"There are countless numbers of people who need your services. If you give up on them, they will continue being miserable when you could have helped them."
Dr. Benjamin Gibson, PharmD, PAHM spent four years educating patients suffering from diabetes on how to eat and live better. He is the founder and CEO of Awesome We Can Do It Better Together Consulting LLC™. It is a wellness company focused on aging well using patient-specific protocols. Dr. Gibson has over a decade of experience as a pharmacist and creating health and improving patient outcomes and medication adherence. He has given over 30 clinical presentations and written more than 30 publications. He is most proud to have an article hosted on PubMed. (Professional, Academy for Health Care Management (PAHM®). He was a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist )
Dr. Gibson received multiple awards such as The President’s Student Service Scholarship, Who’s Who in America’s Colleges, National Dean’s List, Emmett J. Cooke Social Justice aware, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association scholarship, Who’s Who in American Junior Colleges, Computer Science Math and Engineering Scholarship, Appalachian College of Pharmacy Service Award, American Pharmacist Association National Patient Counseling Competition, Appalachian College of pharmacy Library contest, and received a departmental award at United Healthcare. His work helped the pharmacy department at Fort Hood receive an award. He is the Vice President of his home owner’s association. He was a member of the Texas Pharmacists Association and a past chapter Vice President of Phi Theta Kappa’s International honor society. Dr. Gibson is focused on inspiring young pharmacists and is an Adjunct Professor and Preceptor through the University of Texas, Austin School of Pharmacy.
As a highly-trained pharmacist and business mentor, Dr. Gibson aims to guide disease prevention from a holistic approach to lead others into a long and healthy life. His book on fermented food is forthcoming. He was interviewed in Under25 Magazine and is an internationally published freelance writer. He spoke to over half a million listeners on Wellmed Radio. He was invited on three podcasts and enjoys being a podcast guest. Meanwhile, you can listen to his podcast: Food Health Facts. There he breaks down a scientific publication for the lay reader.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: I am a pharmacist passionate about disease processes. Medications are great tools to manage symptoms. However, I also spent four years dealing with patients who metabolized medications much slower or much faster than other people. They often asked me how they could change their life to improve their health. To meet their needs I attended additional courses, seminars, and read countless articles on PubMed. I also got published on PubMed.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: Growing up, I wanted to be a CEO. However, I was repetitively told that it would be very challenging. My uncle was self-employed. He was not homeless, but when people think of CEOs, they probably would not think of him. He worked long hours, and he admitted that he had been a colossal failure a few times. He encouraged me to skip the dream, and just be a good employee. It was safer that way.
I took a class on owning my pharmacy. One guest lecturer told me that his profit margin was so tiny that to be profitable he had to have four. To get that seed capital, I went to work for different employers. From 2013 to 2014 I did a blog. It was a dud. From 2016 to 2020 I and different coworkers dabbled in business creation. Some were immediate failures, one incorporated and drew a small audience. Then Covid happened so more business failure happened. In 2021, I decided that my passion project was more in being an author and, sharing all the health wisdom I had was more feasible, My podcast was heard in 6 countries. When I last checked, however, the: USA, Spain, and the Philipines are still streaming it
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: First off, my parents gave me their never-give-up work ethic. Growing up I would frequently whine that math and science were too complicated for me to learn. They just sighed, let me know that there was a difference between hard and impossible, I had hard homework, not impossible homework. In high school, there was a business group that a teacher organized. It was called Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). I was not part of the group, but they had a contest open to everyone. The theme of the contest was about how entrepreneurship was the passport to success. One of my neighbors had a passport.
My parents and I did not have one at the time, so I called her and asked if I could look at it for the contest. She let me go over and look at it briefly. I used it as an inspiration for the contest. I didn’t get anything from the contest. Yet, I was encouraged to apply for more scholarships from other groups, and I did get some. Also, it was a nice lesson about business. You will make mistakes. You won’t get everything you want. So learn from them. Don’t cry that you aren’t an overnight millionaire. It doesn’t happen. It may take a decade. However, many people don’t even try to do a bit because it is risky. That terrifies many people. I would later serve as a volunteer judge for FBLA presentations when they held an event in San Antonio.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: Arias Rodriguez was the coworker who worked with me the most introducing me to concepts about functional nutrition, nutrigenomics, and introducing me to various clinical nutritionists. At one conference I met some other nutritionists in my city. I hoped we might be able to partner somehow. For instance, one supplement vendor said my profession would be able to order their product, and hers would not be able to order. I mentioned it to the nutritionist, but they were working with other licensed health care professionals so they didn’t need me or Arias. So he and I kept working together. I learned not all business partnerships happen, and you need to know other people’s pain points to help them.
Social media marketing was another topic where I had to learn more. It wasn’t brought up in my entrepreneurship elective. We both had to work our main job when we started. Time management is an important skill. You need to do eight hours of work in eight hours so you can then transition to working on life after work.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: Concerned about how you are aging? Worry your skin is wrinkling, and wondering if there is anything you can do with diet change or technology? Do you have excess weight that just won’t go away? Have you tried an elimination diet? Think you tried everything already? Let’s address the food you are eating. Likely, your body does not like something you are eating. Your food is causing low-grade inflammation. I can let you know what you need to stop eating. Most likely you will be eating it again. Do you wake up refreshed? If not, are you interested in a device that will help you sleep better and will only require you to use it for 16 minutes a day? For first-time parents, would you like to know if your genes have a folate problem that could lead to trouble when you give birth? Want to know if your kids had the genes to be track stars so you do not need to save for a college fund? Would you be interested to learn about disease prevention? Would you like to know what supplements you may need on a short-term basis?
