Intro - 00:00:06: Welcome to The Biotech Startups Podcast by Excedr. Join us as we speak with first-time founders, serial entrepreneurs, and experienced investors about the challenges and triumphs of running a biotech startup from pre-seed to IPO with your host, Jon Chee. In part three, Leslie described the leap to Slone Partners, the firm's relationship-driven approach, and the hiring principles that helped shape the business. If you missed it, check out part three. In part four, Leslie turns to leadership at scale. She talks about delegation, communication, culture, and the challenge of building an organization that can meet different people where they are. She also looks ahead at the changing needs of life sciences, medtech, health tech, and the leaders who will be needed to move those industries forward.
Leslie Loveless - 00:01:09: Yeah. Wow. That is a really good question, and I'll share with you that I'm not sure that I have mastered what is required there. In fact, I feel like I still learn something new every day. The hard part in all of that is letting go of things because when you're in a group of five and everyone's involved in everything and taking care of everything and getting it all done and all of that, you know that you have to get stuff done because there isn't anybody else to get the stuff done.
As things get bigger and there are more clients and more searches and more people, you have to be able to let go of some things. And knowing when is the right time to do that, the right way to do that, still protecting engagements with clients and all of those relationships that you worked really hard to build. You know, figuring out how to manage all of that, that is a hard thing to do. Figuring out when to speak up and stay quiet. That's a very hard thing to do, and that is something that I have to work on a lot because my tendency is to not let anything go.
Jon Chee - 00:02:28: Same.
Leslie Loveless - 00:02:28: That's my tendency.
Jon Chee - 00:02:29: Yeah. Same.
Leslie Loveless - 00:02:30: I'm super type A. Anything I see that I know needs to be changed or be done differently or be communicated in a different way, like, it's very hard for me to sit on that instinct and to let it go. One of the toughest things for me to accept has been that people are going to do things, message things differently than how I would, and that is okay. That is okay. And that has been a really hard process for me to get there and be very accepting of that. So I think that is a really big element of evolving with the business is knowing when to raise my hand and say I wanna talk about this versus saying, okay. Alright. That's okay. That's fine. And it doesn't matter if I would have done it a different way. So that's big.
The other thing and this has been really hard for me too is I move very fast all day every day, and I don't require a lot of interpersonal pleasantries throughout the day. It's kind of pedal to the metal all day every day for me, and I'm kinda good with that. You know? I like having very productive days and getting things done and starting fresh the next day and not have a whole bunch of stuff holding over from the prior day. Like, I'm pounding that out every day. What took me a lot of time to appreciate is that that is who I am, but that's not who everybody else is. And other people need different things. And just because I don't need it doesn't mean that the company doesn't need it.
And so there's been some actually, somewhat recent evolution around that where one of our other very senior team members, senior partner, Sona, stepped in, and we refer to her as our culture ambassador. And she's been amazing. And part of what she is doing is engaging throughout the organization, really understanding what people need and making sure that we don't lose sight of that and that we are taking that feedback, hearing it, implementing new things as a result of that, and appreciating that everybody is different. Everybody does need different things. And just because it's not what I need to get through my day doesn't mean that it's not what someone else needs to get through their day, and everybody needs what they need. And that has been something that I've had to really take in and appreciate and believe in so that we can do what we need to do for the betterment of the company and for our people.
Jon Chee - 00:05:28: I love that. And it's crazy that you're saying that because, I guess, I think it's what I needed to hear too. To be quite honest, I'm very similar to you in that way. I, like, move incredibly fast, and some folks are on that same wavelength, and we just go go go go go. Some people not so much. My chief legal officer, I guess, is also if you're a lawyer, you're, like, you're not a move fast, break things, like, or polar opposites in terms of, like, work style. And I think that is, like, something I definitely struggle with in that. I need to remind myself too just, like, having a little bit of a break is also good. Like, versus just, like, pedal to the metal all the time.
