Building a Brand: The Importance of PR and Social Media for Biotechs with Alexander Morin, Account Coordinator at Russo Partners

So we just chatted with Alex Warren and he is a science communicator who is currently at Russo Partners working on social media and PR strategies for biotechs and pharma companies. Super interesting.

Yeah, it's one of those stories where I was, you know, PhD student, loved the science. Maybe he didn't want to be at the bench anymore and transitioned into a really interesting alternative career path. And now translates said science, you know, for companies large, small, doing, you know, outreach to investors, doing outreach to journals and pr, it really is an important function that I don't think a lot of biotechs think about. Early on.

Alex brings up a good point in this conversation that when he was coming out of school, he didn't even know that this was a career path for him. And so I think that evolution of how he even got into this position is really interesting. And I think a lot of people who maybe do love the science but maybe don't want to be in the lab will find this really intriguing and possibly a really cool career path.

Absolutely. Enjoy. Welcome to Building Biotechs, a podcast by Reeconomics Consulting.

We've helped over 75 biotech, life science and venture capital firms strategize, hire and retain thousands of employees to scale companies that bring life saving drugs to patients.

We speak with those at the forefront of growing biotechs to learn their tactics on building these companies from the ground floor to the C suite.

We're your host, Karina and Allison.

Alex, thanks so much for being on the show. We are excited to chat with you. I've been really looking forward to this conversation for a while, but we want to start with your career path. So what did you want to be when you were 7? What are you now and how did you get there?

I didn't know exactly who I wanted to be, but I imagined myself on like a wide robe. And then a certain point I was like, maybe I want to be vet. So I think when I was, when I was seven, I wanted to be vet and then it changed into a scientist because in addition to being in like a wide row, I also wanted to do something that many people don't know about. You know, like once you're like a scientist doing something very, very specific and complex. So I guess I kind of knew that I would go towards like the science industry in my future.

That makes sense. So a white robe, that was the main criteria. I love that.

So you decide you want to be a scientist. What were your next steps after that? And how did you get to where you Are right.

When I was in high school, I really enjoyed different aspects of science. So for my bachelor's, I moved to from my hometown, which is like a small town in Russia, I moved to St. Petersburg and I studied biology. And I was very inspired, you know, because that university, it's the very, very oldest university in Russia. And like Pavlov, Mendeleev, they all used to work there. So that was very inspiring to be, you know, in the same halls where those scientists were. And then I got attracted by the idea of interdisciplinary sciences. So instead of just studying biology, I was thinking, how can I combine biology and math, biology and physics, like biophysics, like, stuff like that. And this is actually the area that I got attracted to the most. And when I went to do my master's, which was in Finland, I started bioimaging, which was kind of a combination of like, a bit of, like, engineering and biology. And then somehow I got into neuroscience for my PhD, and this was already in the US in Florida. And I guess the neuroscience field was attractive because I want the one that is like, the most confusing. Something that is like, there's not much known, you know, and like, people try to find things and they always, like, fail. And, like, there isn't. You don't. We don't know why. And I mean, neuroscience, come on, we still don't really understand. Right. And so I went to study neuroscience for my PhD. I did my dissertation on brain injuries. And yeah, so this is like, pretty much my science path from, like, high school to my latest degree.

And now you're not doing lab science at all. Do you ever wear a white lab coat?

For Halloween?

For Halloween. I love it. So you're in media and PR now. So what was that switch?

Like?

