The Way to College Podcast - Ep 187 - Sharon Samjitsingh

Hi, Dr. Ossaliva here. Before we get started with this week's episode, the way to college podcast, what I wanted to do is I wanted to say a little bit about my guest this week's guest and about the company that she started. My guest this week is Ms. Sharon Samjit Singh. Sharon started healthcare originals or HCO, and it is revolutionizing respiratory care. For 50 million Americans suffering from asthma and COPD, their AI-powered platform and wearable deliver personalized insights to detect attacks before they happen, empowering patients, and preventing costly ER visits. Now as a seasonal asthma sufferer, HCO sounds like a promising and exciting opportunity. For a limited time, you, our listeners, yes, anybody out there can invest in HCO through WeFundr. So over 300 investors have already backed HCO, and they've been rated a top deal by Kingskraut, the Bloomberg of community round investing. With strong traction and a low multiple and contracted revenue, this is a rare opportunity to get in early. So visit wefundr.com. HCO to learn more. We'll be sure to drop a link in the show notes. Now the way to college podcast. Hi, this is Dr. Cesar Livid with another episode, The Way to College Podcast. And I never anticipated how much the podcast would grow. And I think how much my network would expand. I started the podcast with the intention of reaching out to my immediate network and a little bit of my extended network. But it's been a wonderful journey. And one of the amazing things that has come out of these conversations is that network continues to expand. And today is someone that I think is a new addition to that network. This is actually our first conversation. And so I'm really excited to hear her story and her journey journey. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to allow her introduce herself to the audience out there. So Sharon, would you mind introducing yourself to our audience? Thanks, Jose. It's a pleasure to be here and I'm glad to be in your network. So I'm Sharon Samjit Singh. I am the CEO and co-founder of Healthcare Originals. Healthcare Originals is a company that helps people with asthma and COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease thrive despite their condition. And we started this because I have asthma. I've had all my life. And I wanted to make sure that nobody has the same experience that I had growing up. But most importantly for this podcast, I am actually the first one of the first. My generation was the first in my family to go to college. My father did not complete high school and my mother completed high school. But went back to get a diploma in theology after retiring. So my sister and I were the first in our family to actually attend university. So I'm thrilled to be here and share my journey to college. Awesome. Well, Sharon, thank you. And I think one of the and I don't think there's confusion, right? The title is pretty clear. But I think what I've learned in these conversations is, you know, that everybody's journey is different. And I have had some guests that maybe started college, didn't finish. But I think so overall, I think really the conversations are all about just our journeys, our respective journeys. And so I'm really excited and eager to get into years sharing us with all my guests. I always ask if you had to identify a starting point, your educational journey, what would that starting point be for you? Ah, so that's actually a very funny story. You would not know it looking at me now. And most people would not understand, would not believe this. But when I was young, I hated food, like I refused to eat. So my dad, who was always tasked with the job of getting me ready for school and I am not a morning person, would try to get me to eat. But the way to get me to eat was I would take a bite and then I'd run around the house and he'd have to get me back and take another bite. And so he started saying, OK, only 10 more spoons to go. And so I learned to count because that 10 seemed like a huge amount of spoonfuls after. And then he flipped it around. He was like, OK, let's count backwards now. And he would go 10, 9 and there would be like four eighths. And so I was like, you know what? No, I am learning to count because this he's setting me up. So that's my I would say that was my earliest education to the importance of counting. Yeah. Wow. I I so whenever I asked that question, I'm always excited to see what my guests say. So that is definitely unique. I've never had anything like that, but I love that. So so you have this this early experiences, your earliest experience with counting and with numbers. You know, one question that I that I often ask my guests and, you know, just because this is kind of where the initial response leads us is. Was there an emphasis? Was there an emphasis on education and on schooling in your in your household when you were when you were young? Yes, there certainly was. I think both of my parents were very sure as they as we put it in our household, university was not an option. Um, master's degrees, they would not be full, but university was not an option as far as they were concerned, because they saw that as a way of us not being able to choose our path in life, which turned out to be true. So here you have this expectation that you're going to go to university. You're going to continue with your education. What's your earliest memory of because I think we're always asked, right, more kids, but what do you want to be with me? Sharon, what did you what were you thinking about? What did you want to be? I wanted to be a pilot. But when I when at least when I was in university, so I grew up and turned out into being in the Caribbean woman, I don't think it was open for women to become like pilots or I would have had to go away abroad to the U.S. probably to study and that wasn't in the cards for us. So the first thing I remember wanting to be was a pilot. And that didn't happen. You said you said something that really piqued my interest. You said you if you wanted to pursue that, you would have had to gone maybe and studied abroad, studied in the United States. Where did you go to study? So I studied chemical engineering at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, where I grew up. