Bilal Bham — Life Sciences Strategy, Human Perspective & Building Amodaia

Adam Walker:I am Adam Walker, a biometrics consultant, and this is the Pharma Prescribed Podcast where leaders, innovators, and hidden voices in healthcare open up, no sound bites, no spin, just raw insight, one prescription at a time. In an industry driven by data protocols and pressure, we rarely pause to ask the human questions.

What drives us, what breaks us, and what truths live behind the titles we wear?

Adam Walker:Bilal Baum is the founder and CEO of Amodaia, a senior led life science consultancy, supporting biotech, pharma and MedTech teams at critical decision points across reg affairs, medical affairs, market access, marketing, communications, and fundraising.

With nearly two decades in the life sciences, Bilal worked with leadership teams. Navigating the submission milestones, funding rounds, launch preparation, and access scrutiny. His systems thinking mindset is shaped by lived experience, including autism, family, mental health, and his own journey with Graves disease and thyroid eye disease.

Bill Al brings both strategic clarity and human perspective to conversations about science strategy and the real world impact of healthcare and innovation. Bilal, it's a delight to welcome you to Pharma Prescribed today. For those of our audience who aren't familiar with you, who are you and what is the mission you're on?

Bilal Bham:Thank you very much, Adam, for inviting me onto your podcast. It's a real honor. Thank you. My name's Bilal.

Bilal Bham:I have been in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years with a background in what started off as medical writing and then growing into business and a consultancy. To answer your question, what my mission is.

My mission is to help clients, biotechs, med techs, and farmers stay in business. And the way we work is cross-functionally, as you mentioned, the essentially the five pillars of my business, which are regulatory affairs, medical affairs, market access, marketing, communications, and investor relations. What I've found is over the last couple of years, four of our biotechs have sadly hit the wall, and for a couple of them, maybe all of them, there was a narrative drift between the different departments, and so that caused a fracture. Of the narrative, the scientific narrative from essentially from bench to almost bedside.

And some of these companies were very good in terms of their assets, had very good people, but there was just misalignment between people. And then eventually things fell apart and investors pulled out. And for me, I would like to help clients iex MedTech, bring their products to market.

To the hands and bodies of patients who need them. And some of these products were very good. And I hope that somebody with a clearer vision is able to pick up these assets with a bit of money as well, and then take them to the next level. So then at some point patients can benefit. So that's my aim, essentially, to help clients stay in business and bring the products to market to patients who need them by delivering what we deliver and ensuring there's a consistent narrative across the companies.

Adam Walker:Thank you for explaining that. What are the skills that you have that lend themselves to that expertise below? Because these are highly complex areas, and I wonder how that came about for you. How did you come into the industry and how did you get to this position where you were able to offer these services?

Bilal Bham:As I said, my background is in medical writing and then it went into leadership having employees. I came up with this idea that. I wanna help companies actually survive, not just, be a vendor and stick around for as long as they want us actually be a part of the company where we can help them and be useful.

In terms of being qualified, it's leadership and delegation, finding good people and working with them. I don't have all the answers, but my team does. And together we come up with the answers that our clients need. To help them get from where they are to where they need to be.

Whether it's fixing narrative drift within one department versus another. 'cause big pharma, they tend to work in silos and that's sometimes by design, which is a shame. So then when the company does lose money, people lose their jobs when it really should be the fixing of the structure and the fixing of the science, how it's communicated internally as well as externally versus lot of jobs for me, but my target is smaller biotechs and MedTech companies, and they're the people we want to help get to the next level. Ones that have got maybe one commercial product and suddenly you start getting more and more people into the company. And I know what it's like growing from one person to 15 and multiple vendors so it's having that oversight and understanding where the plates need to keep spinning. Who needs to be spoken to what kind of frameworks we're gonna work to, depending on which client, what their needs are and where the pressure points are.

Sometimes it might be in one department versus another, and that's where you have more of the specialists coming in and delivering what they need. So. I'm coordinating everything. Yes, I have a good overview and I've worked across all the different pillars. If you wanna call it that or silos, but my position, my job, and I believe my best impact is made when I'm working with people who are far more intelligent, far more accomplished and technical than I am, but we can work together symbiotically, to deliver what the clients need to keep them in business and prospering.

Adam Walker:I love the way that you've described that Bilal. And around that particular positioning, I'm wondering how do companies welcome you into their organization as an external, but effectively you're telling them that their baby's ugly. How do you overcome that challenge and that inertia to talk around that narrative drift and perhaps elaborate around that particular point?

