Performance Excellence in the Face of Uncertainty, with Mark Heidersbach

The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now your host, Ad molitor.

Welcome back to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. It is no shock to me that Mark is an accomplished leader now in the biopharmaceutical sales and marketing with a reputation for integrity, empowerment and a commitment to excellence. I have known Mark for many years as I recruited him when I was at Lewis University at division two school here outside Chicago. He was a senior at Notre Dame and Niles and he could flat out shoot. He was a great teammate, had an incredible work ethic, just a high basketball iq and was a leader. Mark was one of those kids who you just knew was going to be successful in anything he did in life.

It is no shock to me that Mark is an accomplished leader now in the biopharmaceutical sales and marketing with a reputation for integrity, empowerment and a commitment to excellence. He is passionate around building inspired teams based on trust, purpose and accountability experience and providing focus and direction to navigate complexity, change, coaching and developing to leverage people's strengths for broader, successful and delivering superior results through innovative business solutions. And like I said, none of this comes as a surprise. We have an amazing conversation here for you. Talk about his journey and we really dive into Acadia Pharmaceuticals in how they're continuing to grow and scale during the COVID-19 global pandemic and what they're leaning into in their culture. We'll talk about why it is so important to appreciate where everyone on their team as well as their customers are at mentally, physically and emotionally.

And along those lines, we'll talk about how he is empathetic and provides reassurance in the face of such uncertainty in the significance of providing clear direction to your people so that you can continue to be purposeful and productive in the face of uncertainty. We'll talk about all sorts of great stuff and we'll also talk about how they are leaning into key components of their culture. And I love this trust through transparency, performance, excellence and kindness and fun. So I'm going to get out of the way and I'm going to let you listen and enjoy my conversation with Mark Heidersbach. Mark, it is great to have you here on the Athletics of business podcast. Thank you so much for taking time out of your crazy world right now to join us.

Oh, my pleasure, Ed.

It's, I've been looking forward to it. It's been great to reconnect with you.

It's funny. So, just for a little context here for the listener, Mark and I go back just a little bit. We go back a few years. I actually recruited Mark when he was a senior in high school, only to be shunned. So I was very grateful he accepted my. To be on the podcast. No, but Mark was a great high school player, a great leader. I remember you being a great teammate. An unbelievable program you played for. Went on to have a really good career at Northeastern. And were reconnected through Jason Bay. And Jason was our guest on episode 39, and then came on and did an encore interview on episode number 76, which is absolutely phenomenal if you haven't listened to it. I urge you to go back and listen to both of those episodes.

But, you know, thank you to Jason for reconnecting us. We've had some great conversations and looking forward to jumping into your world, you know, right now and what's going on and what led you here.

Yeah, it's been quite a ride here recently. But, yeah, Jason is a fantastic guy. He and I have been close for a number of years now.

He actually helped me get into this.

Industry, but currently I'm senior national sales director at Acadia Pharmaceuticals.

So I'm leading a national sales team of about 100 folks.

And, you know, this current environment has really been a leadership challenge. Kind of challenged the organization, challenged all of our team. But, you know, it's been important, I think, to kind of take approach, or.

The approach I've taken is one of empathy, you know, kind of appreciating where.

Everybody'S at, because as you and I were just talking, you know, kids are at home being homeschooled. You got folks who are having to deal with elderly parents and kind of look out for them a little bit more than they normally would. I mean, everything has been turned upside down.

So leading an outside sales team, as.

Of five weeks ago, we shut them down out of their safety and the health of everybody.

So they've been trying to work from.

Home, trying to drive sales and support customers virtually. So that's been a huge transition for them.

So being empathetic, not only to my.

Team, but to the customers that we're.

Serving, providing some reassurance has been important. You know, through all this uncertainty, you.

Know, people start to feel at risk.

You know, they're.

They kind of go into that safety mode, if you will. So it's important to.

For us to ramp up communication, continue.

To reinforce, you know, what we're doing.

You know, what's being impacted, what's not.

Being impacted how we're handling things, even if we don't have all the answers, just letting them know that there's things that are on the radar that are under consideration.