I always, like, am surprised. I'm like, uh, it's kinda like those, like, shower thoughts. Like, you're just, like, turn it off for a second and everything comes flooding in. And I'm like, oh, this is where also magic happens. Like, magic can happen in the grind, but also magic can happen when you're not on the grind. I'm trying to exactly the way you described, like, architecting these, like, spaces in time to just, like, not be completely jam-packed of, like, activity. These are, like, I think being type A as well is just kind of, like, your default is action.
Leslie Loveless - 00:06:36: Always. Always.
Jon Chee - 00:06:38: Default action. And one of my mentors, Sandy Page, is just like, actually, sometimes the best decision is, like, inaction, like proper inaction. And my wife reminds me of that too. Like, if we ever have, like, a disagreement or maybe something at work or whatever was frustrating for her, my first go-to is just like, how do I solve this? Like, how do I solve this problem? Like, I need to solve this right now. This is what you need to do. Here's the game plan, like, and she's like, Jon, shut the fuck up. Like, just stop for a moment. Like, I don't need you to solve this for me right now. Like, all I need you to do is just listen, empathize with me, and then we can solve this later.
Leslie Loveless - 00:07:19: Oh my gosh. Jon, I have that exact same conversation with my daughter. My daughter that's at Purdue, it's so funny you're telling me this story because last week, she came and sat down on the sofa by me one night and said, Mom, I need to talk to you. And she doesn't actually do that very often. So, you know, keeping the mom, I'm a little excited for a minute because, like, she came and sat down and said, Mom, I can talk to you.
So she's telling me the situation that she wants to share with me about something that's going on with a friend of hers and she finished. And I'm so used to her telling me that she just wants me to listen that she finished and I just sat there and I said nothing. And it was silent and I finally go. I finally said out loud. I said, Bella, am I supposed to say something? Or was I supposed to just listen? Because I'm not sure.
Jon Chee - 00:08:17: Yeah. I love that.
Leslie Loveless - 00:08:19: But it's the same thing. Like, I'm so used to her saying, Mom, I don't want you to solve it. I just wanted to tell you. And so this time, I was, like, supposed to talk and I didn't know I was supposed to talk. So it was a very funny thing.
Jon Chee - 00:08:32: It's so real because also, like, even in the company context, sometimes just, like, letting it marinate and sit for a while, you come to a better solution, ultimately. It's almost like I have to, like, fight this, like, knee-jerk reaction. Maybe it's like the uncertainty that I'm, like, uncomfortable with. I don't like stewing in that uncertainty. I'd rather just have it let's make this certain. Like but what I found is, like, give it some time to breathe a little bit. Like, use like, you sit in it for a little bit. And sometimes it solves itself without burning a bunch of calories to try and, like, solve it. It just resolves. And, ultimately, what I found too is, like, whenever I make, like, kinda, like, these knee-jerk reactions, not every time, but sometimes these knee-jerk reactions, like, what I thought was a solution was actually just made it worse. It just, like, compounded the issue, and, like, you can apply that to any domain or just any interpersonal relationship.
Leslie Loveless - 00:09:25: Yeah. I totally agree.
Jon Chee - 00:09:26: Just, like, let it breathe. Like, just, like, give it a second.
Leslie Loveless - 00:09:29: It's so hard, though. I mean, we were talking about how we're very action-oriented, very type A, and my instincts every time are just, okay, what's the solution? And then I want to solve it, and then I wanna move on to whatever is next. But I realize that, again, that is me. That is my instinct, and it comes off to other people. Like, I can see it in my daughter's face when she tells me something and I react immediately, it's almost like too much for her. I can see you're sort of like, wait Mom kind of thing and I am like that in every aspect of my life. And so you would think at the age that I am now that I would have figured this out before now, but I really am sort of figuring this out in the fairly recent past that I have to let it breathe to use your terminology, and that is not in my nature.
Jon Chee - 00:10:25: That is kinda what we're talking about at the beginning. It's like, it's never too late to make a change. Right? For me, I'm just like, I do not need to be a prisoner to this, like, knee-jerk reaction of, like, problem-solving mode. Like, I can will this behavior change into existence, and everyone can. Like, everyone can do it. Just like if there's a will, there's a way to do it. And I think when I have found myself just, like, pausing for a moment, I can just see the morale just, like, you can feel it. You can just, like, feel it.
