Episode 07 - Breaking New Ground: From Medicine to Innovation with Loleta Robinson - EIR Live

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Terrance Orr (00:00):
You share with us how you landed the other 3 EIR
roles outside of Blue Cross BlueShield, if you could share those
those stories? Or did they comeat the same time? Or how did you
go about landing thoseopportunities?

Loleta Robinson, MD, MBA (00:10):
I would say all networked. You
know? They were all referral tome. I would say the Blue Cross
was because I came back again. Iwas confused.
I had hit from Africa and knowwhat I was doing. I was trying
to retire. Now you know Icouldn't retire, but I wanted
to. You know? But and so so Iwas like, why don't you think
about this?
And so that was it. Theyconnected me to that role. NIH,

(00:31):
same way. I knew, some of theEIRs who were already there and
just had conversations with themcame in that way.

Ilya Tabakh (00:38):
Welcome to EIR Live, where we dive into the
lives and lessons ofentrepreneurs in residence. I'm
Ilya Tabakh, together with my cohost, Terrance Orr, ready to
bring you closer to theheartbeat of the innovation and
entrepreneurial spirit. Everyepisode, we explore the real
stories behind the ideas,successes, setbacks, and
everything in between. Foreveryone from aspiring EIRs to

(01:00):
seasoned pros, EIR Live is yourgateway to the depth of the
entrepreneurial journey andbringing innovative insights
into the broader world. Checkout the full details in the
episode description.
Subscribe to stay updated, andjoin us as we uncover what it
takes to transform visions intoventures. Welcome aboard. Let's
grow together.

Alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another
episode of EIR Live. We're herewith our distinguished guest,
Loleta Robinson, and I am sothrilled, to have her on the
podcast. As you can imagine,another serial entrepreneur in
residence, but this time comingfrom the medical world and a
medical background into doing abunch of entrepreneurial things

(01:46):
that we'll get into today on thepodcast. But her journey from
the medical world to business toentrepreneurship and then just
becoming a serial XIR and EIR isone for the books.
And her early backgroundstarting businesses like a lot
of our guests and making thosemultiple transitions throughout
her career. I'd love to be ableto tell you more about her, but

(02:10):
I'd never be able to do herbackground justice the way that
she could. So, Loleta, could youplease introduce yourself to our
audience?

Well, hello, everyone, and thank you
for having me. I'm so excited tobe on this EIR Live podcast.
Podcasting is new to me, so bearwith me. But I am here to tell
you all about my life's journey,working in health care. And and
I think this will be just a funopportunity just to actually
intro my introduce myself notonly to you 2, but just to the

(02:41):
world in general.
I tend to work behind thescenes, so this is kinda my
first time sort of being outthere and actually speaking on
what I've been up to for thelast 25 years. But I am Loleta
Robinson, and I think I'm gonnajust tell you about my 25 year
journey in health care, that'sbeen anything, I would say, but

(03:02):
linear. It's been a crazy wildride. I survived, and I'm a
survivor. In health care, yousurvive these things.
And so I'm here to just kindagive you that information and
background about me. But I'm aphysician by trade and training.
And while I did not love patientcare, I hate to say that, but

(03:23):
surprise surprise, I had thisnagging feeling that there was
much more with things I could dobeyond the exam room. So as you
mentioned, growing up, I wasalways entrepreneurial. I had
all these side businesses inhigh school and college, and I
was doing everything, you know,but what I probably need to be
doing.
And that curiosity led me towhat I call kind of my first

(03:45):
leap of faith of many, and Ijoined a medical diagnostic
start up company from very earlyin my clinical career, and I
worked as a medical director.And I would say I had absolutely
no idea what a medical directordid in a start up. I was
clueless. Didn't even have anybusiness doing that, but I did,

(04:07):
and I made it through it. But Iwould say sometimes those best
opportunities come to skies aswhat am I getting myself into
type of moment, and it wasdefinitely one of those moments.
But that role turned into themost incredible kind of crash
course in business. One day, Iwould be designing clinical
studies. The next, I'll betroubleshooting supply issues,

(04:30):
like, literally in the warehouseputting diagnostic kits
together. And then I'll pivot tomarketing and sales and work
with business development andregulatory submissions. It was
like drinking from a fire hose,but it taught me how to
translate science and complexscience into real health care
solutions.
And that role led to where I amtoday. That was the beginning,

(04:53):
honestly, of the rest of my lifein in health care in the
business side of health care. SoI I really appreciate, that them
giving me the opportunity 20something years ago to take a
chance on me and someone who wasstill in between not knowing if
I wanted to stay in clinicalmedicine or do business, but
gave me an opportunity tocombine the both both of them.

(05:14):
And that's why I am here, andI've loved every minute of it.
And then from there Hold

hold on. Before before we jump too far, I I love
this idea of a leap of faith.

Yes.

And I know, you know, you kinda mentioned that
you were doing entrepreneurialthings.

I mean,

it sounded like even in your earlier background,
there's sort of this concept ofseeing an opportunity, you know,
and kind of jumping at thechance? And so maybe if we can
kind of before we go on to kindanext steps, talk about, you
know, a little bit of that thatearly entrepreneurial,
experience. And then I know thatas you were kind of thinking
about what to do with a MD andkind of how to make a difference

(05:52):
in the field, you know, you weredoing a lot of exploration and,
kinda chatting with folks,chatting with some of your
mentors. I think a little bit ofthat, you know, kinda context is
really helpful to to because Ithink it's it was more than you
took one leap of faith thatthere was uncharacteristic. You
know, it seems like there's alittle bit more of a pattern
there.
So if you can dig into that alittle bit, I think it would be

(06:12):
really helpful for the audience.

Loleta Robinson, MD, MBA: Absolutely. So I was always a (06:14):
undefined
curious child anyway. You know?I was the one that would have
the microscopes and, you know,was always in the science
background, but I also like Isay, I had the first Uber
business. You know?
When I was 16 in the eighties,you know, I would drive my
neighbor's kids to all theirsoccer practices and gymnastics
class and bring them all home inmy car. You know? So I had a car

(06:36):
full of kids, and but I got paida a good amount of money. And
that's when I was like, I likebusiness, but I also like
science too. How do you combinethe 2?
You know? So you're goingthrough medical school. You're
going through your residency,and I'm like, but I still like
business. You know? But backthen, those days, you didn't
have the combined MD, MBAprograms.

(06:56):
You sort of had to figure it outon your own, you know? And I
went to University of KansasSchool of Medicine, and back
then, it was sort of, okay, butwho who is this person? She
doesn't want to practice. Shewants to do business. We don't
do business, you know?
So it was me figuring it out,asking around, and people, you

(07:17):
know, understanding where I wasand what place that I was and
kind of came to me and said,okay. Here's an opportunity to
do an MBA program at Universityof Colorado at Denver. It's
basically 1st cohort, can youcome and and try it out and test
it out? And I did, and I lovedevery minute of it, and the rest
is sort of like now I have someidea of what I want to do. It

(07:40):
wasn't a 100% sure what it wasgoing to lead, and probably to
this day, I still don't know.
But then I had an idea that,okay, I think I can combine the
2 together, business andmedicine. I am going to have to
struggle and find a way in whatthat really looks like, but for
me, I thrive off of looking atand assessing new opportunities.