And then lastly, you know, it's been.

Much more critical to provide clear direction. And for myself and my team, it's.

About continuing to be purposeful and productive.

When all this went down, within the first few days, we pivoted really quick, and Acadia has done a fantastic job.

Of being nimble in this, to provide.

The team and provide us resources to.

Be able to continue to engage and.

Interact with our customers digitally and virtually. So we got everybody set up with Webex accounts. We got them access to zoom.

We've provided multiple trainings over the first couple of weeks of this to acclimate the team members, because, you know, most of them being outside salespeople, they're used.

To dealing with people face to face.

They like being in front of customers.

They like touch and feeling.

And now, all of a sudden, you know, they're.

They're sitting in their kids bedroom or in their basement, trying to find a quiet place where they can try to do some of this stuff.

So that's been a little bit of a journey for us, but. But again, it's been being focused on.

Clear direction, giving them some structure to.

Their day, giving them a little bit.

Of rope to kind of do it their way, but at the same time, reinforcing kind of expectations. Because at the end of the day.

You know, at Acadia, the people that.

We serve, we have a product for Parkinson's disease, psychosis.

We've talked about.

And what I've reminded everybody is, hey.

Hey, you know, folks with Parkinson's disease.

Their journey does not stop because there's a pandemic going on, right?

So they're still dealing with, you know.

Some of the non motor symptoms that our product helps alleviate, such as hallucinations and delusions. And quite frankly, in this time of social isolation and increased anxiety, some of those symptoms are probably being exacerbated, and.

At the same time, they're probably spending more time with their family and caregivers.

Who may be noticing some of these behaviors.

So it's a time that we can.

Continue to provide great value, and we've got to be there for our customers and ultimately for the patients.

So those are some of the things.

That we've been doing to try to navigate through this, and it's been an evolution. You know, I think every week, every two weeks, we're kind of reinventing ourselves as I mentioned, the first week or.

So was a transition, you know, canceling.

Travel, trying to cancel appointments or transition appointments to virtual, getting people trained up and comfortable.

And then as we moved into, you.

Know, the second and third week, it's okay.

Now what are we doing, right?

What's your approach? What's your virtual routing, if you will? How are you going to stay connected.

To the most important customers?

How are you going to continue to provide value? And some of our customers have guided us in that as well because they had to find their new normal. Now we're getting to the phase where I think everybody is adjusting in some form or fashion.

Physicians and physician offices have kind of.

Find their new normal and how they're interacting with patients, a lot of it, through telemedicine. So now we're kind of starting to.

Figure out kind of how do we.

Operate here over the coming weeks.

And then very soon, hopefully, we'll be.

At the point where, how do we get back to what we normally do? How do we start to ease back into, hopefully getting back out in front of customers? But we'll have to see how long that is till that time comes.

And it's interesting, you made a couple of unbelievable points here. And the one is you probably have an increased sense of urgency from your customers, right. And for your product and for your service and what you do. Yet we're in this time when everyone's trying to pause things or slow things down, but, you know, so here you are trying to reinvent yourself every two weeks. What are some of the keys? You know, we don't have all the answers, right? Like this is something that's completely uncharted waters. We're navigating our way through, trying to grow through this instead of just go through this. What are some of the keys to reinventing yourself or tweaking or making a pivot every two weeks?

Well, some of the key, like you.

Just said, and I love that phrase of growth through this instead of just get through this. And I think that's one of the philosophies we've taken, is that, hey, you know, as outside salespeople who are.

Now, you know, stuck inside, we're obviously.

Going to have a little bit more time. And that's been one of the focuses that we've encouraged is invest in yourself, do something to improve yourself, develop yourself. And I think that's been part of that, reinventing. Like I said, the vast majority of my sales team, they never conducted a webex prior to this. They never engaged particularly with a customer via webex in terms of just growing and having that growth mindset.

And I've talked to the team about.

You know, being comfortable, being uncomfortable. That's advice and coaching that I've gotten.

Throughout my life in terms of how.

Do you become successful? How do you be the best you can be? How do you get through obstacles and challenging times? You have to kind of embrace this idea of being comfortable, being uncomfortable. And I think, you know, we've encouraged that.