Bilal Bham:It's not an easy discussion to have. Obviously we don't go in and tell 'em that their baby's ugly. We've got to understand what their issues are. Initially it'll be a conversation. It'll be a scoping call. Just an introductory call to understand who they are, what they do, and obviously they get to know us a little bit and then we ask 'em specific questions to understand where the pressure points are, where are the challenges, where's the friction?

Where do you have a disconnect. Is it because if it's, for example, a company that's in phase one, phase two, they'll have regulatory, they'll maybe start looking at medical affairs. They should have eyes on market access already because that is the, financial justification of a product existing.

Obviously slightly bigger companies, you have more of the departments and bifurcations as well and, medical affairs split into medical communications and then scientific communications, et cetera, but having that conversation is, a consultation. It's like going to the doctor. Doctors doesn't know what you've got, what's wrong with you until they've asked you what's wrong with you, what you're feeling, check your blood pressure, et cetera. Doing all the tests. And that's essentially what we do. We do our diagnostic we run the diagnostic and unpack from the clients.

Initially they're very reticent to share, but obviously we've got NDAs in place. However, there is a trust element and there is also a discomfort element because we're not just a delivery team. We don't just go in and write your manuscripts for you. We're not a delivery agency as it were.

We have been in the past, but that's not where I wanted to be. What I wanted to be was in the consulting space, which is where we can actually enact the biggest impact with our knowledge, with our experience. And dare I say it with our talent. When I say ours, theirs, 'cause I've got some fantastic, team members.

That's, for me the best way to do it. 'cause from a top down approach, working across the pillars, if you think of it as five, if you work across the pillars, then the science is correct. The science has to be correct. For long term, for potential investment or more investment from VCs or whoever, whether it's series B, C, series A, you d assume they've got everything in place, but series B and C definitely and further or indeed acquisition and pharma companies tend to come in and buy biotechs and the price will go down if there's a disconnect.

And it's also to increase the value of the biotechs as well. Having these conversations can be uncomfortable for them. But I think once they realize we're there to help, we're not there to make them feel inferior in any way because we are disconnected from the company. We are not faced with this on a daily basis in terms of, company and asset and also the internal politics of a company.

We're divorced from that. And that then allows us to be. Very methodical and very structured in our approach without saying we are critical. Obviously we've got to critique what is there. We're not critiquing people. We're critiquing the science narrative across the different companies.

And then From there on comes again the delivery work as well, where sometimes clients are like you provide us the diagnostic, which takes about two to three weeks, depending on how much data there is that we need to go through. Then they go can you fix the documents that we have as well?

It could be an NDA, it could be an HTA, it could be a publication plan with the publications involved, et cetera, that's where our medical rights come in. But again, that's all coordinated from top down, from the leadership across the different pillars. So then you get a holistic perspective in helping a company.

Obviously we're not hr, we don't get involved with how the business practices we're focused on the science.

Adam Walker:I understand that. So thank you for explaining that. So there is a questioning framework that you follow where you are able to effectively peel back the layers of what's going on within the organization.

Find out where those pressure points and pain points are. And identify them and take them forward.

Adam Walker:How do you overcome some of that reluctance to share? You've obviously got to build up trust very quickly, I would imagine.

Bilal Bham:Yes.

Adam Walker:How do you do that? What kind of skills are you using to do that?

Bilal Bham:Empathy. I think that's one of them. Our core principles. We've got six principles in our company which are well values. So trust, loyalty, and respect. You can't get anywhere without the three of them. And then integrity, honesty, dignity but if you have trust, loyalty and respect, for me, for those three, you can't have one without the other.

Trust, takes time. Integrity is how you oppose yourself for me, loyalty's a big thing. If we're loyal to each other, then there's gonna be trust, there's gonna be that integrity there. And then the rest comes into honesty, empathy, et cetera. That's where again, leading with empathy and it might sound a bit fluffy, but I try to lead with love.

Because we're talking to human beings here. Nobody's a robot. We use robots on a daily basis in terms of computers, but we are not robots. We are human, we have feelings, we have things going on in our lives that people don't know about, and I think leading with that kind of empathetic approach.

