Q&A with Pharmacy U presenter Michael Boivin: ‘My passion is in knowledge translation’

Mike Boivin will be presenting at Pharmacy U Toronto 2024.SnapshotEducation:BSc.Pharm, University of Toronto, 1993. I am also a certified diabetes educator (CDE) and have a certificate in travel health (CTH)Role/Title: I am pharmacist consultant and continuing education developer for my company CommPharm Consulting Inc.CommPharm Consulting is a leading developer of continuing educational content for pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and specialists. I started this business full-time in 2010 and have the pleasure of developing or presenting 60-75 continuing education activities each year.What excites you about being a pharmacist- entrepreneur?The thing that excites me the most is the constant challenge and living with the unknown. As my career and company have continued to grow and change, I am constantly challenged by something new and exciting. I also have the incredible opportunity to work with experts in so many fields from around the world who readily share their passion, knowledge, and insights on so many different topics. Although the unknown used to cause some anxiety, I now relish the thought of learning something or working with someone new.How has your career evolved since your graduation?After graduating from university, I never thought that I would follow a unique entrepreneurial path. I was working as a community pharmacist and loving the interaction with patients and the changing scope of the profession. I always thought that I would eventually own a community pharmacy and follow the path of so many great pharmacist colleagues.I started this path after the pharmacy I was a partner in was sold in December 2009. I had been developing educational material for a few years and decided to see if I could develop an educational consulting business. The business took a few years to grow and over the last five-eight years I have had the pleasure of developing or presenting 500-600 accredited programs for a wide range of clinicians within Canada and many parts of the world.What have been your key driving forces in your career?I think the key driving forces are change and evolution. Change and evolution are hard for many pharmacists and others in healthcare. When you graduate in pharmacy you have a role that is pretty clearly defined. Within the consultant/entrepreneurial space nothing is static. You must evolve and change to continue to do well and remain relevant. At the beginning of my career, I would only be comfortable developing programs for pharmacists and within limited clinical areas. Today, I have written programs for many different types of clinicians and many different therapeutic areas. If you have a passion to evolve and change you can harness this to so many incredible opportunities that your pharmacist training has provided you.How do you define success?My passion is in knowledge translation. I have worked for over a decade in helping healthcare professionals take current evidence from guidelines and new research to translate this to better manage the patients they see in practice every day. I know how difficult practice change can be, but if even only a few people are able to do something different in their practice based on what I developed or presented, it drives me forward. My goal is always to develop the best educational content to improve the health of patients.What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced?At the beginning of this career path, it is the worry about income and cash flow. I went from a steady paycheque to betting on myself and seeing if I could make something different. I was also very fortunate in that I had some proceeds from when we sold the pharmacy that bought me the cushion to be able to support my family while I grew this business. Today, the greatest challenge is work/life balance. The work I do is done consistently from my home office. There is always more work that needs to be done and thus can be hard to separate my home life from work life. I have been working on improving this over the last year or two, but it is a constant battle. I am sure this is a similar issue for anyone who owns their own business.What books/resources do you recommend to check out?This is a tough question as every entrepreneur has different strengths and weaknesses. The key is to look for where you need to develop new skills and to either look for books, resources and most importantly people that can help to provide you with some new knowledge or tips. Some resources that I have found useful:o Organizational tools: I use Capacities (capacities.io), others use tools like Notion (https://www.notion.so/). This helps to keep your life organized both professionally and personally o Books that support the work I do:Influence is your superpowerBuilding a second brain FactfulnessHow to win friends and influence people Predictably irrational o Networking: We tend to underestimate and underappreciate the casual encounters that we have or network opportunities that are presented to you.Take a few minutes when at a meeting or conference to get to know someone. Learn about what they do and about them personally. I know this seems basic, but there have been many times in the past decade that these conversations has led to significant opportunities for my company.What advice would you give to colleagues who want to become entrepreneurs?I think there are three different messages that I would recommend for everyone. They are the importance of the story, become a differentiator, and the importance of constantly challenging yourself.Think about the story: One of the key things I tell anyone that asks me is to think about the story. All successful education programs build around a story that helps people learn and apply the content. This storytelling is also crucial for any business and entrepreneur. Before ever going into a meeting or doing a presentation always ask yourself these questions:§ What are the needs of the people in the audience/meeting?§ What are the messages that I want to get across to this audience?§ How can my messages address the needs of the people in the audience?§ What is the most effective way to show the value of my messages?§ What am I hoping that audience members do after this presentation/meeting?§ How am I going to measure success of this presentation/meeting?Differentiate: I have had many people ask me how they can do what I do. When I started there were very few people that developed continuing education for a living. I was very fortunate to have a mentor, Tom Smiley who supported me as I moved down this path. It took some time to develop the skills and reputation to grow the business to what it is today. Much of the work that I am doing today, didn’t really exist when I started a decade ago. I would recommend that instead of trying to emulate the path of a current entrepreneur, is to look for what you are passionate about and where there are needs and gaps. You can be the differentiator that fits this need and build an incredible business addressing the needs of potential clients.Challenge yourself: You will hear from others who will tell you to be successful, you need to take high risks. I couldn’t do this with my family situation when I started. But what I did was I challenged myself to take opportunities that made me uncomfortable, such as my first physician or specialist program or standing on a stage in front of more than 1000 clinicians. These experiences are what can change your career trajectory. Prepare, deliver, and enjoy every single one of these opportunities that present to you on your career journey. LinkedIn: @SherifGuorguiInstagram: @SherifGuorguiFacebook: @Sherif Seif GuorguiTwitter: @Sherif_GuorguiMike Boivin will be presenting at Pharmacy U Toronto 2024.

Q&A with Pharmacy U presenter Michael Boivin: ‘My passion is in knowledge translation’

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