Episode 155: Answering YOUR Questions Part 1 – Biotech Career Advice and Professional Development

Being smart is not the same thing as being good at your job, and being good at your job is not the same thing as being smart.

Today, we're answering some listener-submitted questions about your career.

You're listening to Bio from the Bayou, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

Each episode provides insights and information to expand your network, advance your product line, and help your company thrive.

Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Hello everyone, and welcome back.

Welcome back to Bio from the Bayou. I'm Ian McLaughlin, producer of the Bio from the Bayou podcast, and I am taking over. I'm wresting control from Elaine and James today. We are doing an episode talking about your listener questions. We got some questions from Haley Marcotte from Nucleate, previous guest on the podcast, and I am now the question master asking Elaine and James.

You're a dungeon master and a question master?

Yes, I am a dungeon master and a question master.

DMQM, just add it to the resume. And I love it because the pressure is off.

I want a 20-sided die.

Yes, I have plenty. I have plenty I could give you.

Well, let's roll for initiative.

You see what I did there? Yes, I love it. I love it.

And let's get into some questions. I'm excited about these. Yeah, Haley was really nice and gathered some questions, and we thought this would be a good format. We've never done the listener questions, and I hope that this is a recurring thing. So if you have questions, Some things that you're dying to ask us.

Send them in, y'all.

Yep. No topic too— I don't know. Do we need to put boundaries on this? Maybe we don't.

I think something to do with biotech or science or something. If you think you would hear it on the Bio from the Bayou podcast, you could send it in as a question. Yeah.

Is James a Leo? He's a Leo. He likes Leo.

Yes.

Leo reign. He is single.

Yes. We got to mention that every time.

Is Annabelle not Sponsored us yet, given how much we talk about.

Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Send it to my email. Send your request for sponsorship.

Tagging them on LinkedIn. But does Taco Bell have LinkedIn? That would be weird.

Oh boy.

Oh, I bet they do.

I bet they do.

Anyway, let's get into it.

Yes.

So this episode, it's sad that I have to get Elaine back on track.

You know it's a bad day. Usually it's the other way around.

Well, today. We are talking about career professional development, uh, specifically. We've kind of grouped these questions a little bit, thanks to Elaine. So, my first question for y'all, or I guess Nucleate's first question for y'all, is what makes someone a really good professional?

I don't know if this, I mean, this, this intro—

Can we answer this?

Qualify? Yeah. Do we qualify as professional anymore? Maybe not. James, I'm gonna let you as the, I'm gonna say this, elder statesman of the group.

Oh, you did not.

I did.

I did. All right. Well, I, I, I guess with this, you know, the things I always like to think of that, you know, when I'm trying to put my professional boy suit and pants on or whatever. Being reliable, trying to ensure that you live up to your word as much as possible. And if you can't, to communicate that, which just goes to communicating clearly and staying curious. Like, always ask the why and what's driving people because you never know.

That's, I mean, I hate to say ditto, but reliability is one of my biggest bugaboos of like working with people. I want people I want reliability and trust. I want to be able to trust you. I want people that mean what they say and do what they promise. And then if they don't, that they tell me and they don't try to hide things. And so to me, the people that I tend to work with the most and come back to working with again and again are the people that I, that are reliable, they're doers, and I trust them. So.

Well, and it's interesting because I think I mentioned this to you earlier, like we've been working here with a team from Elixir, which is an incredible kind of consulting firm that helped teams become better. And they said, you know, if you promise something and can't keep it, it's okay. As long as you send a note and say, hey, I know I promised this, but I won't be able to, here's when it will be by. They're like, it's the accountability. Everyone's gonna run into moments where you can't keep your word, but how people perceive you is how you handle that moment.

Yeah, the communication is really, really key. And I think also going along those lines of working with teams, like, I like people that can work with a variety of different people, even people they don't like. And, and, you know, that adaptability is important. I mean, it's, it, there's the reason why we all had to do group projects back in school. You can't just go tell the teacher that so-and-so isn't working well on your project. You have to find a way to pull a team together. And that's a hard skillset to have. And it just takes time to find ways to work with difficult people.

What we talk about too a lot, we did a whole episode on this, I think almost, and if not, we should, I can't remember, but you know, it's that you are your brand. And your brand is built in the small moments, not the big things, because the big things are easier sometimes. But it's, you know, how do you handle a small thing during stress? How do you, how do you treat people around you who, you know, others may perceive as not the same level, but all humans are equal? Are you kind and gracious to everyone?

