0108. Sigma Lab Consulting's First Year: Triumphs, Challenges, and the Art of Consulting.

- Explore a year in the life of Sigma Lab Consulting.
- Share the rollercoaster journey, trials, triumphs, and memorable moments with clients.
- Spotlight on work-life balance and the world of consulting.
- Discuss the art of simplification, process optimization, and creative problem-solving.
- Highlight the importance of building trust, balancing promises, and expertise in process improvement and cost savings.
- Emphasize mental health and success routines in the consulting business.
- Learn from financial choices, risk management, and work-from-home routines.
- Explore the role of trust and communication in teamwork success.

Thank you to our sponsor, Sigma Lab Consulting

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1. R&D Operational Excellence Scorecard

• Evaluate your R&D processes and uncover opportunities for improvement. R&D Operational Excellence Scorecard

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• Measure your clinical operations' effectiveness and identify growth areas. Clinical Operations Operational Excellence Scorecard

3. Facility Readiness Scorecard

• Assess your facility's readiness and discover strategic insights. Facility Readiness Scorecard

4. Maintenance Efficiency Scorecard

• Optimize your maintenance processes for peak efficiency. Maintenance Efficiency Scorecard

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Transcript

Oscar Gonzalez: 0:00

The minute that you start to try and convince a client of what you are providing is valuable. Now you're starting to sell services to someone that doesn't quite understand the end game. Welcome to Lean by Design Podcast. I'm your host, Oscar Gonzalez, alongside my co-host, Lawrence Wong. We are former MBA classmates turned business partners with over 25 years of combined experience in life sciences, from R&D through manufacturing. Our experiences have shed light into the complex, ever-changing challenges experienced by this industry and many others.

Oscar Gonzalez: 0:43

We took a risk quit our six-figure paying jobs in Boston Biotech and Pharma to start Sigma Lab Consulting. Journey with us as we explore the relationship between people and workflow design, the goal To learn, inspire and deliver practical tips to navigate these ever-changing challenges. Stick with us and learn to work smarter, not harder, and be Lean by Design. It's been one year since we've started operations with Sigma Lab Consulting. In today's episode, we reflect back on the past year and discuss memorable client interactions, explore how our efforts have aligned with the initial vision, what we're excited about in the near future and how that work-life balance has been molded over the last year. If you're considering starting your own business or moving into consulting, we discuss learnings from this first year in operations, so stick around.

Lawrence Wong: 1:46

All right. So I guess the first thing is we were actually texting each other last night about thinking of a memorable moment that you had with a client that helped the brand or client base I think I can share. First, this most recent project I think is had a very good impression as far as you show up and then you kind of understand what's going on with the different stakeholders. You're just trying to understand the reality against the proposal, because not everything on the proposal is going to map out in real life and nothing is ever perfect. So I spent some time to draft up a process map and then presented it to the team and the feedback was wow, this is super clear and concise and this is very streamlined.

Lawrence Wong: 2:48

The only thing I said was yeah, this is what we do, this is what I do, this is what Sigma Lab Consulting does, and we're all about being able to map out where you're going from A to B and just to highlight this is the most efficient way to get there. And then just trying to make everybody understand it doesn't have to be as complicated as what your procedures say. It's really just what are the first principles of whatever you're trying to do and then just laying it out there, because I think oftentimes people don't do that and they go by the book or they go exactly for what the work construction of the SOP says and you really have to be creative in pulling out those pieces and creating your own map. They were very impressed with that and that's a signal to me to tell me that, hey, we're on the right path and we're continuing to bring out this philosophy and not only projects that I do, but also I'm sure you've kind of had that experience as well.

Oscar Gonzalez: 3:43

Where do you think this complexity of these work processes? So again, what I'm hearing is we're talking about the moment that we have with a client that that spark a change in what we initially thought. Going into that client, that contract, going into that work. Where do we think that complexity comes from in these processes that people are working on day in and day out?

Lawrence Wong: 4:17

I think the I don't know if it's complexity, but sometimes if you're staring at something for so long, you don't really have an outside perspective from somebody else coming in with fresh eyes, and I think that's something that a lot of organizations would benefit from is there's a way of doing things in the company and then when somebody new comes in, they go well, that doesn't make sense. But oftentimes that's not said amongst the group, because this is always how it's been done and this is how so and so does it. And when somebody new comes in, either one of us where we have the experience and expertise to say yeah, I can see how you would want to do that to achieve whatever you want in your process, but that won't work because of A, b and C and these are the things that we have seen work and just helping people get out of their own way, I guess, is what I'm saying.

