Achieve Business Development Success in Healthcare with Susan Goebel, CEO and Founder, Susan Goebel (transcribed by Sonix)

Welcome to the Outcomes Rocket podcast where we inspire collaborative thinking, improved outcomes, and business success with today’s most successful and inspiring healthcare leaders and influencers. And now your host, Saul Marquez.

Saul Marquez: Welcome back to the podcast. Today I have an outstanding guest. Her name is Susan Goebel. She’s a business strategist, entrepreneur, high ticket closer, and published author. She’s highly dedicated, highly skilled in what she does. She’s wonderful at writing business proposals as well as technical or scientific publications as a Manager of the E. coli project at Bioniche. She developed a strong network of stakeholders and an agri food industry. Various government agencies and the scientific community. She always maintained a high level of commitment to her work despite setbacks and market resistance associated with the introduction of a new product in the marketplace. She’s an extremely well organized person focused on market priorities and business development and it’s such a pleasure to have her on the podcast. So looking forward to a conversation with you Susan. Thanks for joining us.

Susan Goebel: Thank you so much for the invitation Saul the… I’m so excited to be here at Outcomes Rocket there’s such amazing stuff that we can talk about today.

Saul Marquez: Absolutely so I totally agree with you Susan. There’s so much we could chat about. I want to start by asking you what got you focused into the healthcare sector?

Susan Goebel: Well back in my university days I was very excited to have the opportunity to do these Friday Lunch and Learns up on campus and in this particular case it was a passion of mine in the reproductive sector and I was on campus where we had a medical school and it was neat to be able to go into the clinical situation and meetings to hear what new products are being developed and how those are going to improve clinical outcomes. How does the science that I’m learning as an undergrad really affect and make a positive difference in the world. That was just a mindblowing experience because when the science thing when you’re doing your undergrad you’re learning all the principles and the theories and how to test and write and hypothesize but they don’t usually show you the big picture of how that fits in for innovation, for abundance, and to create positive effects and change.

Saul Marquez: Well it’s really neat you know you connected the dots and now you’re finding yourself in the field. Tell us Susan what do you think a hot topic that needs to be on every leaders agenda today in healthcare and how are you approaching it?

Susan Goebel: You know that’s a really tough question to only narrow it down to one.

Saul Marquez: Agreed.

Susan Goebel: I would say that innovation is probably the biggest piece that we need to be thinking of as leaders looking at tomorrow. And the reason behind that is because the speed of change is continuing to increase so fast. There was a youtube video I watched once on what happened BG and I wondered to myself what is BG stand for. It was about before Google.

Saul Marquez: BG, I love that.

Susan Goebel: Me too. It was really fascinating YouTube video…

Saul Marquez: Love that.

Susan Goebel: And they were talking about the world before Google and how you know with paper and once upon a time you used to put the little letter in the mail and then you would wait for it to get to its destination and then it would come back and then you’d be able to action on it as a business person. Now with the tools and the techniques and all of the communication that we have the speed of change is so much more rapid, we need to be thinking and setting aside some thinking time in our own businesses and our own clinics to go “okay well what are the trends and scene, what do I need to be mindful of to be successful and innovate and think about what’s coming as a trend in the future.”

Saul Marquez: I think that’s super interesting and the BG is intriguing you’ll have to share that link with us we’ll share it in the show notes.

Susan Goebel: I will have to dig that. We’ll know who this woman is.

Saul Marquez: So now that we’re in the AG period of things, innovation is key and it’s changed. Give us an example of how you feel it’s being done right in our space and other healthcare.

Susan Goebel: You know I’ve had the privilege of meeting some really cool people through some of my social media outreach. And some people are taking these key pieces of technologies to a new level even something as simple as once upon a time which was not that long ago you would take a patient from point A to Point B which might be they moved and you would have as a physician no record unless they could provide it to you or no record unless they were willing to pay for the other doctor to marry that up with the courier system. But now with so many electronic records and whatnot and the accessibility is so important we don’t even think about some of this stuff. Block chain, I was having a conversation with a gentleman who was using block chain technology to assist refugees with one of the key elements they know that’s not a healthcare related piece but it feeds back in, one of the key pieces that refugee has as their challenge is identification because they often lose their identification along their journey to get to wherever they’re going. So along the journey, if you use black chain technology when they get to a refugee camp for something they can prove that they really are who they say there they are. So when you have a patient that might move or a patient that needs to be heard out, how do we keep the integrity in the privacy of the records and can continue to move this long so that pretty piece of information that the next physician needs to have a clinic is perfectly there and accessible. There’s a lot of great people doing wonderful things on that as an example.

