From Science to Business: Career Chat with Priya Baraniak, PhD, Chief Business Officer at OrganaBio

What is a Chief Business officer? Have you considered a career away from the bench that's still very close to the science? If so, this episode is for you because we have an amazing guest on the show today. Priya Baraniak is the Chief Business Officer at Organa Bio and I actually interviewed her on the Building Biotechs podcast where we really went deep on the strategy she's employed to help build Organa Bio. But today she's going to talk to us about her career. Really? How did she get here, what challenges and opportunities did she have along the way, and how did her network help to lift her up? So I really believe this episode has something for everyone. Whether you're thinking the business route or not, her role is very close to the science. Still, it is not a traditional Chief Business Officer role. She does have her PhD and she is very involved in the scientific direction of the company as well. So just a quick note, we do cut off the Q and A section for these podcasts, but you are welcome to join our free community and review the full career chat. We do want to protect people's anonymity and so I'm not putting them out on the podcast if they haven't agreed explicitly to be on the podcast. So to make it easier, I just remove the Q and A. But that is available to you if you want to see it. We had some great questions for Priya, so I highly recommend it.

I'm Karina Klingman, scientist turned CEO of a talent strategy consulting firm. I've helped over 85 biotechs hire and develop thousands of amazing employees.

So I know what works and what.

Doesn'T work when it comes to landing a job and then excelling in it. I created the Biotech Career Coach Podcast to give you simple, actionable, step by step strategies to help you land your dream biotech job, then move up the career ladder. If you are exploring career paths, looking to learn about biotech, or simply striving to be the type of person who makes an impact and gets promoted, you're.

In the right place. All right, with that, let's go into our discussion with Priya. Priya, thank you so much. I am so excited to chat with you again. I wanted to have this conversation specifically to go through your career path, what you've learned, all the wisdom you can share with people. And so I'm just curious if you would take us through. I know I asked you this before last time, but could you take us through your career path? What are you doing now and how did you get There.