(08:01):
You know, that's what I do. I mywhole entire career has been, is
it going to kill me or am Igoing to jail? If the answer is
no, then I'll go ahead and,like, I can do it.
You know? I'll figure it out.And that's kinda how my life has
been forever.

Yeah. I'm I'm curious if there were sort of
examples. I know in my kindaengineering background,
commercialization andengineering, believe it or not,
wasn't like a, you know, firstorder consideration either. But
there's folks sort of aroundthat, you know, in their resume
or in their background had donethings, you know, in addition to
the things that they did. Diddid you have folks like that

(08:38):
around you, or was it really,you know, kind of, hey.
There's this new programstarting. Maybe this would be
interesting. I guess, talk aboutthat a little bit more.

Yeah. It it's not so much having, you
know, those folks around me. Iwould say when it came to my
medical side, my family wasalways back there, you know,
trying to figure out what to dowith me, you know, where to go,
how to get me there. But I wentafterwards, when it was about
how to mix and combine themedicine and the business piece

(09:09):
of it, it honestly, it wasreally find that out on your own
because at that time, this waslike 1990s. You know, no one was
thinking about this.
And so I I I really I think somepoor souls probably felt sorry
for me because they saw that Iwas struggling, you know, trying
to figure this all out, and Ididn't have any answers. And so

(09:33):
it was just one person that wasa dean of the program at the
time at the NBA said, hey. Whydon't you just think about this?
You know? Take a year and justgo through this program, test it
out, and then see what youthink.
You know? And that one personbasically opened my eyes to what
I could do, you know, withhealth care and with business.

(09:54):
And so that was the start of it.And then for me, the other,
like, the faith is saying, youknow what? Do I wanna continue
to practice medicine, or do Iwanna just go forth and and work
at a start up and and and figureout this medical director role.
And that's what I did, and I Ihave no regrets about that at
all because that's exactly whereI needed to be at that time.

I love this. So this is the second leap leap of
faith, right, that that you'vetaken already. And you you're
just getting started.

Right? Oh my gosh. 1st,

it was the the business thing, and then it's
sort of, here's the 1st year ofthis program. We think it could
be something, but we don't know.Right, Loleta? And you're like,
why not? Let's take anotherleap, and let let's let me just
take the leap and do it.
Right? Did you have to move outto Denver to do the program, or
did you do it virtually at thetime?

No. I was already in Denver. You're
already in Denver? Okay. Yes.
I was working for St. JosephHospital, at the time. And so,
yes, it was I was already there,and they're like, hey. This
program is at University ofColorado Denver. So it was just
a matter of going down thestreet, honestly, to take the
course, you know, to take theclass.
So yeah.

Okay. So talk to us. After you leave the MBA
program, you've had yourexperience, right, working as a
medical direct data start up.Right? Talk to us about what you
did next.

So from there, I, that company was
acquired by Thermo Thermo Fisherat the time or Thermo Electron
at the time. And so I said,well, you know what? I oh,
here's another one. I alwayswanted to live in the DC area,
and so I landed at a position asa medical science director at
MedImmune Vaccines, which wasacquired by AstraZeneca. So I

(11:39):
went from this scrappy start upin Lewisville, Colorado to this
biotech company in Gaithersburg,Maryland, working on vaccine
development, marketing teams,things of that sort.
We were launching flu mist, theintranasal flu vaccine at that
time. So that was a that was amajor change of pace for me.
That's right. Yep. Major.

(11:59):
But I would say that role, itwas tough. It was a tough role,
but I think it was you know,you're learning how large scale
product development, projectswork and sometimes why they
don't work, but you also learnabout marketing, you know, a
pharmaceutical or some type ofdrug or a vaccine, and the

(12:20):
things that you can and cannotsay or the things how you market
it. And so I got a chance tolearn those types of things, and
I think each thing that I eachcareer progression that I go
through, all everything has beenchallenging because I always go
into something where I have noclue, and I don't know why I
keep doing that. But I end uplearning and learn something

(12:42):
from it. You know?
And it's something that actuallyhelps me land that next
position, then that nextposition. But I always go into
things kind of wide eyed and nobusiness, probably doing what I
need to do.

But, you know, it sort of speaks to this this
thing that we love to talk abouton the podcast around running
towards the things that make usuncomfortable. Because in those
moments, we know that there'sgonna be growth on the other
side. Despite not knowing ifit's gonna be green pastures or
if this is gonna be the rightopportunity or if it's gonna be
a career launching pad role,it's just something feels right

(13:15):
about running towards the thingthat you don't know a whole lot
about for whatever reason whenyou have this entrepreneurial
background. But then somethingspecial happened, which is you
got a chance to combine both ofthese love the love for medical
and business in your nextopportunity as a chief medical
officer. Can you talk to usabout that role and how and what

(13:37):
lessons you learned from workingat the start up world and now
inside of a bigger company?
And now you're this the thechief medical officer at an
organization, BLH, I think itwas called. Yeah. So talk to us
about that.

Yeah. So I will I'm a go back just a
little bit because to how I cameto that position. So when I was,
I joined, when I was inMaryland, you know, that I I
that was a probably one of thebest moves I ever made was
actually moving to the DC area.I think it's such a great career
booster in a sense. You learn somuch, but you also have a very

(14:11):
strong network that youdeveloped.
And while I was there, I joinedan incredible organization
called Women in Bio, and it washeaded by Robbie Milton and a
group of wonderful, amazingwomen who had backgrounds in,
you know, biotech start ups, IP,regulatory affairs, all these
different aspects of biotech.And with their support and their

(14:33):
guidance, I actually cofounded amedical diagnostics company. So
I was a cofounder and that wasand chief medical officer. So
that position actually was myfirst CMO type of role for my
own company that I have cofound.And that time, we were trying to
develop a diagnostic test formelanoma.
And what I would tell you isthat nothing humbles you quite

(14:55):
like building something fromscratch like that, and you're
working with scientists whoactually, you know, had the
technology. I mean, it was itwas crazy. Tech transfer, all of
those different things. Soeverything you ever assumed you
have gets tested. Every planneeds a plan b, a c, d, triple
z, quadruple z.
You know, it goes down the line.But that's where I really

(15:18):
developed my, I would say, myCMO type of abilities, you know,
that perspective, from a verybroad business typoscope
science, but also from the startup experience and business
experience. So that role as aCMO and cofounder was incredibly

(15:38):
challenging, but it wassomething that I needed to do in
order to grow the career. Andand, honestly, the CMO roles
from the other companies likeBLH Technologies and others,
they were different in a waysbecause that CMO role was more
of working as a federal,contractor. So I was working
with a number of federalagencies from a CMO perspective,

(16:00):
not necessarily from a start upperspective, which is where I
think I fit most with is withinthe start up world.

That was a way better story to to, to to my
question. And, know, I'm I'mgonna toss it over to Ilya after
this, and then we'll get intothe the land of, you know,
landing your first sort of, EIRgig. But I'm curious to know,
you know, what was some of thelessons that you learned, in
starting that company for nearly5 years you ran that company

(16:29):
before you went on to, you know,be a h. Can you share with our
audience some of the the warwounds, some of the lessons that
you learned in doing that? Andthen we'll move into the other
part.

