EIR Live

You share with us how you landed the other 3 EIR roles outside of Blue Cross Blue Shield, if you could share those those stories? Or did they come at the same time? Or how did you go about landing those opportunities?

I would say all networked. You know? They were all referral to me. I would say the Blue Cross was because I came back again. I was confused.

I had hit from Africa and know what I was doing. I was trying to retire. Now you know I couldn't retire, but I wanted to. You know? But and so so I was like, why don't you think about this?

And so that was it. They connected me to that role. NIH, same way. I knew, some of the EIRs who were already there and just had conversations with them came in that way.

Welcome to EIR Live, where we dive into the lives and lessons of entrepreneurs in residence. I'm Ilya Tabakh, together with my co host, Terrance Orr, ready to bring you closer to the heartbeat of the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Every episode, we explore the real stories behind the ideas, successes, setbacks, and everything in between. For everyone from aspiring EIRs to seasoned pros, EIR Live is your gateway to the depth of the entrepreneurial journey and bringing innovative insights into the broader world. Check out the full details in the episode description.

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Alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of EIR Live. We're here with our distinguished guest, Loleta Robinson, and I am so thrilled, to have her on the podcast. As you can imagine, another serial entrepreneur in residence, but this time coming from the medical world and a medical background into doing a bunch of entrepreneurial things that we'll get into today on the podcast. But her journey from the medical world to business to entrepreneurship and then just becoming a serial XIR and EIR is one for the books.

And her early background starting businesses like a lot of our guests and making those multiple transitions throughout her career. I'd love to be able to tell you more about her, but I'd never be able to do her background justice the way that she could. So, Loleta, could you please introduce yourself to our audience?

Well, hello, everyone, and thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on this EIR Live podcast. Podcasting is new to me, so bear with 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 fun opportunity just to actually intro my introduce myself not only to you 2, but just to the world in general.

I tend to work behind the scenes, so this is kinda my first time sort of being out there and actually speaking on what I've been up to for the last 25 years. But I am Loleta Robinson, and I think I'm gonna just tell you about my 25 year journey in health care, that's been anything, I would say, but linear. It's been a crazy wild ride. I survived, and I'm a survivor. In health care, you survive these things.

And so I'm here to just kinda give you that information and background about me. But I'm a physician by trade and training. And while I did not love patient care, I hate to say that, but surprise surprise, I had this nagging feeling that there was much more with things I could do beyond the exam room. So as you mentioned, growing up, I was always entrepreneurial. I had all these side businesses in high school and college, and I was doing everything, you know, but what I probably need to be doing.

And that curiosity led me to what I call kind of my first leap of faith of many, and I joined a medical diagnostic start up company from very early in my clinical career, and I worked as a medical director. And I would say I had absolutely no idea what a medical director did in a start up. I was clueless. Didn't even have any business doing that, but I did, and I made it through it. But I would say sometimes those best opportunities come to skies as what am I getting myself into type of moment, and it was definitely one of those moments.

But that role turned into the most incredible kind of crash course in business. One day, I would be designing clinical studies. The next, I'll be troubleshooting supply issues, like, literally in the warehouse putting diagnostic kits together. And then I'll pivot to marketing and sales and work with business development and regulatory submissions. It was like drinking from a fire hose, but it taught me how to translate science and complex science into real health care solutions.

And that role led to where I am today. That was the beginning, honestly, of the rest of my life in in health care in the business side of health care. So I I really appreciate, that them giving me the opportunity 20 something years ago to take a chance on me and someone who was still in between not knowing if I wanted to stay in clinical medicine or do business, but gave me an opportunity to combine the both both of them. And that's why I am here, and I'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 entrepreneurial things.

I mean,

it sounded like even in your earlier background, there's sort of this concept of seeing an opportunity, you know, and kind of jumping at the chance? And so maybe if we can kind of before we go on to kinda next steps, talk about, you know, a little bit of that that early entrepreneurial, experience. And then I know that as you were kind of thinking about what to do with a MD and kind of how to make a difference in the field, you know, you were doing a lot of exploration and, kinda chatting with folks, chatting with some of your mentors. I think a little bit of that, you know, kinda context is really helpful to to because I think it's it was more than you took one leap of faith that there was uncharacteristic. You know, it seems like there's a little bit more of a pattern there.

So if you can dig into that a little bit, I think it would be really helpful for the audience.

Absolutely. So I was always a 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 I say, 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 their soccer practices and gymnastics class and bring them all home in my car. You know? So I had a car full of kids, and but I got paid a a good amount of money. And that's when I was like, I like business, but I also like science too. How do you combine the 2?

You know? So you're going through medical school. You're going through your residency, and I'm like, but I still like business. You know? But back then, those days, you didn't have the combined MD, MBA programs.

You sort of had to figure it out on your own, you know? And I went to University of Kansas School of Medicine, and back then, it was sort of, okay, but who who is this person? She doesn't want to practice. She wants to do business. We don't do business, you know?

