Hello everyone, this is a special episode that features yours truly the host.
I am someone who’s passionate about science, but not passionate about myself.
However, I want you to get to know who I am. The only way I knew how to do that was to re-broadcast an interview that was done about a few months ago from another podcast with a dear friend.
Derek Loudermilk is a scientist himself who’s also a self-made entrepreneur and adventure. He has his own radio podcast where he features other adventures. He brought me on his show and basically interviews me about my passionate pursuits to help others in the life sciences.
I feel that this is a great way to really talk about myself without really promoting myself.
I figured that this interview authentically captures me and hope that you can learn about my pursuit to help to manage the practice of science. We may be familiar with my show, but let’s listen to my journey about helping others in the life science.
So, let’s listen in on this one:
Thanks to Derek Loudermilk for helping me to share my own story with us today, and to talk about his own journey in the lifestyle entrepreneurial world.
SOME OF WHAT WE LEARN IN THIS EPISODE:
- How entrepreneurship is like the science of discovery
- How we have to invest in all scientific research even though we don’t know in advance which discoveries will turn out to be beneficial
- How translational, or “bench to bedside”, research is easier for the NIH to fund, even while the fundamentals for translational work are created by the basic researchers
- How NASA does a great job of making their story cool
- How Damien treats labs like a business and comes up with repeatable systems and processes for researchers
- How Damien starts backwards from specific scientific aims and total lab budgets to figure out how to achieve those aims
- How pilot experiments in science are like minimum viable product (from lean startup terminology)
- How important emotional intelligence is to consider when recruiting scientific team members (not just technical skill)
- The power of the testimonial and how important proof of results is (in the form of early instant wins) for scientists who want to hire Damien – he starts with budgets because they are low cost to implement
- How working as a scientist gives him street cred as a science consultant
- How listening carefully to researcher’s stress and anxiety and applying action steps are Damien’s best traits as a consultant (to drill down to the causative effects of a problem)
- How he came up with his tag line: “Managing to make science easier”
- How every morning Damien “defragments his brain” by asking “What did I learn the day before, and how can I apply it to the future”.
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
― Nelson Mandela