I still have them on my in my
back. The knives are still inthere, but from those many years
ago. I'll tell you. You know,the start up, for me, it was the
funding aspect of it,particularly when you're a very
early stage company. It was theunderstanding, you know, the the

(16:58):
business model, understandingthe clinical studies you have to
do, the IP, all of it.
You know, all of it was astruggle, and particularly when
it was your first company aswell in that space. And you know
nothing. And the good thing, Ithink, for me, being in
Maryland, and have that supportof, like, women in bio, but just

(17:23):
the state that was behind us andand really supporting us, I
don't think it would have wehave we wouldn't have lasted a
month if it wasn't for them. Youknow? So I think that, when you
do something like this, you haveto be or you should be in the
area where you have thatsupport, someone who can help
you get through those, someonewho has the experience and that
mentorship to help guide youalone because it's all a

(17:46):
struggle.
There's not one thing that's,oh, this is more of a struggle
than the others. No. It's yougot there for money. You have to
figure out, okay, what kind ofclinical studies you need to do,
regulatory. So you need to knowunderstand FDA.
Understand commercialization.You need to understand how you
can make money. It's everything.You know? There's a team you
need to build, you know, workingwith scientists.
It's it was all a struggle. ButI'm a tell you, it was one of

(18:08):
the best experiences, you know,I've ever had just because I had
a chance to learn everythingabout a startup from soups to
nut. And that experience is howI can become an EIR at this
point.

That's right. Alright. I'm gonna tee it up,
and I'm gonna let Ilya have it,which is you became an EIR. Did
you even know what the heck thatwas at the time?

No. You know, pry prior to the EIR,
I was actually you know, anotherthing I did, I got I was asked
to, you know, go to Africa for awhile, and so I did that too.
You know? So I had to throw thatin there. But, and so when I
came back, I was like, well,what am I gonna do with myself?
I don't know I don't know. Youknow? I've just been spending
some time in Africa. What what'sgoing on with life? I don't

(18:56):
know.
You know? And so someonementioned to me, hey. There's
this entrepreneur in residencerole at Blue Cross Blue Shield
Nebraska. And I was like, well,number 1, Nebraska, I don't know
about all that. But but I well,like, what is an EIR?
I don't even what what is that?I have no clue. And and and,
honestly, I, you know, took therole, and I probably still

(19:17):
didn't know what EIR was when Iactually accepted the role. So I
was learning on the job as towhat I was gonna be doing, But,
but that's, you know, that'swhere it was that's where it
began, you know, with the EIR,and, I loved it. It was fun.

Well and and it looks like that first EIR role
was kind of deal sourcing,competitive intelligence, you
know, kinda helping them thinkabout what else was in their
ecosystem, which I think is,like, a really interesting and
good way to start, especially asan operator. And so, you know,
in in in a couple of episodesand generally, actually, when we
talk about EIRs, I I think oneof the main roles for an EIR is

(19:55):
to play the role of translator.And I think the way that you
really get good at translatingis by, you know, sort of being
native, you know, actuallyspending some time in that
environment. And I think youryour story is, like, a really
good example of of of how, youknow, you sort of built, some of

(20:15):
those, kind of good experiencesto help lay the foundation to be
a really good translator. And itactually occurs as we're
talking.
You know, medicine actually hasthis concept of translational
medicine. Right? There's a lotof fields that don't you know,
at least in medicine, theyspecifically recognize that
research, does not necessarilymake it to the clinic by itself.

(20:36):
Right? And I think, like, itsort of occurred to me as you
and Terrance were kinda talkingabout kinda that early
foundational background is, youknow, being an EIR in medicine
is almost like a meta leveltranslational medical
practitioner.
Right? Because you're adding IP,you're adding commercialization,
you're adding fundraising, butthat's all really kind of

(20:57):
involved in the effectiveapplication of, you know, sort
of medicine meets clinic meetspopulation meets outcome. Right?
In in a way that's not, youknow, at least as far as I know,
traditionally taught in kind ofa medical school context. So I
think it's cool to sort of, youknow, build on this idea of EIR

(21:18):
as a translator, and and lovejust kinda thinking about that.
And so, yeah, love that. How howwas that kind of that that
transition from sort of operatorto, maybe more of a spiritual
leader or adviser or, you know,sort of other roles that EIRs
play. Can you talk about that alittle bit?

Yeah. Absolutely. I was actually ready
for that type of role because Iwas at a age, at that time where
I was like, you know, I'm kindwhen, personally, I had that
experience in Africa, and and Iwas ready for it just to settle
down. I was tired. You know?
And I was honestly thinkingabout, okay. I think I do I

(22:01):
wanna get into consulting? Do Iwhat do I wanna do? I I was
kinda burnt out from corporateat the time, so I wasn't really
I didn't come back thinking,okay. I might go get this big
job and no.
It was what can I do where I canjust sort of be flexible for a
little bit? You know, I canrest. I'm I'm I wanna split up
I'm tired. I'm just tired. Andso ER came together.

(22:24):
But I'm gonna tell yousomething. That first ER role
was not retirement. It was afull time role, and you still
had to, like, actually do a lotof work. But that was where I
was exposed to the world ofventure capital, you know, with
Blue Cross Blue Shield VenturePartners and venture
development, start upevaluation, the due diligence,

(22:46):
and working with start ups froma, like you say, an adviser
level, and, you know, the chanceof doing due diligence on start
ups because that's I I know whatit takes now. You know?
And so to me, having thatbackground of understanding the
medical piece of it, but thebusiness of running a start up
is how even though it made itmuch easier for me to work with

(23:09):
the start ups that we werebasically trying to bring in as
vendors and whatnot because I'vebeen there, done that. You know?
And so but one thing too that Ido is I don't know if it's just
sort of my my secret sauce in asense too, but I'm very good at
and at basically, you know,connecting the dots. And it's
usually all in my head, and Ihave a hard time sort of

(23:31):
articulating it. But I can seethings, and I connect the dots.
I'm like, that's going to workor that's not going to work. You
know, and 9 times out of 10,it's true, you know, because
from all these past experiences,life experiences, even even
being in Africa, you learn somethings there, right? You learn
how to be very creative andefficient in that world of

(23:53):
limited resources, and you comeback here and you can do
innovation all day, all daybecause you you just you learn
it. So all these pastexperiences turn me into someone
who can basically read andassess things very quickly and
come up with the end result, andthat's kind of what I do. And I
think with being at Blue Cross,I was able to hone that in a

(24:14):
little bit more and actuallyrealize that, which I didn't
know, that that's the skill Ihad.
And it was sort of it came out,you know, during that time, so I
appreciate been having you know,having to have that cover that
type of role to actually findwhat I do do. You know? Yeah.
Because I didn't know. I thoughtI was kind of a strange person,

(24:36):
you know, in background, like,thinking, oh, that's what the
answer is.
You know? And I didn't knowwhere that was coming from.