Oscar Gonzalez: 5:19

Yeah, you know I hate to use the word or the coin. You know the phrase overengineered and I think sometimes we fall into that, not by really any, you know, just fault of being humans where we have this, not only just a pride in what we do, but we have such a deep level understanding. You know what you're describing reminded me of a podcast, a Christo future podcast, and he had a guest that was talking about communication and how, how some of the best communicators are comedians, because the best communicators are ones that understand something so deeply that they can explain it simply. And they used standup comedians as a reference because they're taking everyday life and many occasions everyday life that are riddled with complexities of what's going on in that family's life, what's going on, you know, with that person's job or relationships, etc. And creating such a simple analogy for it with laughter and the challenge that that takes.

Oscar Gonzalez: 6:46

And I think what I hear you describing and I've seen it as well with my clients is trying to take something that is so complex and start to pull out the things that are not quite adding value into that chain. It may be an extra approval. Well, we already have two approvals that go up to that space. Can we make adjustments into those requirements, or even bringing in new pieces of equipment or new other resources, people even, and going well? What does this mean for these workflows that we do day in and day out? How do we maximize the opportunities with the resources that we have?

Lawrence Wong: 7:36

Yeah, I agree and this we can probably go on and on about just the way that people get caught up in trying to overcomplicate things. That really should be very simple. And I think another part that I've seen is when you work with stakeholders that had a part in developing that original process, they become very tied to this thing where it's like, oh, this is my baby and like, obviously this is like the perfect thing. But you have to realize, at the end of the day, it's not about you and it's about the broader team and being able to move the entire thing forward, and not just you optimizing outputs for yourself, right? Because I think a lot of groups do that, where they structure processes and they say, oh yeah, this is most beneficial to me, and then the people upstream or downstream are like what the F? Like this doesn't make any sense for us.

Oscar Gonzalez: 8:36

Yeah, again you're bringing me into something very recent where I had provided a flow map to look at operations in the R&D space leading up to development candidate nomination Very important part of any drug coming through the pipeline that you're now whittling down all of these different experimentations, all of these different designs for a drug. Now you're trying to whittle it down to two possible drugs to really try to get them into patients. And it wasn't until after the fact I had done a schematic and then a couple, about a week or two later, I held another meeting with all of the stakeholders to ensure that we knew the direction that we were going in around the next nine months, which is a big challenge. A lot of times there are so many different factors and decision points over the course of nine months. Well, how do you accurately portray something that is moving, that's wiggling around, in terms of the direction it's going in? Well, one of the points that I try to make is that we don't wanna change the goal of these next nine months, but if we have to change how we get there, that should be okay.

Oscar Gonzalez: 10:03

And as we're having this meeting, one of the more senior research folks created a slide and pulled it up and everybody was like, oh, this is great, there's so much information in here.

Oscar Gonzalez: 10:18

And after looking at it I realized, ah, she took the design from the workflow that I created, because I did it off of.

Oscar Gonzalez: 10:28

I created the timeline a certain way, with the flows that allowed you to kind of recognize the placement of activities more so than the actual day that they would land.

Oscar Gonzalez: 10:40

It was more of like after this happens, then this happens, and based on the size of the box or square, you could kind of reference the amount of time it was gonna take. So with that in mind, I was able to see it and I recognized it and for me that's me doing my job, that's me giving something to the client that absolutely there is no hard feelings, that please take my design and take that as learnings. We wanna know, we want you guys to know, that you can look at the same problem. But sometimes looking at it as a Gantt chart isn't helpful. Sometimes looking at it in swim lanes doesn't always do it for you. So I think this level of creativity in terms of how do I look at this challenge differently is something that I've been experiencing as well and really gives you an idea of sort of where the industry has remained focused really on that execution and not really on the big picture.

Lawrence Wong: 11:49

Yeah, I think that theme ties nicely with the next topic, which is looking back in the last 12 months.