Yeah, actually, I think that's something that, yeah, well, we have talked about that specifically. I've done LinkedIn posts about it of just like paying attention to how somebody treats Even the smallest person or the less, what they might perceive to be the, the quote lesser role, like the janitor. Well, that person is keeping things running for your company on a foundational level. And if you treat them like they're less than, ugh, I don't wanna do business with you if that's the case.

100%.

And I, I, I've always loved that about you, James, is that like you greet everyone, treat everyone the same, and I really respect people that do that.

Interesting. Now, what about on the more businesses? So we're talking a lot about the personal side of Lane, but when it comes to science, the more business technical, you have been a CEO much longer than I have. And you're also a PhD scientist where I have my bachelor's and did my little stint. But what do you look for in that in the professional realm? Because if we're talking about biotech, obviously that factors into in some way.

Oh yeah. It's a little bit of a play on it. And that's communication. You have to be able to communicate concisely. Really complicated ideas. We've talked about elevator pitches for businesses, but it's the same with science. If you can't explain your science to your mom in less than 3 sentences, you don't understand it well enough. And so I look for scientists that can narrow it down. I don't want a dissertation. I, I love that you have a dissertation as the backup. I love the supporting docs, but you still need to like be concise with it.

So.

Yeah.

And then I guess healthy debate. You don't want yes people. But you want them to disagree in healthy ways or to present ideas. And I don't want to say not combative, but still, it's okay to challenge, but it's not okay to be combative, I think, if that makes sense.

Yeah, you don't want to be a— yeah, I hate yes men. Yes women.

All of that. Let's move on to the next question. Those are great.

Yeah, I think we've done that one. I mean, we could go on and on.

Let's go to the next question. No, I love that. So Nucleate is the ones who submitted this to us, of course. And a lot of them are students. Most of them are students. How can students be better prepared in the real world and their careers while they're a student? Like, how can they prepare as a student?

Elaine, you were a PhD student. You were a PhD student. You go first this time.

Oh, I was gonna say you've worked with more students than I have, I think, but they don't necessarily teach you this in your science classes. I mean, we had to, I mean, I picked microbiology, as I said, because it had the least amount of math, but the math I had was calculus. So I wish I had some more basic financial literacy. Budgets, contracts, profit and loss, all of those statements that play into my daily life. I think I wish I had a little bit more financial literacy as it relates to just—

The business.

Yeah, exactly. And then maybe how to run a meeting would be another one because that can be a little bit of an art. What about you?

You're fortunate if you get taught this at all, in anywhere from undergrad to PhD to master's to law, whatever your thing is. So, I'd say Go out and get real experience. Find an internship, project. Do not be afraid to volunteer for no dollars. I did so many jobs for no dollars. I see a difference where everyone feels like they have to get paid now. And it's just, while you are doing work, I think it's important to understand that as a student who doesn't know a whole lot yet, the company is often giving more than they're getting from you at that stage in your career. And it is such a gift for someone to say, hey, I'll take you on. Now, don't let them abuse that for years and years and years. But if they're like, hey, I'll, I'll let you work with me for 6 months or a year to get the experience on your resume so you can get that paid job, take it and be grateful for it and turn up just like you were being paid.

Well, and I'm one of those people, I, I always feel really bad. I like to make sure that I can pay people. That said, I have had people just observe meetings. You know, we're not asking them to do tasks. And so I don't, so I don't feel guilty about it. However, they learn a lot just by being the fly on the wall of those meetings, of understanding like, you know, how an investor pitch goes or how we interview contract research organizations and how we plan experiments. So just even just being able to sit in on those meetings is, is very, I think, educational.

I think that leads into like early on in y'all's careers, what is something you wish you had done differently?

Oh my God, so much. I wish I'd met Elaine sooner. We were mid-career when we met. I wish we'd met baby, baby. We'd own the world by now.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, but you were— I would have thought you could be my boyfriend, and I would have gotten—

Probably could have been.

It could be a whole different alternate reality.

Oh my God. What if?

What if you were my boyfriend?

What if? That's a good comic book, by the way. I love—

we've already got one oh boy for Ian. Oh man.

