In this seven‑minute, six‑question interview on the Winning at Business and Life podcast, host Professor Pete Alexander talks with Gregory Austin, a technical recruiter at ProPharma Group and author of Stellar Resume Writing. Austin explains his role recruiting GMP auditors and medical monitors for clinical trials, emphasizing the satisfaction of impacting drug and therapy development, especially in cutting‑edge areas like cell therapies and COVID‑19 trials. He highlights servant leadership as a core principle for effective management, urging leaders to care for their people. Austin advises leaders to craft and communicate a clear vision, secure buy‑in, build strategic plans collaboratively, and maintain transparency and support to foster loyalty and performance. He acknowledges several peers who embody these values and shares a personal anecdote about his first job teaching child psychology while applying real‑life examples from his own toddler. The episode concludes with practical ways to connect with Austin—LinkedIn, his book on Amazon, and his website.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Well, hi Pete, I am Gregory Austin and I am a technical recruiter at ProPharma Group and I recruit GMP auditors and medical monitors for clinical trials. Uh, we are a consulting company, so we're sending consultants out to help, uh, basically with drug safety with other companies. I'm also author of the book, uh, Stellar Resume Writing: Secrets from a Corporate Recruiter.
Wow, Gregory, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
Uh, what I love about it is having the opportunity to have an impact on the drugs that are being produced and different therapies that are going out there. There's a number of things working on presently, like cell therapies for cancers, for COVID-19 clinical trials. So being a part of that process of making a difference is really, really great.
Oh, I can imagine. That's really fun. Question number 3: I have a book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Servant leadership. If you don't know how to take care of your people, you should not be a leader.
Mm, that's really powerful. Thank you. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I would say definitely have a vision, communicate that vision, get buy-in to your vision, then build your strategic plan with your people. Share your dream. No one ever got behind an "I have a plan" speech. Get people excited, but also be authentic. Be as transparent as you possibly can so people are informed, they know what's going on, they know what the expectations are, and let them know how you're going to support them in meeting those expectations instead of just saying, "Hey, here you go. Make it work. I don't care how you do it. Just make it happen." Showing that you care, I think that goes a long way. People walk through the fire if they know they've got support. Mm-hmm.
I couldn't agree more because if they feel like they got support, would you agree that they're also going to be more loyal and work harder?
Absolutely. There's a lot of studies and books by folks like Simon Sinek that, you know, that share that. Mm-hmm.
It's very insightful. Question number 5: What other executive or business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Sure, there's a number actually. Tom Scholl, he was actually the person who introduced me to servant leadership when I worked for him many years ago. Rachel Beck, Corey Warfield, Colin Stevenson's a great guy, Ed Kopny, Ed Jah.
Wow, that's a good list. Thank you so much. It'll keep me busy reaching out to them. Absolutely.
Good folks.
I appreciate that referral. I'll reach out to them. And question number 6. Please tell me about your first job.
So I will tell you about one of my favorite first jobs when I was in a graduate program in developmental psychology at the University of Florida, and I got to teach child psychology for 3 semesters, and it was awesome. It was, it was a lot of work, but I had a number of not-so-great TAs at my undergraduate college, and I didn't want to be one of those. I want to make sure they had a good experience, and And what was really kind of cool about it was that at the time I had a toddler. And so as I was talking about teaching on certain developmental stages, able to use real examples in my own family.
Oh, I love that. So, you know, not only were you able to teach them, but you were even more credible because you had a small, small child there that you could give real-life examples of.
Absolutely. I love that. Well, I love it.
I love it. So Gregory, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Well, the best place to find me is on LinkedIn, and I know you're going to tag, tag me to that. Uh, if you're interested in taking a look at my book, I do have it on special right now during this crisis to help you with your resume. Uh, you can find it at amazon.com/stellarresumewriting. Um, you can also find it through my website, stellarresumewriting.com.
Excellent. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