You know, we've talked about that as a team, but it's just, it's taken incrementally.

It's taken day by day, week by week, so that, like you said, we can reinvent ourselves.

So it's like, hey, dip that toe.

In the water, you know, schedule and have a meeting with a customer virtually for the first time. There's going to be some hiccups, and then the next week it's like, okay.

I can do this.

Who are the three, four, five customers that I absolutely need to connect with?

Because, you know, they need something from.

Me, they need something from us. It's also been, you know, growing through this. How do you hone your skills? You know, you're going to have a little bit more free time. How are you developing yourself?

You know, in our world?

You know, can you shore up some of your clinical acumen and clinical knowledge?

Are there resources or tools that we have that you can get more expertise on?

From a personal development standpoint, the timing kind of worked out for us. We were in the midst of creating goals and creating our performance management plan for 2020. So we invested time on that and had one one conversations between employee and manager to make sure there was full alignment and that we had plans.

In place and that were identifying.

Tangible things that we could be doing during this time. So, organizationally, Acadia's done a fantastic job offering development opportunities. Our people and performance department has been.

Providing, like, weekly webex trainings.

Our commercial excellence and training team has been providing trainings once a week.

So we've kind of created this roadmap, if you will, so that there's, as I said before, some structure and dedicated plan week in, week out, so that we do come out of this not.

Only surviving, but hopefully thriving on the.

Other end of it.

Yeah, it's interesting because I really, I believe firmly and sounds like you do, too. When we get to the other side of this, whenever that is, you know, whatever that looks like, we are going to be so much better for it. And I believe this is a time and I want to get into your.

Culture a little bit.

I believe this is a time where those who pay lip service to building a great culture, okay, they're going to be exposed.

Right.

But folks like you that do things the right way, you know, one of the things, I spend a lot of time with my clients, whether it's my coaching clients or when I'm speaking, is working on building a culture worth fighting. And I believe that people who are excelling and succeeding and growing now are the ones who already had that foundation built. Can you talk a little bit about how you folks, and you're growing, I mean, you are growing exponentially. Let's get into that, too. But how have you built and driven this wonderful culture you have there?

Well, it's been to your point. It's got to be more than words, right? You got to live the culture day.

In and day out. You know, that's one of the things.

That drove me to Acadia, quite frankly, is the culture that they have and.

Kind of their mission, you know, being.

Patient centric, respect, integrity and trust are at the foundation of what we do.

And how we do it. This never give up mentality, you know.

The ability and the expertise of getting.

Through and over obstacles. But we've really honed in on the commercial side of trust through transparency, performance.

Excellence, kindness and fun.

And I think through all this, you.

Know, the trust through transparency has been huge. That's where I think the communication has come in. The reassurance that I talked about before.

Communicating to your point that, hey, we.

Don't know what we're going to do. You know, again, in a sales world, your incentive comp plan is critical.

Right?

Salespeople, that's what they thrive off of. Obviously, there's been a lot of questions about that. We don't have all the answers today. We truly don't know what the true impact of all this is going to be on that. And we've communicated that. It's like, hey, we're observing this, we're monitoring it.

We're going to do the right thing, but be patient and let us have.

This play out a little bit before we make any final decisions.

So I think it's being vulnerable.

It's admitting you don't have all the answers. But it's instilling that trust and building.

Upon the trust that I think we've developed through our culture, performance, excellence.

It's staying focused on what our purpose.

Is and what we're trying to accomplish day in and day out.

Continuing to foster that environment of accountability. To me, that involves keeping people focused.

On what they can do and what.

They can control during this period of time versus what they can't. You go off the rails real quick. If all we do is talk about all the stuff that we can't do and why we can't do this, it's kind of getting people back on track of, let's focus on what we can.

Do and see what happens with that.

And then lastly, we've had some fun with this, obviously, as people have gotten more acclimated to the video conferencing and.

So forth, people's got their fun backgrounds on.

People are, you know, like myself are grown out the facial hair. I've never had a beard in my life.