Yeah, sure. So I am currently the chief business officer at Organa Bio. So as my title intimates, I do a lot on the commercial side of the organization, have built the sales, marketing, business development, product development, product management, project management engines here at Organa Bio as a founding member of the company. So I've been with the company now for five years. Prior to this I got my foray into business with my last startup. So organobio is actually my third startup that I've been involved with but never really saw my career going here and never anticipated being on the business side of things. In reality I always thought that I would be at the bench for the entire space span of my career and so this has been very serendipitous and as much as surprise to me as I think anyone who has known me for a very long time. I'm a biomedical engineer by training. I have a PhD in biomedical engineering. I always thought I was going to be a professor and that was actually my goal since eighth grade, was to have my own research lab. I knew exactly how it was going to be. I think I shared with you I wanted to have an air hockey table in the back so grad students could play air hockey and have a good time when experiments weren't working. And that was what I was tracking to right up until the very end of my postdoc and at the 11th hour. I'm a big believer in following your instincts and in listening to your gut if you will. And something just told me academia was not going to be the right fit for me. My personality as well as what I really wanted to get out of my career moving forward. I have a ton of respect for academics and everything that they do and we obviously stand on their shoulders in the research they're conducting. But for me, all the failed experiments were not the bulk of the legacy that I wanted to leave behind and I needed something a little more tangible. And so I decided to jump ship to industry and took a job at a small clinical stage startup. It was a very small company, just a handful of people in the King of Prussia area here in Pennsylvania and southeast Pennsylvania. And it was right up my ali right they were doing MSC based tissue engineered construct and so all of the research I had done to date had the technical skills and knowledge to do that, was excited to see what industry would bring right and so took that opportunity. I do want to share, you know, especially for any women on the call, that part of my calculus in leaving academia also was that I had my first two children back to back during my postdoc. My oldest two are 17 months apart. That was fast and furious. And being mom on top of the rigorous research schedule definitely did play into my decision to leave academia, not pursue the tenure track and to go into industry. And I don't think anyone should be ashamed of taking that personal piece into account when it comes to their career decisions. Right. And what path you choose and what's right for you at any phase of your life. Funny enough, I guess I thought it would be easier in industry and I think I've only continued to work harder and harder since my postdoc. You never know until you're there. But there's also, I think, a certain way we're wired and we work the way we work regardless of where we are a lot of the time. So I started at the small clinical stage, biotech. The beauty of it was because it was so small I got to do so many things. So I came in as a scientist, first job out of my postdoc and quickly they gave me the opportunity to start writing FDA 510 filings, actually getting on calls with FDA on writing patent claims and interacting with the USPTO on patent prosecution to interact with manufacturing quality control, quality affairs. And so I learned so much really quickly in the 13 months that I was there thanks to those opportunities and really got a sense for what it takes to take a cell based product from the bench to making it an actual product that could go into a human being. And I had no real appreciation for that coming out of my postdoc. What GTPs, GDP, GMPs were. Right. So that was a real eye opening experience and I had been promoted to head the science there and was leading a team. There was one night, June 3, 2013. I'm talking to our board of directors about our plan to move forward. What I need resource wise. Here's what we're working on. And I go to work the next day, June 4th, and I was usually there by 7:30 in the morning. My team would trickle in by 9, 9 o' clock comes and goes, no one's there. And I'm wondering, is it traffic? It can't be traffic. What's going on? And then the CEO comes in, sits down, down, burst into tears. I'm so sorry. Things took a turn overnight. The board decided to shut everything down. We're going to pursue an IP legal battle. We've already laid everyone else off. I wanted to let you know in person. Here's a box. Good luck. I'm so sorry. Thank you. And for the first time in my life, I didn't know what was next. I didn't have a plan. And that was a real shock to the system. And I remember taking my little box, putting it in my trunk, getting in my car, smiling. I pulled out of the parking lot and I immediately started crying. And I was driving home in tears, just having no idea what was going to happen. And I walked in the door and my nanny was, oh my God, why are you home? And I told her, she's, should I go? And I was like, don't go anywhere, don't leave me. I don't know what's going to happen. And so I walked around the house for a week, honestly, just not knowing what to do with myself. I'd never had a real break since undergrad. And then I started looking for jobs. Had several opportunities present themselves, but nothing that truly excited me, honestly. And I was very lucky that my husband was supportive. Said, don't just take a job to take a job. Really find something that excites you. Don't just jump into anything. And that's when? In the fall. So this was June 4th, October 3rd and 4th of that same year, 2013. So a few months later, I get a call back from our CEO who said, hey, another portfolio company for the VC that we were backed by, they're ramping up operations. I had actually written all their SOPs and helped them while I was working at this other company. She said, since you did all the SOPs, will you come in and do the work? It's going to be like a full time job, but for an acute period of time. You come in and then we need you to train other people, get this going. I said, sure, why not? I'll do that. The next morning my postdoc advisor called me, said, hey, I'm writing a grant for the first ever national cell manufacturing consortium. I've been asked to do that. This is going to be a national ERC that's housed down here and I need help. Now that you have this industry experience about all the GMPs, the industry perspective. And he and I always wrote grants really well together. He said, would you write this grant for me? Can I bring you in as a consultant to do this? And I said, yeah, sure, why not? This sounds fun, let's do it. And that is actually that grant was funded and CMAT is still in existence at Georgia Tech through today, which is really exciting to see all the work they're doing down there. And then that same day, I got a call from John Rowley who is the founder of Rooster Bio and I had interacted with him a few times during my postdoc and he called me and said, hey, I see you're not with this company you were with before. It might be both of our lucky days. I just started a company, here's what I'm doing. The value proposition was a no brainer to me. It made sense. And he said, here's the thing, I can't pay you, but if you're willing to work on it, I think it would be great. And so I talked to my husband, he said, you're obviously very excited about this. I have a stable job. Yeah, go ahead, try it out, let's see what happens. And I had the income coming from the other consulting work I was doing so I was like, all right John, let's do it. I can't move to Maryland, I can come down and help get things going. I've got a family, my husband's got a job up here. He said that's okay, I need you to build the business side, right? Use your network. I need you to get sales going, do the business development work, marketing. And I said, I'm a biomedical engineer, remember, I don't know anything about the business side of things. You'll figure it out. So we had to figure it out, right? And I said all right, this sounds exciting, it sounds like a great opportunity, let's do it. And so I started taking Coursera courses and calling people I knew and picking their brains and just blood, sweat and tears, right? Dug down and what publication is going to go through and I would export all the author lists manually for publications and then go to their websites and pull everyone in the lab, their lists and who was there in their emails and then go through news that came out and just generated manually our first lead lists and contact lists. And that's how we started and that's how we made it happen at Rooster. And there were three to start, then five, seven for a long time, 15 for a long time. And obviously Rooster has continued to grow from there. So I was with Rooster for the first five and a half years of the company and then was recruited by Organa Bio to come over to help build something at Organa Bio and again they had a very small team. They had just recruited a CEO who was he's ex Wall street, has a great financial background, really intelligent person, but doesn't come from the cell and gene therapy industry specifically. Our non executive chairman and founder had put in money through his family office and a friend's family office and wanted us to put together a business plan for what we were going to do in the cell and gene therapy space. The mandate was he did not want to be a therapeutics company. He did want to be more of a solutions provider, making a bet on the industry as a whole. And so with that in mind, we set out and built Organabio. And as I said, it's been five years now at Organabio, so I've just fallen into it honestly and through a lot of luck in just having great opportunities present themselves. A lot of luck.