So it was me figuring it out, asking around, and people, you know, understanding where I was and what place that I was and kind of came to me and said, okay. Here's an opportunity to do an MBA program at University of Colorado at Denver. It's basically 1st cohort, can you come and and try it out and test it out? And I did, and I loved every minute of it, and the rest is sort of like now I have some idea of what I want to do. It wasn't a 100% sure what it was going 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 and medicine. I am going to have to struggle and find a way in what that really looks like, but for me, I thrive off of looking at and assessing new opportunities. You know, that's what I do. I my whole entire career has been, is it going to kill me or am I going 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 kinda engineering background, commercialization and engineering, believe it or not, wasn't like a, you know, first order consideration either. But there's folks sort of around that, you know, in their resume or in their background had done things, you know, in addition to the things that they did. Did did you have folks like that around you, or was it really, you know, kind of, hey.

There's this new program starting. Maybe this would be interesting. I guess, talk about that a little bit more.

Yeah. It it's not so much having, you know, those folks around me. I would say when it came to my medical side, my family was always back there, you know, trying to figure out what to do with me, you know, where to go, how to get me there. But I went afterwards, when it was about how to mix and combine the medicine and the business piece of it, it honestly, it was really find that out on your own because at that time, this was like 1990s. You know, no one was thinking about this.

And so I I I really I think some poor souls probably felt sorry for me because they saw that I was struggling, you know, trying to figure this all out, and I didn't have any answers. And so it was just one person that was a dean of the program at the time at the NBA said, hey. Why don't you just think about this? You know? Take a year and just go through this program, test it out, and then see what you think.

You know? And that one person basically opened my eyes to what I could do, you know, with health care and with business. And so that was the start of it. And then for me, the other, like, the faith is saying, you know what? Do I wanna continue to practice medicine, or do I wanna just go forth and and work at a start up and and and figure out this medical director role.

And that's what I did, and I I have no regrets about that at all because that's exactly where I needed to be at that time.

I love this. So this is the second leap leap of faith, right, that that you've taken 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 of this program. We think it could be something, but we don't know. Right, Loleta? And you're like, why not? Let's take another leap, and let let's let me just take the leap and do it.

Right? Did you have to move out to Denver to do the program, or did you do it virtually at the time?

No. I was already in Denver. You're already in Denver? Okay. Yes.

I was working for St. Joseph Hospital, at the time. And so, yes, it was I was already there, and they're like, hey. This program is at University of Colorado Denver. So it was just a matter of going down the street, honestly, to take the course, you know, to take the class.

So yeah.

Okay. So talk to us. After you leave the MBA program, you've had your experience, 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 Fisher at the time or Thermo Electron at the time. And so I said, well, you know what? I oh, here's another one. I always wanted to live in the DC area, and so I landed at a position as a medical science director at MedImmune Vaccines, which was acquired by AstraZeneca. So I went from this scrappy start up in Lewisville, Colorado to this biotech company in Gaithersburg, Maryland, working on vaccine development, marketing teams, things of that sort.

We were launching flu mist, the intranasal flu vaccine at that time. So that was a that was a major change of pace for me. That's right. Yep. Major.

But I would say that role, it was tough. It was a tough role, but I think it was you know, you're learning how large scale product development, projects work and sometimes why they don't work, but you also learn about marketing, you know, a pharmaceutical or some type of drug or a vaccine, and the things that you can and cannot say or the things how you market it. And so I got a chance to learn those types of things, and I think each thing that I each career progression that I go through, all everything has been challenging because I always go into something where I have no clue, and I don't know why I keep doing that. But I end up learning and learn something from it. You know?

And it's something that actually helps me land that next position, then that next position. But I always go into things kind of wide eyed and no business, probably doing what I need to do.

But, you know, it sort of speaks to this this thing that we love to talk about on the podcast around running towards the things that make us uncomfortable. Because in those moments, we know that there's gonna be growth on the other side. Despite not knowing if it's gonna be green pastures or if this is gonna be the right opportunity or if it's gonna be a career launching pad role, it's just something feels right about running towards the thing that you don't know a whole lot about for whatever reason when you have this entrepreneurial background. But then something special happened, which is you got a chance to combine both of these love the love for medical and business in your next opportunity as a chief medical officer. Can you talk to us about that role and how and what lessons you learned from working at the start up world and now inside of a bigger company?

And now you're this the the chief medical officer at an organization, BLH, I think it was 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 came to that position. So when I was, I joined, when I was in Maryland, you know, that I I that was a probably one of the best 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 so much, but you also have a very strong network that you developed.

And while I was there, I joined an incredible organization called Women in Bio, and it was headed by Robbie Milton and a group of wonderful, amazing women who had backgrounds in, you know, biotech start ups, IP, regulatory affairs, all these different aspects of biotech. And with their support and their guidance, I actually cofounded a medical diagnostics company. So I was a cofounder and that was and chief medical officer. So that position actually was my first CMO type of role for my own company that I have cofound. And that time, we were trying to develop a diagnostic test for melanoma.

And what I would tell you is that nothing humbles you quite like building something from scratch like that, and you're working with scientists who actually, you know, had the technology. I mean, it was it was crazy. Tech transfer, all of those different things. So everything you ever assumed you have gets tested. Every plan needs a plan b, a c, d, triple z, quadruple z.

You know, it goes down the line. But that's where I really developed my, I would say, my CMO type of abilities, you know, that perspective, from a very broad business typoscope science, but also from the start up experience and business experience. So that role as a CMO and cofounder was incredibly challenging, but it was something that I needed to do in order to grow the career. And and, honestly, the CMO roles from the other companies like BLH Technologies and others, they were different in a ways because that CMO role was more of working as a federal, contractor. So I was working with a number of federal agencies from a CMO perspective, not necessarily from a start up perspective, which is where I think I fit most with is within the start up world.