And just being calm and being measured and saying we're here to do a job, and our job is to help you. Whether it's to keep your job, 'cause sometimes companies are in a precarious moment and they need funding and they need some clarity. And that again, impacts jobs. I've been made redundant twice in the pharmaceutical industry, twice in nine months, in two different countries, and that was when I went freelance back in 2011 before my company grew, I know the feeling and at the moment it's a tough time in our industry and there's a lot of friends who have been made redundant and laid off for various reasons, whether it's cost cutting, whether it's company going outta business, whether it's restructure, whatever you wanna call it. For us, it's to help as much as we can because some people that have been let go of are very talented and in our opinion, very crucial to the business.

But then once you can't afford that. As a company, then it becomes a dangerous kind of race to the bottom for the company to see how long they can survive with less and less hands on deck until maybe investment arrives. Or there's another inflection point where, data's done and they're gonna get more funding or whatever.

So having that in mind and showing them, look, we're here to help you. We're gonna work with you. We're not working against you. But of course, as I said earlier, we can separate ourselves. From the day-to-day of the company and just go and do what we need to do for you and then work with you to help you get to a position where you've got internal clarity.

Adam Walker:Amazing that you mentioned how important those pillars around empathy, trust, loyalty are, and my overriding feeling when you were saying that was how similarly. We are in the fact that I've also experienced redundancy and that was the thing that lit my fire to become an independent consultant as well.

So we have that in common as well as those values that really sit at your core and at the core of your company.

Adam Walker:Taking a step further back, dare I ask how that came about, because in your introduction we talked about some of the things that you live with. We spoke earlier before this recording around having autism and also some of the challenges that brings to you.

I'd love it if you would elaborate around that, if you are comfortable to talk about that, please.

Bilal Bham:Happy to. Thank you. I guess we can go back to when I got made redundant. So I was working for a big pharma company in Germany. I spent in total five years in Germany and one year as a student between my second and third year.

And I went back to live there again 'cause I really loved the country. Working for the big pharma company. We obviously made a lot of money in the first course, and then I decided they wanted to get rid of our whole department where we were in Frankfurt. My dad had passed away. I'm an only child. So I saw the opportunity with tears in my eye, say goodbye to Germany. 'cause I did love it there, but family's important. So I came back and when I got made redundant from the biotech that came back for it was one in Manchester as a spinoff from the University of Manchester, my old university.

It was literally after about six months, had been there, not even six months. I joined in August 2010, and then February we got told we were in an administration period. As the lead make writer I saw the page three results, which didn't do well. So we knew what was gonna happen.

And in that time, I had two choices. Number one. Commute from Preston where I live, to potentially ville, where the jobs were on a daily basis, which is an hour and a half each way, which for me was unfeasible or number two, do something that I always wanted to do, which was set up on my own and make it work so I could keep an on my mother.

So family was a big reason why I did this. Comfort as well. Of course, working from home is easier, but it was that desire to be family oriented and base it around my mom. And I'm glad because there are things I can do for, I can't do something when I'm an hour and a half away, so that's where it came about a necessity as well as a desire to be my own boss and having ambitions and things I wanted from life that for me, a job wasn't gonna give me.

Adam Walker:You said so much there. And again, that really resonates with me because like you, I lost my father not so long ago, and. All of the decisions that I've made as well. Also commuting to Germany, funnily enough, and Denmark, funnily enough, have meant that my family has been able to live in our family home, very close to my parents as well, up until fairly recently when my dad also passed away.

So your story echoes my own, and I find that just absolutely extraordinary. Bilal because. I think with like-minded souls, we tend to gravitate to one another. And I don't know how I came across your profile, I dunno what it was, but when I saw what you were sharing, I thought I need to speak to this guy because he seems like one of the good guys.

And I do tend to gravitate towards people who share not just common values, but actually are putting out similar sorts of energy. I wanna say energy because I think it is energy, isn't it? From a place of loss, something phenomenal can come from that, whether it be redundancy or grief or life-changing decisions that are made for you about you, that you have to translate into something positive.

We obviously share that in common, and it's wonderful to hear your story So beyond. That personal experience that then translates into business and success, but leading with kindness, as you've mentioned.

Adam Walker:So with respect to Dyer, what's the plan and how do you take that forward?

Bilal Bham:So the plan is to obviously grow the business, but it's talking to people who we can really help.

And it's having that conversation. It's not an easy conversation, it was easier to say we're a medical writing company and we do this, and that was the previous iteration. The reason, so initially this was my plan back in 2015. This was my plan to go across cross-functionally, but then.