I was gonna ask. I was getting to that. I've never. That's a good look. You almost got the hockey look as opposed to the basketball look, right?

Yeah, for sure. That's it.

I call it my COVID beard. So as soon as I'm off a home confinement, I think this thing's getting shaved up. But for the time being, we're trying to have some fun with it.

That is awesome. I got a buddy who grew a beard and bought a hundred pound punching bag. I'm like, I'm like, how much time you spend in the garage? You said not enough. But anyways, you used a word that is huge in my world that I think so critical, because I really believe in authenticity.

Right.

Not that authentic leadership. And I break down authentic leadership and honesty, integrity and vulnerability. And I think it's that third piece, that vulnerability and transparency that people have such a challenge with, because they often see vulnerability as being powerless as opposed to really powerful, which it is. Was there a time when it was not hard for you to be vulnerable, but when you really had to be intentional? Like, okay, I don't have all the answers. I'm going to, you know, communicate that to you, and I'm going to include you because I really believe when you make yourself vulnerable with your people and you give them the opportunity to be part of the solution and to, you know, have input, that emotional attachment is huge.

Can you talk about, give us some.

Advice in terms of the best ways to make yourself vulnerable if it's something you're not used to doing?

Yeah, no, it's a great question and.

Something I think that I picked up early on in my career as a leader. Create some great role models, quite frankly.

When I was at Baxter, several great leaders there who. That's how they left.

They were authentic, they were genuine.

And they weren't afraid to communicate when.

They didn't have the answer, they weren't.

Afraid to tell you that they didn't know. I also think that's something I've learned through sales. Right.

I mean, to me, some of the.

Best salespeople out there are ones that.

They'Re externally focused, right?

So they're communicating with their customers.

And if their customer has a question about something or an objection about something, they're not afraid to say, hey, I don't know. And then they go find the answer and they follow up, and that's how they show their value. So I think through multiple kind of avenues throughout my career, I think I've come to learn that's critically important.

The other thing, early on as a.

Leader, I got the advice of, you.

Know, you got to be yourself.

Don't try to be someone you're not, because teams are going to see through that. Individuals you're leading are going to see through that.

And I think that's something that I've.

Taken to heart over the course of my career. And I think as I look back.

Even when I've been on teams and throughout my college career, you know, that.

Was something that, as I think back.

About it, that's what some of your.

Best teammates and best coaches, that's how they acted, right?

So it's kind of, you know, pulling that all together and teasing out.

But you're right.

You know, there's been times in my.

Career, especially early on, where you maybe didn't have the confidence to be vulnerable. You didn't have the confidence to be.

As humble as you needed to be. And I think that's just getting comfortable with that.

That that's part of being authentic. And people expect that of everybody, particularly their leaders.

Right.

They don't expect something different, other leaders.

When it comes to that.

That's why I think this is such a great situation for us to leverage and take advantage of. And I mean that in a positive way because we've been pushed outside of our comfort zone for something that we have no control over. Like, everybody has a reason to be uncomfortable right now. It's okay. So it's also okay not to have all the answers. So it's a great opportunity for us to practice that vulnerability and to really develop deeper relationships, you know, with our folks. Now, with that being said, all this adversity, and you and I both know one of the great parts of being an athlete and being on great teams is how close you become when you go through adversity. I mean, you just go through so much crap together.

Right?

How has that worked out for you folks there at Acadia?

Yeah, I think it's galvanized, quite frankly. I mean, you hit it on the head.

It's, you know, anytime you have a.

Collective, shared experience such as this that.

You go through with others, you just.

You grow from it. Your relationship, your trust, your respect for.

One another, it just.

You get strengthened throughout it.

And I've been.

That's one of the things that I've been super impressed and proud of is, you know, the leadership team that I have, you know, my area sales directors.

And region sales managers and my colleagues in the organization, the way folks have kind of stepped up and handled themselves.

Just in terms of communication and being vulnerable and providing good direction, it's been impressive.

And again, it's made me proud to.

Kind of be teammates with these individuals during this period of time.

But those are things you can't replicate, right?

Going through something like this with someone, it's kind of, you know, being in.

That foxhole, if you will, with someone.