I started watching TED Talks a lot. Uh, you know when you watch, like, a very, very brief video, which is like 18 minutes. Right. And those people just talk about science in such a fun way, and you just learned so much. I was like, I want to do that. I want to tell people fun facts, or, like, I should say serious facts in a fun way and that they will understand and truly enjoy. But I was like, what should I do for it? Like, you know, I didn't think that in order to get, let's say, to be presented a TED Talk, you actually have to be a fully established scientist. And, like, one day you might be invited. You know, it's like. But I was like, no, I just want this. I don't want that. You know, and so I actually didn't know, like, how to get there. And, you know, many PhDs, many students who study science and they want to switch. They. They don't really know about different options outside of science. And another step which affected kind of my decision was when I was doing my PhD, my institute was focusing on brain injuries. And we did lots of research in Alzheimer's and we thought in Florida. So we have a big community of, of the elderly population. And we constantly hosted lab tours because we wanted to connect with our community, we wanted to tell them about our research. And I was giving those lab tours and then I really enjoyed. That's when I was actually having my like a TED Talk fantasy. You know, I was like, telling them about what we do in the lab in a very fun and simple way so they can understand and support us, you know, and tell their friends about us. And I was like, yeah, I definitely want to talk about science. I don't want to do science anymore. And then after I finished my PhD, I was just, you know, researching different ways to kind of get into this, like, science communication field. I. I knew it was like an industry on its own, but I didn't really know how to even search for it. And then I. I don't know, I just stumbled upon a post that said some. Something like kind of science communication. And that's how I got here.

I think that's so interesting because, you know, part of your journey basically was like, wanting to do something that a lot of people weren't doing, right. And it's kind of mysterious. And then you went into neuro because it's mysterious. And now your job is demystifying and making science more accessible to the layperson. And that's such an interesting path to take, like the mystery and unravel it. You're a detective. You're basically a detective storyteller.

I like that. I didn't think of that.

Allison's good at putting those sorts of things together. You'll find out about her. So can you speak to that a little bit and how important that communicating, maybe distilling what you do to a more general audience really is.

It is very important because when you talk to scientists running companies that, you know, develop new therapies, new drugs, their sciences are so cool right now. There is so much going on in so many different areas. But those people are scientists, true scientists, and it's actually very surprising that they, I mean, they don't even really think to simple down the language when they talk to someone else. If you think about the audiences. Right. Of course, there is just the public that is curious about science, they want to learn. Then there is the population of potentially patients that will actually benefit from some innovations. And they want to understand the journey of this drug going through clinical trials, how it works. So when, like, when it hits the market, you know, they're like, okay, I know everything inside out and I'm gonna start taking it because I know it'll benefit me. So. And this is the primary audience, right? Patient. That's what this company is developing the drugs for. And then there is other populations, like investors, for example. Right, because all startups, they, of course, they need some money to run successful clinical trials, drug discovery programs, and they also need to deliver to investors, you know, they need to explain their science in a simple way. So there is so many different aspects. So dissecting, disseminating all this complex but very interesting scientific information into like, a simple language is super important in, like, so many different aspects.

I think that's so interesting and just to, you know, really dive into sort of your day to day, which I'm super curious about, just so we let everyone know. So you're currently at Russo Partners and you are handling the social media and the PR strategy for biotech and pharma companies. I feel as though people probably have a skewed perception of what your day to day looks like. I would love just to hear, like, I mean, I'm sure every day is different, but on the whole, can you kind of walk us through what that, what that means and what you do?

Yeah, you're right. So normally it's. It's pretty different. Each day our clients are by the companies that we work with, with different media outlets. So, you know, we try to put them in journals, podcasts, so people can, like, learn about them and they can share their science. Big part of the day would be finding the right outlets, pitching, scheduling the calls, doing the media prep for these biotech clients. Because, you know, as we just discussed, not everyone is like, ready to just jump in and start talking about it. Then you kind of need some preparation. Another part is social media. So we help with social media a lot. And you know that it's probably, nowadays it's probably the primary channel of delivering information that people actually read and see, you know, right away on their phones. And let's be honest, many people, like, don't want to, like, read a long article. They just want to, like three sentences summarizing things. So of course, more companies starting to pay more attention to this. And so this is another part of my day really helping with social media. Content, we're designing fun ways to deliver information. And then there is also different type of support. When, let's say a company has a conference, a news release, we help with material development, which is a big part because, you know, when companies go through like clinical trials, so like there might be new data coming out, like new partnerships, you know, so we also help drop content for those news triggers. So it's like a little bit of everything, I would say media part, connecting with journalists, social media, material development, support conferences and different similar events.