Like and it's such a big unlock because I think there are organizations that are very top-down. Like, the military is an example. Like, very top-down, and it, like, it works for a very specific organization in case, but not every organization is like the military. Some companies are like that. They operate in a similar way, kind of like in the kitchen. There's kind of like this, like, hierarchical, like, it is gonna go my way, like, all the way down. But especially, like, when you're in, like, other organizations, it doesn't have to be that way, and you start seeing that, like, let a thousand, like, flowers bloom. Like, if you give it that space, like, people feel like they have the ability to be in the flow state, in the pocket, whatever it is, like, they're in their element, that's when you really start seeing magic happen. I think about, like, when you, like, place the right people at the right firm, right culture, right everything, that's, like, when you start hitting grand slams. Like, they spend their whole career there because they're this is, like, perfect. Like, it's, like, absolutely perfect. And, Leslie, as you're looking, like, you know, you've been at Slone for, like, twenty-plus years. Like, as you're looking forward, like, the next five years, like, what's in store for you guys? Like, what's in store for you? Like, where do you see Slone going from here?
Leslie Loveless - 00:12:03: So we just announced last week two big promotions for two of our team members. One that's been here for seventeen years, one that's been here for fifteen years, two senior partners. And both of them have roles that are evolving that include more executive client management and development and business development and, you know, those sorts of things. And so creating an environment where there's a real executive team mindset, it's very important. And when you're a small firm, there are a lot of key relationships that exist with certain people and just creating an environment where we have true executive team leadership. I think that's very important here.
I also think that we'll continue to grow our footprint in that med tech, health tech. How does AI machine learning, how does that influence hiring and demand in certain roles and so forth? So I think we'll see more of that. We've actually picked up a lot of searches in that space, and I just think that's, um, keep accelerating. So I see that being a big part of where our time goes and the search work that we do.
Outside of that, I think it's really all about just continuing to evolve the way that we work with our clients. And you think that search is search, and in some ways, it is. It's about people and relationship management and intuition and all of that. So none of that changes, but technology does impact how you deliver it. And so continuing to embrace advances that will allow us to be more efficient in the work we do and how we communicate with our clients and the way they communicate with us and making that super easy. And I don't believe that technology replaces human instinct, human intuition because there's a lot of that in search, but I do think that there are ways to utilize technology to improve the way that we deliver our work. And so I think that we'll see more of that too.
Jon Chee - 00:14:12: I mean, for sure, like, I've just gone super deep on these technology shifts, and I've only seen like, I think we're talking about before is, like, what is now scarce is that human qualitative element that is uniquely human. It's only become more important. It's become more important, and the awesome part about it, the technology allows people to do more of that. That's cool. Like, that's actually cool. And, like, for me, there's, like, plenty of stuff I have to do that I'm just, like, not looking forward to.
Like, I'll give an example. This is, like, an Excedr example. Like so we have audited financials, and audits are never fun. Like, it's just, like, a very all hands on deck in terms of the finance department. We work with the capital markets a lot, so I understand it is very important that you have, like, audited financials and everything like that. That used to, like, take us out for, like, a couple months in the beginning of the year, but that's, like, when people are coming out of JPM and are like, we're doing all the cool things. I wanna be doing the cool things. I don't wanna be doing audit. Like and so technology has basically enabled me to just, like, shrink that down. Like, where now I can actually participate in JPM and not be like, oh, crap. I gotta go talk to the auditors and, like, pull down all these reports that are just like, oh, god. Like so, like, I know there's a lot of talk about, like, technology, rightfully so. It's a scary thing. The change is a scary thing. Change bandwidth is a scary thing. But, like, you know, I encourage anyone to just go mess around with these things and see like, just think about all the annoying stuff that you have to do in your day and see if this could help you minimize the amount of annoyance, like, and you'll be surprised. Like, it could it is quite liberating.