Playing that double overtime game with your teammate. You learn about people and you learn to rely on them and lean on them, and you just, you know, the confidence you have in one another just.

Just build.

And another great opportunity for those folks who might not be the most valuable, but for them to step up like you talked about and be invaluable. And I've got to imagine there's some people inside your organization right now that are making themselves indispensable to you because of the way they've operated. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Oh, absolutely. The first thing that comes to mind.

Is just our training team and our marketing team.

The individuals who have just collectively responded to this to get the sales, organization tools and resources and platforms that they need to continue to operate and continue to bring value to our customers. Some of the things that we've got.

Set up, we can provide our product.

Without patients ever going into the office.

We can provide samples to them through a virtual hub and a portal so.

That healthcare providers can assess patients virtually via telemedicine. They can prescribe our product, patients can get samples sent to them as well as then have the prescription filled, all without leaving their home.

So there's things like that have.

Already been inherently built into our model that we've been able to leverage.

And quite frankly, the last few weeks, we've enhanced some of those things in response to this. So, you know, those individuals in legal.

Regulatory, marketing, training, they've stepped up big time to enable my team to continue.

Doing, you know, what we need to do to move the ball forward now.

And that has to bring sales closer to marketing, closer to training. Like, everybody understands everybody's role. Like, we all understood it on paper, right. But the true value, and I believe, you know, your value as an individual is how much you embrace and execute on your role. Like, that's your real value to the organization. But there's also the factor, especially with the folks you work with, the connection and the social aspect of the day to day. How are you fulfilling that social aspect to help keep folks sane, so to speak?

Yeah, we've, you know, one of the.

Things we did early on is we implemented daily team check ins, right. Leveraging the virtual platforms. We have either Zoom, webex, some use FaceTime just to satisfy that, again, keep the teams connected, keep the communication high. We've evolved to that. You know, I'm a remote employee, right?

I'm based out of Chicago area. The company's headquartered in San Diego.

So I've always been remote. I usually call in. Right.

We've never leveraged the video aspect of things until now. And now every meeting that we have, every conference call I'm on, everybody's on.

Video, which, you know, adds a ton.

Of value to be able to see someone dies and see their nonverbal cues and expressions and so forth. So we've leveraged those things to keep the team connected. We also, again, worked out in our favor. We just recently launched this workplace platform. It's kind of a sharing and collaboration.

Tool, and the teams had a lot of fun with that. Both, you know, we've used it both.

From a communication standpoint of critical information, valuable information sharing, best practices, sharing people's.

Success during this time to kind of.

Give examples of like, hey, we can do this. This is how you can do this.

This is how you can operate.

As well as just having fun, you.

Know, they've created groups of Acadia pets.

And healthcare heroes where, you know, folks with families and friends who are in, you know, healthcare providers and just recognizing them and the work that they're doing.

So we've leveraged a bunch of different.

Platforms and mechanisms to try to keep the team connected and kind of scratch.

That social itch that we all have, especially salespeople.

Oh, it's a huge itch, right? I mean, that's phenomenal. So now let's just transition into what else you have going on, because you're growing through all of this. You're dealing with COVID-19 you're dealing with the elevated need for your product. You're also scaling at a pretty big rate. I mean, you're also building on your sales team at a pretty significant rate. So let's talk about how you are doing that, how you are able to move your focus from your team to building during this whole crisis and what your timeframe is, because you've obviously already shared that with me and I'm still blown away by it.

Yeah, it's actually, you know, again, another reason why I came to Kadia, because I saw an opportunity to build. I didn't think I'd be building during a pandemic, but we'll manage through that. But, yeah, we've got an exciting potential new indication for our product that we're anticipating we'll get approval for probably the end of 2020 or early part of 2021.

So we had established kind of launch.

Plans and expansion plans to support that.

That really went into effect late last year.

I just brought on four area sales.

Directors to kind of build out the sales leadership team.

They started at the end of January.

And then over the past couple months.

We'Ve been recruiting our region sales managers. We're bringing on 16 of those. And in the midst of doing that.

Recruiting is when the pandemic hit. And we had to pivot and do.