That was a way better story to to, to to my question. And, know, I'm I'm gonna toss it over to Ilya after this, and then we'll get into the the land of, you know, landing your first sort of, EIR gig. But I'm curious to know, you know, what was some of the lessons that you learned, in starting that company for nearly 5 years you ran that company before you went on to, you know, be a h. Can you share with our audience some of the the war wounds, some of the lessons that you learned in doing that? And then we'll move into the other part.

I still have them on my in my back. The knives are still in there, 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 the understanding, you know, the the business model, understanding the clinical studies you have to do, the IP, all of it.

You know, all of it was a struggle, and particularly when it was your first company as well in that space. And you know nothing. And the good thing, I think, for me, being in Maryland, and have that support of, like, women in bio, but just the state that was behind us and and really supporting us, I don't think it would have we have we wouldn't have lasted a month if it wasn't for them. You know? So I think that, when you do something like this, you have to be or you should be in the area where you have that support, someone who can help you get through those, someone who has the experience and that mentorship to help guide you alone because it's all a struggle.

There's not one thing that's, oh, this is more of a struggle than the others. No. It's you got there for money. You have to figure out, okay, what kind of clinical studies you need to do, regulatory. So you need to know understand 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, working with scientists.

It's it was all a struggle. But I'm a tell you, it was one of the best experiences, you know, I've ever had just because I had a chance to learn everything about a startup from soups to nut. And that experience is how I 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 that was at the time?

No. You know, pry prior to the EIR, I was actually you know, another thing I did, I got I was asked to, you know, go to Africa for a while, and so I did that too. You know? So I had to throw that in 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. You know? I've just been spending some time in Africa. What what's going on with life? I don't know.

You know? And so someone mentioned to me, hey. There's this entrepreneur in residence role 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 the role, and I probably still didn't know what EIR was when I actually accepted the role. So I was learning on the job as to what I was gonna be doing, But, but that's, you know, that's where 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 think about what else was in their ecosystem, which I think is, like, a really interesting and good way to start, especially as an operator. And so, you know, in in in a couple of episodes and generally, actually, when we talk about EIRs, I I think one of the main roles for an EIR is to play the role of translator. And I think the way that you really get good at translating is by, you know, sort of being native, you know, actually spending some time in that environment. And I think your your story is, like, a really good example of of of how, you know, you sort of built, some of those, kind of good experiences to help lay the foundation to be a really good translator. And it actually occurs as we're talking.

You know, medicine actually has this concept of translational medicine. Right? There's a lot of fields that don't you know, at least in medicine, they specifically recognize that research, does not necessarily make it to the clinic by itself. Right? And I think, like, it sort of occurred to me as you and Terrance were kinda talking about kinda that early foundational background is, you know, being an EIR in medicine is almost like a meta level translational medical practitioner.

Right? Because you're adding IP, you're adding commercialization, you're adding fundraising, but that's all really kind of involved in the effective application of, you know, sort of medicine meets clinic meets population meets outcome. Right? In in a way that's not, you know, at least as far as I know, traditionally taught in kind of a medical school context. So I think it's cool to sort of, you know, build on this idea of EIR as a translator, and and love just kinda thinking about that.

And so, yeah, love that. How how was that kind of that that transition from sort of operator to, maybe more of a spiritual leader or adviser or, you know, sort of other roles that EIRs play. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah. Absolutely. I was actually ready for that type of role because I was at a age, at that time where I was like, you know, I'm kind when, personally, I had that experience in Africa, and and I was ready for it just to settle down. I was tired. You know?

And I was honestly thinking about, okay. I think I do I wanna get into consulting? Do I what do I wanna do? I I was kinda burnt out from corporate at 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 can just sort of be flexible for a little bit? You know, I can rest. I'm I'm I wanna split up I'm tired. I'm just tired. And so ER came together.

But I'm gonna tell you something. That first ER role was not retirement. It was a full time role, and you still had to, like, actually do a lot of work. But that was where I was exposed to the world of venture capital, you know, with Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners and venture development, start up evaluation, the due diligence, and working with start ups from a, like you say, an adviser level, and, you know, the chance of doing due diligence on start ups because that's I I know what it takes now. You know?

And so to me, having that background of understanding the medical piece of it, but the business of running a start up is how even though it made it much easier for me to work with the start ups that we were basically trying to bring in as vendors and whatnot because I've been there, done that. You know? And so but one thing too that I do is I don't know if it's just sort of my my secret sauce in a sense too, but I'm very good at and at basically, you know, connecting the dots. And it's usually all in my head, and I have a hard time sort of articulating it. But I can see things, and I connect the dots.

I'm like, that's going to work or 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 some things there, right? You learn how to be very creative and efficient in that world of limited resources, and you come back here and you can do innovation all day, all day because you you just you learn it. So all these past experiences turn me into someone who can basically read and assess things very quickly and come up with the end result, and that's kind of what I do. And I think with being at Blue Cross, I was able to hone that in a little bit more and actually realize that, which I didn't know, that that's the skill I had.

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 find what I do do. You know? Yeah. Because I didn't know. I thought I was kind of a strange person, you know, in background, like, thinking, oh, that's what the answer is.

You know? And I didn't know where that was coming from.