And as we've talked about kind of what makes an
effective entrepreneur inresidence, you mentioned, you
know, kind of, I think, one ofthe 3 main components, knowing
your secret sauce and being ableto sort of communicate it to the
residents in a way that they canthink about, how does it fit. I
think the other two pieces thathave come up with conversation
are, you know, has the residentsactually figured out how

(25:04):
innovation plays in their corestrategy and have they sort of
done the work necessary toeffectively use that secret
sauce? And then a third one thatkinda came in later is, you
know, what do you have to do toreskill or kinda change how you
do things? Because when you'resort of an entrepreneur in the
wild, right, you sort of makedecisions, get resources, lots

(25:25):
of things work differently. Andso it's cool to hear you kinda
specifically call out, you know,realizing what that secret sauce
is.
Does that kinda resonate? Howdoes that, kinda ring against
your experience and and whatyou, kind of experience in your
various EIR roles?

For me, even though I can come into
a situation and, like I said,have my secret sauce of reading
just reading everything,assessing everything, I still I
still, you know, educate myself.I still want to obtain that
extra knowledge. I still want tohave conversations with those
who might know a little bit morethan me, you know, and I still

(26:03):
wanna have those conversate Istill want to learn. So I never
go into a situation like, okay.I'm gonna just sit back and, you
know, tell him what to do.
No. It's, let me ask questionsand I will read. I will figure
it out and, you know, ask awaybecause to me, you don't know
everything and sometimes when I,like I said, I have those things

(26:23):
going on in my head about allthese little balls in the air,
and I'm trying to connecteverything. It's still there's
some education that comes in tohelp me make those connections.
Right?
And so I so to me, you're alwayslearning in this role, and there
are some things that I can dofairly quickly now because I've
been at it for 25 years, butthere's always some kind of new

(26:46):
interesting technology that Idon't quite know. Let me figure
it out, and I will go and andand learn it, like, as I should.
And so that helps me formulatesome of my answers to what I
need to do to help with myclients and startups and things
of that sort is is constanteducation.

You're in my head. Okay? You're you're in my head,
Loleta, because I was literallythinking, like, what I want her
to go through next is the skillsand the behaviors that you had
to unlearn. Okay? From, youknow, your medical world where
things are really polished,buttoned up.
This is how it's done. You know,best practices to the start up

(27:24):
world where things areuncertain. You're always
experimenting. You're alwaystesting. You're throwing s h I t
at the wall trying to figure outwhat is going to stick.
Right? And I think the otherside of that is I think there's
something special about peoplewith your background,
specifically coming from themedical field because you get

(27:44):
exposed to more than justmedicine. You have to, in some
regard, learn business. In someregard, you need to learn the
law. In some regard, you need tolearn regulatory agencies and
how they govern what you do.
And for me, that gives you thisunique, like, ability to to
speak 360. Right? You could talkbusiness. You could talk
medicine. You could talk law.

(28:04):
And you know how these thingswork together, and I believe
that it lends itself to youbeing able to connect dots, you
know, that others, you know,might just miss along the way.
So talk to us about, you knowfirst off, I wanna know where
you went in Africa. That's thefirst place I wanna know, where
in Africa. And when you cameback from your motherland to the

(28:28):
US, what what did you have tounlearn that made you more
effective in your role as a EIR?

Well, I would say for the countries, I
went to Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya,Botswana, South Africa, Namibia,
I believe. Yeah. Maybe a coupleothers. But yeah. So I was
there.
And, you know, being there, I Ithink I I matured in in some

(28:56):
ways, even though I was an adultat that time. But I I I matured
because you see things, and yousee things that are not fair,
but you you figure you find away to make something work in in
almost impossible settings. Andyou like I said, you become very
creative and efficient with alot of things because you don't

(29:19):
have the resources, and you'retrying to, figure it all out.
And and when I came back, I Ithink I had this sense of, well,
you know, life is tough, and youhave to make do with this, and
you have to learn how to getyourself out of these holes
sometimes. And as they say, lifeis lifein', you know, and and

(29:41):
for a lot of people.
And so I think my perspective ishow I see the world, how I see
people, you know, how I don'tjudge the people, you know,
where they come from. And so itopens and it broadens your mind
up as to how things should be.And I will say too, you know,
going back to your questionabout unlearning the skills and

(30:03):
whatnot or, you know, unlearningsome things, I will say I was in
medical school. I was the onethat could diagnose the weird,
hard cases because, again, itwas the one I can go in and and
look, be quiet, sit and listen,but also go and read about, you
know, 10 books to figure it outand be like, that's what they

(30:25):
have. You know?
And I was always a diagnosticianin a way, and I still am to this
day of diagnosing things. Andthat's kind of the skill the
medical skill that I bring tothe business side is being able
to diagnose because, heck, youknow, life is about diagnosing
things, medical diagnosis. Youknow? You observe, you test, and

(30:45):
and see what works. You know?
And so that's what I've beendoing all this time, and I think
that and I don't know. It's justa weird thing and a weird skill
to have, but it has andsometimes I have no clue what's
going on in my head, but it'sthere. And I'm just trying to
figure it out and trying to workwith what I have and and and the

(31:08):
and this expertise and the skillthat I do bring. And it
sometimes it's very hard for meto articulate what it is because
I just don't know sometimes. Itjust happens.
It just happens.

So diagnosing problems before you prescribe,
you know, and how to find asolution, is is sort of spot on.
Alright. I can ask you a millionmore questions about this, but
I'm gonna toss it back over toIlya now.

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, I think the
you know, talking about thecapabilities and the EIR role
for Blue Cross and kinda what ittook you in is is an awesome
opener. You've had you know,you're a serial EIR, as we were
saying, at at kind of thebeginning of the show, 4 time
EIR.
Can you sort of compare andcontrast some of the sort of

(31:50):
differences in the in thevarious roles and, kind of how
they're similar and maybe howthey're different?

Yeah. So I will say from the the Blue
Cross Blue Shield Nebraska ERrole, it was functioning out of,
like, a corporate innovation labin a sense. And so you your role
is to go out and source,identify interesting start up
companies that could add valueto the members of Blue Cross.
And so for me, a lot of that wasa lot of due diligence work. You

(32:21):
go in, talk to the team, reallydig deep into the into the
product itself, and makesuggestions and recommendations.
You have conversations with theventure arm like, hey. You know,
maybe, you know, we might notuse them, but it might be good
for you in terms of funding. Gofrom there. Learn some things
about venture capital. Then myrole with the National
Institutes of Health, that rolewas more of an advisory role.

(32:44):
So I worked and advised SBIR,STTR awardee companies on their
business and commercializationstrategies. So it's more high
level, high point of view as towhat those companies need to do
to kinda get from the lab, youknow, get from the, you know,
the the awards themself, andthen to the market. And that's
what we worked on. So we got achance to work on some really

(33:06):
interesting, more life sciencebiotech products versus
entrepreneur versus Blue CrossBlue Shield was more digital
health. So that was the thing.
And then I've also worked, as anEIR for, a hospital system as
well, and that one was more soworking with them to launch
startup companies, so being inadvisory role back then as well.

(33:28):
So they're they're all differentin a sense, but they're very
much similar. You know? In in asense, you're advising, but,
also, you're doing some deepdives into the startups
themselves or trying to launch astartup.