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. What was what was university like for you? Well, it was interesting. So one of the things I tell people is high school. I probably would be one of those people that you would call gifted in that I skipped grades in elementary school. So Trinidad and Tobago follows the British school system of education. So there's primary school until the age of 11. Then we call everything from 11 to 18 high school and then you go to university. So I skipped a year, year and a half in primary school. And my parents were very interesting people. So even though I was advanced, I was in like the advanced class. They were still not pleased that my grades were like, I think 92 or 93 percent. So they said, no, you're staying back a year in primary school until those grades get to 98 or 99 percent, which was always the benchmark. And then in high school, I guess I wasn't very, I didn't utilize my talents to the best in high school because schoolwork came very easily for me. And then the first semester of university was a real eye opener for me because I couldn't do what I had been doing all the time. I also felt like I had been given this gift of what people might call a good intellect. And it was a God given talent that I was not using well. So I decided to dedicate the remaining semesters of university to doing well. And so I think for me, a lot of it was around community, but also just utilizing, learning how to utilize my gifts and talents to the best of my ability. So first semester, really tough and a rude awakening. And then the rest of it was really about just working hard, because I think the thing that stood out for me was that it doesn't help if you're talented, but not prepared to work hard. I got away with a lot in high school, but not working hard. Yeah. In university that didn't hold me in good stead anymore. And I would say that that prepared me for the rest of my career. You threw in community. Yeah. As maybe helping you a little bit. Tell me about that. Yeah. So again, my interesting story is, so in high school and the British schooling system, we do, there's something called all levels. When I wrote, and you write that at the age of 16, and then there's another two years and you write A levels or advanced levels at the age of 18. And at that time, advanced levels included more or less what is the first year of university work in American universities, so that when you got to university in Toronto, you were actually doing very specialized second year stuff compared to the US system. And for my A levels, I went from an all girls school to an all boys school. So long story. But so we wanted, I was focused on maths, physics, chemistry and very science focused subjects. And it was felt that the boys school offered a better education. So I was one of eight girls that joined a 700 boys, 700 strong boys school. Turns out my mother had also gone to that boys school for her A levels because at the time, their high school, high schools then offered. So when I say community, I kid you not. I was in this class, the boys, we got along really well with the boys. Everybody integrated. It was a wonderful experience. And most of them were doing chemical engineering. So I was like, okay, I'm good engineering too. Literally, this is how I made my choice. My parents were like, you can do anything you want. But I was like, okay, all my friends, I will do this. And then that kind of camaraderie and community spirit carried through into all of my years in college or university for chemical engineering friends with those guys today. We have a very vibrant WhatsApp group that we all talk to. So it's just been interesting. But that ability to have friends who've known you for that long and go through that university experience with you, I think is a great community. And in university, I added some lifelong friends that I still call friends today. Wow. I love that. And I think because I think you hear stories about female students not feeling welcomed in an environment where, like, for example, chemical engineering or a STEM major, which tend to be male dominated. And but here you are, and you have this wonderful story about finding community and making these lifelong friends. Is it safe to say that you did you ever feel like you didn't belong in the school or even studying pursuing chemical engineering? No, actually, I think turn out into big ways a relative outlier. When you think of today's world in STEM, when I did chemical engineering, they were these, the class was 5050 more 5050 girls and boys. And then in the whole engineering class, if you include the disciplines of electrical engineering and mechanical engineering and electrical engineering girls actually outnumbered boys. And then in mechanical engineering, I think the boys outnumbered the girls, but in total, there may have been a 4052 percents split. And then turn out was going through a golden period in terms of just industrialization when I was in high school in university. And I think that carried over. So for me, I never felt unwelcome. There was always other other people like me in the classroom. And I will see never felt