And as we've talked about kind of what makes an effective entrepreneur in residence, you mentioned, you know, kind of, I think, one of the 3 main components, knowing your secret sauce and being able to sort of communicate it to the residents in a way that they can think about, how does it fit. I think the other two pieces that have come up with conversation are, you know, has the residents actually figured out how innovation plays in their core strategy and have they sort of done the work necessary to effectively use that secret sauce? And then a third one that kinda came in later is, you know, what do you have to do to reskill or kinda change how you do things? Because when you're sort of an entrepreneur in the wild, right, you sort of make decisions, get resources, lots of things work differently. And so it's cool to hear you kinda specifically call out, you know, realizing what that secret sauce is.

Does that kinda resonate? How does that, kinda ring against your experience and and what you, 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 to have conversations with those who might know a little bit more than me, you know, and I still wanna have those conversate I still 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 questions and I will read. I will figure it out and, you know, ask away because to me, you don't know everything and sometimes when I, like I said, I have those things going on in my head about all these little balls in the air, and I'm trying to connect everything. It's still there's some education that comes in to help me make those connections. Right?

And so I so to me, you're always learning in this role, and there are some things that I can do fairly quickly now because I've been at it for 25 years, but there's always some kind of new interesting technology that I don't quite know. Let me figure it out, and I will go and and and learn it, like, as I should. And so that helps me formulate some of my answers to what I need to do to help with my clients and startups and things of that sort is is constant education.

You're in my head. Okay? You're you're in my head, Loleta, because I was literally thinking, like, what I want her to go through next is the skills and the behaviors that you had to unlearn. Okay? From, you know, your medical world where things are really polished, buttoned up.

This is how it's done. You know, best practices to the start up world where things are uncertain. You're always experimenting. You're always testing. You're throwing s h I t at the wall trying to figure out what is going to stick.

Right? And I think the other side of that is I think there's something special about people with your background, specifically coming from the medical field because you get exposed to more than just medicine. You have to, in some regard, learn business. In some regard, you need to learn the law. In some regard, you need to learn regulatory agencies and how they govern what you do.

And for me, that gives you this unique, like, ability to to speak 360. Right? You could talk business. You could talk medicine. You could talk law.

And you know how these things work together, and I believe that it lends itself to you being able to connect dots, you know, that others, you know, might just miss along the way. So talk to us about, you know first off, I wanna know where you went in Africa. That's the first place I wanna know, where in Africa. And when you came back from your motherland to the US, what what did you have to unlearn 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 couple others. But yeah. So I was there.

And, you know, being there, I I think I I matured in in some ways, even though I was an adult at that time. But I I I matured because you see things, and you see things that are not fair, but you you figure you find a way to make something work in in almost impossible settings. And you like I said, you become very creative and efficient with a lot of things because you don't have the resources, and you're trying to, figure it all out. And and when I came back, I I think I had this sense of, well, you know, life is tough, and you have to make do with this, and you have to learn how to get yourself out of these holes sometimes. And as they say, life is lifein', you know, and and for a lot of people.

And so I think my perspective is how I see the world, how I see people, you know, how I don't judge the people, you know, where they come from. And so it opens and it broadens your mind up as to how things should be. And I will say too, you know, going back to your question about unlearning the skills and whatnot or, you know, unlearning some things, I will say I was in medical school. I was the one that could diagnose the weird, hard cases because, again, it was 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 out and be like, that's what they have. You know?

And I was always a diagnostician in a way, and I still am to this day of diagnosing things. And that's kind of the skill the medical skill that I bring to the business side is being able to diagnose because, heck, you know, life is about diagnosing things, medical diagnosis. You know? You observe, you test, and and see what works. You know?

And so that's what I've been doing all this time, and I think that and I don't know. It's just a weird thing and a weird skill to have, but it has and sometimes I have no clue what's going on in my head, but it's there. And I'm just trying to figure it out and trying to work with what I have and and and the and this expertise and the skill that I do bring. And it sometimes it's very hard for me to articulate what it is because I just don't know sometimes. It just happens.

It just happens.

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

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, I think the you know, talking about the capabilities and the EIR role for Blue Cross and kinda what it took 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 the beginning of the show, 4 time EIR.

Can you sort of compare and contrast some of the sort of differences in the in the various roles and, kind of how they're similar and maybe how they're different?

Yeah. So I will say from the the Blue Cross Blue Shield Nebraska ER role, it was functioning out of, like, a corporate innovation lab in a sense. And so you your role is to go out and source, identify interesting start up companies that could add value to the members of Blue Cross. And so for me, a lot of that was a lot of due diligence work. You go in, talk to the team, really dig deep into the into the product itself, and make suggestions and recommendations.

You have conversations with the venture arm like, hey. You know, maybe, you know, we might not use them, but it might be good for you in terms of funding. Go from there. Learn some things about venture capital. Then my role with the National Institutes of Health, that role was more of an advisory role.

So I worked and advised SBIR, STTR awardee companies on their business and commercialization strategies. So it's more high level, high point of view as to what those companies need to do to kinda get from the lab, you know, get from the, you know, the the awards themself, and then to the market. And that's what we worked on. So we got a chance to work on some really interesting, more life science biotech products versus entrepreneur versus Blue Cross Blue Shield was more digital health. So that was the thing.