And I actually have a question, like, you know, you said the AIML practice for you guys, like, you start to get busy there. I mean, being in San Francisco, like, it's almost like, uh, how would I describe it? It's almost like NBA recruiting is what it feels like. It feels like the NBA, like, as if, like, there's a draft happening every day. Like, the AI of, like, LeBron is just like, how do we, like, get this person, that person, this person worked at this Frontier Lab, this person worked there. Like, I'm, like, on Twitter. I'm, like, what the heck? This is, like, crazy. It's, like, we're talking about it what it feels like is, like, player trades of, like, NBA teams. Is that what you're feeling? Is it like that, or is it just the Internet that I'm reading?
Leslie Loveless - 00:16:26: It's sort of like that. So when we get these searches, there are all of these blue chip companies where the clients will say, I want someone from one of these companies. Okay. Well, there's only five, and you want someone also that's going to move. Well, three of these people are in San Francisco, one's in San Diego, and one's in Boston or wherever, and you are in the middle of the country. So part of what we do around helping clients think bigger as it relates to that because you're not wrong about the NBA draft mentality. Like, everyone wants the top pick. Right? They want the top draft pick, and the person that has made the name for themselves at this company is the person that they want.
And I completely appreciate and respect that, and the ambition should be there. Like, this is your company. You should want someone like that. But the fact is that there's only so many people that have created that brand, and not everybody can have them. So then you have to start really peeling back the onion and figuring out how can we be the company that produces the next person that somebody else wants. Right? And so getting people to think about it a little bit differently so that they can get what they need, who can take them where they want to go, and it not be such tunnel vision on one, two, three companies because that doesn't usually yield the result that you're hoping for.
Jon Chee - 00:18:07: I think back about when you got your first shot into pharma sales. Like, of course, in reference, it's a no-brainer. You're just like crushing in your first year or two, but it's like you have to look elsewhere. Kinda like you gotta look elsewhere. Like, no sales experience. You're a teacher. But that's again when you get, like, outsized outcomes is, like, when you, like, you don't look where everyone else is looking.
Leslie Loveless - 00:18:28: Very true. Yeah.
Jon Chee - 00:18:29: That's, like, massive. I am curious about this. If your company is not in your usual suspects of, like, San Francisco, Boston, wherever, how do you remain competitive? Like, what does it take to get someone to not be there?
Leslie Loveless - 00:18:44: Yeah. So there's not a magic wand for that. There really is not a magic wand for that, and it is a legitimate concern for let's say that you're a biotech executive and you're in Boston. Well, Boston and San Francisco are in a league of their own as it relates to biotech community, biotech opportunities. If you are there, you know that there's always going to be another role for you there. Right? But if you are an executive with a family and the opportunity is in a secondary or tertiary market and you move your family, you might in three years if that company gets acquired, have to move your family again. And if you stay in a primary market, the chances of you having to do that are much lower. So these are real life decisions. It's not necessarily that someone's just being difficult or anything like that. It is that they are not an N of one in their family. They have other people that they need to consider, and the constant moving is difficult.
So if you are not in a primary market, you have to ask yourself the question, do I want the best person that I can get for this job, or is someone that is missing something that I thought I was looking for, but can be here and be part of the culture build, is that better than the person that checked all the boxes that can only be here 30% of the time? Like, you really have to start sort of rationalizing your thought around key questions like that because that impacts who you see in the interview process. It impacts who you hire. It impacts your mindset about how you engage with that person. It impacts success or not. Like, you have to make really big important decisions about what you're going to stand firm on. Like, is this the hill I'm gonna die on or not? Because that changes who you end up with on your team. There's not a wrong answer in that, by the way. Like, the answer can be one answer for one company and one answer for another company for very valid reasons. It's just an important conversation to have.
Jon Chee - 00:21:00: Yeah. And I think it kinda comes back to every company is unique, and I think having conversations like this with leaders like yourself. I've spoken to folks who are in those, like, kind of, like, biotech pharma leadership positions, and where they end up is oftentimes a personal decision. They can be anywhere, but they're like, no. Like, this this is, like, really hard on my kids. So I'm going to where I want my kids to thrive even if that means I'm foregoing x, y, and z, whatever it may be. But sometimes, some people are just like, we're gonna do this thing, and that's, again, just like a personal decision. There's, like, plenty of folks who, like, was like they basically moved around a lot internationally too. They're just like, hey. Like, I will relocate people internationally. And, like, you know, that's a different just, like, lived experience. I don't know that. I just stay home, like, in in the Bay Area.
