by MikethePharmaicist
Do you do business with someone who is vulnerable and asking for help- OR do you tend to pick someone who has something you don’t, and you want someone who is polished and pushy?
Help me understand things- My impression is being real and authentic is the way to go, BUT I tend to see that today it’s the glitzy marketing and externals that win people over.
I want to be real- but I want to inspire hope as well, so I tend to not share the struggles today because I know others have it worse. I am perhaps still making good money as a pharmacist, but I make less today than when I got out of school now 20 years later and am now doing double the work. Today’s economy, you don’t have ANY room for error and it’s easy to get in a bad spot fast. I was approved for our dream home back a few years back when I was working 60 hours a week at a full time pharmacist manager salary. I didn’t have a 6 month emergency fund because I had taken a year off to open that pharmacy and money was coming in back then, but I wasn’t ready for what happened. That pharmacy closed a month after we moved in, about 6 years ago. Now I probably make 1/2 that and I have ZERO benefits and now just trying to keep our home is exhausting.
I am not looking to get rich- but I want to get out of debt, get 2 of our kids braces, fix the fence in our back yard, take the dogs to the vets, be able to take my wife out for dinner for our upcoming 17th anniversary, and have some time for life. It’s been years since we took an actual family vacation.
That is why I have been trying to get a side gig going- but It’s exhausting trying to get a side thing going when everything in life is so draining. I have lingering health issues and got a stress ulcer from December 2023 to May 2023 because of some very unethical practices at a previous employer and I had to stand up and say I wouldn’t participate anymore and that it was making me sick- and I was shown the door and given my resignation papers.
Funds dried up and in June my wife went and sold her engagement ring so we could have groceries. I found 2 part time jobs and scraped together everything I had and bought back the ring a few weeks ago.
I spent all my savings trying to get that one pharmacy off the ground. I cashed in my retirement even as I was out a whole year to get it going.
Now I have next to nothing. I am trying to dig out and that is why I am trying to promote what I found, things that can help save money and more.
New career paths are not easy because they are not our comfort zone. It hit me today why I struggle with sales- in Pharmacy they can BEG you for drugs, they are often desperate for what you have, you feel like a hero in a way. They hound you sometimes when they are early. You have to push them away.
With sales, I feel like no one wants me. I don’t like following up with people but that is what it takes. The loneliness and rejection seem even harder coming from a Pharmacist that is used to people following their recommendations. Instead, I am treated like someone with 3 heads if I try and market something natural that is safer, or if I found a way to help people save money. To me, it’s just wanting to recommend something that can help someone, anyone.
I really want to succeed at sales because then I know that people will follow your recommendations. I care about my pharmacy customers and would attend their wakes and I took one to the ER and I knew their struggles and I even knew them by their number on their caller ID. When I don’t that response with recommending a service, it stings. You are trained to not get too emotionally attached, but that part of me that cares about people gets wrapped up into the sales process, and it’s hard to separate when you know people are hurting and you have answers. There is NO ONE I know that isn’t affected by the economy. And hence with all the ways I can help people, I know I can help everyone with at least 1 or 2 things at my disposal.
Would you be open to take a look at what I have? Maybe it’s not a fit for you , but maybe you know that perfect referral person. If you could share some of my products and services, maybe someone would be a fit. ALL I tend to get is people pitching their stuff to me when I share my vulnerable side. Someone acts interested, and I let them in and listen to them, and then they are pulling me into their business.
Please help if you can. Yes I stink at sales. I don’t have the heart to be pestering and to keep the foot on the gas until someone says yes. BUT the pressures of the financial crisis I am in AND the stress of the inflation and the shame I can’t provide for my family, is crushing me. And I know it’s crushing many of YOU.
Yes, money would help a lot. BUT when someone is my customer it shows a little faith that you trust me. That I have something of value to give this world. Just knowing anyone out there cares about the pain I carry a lot of the time after the dust settles, and the stress and the burdens, and I can simply put money back in your pocket if you would let me help you, that would help me to not give up. If you want to check out what I have- here is my link https://mikethepharmacistllc.wegotfriends.com/lib
Just know I’m tired, boss. But I can’t quit either. My family needs me, and if you are honest, you need me too.
MikethePharmacist