And then I've also worked, as an EIR for, a hospital system as well, and that one was more so working with them to launch startup companies, so being in advisory role back then as well. So they're they're all different in a sense, but they're very much similar. You know? In in a sense, you're advising, but, also, you're doing some deep dives into the startups themselves or trying to launch a startup.

And do they have, like, a formal sort of, like, program at all of these organizations where you were in resonance, or you were the only EIR, like, inside the organization? Or did you have others that you can bounce ideas off of and perform diligence on companies and and look at commercialization strategies of, you know I'm curious to know about that. Did they have a actual program, or were you the lone wolf sort of inside the organization 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 of a corporate, ER itself, and I was more from the start up side. So we brought very nice we were very complimentary of each other. And then with, NIH, there's a bunch of it's almost, like, 20 something ERs.

They have IP, regulatory. We have, myself with a payer background. We have folks who've CEOs of companies life science companies. It runs the gamut. I mean, very, very high level people, with the NIH.

And then with the hospital, it was more myself, but I had worked with others who helped me and 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 was starting the EIR program and you were running it and you were recruiting the EIRs, what would you do differently from the experiences that you've you've sort of been a part of today?

You know, I think they've all had their unique, experiences. I don't think there's anything because they're all different in their own way, which is good. So it's not like I've I've been in 1, you know, one program for 20 years. No. It's they're all different, and they're all I I gained experience at something different from each one of them.

So, you know, Blue Cross was more the venture side, and NIH is more working with commercialization and from the federal government piece of it. You know? So that mindset. And then you've got the hospital where it's just almost like helping to operate a start up in a sense. You know?

So they're all unique. And for me, I think that helps because it keeps me thinking. It keeps me going because there you know, everybody has a different uniqueness to it, different work, you know, that I need to do. So for me, I I don't I don't think there's anything I would do differently because I like each one of them because I gained some sort of experience that I needed to go to the next one.

No. That's incredible. And I'm gonna ask you one more follow-up question because, as you know, the podcast is all about educating our audience on how do you land your first EIR role, what should you do once you're in it, you know, all of those things. Could you if you could share could you share with us how you landed the other 3 EIR roles outside of Blue Cross Blue Shield, if you could share those those stories, and did they come at the same time? Or how did you go about landing those opportunities?

I would say all networked. You know? They were all referral to me. I would say the Blue Cross was because I came back again. I was confused.

I had hit from Africa and then what I was doing. I was trying to retire. Now, you know, I couldn'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. They connected me to that role. NIH, same way. I knew, some of the EIRs who were already there and just had conversations with them, came in that way. The ones at hospital, same thing.

It was it's, former folks I used to work with at, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and then we I worked with them, during that time. And so they referred me as well, and we 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 different because I've always looked at having kinda one EIR role at a time. Can you talk about sort of the, you know, kind of the how do you balance these, roles and kinda how you think about that and whether the, you know, kinda, is that an opportunity? Is it a challenge?

Kinda just talk through how how how you think about managing that.

Yeah. It's it can be a little rough at times, honestly. You know, like I said, the whole idea for me to be an EIR at this point remember, I'm trying to slow it down. It'll work my semi retirement, but I'm not because I'm doing, like, 2 AR roles and plus a CMO role. You know?

So I don't know where the semi retirement is coming from, but, I'm still trying. But I'm the you know, the thing is I just manage my time, you know, as much 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 of little part time gigs that are kinda coming together, and it comes out to be almost full time. But as long as I can manage my time, I can it it works for me, and, I've been, you know, I've been at it for so long in a sense that I understand the work, I understand the team, I understand what they want, and I can get through it, you know, fairly easily.

It's it's not it's not a huge problem for me right now.

What what advice you know, I'm curious to know what advice you would give other EIRs, even specifically those, you know, coming from sort of the health care world, the medical background, they they wanna do something more entrepreneurial. They're ready to take that leap leap of faith, but, you know, they don't they don't have it, like, you know, Loleta just yet. Right? But they're thinking about it. What advice would you give them on how to approach making the transition out of the medical world into something more businesslike or even landing their 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 my roles. You know? It was through through a network.

And if you know someone that is an EIR in a certain corporation, start up, venture fund, whatever it may be, have conversations with them and have them talk to you about it. You know? What does this role entail? What would 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 is that my goal here is to try to connect with those who are thinking about that transition. Right? Because a lot of us are trying you know, my age, you're like, okay.

I've done the corporate, like, 15,000 years. I'm ready to transition to something else. Was it consulting? Is it ER type of thing? Is it executive front in residence?

And it is a transition because in 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 to figure out what you want to do within the EIA role. Is it health care? Is it retail? Is it supply chain?

What does that look like? And then 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 that life and business experience to kinda come in to be able to give that type of advice to some of these, companies or, you know, the government, whatever it may be. Because I know with my role at NIH, everyone has some deep experience, and these are some amazing folks in that on that team. And so and I think, you know, once you've gone through it, you know, you can help somebody else get through it as well.

So I would say have some experience, get your strong network, but really find out, again, what is your secret sauce, what value can you add instead of just telling these people what to do, but what can you 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 or or Ilya, you know, what time period we were in when you were doing a lot of this stuff coming up in in your background, you know, as as a woman as a black woman with a medical degree and an MBA, right, who's super sharp during that time doing all the things that you were doing, starting companies, raising venture capital in rooms full of people who probably don't look like you across the table. Right? And and still persevering. You know?