Leslie Loveless - 00:21:46: Yeah. Well, I mean, some of it actually does come down to the culture within your own family. What you're describing right now is what kind of family unit are we building and how do we feel about those things, and that is an amazing life experience too. It just depends on personal circumstance.
Jon Chee - 00:22:04: I'm trying to imagine, like, a day in the life of, like, when you're working with these, like, on a search and, like, it's a whole family conversation. It's a whole family in the conference room.
Leslie Loveless - 00:22:12: It's funny that you say that because when we are talking with a candidate, we actually say to them, go home, have the conversation with all the people that matter in this decision because we're not proceeding until that conversation happens because we understand that nothing can proceed until that conversation happens. And what's worse than not presenting a candidate is when you present a candidate that the client loves and then the candidate says, oops, just kidding. My spouse, my significant other, my partner, my kids, whatever the case is, they're not on board, but now our client is completely enamored with this candidate, and every subsequent candidate gets compared to that candidate that they can't have but that they want.
Jon Chee - 00:23:04: Yep. That's brutal. It is brutal. Yeah.
Leslie Loveless - 00:23:08: It's so brutal.
Jon Chee - 00:23:09: It's so brutal, but also just like it makes so much sense. Like, you gotta get ahead out of it. Like, it's like you do not wanna be surprised by that at the eleventh hour. Someone raises their hand just like, I've never been down with this to begin with. Like, I have, like, my friend group here. This is, like, really meaningful to me. Like, I need to be here or whatever it may be. What great advice. There's also an element. I wonder if you're seeing this, like, my cofounder is very much an in-office culture where I'm on the opposite end. We're, like, primarily remote. Are you seeing divides, like, in that type of company culture too where people are, like, we have, like, a distributed model or a hybrid model or, like, everyone's on-site culture?
Leslie Loveless - 00:23:47: We don't have that many fully remote clients anymore. Mostly hybrid or on-site. And that is definitely like the trend now and frankly speaking from a recruiting standpoint, it is one of the most significant challenges that companies and search firms for that matter face. It is very common in the first question or two from a candidate, what is the on-site policy? Very common for that to be an early question and very common that if it is full-time on-site, it's a no from the candidate.
Jon Chee - 00:24:26: Oh, so okay. This is really fascinating to me. So would you say, like, on those early questions, like, being a primarily remote company is like a big sell, a big selling point?
Leslie Loveless - 00:24:38: Yes. It is a big selling point for a lot of people. Now, it also does depend on the role because certain roles are just not
Jon Chee - 00:24:48: Yeah. Yeah. Meant to be involved. Yeah. If you need to be in the lab, you gotta be in the lab.
Leslie Loveless - 00:24:51: You gotta be in the lab. Right? And so there definitely are influencers based on what the role actually is and what the collaboration on-site is required and all of that. There are also people that just enjoy the engagement and the on-site. And so I would say that the preferred model is probably somewhere in the middle, but it does depend on the role, and it depends on the preferences of the individual. Where do they get their energy? Right? And it goes back to what we were talking about a little bit about what do I need? What do you need? Right? And people have different needs as it relates to that engagement, whether they get what they need from what we're doing right now, meeting over video, or if that doesn't really do it for them, that they need more than that. And so I have found that the clients that are doing some kind of blend, generally, that is what I would position as the number one way to do it to attract most people. But there are people that coming out of the pandemic, they just they don't wanna go to an office at all or they can't relocate and they're not going to travel every week. And so if it's not a fully remote, then the job's just not for them because they can't relocate and they're not gonna travel 60% of the time.
Jon Chee - 00:26:14: Interesting. Interesting. And I'm going to imagine you fall into either of these three buckets. You can't do some people are fully remote while some people are on-site. It has to be everyone has to be in either of the buckets. I'm going to imagine.