It sounds fun. It sounds busy, but fun. At least your days are always a little bit unique. I'm just going to have to ask you. And again, the answer probably changes based on client, but when you are advising a biotech or a pharma company on setting up their social media channels, is it like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok? Like, do you have like a set thing? Like, I missed a TikTok trend. I didn't do. I'm not on TikTok. I feel like it's beyond me, but people are like, no, TikTok is everything now. And I, I am so curious. You're an actual professional, so I'm going to ask you, like, I just basically use LinkedIn. So am I just missing the whole.

You're not missing a trend.

No.

I think LinkedIn and Twitter are the top two channels for most companies. Uh, and then I would say Facebook would be number three. So the reason is that many companies still try to stay very, very professional. And as we know, LinkedIn and Twitter, they're more professional than, let's say, Instagram or TikTok. Especially connecting with investors. This is very helpful. Facebook, for example, is very useful to connect with your patients and advocacy organizations. So there are companies that are very, very keen on connecting, you know, with that part of the audience. And they actually use Facebook a lot because not every patient will go on LinkedIn. But there's many advocacy organizations on Facebook. We have a few clients who do Instagram kind of trying to jump on the trend, but, you know, sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. And we do receive questions sometimes about TikTok. I don't know, it's an interesting. Like, I wouldn't say that it's popular in biotech. No, it's not. But I'm kind of like feeling like there is a potential. Right. Because more and more people use it and the generation of people who are on TikTok now, they're growing up, so they starting to think of it differently. Right. So they kind of maybe Some of them as like becoming investors and they might be, you know, jumping on some, some opportunities in the future and they just, it just happened to be that they have a TikTok because, you know, just because of their age. I think it's definitely worth keeping an eye on it. But it's also important not to just jump on any trend. You really have to think and if you're a company and you just jump on everything, it's not a good indicator. Right. Because you're like a biotech company, you're supposed to be smart. So if you just jump on things without thinking through, it's not going to be seen in a positive way. For example, threads, right when it came out, everyone jumped on it. I don't know where it is now. I think it's done already. Some of our clients were asking, should we do press? We were like, let's wait a little bit.

Yeah, we're seeing TikTok being used by some companies, not biotechs yet, but larger companies or, you know, non biotechs for employer branding. And I'm wondering if that's where we're going to go. I do think there's the employees, if not investors. The employees in that generation is demanding to like get a peek inside the company. They really want to know their employer before they, you know, jump on. They want to know the culture and the mission and the values and all of that. So I could see that someday.

I totally agree. I think people nowadays appreciate transparency more than anything. And those social channels more like everyday social, like TikTok Instagram, they are more about transparency because they, the, they kind of portray the everyday things right. People like stories, what's happening now? So I don't know the ways that it can be implemented just yet. Right. I mean you can just like, oh, this is our lab. See all our like secret experiments and data, you know, like it's not how it would work obviously, but yeah, there is some way that in the future I think it will be implemented. So we'll see.

I have a prediction and you're welcome to steal my prediction if you would like to. I predict that not long from now it will be expected that when you post a job, you post it on TikTok as a video. I predict that candidates will want to see the hiring manager talk through the job the day to day. They're going to want to see that. I think that's going to be coming down the pipe.

I also think, yeah, it might be, but I also think that it's not necessarily just TikTok. Because I think what we learned from TikTok is people like short videos. We went from long text, from the articles to short text posts, and we went to the pictures, like on Instagram, and now it's videos, which is. You don't even, you know, you just watch it and you're done. Like, you got all the information. And Instagram has reels now, for example, when I go on Instagram, I go to reels and vertical formats, which you can check from your phone. So I think that's the key, to be honest. It should be like vertical format so you can access through your mobile device. And, you know, while you go to work, you like just swipe up, I'm sure, like LinkedIn and Twitter maybe, I don't know, they can implement similar strategy, you know. So I think it's more about that than the actual platform.