I could you speak to what was your experience like during that time, you know, for for others who might be listening in your situation, who look like you, who's going gonna go down this path, what advice would you give the women, specifically the black women who are listening to this, who are thinking about going to raise capital for their startup, who wanna go start a venture capital firm? You've had the opportunity to to to do VC, to be an entrepreneur, to be in residence at a corporate, to do it at multiple organizations. Like, what advice would you give them?

Hey. It's going to be rough. You know? This is not going to be easy 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 folks didn't know what to do with me.

You know, here I am with this MD MBA 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 figure this all out. And, of course, folks were just like, no. That's no.

This is not gonna work. But I don't listen to people. And so I just do what I like I said, if I'm not going to jail or I'm gonna get killed from this, I'm going to stick my foot out and start doing something, make it work. Right? And so if you want it, you know, go for it, but I'm just gonna tell you, it's going to be hard.

You know? Not no part of being a black woman in the health care space, in the venture space and or even just the ER space. You're gonna be in many rooms where it's just you, and you're gonna look that, you know, funny because, like, why are you in this space? And you're going to just have to keep moving forward. It's it hurts.

It it really does, because it was been it's been a challenge, for these past many, many years. But I feel like, yes, given all of those challenges and all those things, I still came out of it with I did exactly what I wanted to do. Everything in my career, it didn't all it didn't go in sequential steps. It was all like this. But everything that I set out to do, I did.

You know? And that's all I can say because, you know, but I I struggled. There were some times where I was like, I don't know if I'm going to come out of this. I just don't know. You gotta figure this out, but I'm I'm gonna find a way to make it work.

It's not everything did everything work out rosy and and perfect? Absolutely not. I had a lot of failures during this time period, a lot of failures. And a lot of times you just had to keep moving, even though everybody's telling you, no, it's not possible. You can't do this.

You can't. I mean, I don't know how many times I've heard you can't do this. You can't do, you know, no, no, But I'm going to keep moving forward and I'm going to do what I want to do. And I always say, this is my life. I got one one shot at this and you're not going to stay up in my way.

You got to move out the way because I'm gonna stump on you. That's all there is to it. You know? Because I'm gonna do what I want to do. And so that's all I can say.

It's it's it's just not gonna be easy. It's just not. I have no other answer for you. It's not. Just keep going.

If you want it, just keep going for it. It might take you 5 years. It might take you 10 years. Like me, it took me 25 years to get here, but I'm here. I'm here now, and this is 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, of episodes, it's interesting to sort of observe personality traits, and and sort of, you know, some patterns. One thing, you know, you mentioned it earlier in the discussion on just being curious and having an appetite to learn. You know? I think that's sort of a telltale sign of a a founder, a starter.

You know? I think the other thing you sorta hinted at a little bit is this, you know, when faced with, ambiguity and sort of not a clear path, just being able to dig in and persevere and, you know, that that either driving some action or some energy or both. You know? I I think I've seen folks interpret that differently. But but I think that that goes really a long way because if you know, ultimately, I think it's important early in your career to figure out and and have shots at being a founder and then also sort of supporting earlier stage ideas because you get to know, you know, what's for you, what's not for you, where do you get energy, where do you shut down.

You know, like, that's really, really good data points. And I I think in some ways you know, I think, by the way, everybody says, you know, I'm an EIR. That means I have a weird career path. It's always you know, I think to to the person, everybody says my career projection doesn't make any sense, but it sort of connects, you know, it's, Terrance, I think earlier said connecting dots. I I would say connecting dots and throwing darts.

Right? Be be be being able to to sort of go go through that journey. But, anyway, I just wanted to highlight that a little bit because, you you know, it's interesting when folks kinda jump from kinda their context and their background to a different place, to a 3rd place, to where that becomes a competency, sort of how you learn to connect with people, how do you get motivation, how do you continue to dig in and do stuff. It's you know, some of that that lived experience and the muscle memory you build is very valuable. So just wanted to kinda not gloss that over, call it out specifically.

And as we move through, you know, sort of the other way, I I have, like, a million other questions I can ask you about the other the other EIR roles. But, you know, what what I really wanna ask you, you know, is thinking about all the things that that you've done 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 through tough times even when, you know, it's hard.

I'm curious to know, you know, I met I met Loleta for all those listening during the era of, you know, 2020, late 2020, 2021. And, you know, I was sort of getting my hands dirty and trying to learn this very muggy world of health care and and everything else because I was I was, you know, building a company around DVT. For those who are listening, DVT is deep vein thrombosis, which is essentially blood clots. And trying to way trying to find a way for physicians to monitor their patients in in real time post care through software. And and I learned a bunch around regulatory and help PIPA and a bunch of things along the way.

And hearing Loleta talk is sort of like this moment, right, where I failed on a bunch of things. Obviously, that company didn't work out. But this this perseverance of you learning a bunch of being a student of the game, a student of life, and brushing yourself off, being extra curious again to figure out why did you fail and what could you do right the next time, and passing that wisdom along to entrepreneurs who are gonna come after you. I know I I teed that up in a very long way, but thinking about all of those things, there's other things that make the time pass for us outside of work, outside of medicine, outside of the things that you've been working on and doing. And I'm curious if you can share with our audience something that makes the time pass, for Loleta.

What's something that's not on your resume that makes the time pass for you that you find to be a hobby and fun that our audience might not know by looking at your LinkedIn profile or hearing about your background?

