't do that, you know, like so.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: We would, if we emptied a bottle, we would just pull a sticker off, and at the end of the day, we'd reorder every bottle that we we had emptied.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: So so I decided I said, all right, let's implement uh perpetual inventory.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we had to count everything in the pharmacy uh and and then enter all that in.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: So when we did it, our inventory was like$450,000, which is way more than what it should have been uh for our volume that we're doing.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: So so we put in par levels on every drug.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: So if it when it got below a certain amount, then it would trigger it to reorder.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so we did that, and so within a month, I cut$80,000 out of my inventory and it and I kept cutting, you know, fine-tuning that uh to get to a point where instead of having$400,000 in inventory, like we did then, so now by this most recent year, we did so backtrack.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that year we did about$5 million in revenue and had$400 something,000 in in inventory.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: This past year we do we did about$11 million in revenue, and we've got$280,000 in inventory.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we really limit what we carry.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then another thing that we did is is called med sync, where you take patients and you kind of line them up, like all their medications will run out at the same time.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can you know when they're popping up, you fill them, so you kind of you can limit your inventory that you're carrying, especially if they're on an expensive drug.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: We would we would sync those folks, you know, like if they were on HIV drugs or uh any of these, you know, eloquists or any high-dollar drug, we would we would sync them based on that.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that way we don't have excess inventory of those expensive drugs.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we we fill it about five days before they need it, order it then, and then it's gone.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have so much inventory sitting on your shelf uh doing it.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: So that that was one thing that we did the kind of the the adversity that we faced losing that home.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: We were able to implement a few new things that made us a lot more efficient as a as a business.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_03: So we tried to perceive loss into something that created efficiency for the business.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: Over two extra revenue and cut, you know, cut your overhead in half.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's incredible, man.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's a wonderful decision.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's great, man.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh number two, what belief did you have to unlearn to keep growing without burning out?
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that one, you know, it was one that I I've mentioned, you know, like with my dad and all, is like the belief is if it's going to be done right, I got to be the one doing it.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so being able to uh let others take on bigger roles uh and and be able to kind of hand some of that stuff that I felt like I was the only one that could do it, let others kind of take on those roles, and that has really uh it's kept me from getting burnout, you know, because I don't feel like I gotta get this done, I gotta get this done.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like okay, I know I know she's gonna handle this, and you know, if there are problems that arise, then they'll come to me if they need some guidance on it.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: But for the most part, once they kind of feel comfortable doing that, whether it be the order.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: you know, end-of-the-day ordering or uh bookkeeping, anything like that, you know, you got other folks who can actually do that stuff now.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's really taken a lot off of me and been, you know, I can I can you know float around doing whatever needs to be done, you know, stuff like that.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah, delegation is powerful.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: No, that's great.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then number three, what does success look like in this season of your life not five years ago?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought about that.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like about so probably my whole professional career, I I've had friends who they kind of dabble in like rental properties and you know real estate, you know, I guess kind of ventures like that.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I I for for the longest time I was like I'm not getting into that.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to additional headaches that come with it.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I talked to a couple of guys I really look up to who have over the course of 15 20 years have a pretty substantial portfolio of you know rental properties and you know they'll flip you know houses and stuff like that.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: So so I kind of about two and a half years ago I I broke down and bought uh a older house in Adel, uh kind of renovated a little bit and rented it out.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was like I'm gonna try this one see how it goes and then you know had had uh renters waiting on me to get done with so they can move in.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that that you know was a uh that that one went real smooth and then I you know I was I wasn't in a hurry to add more to it but then there was a house last year that became available that I said okay I'll I'll do that had renters waiting to to move in and then the in this past year we're we're in the process we got uh three more that we're adding to that and uh so so right now um I guess two two things having uh having a pharmacy that can kind of operate seamlessly whether I'm there or not that to me is I would say successful and then kind of growing that rental side you know I don't I don't have a a number that I want to get to or on that but you know as long as as as you can uh and I'm having to you know we we borrow money on this so as long as what your rent that you're taking in you know is more than what you're having to pay for it I feel like it's just that that's just down the road will be something worth having you know and then you can sell it or you know do whatever but you'll have you know when you retire the goal would be to have you know another revenue stream coming in um that I don't really have to do anything other than you know fix when you know the seat have you have you had any of your renters that wanted to put in a lot of shelving or anything no no have not at least to my knowledge I could look in there when they move out and I'm like what have y'all done no I I think I think that's fantastic.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah you've got the core business that I'm sure helps to feed this long-term goal that creates legacy.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean yeah we we're we're in the short term rental game we've done four in the past year and a half and it's it's kind of like it's something I don't think my kids are going to work as hard as me and so I want to leave them something that maybe we'll pay them on top of their jobs.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: So right yeah yeah yeah that's neither of my two have shown any interest in uh owning the pharmacy my oldest son he he is kind of contemplated he may go to pharmacy school he's kind of right now interested in going like the anesthesia assistant that but he knows that's real comp real competitive to get in so so at the way pharmacy school is now when I when I got in it was real competitive to get into right now if you got a pulse they'll pretty much accept you into pharmacy school so yeah yeah gosh good deal man well I appreciate you coming on the show this is fantastic um I I I do think you had a lot more to give than you maybe initially thought when we first talked um but yeah yeah Joel Joel any any kind of closing thoughts I I think this has been a great show.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_03: No I think that it's funny how you know we change a few of the details um about you know the story of of how people got to the point of success that they're at with their business and everything else.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's funny the the the details are different but the story's the same you know that you know you said that your biggest hurdle was learning to delegate and things like that and creating a sustainable model.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_03: I I'm pretty sure we've heard that from every guest we've had so far.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's interesting how these challenges we keep seeing the same story, the same narrative and the people who do figure it out are the ones that are still in the game.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: The ones that don't figure it out are the ones who say I'm gonna go work at McDonald's or be a greeter at Walmart or something like that.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that that's so interesting seeing the continuity in all the stories.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because as I mean that's that's what we're all living a story.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_03: You know I heard somebody say this a long time ago.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: They said that whether we know it or not right now we're living in the good old days.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_03: Right yeah you know and it's like you can think of the time when you first got the pharmacy and you know think man that was a that was a great time you know but now you'll look back on where you're at today in five, 10 years and be like, man, that was a great time, you know and and so I think that if we can take that moment to appreciate that, you know, to stop and smell the roses whatever you want to call it you know we get to enjoy that process and every little period of growth that that takes place along that pathway.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks again so much Adam I don't think I have any comments unless you do Dr.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: Wade hey where where can people look you up uh whether that's uh you know about Hogan's if they're interested or whatnot.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah uh so we we have a website it's Hogan's pharmacy.net uh and we're look located in Badasta on Oak Street right there around Badasta Middle School and the pickleball courts uh we're right across the road from that and uh so yeah we're open uh Monday through Friday uh open nine to twelve on Saturday so yeah if uh and do you still have the website Hot Hot Horses is that still up we we decided to shut that down so and I'm still looking for that moose testosterone though so all of me I'll be waiting for that one to hit the market soon yeah just check the website every now and then we'll talk about it yeah okay awesome well hey thanks again Adam uh thanks for your feedback as well Dr.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_03: Wade and uh I'm hoping to uh maybe we can try something again here real soon and uh explore more of your kind of input and feedback about how you've uh developed your success and everything else.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks again Adam we really appreciate it.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_03: All right thank you all right bye guys