And also, you have really worked your network. I think of you as a master networker. We met through a professional organization and we struck up a relationship there. And now you've connected me with people. I've connected with people through your network. You definitely. You are a good networker. And I think that's something to take away. Yes.

Yeah, that's really important. It's not even that you have to set out and be like, I want to network with this person or these people. But I think it's always being open to the conversations, always looking for the people in the room who maybe are a little uncomfortable and need someone to talk to them and help bring them into the fold. Because that's. That was me at first going into the business side from being at the bench and being a scientist was actually very painful. Right. To have to put yourself out there, to have to learn to pitch something, to get all the rejections and learn how to deal with that rejection, or people just not even wanting to make eye contact with you. And I used to be that person when I was a scientist. Right. Don't look at the people behind the booth. Don't look at the booth people. Just grab the pen and keep going. And so to be on the other side of the table was really hard, and it was really uncomfortable for a very long time. And the reason I laugh when you say I'm a. You think I'm a really expert networker is it's still painful for me. It's still uncomfortable. I never enter a room like, here we go. It's always, okay, Priya, let's go. You can do this. All right, look for the friendly. Start with someone friendly and then work your way around the room. But I think the reality is 90, 95% of people enter that networking event or that room feeling the same way. And so I think as long as you're open to conversations, always, I'm always ready to help people and make those connections. And how can I Help. And I'm a firm believer that when you do that, the universe returns that to you. Right. So similarly, through your network, I've met a number of people. There's always someone to call on if I need to pick someone's brain or need some help with something thanks to that network. So networking is super, super important.

Yeah, I love that. Always be helpful. I think if you can be the helpful person in the room, people really love that. Yeah. So I picked up on something and I don't think I picked up on it last time. So you went into Rooster basically unpaid. How long did that last? When did you start to get a paycheck? Imagine it wasn't all five years.

No, it wasn't too long. No spikers. Once we started selling products, it was a small commission just based on that, and we were quick to revenue. And so that did help with being able to generate some income based on that initially. Yeah.

Super good. Well, I'm glad. Glad to hear you get paid sometimes, though. The opportunity is just so good. You were talking about all of the things that you learned too, by being in the small companies. I think that's a real advantage of small companies. Yeah, they're more volatile. Maybe they don't pay sometimes for a short period of time. But you learn so much. Have you ever wondered what it might be like to work at like a Pfizer or something big?

Yeah, I get that question a lot. And we do business with a lot of very large companies and large pharma companies as well. And you can just by interacting with people there, the order of operations, the levels that, the different stakeholders you have to interact with to get something done. You do get a sense of the differences between. Between large organizations and small organizations. None of which is a surprise. I've been asked that question before. Would I go work at a large organization or why don't you? I think again, there would be a lot to learn by doing that and experiencing that. So I'm not averse to it, but I think for me, I really like building things. I think that's what it comes down to. I've been called an adrenaline junkie in the past, and maybe I am. I think living on the constant verge of fear and terror is maybe where I thrive. But I do enjoy this and I enjoy the strategy of all the different pieces, parts of the puzzle, parts of the organization, and pulling all of those together, sitting at that intersection of the science and the business. Maybe I should add that in my current role, I not only do the commercial things that A chief business officer would do. But I actually also help lead process development and manufacturing for Organobio and serve as our laboratory director. So I am involved very much day to day in everything we're doing in the science in the lab with our process development and manufacturing teams, interfacing with quality control, quality assurance, reviewing SOPs, batch records, deviations, CAPAs, and signing off on all of these things. As lab director I do all of that. And so I really sit at that intersection. I get to flex my scientific brain along with the business side every day and that's where I love sitting.