Some of those interviews remotely, virtually via Zoom. So we're still in the process of.

Kind of finalizing that.

We slowed down a bit, I wouldn't say we pressed pause, but we slowed down a bit on the timing of bringing them aboard just because there's some.

Uncertainty in our surrounding environment of just.

How things are going to operate, how is the FDA going to be operating during all this? But we still have plans to start.

Recruiting sales specialists mid year with the goal of having all these people come aboard sometime late Q three, beginning of.

Q four, so that we can get them onboarded, oriented, trained, and ready to.

Launch this new important indication as soon.

As we have the opportunity to.

So it's been a balancing act for sure.

You know, it was going to be anyways this year. And that was one of the key focuses, key priorities for myself as went in 2020. Is that a focus?

Right. Because, you know, my existing team today, the team we have at Acadia, has.

To stay focused on the here now. They got to live in the moment, continue to support the Parkinson's community with.

Our product, while at the same time.

You know, myself and the organization are.

Building and preparing to get into a.

New area of focus. Early part of next year. So a lot of things kind of going on simultaneously.

So focus and discipline, you know, some of those key attributes that, again, that's why I love, you know, the athletics.

Of business, because so many of these characteristics and. And these attributes that make great athletes, they're the same ones that make great business leaders, because you've got to have that discipline and that ability to focus.

To be able to execute these plans.

And I think that's revealed right now, right. Your character. I mean, many folks say character is built through adversity. I think it's revealed through adversity. So you bring these folks on and you're interviewing them to build your company, and there's something to be said. When you build a culture worth fighting for, you protect the culture, right? Like, you're not going to let someone come in, regardless of how talented they are, and disrupt the culture. And we both have teammates that have come in and done that before.

You know, whether it be in the.

Business world, the athletic world. But how has that changed the dynamics a little bit of the hiring process in terms of maybe questions you asked, and this is something that just popped in my head, maybe questions you ask or how you read. And, of course, now you're reading body language via Zoom, but of the different tells you have during interview process, is there anything that's been new or been introduced to the whole mindset of who you're bringing on as you go through this crisis?

Nothing new, but I think, you know, any experience like this, to your point, kind of shows people's true colors.

Right.

So even as we go through the interview process and then as that process has been impacted and we kind of.

Had to shift, it was interesting to.

See how different candidates responded to that.

Right.

Some were very uncomfortable doing Zoom interviews and very uncomfortable not having that opportunity.

To meet in person. And I think that's telling. Right.

Because joining an organization like Acadia in the environment that we work normally, you have to be nimble, you have to be flexible.

So, you know, there's silver linings out.

Of having to navigate through these types.

Of situations that I think, do you know, they showed individuals true colors. I think the other thing is to.

You know, use this as an opportunity to understand how each of the candidates, what are they doing personally and professionally.

During times like this? You know, how have they adjusted?

What's their philosophy, what's their approach? And again, I heard multiple different kind of answers on that I think we're telling.

Right.

It kind of shows the true fabric of.

Of how individuals respond to challenges and.

Respond to some adversity. So it's been kind of an opportunity.

To use this pandemic, use this situation.

To tease out some of those things.

As we look for individuals who would.

Be the right fit. And again, whenever you're building a team, it's got to be a mutual fit. And those are some of the key.

Things that I think are important that.

Individuals have as they join Acadia.

And I'm sitting here and I'm processing our conversation here and the one we had before we started recording talk about, because I think this is something so critical right now for people's success. And I think this is another one of those skills and behaviors we're going to develop when we get to the other side of this that's going to help us. You and I would call it off the court, but away from the office. Talk about your ability to not just lead, you know, your team, but also lead your family at home and be present with them and to find this balance or this mesh. Actually, there's really not a, it's not separate. It's that way normally now, right?

I mean, today's workforce, you know, they want to know that their value, they want to know their work's important and they want someone to coach them, but they also want there to be a blend of their work life and their personal life.

Okay. And quality.

So how are you able to do that? You're so level headed. You know, trust me, I've talked to plenty of people who are all keyed up about this whole situation, but how do you go about doing that?