When the medical writing work started coming, you go where the money is, but for me, there's been a reset and the reset has been happening for a while now with ai, which has automated a lot of jobs. It's not gonna get rid of every job, but it's gonna certainly significantly reduce the number of jobs and opportunities and projects in our industry and some of the bigger companies already realizing that now the creative agencies are doing well because.

There's only so much AI can do when it comes to original creativity, which is fantastic. So good for them. We do a bit of creativity, of course, across the different pillars, but that's not how we're marketing ourselves. The way I want to, enact our value is cross-functionally as a senior led life science consultancy.

We want to be able to have conversations with the leadership of companies who make the decisions on the day-to-day of the business, and of course the scientific side of things. A scientific narrative, the clinical narrative. So that is where we come in, making sure that medicine connects across the different pillars, as it were, and being able to add value and longevity to the companies.

A lot of companies will go in as vendors to essentially extract. Everybody wants to get paid. We all need money to pay our bills. And for me, some have just been using that as a cash machine, which, fine, it's a business, model. For me, it's more about a partnership where we justify our existence by them existing, essentially the longer they last.

That means more effective We've been. Now if the drugs don't work, then that's a different story. And then, but the thing for me is a lot of the drugs, sometimes they may fail, but it can come down to powering of the study. It could be the fact that the drug has been put into the wrong therapeutic area.

You mentioned that I've got thyroid eye disease. One of the leading drugs, or a couple of the leading drugs one's on the market in the us, the rest are still under development. Most of them are monoclonal antibodies.

Different methods of action. But some of them were tested in different therapeutic areas where they either didn't work or. They found a different effect. So one was in oncology, one was in myasthenia gravis, another one was in something else. So repurposing drugs for different therapeutic indications and finding that as well.

That's, again, part of the narrative capture. And understanding the wider scope in science. And that's where we work hand in hand with the leadership to understand, if everything's going well, it's great and if the clinical trials are doing well, then it's just making sure that everything works across the different pillars.

I calling pillars, not silos because for me, it's a dangerous way to work. Working in, isolation. I've had that. Working in pharma, the only time you talk to people is at parties or at lunch. Never professionally. And it's something that I felt uncomfortable about because at the end of the day, if you're gonna run a clinical trial it's gonna start with one department, but then all the rest of it's gonna innovate itself through the rest of them.

Whether it's regulation, medical writing, whether it's pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamics, whether it's safety, whether it's data management stats. And then going into medical communications, market access, and then it goes into investor relations as well to say, look, this is what we produce.

This is our study. And if that narrative holds, then you've got something that's of value that is going to contribute to the longevity of both. Number one, a product. Number two, the company.

Adam Walker:Let's talk about those silos because. Having worked in this industry for a long time, like yourself, there are very distinct rules of engagement.

And I wonder what tools and what skills you have to get each of those different pillars that you describe or functions to have those levels of open communication. Because whilst they speak the same language, usually. They're really speaking quite a different scientific language and technical language, aren't they?

Bilal Bham:In essence? Yes. So the science is the same, it's tailored to a different audience. So regulatory agencies, medical affairs, wider science, market access payers. Medical affairs as well, patients as well. And then you've got marketing, which is again, healthcare professionals or patients, depending on where you're gonna be, if it's an OTC or a prescribed drug or whatever.

And then you've got the language of investors. Now you've got investors who are savvy, who understand the science and they've got PhDs in, our fields, or they're finance people who wanna know okay, what's the market? If I invest in you, what can I get my return? And when can I get it?

When's your next inflection point? So the science is the same. The message is formulated differently depending on the different pillar. And that's where the, magic comes in. It's maybe magic. It's just being formulaic about it, right? In this one, this is who we're speaking to, this one, this is who we're speaking to and so forth.

In answer to your question about how do we have those conversations? Obviously I'm there to facilitate, but it's the leaders within the pillars that do all of that. And we have obviously, conversations beforehand. We prepare ourselves to learn as much about the company as we possibly can from what they give us.

'cause there's only so much we can learn from, obviously what's out there on, websites, social media, publish papers and news. But what they've choose to give to us. And provide us to then interrogate and then have a fruitful discussion. We're not there to say, all right, this is wrong.

That's wrong. We're there to identify fractures and fix them.

Adam Walker:Thank you for elaborating on that. That's very helpful.