That's two distinct full time jobs that you just laid out there. So how do you manage that and keep yourself a little bit sane and still have time for your family, all that good stuff.

Yeah, I think the keeping myself sane thing, you might, you might get different answers from different people on that front. On the truth of that. It's really just a. It's a daily balancing act. I always say I get up early, I sit at my computer between getting the kids up, getting them off to school. Between the three kids, I have two in middle school now and one in elementary. Next year I'll have one in high school, one in middle and one in elementary. And that's a full time job, not just having children, but just managing the emails from the schools. Right now it's two, two schools that are sending us emails. Next year it's going to be three schools that are sending us emails. I could just spend time doing that, but I try to set my intention for the day. Here are my ABC priorities. Here are the things I absolutely must get done today. Here are the things really are still high priority, would be nice to get done. And then my C list, usually by 9, 30, 10 o' clock in the morning, that's gone to pot. Right. Because some things come up, some things happen, there's a fire to put out somewhere. So I think it's a constant balance of what absolutely has to get done to keep the company moving forward, to keep me moving forward, to give my colleagues what they need from me, to keep me from being a critical bottleneck, which I feel like I constantly am at the organization versus where is the fire, what's come up that's a priority. How do you pivot around that? A lot of days I do feel like my work gets done before 8 or 9am when meetings start and then again late at night after my kids are asleep and other people aren't online. Right. Is when I get the chance to sit and do my work. But it's not every day because in the evenings we've got three kids activities to get around town. Get them around town to sports and dance classes and horseback riding lessons and scouts and Kumon, which they love. And then in there somewhere, my husband's like, hey, would be great to have a conversation with you. Yeah, it's just every day's. It feels like chaos a lot of times, but controlled chaos. Right. And you're just trying to make sure that you're doing everything for everyone, which some days is quite frankly really overwhelming and depleting is the reality of it.

I can imagine. We feel doubly blessed to have you here then because this is fun. Good, I'm glad. I hope it's an unwind for you. Hey, I just want to cut in to say that if you are enjoying this podcast, you may enjoy the Building Biotechs podcast from our sister company, Recruitomics Consulting, which is a talent acquisition strategy firm that specializes in helping small biotechs hire exceptional talent. In that podcast, we interview amazing people who are building biotechs. They are industry leaders in all different verticals, and it will allow you to explore career paths in biotech and to get to know companies that maybe you've never heard about. So if you are a biotech fan, you are exploring careers in biotech, I highly recommend the Building Biotechs podcast. We'll link that in the show notes or you can search for it on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts. All right, back to our show. So the other thing that I picked up on was your transition into regenerative medicine and that whole vertical. I'm just, I don't think that enough people really understand what those career opportunities are, what that looks like. And I'm curious if you could outline the opportunities coming down the pipe there in terms of careers growth, all of that.

Yeah, I think in the regenerative medicine space in general, we really, we are jacks of all trades and masters of some is really the reality of, I think the people who thrive in regenerative medicine are the types of people that we need. We talk a lot about good athletes. Right. And make that analogy people who can, you can plug into different positions and they have the mindset, even if not the skill set, to plug into that position and just do what needs to be done on that day or for that period of time where you need them to do that. And so I think having multiple skill sets, multiple areas that you are well versed in, even if you're not an Absolute master makes you very attractive and qualified in this industry. Right there is obviously we're trained, we're educated to go very deep on certain things. I think that's something about biomedical engineering in general that I always said was as a biomedical engineer, I felt like a jack of many trades and I'd say master of none for a long time, right? As an undergrad, even part electrical engineering, part mechanical engineering, part biology, part chemistry, you've got a little bit of all of that coming together in this discipline. And then you choose to go to graduate school and hone that and go deeper into a certain area or areas. So I think the opportunities that are word and where people can make those opportunities for themselves and really find that they add value to an organization is if you can marry your technical skill set to some business acumen or. I have the technical and I have an understanding of regulatory and compliance. So I have the technical and I know how to put together a P and L and a budget and manage that. So technical and is, I think, very attractive in this industry. And any and all of these things can be taught to oneself or learn. You know, you can seek out the avenues to learn that again. Coursera, for me, courses early on were huge, right? And now in the age of even more digital platforms, 10 years later, 2013 versus 2024, there are so many courses out there that even top universities are offering and putting content out there. You can really go out and find any information you need from reputable sources and teach it to yourself. So I think that's the other thing, right, is to be a lifelong learner, to accept those challenges, to seek those challenges, to accept them, to continue learning, to say, okay, what's my little bit of a gap right now, right? I've got this piece, this piece and this piece. What am I missing and how do I go out and learn about that so that I have enough knowledge to be dangerous there?