Leslie Loveless - 00:26:29: It's a little tricky because then you have people that are local and on-site because they're local. Then you hire people that can't relocate and they're remote because they can't relocate. And then you have this, like, divide of frustration where people feel like it's not fair that this group doesn't have to be there or this group's never here for the meeting and that is challenging for the rest of the group. I mean
Jon Chee - 00:26:58: These are real, like, people considerations. And I think, like, with the pandemic, like, the genie's out of the bottle. At least, my wife's company before the pandemic was, like, very much in-office 100% of the time. Then, obviously, pandemic happened, and they were even more productive when they went remote. So now, like, you can't convince people that in-office is, like, integral to a company being productive because, like, as we saw during the pandemic, people can figure it out. People are resilient. You can figure out how to do remote. That's not to say an in-office culture is bad, but there are options now.
But one thing I will say, we were fully remote because, well, when we first got started, it was a one-man band. I couldn't afford an office. So we're remote. Like, that's just, like, as a matter of circumstance. One thing that is interesting that I found as a benefit to being fully remote is because everyone is interacting digitally, you have to get really good about documenting things. Just like documenting how you do things, outcomes, like, knowledge transfer, all this type of stuff, because I've never had the ability to go down the hallway, tap someone's shoulder, and it's, like, teach me this. I'll teach you that. Like, we were not physically in proximity.
And so what that has created is a knowledge base of how we do things as a company written that is incredibly useful to feed into the LLM model that we have. So when we bring in new hires, it's like they get up to speed really quick. Because now, instead of it living in Jon's head, I have, like I'm trying my best to just, like, unload fifteen years of, like, experience into the written form, and we have a lot of it documented already. That has been enabling from a ramp-up. Instead of, like, this edge case where they're like you know, they have to experience the edge case on their own, the edge case was, like, documented. And now you can just, like, self-serve. Not that it was, like, planned at all. It's just, like, it has been something that we have found that enabling from a technology perspective is, like, because we've had to just, like, ruthlessly document because, like, we don't talk to each other. We have Zoom calls. But ruthlessly documenting is starting to see the compounding of, like, knowledge, like, happen within the organization, which is a really cool thing to see. But, yeah, the technology waves are really fascinating. But, Leslie, you've been super generous with your time. This has been super fun. I love learning about your experience, your journey, and everything that Slone is up to. We have two traditional closing questions we like to round out with. First question is, would you like to give any shoutouts to anyone who supported you along the way?
Leslie Loveless - 00:29:29: For sure. So we talked at the very beginning about my family. I have an amazing family. My parents are just the best people I know. I have two great sisters. I have a wonderful husband and daughter, and all of them deserve my gratitude for just being part of my life, supporting me at different intervals. My husband and my daughter, they definitely have sacrificed at different points because of what I do and how much time it takes, and I love them for that, and they have been amazing.
I've also talked to you today a lot about the team that I work with. And as I shared with you, there are people that I have been with for so many years now that it's hard for me to know my life without them. Adam and Christy and Sona and Kim and Jennifer and another Kim and many others, Melissa, Lori, like, all of these people on our team here, I just I love them, and they are so important to me and the work that we do and how they make our clients feel. And if you're a search firm and you don't make your clients feel great and the candidates that you work with feel great, you don't have a search firm. So I cannot do any of what we do here without them, and I just am tremendously grateful for all of that.
There have been a lot of wonderful clients over the years that have just been staples of our organization, and, you know, we've got clients that have been our clients for fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years, and I'm so grateful for them. They are awesome people, which is what matters to me the most, but they're also fantastic partners. And you can't do great search work without fantastic partners either, and so I just I wanna thank all of them.
Jon Chee - 00:31:18: That's amazing. It's funny because, like, I'm just, like, in my head, I'm just, like, fist-pumping. Oh my, yes. This is exactly how I feel. I think with any organization, there's, like, many, many stakeholders that contribute to an organization's success, and we're not playing zero-sum games here. It's, like, all positive-sum games, and it's an infinite game. Right? It's just, like, these experiences, being in business, it's like this infinite game that, like and it's a small community too. And who you do it with is, like your life is just comprised of, like, these, like, slices in time of, like, who you're spending your time with. And so you definitely don't wanna squander that. Like, it's critically important. Life's too short. So that really resonates with me. And, certainly, I gotta just shout out to my wife for just, like, dealing with me. Like I said, she's like, you should bring the volume down, the intensity.