Adam Walker:With respect to your reference earlier to the implementation of AI tools and how that may affect all of our work. I wonder what you've seen in the most recent past and indeed what you're using yourself at the moment in order to smooth over some of those activities and make good.

Bilal Bham:It's a combination. We're developing our own ai which is not cheap. We also obviously use off the shelf as well, what's out there. So we'll use for simple communication stuff simple things that we don't necessarily need to bother our AI with. We'll use chat GP t or Claude, and then for kind of I guess quick and dirty scientific research, we can use site ai.

Then there's PubMed AI as well. And there's a few others. That is for us the quickest way. And then this perplexity, which is really good for guidelines and helping come up with, templates that we need quickly and then we obviously interrogate them 'cause it's easier having something given to you and editing it versus writing, from scratch.

So it gives you that jump and you save hours, days, weeks, even months. Then that allows us to deliver quicker for our clients and for ourselves as well. Internal trainings as well. So that is where we use it. It's a combination of proprietary as well as off the shelf, depending on what the need is. And obviously things we're not gonna point into the public domain.

Adam Walker:It's really interesting that you share that insight and I appreciate your openness around that because I think what I've seen also is working within big pharma most recently. They've all got their own. Flavors of an AI tool behind firewalls. And you also talked about developing your own ai.

What is it that you're trying to achieve that you couldn't otherwise do without those tools?

Bilal Bham:It's speed, it's cost. Costs can be prohibitive. If you want to grow a business, you either get investment or you self fund. Now I'm adverse to investment into my company 'cause I don't want anybody taking a piece of it right now.

Who knows what may happen in the future, but this is where I'm currently. But having that control of what is in our ether, I guess is very important. And also clients then feel comfortable 'cause everything's air gapped and firewall. And then. In terms of generate k, et cetera. It just gives you that speed.

It gives you that lack of need of extra staff. I'm not averse to hiring, it's just that if I don't need somebody, I'm not gonna waste money on it. It's a very cut and thrust business decision, which is, if we can do it for a fraction of the price, what, how much does chat PT cost \$20 a month versus hiring even a junior?

You're talking 20 plus grand a year.

Adam Walker:Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I heard it recently described as having the best possible PA to run ideas by, to bounce ideas back to you, that you can then validate yourself and effectively ask yourself the questions. It's an incredible tool when it's used well, and I think over the last year or two probably we're talking now.

The translation in its capabilities, whichever ones you're using, and you've made reference to a number there. It's incredibly powerful, isn't it? It's transforming the work that we're doing on a daily basis. You're a guy that I know has employed a lot of people in the past, and at the moment, most of the people that you're employing, I think are consultants.

Is that right?

Bilal Bham:It's a combination. Yes. So employees and consultants. We don't hire, medical writers anymore. We have got a massive network. So consultants are internal, but the medical writers, because it's a delivery thing.

Bilal Bham:And again, I just wanna stress, this is where agencies are and they're fantastic at what they do.

We sit above them in terms of the consulting side of things. Whether it's an agency or one of our external people gets the work to do the actual delivery, but we oversee that. So yes, it makes a big difference and it means that we don't have that fear at the end of every month thinking about salaries and how they're gonna get paid.

'cause it's an interesting thing when you got 50, 60 grand a month going out

Bilal Bham:To salary. I've been there and done it and I may get back there again at some point, but if I don't have to, I don't see why I need to, especially with ai.

Bilal Bham:I guess one of the goals for me personally is to grow to a point where we hit seven and eight figure revenue without too many staff.

See how far that takes us from a purely commercial perspective. Just wanna see if we can do it. There's a couple of people I know who want to be the first billionaires with one person. I'm like, good luck with that. But, I dunno if that's gonna be possible.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but good luck to them.

Bilal Bham:Do believe it takes a village, just like it takes a village to raise a kid. It takes a village to build a business. And anybody who says they're self-made is full of rubbish because you didn't get educated on your own. You don't have healthcare on your own.

You are not there on your own. Nobody's there on their own. You take away all the staff from all these billionaires. What have they got?

Adam Walker:It's an amazing point you make there and you are right. It does take a village to bring a life to, fruition on that.

Adam Walker:particular point, I was wondering, when you first came into this industry, were there people that were looking out for you, that were helping you along the way? Because I've certainly had mentors and mentee other people, and I. Get the impression that you might have had those same people that have looked out for you along the way as well?

