Keeping it Real with the Nontraditional Rx Ashlee

Lynn Switaj, PharmD of The Nontraditional Pharmacist speaks with Ashlee Klevens Hayes, a pharmacist, keynote speaker, and co-host on the Pharmacy Podcast Network with her show Rx Buzz, about her business Rx Ashlee.

What is RxAshlee?

Ashlee: RxAshlee is a career development company. We focus on career people (“we” as in me and my clients), focusing on career strategizing, career pivots, brand development if you’re starting a business or if you are going through a personal brand pivot, marketing yourself, and interview preparation. That is, in its whole, what exactly I work on 1-on-1 with clients. I have group clients, I have individual clients, I have students, I have high-level professionals. So really it ranges from students all the way through; physicians, CEOs, attorneys, experts in all different realms. It’s not really industry specific because everything we talk about is transferable.

Lynn: Very interesting to note that you branch out and do coaching not only for pharmacists but for other professionals as well.

Ashlee: Yeah, and it’s not isolated to pharmacists. I would say about 50% of my work is pharmacists because that’s, again, my network, and that’s where a lot of pharmacists reach out to me. But it is actually grown in different areas because of referrals and recommendations. For example of how this started, I have a lot of pharmacists clients, but then they tell their spouses or their sisters or their friends about the work we’ve done and they’re not pharmacists. So I love working with every industry and it’s fun to learn about different experiences and different jobs and different career paths. I’ve learned so much just by working with unique people in nontraditional roles, or traditional. Things I would have never imagined, but because the skills that we go through and the tools that we use is nonindustry specific, it’s quite easy for me to jump on a call with someone that’s not a clinician.

Lynn: What is your specific role in RxAshlee? Do you work 1-on-1 or is it more in groups?

Ashlee: I’m the content creator, the founder and then I have a few people that work under me, but totally different. They don’t do any of the direct client facing stuff, it’s all behind the scenes graphic design and freelance content creation for the blogs and photography, and I have an attorney that I work with. So it’s a group of us that make this whole business function but it’s really me as the face of the company. I do a variety of different things. First and foremost, I work 1-on-1 with clients every single day. So whether that’s in curating a business or launching a business or creating a business there’s that. Two, if it’s 1-on-1 with a client working in career pivots. And three if it’s interview prep I do that 1-on-1, too. I have online courses now that we’re going through. So I put a lot of the clients I work with through the online course and then the reason why I developed the online courses because a lot of people, a lot of professionals have the same exact questions. I also do a lot of speaking engagements now so I travel around a lot, and also am in the middle of group coaching too. I have a women’s mastermind group, there’s almost 10 professional women in this group coaching course. I’ve been working on writing a book and podcasting. There’s just so many different arms of the business. But ultimately the bread and butter is when I work with clients 1-on-1. That’s where it’s at.

Lynn: What advice would you give to others that want to go down a similar path yours?

Ashlee: Great question. I think having the mindset that there’s not only 1 job for you, because ultimately I think the best advice I can give to people who are going through a career pivot in pharmacy specifically, the jobs out there are endless. There are so many jobs. It’s just what we typically are hyperfocused on is 1, maybe 3 jobs max. And I just totally disagree with that sentiment. I think that there are so many opportunities for us to use our skills, to use our background, to use our experiences and to really implement them into different companies and just using your assets in a different way. We have to address that the 1 size fits all model just doesn’t work. And health care is obviously an ever-evolving, rapidly changing space and we’ve got to keep up.

Lynn: Now if people want to learn more about you, about RxAshlee, a little bit more about what you do, where can we go to find more information?

Ashlee: Sure. So the best placed to reach me on is my website, http://www.RxAshlee.com. And then you know I’m on all the social media outlets LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. My website is the best place to go.