Lastly, your environment may have excess metal. Using hair mineral analysis is an easy test. Why should you care? Ever used aluminum foil? If you ate a tamale, it was probably cooked with some. Women use many clays for beauty products. They have aluminum. Ever drink out of an aluminum beer can or eat canned food? Each small serving won’t kill you. One article said aluminum is great at kicking out cadmium. Yet, over time excess aluminum takes a toll on the body.
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: The Chief Executive Officer should be called Chief Inspiration Officer. It is easy to go to work feeling that one’s tasks are menial. It is easy to think you are a number. Some say, “If you like what you do then each day is like play. You never work a day in your life.” Based on my experience, most people do not play all day. Some people hate their jobs. I once was at a job where a boss would always tell a contract worker “Please come with me to speak 1 on 1.” I thought he was so lucky to have so much one on one time with the boss. Then one day I learned the contractor was getting a lot of critical feedback from the boss. Eventually, he left that employer.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: The backlog in incorporating surprised me. I wanted to save a bit on incorporating and sending an application with a check via mail. It took 40 days to process. The first time I didn’t fill the form out correctly. Ultimately, I filed again online. During that time, I had to spend time looking up information, formulating the business plan, and doing other tasks of business formation was drudgery without a cheerleader. I knew to expect long hours. Some days I wanted to quit. I know that may sound crazy. For years I said to myself I wanted to build a business. I said this time was going to be a bit different.
However, it was tiring. I started to wonder if I was just wasting time on a fool’s errand. I mentioned closing friends about my dreams of business ownership, and how slow things were going. They had sympathy. They also didn’t have experience doing this, so they couldn’t give help. One echoed my question back to me, was this the best use of my time? I wasn’t sure honestly. I do have an accountability coach who prodded me when that happened. It helped me when I got stuck.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: A CEO has to have the vision to address some questions. Where are we now? Where are we going? How will we get there? What is keeping us from getting there? What skills and knowledge do we have to achieve this goal. Is it realistic? Is it achievable? So with me, I tried to save money and incorporate via the mail. It did not work out, and I had to file electronically. I waited for a time and spent the time asking potential customers if they were interested in my services. Another thing was trying to find more people interested in my company’s mission of health. I went to a networking event. One person introduced me to another person. I found two customers. Lucky for me, I had a podcast for people to listen to learn more about what I was teaching.
Also, I needed advice about marketing and public relations. There was a contest to get a discount on a course. If I could get a few people to listen to a webinar, I could get a discount. Because of moving and getting a new phone, I had lost touch with a lot of friends. I had a few entrepreneurial friends. I called all of those friends and asked if some could register for a webinar so I could get the discount. They agreed. Then I was able to enroll in the course.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: Investing in business coaching was the more difficult. The reason was that it was expensive. Seeing the charge on my credit card appear and having it erase savings was painful. Now, however, I did know, this is the startup cost. It will be reoccupied alter. It is just going to take time based on my effort. There are days it is easy to quit. However, having a business mentor encourages me to help. I thought I needed to pause her mentoring program to devote myself to learning a different skill from a different mentor. She told me that I was suffering the shiny object syndrome. “Pause, for a second. Have confidence in yourself. I will teach you all that you need to know” Said she wanted me to finish up my mentoring before I started something new. It was good advice.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: Being able to maintain your basic needs is a success. Some people want to make $100,000. One man said very few businesses make that much. Others want 10 to 100 times that. I think beyond a point you are living to work, and not working to live. I am in the second group. Based on my prices, having 10 people a year would be ideal.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: My parents taught me persistence, honesty, and realizing that if I could make a better mousetrap then I needed to bring it to market. I had to work on networking, sales, and marketing. I have spent plenty of free time learning these skills better. The nice thing about this is that one keeps learning to grow.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: Having a forty-day delay cramped my plans for a customer launch. I delayed filing online for a time, then finally incorporated online. During that time I inquired with potential customers about my services (some men in their 30’s). They told me they weren’t interested in my services. So I then focused on a different market (some women in their 30’s). I planned on an interview. However, I had to postpone it.
I mentioned this marketing change to my business mentors. We scheduled a follow-up meeting and we re-examined my reasons for incorporation. She was pretty sure that I would sync better with other guys. Plus, some of my fellow students were already working on helping women with weight loss, so this was a different market segment. She reminded me I was not the only guy who had experienced weight gain and had overcome it. Many men have gained weight during the past two years. They need to be served. So, I went back to the drawing board and focused on a different market, those in their 40’s who want to slow aging. I also talked to some other students who started the mentoring earlier than I had. They had some successes and shared some wisdom with me.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting on their journey?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: There are countless numbers of people who need your services. If you give up on them, they will continue being miserable when you could have helped them. We hope eventually, someone else may serve them. However, if you were able to be there sooner they will appreciate it.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: SEO. Algorithms keep changing. However, persistence pays off. However, there are methods of offline marketing: word of mouth is a great one.
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Dr. Benjamin Gibson: “The quest for health”
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Dr. Benjamin Gibson for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Dr. Benjamin Gibson or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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