Lawrence Wong: 12:00

What are your thoughts on how the work that we've been able to do for some of our clients align with the initial vision? And I think we had, in our own work experience, dealt with some of these issues where people are over complicating things and there's an easier way to redesign some of these processes so they're more efficient and effective. You know, I can speak from clients that I've dealt with in the past 12 months, and I think the vision initially was really to build a team of consultants and then become a leading partner for some of these clients to optimize their processes right, I think we're still on the right track in terms of finding the market value for our services. I think there's still risk in timing these projects, especially because of our capacity right, it's only two of us, so there's only so many hours in the day and so much work we can do, and I knew that going in, and so I'm curious to see what your thoughts are for what you thought this was going to look like from the perspective of 12 months ago to now.

Oscar Gonzalez: 13:19

You know, 12 months ago to now, and the vision changed from years ago to 12 months ago and then again from 12 months ago to now. For those that aren't aware, lawrence, my co-founder, and I we met during our MBA. While we were working toward our degrees, we took a course that was on entrepreneurship and starting a company, and so we put together all of our ideas and this one sort of molded and flexed a couple of different directions, really giving us some opportunities, I think, to pay attention to the industry, to the workforce, and understand what might be the best solution. Moving forward, as our name implies, we were directly looking at laboratory efficiency, which there's a big space for that, I think, rather than just checking in and checking out materials and tools and equipment and repairs. It's all the stuff that happens to allow for that to be a smooth move, a smooth transition your logs, your reporting, your analyses on things that are constantly failing, etc. Twelve months ago, my thought was that we would be able to have conversations and go right into running a full-blown Lean Six Sigma project. Well, the reality of it is, I do not believe that there are many specifically looking for that work, specifically looking for that support. What I'm understanding is that there's a certain layer.

Oscar Gonzalez: 15:34

When you're young in your organization, there's a certain layer of trust that needs to be built. It can be a combination of things that you're doing on the marketing side. If you're using LinkedIn or doing videos or carousels or showing your expertise, people can trust that to a degree. People that are in your network will trust that but the work doesn't always come directly from your network. Early on, it's the word of mouth. When we're not doing the email workflows or we're just sending cold emails and cold calls to everybody trying to get some additional work, much of it has been word of mouth. So 12 months ago that idea was quickly extinguished. In a way, I started to recognize that we needed to build a foundation with the clients that we were working with. We have a couple that have been repeat for a number of months over more than one contract, so that has really provided insight into what is working and what isn't working. The other side of it, too, is remembering to take time with the client to ask them.

Oscar Gonzalez: 17:03

I'm in the process right now in doing a new scope of work that we want to focus more on the strategic side. I outlined components of strategy for this particular client that we could address. She looked at me and she took a deep breath and said yeah, we need to figure out what my organization needs, what my function needs. That's key to make sure that what we're going to deliver is what they're going to get.

Oscar Gonzalez: 17:39

Make sure that there's alignment there, because time can go and scope creep can happen and oh hey, we know you can do this, can you help us out over there? Well, you guys don't need a glorified note taker. You need somebody in that role and you need me to help you build this foundation so that you can continue to bring in the workforce. I'm realizing now that developing that layer of trust whether it's working on a specific project myself and yourself we have our own expertise outside of being, you know, aficionados of process improvement and being able to lean on those experiences and those abilities, I think is helping us develop the type of trust that we're looking for in organizations that are ready to make a change, that are ready to make the day-to-day work simpler while improving the output of their teams and the morale.

Lawrence Wong: 18:46

Yeah, I think you're right with our clients not particularly labeling some of the projects that we're doing as Lean Six Sigma. I think we're still using a lot of the same tools, in a sense, to not only, you know, achieve whatever the process is supposed to do, but also find ways to improve their internal process. While you're trying to optimize for whatever the business outcome is, and either you're trying to speed things up or you're trying to do things with less cost. There's still a big need for that, especially in this you know economic climate now, where interest rates are high and there's been a lot of layoffs this past summer, and so companies are finding a way to achieve those cost savings. But they're not saying, hey, we need a Lean Six Sigma project to improve our process. And so they're saying we have this problem and we're really looking for an individual that we can develop a trusting relationship with to recognize where the pitfalls and bottlenecks are, using their own experience and expertise. And also we want to do this in the next like whatever 12, the 6 to 12 months, right?

Lawrence Wong: 20:02

So some of the best, I would say, projects are the ones that aren't particularly listed. It's the ones that you have these conversations with clients, either at a networking event, or you know a previous co-worker and you say, well, like what are you struggling with and what happens if you do nothing? And trying to understand, like what they're really struggling with, and then us either recommending, hey, we can either help you or you know you would benefit from doing X right, because not everything is going to be in our wheelhouse and we recognize that. So you know, there's this constant, I think, kind of balance between recognizing you know where we fit and what they're looking for and not trying to say yes to every single project, because that's not going to make sense for either of us, because if we, you know, overpromise and underdeliver, that's like that's going to hurt our brand but it's also going to slow down our clients and what they want to achieve.