Bilal Bham:Yes I've, always had the backing of my parents through the highs and lows. We all fail, we all learn, we all succeed. And we all go through peaks and troughs. We've all had that, every single, but nobody has an upward trajectory. In terms of, people looked out for me. I had some very good mentors in jobs who looked out for me and helped at my first job, which was a small CRO in Frankfurt. To be fair, essentially the last boss I had at the biotech company. I'm gonna give him a shout out. David Ham. Lovely guy, still call him Boss. And he's a Newcastle fan, so we're playing each other very soon. I'm a man Night fan, so that'd be interesting. That's to tomorrow night.

Hope you win. And for me, even though we'd only worked, together for a couple months, five, six months. He was very good. And afterwards we worked together as well, and we still talk to each other.

Bilal Bham:But then what I found is people outside of our industry as well, and I went out and found mentors myself. So there are people who are local business people. I've got a distant uncle who lives in the same city as me, Preston, he's a multimillionaire. And we catch up once in a while, maybe every couple of months, and.

I've learned a lot from him 'cause he's seen that I'm hungry. He is got his own kids and his own life but he sees that I'm hungry for wanting to achieve what I wanna achieve. There's another guy who I met through networking at the local university here, which is now the University of Lancashire.

And he's been very helpful towards me. And give me lots of advice he does that at university anyway, his name's Ross Haga, and he's very much about giving back to the committee. He made his money and then he's a full time honorary fellow at the university giving his services for free.

But he's the head of entrepreneurship, he's there for me if I need help. And we'll text each other or have catch up calls. Every few months. 'cause he's a very busy guy and he is not young anymore. There's others as well.

Bilal Bham:I've got friends who I bounce ideas from you need somebody to vent to as well, friends, family, whatever. And I've got friends in the industry as well as outside of the industry. And you need that. You can't just be on your own and worst thing you can do is vent to your staff.

That's not what you wanna do. It can happen. We're all human. It does happen. And then that weakens your position. So from a leadership perspective, keep dumb and talk to your friends. That makes a big difference about how you're then taken internally.

Adam Walker:I think that's really good advice. And similar to you, you find those people along the way, don't you?

Adam Walker:There comes a point at which you identify who those key people are, and it's not that you wanna speak to them every day or every week. It's like you say, it might be once every couple of months, but when it is, it's gold dust, isn't it?

And that's both ways, by the way, because as I've said many times on this podcast, as. People who receive mentorship and have all the way through our careers, it's also nice to give something back. So similar to you, when people reach out to me on LinkedIn or via my alumni, I will always give them the time that I think they deserve because people did that for me early on in my career and they have no idea how impactful that was.

But they are paying forward. We're all paying forward, aren't we? In goodness and in kindness. I think that's really helpful, Bilal, and I do appreciate you bringing that to the conversation. I'm wondering are there any aspects that we haven't covered that perhaps we should have done there?

Any questions I should have asked you today?

Bilal Bham:I don't think there's a should, but I think in terms of, I guess going back to mentorship, I have a lot of mentors I'm never gonna meet 'cause they're dead. For example, I read their books or listen to their books. I've got a growing library of books over there that catching dust.

But I tend to listen to things. I'm a much better listener when it comes to books because I read a lot for work anyway, so at the end of the day, or at the start of the day, I really don't wanna be reading 10 pages of a book. So I just listen to things and let them percolate. And then when there are things that I want to interrogate further.

I go and open up that chapter or the page in the book where I've made a mental note, or even on my phone if I'm listen. 'cause I tend to listen in the gym. I tend to listen to books. I do listen to books unless I want silence, in which case I'll put earplugs in. But I'll listen to a book to educate myself.

'cause it's not dead time, it's active time, but it's a good time to, for me to focus. And if I'm out for a walk, sometimes I'll enjoy the sounds of nature. Sometimes I'll have, again, a book playing in my ear or ears. So I think that's really important. Self-education. And a lot of people finish education okay.

At our level university and then stop learning. But I'm like, you never actually stop learning because you're constantly learning on a daily basis on the job. But then there are other things you can equip yourself with depending on what your goals, desires are for your career, for your business or whatever.

And I think some of these books that you can pick up the pennies versus consultants and consultants have their place. They're very important. I have one. She's amazing. She's our fractional sales consultant sales director, and she's great. And she's helped a lot with strategy, but having that kind of understanding where you grow yourself as a person, raise your leadership lid sharpen your mind to different opportunities and ideas, learning about different things that it takes to become successful, whether it's managing your personal health, whether it's, understanding what strategy is, understanding and how to deal with people. Understanding how to grow yourself, understanding how to work in a team, how to have a functioning team is one thing working together, but it's another team actually having a functioning, cohesive team. And sometimes difficult decisions have to be made.