Yeah, no, I think you're right. Yeah. TikTok sort of popularized it and now all the other platforms are like, oh, people like those little tiny snippets, those little videos. Yeah.

Have you seen a lot of clients drop off Twitter X or whatever the heck Elon Musk is calling it these days because of all the controversy? Like, do you see a lot of brands pulling back or has it not really been a thing?

Not much, no. It was also a question from the clients, what should we do now? When this whole thing happened, what should we do now? We said the same, let's just wait and see. And honestly, it seems like not much changed. People still use it and everyone is still active in my circles with my clients hasn't changed and we still get like similar engagements, so that's fine.

I am definitely thinking a lot about AI these days for all the different things. Yeah, I imagine your, your field is definitely not immune. Can you tell us all about what you're thinking about in AI right now?

Yes. So I like it. I like the idea of AI. I definitely think this is one of the trends that is worth jumping on and kind of do your research, what can be done right away. So we all know it started with ChatGPT, right. And then there was so much discussion about it. Should we use it? Should we not? Is it like plagiarism in a certain way? Right. Are you leaking some important information to the cloud? So these are all very valid questions. And right now we should be very, very careful with how you use it because they are all very relevant problems. What I do like about the idea of AI right now is that it can help with kind of like broadening your mind a bit maybe and offering like a different angle to certain things. For example, I don't, if I need to draft something, I don't use ChatGPT just to like write the whole thing or you know, even like copy paste sentences. But you can always like consult with this. You can ask, hey, what's the other way to say it? What's a better way to present it? And it just gives you some ideas and I actually like it. ChatGPT does help me in that sense a lot. And then you can also see lots of AI being integrated to like design platforms, for example, like Tenpa, some others that you use for like social media. But those I didn't find very useful. I think those kind of just tried to bring attention just by calling it AI and you know, being popular. But I hadn't seen much useful stuff in that area yet. But there's definitely so many different platforms, everyone is doing something, so it's worth investigating because some of those things are useful, but some of them is just like a buzzword around something.

I was totally on your wavelength about like having it in Canva because it came out in Canva and I was like, oh, that's amazing. I use Canva all the time, it's going to be so useful. And then I proceeded to not find a single use for it that I actually liked. And then yesterday I was teaching an accelerator office hours, which we have an accelerator program for some of our job seekers. And one of my students in there had designed his LinkedIn profile banner image. Like that goes behind using Canva's AI. And it was stunning, it was beautiful. And I had complimented him on it a few weeks ago. And then he like showed everyone how he made it on Canva. It was just by asking the AI like certain questions. It was pretty cool.

I guess another problem with AI is that you cannot replicate some of the stuff, right? Especially visual. Like if you just ask something from Canva or other platform to design things and then you know how many companies they keep a certain branding, they try to follow similar images, similar colors and let's say you generate something with AI and they liked it. If you ask AI second time to do similar thing, it will not give you necessarily the same. So how do you keep up with that? Right? But speaking of that, my LinkedIn banner was also trained with the AI. I don't know if you saw that, but it's called Neural frames. I have a few posts on my LinkedIn you can check, which is just like a pretty little, pretty default animation but yeah, for now, that's more like for fun.

Hey there. Just a quick break. I wanted to let you know that if you're listening to this podcast because you are exploring careers in biotech, which it turns out quite a few of our listeners actually are, you might be interested in the Biotech Career Coach podcast. It is brought to you by our sister company, the Collaboratory Career Hub, which is our career development community. If you would like actionable tips on job seeking and career development, that is the place for you. It is a companion podcast to our Career Coach column that we write monthly in biospace. But we go a little more in depth and sometimes we have special workshops and all of that good stuff. So if that sounds interesting, click the link in the show notes or search for the Biotech Career Coach on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts back to the show.