othered by the guys in the class either. It was just interesting. Well, it sounds like a wonderful experience, Sharon. It was. The. So here you are. You're going to the university and. Where is it? What was there an expectation or where there. Was there this desire for you to leave and to explore and to. And I say that one, because obviously you're going up on an island. I know for me, going up, it's how Texas is not an island, although it often felt like you were kind of on an island because it kind of felt isolated. And I know for a lot of young people, they see college and they see post college as this opportunity to go and spread your wings and explore. Was that something that you wanted to do as well? Actually, no, I think so. I was very, I was a dreamer when I was young. If my head wasn't buried in a schoolbook, it was. I was either trying to play sports or buried in a book, like literally. So for me, life was just about I, my parents lived with the same job from the time they graduated until they retired. While they may have been promoted, it was still the same job. So I thought that was what life was. You got you left college and you got a job and you started to be responsible. And. So I never thought about leaving. In fact, I stayed at one company in various rules and then it was a big conglomerate and I moved to the head office. I had a very senior position there. But then when I decided to leave, I was already 18 years in my career. I decided that, OK, I was finally ready to do my masters and take a year off. That was all it was supposed to be. Take a year off. Somebody said to me, one of my colleagues said to me, said, you know, if I had to guess of the 5,000 people in this organization, who would actually leave the organization to take a flyer or a breather in the middle of their career? You would be number 4995. So it was just interesting. And those things never occurred to me. I credit a couple of things. One, some projects that I was exposed to at the conglomerate head office level and my husband for making me question whether there was something else I could do besides this, besides just with the same place until I died. I could do not. That's just how it happened. Yeah. And so how did how did that shift occur? Couple of things I got exposed to. So Trinidad is a very oil and gas heavy country. Lots of ammonia, methanol plants, a refinery, well, it used to be a refinery, lots of natural gas. And then when I was looking at this head office, I was I had control of a capital projects portfolio of about $150 million. And we started evaluating the feasibility of an alternative energy project, building an ethanol plant in Ghana as an alternative fuel. And I was like, I had never known renewable energy existed. I didn't know. And I found it fascinating this ability to do that. And so I started to want to do things like that, explore things like that even more. And then my husband said he's been subconsciously working on me. But he came from a family of entrepreneurs. And he had always like worked on me like, you know, you can do different things. You can question the state of school. You can do this. You can do that. So I would say the combination of me wanting to explore more about renewable energy and then the best spouse in the world who saw my potential even before I did is what caused that shift. Wow. So what came next for you? What came next is that great plan I took a year off to do my masters at the University of Rochester, because then I wanted to figure out, hey, what do I want to do with the rest of my life? And I will say that. If anybody is contemplating university and thinking like I see this all the time, my sister had it with her kids. A lot of parents think they know this choosing the university and going all the way through university or whatever is so important. What you choose to do. I don't use anything in chemical engineering now. I started a healthcare company. I think what experiences like that and all of the experiences you do help you to achieve is a way of thinking. And if you're open to experiences and truly learning along your career, it just enhances the method of thought that you get in university. So to answer your question, because I know I digress. So after doing my masters at the University of Rochester, I actually did start to work for an alternative energy company. But simultaneously we found this technology at the University of Rochester for people with asthma that basically showed that you could predict asthma attacks up to three months in advance. And I was like, well, I needed that when I was growing up. So while looking at the alternative energy startup, we co-founded this healthcare startup. And we exited, so that company exited the sustainability startup. There I helped them. There I used my chemical engineering and all of my previous years of experience to help commercialize a technology that is still the only one of its kind in the world today. But since then I've been focused. I was always kind of focused on my healthcare startup, but now even more so. So yeah. I want to take a few steps back because I'm always fascinated by when people leave, when people go out to explore, to go study, how they come to decide where it is that they want to go study. And so here you are, you're living in Trinidad and Tobago, and you go to the University of Rochester. Why? Like of all the schools, countless schools around the country. And I imagine there are countless schools doing renewable energy and anything related within that related field. But you chose there. Why? They offered a unique opportunity. So the funny thing is I applied all over the place. I had not heard of the University of Rochester. And I always say it was divine guidance