And do they have, like, a formal sort of, like,
program at all of theseorganizations where you were in
resonance, or you were the onlyEIR, like, inside the
organization? Or did you haveothers that you can bounce ideas
off of and perform diligence oncompanies and and look at
commercialization strategies of,you know I'm curious to know

(34:01):
about that. Did they have aactual program, or were you the
lone wolf sort of inside theorganization as the only EIR?

Yeah. So with Blue Cross Blue Shield
Nebraska, there were 2 of us.And so we were able to, you
know, my counterpart was more ofa corporate, ER itself, and I
was more from the start up side.So we brought very nice we were
very complimentary of eachother. And then with, NIH,
there's a bunch of it's almost,like, 20 something ERs.

(34:29):
They have IP, regulatory. Wehave, myself with a payer
background. We have folks who'veCEOs of companies life science
companies. It runs the gamut. Imean, very, very high level
people, with the NIH.
And then with the hospital, itwas more myself, but I had

(34:50):
worked with others who helped meand support me as well.

And looking back on those experiences, like,
would you do anything different?You know, you've had 4 EIR roles
at this point. If Loleta wasstarting the EIR program and you
were running it and you wererecruiting the EIRs, what would
you do differently from theexperiences that you've you've
sort of been a part of today?

You know, I think they've all had
their unique, experiences. Idon't think there's anything
because they're all different intheir own way, which is good. So
it's not like I've I've been in1, you know, one program for 20
years. No. It's they're alldifferent, and they're all I I
gained experience at somethingdifferent from each one of them.

(35:33):
So, you know, Blue Cross wasmore the venture side, and NIH
is more working withcommercialization and from the
federal government piece of it.You know? So that mindset. And
then you've got the hospitalwhere it's just almost like
helping to operate a start up ina sense. You know?
So they're all unique. And forme, I think that helps because

(35:53):
it keeps me thinking. It keepsme going because there you know,
everybody has a differentuniqueness to it, different
work, you know, that I need todo. So for me, I I don't I don't
think there's anything I woulddo differently because I like
each one of them because Igained some sort of experience
that I needed to go to the nextone.

No. That's incredible. And I'm gonna ask
you one more follow-up questionbecause, as you know, the
podcast is all about educatingour audience on how do you land
your first EIR role, what shouldyou do once you're in it, you
know, all of those things. Couldyou if you could share could you
share with us how you landed theother 3 EIR roles outside of
Blue Cross Blue Shield, if youcould share those those stories,
and did they come at the sametime? Or how did you go about

(36:31):
landing those opportunities?

I would say all networked. You
know? They were all referral tome. I would say the Blue Cross
was because I came back again. Iwas confused.
I had hit from Africa and thenwhat I was doing. I was trying
to retire. Now, you know, Icouldn't retire, but I wanted
to. You know? But and so,somehow, I was like, why don't
you think about this?
And so that was it. Theyconnected me to that role. NIH,
same way. I knew, some of theEIRs who were already there and

(36:56):
just had conversations withthem, came in that way. The ones
at hospital, same thing.
It was it's, former folks I usedto work with at, Blue Cross Blue
Shield, and then we I workedwith them, during that time. And
so they referred me as well, andwe just came from there.

Nice. One one thing we talked about, in the sort of
preparation for the episode is,you had a couple of these roles,
kinda together at the same time.And so, you know, to me, that
was a little bit differentbecause I've always looked at
having kinda one EIR role at atime. Can you talk about sort of
the, you know, kind of the howdo you balance these, roles and

(37:35):
kinda how you think about thatand whether the, you know,
kinda, is that an opportunity?Is it a challenge?
Kinda just talk through how howhow you think about managing
that.

Yeah. It's it can be a little rough at
times, honestly. You know, likeI said, the whole idea for me to
be an EIR at this pointremember, I'm trying to slow it
down. It'll work my semiretirement, but I'm not because
I'm doing, like, 2 AR roles andplus a CMO role. You know?
So I don't know where the semiretirement is coming from, but,

(38:07):
I'm still trying. But I'm theyou know, the thing is I just
manage my time, you know, asmuch as I can. You know, both of
these are are part time roles,so it's nothing that's full
time. So there's a bunch oflittle part time gigs that are
kinda coming together, and itcomes out to be almost full
time. But as long as I canmanage my time, I can it it

(38:29):
works for me, and, I've been,you know, I've been at it for so
long in a sense that Iunderstand the work, I
understand the team, Iunderstand what they want, and I
can get through it, you know,fairly easily.
It's it's not it's not a hugeproblem for me right now.

What what advice you know, I'm curious to know
what advice you would give otherEIRs, even specifically those,
you know, coming from sort ofthe health care world, the
medical background, they theywanna do something more
entrepreneurial. They're readyto take that leap leap of faith,
but, you know, they don't theydon't have it, like, you know,
Loleta just yet. Right? Butthey're thinking about it. What

(39:07):
advice would you give them onhow to approach making the
transition out of the medicalworld into something more
businesslike or even landingtheir first sort of EIR
opportunity?

Yeah. I think, number 1, your best bet
is to have that strong network.I can speak for that because
that's how I got all 3 of myroles. You know? It was through
through a network.
And if you know someone that isan EIR in a certain corporation,
start up, venture fund, whateverit may be, have conversations
with them and have them talk toyou about it. You know? What

(39:37):
does this role entail? Whatwould I be doing? What am I
gonna learn?
You know? And and start there.Now I think one good thing is
about this podcast in a sense isthat my goal here is to try to
connect with those who arethinking about that transition.
Right? Because a lot of us aretrying you know, my age, you're
like, okay.
I've done the corporate, like,15,000 years. I'm ready to

(40:01):
transition to something else.Was it consulting? Is it ER type
of thing? Is it executive frontin residence?
And it is a transition becausein a way, you're not you know,
I'm not full time for any of it.I'm part time for most of it,
and and I think you just have tofigure out what you want to do

(40:21):
within the EIA role. Is ithealth care? Is it retail? Is it
supply chain?
What does that look like? Andthen you need to come in it with
some a little bit of experience,you know, I would say too. And
because you need some of thatlife and business experience to
kinda come in to be able to givethat type of advice to some of

(40:41):
these, companies or, you know,the government, whatever it may
be. Because I know with my roleat NIH, everyone has some deep
experience, and these are someamazing folks in that on that
team. And so and I think, youknow, once you've gone through
it, you know, you can helpsomebody else get through it as
well.
So I would say have someexperience, get your strong

(41:04):
network, but really find out,again, what is your secret
sauce, what value can you addinstead of just telling these
people what to do, but what canyou really add to it and then
start there?

I I think that's excellent advice. And, you know,
it's it's not lost on me or oror Ilya, you know, what time
period we were in when you weredoing a lot of this stuff coming
up in in your background, youknow, as as a woman as a black
woman with a medical degree andan MBA, right, who's super sharp

(41:37):
during that time doing all thethings that you were doing,
starting companies, raisingventure capital in rooms full of
people who probably don't looklike you across the table.
Right? And and stillpersevering. You know?
I could you speak to what wasyour experience like during that
time, you know, for for otherswho might be listening in your

(41:58):
situation, who look like you,who's going gonna go down this
path, what advice would you givethe women, specifically the
black women who are listening tothis, who are thinking about
going to raise capital for theirstartup, who wanna go start a
venture capital firm? You've hadthe opportunity to to to do VC,
to be an entrepreneur, to be inresidence at a corporate, to do
it at multiple organizations.Like, what advice would you give

(42:20):
them?