I think, though, that you brought up something really interesting. I was going to bring it up separately, but we're going to talk about in the context of AI. I feel like brand voice and individual voices are so important, right? I mean, it's everything and you want to connect. And I know that you can train some of the AI and the machine learning, the chat GTPs to sound like so and so and be like so and so. Right. And it'll kind of spit something out in that voice. But when you are working with a brand, I'm sure part of your job is to develop that voice. And so I think that's super interesting. So when you sit down with a client, I guess my. I have a lot of questions around this. I guess at what point in time would you want someone to come to you, you know, a company to come to you and say we need help developing our voice? Like, do you want them to have established who they are and then come to you, or do you help them find that and then, you know, do you ever find that people are going ahead with AI and it's just completely convoluting the messaging because it's not in the voice that you, you know, you're working to craft.

Many companies that we work with, they already have something. You know, they already have a. They like have a website. They have like established base. They have established sometimes not. They don't maybe necessarily have like all the social media platforms, but they have something. They do have like colors they prefer and aesthetics. So I actually haven't, yeah. Met a client who said, okay, we're doing this science, but we don't know how we want to present ourselves. Develop a grant for us. So this, this hasn't happened. Usually they already know, you know, because I mean they've been working on this drug. They have a mission, right? So they kind of in their head they kind of understand the voice around the mission. So the version know they have an idea of how they want to prevent present themselves. So we just help to present it actually and like tailor it.

What size company typically comes to you? What's the ideal size?

Anything to be honest, like from very early stage companies. There's from pre clinical, I would say the majority would be phase one, two early stage biotech companies. And we do have late stage stage and we have big pharma and we also have nonprofits. So it's a range that's interesting.

That must make for a really fun workday though because you're working on like a really small startup or a super established company and that's gotta be a pretty big switch right there.

Especially bigger clients, they want focus more on thought leadership and the values of the company, you know, because they already established while early companies they actually want to highlight their science and educate the audience about what they do. So yeah, it's, it's a maritality.

And when you're working with earlier stage companies, I imagine that the funding conversations are a little bit more prevalent there. And how are they going to think about their branding in relationship to the funding? A lot of the times they can't publicly say much about what they're doing. So I imagine that is more investor dex and investor related.

We do have an investor relations team in my company and they're mostly dealing with that. We also help with with the bags and assistant guide, certain questions related to this.

So one of my questions is around success. And it's really, really hard to measure success when you're talking about PR and social media. But what are the metrics that you think people should be looking at when they're trying to gauge like is this working, is this effective? Or do you just say it's the long game and just keep doing it and it'll work out in the end?

I think there are some very straightforward metrics, right for social media. We'll look at the engagement impressions of the posts, the number of followings. Sometimes we can run a little social media campaign and then we see 2000% increase in the following in two weeks. That's a great metric. I think that's what social media is about is how many people see it and then how many people want to follow you after or how many people click on your website on your post for public relations. I mean definitely it's a win when you place a client on a podcast or in a magazine. And then I guess it varies by the level of that outlet like the UVMs, the listenership. Of course if you place somebody on the COVID of Wall Street Journal that's self explanatory. So yeah I think those are honestly like very, very straightforward metrics of success.

What other types of media outlets do you target for? Let's say smaller biotechs that are looking to get their name out there.

It's mostly podcasts and magazine. If you talk about some like more High Tier 1, you know we do aim sometimes for like Wall Street Journal endpoints, fears, life science leaders. And then you know there are some which are more specific to a particular industry. You know, whether it's neuroscience or cancer research, some journal of oncology, you know, target oncology for example or whether it's rare disease, you know, it's also like in that sense you can certify and another way sometimes it's smart to think whether we want to be kind of more vocal or not. So you know, if the company is based let's say in California we might find some business journal like some Orange county business journal and just you know put it there because it's actually more beneficial for people around to notice the company versus let's say the nationwide. And like of course nationwide is also great but that's like another way to think about it.

I'm fascinated by media and our biotech niche is just so it's not widely appreciated. So it's, it's difficult to get placed I imagine in like the real national big outlets because it's like we have this rare disease drug that's going to change the lives of 1,000 people.