because this is where I am supposed to be. This startup that I'm doing now is the impact that I was always supposed to make. But I applied everywhere. And then one day this thing came in the mail that was like, why not apply to the University of Rochester? It was like it was tailored made for me because it was not an MBA and it was not a full science degree. It was actually a hybrid of classes from the engineering school and classes from the business school where they together taught you technical entrepreneurship, the ability to start your own high tech startup. And I was like, I don't think I could go back to like pure science anymore because I had moved up in managing. And I don't want to do an MBA, like the full MBA stuff. So this felt like it was perfect to me. So as this everything else that seemed to happen in my life without plan, I just said, okay, I'll apply. So I literally applied on the last day. And then that week we got through and I remember getting the notification and I was like, huh, interesting. So I got through. So now what do we do? So then we visited the campus and everybody was so welcoming and it really, despite the fact that it was bitterly cold in me. I mean, it was like 55 degrees, which is bitterly cold for anybody coming from the Caribbean. It was like, okay, we can do this. And literally it really was just supposed to be one year while I figured out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. And we just felt at home here and that's where we've been since then. How long have you been in Rochester? Since August 2012. So almost 13 years. Yeah. Wow. And was your healthcare started? Mm-hmm. Was that immediate? How long was it after completing your hospital? We officially incorporated in 2016. Yeah. And since then, yeah, we've been looking on it. Yeah. So, you know, you talked a little bit about this startup and you talked about your own experience with ASV. Tell us about, because I think here, one, I think there's already a lot that listeners and viewers can glean from what you've shared so far. But I think there's so much to unpack anytime as an entrepreneur can share their story. Right. There's so much to unpack. And particularly you said something about your own university experience about that initial transition was difficult. But then that it prepared you for everything else, right? The hard work prepared you for everything else. Take us through that process of, you know, the idea from idea to, you know, conception to getting it, you know, and incorporating. Great question, Jose. And so I will say to follow that thread. What I learned the hardware in university was talent when it gets you so far. Hard work is really the thing that works and gets success. So there's a saying in startup land, just do 1% better every day and 1% compounded over 365 days is a huge number. Right. And so when we think, when I think about my startup, this has not been easy. I think our technology in many respects was ahead of its time. And then as an immigrant founder, we don't have networks. So fine, we had to come and build our own networks and then create opportunities for people to trust us enough to invest in us. And it still remains a difficult journey. Startup investment analysis show that women of color get less than I think 1% of all venture capital dollars raised. But I would say that we have investors we found through hard work and I call myself what I call now, I call myself no proof. You tell me, no, okay, then we move on and even eventually I'll convince you to a yes. Oh, if it's no, it's okay, we move on. But you really have to like develop that ability to keep working, keep your head down and just keep working at it and figure out ways to solve problems all the time. And I would say that's what stood us in good stead. Has it been hard? Yes. I always tell people to in startups, a lot of noises, a lot of noises out there about the money that people make and those kinds of things. Most startups are a 10 year overnight success story that's 10 years in the making and they're not for the faint of heart. So you only do these things. So at one o'clock in the morning, right, you have 20 emails left to go, you're tired, you have to be up at seven, probably or six or five to catch a flight the next morning. Money doesn't make you keep going when you're that tired. A sense of purpose and mission keeps you going and that discipline and commitment to getting this done. And so I think that is the thread I would follow through this startups are not for the faint of heart. And just you just have to keep looking at it. Of course you have to be sensible when things don't make sense. It's okay to shut down or stop doing things. But I think that's it. What I learned in university and throughout my career afterwards was discipline and continuous discipline and hard work, be talent every day of the week. I appreciate that. So Sharon, I don't, I don't know like, as I shared earlier, right, this is our first conversation. Yeah, so I spent my my career has been an IRA and working with first year students and helping them transition to college and in a conversation recently. I'm sharing with somebody how at least with something I noticed this semester. And I don't know if I was just keen to it this semester or if it was because of maybe the conversations I was having through the podcast and through other networks. But the lack of patience from a lot of my students and they're so they wanted, you know, you talked about the overnight success. And so they want to see immediate results but don't necessarily want to put in the work or don't want to put in sort of the time and the commitment and the persistence. And so I appreciate you talking about that and talking about this journey