I love that we have a lot of folks that are between jobs here. They've been laid off, they're sort of brushing up. And I see a lot of people taking courses, coding courses, just all kinds of stuff. So, yeah, it's good to know that pays off. I have one more question for you before we jump into the Q and A. But if you have a question for Priya, go into the chat and just type out your question and I will try and get to those in order. So I am curious what you are most excited about from your career. What was the thing that you just look back on and you're like that was earth shattering. That changed my trajectory. That was the thing.

Ooh, definitely. John Rowley changed my trajectory by giving me the opportunity at Rooster Bio. Right. There is no doubt that I never would have ventured into the business side of things without him making that phone call and giving me that opportunity and pushing me in that direction and having the faith that I'd figure it out. I have to give him a lot of credit for where I am today thanks to that opportunity. That's not something I would have sought out myself. Right. And done in terms of a really exciting moment, I'd have to say. And again, it's funny how your network works. It comes into play here. One of our very first huge accounts at Rooster, multibillion dollar pharma company that we got in on the ground floor with as they started into regenerative medicine. They did not have a program in regenerative medicine. Historically they were a small molecule company. And they decided to start looking at regen med and cell based therapies. And I was at our first conference that John and I did. So this was in October of 2013. We flew down to Atlanta for the termes Tissue engineering, Regenerative Medicine, International Society. And we had nothing, right? Nothing at this point. So I went to Staples. I printed out postcards that had a rooster logo and an image of mscs that my postdoc advisor very graciously allowed us to use because we didn't have a camera that could take images of our mscs at the time. So that was an image of mscs from my postdoc. We took that, those postcards down there. We shared a booth with another company because we couldn't afford a booth. And we just worked the room. People we knew, we went to posters, we handed out the postcard, hey, we're starting this company or we've started this company. This is what we're doing. And I was standing at the top. So I did my postdoc at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. So it was going back to Atlanta. I was standing at the top of the elevators, I remember at the hotel where the conference was being held, talking to one of my very close friends who postdoc with me. And this guy walks up and he goes, hey, aren't you Andy Baroniak's wife? And I was so taken aback because I had never been. I don't think that might be the one and only time in my life I've ever been like, had someone come up to me and identify me that way. Now it's aren't you so and so's mom is pretty much the bulk of my identity outside of work. So I was like, yeah, I am. And when he introduced himself, it started to click for me. He had done his PhD with my husband and he was leading this regenerative medicine program at this company. And so they became one of our first customers. We got in on the ground floor with them, helped them build the program, and I had actually left Rooster by the time they dosed their first patient with their MSC derived Exosome therapeutic. I recall early days of Organa. My phone rang one day and I answered it because I saw it was him and I was like, hey, what's up? He said, I just had to share this really exciting news. We just dosed our first patient for this pediatric trial. And I had to call and tell you, even though you're not at Rooster, because you were such an, such an integral part of us getting here and this happening. And that was so cool. I don't think I did very much, honestly. I think he was being very generous, but I so appreciated that call. This is why we're in this industry, this is why we're doing. What we do is so that these therapies can move to patients, we can improve quality of life, we can save lives, and especially a pediatric trial as a mom, that hits home. So that was really cool.

That's amazing. Thanks for sharing that. So you're putting yourself out there in these professional organizations. Do you find that's worthwhile for you? Have you found a lot of luck in these professional organizations?