It's just hard to get there definitely. I mean unless it's like market moving. Right? That's what we call it. Then it's really hard skills and how you present. But also in the end of the day I believe that it all comes down to how well the company is doing obviously. Uh, you know, I mean if they completing phase three study and ready to go for FDA for FDA approval. So it's also kind of self splinter right Then high tier magazines, they will pay more attention. So it's a combination of both. But yeah we, we shall not forget that. There is also like the part where you know the company should be producing good data, should be a credible company, should be transparent. Our job is to present it in a good like in the right way, in the correct way, in the appealing way.

So, Alex, you know, a lot of the people who listen to the podcast, they are thinking about finding a biotech. They're new founders. It's early stages. Right. Say they're not at the point where they can work with you and Russo partners, but they're like, we gotta start building some type of a presence. What advice do you have for them? Because I read this stuff online. It's like, make sure you post every day and post on this schedule and do this like, and it's, that's a, that's literally we're talking to you because it's a full time job. So for someone who's like, I just need to do something, what's your advice? Like just have the page and intermittently post. Don't even bother. Like, what's the best thing we could tell someone who's getting off the ground?

Yeah, I would say first of all, try to be a bit diverse. You know, some companies just like post whenever there's like a corporate update and sometimes it can be like a bit boring. So try to be maybe a human. It's important to highlight that these humans working at the company, the appreciation towards some stakeholders. For example, many companies actually we've seen, they got the highest number of engagements and impressions on the posts that appreciated their employees. Yes. Because the public that is on social media, they're like, oh, this we already know the company is doing great science. Oh, but they also care about the employees a lot. That's wonderful. From my experience, this is a very.

Important aspect we hear a lot about. Founders need to be thought leaders. Founders need to be putting out content that shows that they are industry leaders. And so we see a lot of founders doing a lot of their own posting on their, you know, on their LinkedIn, for example. Is that something you also help with or is it just company specific?

This is a bit less common. I would say that we definitely have some leaders who ask advice and who want to do that. They want to be more active on their personal pages, but it's still a minority for some reason.

How do you feel about it personally? Do you think that helps the company, hurts the company?

In my experience, it has not hurt the company. No. I think when once in a while a leader posts something, it might even add a bit of credibility. Right. To whatever is corporate page is posting. Because when they share their personal professional opinion about something on top of like obvious data readout or something else, it just supports it even stronger. Or when they acknowledge let's say there's like a cancer awareness day, right. And they acknowledge also shows their passion for this problem and the reason why they do that, not just on the company's corporate page, but on the personal page. So in my opinion, it's a good practice and it hasn't hurt yet.

Bringing it back to you, what is your favorite part of your job and what is your least favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job would be I like talking to clients a lot. I like the kickoff calls when we have new clients and you have to learn their science, right? That's our first step. You talk to a client, you learn about what they want and then you spend some time studying their science. And I guess that's why I still wanted to have the connection with science, right. Because I still like that aspect learning. So that's really fun because you learn all this incredible technologies. And I like social media a lot because it's very creative. There is so much you can do and introduce. Many biotech companies are very, very appreciated. I mean they don't, they don't have time to think about that, right? Like when they run those clinical trials, research, trying to bring new drugs and then you come up with something like nice, appealing and help them spread their message, they really appreciate, appreciate it for that. And that's the fun part. I enjoy it. Maybe on a lesser favorite side, it's sometimes a struggle to schedule things when, when you're an in between person. You know, when you try to connect the company with a journalist and God forbid there is anyone else. Some like a round table with many leaders, you know this, the scheduling can be. And the CEOs, of course PR is important, but it's not number one. Number one is the company. And you know, sometimes people cancel like five minutes before they're like, yeah, no, not can, cannot make it. And then we had situations when, you know, we've been late. There were like some opportunities like dragging on for like months and months and months of rescheduling. But that's normal, right? That's the nature of the job. That's one of the things that you gotta do. And it's also understandable. Everyone is professional, everyone is a busy person. But that's the challenging part for me.