Oscar Gonzalez: 21:01

Yeah, that's a lose lose, absolutely. You know, when we go back and think about the way that the projects began, I think that we have also started to find our voice a little bit more. You know there is a certain level of confidence that you go in, especially when starting a company, but that confidence needs to evolve in one that is purely looking to benefit the client. The reason why we moved into the space that we decided to was because we want to have a bigger impact in this industry than just in one place. We wanted to have an impact where we can educate organization leaders about simple things that we can do together. And you know I'm not here to say simple, to kind of tone down.

Oscar Gonzalez: 21:56

You know the complexity of some of the challenges that we're working in, but that's also part of the beauty of it is taking something so complex and so many stakeholders and saying how do I put this into one unified view that can speak to everyone that's on this team so that they understand the urgency, they understand the rationale behind it. They also improve their communications and that's something that myself would. Stakeholders that span the current project. They span, I think, around 10 or 12 different functions and a lot of times there's conversations or side conversations and things start moving around, but it's almost like you have to have a certain level of conviction and, dare I say, coaching with everyone involved and not just the direct person who is signing off on that PO.

Lawrence Wong: 22:50

Yeah, I agree, and I often think about the analogy of, you know, going from dial up to using Wi Fi, where, like, you have to plug in the thing to your modem and then it makes that, you know, crazy static sound and then you got to wait, and then you get on and and then our job is to make that look like Wi Fi, where you just hit a button like, wow, okay, I can see everything now and I know where you know some of the bottlenecks and pain points are, and we should focus on this because it takes a very, very long time for people to make some of these decisions, because these processes are just messy and they need to be cleaned up if you're hoping to scale or to grow your team right. How many times have we heard team morale being impacted, productivity, all the you know words that you can use to describe how frustrated the team is with just working with each other right, not even working with outside companies, just like with themselves.

Oscar Gonzalez: 23:43

Yeah, same building just across, just across the aisle, and there's challenges there. So you know, I think that we've this past 12 months has been eye opening in working with clients, but it's also been extremely rewarding, you know, meeting people and and seeing the level of curiosity change over time, and I'm starting to see it now where people have stopped asking me where is this and where is this and started asking me how did you get to this, how does this work, how did you? And as you start to explain, you know one of I guess I'm here's a here's a big secret for everyone. So listen in, get close to your speaker. What I like to do is, when I'm building out solutions, I'm already planning that that solution is going to change somewhere in the future or is going to be requesting more information.

Lawrence Wong: 24:52

We'll be right back after a quick break. Is your team constantly fighting fires? Are you struggling with productivity and think it's due to inefficiency in your operations? These challenges can be difficult to measure, but not impossible. Sigma Lab Consulting can help you define and prioritize the issues that are negatively impacting your team. We partner with stakeholders to redesign workflows so you can work more efficiently. Find out more at SigmaLabConsultingcom.

Oscar Gonzalez: 25:22

I think, ultimately, where I'm trying to take us is that the winnings that happen on the client side are also in how, when the client becomes more curious, it is really a learning that is happening on their end that allows them to build on this level of curiosity so that once we leave as consultants, we're there temporary. We're not there forever If we leave. They now have this understanding of another way of thinking in their own processes. Now they can stop to look at okay, well, maybe we'll work faster. Instead they'll go. You know what? I bet if we could do something about this issue over here, it should solve this problem here, because we're seeing XYZ I feel like it's an additive and really that I've started to feel that presence with one of my clients. That does take time, but it's exciting nonetheless to see the level of creativity spike in the client work that we do.

Lawrence Wong: 26:32

Yeah, I mean it sounds like there's, I think in all of our projects there's some, I would say, allocation to operations and strategy. I'm not going to say beginner level, but I think the initial projects are very mainly focused on operations. We're like, hey, we have an established way of doing things and we just want to have the support to be able to achieve X using this process that we have. Sometimes the process doesn't exist, but I think it does, and that's a whole different topic. But it sounds like we're kind of moving towards the strategy component of it, which requires a bit more trust between us and the client. They get to a point where like, okay, you've been working with this the past couple of weeks or months and what are your thoughts on how we can improve this? That doesn't initially happen at the very beginning of the project, but as we approach the midpoint and even at the end of some of these engagements, they may want to extend just because, hey, you've done great work and we want to make sure that we're going in the right direction strategically. And here are some of the other things that are coming into play and what you're describing with your current client now it sounds like that's kind of where the direction is headed.