Saul Marquez: I think that’s neat. Yeah. And I think people are still struggling to to find applications of block chain. I mean in the day to day practice, in the day to day business I feel like it’s still kind of a block box. So it’s it’s neat to find examples such as this and even still write a lot of questions remain around block chain. And what exactly it is and how to use it. So I need to hear that example and how it’s translatable to patients. What are your thoughts on the other front? Can you share a time when you had a setback and what you learned from that setback?

Susan Goebel: Yes failure. I think Google’s phrase is fail forward and fail fast. When I… 20 years ago I would say almost 20 years ago now it’s been 2019, I started with a company called Bioniche and I got there about three days after I arrived and started working with the company, they got a letter where their vaccine had been going through its final licensing trial and unfortunately the licensing trials had failed. And so you have to go right all the way back to step one to try and make sure you understand all the things that went right and all the things that went wrong. And that particular project, that vaccine was a license in and Murphy’s Law everything that could have gone wrong with that project seemed to go wrong. I’m sure it did but it really didn’t. And so you’re testing all of the systems that as a corporation or as an entrepreneur that you’ve put in place and you’re finding the holes right okay so we took it from point A to point B to point C but I think we missed a B point one. So for the next product that comes through the pipeline it needs this base this step in order to make it a success. And so one of the key pieces that was interesting in an outcome perspective is that when you are developing a product in the pharmaceutical space it takes a long time to get to market right. And a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of investment in human capital to get something. And in this particular case the one thing that was very interesting for an outcome is that the client Avatar had changed. The market had shifted just enough where some of the key stakeholders were no longer as interested in backing or purchasing this product as they had been years earlier.

Saul Marquez: Now it’s a conundrum it to be in as a company especially after all of that investment. And so you know what do you do. You’re in that situation what do you do?

Susan Goebel: Well that’s exactly it. And so in this particular case would it have been better to bring some of those people in as stakeholders along the way. Would it have been better to do a little more focus groups right to really continue that check in every year or so as you’re moving things through the development phase. There are a lot of different ways that could have been addressed. There I believe. And if you had enough resources it was a smaller enterprise. So if you had enough resources could you have sped up the process a little bit and therefore your avatar wouldn’t have changed.

Saul Marquez: Yeah. And Susan I think you’re bringing up a great point right. A lot of people talk about the the power or the value of just putting your head down and working. But the problem in healthcare is that you can’t do that. You know in healthcare yeah you got to put your head down and work but you got a raise your head up, look around because things are always changing. Be it regulations, be it the market, be it whatever. You can’t just put your head down and work. You’ve got to look up, look around, look behind you, look sideways, and these focus groups that you’re talking about definitely can help to keep yourself informed the feedback loop that you need to be able to have success and not have that happen to you.

Susan Goebel: Well that’s exactly right. And a few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to a workshop down in Texas. A gentleman by the name of Keith Cunningham and he is a big proponent of Thinking Time.

Saul Marquez: I love Keith. I mean I don’t know him personally. I’ve been to one of his seminars. He is so funny.

Susan Goebel: He’s funny.

Saul Marquez: He’s practical I love his practicality I have his book on my shelf actually.

Susan Goebel: Oh that’s perfect. I’ve been on the way down to the seminar. I was reading the Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham.

Saul Marquez: Oh my gosh. That is too funny.

Susan Goebel: And I got the audio book as well which I understand from the workshop that I was at he did not enjoy reporting, because that he enjoyed writing it. He is a very big proponent of Thinking time even included in the workshop that we did was all about planning some rather than you know as an operator in your business, how do you take that step back to an owner in your business and make sure we’re doing the planning, the thinking, the really hard work that it doesn’t look from the outside very hard because you’re sitting in a chair writing but if you don’t do it the business will or could very easily fail. This seminar he had us going through myriads of different thinking times and it was great because you come out of it going “that wasn’t just information, some keeps coming in to me that is now perfectly something I can implement today in my business.”.

Saul Marquez: Yeah. I think that’s super cool. And folks if you have had a chance to dive into Keith definitely take Susan’s notes on this. The Road Less Stupid is a book that I really enjoyed and there’s writing exercises in there. In fact I as I was putting together the podcast and what I was doing here for you guys and gals I did some exercises out of the road less stupid. So definitely take some notes from Susan on that. We’ll provide a link here in the show notes. So Susan what what would you say one of your proudest leadership experiences has been in healthcare?

Susan Goebel: Proudest leadership experiences that’s a tough one. I would say helping the physicians who have developed some sort of a product or a service for an unmet need that they’ve seen and bringing that to market so that they can successfully commercialize that. I’m more on the back end of things right. These guys are key opinion leaders and they’re amazing individuals and they really are thinking ahead and so to be able to help them bring something that will help a patient whether it’s out of pain or be disease free that’s amazing. I love that so much.

Saul Marquez: You know I think that’s awesome that you’ve had that experience you’ve helped them be able to commercialize. We all have our talents and and the key is being able to make sure you could pair your talents up with somebody else in healthcare that has opposing talent so you could get you could create some pretty amazing things, Susan you’re obviously doing that. Tell us about an exciting project that you’re focused on today?