hasn't been an overnight success for you. And that it has given a continuous continuous process and that it isn't for the people. And so I appreciate that. What other lessons do you think you would like to impart. On young people out there who with aspirations of getting into tech or creating the next startup the next big startup. So I echo what you just said as well I've noticed, like even among my niece and abuse that there is this feeling that life is running away from them. And that they need to do this that you're 25. I mean, let's all take a breath people. But I feel like I don't know if it's a post pandemic thing. People are brighter than me will figure it out but I will say that yes, I hear what you're seeing that I see it among among them. The only other thing I would say is is really life is a journey. And if I had to go back I think I was always so focused on solving a problem at work. But I never was really very present in the moment. And I would say to people the key is just be present in the moment learn absorb. Have a plan or key. But every experience leads to something. And you look back on your career when you're in your 40s and be like, oh, this is how I got here. And it'll be a good journey. But only if you're really, really very present and appreciate each and every single step of it. And it's okay to like take a step back and then move forward because I feel also like there's all this pressure that goes with this impatience, whether it's self put on them by themselves or others that they feel pressure about that every decision has to be the right decision. Guess what? No, right? That's what life is about. You take you make a decision with the best information that you have at hand. And then if it doesn't work out, don't be afraid to try something else. So from I have friends the way our education system and Trinad worked as well as you will streamed very early on. So from the age of 14, I was in sciences. Like I focused only on sciences all the way through university. I had friends who did the same thing and went through and got science university degrees, but then went back to do become a lawyer. Or they went back to do accounting because they realized, wow, this we didn't know this existed. And I want to do this. And similarly for me, like I got exposed to economics late in my life. And I probably if I had known about it earlier on, probably would have wanted to do an economics degree. Would I have had the same journey I would have had now? No, but guess what? I will do an economics degree at some point in time in my life. But I feel like there's all this pressure to get things right and feeling like there's only what every decision leads you to only one other thing. And I'd like people to think about that every decision leads you to a further branch of options and no doors remain closed. I think especially now it's such a different world from when I grew up in terms of optionality. That it really is about not sweating about things that five years from now, you'd be like, really? I was worried about that. No, just enjoy the journey. I think that's all I can see. Sharon, I think that's some wonderful advice. I know it's a message that I know I love to impart on my students. And so I always appreciate it whenever I can hear from somebody else. And for our listeners out there, one thing I would like to note, I'd share with my listeners and viewers is, these conversations aren't scripted. So I don't cue Sharon to say, Sharon, make sure you emphasize this. Right. These are, again, like this podcast was grew out of that. What I was seeing in my classroom and among my 18 and 19 old students in terms of the anxiety and feeling like, yeah, life was getting away from them. And they had to make that right. That one decision. And so I thought, yeah, life doesn't work that way. And so to hear it, I always appreciate it when I heard from my guests and they can talk about their journey to sort of hammer that idea home. Thank you. If your students are anything like my family, they're like, yeah, that's easy for you to see. Well, guess what? And tell you a story, it'll be easy for you to see. Absolutely. Yes. Sharon, you, you, you, earlier you said you founded your company at the same time as you were co-founding another? No, I worked in another startup that was focused on alternative materials. Yes. Okay. So you're working at this other startup. Now, I imagine, because here, here's, you know, a question that I, that I, that I get a lot. Not necessarily from my students, but I think from older, older folks who kind of who are maybe like you, or you were working in with a company and you were successful and you saw yourself sort of just going up the ladder. And, and you could see, I could see myself retiring from here. And then you find yourself, you go and you study and get a master's degree. And then you're working for this startup. And then decide to pivot. You said, I'm going to start my own company. Was there any fear or trepidation around that decision for you? No, I don't think I could do what I was getting into. I just felt called. I had really horrible experiences with asthma growing up and so did my parents and my family living in constant fear of what I couldn't cannot do. So I just really felt a calling to get this technology out there because it could help people like me and people like my family get peace of mind. So I think every step of the way it has been, okay, we'll do this next. Only in the last three or four years has it really crystallized about, okay, this I can see. I can see what we have to do. It really has been a very much, let's take this next step. Let's take this next step journey. We had all don't get me wrong. We had all the good business plan