Lawrence Wong: 27:53

So I guess I kind of want to pivot to what are you looking forward to in the next 12 to 18 months as far as the allocation of projects that are more strategic versus operations, and how do you see the growth with our clients in the next year or so? I'll share that I'm looking forward to not only growing with them but also being able to enter some of the supplier networks. For some of the larger companies around I know we all say this in the industry is that it's very incestuous where, like you, have people that work from one company to the other one. So the teams that we're working with now I hope nobody leaves their company, but the reality is that people bounce around right, they find new jobs and they go to new organizations, and I look forward to connecting with some of those people that I've left and to see if they need help and offer our services there.

Oscar Gonzalez: 28:59

You're describing something that is an ultimate goal, not just in the next 12 to 18 months, but something that extends beyond that, that creates a longevity for what we're trying to build, and that's the way I see the work that we do is almost like creating these little ambassadors, to your point. There are a number of startups that come up and they get funding. Some do well, some don't do so well. Sometimes strategies shift that organization. So you're right, there's a lot of moving and bopping around of people at different organizations. It's unlike my father, who went 40 plus years at NASA where he did his internship. The idea of even creating a job resume to him didn't even make any sense because I don't think he ever had to do one. So it was a very interesting conversation on that for another day. But what I'm most excited about in this next 12 to 18 months is connecting Connecting not just with the current clients on a deeper level, but connecting with new functional leaders, new executive leaders that are ready to take a look at how their organization is functioning. Communication is a big part of it, so that's something that even I myself and personally working on and trying to continue evolving. I don't think that we would be successful if we stopped trying to learn ourselves. So, ultimately, what I find us doing is spending a little bit more time educating and developing ourselves in areas that are adjacent To the work that we do, to allow us to kind of bridge that connection even deeper into the organizations.

Oscar Gonzalez: 31:08

So, you know, 12 to 18 months, sleep is going to be one of them Not necessarily sleep, but I think, you know, we've gone and done some really great work in this first year and the one thing that we want to do is make sure that we're protecting ourselves and our mental health, you know, moving forward, making sure that we're taking the time off as well, because not only are we working with clients, but we're also running a business where we have to maintain, you know, email communications, we have to maintain websites, we have to continue to build out the organization with employees, with how that works, and you know the lack of information that we've, you know, had previously on all of the nuances and starting a business, that stuff that has to be learned as well at the same time as delivering value to the client.

Oscar Gonzalez: 32:02

So, you know, I think this next 12 to 18 months is really going to be a major pivot point for us where we expect to have more clients coming in, more potential employees with diverse expertise but with a similar mindset. Yeah, I think that's going to be a challenge for us to how do we expand this expertise while creating a focus of process improvement and building relationships that extend past an initial contract.

Lawrence Wong: 32:39

Yeah, I think prioritizing you know, building the culture that we want with potential employees, but also either maintaining or even improving some of the relationships that we have with with with clients, is going to be key. I know you mentioned something about mental health and being able to take care of yourself during this, I would say, stressful time, at the moments throughout the year where you know, either like invoicing, or maybe it has to do with taxes or something else what have you changed as far as your routine and taking care of yourself when those stresses come up? I know you know we've had a bit of a rocky start at the beginning, just because we had that whole, you know, line of credit thing to fund our payroll and there was some financial stress there. I know and here's where I'm going to give you your flowers is that you have been tremendously meticulous about bookkeeping and that's why we're able to have such a real time, accurate view of our finances. I think that alleviates a lot of stress that otherwise we would have been very worried about if you hadn't done that. I know you know solely relying on an outside accountant or a financial you know resources is an option, but I think your ability to kind of monitor. All these things has been really helpful for not only like my financial health, but also yours as well and the company. So I will, you know, give you your flowers there and I'll just say, outside of finances, I've spent a lot of time just just focusing on exercising, meditating, and you call me crazy for doing this, but I've been taking cold showers since last December, so all of those things have helped.