Similar philosophies, you know, I think a lot of these, you know, leadership principles and just, you know, core characteristics apply in business, in personal life.

And I think with my family, it's been being empathetic.

Each individual in my family, my wife, my son, my daughter, they all have different things going on in their lives.

They've all had different things be impacted during all this.

My daughter is going to be graduating 8th grade, so a lot of those activities here as we get closer to the end of the school year are obviously being impacted.

So we've had to help her manage.

Through that and keep things in perspective throughout all this. So again, it's reassuring. It's being empathetic because I can only imagine being 14 again and kind of having some of this stuff that you've been looking forward to for the past.

Several years just kind of, you know.

Blow up in front of you, if you will. And then it's also been continuing to keep them productive and doing what they're supposed to be doing, not only for.

Today, but also as they look forward.

You know, to the future. You know, my daughter getting ready for high school next year with my son, he's a sophomore in high school. It's like, what are you doing today that's going to be preparing you for your junior and senior year or college?

You can't let this distract you from.

What your ultimate goals are. So how are you stretching your day? How are you using your time? Are you sitting in front of Xbox for hours upon hours? Are you on TikTok all day long?

Or are you doing things, at least.

At portions of the day that are a little bit more productive and are focused on the things that you're motivated for down the road? Again, I think a lot of similarities in how you approach both on court.

And off court, as you mentioned, and.

How as a leader, I've got to think this helps you get to know your people at an even higher level. You're very good at getting to know your people, but now you see them right in the throes of what's going on in the world. You see the challenges, not adverse, but the challenges they have at home, and you see how that impacts them and how they respond. And really it gives you a better sense of what makes them tick.

So now we get to the other.

Side of COVID-19 I've got to think that's going to help you even more, put them in position to be successful because, you know, you have a better idea of what's really, truly going on in their world. Absolutely.

Again, as we talked earlier, I mean, these types of shared experiences really help you get to know people. It galvanizes you. And I think to your point, you.

Kind of, you learn through this and understand what people's motivations are. You know, what they are dealing.

With, what are some of their challenges, what's most important to them.

You know, that's the other thing.

Through some of this, you kind of.

You see different individuals, personal lives and.

And how important, you know, certain aspects of that are and what their responsibilities.

Are outside of work and just gives.

You a better, holistic appreciation for what, who they are and what they do and what they're balancing in their lives.

You know, in order to achieve the goals that they have. So it absolutely brings people closer together. And I think it, again, this collective.

Shared experience helps us recognize what's important.

To us, and all that just will.

Help on the other side of this.

Be more close more productive and tighter knit with the relationships that you have.

How about your customers? What was the approach? Obviously, their world changed significantly. We touched on that a little bit. But what was your approach from the sales aspect of when this all started going down, reaching out to them and the fact that, hey, we're here for you, but how has that helped that relationship evolve?

Oh, it's been, you know, again, that was one of our first priorities. As I mentioned, within the first few days of this, after we shut our.

Team down, the main priority was to.

Reach out to customers to let them.

Know how we at Acadia were managing.

Through this and what actions we had taken and then to understand from them.

What were they doing, how was this impacting them, how are they going to be operating and to find common ground.

How can we help you? How can we continue to support you.

During this time as you navigate this?

So it was, I think, a more empathetic approach. It was an externally focused approach to just inform them what we're doing, understand.

How they're operating, and then hopefully find.

That common ground and meet them where they're at. And in talking to some folks on.

My team over the past several weeks.

That was critically important, because on the.

Surface, you would think that, like, our.

Customers worlds are in complete chaos and they don't have time for anything but trying to survive.

And I think what we found is.

By taking that approach, we learned very quickly that there was still opportunity for us to help out.

There were ways that we could provide value to help them through it, and.

It gave us a better understanding of what not only our customers, but our ultimate customers, patients and caregivers, were going.

Through and learning a little bit about how they pivoted to telemedicine, how they.

Were managing these patients, how were they communicating with patients and caregivers now? I think, again, it's taking that authentic, empathetic approach.

I think it shows your true colors. I think our customers have respected that.