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

And I wanted to do something that allowed me to be able to pursue my interests. You know? I want to pursue I love to travel, so I'm always traveling. Spend time with my family. I like philanthropic work, but the thing that I love to do in my hobby is fly fishing.

And I I started actually, back in 2020 during COVID, and I took a fly fishing 101 class in Omaha, Nebraska while I was living there. And I said, oh, I like 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 this all out because this is not gonna be easy.

You know? But you know me. You know, if you know me by now, you know, if it's if it's gonna be hard, I'm gonna do try it anyway. Right? The hardest thing possible, I'm gonna I'm gonna try it out.

And so I moved here to Wilmington, North Carolina, and I got in touch with this group organization called United Women on the Fly. And they're a national international fly fishing, fly angler group, for women. And I connected with them, and they were like, okay. We want to teach you. And so they're like, I want you to go to Montana and stay there for a few days.

I'm a get you a guide, and you're going to learn how to fly fish. And that's what I did. I loved every minute of it, and since then, that's what I spend my time doing, is finding cool rivers, especially in the fall with the leaves and going out and catching some fish. And that's what I spend my time doing. But that's why that's it.

That 25 years of taking those hits, stabbed in the back, stomped on a few times to get to this point where I'm still fairly young, I can work a couple, you know, part time jobs, you know, consulting contracts and go fishing, spend my time fishing, that makes it worth it. Right?

That's right.

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

I'm gonna ask you to go a little bit deeper on this. So for those who might not be as familiar with the difference between just fishing versus fly fishing, could could you describe how how it's different, or what is fly fishing for for people listening?

Yes. So you're using a a longer, bendable rod incense. Right? And you're out in streams or you can actually people do fly fishing wherever. But I like to string fish, and I go out to these beautiful streams, and I have a long rod.

And, basically, you'd cast and you use flies. They And, basically, their flies are like dry flies in this sense and what they do is they look like the bugs that you see floating around in rivers and so you attach that on, you you know, to the, to the line and you basically spend all day catching trout. And then most of the time, it's catch and release, so I'm not catching anything to go cook and fry up. It's just basically catch the fish and basically throw it in back in the water And you can go on boats, you can wade. So you have your waders on, your boots, and you've got all your flies.

And for me, since I had the worst time tying knots, so I would basically have a guide with me at all times because I I'm I'm the one that typically likes to fall in the river for some reason, and they have to get rescued out sometimes. And so, I'm a messy flisher, and so and I don't like touching the fish. And there's a lot of things and quirks about me when it comes to fly fishing. So I always have a nice guide with me who can help me out, but I I love every minute of it. I'm just outdoors enjoying this beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, and I love when I'm just actually hooking the fish and reeling that in, because it's just something that's, like, powerful to me.

It's empowering to do so. So and there's a bunch of folks around here, across the country who do this, and we have such a really nice community. So we have another group called Ubuntu. That's another organization I belong to, and what we're trying to do is raise awareness, but for 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 is why I spend my time.

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

Right? And then when you got into 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 venture off to say that maybe, you know, some of your sorority sisters and others in your network. Right? By the way, she's a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. And I I think there's something to be said about, you know, somebody being able to drop into different places and being able to find the right community or having something about them or aura about them to where people are drawn to them. They wanna bring you in to their communities, and you've done that fluidly throughout your your career.

And I just don't want that thread to be lost for the people listening on finding the right community where you're at or where you're going to learn or to just engage with the ecosystem that you're about to be a part of.

Man, you said it perfectly. You actually you yes. You connected with that because that's exact in fact, before I moved to Maryland, I contacted Robbie Milton of, Women in Bio before I moved and talked to her and said, okay. I now I have a community. Now I feel better about moving to Maryland.

Because now when I go, I will have them, but they're there to help me understand the biotech community. And then I've been part of it ever since. And that's been, what, 2,002, 2004? And it's same thing. When I went to Africa, found a group over there too.

And same thing, you know. And and, of course, Delta, Sigma Theta, you know, I'm a part of that. And so I all because I've moved I've moved, one thing I didn't mention, I've moved, and lived all over the US in many different states. And so every time before I make a move, I always find a community, someone there, and then I then I move. I don'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 if I'm the best. I'm gonna contact you, and I wanna know who can help me. That's it. And that's that's a part of that learning part too is I'm not gonna go out there by myself and just make all 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 of actually doing it right the first time.

One of the things I love is sort of as you get more and more of that, I've seen and I find myself just more intentional about you know? And I heard you say earlier, you did exactly what you wanted to do and and got exactly where you were. And I think that sort of, you know, in sort of the nonlinear career path, there's normally the foundational piece, then there's, like, the, transition piece, then, typically, there's, like, a portfolio piece, right, where there's sort of, pieces coming together to be exactly what you wanna do. And so I just I I love the kind of the intentionality and, you know, these things are here because they need to be here, and these other things are not here because they don't need to be here. Right.

And so I love that. I I think just to kinda, follow through on that, I think, you know, as as we're now kind of joking, we're, traditionally a few minutes over. But but I would love to hear a little bit about, you know, kind of what you're working on recently and kinda what's got you most excited. And then, you know, we're we're trying to kinda connect another community and connect the EIRs together, so it'd be great to think about how that community can sort of support you, in that journey.