I think again, from a networking perspective, absolutely, it's worthwhile. Right. So you meet a lot of different people. I met you, like you said, through army and BioFab USA. And so it just increases your sphere and the people you're able to interact with and that, you know, as a small company, our visibility is always really important. And how do we gain visibility? How do we gain credibility? And so that was another way of promoting Organa Bio, if you will. Right. Is through involvement in those kind of activities and having a role with these organizations. I think also you just always learn. Right. So any of these leadership advisory committee meetings or technical advisory subcommittees. Yes, it's time and it takes some time. But you learn so much about the industry, you learn so much about different perspectives that people bring to the table based on, you know, I'm coming from a quality perspective, I'm coming from a commercial perspective, I'm coming from a technical perspective, and all of that you bring back and it comes to bear on what you're doing on your organization and adds tremendous value. So although it can seem like one more thing to do, I really do think that where you can find the time to participate in those sort of working groups and different advisory committees, things like that, it's really important. The other thing is also it's a way of giving back. Right. A lot of times. And so you're also offering your time, your expertise, your knowledge to other individuals, other organizations, and then to conversations that are again, essential to moving the industry forward. And I think you have, and I have talked about this in the past, but we talk a lot about regulators, regulations, having a voice with regulators, making sure we're engaging them, starting to educate them as we're learning more and more about this nascent field. But it's also, I think important for us to take time to be active with legislators as well. They're making the laws that the regulators and that we are going to have to abide by. They're setting strategies for reimbursement and other things that greatly affect us and the patients that we're ultimately trying to help. And so I think it's also really incumbent upon us to take that responsibility, not just say, oh, we don't have anyone in Congress who understands this and we don't have any regulators who get this. What can we do? Right. And how can we participate as individuals and then via these organizations that are trying to do these things to advocate for and be a part of those activities and move the field forward outside of just the technical.

Okay, I have a hard hitting question. So you have been on both sides of the table, you have been laid off and you have had to do some layoffs in the past. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? Because people feel, they internalize this a lot. They feel very bad about being laid off. Yeah, it's hard on the other side of the table too. How have you managed that and the communication around it and all of the intricacies there?

Yeah, first job out of postdoc, I got laid off, as they said. And that was such a shock to the system. And it is oftentimes it's not through anything that you've done. There is a distinct difference between being laid off and being fired. It's the same outcome, but there is very much a distinction between the two, obviously. And a layoff is typically organizationally there's some right. Sizing to do or downsizing for financial reasons or whatever it might be that are more likely than not out of Your control. But that being said, as you mentioned, it's still just this awful feeling. And especially, I think, for all of us who are very driven and accomplished, and we take our jobs very personally, whether we're supposed to or not, and whether we strive to or not, it becomes a big part of who we are. And you take a deep. You're very passionate about it. You take deep ownership in it. It definitely does. It definitely does. Cut. So it was very painful. But you. I think with every door that closes there, you look for the opportunities that open themselves, that present themselves, and how you might leverage that. Um. But, yeah, I took it hard. There's no two ways around that. Like I said, I got in my car, I put on a brave face until I pulled out of the parking lot, and then I devolved into tears on the other side. Having to essentially decide or be part of the team that decided to go through a riff and having to let people go was an equally bad feeling, if not even worse. Right? Because now I was like, I feel a lot of ownership in this, that I could have controlled this. I should have been able to control this. If I had done things differently or if we. We had done things differently, might the outcome have been different? Again, there were a lot of things that were out of our control, from the economy to just trends in the industry that. That hurt us and that came to bear on that, but felt a deep responsibility for that happening. And the fact that there were a lot of people, a lot of colleagues that I respected, that I cared for, that I knew what was happening for them personally. I knew about their families, I knew about their aspirations to buy a home or do whatever. And to have to tell these people, I'm so sorry, we're going to have to part ways was the worst day of my career. It wasn't the day I got laid off. It was actually the day that I had to participate in letting people go. To date was the most painful day for me. I think the thing is, in either case, you just have to lean into it and understand that people are going to feel the way they feel, Especially if you're sitting on the side of the table where you are having to let people go. We. I. One of the things that astounded me when we had to go through this was just how gracious people were. 99% of people were so kind and understanding. And they said. They sat there and they said, I really appreciate the opportunity you guys gave me. I learned so much. I really enjoyed my time here. I understand. Thank you. And I remember sitting there and being like, can you just scream at me? I feel so much better. If you just screamed at me right now and told me you hated me, why are you being nice? But people really were very gracious. There were a couple who took it a little bit harder. And it's understandable. It's a, like I said, a complete shock to the system. And it's painful. And then I think the thing after that was okay. That day happened and we made a firm commitment to ourselves that we were going to do this, rip it off like a band aid. It was going to be one day and that was going to be it. We were not going to prolong this beyond a day. We wanted to be able to say to the people who we kept at the organization, who still had their jobs, that this is it. There isn't another wave coming. This is it. Now we move forward from here. We restructure. We have to do some restructuring, some reorganization. Here's how it looks for the future. Even though you say that, you know that people are shaken to their core, right? Honestly, the day after felt even harder than the day of, because you have people coming back to work now with uncertainty. They've lost colleagues that they cared for, that they formed relationships with. It almost felt funeral esque in a lot of ways, the next day, right? And you have to, as a leader, you have to put on a brave face. You have to acknowledge that and that it was hard. No one wants to hear. It was hard on you as a leader, right? You, at least for me, I didn't feel comfortable sharing. Like, hey, yesterday really sucked for me too, guys, right? It didn't seem fair to say that. So instead it was okay. Yesterday was hard. Where do we go from here? And some people will tell you, right? They'll come in and they'll cry and they'll tell you how they feel. And you're really just sitting with the people and their emotions. And the people have to come first in that really acute period, right? Whether you get work done, whether you've got that new plan in place or not, the first thing is to make sure the people who are there are taken care of emotionally, physically, and they feel safe again at work. And some people won't talk about it, and some people just will hold. You have to hold that space for them and wait for them to be ready. And then there were others who said, again, we're so gracious, and said, I bet yesterday was really hard for you. Priya, how are you doing? So it's A lot of emotion and it's just, it's all about the people.