Hey. It's going to be rough. You
know? This is not going to beeasy at all. And, like I said,
I've been at this for 25 years,and I'm still traumatized, you
know, because not a lot of folksdidn't know what to do with me.

(42:42):
You know, here I am with this MDMBA back in 1999 or 2000. We're
like, what is this? You know,and here you are trying to, you
know, work your way and figurethis all out. And, of course,
folks were just like, no. That'sno.
This is not gonna work. But Idon't listen to people. And so I

(43:02):
just do what I like I said, ifI'm not going to jail or I'm
gonna get killed from this, I'mgoing to stick my foot out and
start doing something, make itwork. Right? And so if you want
it, you know, go for it, but I'mjust gonna tell you, it's going
to be hard.
You know? Not no part of being ablack woman in the health care
space, in the venture space andor even just the ER space.

(43:26):
You're gonna be in many roomswhere it's just you, and you're
gonna look that, you know, funnybecause, like, why are you in
this space? And you're going tojust have to keep moving
forward. It's it hurts.
It it really does, because itwas been it's been a challenge,
for these past many, many years.But I feel like, yes, given all

(43:47):
of those challenges and allthose things, I still came out
of it with I did exactly what Iwanted to do. Everything in my
career, it didn't all it didn'tgo in sequential steps. It was
all like this. But everythingthat I set out to do, I did.
You know? And that's all I cansay because, you know, but I I

(44:12):
struggled. There were some timeswhere I was like, I don't know
if I'm going to come out ofthis. I just don't know. You
gotta figure this out, but I'mI'm gonna find a way to make it
work.
It's not everything dideverything work out rosy and and
perfect? Absolutely not. I had alot of failures during this time
period, a lot of failures. And alot of times you just had to

(44:35):
keep moving, even thougheverybody's telling you, no,
it's not possible. You can't dothis.
You can't. I mean, I don't knowhow many times I've heard you
can't do this. You can't do, youknow, no, no, But I'm going to
keep moving forward and I'mgoing to do what I want to do.
And I always say, this is mylife. I got one one shot at this
and you're not going to stay upin my way.
You got to move out the waybecause I'm gonna stump on you.

(44:57):
That's all there is to it. Youknow? Because I'm gonna do what
I want to do. And so that's allI can say.
It's it's it's just not gonna beeasy. It's just not. I have no
other answer for you. It's not.Just keep going.
If you want it, just keep goingfor it. It might take you 5
years. It might take you 10years. Like me, it took me 25
years to get here, but I'm here.I'm here now, and this is

(45:18):
exactly where I want it to be.

Yeah. And it's interesting kinda thinking about
so now that we've had, you know,you know, getting closer to 10
than to the beginning, ofepisodes, it's interesting to
sort of observe personalitytraits, and and sort of, you
know, some patterns. One thing,you know, you mentioned it
earlier in the discussion onjust being curious and having an

(45:42):
appetite to learn. You know? Ithink that's sort of a telltale
sign of a a founder, a starter.
You know? I think the otherthing you sorta hinted at a
little bit is this, you know,when faced with, ambiguity and
sort of not a clear path, justbeing able to dig in and
persevere and, you know, thatthat either driving some action

(46:05):
or some energy or both. Youknow? I I think I've seen folks
interpret that differently. Butbut I think that that goes
really a long way because if youknow, ultimately, I think it's
important early in your careerto figure out and and have shots
at being a founder and then alsosort of supporting earlier stage
ideas because you get to know,you know, what's for you, what's

(46:29):
not for you, where do you getenergy, where do you shut down.
You know, like, that's really,really good data points. And I I
think in some ways you know, Ithink, by the way, everybody
says, you know, I'm an EIR. Thatmeans I have a weird career
path. It's always you know, Ithink to to the person,
everybody says my careerprojection doesn't make any
sense, but it sort of connects,you know, it's, Terrance, I

(46:53):
think earlier said connectingdots. I I would say connecting
dots and throwing darts.
Right? Be be be being able to tosort of go go through that
journey. But, anyway, I justwanted to highlight that a
little bit because, you youknow, it's interesting when
folks kinda jump from kindatheir context and their
background to a different place,to a 3rd place, to where that

(47:15):
becomes a competency, sort ofhow you learn to connect with
people, how do you getmotivation, how do you continue
to dig in and do stuff. It's youknow, some of that that lived
experience and the muscle memoryyou build is very valuable. So
just wanted to kinda not glossthat over, call it out
specifically.

And as we move through, you know, sort of the
other way, I I have, like, amillion other questions I can
ask you about the other theother EIR roles. But, you know,
what what I really wanna askyou, you know, is thinking about
all the things that that you'vedone in your career. You shared
some some war stories with us.You said the words sort of take
a leap of faith multiple times.You gotta be able to persevere

(47:56):
through tough times even when,you know, it's hard.
I'm curious to know, you know, Imet I met Loleta for all those
listening during the era of, youknow, 2020, late 2020, 2021.
And, you know, I was sort ofgetting my hands dirty and
trying to learn this very muggyworld of health care and and

(48:20):
everything else because I was Iwas, you know, building a
company around DVT. For thosewho are listening, DVT is deep
vein thrombosis, which isessentially blood clots. And
trying to way trying to find away for physicians to monitor
their patients in in real timepost care through software. And
and I learned a bunch aroundregulatory and help PIPA and a
bunch of things along the way.

(48:42):
And hearing Loleta talk is sortof like this moment, right,
where I failed on a bunch ofthings. Obviously, that company
didn't work out. But this thisperseverance of you learning a
bunch of being a student of thegame, a student of life, and
brushing yourself off, beingextra curious again to figure
out why did you fail and whatcould you do right the next

(49:04):
time, and passing that wisdomalong to entrepreneurs who are
gonna come after you. I know I Iteed that up in a very long way,
but thinking about all of thosethings, there's other things
that make the time pass for usoutside of work, outside of
medicine, outside of the thingsthat you've been working on and

(49:24):
doing. And I'm curious if youcan share with our audience
something that makes the timepass, for Loleta.
What's something that's not onyour resume that makes the time
pass for you that you find to bea hobby and fun that our
audience might not know bylooking at your LinkedIn profile
or hearing about yourbackground?

Yes. So, you know, like I like I
mentioned, you know, the reasonwhy I, you know, went to, you
know, this path of being an EIRin a sense was because I said, I
want to, you know, begin my pathtowards retirement. Right? You
know, I'm a little early for it,but, you know, I'm just trying.
I'm just trying here.

(50:06):
And I wanted to do somethingthat allowed me to be able to
pursue my interests. You know? Iwant to pursue I love to travel,
so I'm always traveling. Spendtime with my family. I like
philanthropic work, but thething that I love to do in my
hobby is fly fishing.