In all seriousness, I wish I had understood the gift of feedback earlier. Because in my younger days, I always took it as complete criticism and attack and feedback. And I, I talk about this with my suite of board chairs all the time. When you're young, you don't realize that feedback is a gift. It's something to learn from. And, and especially when people are giving it to you from a kind place. Accept it in that way that it's just meant to make you better. And I think it's a really hard thing to, to learn to do.

I mean, yeah, feedback is such a key part of really growing as a professional. I think also understanding that your failures are part of that growth as well, and not getting so, I don't know, down in the dumps about failing at something and getting deterred and thinking that you're not good enough. I think that I wish I had realized that was more of a learning opportunity versus, oh, well, I guess I'm not meant to do that. And I also think that I tend to operate when I was younger, solo a lot, and I didn't realize the value of team and, and having a network. I really, I mean, even when I was a music major back in the day, I picked the one instrument that could be by itself. Um, so, and, and to this day, I'm still, I have a tendency to wanna, to isolate myself and really work by myself. And that's never a good idea. I think the more that you can work with a team, The better that you're going to be.

That's a key thing now, though, because I think with the advent of work from home, there is something that is being lost for the younger generation. And I think it's, for now, this is not something— I mean, I was out and with people and fortunate, but I was also in a field where I sat by a reactor and made a batch, then tested if it was paint and watched it dry. And it was by myself a lot. And I wish while I was doing that, I had invested more in relationships instead of just sitting there with my book and reading and doing the boring thing. But, you know, then I learned to do that and did that. But I think for, for people now, it's get in and around people because a Zoom call is not the same as a coffee. It's totally different. And touching base once a day is not the same as spending 8 hours in the same office where you're like, hey, I just thought of this, pop in, can I have it? And Slack doesn't accomplish the same thing. And while it's great to have some work from home time when you're young in your careers, it will hold you back.

Yeah, I'd agree 100% because I've had the luxury of having to go into an office space and have built a career knowing how to interact with people, people I don't like, people I do like on a daily basis. You have a very different relationship when you see them on a daily basis. And, and now I have the, I mean, and I am a huge work from home fan, obviously. However, I feel like I had the advantage of being able to not work from home and build up that skillset and understand how to read people in a way that just Zoom doesn't translate to. You're right. A coffee. is so much better than a Zoom call, quite frankly. Although if we work together in person, we would never get it done.

You guys would never get anything done.

That's not true. Lies. Lies. Girl, you know it's true. We'd have the best company in the world. It would just be something that had to do with pop culture and cocktails and something else. And obviously dogs because Elaine.

Yeah, absolutely.

Who's like foster failing for the 50th time.

True.

All right, we'd be talk— we'd be talking about Lanterns a lot.

And oh my God, it's such a—

Daddy Green Lantern Kyle Chandler. Kyle Chandler should come on our podcast.

Yeah, I'll try and get him.

Elaine's like, yes please, talk about living moss.

Yes please.

I watched him when he was like 19 on Homefront. That's all I'm saying. Way back in the day.

Anyway, well, well, getting feedback from people is really important. I, I definitely agree. Like, how do you find those mentors who can help you actually navigate the field? How do you find people who can give you advice, who have that expertise from their careers and are willing to actually help you?

That's a really good question, cuz that's not easy because nothing is worse than going up to someone and saying, would you be my mentor? It is so, as the kids say, cringe.

It's pretty— I don't even know if they can say that anymore, honestly.

You can't just go and say, will you be my mentor? I think it's about going back to some of our previous podcasts about curating a network. You're gonna curate a network with people that are hopefully older and wiser and more experienced than you, and being able to develop a relationship with them naturally is the best way to do that. But I think that going to them with a specific question at the very offset of, you know, hey, I'm struggling with, right? This is after you've established a relationship with them. It's like, I'm struggling with this. Do you have any experience in this? And then having that. Build that relationship that way. I've kind of created a board of directors of mentors in some way of my own, like, personal board of, this is the person I go to when I have this kind of problem, this is the person I go to when I have this kind of problem. And that's been really helpful. And I think there's also a difference between a mentor versus a sponsor, which I feel like James has been my sponsor in so many different ways. Sponsors create opportunities for you. They're not Just there to give advice. James, I would love to know how you find and how you have found your mentors.