And in many cases, it's been very satisfying to see. It has opened doors for us now as we work through this. And I think it will continue to.

Do so once we get on the other side of it.

For the last few years, we've been dealing with a really tight labor market, and all of a sudden, here we are now, and it's a whole different world. How does that impact the way you go about still building up, you know, your sales teams as you move forward? I mean, is it overwhelming or is it welcomed? You know, what's the situation with that?

Yeah, I wouldn't know. I don't think it's overwhelming. You know, I think it's just another element or aspect of the situation that we've got to keep in mind.

I mean, certainly as we go recruit.

And as we look to build out.

Our team over the coming months, you know, it could be opportunistic for us. And the fact that some other organizations.

Weren't able to survive through all this.

Right.

So there's additional talent that's available that, you know, would be valuable for Acadia.

And what our mission is.

At the same time, I think, you.

Know, as my team and I work.

Through this, it creates a greater appreciation and gratitude for the situation that we're in and for what Acadia is doing.

And how Acadia is operating, because we're able to navigate through this being very.

Judicious and very smart.

You know, I mean, the obvious thing.

Here is that everyone's being impacted by.

This to some degree, but to what.

Degree are we being impacted? And again, focusing on what you can.

Control, you know, being smart with our.

Spend, being smart with, you know, resources that we're investing in at this point.

In time, just being prudent. So I think it's. It's just been another element that kind.

Of digest and to factor into how we're going about doing what we're doing and how we stay on course on our mission.

That's awesome.

So, Mark, where can folks find out more about Acadia, whether it's the product, your mission, the way you do things, or, you know, for the job opportunities that you have here?

Coming up.

Yeah, the best place is probably our website, acadia Dash farm.com. It's got everything to know about Acadia, what our mission is, what our values.

Are, therapeutic areas that we're focused on, as well as, you know, career.

Opportunities as we move forward.

That's where you can find those. That's awesome.

All right, well, Mark, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a. It was an absolute blast.

How did you know?

Before we go, I have to ask you, how'd you do without March Madness? Was that, like, one of the most odd things ever?

Oh, it was bizarre because March is my Christmas, and I think I've trained my family, too, believe it or not, my wife and my kids, where I think my son and daughter might have been even more disappointed this year. My son was planning to do a big pool at his school that he's been. He's been known to run the past few years.

My daughter was planning to try to.

Take the page out of his book and do that this year. You know, at Notre Dame College prep.

We were planning, we had a great team.

We had our site that I'm going down to Peoria. The kids were looking forward to that to hopefully go down and get Notre Dame. It's first state championship.

So just all of March has been hard to swallow.

It's been hard to deal with.

But it's been very odd not being able to watch a tournament and follow all that.

So. So who is the college team that your son and daughter root for? You know, who are they following?

You know, they're.

They're kind of copycats. They've all jumped on the Gonzaga bandwagon. I've been a fan of Mark few and Gonzaga for about the past ten or 15 years. Yeah, I'm the guy who's online buying Gonzaga t shirts and Gonzaga gear because you can't find it here in the midwest.

And I'm the guy that stays up at 1030 at night even though you.

Got to travel the next morning so I can catch a Gonzaga game.

So you're younger than me. You can do that. I'm out. I. I'm. I'm asleep in my chair. By the time they're good, they throw the ball up for their game. That or I'm stuck listening to Bill Walton watching Oregon.

That's phenomenal.

So no Ramblers fans. We got to get some Loyola fans in that house.

Yeah, we do.

That's right. I've become a fan of coach Moser and he's had a great program and.

Believe it or not, we've not made.

I've been meaning to bring the family over there and see a game live at the genteel center. I've never been in that place yet.

It looks phenomenal and they've had some great teams.

So we're definitely fans, just not to the level of being a Zags fan.

Well, I'll tell you what, Gonzaga is a great team. A great team to choose. I'm glad you didn't say someone like Kansas or Kentucky or. You know how that goes.

I get it, Mark.

I appreciate it. I really do. I know how crazy your world is right now and you taking the time to share so much with us is. Means a lot.

It's been a pleasure, Ed, and keep up the fantastic work.

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