(50:27):
And I I started actually, backin 2020 during COVID, and I took
a fly fishing 101 class inOmaha, Nebraska while I was
living there. And I said, oh, Ilike this. This is something I
can do, you know, during COVID,but I love being outdoors
anyway. And I was and and said,okay. I but I need to figure

(50:50):
this all out because this is notgonna be easy.
You know? But you know me. Youknow, if you know me by now, you
know, if it's if it's gonna behard, I'm gonna do try it
anyway. Right? The hardest thingpossible, I'm gonna I'm gonna
try it out.
And so I moved here toWilmington, North Carolina, and
I got in touch with this grouporganization called United Women
on the Fly. And they're anational international fly

(51:13):
fishing, fly angler group, forwomen. And I connected with
them, and they were like, okay.We want to teach you. And so
they're like, I want you to goto Montana and stay there for a
few days.
I'm a get you a guide, andyou're going to learn how to fly
fish. And that's what I did. Iloved every minute of it, and
since then, that's what I spendmy time doing, is finding cool

(51:38):
rivers, especially in the fallwith the leaves and going out
and catching some fish. Andthat's what I spend my time
doing. But that's why that's it.
That 25 years of taking thosehits, stabbed in the back,
stomped on a few times to get tothis point where I'm still
fairly young, I can work acouple, you know, part time

(51:59):
jobs, you know, consultingcontracts and go fishing, spend
my time fishing, that makes itworth it. Right?

That's right.

I'm doing exactly what I wanted to
do at this age. You know, Isuffered, but I'm here.

I'm gonna ask you to go a little bit deeper on
this. So for those who might notbe as familiar with the
difference between just fishingversus fly fishing, could could
you describe how how it'sdifferent, or what is fly
fishing for for peoplelistening?

Yes. So you're using a a longer,
bendable rod incense. Right? Andyou're out in streams or you can
actually people do fly fishingwherever. But I like to string
fish, and I go out to thesebeautiful streams, and I have a
long rod.
And, basically, you'd cast andyou use flies. They And,

(52:45):
basically, their flies are likedry flies in this sense and what
they do is they look like thebugs that you see floating
around in rivers and so youattach that on, you you know, to
the, to the line and youbasically spend all day catching
trout. And then most of thetime, it's catch and release, so
I'm not catching anything to gocook and fry up. It's just

(53:06):
basically catch the fish andbasically throw it in back in
the water And you can go onboats, you can wade. So you have
your waders on, your boots, andyou've got all your flies.
And for me, since I had theworst time tying knots, so I
would basically have a guidewith me at all times because I
I'm I'm the one that typicallylikes to fall in the river for

(53:26):
some reason, and they have toget rescued out sometimes. And
so, I'm a messy flisher, and soand I don't like touching the
fish. And there's a lot ofthings and quirks about me when
it comes to fly fishing. So Ialways have a nice guide with me
who can help me out, but I Ilove every minute of it. I'm
just outdoors enjoying thisbeautiful weather, beautiful
scenery, and I love when I'mjust actually hooking the fish

(53:50):
and reeling that in, becauseit's just something that's,
like, powerful to me.
It's empowering to do so. So andthere's a bunch of folks around
here, across the country who dothis, and we have such a really
nice community. So we haveanother group called Ubuntu.
That's another organization Ibelong to, and what we're trying

(54:10):
to do is raise awareness, butfor black and brown anglers as
well to increase our presence,in fly fishing. So I'm a major
part of that, And I just that iswhy I spend my time.

Love it. Thank you for sharing. And before we lose
the thread, I love to connectthreads here. There's a thread
in in your background, Loleta,of you being able to find the
right community at the righttime or them finding you. And
and I say that because women inbio was pivotal to your your
transition, and you mentionedhaving that community of women.

(54:45):
Right? And then when you gotinto fly fishing, there's
another group of women, Right?Who said, hey. Let's show you
the way another community.Right?
And and I also wanna go ventureoff to say that maybe, you know,
some of your sorority sistersand others in your network.
Right? By the way, she's amember of Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority Incorporated. And I Ithink there's something to be

(55:06):
said about, you know, somebodybeing able to drop into
different places and being ableto find the right community or
having something about them oraura about them to where people
are drawn to them. They wannabring you in to their
communities, and you've donethat fluidly throughout your
your career.
And I just don't want thatthread to be lost for the people
listening on finding the rightcommunity where you're at or

(55:27):
where you're going to learn orto just engage with the
ecosystem that you're about tobe a part of.

Man, you said it perfectly. You
actually you yes. You connectedwith that because that's exact
in fact, before I moved toMaryland, I contacted Robbie
Milton of, Women in Bio before Imoved and talked to her and
said, okay. I now I have acommunity. Now I feel better
about moving to Maryland.
Because now when I go, I willhave them, but they're there to

(55:56):
help me understand the biotechcommunity. And then I've been
part of it ever since. Andthat's been, what, 2,002, 2004?
And it's same thing. When I wentto Africa, found a group over
there too.
And same thing, you know. Andand, of course, Delta, Sigma
Theta, you know, I'm a part ofthat. And so I all because I've

(56:16):
moved I've moved, one thing Ididn't mention, I've moved, and
lived all over the US in manydifferent states. And so every
time before I make a move, Ialways find a community, someone
there, and then I then I move. Idon't move until I have a
community.
I don't move.

That's right. Community community as currency.

Yes. Yeah. Yep. Fly fishing as well.
You know?
I wanna learn how to fly fish ifI'm the best. I'm gonna contact
you, and I wanna know who canhelp me. That's it. And that's
that's a part of that learningpart too is I'm not gonna go out
there by myself and just makeall these bad habits. Just, you
know, I I can fail all the time,but I wanna make sure at least
give me a shot.
You know, I want a chance ofactually doing it right the

(56:57):
first time.

One of the things I love is sort of as you get more
and more of that, I've seen andI find myself just more
intentional about you know? AndI heard you say earlier, you did
exactly what you wanted to doand and got exactly where you
were. And I think that sort of,you know, in sort of the
nonlinear career path, there'snormally the foundational piece,

(57:19):
then there's, like, the,transition piece, then,
typically, there's, like, aportfolio piece, right, where
there's sort of, pieces comingtogether to be exactly what you
wanna do. And so I just I I lovethe kind of the intentionality
and, you know, these things arehere because they need to be
here, and these other things arenot here because they don't need
to be here. Right.

(57:41):
And so I love that. I I thinkjust to kinda, follow through on
that, I think, you know, as aswe're now kind of joking, we're,
traditionally a few minutesover. But but I would love to
hear a little bit about, youknow, kind of what you're
working on recently and kindawhat's got you most excited. And
then, you know, we're we'retrying to kinda connect another

(58:02):
community and connect the EIRstogether, so it'd be great to
think about how that communitycan sort of support you, in that
journey.

Yeah. Absolutely. So I think, you
know, in in addition to mycurrent EIR roles, I'm also you
know, work with a number ofstart couple of start up
companies as, like, a chief MOCofficer, you know, fractional,
whatever you wanna call it. Andthat's been actually quite fun
because it's going back intothat full circle where I started
in the sense as a CMO. Like, oh,okay.