things, those kinds of things, but I haven't actually been worried. No, I still think it's all divine guidance. Have I been worried at points when things were hard or we were having trouble raising money? But I understood that it takes two years to sell into healthcare was I worried yes. And not this existential worry that all would not be okay because and I guess that is one of the things that's easy for me to say because I think I always knew I had a full back position. Like I could, I would be employed elsewhere because I had spent a lifetime building experiences and credibility. So I would have the ability to work elsewhere. But yeah, no existential dread just the normal worries that anybody who is a button for punishment that wants to do a startup. But and again, I appreciate I think you emphasizing that you've also you had right years of experience had the credentials that you could fall back on. And so if this didn't work out, very confident and you were not shy of hard work. And so, you know, I think it sounds like you thought about this a lot, but you also kind of you had a lot of resources available to you in terms of experience and the credentialing and and again that work ethic that you could fall back on to say I can do this. And I know what it's going to take. Yeah, I appreciate that. And that's one thing I tell people who are thinking about startups as well. In the startup, you have to have so much. You have to know how if you're starting your own startup, you have to know some things about business or else you end up taking the wrong route. So there's nothing wrong in working five, 10 years, get experience in a corporate environment, understand things and then start it. The world is not again, it's that whole thing about the world not running away. And there's actually research from somebody I forget who out there that shows that most successful companies, most successful startups are actually started by people in their 40s. So again, it's that whole concept of life not running away from you and you become so much better informed when you understand not just the technology but the business aspects and just work and culture, even if you work someplace that you don't like you understand what you don't want your startup culture to be. And that's always a way to like figure things out. Yeah. Thank you. You know, I'm insane. Sharon, what advice would you give? Because I think one thing that that. And one thing that you said that really stuck with me was the relatively low number of women of color. And so what advice would you give somebody? Another female of color is interested in jumping into the startup world. What advice would you give them that maybe you wish you knew or you. I need to share this information with somebody. I need to tell this is a lesson that I really want to partner with somebody. Yeah. Yeah, so the best than 1% of women. So less than 2% of venture capital dollars flow to women founded startups. And then less than 1% is to female founders of color. So the thing I would say to anybody can contemplating it is going with your eyes wide open. But there are a bunch of emerging companies and venture funds that are interested in backing female founders. So it's never too early to build your network, but just be prepared for a lot of knows and just find a way to deal with it. I always tell people the emotional roller coaster of a startup is tough and that handling your emotions and keeping an even keel. It's the hardest part of it. So for a woman of color who may be looking at a startup. Have good friends with whom you can gripe. But figure out your community early on and just work to develop that network your way in. And just keep going. But remember, you're not alone. Whatever knows you get or whatever stuff that you feel is really unjustified. There's a bunch of female founders who have experienced that right with you. And a lot of us will talk if you reach out. So I think it's becoming more and more apparent on social media platforms like LinkedIn and those kinds of things who your allies are. And every single female founder or woman founder of color is always happy to talk to another person. So don't don't sit and worry or feel alone. Just reach out and people will talk. How have you because here you are you've come from a different, you know, another country coming to the States. And yet, you know, been able to establish your company and grow your company. How have you networked because you talked about coming and coming here with no networks and yet write this. You've shared with us as you've shared with us. Building that network is important. How have you done that? Well, we started at the University of Rochester and I would say we got an advantage because the technology was developed at the University of Rochester. And I was a member of the, I graduated from there. So it was just about that asking first my professors and then the what is called the university's tech transfer office. Who we could talk to and then kept building that and then the other startup that I worked in was also in town. A lot of people there interested in my startup and some of them are still investing to this day. So I would say it's about just don't be transactional. I'm always very generally genuinely interested in people. People can tell when you're just after them for their money. And that's not what this is about. This is about building a community again of people who not just support you with money, but who will be there for you when times are tough and you want to pick up the phone and say, hey, I need to talk to somebody about this. And I feel overwhelmingly our first investors are still those that stick with us today. A couple of people who told us no very early on