Oscar Gonzalez: 34:43

Not for me, that you know. Cold showers are not for me. When I wake up I'm usually cold. Last thing I want to do is to extend that feeling. I get it. I get that. It can kind of jostle you back into you know, wake you up and what have you? You know, I think. So, first and foremost, I appreciate that. I think you know these. The way that the finances are, you know, conducted and the bookkeeping and all that stuff is, is sort of.

Oscar Gonzalez: 35:17

I was reminiscing of things that happened in my past where I wasn't that good with money and luckily I was younger. I wouldn't necessarily say that I was not that good with money, but I had student loans at one time. This was after I had finished my initial bachelor's degree I started another one in bioengineering. This was in mid-2000s, so kind of biotech and bioengineering was just starting to kind of really form into something major and I had done engineering for about three semesters before I had to take. I think it was like calculus 3, 4, 5, something like that, and I could barely understand where the calculus was moving. There were symbols I've never seen there were.

Oscar Gonzalez: 36:15

The responses to a question was not a mathematical number and an integer, it was an equation of some sort which was beyond me.

Oscar Gonzalez: 36:25

To Wait, wait, wait.

Oscar Gonzalez: 36:27

My answer is another question.

Oscar Gonzalez: 36:29

I don't quite understand how that connects, but I ended up still having the student loans that were helping me cover my apartment and my vehicle, and so when I left, I basically had six months where it was covering that and I was just living life, I was working full time, so it wasn't that I ever just stopped working and mooched, but I didn't recognize the coverage that that six months of my student loan was giving me, because right away once the clearing house updates and shows that you are no longer in school, the lenders go hey, time to start paying back that money.

Oscar Gonzalez: 37:17

And it happens fast. And when that happened to me for lack of a better phrase I got caught with my pants down and now I'm like, uh-oh, what do I do now? So that was a big learning experience where my parents helped me out by making sure I didn't sell my car because I had to get around, and so I was very, very frugal for a couple of years to dig myself out of that hole, and the finances are a major contributor to divorce rate, and the last thing I wanted to do was to divorce you, lawrence, so I think early on-.

Lawrence Wong: 38:12

I didn't know where you were going with that one.

Oscar Gonzalez: 38:17

I think early on we understood the risks that we were taking and we understood you yourself. You're not married, no kids. I have a house, I have a kid, I have a wife. So part of me was looking at how do we best build this organization financially to give us financial security. So that how quickly can we get to financial security? And what I mean is how do we set ourselves up in the first one to two years where, if something happens and either one of us either cannot get another contract or another client, or perhaps we're injured on the job, which we are fully insured? So if you'd like to work with us, we'd be more than happy to work with you. So in that scenario we have the capital to back up and to take care of what we're trying to build here. And I think that we're in the right path now that we can start to take on additional headcount in the near future. And with taking that additional headcount we'll be able to really expand not only just our operations but also expand our contributions into this space. So essentially, that's really where the financial aspect came from.

Oscar Gonzalez: 39:46

Regarding my routine for myself, working from home and having a hybrid work pattern I guess you can say has been something that I think needs development in everyone's life. I think when you work from home, you have to understand what that's like for you and your role. But also you're at home. You may have a family, you may have pets that you have to take out, you may have bills to pay and the like. Where we save money and time on traveling, especially being in the greater Boston area, there's also these questions of well, how much should I be sitting at my desk and how much should I be upstairs and how much should I do this? I think that routine for myself has been more of communication with my wife on. I want to try to have this and times from here to here uninterrupted. I'm working on it, as you mentioned earlier, doing a lot of the work with the bookkeeping and things like that. There's a lot of company work that has to happen and I can't do it while I'm working on client stuff. When does that happen? Usually in the mornings or toward the end of the day or during lunch. It's really developing a routine that, at least for myself, manages the amount of work with the resources that we have, which at now is two, two and a half, with my wife helping out on some of the social media items and some general admin things. There's so many things to it. We've seen already, as we're embarking on becoming certified as a minority business, the amount of documentation that we've had to provide to not only put that our company is in fact a functioning company, with clientele, with money, with a bank account, but that we're minorities, which is insane to think about. There's so many little nuances that are little speed bumps in your routine.

Oscar Gonzalez: 42:12

I think having the routine and the routine that I've been building and the routine that I've been building for myself, even when I worked in for organizations, is one where I expect interruptions. So I'm gonna plan 80% of my day, not gonna plan the other 20%, because things shift, things get longer. I already have a list of things to do, but it's a constant prioritization, reprioritization. My routines are, you know, mondays and Fridays, looking back at my dry erase board, looking back at the mirror that's in my gym, looking at my desk that's also a dry erase space, and going what are the critical things that I either need to get prepared for for next week, for myself or for the client Personally, what's happening next week? How have I prepared for that.