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

Why not at this phase of my life? Why not? You know? And I'm, again, utilizing and leveraging my medical background, my business experience. But while I'm maintaining my flexibility, you know, because, again, I have to go fly fishing every now and then, so nothing's gonna stop me from that.

And so that to me is where I'm looking at right now. And so like you're saying, I would love to be a part of a building community with others who are on the similar journey like me, who are making this transition. I would 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 learning to, you know, continue to do what I'll do, and I wanted I love the current positions. I love the work that I'm doing right now as long as I get to combine the 2 that I've been working on for so long. But, again, I have my time. I need my time, 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 if there's sort of a good follow-up or something to dig into?

LinkedIn, definitely. Feel free to contact me that way. Low l o l e t a Robinson, and then, yep, go from there.

Thank you so much, Loleta, for coming on the podcast. It's been such a privilege, and and ever since I've known her for the past couple of years, she's always been a gift to everybody around her. So for the folks listening, please don't be shy about reaching out if there's something that that piqued your interest today from from the podcast. She is more gracious with her time than than she 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 people making those transitions right now, because she's not just talking for the podcast. She truly means that. She answered my LinkedIn request years ago, just to be clear. And today, we're you were years into this this friendship. So, thank you so much, Loleta, for coming on the podcast.

Thank you for sharing your your time machine wisdom as we like to call it on the podcast and translating all of your experiences for our audience and those who might be thinking about landing their first EIR gig. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I had a great time.

Appreciate the time. Thank you. Man, this episode, really resonated with me in a couple different ways, which is kinda surprising. You know, I'm resonated with me in a couple different ways, which is kinda surprising. You know, I'm not a physician, and I have spent a little bit of time in in the health care world, but it was really interesting to sort of hear, how how another field that's, you know, regulated that typically has folks who are licensed to operate, really is similar in many ways to kind of technical engineering.

And so it was great to hear, Loleta really talk through kinda making the transition from physician kinda through the MBA into, ultimately a practitioner and kind of an entrepreneur. Right? And then ultimately becoming kind of into a multi EIR. I don't know. We need to almost 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 would be fun to sort of think about it's kind of portfolio EIR, I guess. But there's a lot of just a lot of topics that resonated with me, you know, kind of thinking about how to introduce these other views in these, you know, relatively rigid and regulated spaces in kinda connecting these dots. So it was really awesome. And, you know, there's probably an episode or 2 we could've done in some related themes, but I think that's true for a lot of the conversations we have.

I think the other thing I'm, you know, personally pretty excited about is I I really do think that there is, something there for a health care innovation fly fishing event. And so, hopefully, you know, somebody, somehow, somewhere, there's an opportunity for, you know, sort of a diverse set of, medical and innovation practitioners to come together and spend some time, you know, fly fishing and thinking about how to, sort of drive innovation in the health care field. So, anyway, super excited. I thought it was a really good discussion. There's probably, you know, 2 or 3 other discussions we coulda had, and I'm actually looking forward to the EIR live on this one too because I think there's a lot of, kinda audience and other perspective that would be great to introduce.

What about you, Terrance? What'd you think?

Man, a few things here. One, I I'd absolutely call, Loleta a portfolio EIR or almost like a parallel EIR or something because we've seen people with multiple EIR opportunities but never sort of, like, in parallel, and it's been or at the same time. Right? And it's just it's it's fascinating, right, that how you can balance those things across different, you know, organizations, from it's just a fascinating thing to think about. So that's sort of the the first sort of reflection.

The second thing is sort of how many times she jumped and took the leap of faith, into the unknown and literally had no clue what was on the other side. Right? And I think there's something to say about the people that we bring on the podcast, you know, with the the entrepreneurial chops that will just take the leap, you know, no matter what and because they feel something in their gut of guts that there's something on the other side. And it might be bad, but you know what? There's a lot of learnings on the other side as well, and we'll go we'll be we'll be students of the game and take that every single time.

I think there's something else to be said about, you know, perseverance, during during that time because it it's hard now, frankly, you know, to to be a woman out raising capital and building a company. And I know a lot of, you know, top tier, like, entrepreneurs who are women who shouldn't be going through what they're going through. But thinking about the time that Loleta had to go out and do this was long time ago, and her actually persevering during that time and finding her way and sending the message that it's gonna be hard, period. You know? And you need to find your way.

So I think that's an inspirational message for, for the women listening to the podcast around, like, it's tough out there. We know it. We got you. We see you. We care about you guys, and we just hope that I'm just happy that she shared that, and I wanted her to share that raw view on the podcast.

So for me, man, those reflections of the hard fought 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 by big players that we know today. And her entire journey in the medical field is just sort of, like, fascinating. So a lot of reflections, man, for me, and I can't wait for our audience to hear more about this episode.

Yeah. Absolutely. And I'm excited in sort of the interactions and the questions and sort of the, you know, opportunities for the network to connect. So looking so so many so many good things that can happen here. I'm pretty excited about that.

100%. Thanks for joining us on EIR Live. We hope today's episode offer you valuable insights into the entrepreneurial journey. Remember to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes, and check out the description for more details. Do you have questions or suggestions?

Please reach out to us. Connect with us on social media. We really value your input. Catch us next time for more inspiring stories and strategies. Keep pushing boundaries and making your mark on the world.

I'm Terance Orr with my co-host Ilya Tabakh signing off. Let's keep building.