And how you approach those, sometimes it has to be very fast, like ripping off a plaster. Sometimes it's gotta be softly. So learning all those skills.

Bilal Bham:And I think the biggest one, again, going back to empathy, just being a nice person, for me, it doesn't cost anything to be nice.

And as various people have said, it is nice to be important, but it's important to be nice. And I think if you carry that in, if somebody else is not nice to you, then clearly something is going kind of already in their life. That's not a reflection of on you. It's a reflection on them.

Bilal Bham:And that's something is going back to the autism I am autistic ASD one what used to be called Asperger's.

A lot of that, I've had to learn a lot of it. I feel there are certain things I just don't pick up. Like certain cues I will not pick up. And I always wondered why I wasn't picking things up that other people were. Like, for example, if I'm watching a film, I might have to ask a friend or whoever I'm with, I'm like, I didn't get that.

Can you explain that to me? 'Cause it'll just be over my head. I'm a bit like drags from the Gardens of the Galaxy where metaphors sometimes go over my head. Not always, but sometimes they do. And now and again, I have to catch it as he does. And it's taking it from that perspective where I've had to learn a lot of things by doing and by modeling, by watching other people who are better at it.

Like going out, networking, meeting people. It took a while to feel comfortable in that environment like doing it, but it was always me in the middle, speaking very loudly. Now I can be on the periphery, still get to know people 'cause I've learned.

Adam Walker:Thank you for being so honest around that. And I think it's really helpful, not just for our audience, but more broadly for people to understand that we can live with these conditions.

I say we, you are living with autism and your skills are remarkable. Had you not told me when we first spoke, I probably wouldn't have picked up on it. I have several friends and colleagues who similar to you, are very openly leading with their diagnosis because actually in a work setting, as I've said many times before in this podcast, I see it as a superpower.

The people that I work alongside who tell me that they're autistic, I genuinely see skills in them that I don't have myself. That focus and that attention. And I can't even sometimes describe it, but it's just an absolute laser sharp focus to getting something done to its conclusion. And in addition to that, the nuances you said around metaphors, don't think that really matters.

Also I like to drop in a metaphor and my wife will correct me, she'll probably correct me on this one as well. But, she's the editor in chief. She listens back to all of these and edits them and often says, I use too many metaphors, but actually in common parlance, what I find is some of my closest and dearest friends who are autistic are using metaphors a lot so that.

Bilal Bham:oh yeah. It's called masking, isn't it?

Adam Walker:Yeah,

Bilal Bham:exactly. I was born in 1981, so whenever somebody's gonna listen to this, they realize how old I am or how old I'm currently, if I'm still alive. But I was diagnosed in 2018 four years after I've been told by a couple of people that maybe I should get assessed.

And it took nine months for the assessment to come. And even then I was initially fobbed off by the GP and it took me to lose my temper a little bit. At the second go, I say, right look. Take me seriously here. I don't have to be. 'cause I think their idea was I think in their heads what you saw with Rainman and other people, I'm like, that's an extreme version of it.

But we're all tinged, not all, but some of us are tinged with more, some of us with less of the communication challenges. I've had to learn again you, thank you very much for the compliment. But I've had to learn how to be around people by mud.

I'm an only child, so that was a handicap already being around people and it took a long time going to university even then, that was tough. 'cause as much as I enjoyed it, there was things that I still remember saying and doing. I'm like, shouldn't have done that. It wasn't rude or anything, it was just saying.

The right thing at the wrong time. If that makes sense.

Adam Walker:Yeah.

Bilal Bham:And you're like okay, why did I do that? And then I had an answer 2018. It wasn't just, oh, it's all because of this. It's okay. That's one of the reasons why, the reason why it is always been awkward for me being around people or whatever, but then some people gravitate towards me and they love me.

Some people, I'm not their cup of tea and that's fine. Nobody's for everyone. And dealing with that throughout life. You learn to mask yourself and try to be neurotypical like everybody else. You try to fit in. So then you use the metaphors and try and use social cues and what have you.