Oscar Gonzalez: 43:10

So I'm going away on vacation next week again mental health ready to hit the seas and, you know, planning for that absence, not only just with Sigma but also with the client. So I think the routine has been very helpful in establishing that and starting to integrate those other sessions of meditation of even just 20 minutes in the beginning of my morning to crack open a book and to gain some learnings and to gain some additional insight, because I think the only way we're gonna be successful is if we're constantly learning what's out there, learning what has happened, learning what's been successful, not just through books or podcasts or videos, but also from directly from our clients, which is how we're able to kind of flip the knowledge that we gain and give that back to the clients that we work with.

Lawrence Wong: 44:11

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Lawrence Wong: 44:41

I think we're constantly working on ourselves and also trying to adapt to the sometimes chaotic environment around us, and I like your point about you know you talk into your wife about some of the things that are going on with the business. That I think it helps that she's you know a part of this now, and I know I spend a lot of time talking to my girlfriend about the stresses that I deal with and asking for her opinion on things, and that certainly helped a lot. Just being able to know that we're not alone in this, just the two of us, that we have a really good supporting network, I think has been very beneficial in many ways. So I want to close out this episode with advice that you would give to maybe somebody who's listening that wants to be a consultant in this space. What advice do you have for someone looking to do that?

Lawrence Wong: 45:48

I know for me and we had already touched on it is, you know, having the time to rest and reflect on not only the work that you're doing for your, your client, but also, you know, how can you change the business, grow the business, run the business. You know, not every project is going to be the way that you imagined it, so you have to find a way to think about okay, well, why isn't this working out and what can I do? Is it something I can control? You know, having those conversations with yourself and your inner circle is going to be very important.

Lawrence Wong: 46:30

I know we've kind of dealt with this throughout the year and we've contacted I don't know how many people. There will be people that will ghost you and will come up with empty promises, right? So I think one of the biggest things I've learned this year is not to blame yourself if others don't believe in you. I think you have to kind of be yourself and trust your gut when it comes to asking for things that you want, and if people say no, then they say no. But sometimes we have to not believe everything that comes into our head, because those stories are likely not true.

Oscar Gonzalez: 47:13

Yes, yes, you know, I think when you're, when you're embarking on your own, you want to believe that everyone has good intentions and they probably do, but those intentions are rarely for your benefit, if that's one way that I could put it to the point that you made on finding the people that believe in you. Similarly, the challenge, but also the excitement, is finding those that get it, finding those clients that understand the value, because the minute that you start to try and convince a client of what you are providing is valuable, you're trying to convince at. You know, yes, you may have to provide some initial data or background or what have you, but if you're trying to convince them now, you're starting to sell services to someone that doesn't quite understand the end game. And if you want to be able to command a premium, you need your client to go to bat for you at every stage of leadership to say, no, this is worth what's happening.

Oscar Gonzalez: 48:43

This is how they've made a change in my organization and I think I'm starting to see that now, with the repeated contracts that you know, hey, now that we've done that, we want you to come and do this. Now we want you to. You know, look into this space a little bit more, and we're just touching tips, tips of the ice iceberg here. You know, with these six-month contracts, these three four-month contracts, you're really scratching the surface of what's possible. And so you know, as we start to evolve our relationships with, with clients, I think the, the offerings are also going to evolve with them as well yeah.

Lawrence Wong: 49:26

I'm you know super excited for for what we have in store for the the next couple of months and I know you know, as we wrap, you had mentioned that we're you're going to two other conferences, so maybe plug that. And then we also have our leadership summit coming up in in the in January to plan for the next year and see how we can grow the business and our clients as well but before I do that, I want to lend a little bit of advice on that front with with people.

Oscar Gonzalez: 50:10

Yeah, with looking into starting consulting.

Oscar Gonzalez: 50:15

Consulting as a side gig is lucrative. People do it. If you want to consult the the first thing. I actually had a question from one of my clients and they said are you looking to consult full-time or are you just trying to find something that exists, you know, position that exists, that you may be able to jump on board with? And it was interesting because I think it was at that moment when I realized that is how the view of consultants has come. You have McKinney McKinney, mckinley Kenzie, you have McKinsey Boston Consulting Group these larger firms that are providing this biotech and pharma space consulting.