Again, that all really resonates. Yeah, we went through a round of layoffs recently that I can't even express how it was. It's just horrible. And so I think it's important for people to hear that from the other side. You may be in that you all may be in that situation at some point where you now, you can take this experience you've had of being laid off and you can bring it compassionately forward into the future, into a time where you may have to let some folks go on your team. It's a real thing.

I think at this point, you look at the fierce biotech tracker from last year, this year, if you haven't been laid off, are you even in the industry? True. The rite of passage, I think it should be one of those things where it's just, let's all just start treating it like a rite of passage. Yep. You get knocked back a little, what do you do? You get up and you come at it more fiercely and you're going to land on your feet. There are plenty of opportunities out there, so don't let it get you down. Take the time you got to sit in the shower and cry. Sit in the shower and cry. But then pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and let's go.

Yeah, feel the feels. I think people can connect with you on LinkedIn.

Yes. I'm always happy to find time to chat, do a virtual coffee, whatever it might be. Paying it forward, like you said. Pay it forward. Right. There have been so many people who've been very generous with their time with me and so I try to pay that forward.

Definitely. Thank you so much. This was wonderful. Everyone. Please thank Priya for being here and we'll hopefully see you in the future. Maybe we'll check in as things progress in your career.

Thank you, Karina. Always great to talk to you and thanks, everyone. Bye bye.

There you have it. That was the wonderful Priya Baronyk and we are so fortunate to have been able to have this conversation with her about her career. She is so gracious and generous with her time. So please do link in with her if you get a moment. She's definitely somebody you want in your network and as always, if you want to participate in the conversation, jump into our free community. I did cut out a lot of the question and answer so that people feel like they can ask questions freely within these conversations and that they're not going to become part of the podcast. If you want to check out the full conversation, just get into our community and you can always review these videos. We'd love to have you in there for the next conversation. We have these chats approximately every two weeks and we're always looking for speakers. So if you know somebody who would be great on this career chat series, please reach out to me and let me know who they are. Thanks so much and bye for now. Thanks so much for listening to the.

Biotech Career Coach Podcast by the Collaboratory Career Hub. To join our free Slack group and to get access to other great free resources and materials, head over to CollaboratoryCareerHub.com and be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn. When you connect with me on LinkedIn, you get instant access to my entire network of biotech folks, which is powerful for your career. If you found this podcast valuable, please subscribe or follow us on YouTube so that you never miss an episode. And if you leave us an honest review, screenshot that review and send it to hellolaboratorycareerhub.com we'll give you totally free access to our popular LinkedIn course so that you can learn all of the secrets behind creating a magnetic LinkedIn profile that drives your career forward. Have an amazing week and we'll see you back here next Friday.