Leslie Loveless - 00:32:06: Oh, all the time. My husband does that same thing, that same movement
Jon Chee - 00:32:11: when I
Leslie Loveless - 00:32:11: pop down. Yes.
Jon Chee - 00:32:12: Yeah. Just bring it down a level. And, like, I joke because I get out of bed, and I wanna talk about things, like, everything. My wife is like, I need to defrost in the morning.
Leslie Loveless - 00:32:22: Yes.
Jon Chee - 00:32:22: Like, I have my coffee, read my book at the window, just, like, chill for a second, and she's like, Jon, it's six.
Leslie Loveless - 00:32:29: Oh, man.
Jon Chee - 00:32:31: It's six. Need you to take it down a notch, please.
Leslie Loveless - 00:32:35: My husband always jokes with me that I walk through the house banging cymbals at 06:00 in the morning. He's like he acts it out, and I'm just walking down the hallway banging cymbals. I'm like, I don't know. I'm it's time to get up.
Jon Chee - 00:32:48: Yeah. This is the only mode I know. Like, I don't know what to say. So, buddy. And the the last closing question is, what's the best piece of advice someone else has given you?
Leslie Loveless - 00:32:58: Okay. So there's been a lot of good advice over the years. However, someone said something to me this morning, actually said it to our whole company, that is so completely logical that I almost can't believe that I've never heard this before, and it literally just got sent to our group this morning. And it came from Sona, who I mentioned is, like, our culture ambassador. And the email was, if you can overthink all the bad stuff, why can't you overthink all the good stuff? I'm telling you, I'm in my fifties. How have I not heard this sentence before? How have I not heard that before? And why can't I do that? I just read it and I was like, wow.
Jon Chee - 00:33:42: Woah. Like
Leslie Loveless - 00:33:43: Right? Because I am the queen of overthinking the troubling things, the bad stuff. And there's more good stuff, but I do not overthink the good stuff. I acknowledge it, and then I move on to the bad stuff and overthinking the bad stuff. So, anyway, it's just ironic that she just said that this morning, and I was like, that is brilliant.
Jon Chee - 00:34:03: Yeah. I mean, I'm the same way. Like, I will fixate on the bad and catastrophizing scenario plan and, like, have all these contingencies. But, like, also, you're exactly right. Just like, why don't we just, like, allocate that energy elsewhere and optimize for the positive outcome? So succinct. You're just like, duh.
Leslie Loveless - 00:34:23: It's so simple, so obvious. Never heard it before.
Jon Chee - 00:34:27: Yeah. I love that. I love that. Well, Leslie, you've been so generous with your time. This has been really, really fun. One of my coworkers lives in Fishers. Yeah. So I make my way out there. So the next time I'm in your neck of the woods, I'd love to grab coffee. Yeah. And it would be super fun. So thank you again. I've had a blast, and I'm looking forward to seeing you in person.
Leslie Loveless - 00:34:46: Likewise. Jon, thank you so much for having me. It's really nice getting to know you. I absolutely enjoyed the conversation. Very much appreciate being included, and wish you the best in managing that type A personality that we both ourselves.
Jon Chee - 00:34:59: It is a life of work, and it's a never-ending journey. But thank you. But thank you.
Outro - 00:35:07: Thanks for listening to our four-part series with Leslie Loveless. From teaching in Indiana to pharmaceutical sales, enterprise health care leadership, and eventually building Slone Partners, Leslie's story is a reminder that the skills you develop in one chapter can become the foundation for the next. If you enjoyed the series, please follow the show, leave a review, or share it with a friend.
Join us for our next series featuring Scott Chetham of Faro Health. Faro is building an AI platform for clinical development, and Scott's work sits at the intersection of biotech, technology, and the teams working to bring new medicines to patients. It's an episode you won't want to miss.
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