Yeah. So I think, you know, looking back at that, it's fortunate now it's easier just because we're so out and so present with a lot of what we've done in our careers. But early on, I think it's just talking to almost anyone because you never know who's going to know people and, and saying, you know, here, here's what I want to learn. Here are my hopes. Here are my dreams. And it could be your barber, your hairdresser, your favorite bartender. Don't be afraid to talk to people. They're like, hey, I know someone in that field. And often you'll get the introductions to the best mentors in the most unsuspected ways. And so, I think it's being open and talking about that.

That's a good point. Yeah. Don't just like, here's this person with this incredible resume. I want them to be my mentor. The most helpful, I think, are the ones that develop naturally. And, and yeah, like you said, maybe you didn't realize that they were gonna be your mentor and, and looking back, they ended up being that.

This question, you know, I, I'm not a woman. I, I think—

Wow.

Okay.

That was a weird way to start with that. Deep talk on Bio from the Bayou.

I didn't, didn't know we were gonna go this way about it. Yeah.

Cool.

Cool.

I was gonna say, I'm still interested in, in this answer though.

He's so red right now. It's adorable.

Oh my gosh.

Oh boy. The question is, so do y'all have any advice specifically for women in business? Like it is, it is harder for women to be able to get into, especially STEM.

No, it's been super easy for me. I have had, yeah, an easy peasy. Super easy, I'm sure. Well, and I do, I do always have caveat of like, I have lived a charmed life. I have parents that have secondary, I mean, they are college graduates, they have master's degrees. They're, I come from sort of upper middle class. I've, you know, I've had a really, again, I've lived a charmed life. So I've, I started at a different place. So I don't wanna say that this is gonna work for everyone, but I think the biggest thing that I've always done is elbowed my way into sitting at the table. I don't ever want to be the person sitting on the sidelines or up against the wall of an important meeting. I sit down and feel like I deserve to be at that table, even if I'm just pretending for a little while, because I don't always feel like I should. I probably shouldn't be at some of those tables, but I do elbow my way in. And I think that it's— we're given a lot of different advice of just Almost not like be more confident and be XYZ. I think the biggest thing is be yourself and lean into who you are as a person and not to follow the millions of different pieces of advice you're going to get from people, including myself. You got to figure out what you stand for and what you won't stand for, because that does lead into— I've experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. I've gone to conferences and there's Gross men abound. And for the longest time I wore a fake wedding ring when I went out.

So, which probably just incentivized people more.

Yeah, that does happen. There are those that are like, oh, you're married. But, you know, I think that knowing who I am as a person and being confident, and I think that's been the biggest challenge and probably the, the best piece of advice I could give. James, I don't know. What would you tell me?

Yeah, well, this, this is where, you know, I, I do actually have a little bit here and this is where you, there's an interesting stat. This goes back to something that I talked about with my friend Shirley when she was looking at jobs and she was applying, there was a VP role. And she's like, well, I don't meet a bunch of these qualifications. And then I was looking and I was like, well, you know, so you're— I said to her, I'm like, so you're only qualified for the job you have? And she's like, oh. I was like, apply for it. And she got it and wound up being a vice president of a major company earlier than she thought she should, but she had the potential to do that. And when you look at the statistics, a man will look at And like, it's not posting. And I think, I think if they could do half of it, they're like, I'm qualified, and a woman will look. And unless she could do like 99%, she's like, oh, they'll never even look at me. And so just apply and tell them why you are the right person, because those are unicorn wishlists, and they're never going to find someone who can do all that. And that's, that's the advice I have, is just go for it, because you never know.

That is a great piece of advice, and I see that all the time. I've had job postings, and I've had that require a PhD, PhD and a guy that has a high school education will apply. And it's like, you know, that's, I mean, you gotta appreciate the confidence. And whereas we tend to filter our own selves out, which is crazy that we do that, but I think that also comes back to knowing your own value and also knowing the economics of your own value too. I know how much I'm worth per hour. And unless I really like you, like my dear co-host James here, I, I don't waver on that.

Mm-hmm.

And I find constantly when I ask women who are consultants what they're hourly rate is, they, they need to double it most of the time. Double it, if not triple it. When I find out how much they're charging, it's like, oh my gosh, I can't. Yeah, that's— know your worth, probably double it. Don't waver from it.

For men listening, be that advocate. Actually help women to, I don't know, push themselves up. Like, don't, don't be the person who jumps in front of, of somebody, even if you don't realize it.

Like, yeah.

I don't know, just be consciously an advocate for everybody, not just yourself.

Well, something Elena always talks about is talk about them when they're not in the room.