Susan Goebel: An exciting project, well the most exciting thing I would say is about a mastermind. So I have discovered in all of my dealings with various business development people and Ph.D’s and DVM’s and M.D.’s and all these these things that there is a space where there’s an unknown and so a lot of people in a clinical setting, in an academic setting, when I have this great idea but I have no idea how to take the great idea and move it to the next phase. I don’t have any idea what it would cost. I don’t know what implications there are for intellectual property. I have no idea what’s needed from a regulatory perspective. And so right now I’m actually creating a new mastermind for that particular space and I’m really excited about it because it’s getting people for networking opportunities, it’s being able to take the people in my network who are the subject matter experts and be able to push them a little bit more forward facing to connect with all these individuals who really need clarity. And that’s the key element here they need clarity on what does it take to get me from point A to Point B. So that’s, that for me is is one of the most exciting things because if we can bring more innovations to market then we have more things that will help to solve the problems for the patients.

Saul Marquez: Love it. I think that’s such a great idea Susan and kudos to you for putting that group together and listeners by the way you know that’s why we do this is so you could have your own personal mastermind group with the outcomes rocket guests like Susan sharing all the things that they’re awesome at but the good thing is that we also ask our guests to share best ways to get in touch with them or follow their work. So at the end of this you’ll have a chance to figure out how to get in touch with Susan, maybe there’s an open spot there and the mastermind for you. So Susan getting close to the end here. Let’s pretend you and I are building a healthcare business course on what it takes to be successful in healthcare. The one on one of Susan Goebel. So I’ve got four questions for you, lightning round style, followed by a book that you recommend to the listeners. You ready?

Susan Goebel: I’m ready.

Saul Marquez: All right. What’s the best way to improve healthcare outcomes?

Susan Goebel: Preventative medicine, making sure that it is delivered in such a way that it reduces friction so it can be optimized.

Saul Marquez: What’s the biggest mistake or pitfall to avoid?

Susan Goebel: Assumptions.

Saul Marquez: Love that. How do you stay relevant despite constant change?

Susan Goebel: Making sure that you’re looking at other industries in order to be collaborative. You never know where the best next idea is going to come from.

Saul Marquez: What is the one area of focus that drives everything in your organization?

Susan Goebel: Thinking time.

Saul Marquez: Love that. So what book would you recommend to the listener Susan?

Susan Goebel: Well you know I was going to recommend the Road Less Stupid but I think that’s why I’m going to change and I’m going to say that you know you and I were talking before we were reporting this about Bold and Abundance by Peter Diamandis.

Saul Marquez: Yes.

Susan Goebel: Awesome books.

Saul Marquez: Love that I’ve read Abundance not Bold, folks take a dive into those books definitely some great recommendations from Susan, we’ll provide links to those in the show notes just go to outcomesrocket.health in the search bar, just type in Susan and you’ll see Susan up there if you want to type in Susan Goebel you’ll get all the show notes a full transcript links to all the things that we’ve discussed. Everything’s there. So make sure you visit outcomesrocket.health for that. Susan, this has been a a total great time I’ve really enjoyed our discussion. If you can, just leave us with a closing thought and then the best place where the listeners could get in touch with and follow your work.

Susan Goebel: My closing thought to the listeners would be to take that time to read some of the books. Whether the ones we’ve talked about this episode or some of the amazing recommendations from your other guests. Continuing that development not only in the medical space but in the business space in the mindset space as well I think will propel health to the next level on a continual basis. And so can I give your listeners a free 30 minute consultation with me? Would that be a benefit?

Saul Marquez: Absolutely. How did they get it… how do they get a hold of it?

Susan Goebel: Well why don’t we put the link right in the show notes. So www.susangoebel.ca/rocket. I’m sure we can put that link in there.

Saul Marquez: Outstanding they have it folks if you have a project you’re working on having trouble getting it off the ground. Susan just offered you 30 minutes of her time. Now Susan that might be dangerous. Your phone may be ringing off the hook. You sure you want to do this?

Susan Goebel: Call somebody. I’ll be giving it forward.

Saul Marquez: All right. There you go folks. She said yes and she’s going to follow through. So if you reach out to Susan by all means she’s going to take take her offer and give that to you 30 minutes of her time to try to work through your problem with some good thinking. Susan, very generous of you. Thank you for doing that.

Susan Goebel: No problem. Thank you very much.

Saul Marquez: So folks there you have it Susan Goebel a privilege speaking with you today and definitely looking forward to staying in touch.

Susan Goebel: Saul this has been amazing. I really have appreciated your time.

Thanks for listening to the Outcomes Rocket podcast. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.outcomesrocket.com for the show notes, resources, inspiration, and so much more.

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