(58:33):
Why not at this phase of mylife? Why not? You know? And
I'm, again, utilizing andleveraging my medical
background, my businessexperience. But while I'm
maintaining my flexibility, youknow, because, again, I have to
go fly fishing every now andthen, so nothing's gonna stop me
from that.
And so that to me is where I'mlooking at right now. And so

(58:55):
like you're saying, I would loveto be a part of a building
community with others who are onthe similar journey like me, who
are making this transition. Iwould love to connect and be a
part of that as well. You know?And so right now is I'm not
retired.
I'm just I'm just here learningto, you know, continue to do

(59:15):
what I'll do, and I wanted Ilove the current positions. I
love the work that I'm doingright now as long as I get to
combine the 2 that I've beenworking on for so long. But,
again, I have my time. I need mytime, and that's all that works
for me. That's all I wanna do.

Makes sense. And what's what's the best way for
folks to connect with you, if ifthere's sort of a good follow-up
or something to dig into?

Loleta Robinson, MD, MBA: LinkedIn, definitely. Feel free (59:38):
undefined
to contact me that way. Low l ol e t a Robinson, and then, yep,
go from there.

Thank you so much, Loleta, for coming on the
podcast. It's been such aprivilege, and and ever since
I've known her for the pastcouple of years, she's always
been a gift to everybody aroundher. So for the folks listening,
please don't be shy aboutreaching out if there's
something that that piqued yourinterest today from from the
podcast. She is more graciouswith her time than than she

(01:00:10):
should be, but she's all about,you know, supporting and helping
out the next generation. So,don't think don't take it
lightly when she said, hey.
I wanna connect with the peoplemaking those transitions right
now, because she's not justtalking for the podcast. She
truly means that. She answeredmy LinkedIn request years ago,
just to be clear. And today,we're you were years into this
this friendship. So, thank youso much, Loleta, for coming on

(01:00:34):
the podcast.
Thank you for sharing your yourtime machine wisdom as we like
to call it on the podcast andtranslating all of your
experiences for our audience andthose who might be thinking
about landing their first EIRgig. Thank you so much.

Loleta Robinson, MD, MBA (01:00:47):
Thank you. I had a great time.

Ilya Tabakh (01:00:48):
Appreciate the time. Thank you. Man, this
episode, really resonated withme in a couple different ways,
which is kinda surprising. Youknow, I'm resonated with me in a
couple different ways, which iskinda surprising. You know, I'm
not a physician, and I havespent a little bit of time in in
the health care world, but itwas really interesting to sort

(01:01:09):
of hear, how how another fieldthat's, you know, regulated that
typically has folks who arelicensed to operate, really is
similar in many ways to kind oftechnical engineering.
And so it was great to hear,Loleta really talk through kinda
making the transition fromphysician kinda through the MBA

(01:01:30):
into, ultimately a practitionerand kind of an entrepreneur.
Right? And then ultimatelybecoming kind of into a multi
EIR. I don't know. We need toalmost come up with a term here.
You know, serial EIR is good,but I think she did a few of
them in parallel. And it wouldbe fun to sort of think about
it's kind of portfolio EIR, Iguess. But there's a lot of just

(01:01:53):
a lot of topics that resonatedwith me, you know, kind of
thinking about how to introducethese other views in these, you
know, relatively rigid andregulated spaces in kinda
connecting these dots. So it wasreally awesome. And, you know,
there's probably an episode or 2we could've done in some related
themes, but I think that's truefor a lot of the conversations

(01:02:15):
we have.
I think the other thing I'm, youknow, personally pretty excited
about is I I really do thinkthat there is, something there
for a health care innovation flyfishing event. And so,
hopefully, you know, somebody,somehow, somewhere, there's an
opportunity for, you know, sortof a diverse set of, medical and
innovation practitioners to cometogether and spend some time,

(01:02:38):
you know, fly fishing andthinking about how to, sort of
drive innovation in the healthcare field. So, anyway, super
excited. I thought it was areally good discussion. There's
probably, you know, 2 or 3 otherdiscussions we coulda had, and
I'm actually looking forward tothe EIR live on this one too
because I think there's a lotof, kinda audience and other
perspective that would be greatto introduce.

(01:03:00):
What about you, Terrance? What'dyou think?

Terrance Orr (01:03:01):
Man, a few things here. One, I I'd absolutely
call, Loleta a portfolio EIR oralmost like a parallel EIR or
something because we've seenpeople with multiple EIR
opportunities but never sort of,like, in parallel, and it's been
or at the same time. Right? Andit's just it's it's fascinating,

(01:03:22):
right, that how you can balancethose things across different,
you know, organizations, fromit's just a fascinating thing to
think about. So that's sort ofthe the first sort of
reflection.
The second thing is sort of howmany times she jumped and took
the leap of faith, into theunknown and literally had no

(01:03:42):
clue what was on the other side.Right? And I think there's
something to say about thepeople that we bring on the
podcast, you know, with the theentrepreneurial chops that will
just take the leap, you know, nomatter what and because they
feel something in their gut ofguts that there's something on
the other side. And it might bebad, but you know what? There's

(01:04:03):
a lot of learnings on the otherside as well, and we'll go we'll
be we'll be students of the gameand take that every single time.
I think there's something elseto be said about, you know,
perseverance, during during thattime because it it's hard now,
frankly, you know, to to be awoman out raising capital and

(01:04:24):
building a company. And I know alot of, you know, top tier,
like, entrepreneurs who arewomen who shouldn't be going
through what they're goingthrough. But thinking about the
time that Loleta had to go outand do this was long time ago,
and her actually perseveringduring that time and finding her
way and sending the message thatit's gonna be hard, period. You

(01:04:46):
know? And you need to find yourway.
So I think that's aninspirational message for, for
the women listening to thepodcast around, like, it's tough
out there. We know it. We gotyou. We see you. We care about
you guys, and we just hope thatI'm just happy that she shared
that, and I wanted her to sharethat raw view on the podcast.
So for me, man, thosereflections of the hard fought

(01:05:08):
journey not doing b to b SaaS,no no knock against the people
doing b to b SaaS companies,but, like, actual, like, true
health care innovation and,like, being a part of early
start ups that got acquired bybig players that we know today.
And her entire journey in themedical field is just sort of,
like, fascinating. So a lot ofreflections, man, for me, and I

(01:05:30):
can't wait for our audience tohear more about this episode.

Ilya Tabakh (01:05:34):
Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm excited in sort of the
interactions and the questionsand sort of the, you know,
opportunities for the network toconnect. So looking so so many
so many good things that canhappen here. I'm pretty excited
about that.

Terrance Orr (01:05:48):
100%. Thanks for joining us on EIR Live. We hope
today's episode offer youvaluable insights into the
entrepreneurial journey.Remember to subscribe so you
don't miss out on futureepisodes, and check out the
description for more details. Doyou have questions or
suggestions?
Please reach out to us. Connectwith us on social media. We
really value your input. Catchus next time for more inspiring

(01:06:11):
stories and strategies. Keeppushing boundaries and making
your mark on the world.
I'm Terance Orr with my co-hostIlya Tabakh signing off. Let's
keep building.

All Episodes

Episode 07 - Breaking New Ground: From Medicine to Innovation with Loleta Robinson

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Boysober

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 07 - Breaking New Ground: From Medicine to Innovation with Loleta Robinson