Yeah.

In the good way.

Sometimes they deserve it. That's okay.

No shit talking. Don't do that.

Elena said that's the people she surrounds— she wants to surround herself with people where she hears they talk good about her when she's not present, because then, you know, it's real.

And I want to surround myself with male colleagues that also do the same for others. And I think that's such a great point, Ian. And in fact, like, even just repeating that, oh, Cheryl had a really great point about this, reemphasizing that it was Cheryl that said XYZ in a meeting can be incredibly helpful.

Yeah, give credit.

Absolutely. That's the hard part too. And that's something that's super easy to do for all of our, our allies out there. Just repeat things. Oh, great idea, Cindy. That's Let's explore that further. And I think that on the other side of that coin is women need to say I more. I mean, we say a lot of, like, we couch a lot of stuff, you know, I probably, I may, I should. No, just say I and keep a list of your accomplishments and don't be afraid to share them.

Yeah, I love that. So guys, what is, is something you had to learn more than once in your career? I feel like this is a good wrapping up question. What is something you had to learn more than once and had to continuously Work at?

Jeez. Oh my gosh.

Where to start?

Yeah. Elaine and I are, we're having trauma now.

Yeah. How, how much time do you have? And I'm still doing this. I feel like, James, why don't you kick us off? Yeah.

You can never communicate enough. Yeah. And you can't, you think you have, and, and you have to look at different ways for different people. You can't communicate enough and in enough different styles because people receive information in different ways. And your style may not be someone else's, and you never know when, especially in this age where we're on Zoom a lot, and they might've been doing an email when you made your point. Make it a couple times.

That's good. I really like that one. I don't want to just say me too, like me too to everything you're saying, but that's a really good one because you, I want to have just one style, my style, and everyone else adapt. But you can be right or you can be effective, as we learned on our last episode of the podcast. And I think you have to adapt to different styles of communication depending on who you're, you're with. But for me, as a scientist, honestly, that good science doesn't mean you're gonna be successful. That plays into a lot of different things. I mean, there's obviously luck and timing and money and execution and all of that, but marketing yourself, marketing your science is so key to that. Good science in a vacuum doesn't go anywhere. You have to be able to find ways to communicate it and market. We hate that word. It feels like you're, you're selling and science, good science shouldn't have to sell itself. Oh, honey. Oh honey, yes it does. So I, I am still learning that again and again, that just having a perfect set of data doesn't mean much. You have to do much more with it.

Yeah.

And I think you see what, that I love this, and this is, I won't, I won't lie, this is with ChatGPT's help, but hope is not strategy. You actually have to, you have to set for yourself. And as Elaine has taught me, you have to have action and priorities and sometimes Gantt charts. Oh, But, you know, you need to have a process and an organizational way. You can't just go in and wing it.

Yeah. Ooh, I wanna wing it. I feel like I've earned the right to wing it. Oh no.

But when you're— but also when you're, when you're younger, like, don't wing it.

Don't wing it.

If you have to, be confident and get it done. But like, try and prep, try and have a strategy, try and know where you're going and, and what an alternate path might be.

Yeah.

If it doesn't work out, cuz the odds are it's not gonna work out.

And, and that's okay that it's not gonna work out. You can, again, goes back to that first question of like, what did you learn from it? How can you pivot? How can you—

Yeah.

Get better? But yeah, the hope piece, I mean, these days I'm raising money in biotech in a really hard time. Hope is definitely not a strategy cuz some days it's pretty hopeless. So you have to find other ways to, to move things forward. You have to find ways to, to pull yourself out of the hopeless strategy. And that might be another podcast that we do as well. So yeah, plan, execute, prioritize, pray, do a dance. I don't know. There's so many different things. In New Orleans, maybe get a little voodoo doll, get some gris-gris, and go from there.

I guess let's wrap up this episode of Bio from the Bayou. We are also going to do a second episode coming out next week. About building a company. Same listener-submitted questions, but we've sort of grouped them. And next week is going to be a little bit more on not just career professional development, but like how to actually start a company. And, and I know y'all have a lot of expertise in, in this field.

We do.

Everyone who's listening, be sure to check out our informational links and, and contact info for both James and Elaine and myself posted in our show notes. Make sure you check them out to learn more. And thank you once again for joining us for Bio from the Bayou.

Ooh, I think you should just keep that job.

Right?

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This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.