came back in and remain our biggest supporters to this day. And that's it. I feel like we've always been very interested in connection. I like people, I like people's stories and hearing people and I have a funny knack for remembering strange things about people. And so if I know your story and I can remember it and we can relate on some level, that's when it feels comfortable to talk about an investment. It's not just he we met last week. Would you like to invest? I mean, some of that existence startup plan, but the relationships at the beginning, I think are very, very, very important. Yeah. I feel like sometimes I take that for granted. I'm going to be honest with you. You know, I think people have asked me, well, you know, how do you interview teach me how to interview. And I think for me, I take for granted the fact that I'm genuinely interested in learning about people. And so I'm very comfortable sitting and starting a conversation with people. But I can't. But I know how important it is to be genuine. Can you offer any tips for folks? Because I think there are some people who have a mindset that this is transactional. If I'm going to build a network, I need this from these people. Yeah. How do you build that empathy, that general genuine interest in someone? How have you done that? So I would say when I'm going into a conversation, I like finding, I'll start over. I'm very much an introvert. So conversation doesn't come easily for me. So the best one of the best pieces of advice I got about networking was from the head of the program that I did at the University of Rochester, like Duncan Moore, best person, one of the best people on the planet. He said, always ask a personal question that and then find a way that you relate it and then write that down. And every, and you have to be genuinely interested in people. It's not just a means to an end, but find a point of connection with you. Say something that makes you stand out to them or two on a personal level. And then whenever you like follow up with an email, lead with the personal item first, right? Talk about, say, remember, we talked about this in some way. And so you build that connection. And to this day, I apply just in different formats. I tell people in the most non creepy sense of the word, I am a circle on LinkedIn where if I am going to meet someone and I have the time to do it, I will look through their LinkedIn profile and then find points of commonality because that's what will stick in my brain. And then we can have a conversation about that. And then the rest of it comes later. So that's the tip I would say, find a way to connect with them as people face something in their profile that really, really stood out to you and that resonates with you. And then talk about that. Don't just dive right into why you wanted to talk to them from a business aspect. You know, talk about that. Yeah. I love that. I love that's great advice. That's great advice. I think you're that professor for that. That's a great. That's great. Sharon, I want to be mindful of your time. Because I know obviously you're very busy. So as with all of my guests, I always ask us to leave us with some imparting words of wisdom for our listeners out there. So what last piece of advice would you like to leave us with? Oh, I feel like if I'm out of advice, I've only lived this long. You know, life isn't running away. Just be open to experiences. I can still practice this and more be present in the moment. Stop thinking about that next thing that you have to achieve. Just be grateful for the experiences of today. So like this is this, like you said, I'll give you a live example. I'm very busy and I have a tendency to think, oh, I have to do a pitch. Tomorrow I have to do this. I have to do this. And somebody said something. I read something on LinkedIn very, that was very, very simple. Switch your mindset. See, oh, I get to do this. So today, you know, I'm back to back and I was like, oh, I get to talk to who is the today. Oh, I get to like go pitch these people that I've never met before. So it's not I have to do this. I get to. And it switches your mindset very subtly to the fact that, hey, get out of your own brain and stop being so into your focus. You're getting to do some amazing things that most people don't get to do. So enjoy it. And that's the piece of advice I would leave. Like, you know, those things that feel like everything feels like it's coming down and it's just just sometimes so overwhelming. Just say, hey, but I get to do this. It makes a difference. I love that. I love that. I couldn't agree. I couldn't agree more. Sharon. One congratulations. Thank you. On all of your success. I wish you continued success with your company. As a, as somebody who. Developed as developed as the later in life. I, I. Wish you the best with that work because, because I know how important it is, like just, you know, access for me access. Just the inhaler, the importance of an inhaler is critical. And so I wish you the best with your company. And thank you. Thank you again for sharing your journey with us. I know there were countless or countless people who were there. I know there were countless or countless lessons that I think will resonate with a lot of people. So I appreciate that. Thank you very much. I was making this pain less and free flow. I try my best. I try my best. So this concludes another episode of the way to college podcast. Thank you to my guests. Thank you to all of our listeners and viewers out there. Please remember to follow, subscribe, rate all of that good stuff and do me the honors. Please share the podcast with one other person. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. We'll talk again soon. Bye bye. Thank you.