If you replace your title with recruiter, what you just described is literally the answer I think anybody on my team would give, including me, because we love being close. So I have a PhD and so do all my recruiting team, right? And we love the kickoff calls, we love the client Calls. We love talking to the candidates. Cause it's all staying close to the science and just learning and. And then yeah, the scheduling, it's just terrible. And we feel ya. You could really be a recruiter. I mean you probably should stay where you are. It's a tough industry right now.

One other question I have for you in regards to sort of your personal experience. If someone wanted to have your job and they want to be a scientific communicator and they want to do the social and primary, what advice would you have for them in their early stages? Maybe they're still in school, maybe they're transitioning. What do you think is like if you could go back and be like, oh, if I had known this thing, it would have helped me so much.

I guess just knowing that there are options and what options are there is great. So like, I hope you know, for somebody listening to these podcasts and like similar episodes where people from different industries share the experience would be very helpful because I had no idea there is a biotech pr, social media specialist job. So just because I was like, yeah, science communication brotheria. How do I even. What do I type in? Google search to find the job? You know, so knowing that would help a lot. Also things that are important to think. Of course, you know, if you study science, still kind of try to stay a good scientist, it's always great to see that you understand things, you can analyze things. Right? Because at the end of the day you deal with scientists. It's important. But I mean you can also come from other backgrounds. You know, we have many people that come from communication. So writing and actually it's the mix make like a great pr. I think some of the things that can help you, I think like if you like something, if you feel like you like talking about it, don't be afraid and just do like Write a little LinkedIn essay on your for your own page. You know, just like share some opinion. Just kind of put yourself out there so that once you find the company, lots of times they would ask, oh, show us your creative writing skills. And at that time all I could show is my dissertation. I don't think counts for creative writing. So yeah, like, you know, curate your own LinkedIn, make great visuals. If you enjoy it, you then, you know, just show like, hey, here's my page and I can do the same for your clients. Or write some short articles to some magazines when they ask like, oh, like an opinion column or something like that.

What's your favorite book? What's a book? You think Everyone should read.

I will share the book that I actually read recently this year, and it was super interesting. So it's called the Empress and the English Doctor. I like Russian history. I like the period of Catherine the Great. I think she was one of the best things that happened to Russia because she was very progressive and innovative. And this story is about how she was the first one to introduce vaccination in Russia. She heard about this doctor in England who was practicing, like, inoculation, that the old version of vaccination, and she invited this doctor to Russia to save people from smallpox. But she knew that Russian people, they need, I don't know, like, a credible voice. So what she did, she vaccinated herself first, and she did it in secret because at the time, she knew there was still a risk she might not survive. So she even arranged escape carriage for the doctor from. From the country in case she wouldn't survive otherwise, like, they would kill him. Right. Uh, so she did this whole thing. She obviously survived, and then, you know, she spread vaccination all across Russia. So this was great because this is a history book. This is a science book because you learn about the history of vaccination and it's also like a political affairs book. And it reads like fiction. It reads like a story, not like, you know, like history report or something. So it's called the Empress and the English Doctor.

I'm buying that tonight. That's going in my Amazon cart immediately after that. Sounds fascinating. I had no idea. I had no clue. What a great leader, though, to put yourself in the situation where, like, I may not survive this, but if I do, this is what this country needs. I mean, incredible.

That was a great recommendation. I'm excited. I'll read it, too. Okay. Where can our audience connect with you if they want to network with you or learn more about what you do?

I would say on LinkedIn. And, yeah, that's the best way to connect.

All right. I think people are going to be really interested in your career path and also in the biotech aspects of, you know, what. What even PR and social media can do for biotechs. It's definitely an afterthought. It's not something that a lot of biotechs think of. I think maybe early enough so maybe we'll get people's wheels turning.

Great. It was really big pleasure talking to you. I loved sharing all my experiences and have this nice conversation.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, Alex. We loved having you on. And maybe we'll do a round two in the future.

Definitely. Yeah.

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