Oscar Gonzalez: 51:10

I think is intimidating for folks to say I'm gonna start a consulting firm. You know there are other services, full service CR rows that exist that are really consulting established processes. This is how the FDA wants this set up. This is how your clinical this is what your clinical trial needs to have involved in it. More so, not building new processes out, more so, giving you the foundation of what is expected from from the government. The one thing that I would say for folks that are looking to if it's not just consulting, if it's, you know, any other business that they're looking to start is to really find people that you trust. And having a partner is so beneficial to not just your mental well-being but the well-being of your organization that you're trying to build. The conversations that we have had have exceeded you know from from personal discussions, to how do we do this in the next six months? How do we do this in the next 12? What is our plan moving forward here, and when you know you talk to loved ones, it's in full support of what you're coming up with. When you talk to a business partner, there's more of a dance that happens, and I think that dance spawns creativity. So when you want your organization to thrive, having people next to you that you can trust, that are, dare I say, partners in your endeavor, is really gonna strengthen your ability to plan and execute on the success of your company.

Oscar Gonzalez: 53:05

So, as mentioned, I want to make sure to plug a couple things. I'm going to be on site, face-to-face, for the 20th Annual Executive Decision Making for pharma and biotech. This is a conference that's looking at strategic resource and portfolio management for biopharma executives. Really looking forward to it. I've already received something in the mail from Intelligencia AI, where they're looking now at how to use AI to provide data insights on curated scientific data. That's something that I've started to see in my clients as well, looking at how to leverage the data that exists by using AI for insights that may be a little bit more challenging or time-consuming. I will say this I heard this previously and I couldn't agree with it more that embracing AI is not eliminating the work that has to happen, because AI is a software and software is leveraging these processes to make them consistent. You're leveraging these systems to not only make your process consistent, but to increase the rate at which you're able to iterate. You can continue to ask questions and change the way you ask questions to achieve an answer that aligns with what your goal is, but if you don't have a process, you're going to get an answer that doesn't serve the right purpose.

Oscar Gonzalez: 54:38

This conference executive decision making for biotech and pharma November 6th to 8th of this year at the Revere Hotel in Boston Commons. There's a Boston onsite and virtual, so I'll probably end up taking advantage of both. There's a number of keynote speakers, so I'm excited to explore that and then in February I'll be heading to Orlando for the 15th Annual Scope. It's the Summit for Clinical Operations Executives, from February 11th through the 14th 2024, at the Rosenshingle Creek, orlando, florida, and I will be participating in the golf tournament, because what better way to meet people than jumping and get a couple holes in? So looking forward to those.

Lawrence Wong: 55:24

Yeah, and then we have our summit planned in January and I'm very excited to not only talk about the business, but also. Something that we have forced ourselves to work on is to celebrate, which is always a constant struggle. I think when you're in a startup or doing some small businesses, you're so caught up and worried about the future, that you lose sight of holy crap. We've come a long way from where we started, so those are some of the things that we'll be doing the next couple of months.

Oscar Gonzalez: 56:02

When you're scaling a mountain, be sure to turn around and take a look to see where you came from. Don't stay so focused on how far you got to go. Sometimes I am guilty at doing that. So we're excited there's a lot of things for us in the near future and we're going to continue to provide content not just through the podcast but also through videos. We're going to plug in all of that into the show notes and, yeah, I appreciate everybody sticking around with us and hearing a little bit about this past year and what you can expect to see from us in the future. Thanks, lawrence, peace Today.

Oscar Gonzalez: 56:46

We've learned early on that client interactions can also be enlightening. So we may assume the client we're working with has a subset of knowledge. It's important to bring them along for the ride. We may be surprised what we find to be new from their perspective. These client interactions can bend and flex into different directions, but the main goal is developing trust Trust between you and your client. This trust will evolve your projects over time, as you build your reputation and that of your organization.

Oscar Gonzalez: 57:24

We mustn't forget to take time and reflect on our clients and on our progress in whatever fashion makes sense. We must surround ourselves with the people we trust and the people who challenge our way of thinking, if we expect to become experts in our respective fields. Until next time, think smarter before you work harder. That's how you become lean by design. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to leave us a review, like and share on Spotify, apple and Google podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're interested in being on the show or becoming a sponsor, send us a message at Lean by Design at SigmaLabConsultingcom.