That makes you look normal. But then if you spend enough time with me, you soon realize, wow, okay. He's a bit different. Because I have a methodology about every single thing that I do, and I've brought that into work as well. 'cause if I don't understand things in terms of systems, structures and processes, then it falls apart and I need that. Routine with what I'm, doing to make sense of it, to get holistically, and that's where the five pillars came from. I need to understand it holistically.

Adam Walker:It makes perfect sense. Connecting back to what you were originally saying because your skills and your focus around finding and identifying those things, scientific methodology effectively we're talking about is in your DNA, isn't it?

It's absolutely at your core and you are living and breathing it. Both personally and professionally, and I think that's what you've described really in the methods that you've applied to your work and to your business.

Bilal Bham:I dunno if I'm a natural scientist, but I can get into the technical things.

Bilal Bham:You mentioned, the focus, the laser focus. I've got a DHD as well, so it takes a bit of time, but once I'm locked in, that's it. The whole day can go by the whole week. Even the month can go by until what I'm trying to accomplish gets accomplished and that's it. And that can be exhausting because people like us, we finish when we're done, not when we're tired.

That is both, a blessing and a chore because it's that desire to get it done, whatever it may be, whether it's work related, personal, whatever. I've gotta get it done. I can't just leave it. Other people are like I'll call it at night. And I'm like, i'll go to sleep when I'm knackered and I can't do anymore.

Then I'll come up and start again. And then I've done that. Now I can put it work and think and I'll drop it. Whatever I'm doing, it's done. It's forgotten. But it's that desire to finish and that's where the laser focus comes in.

Adam Walker:Yeah. I cannot thank you enough for your transparency around that and your openness and honesty, because the skills that you are applying to that communication are crystal clear.

The fact that we're having this conversation today on a podcast, you're putting yourself out there. You're being honest. You're being open, and you're sharing this vulnerability with people that wouldn't otherwise know. And I think that is really testament to a confidence that you've developed around the skillset.

But I think combined with that, it's. Finding a way forward that works for you, that's successful for you. It's your blueprint, no one else's. It's what's, working for you and has worked for you and will work for you in the future. Absolutely applaud you for that. Al,

Bilal Bham:thank you.

Thank you. It's not easy. It is exhausting. 'cause you know when you get obsessed with something, I guess you can call it obsessive behavior, but that's how we are, many of us, and I know people like me. Who are neurodiverse and near Spice as we call ourselves. And we will just do what we need to do until we're done.

And then that's it. And then you move on, and then you don't even think about it anymore. And then you go why did that happen? And you can't, there are some things your brain just cannot explain. Maybe you need a psychologist to explain that and be more expansive about it. But I don't read too much into it.

I just go, okay, that's just me. That's how my brain works. And a lot of other people are like that.

Adam Walker:As I've got older, I've realized I have certain traits that I wasn't even aware were a thing. And whilst I have no diagnosis around Neurodivergence I see traits in myself that are not that dissimilar.

And they work for me and I'm fine with that. And as I've got older, I think I've become more fine with just being entrenched in certain behaviors and things that work.

Bilal Bham:They've gotta work for you. It's like, for me it's routines. I like having routines. So one of the books I read many years ago and I followed it having, I. Bookending your days. I know how my day's gonna start. I know how my day's gonna end. I've got obviously things I'm gonna do during the day, but whatever happens, I know this is how I start my day.

I'm gonna have my lunch around about this time, dinner at this time. And then this is gonna be my evening where I settle in and then before I go to bed and whatever. So I have my routines and that helps a lot as well to regulate myself if I'm working longer and at the moment I am working longer 'cause there's a lot to do, but. I know what's gonna come when it's bedtime. It's okay. I have my routine. So that makes a big difference as well. I think having that structure that I follow, it's a routine. You can call it a regime, you can call it whatever you want, but having that has a calming impact on me, because I know what to expect.

Monday through Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I tend to have a line till maybe nine, maybe. 'cause during the week I'm up at five 'cause I'm in the gym at six. Your eyes. But that's just how I work. I need the gym to function. And at the weekends I, still get my steps in at the weekends.

But I do enjoy a bit of a line, maybe sleep eight to 10 hours if I can. Usually about eight, and then have the rest of my day, depending on what I'm gonna do. Saturdays are usually off. I don't tend to do any work, spend time with my mom, whatever I need to do. And Sundays, maybe a bit of work getting prepped for the week ahead.

So just again, routine.

Adam Walker:The word that comes to mind is discipline. You have discipline and it runs through your veins.

Adam Walker:At this point in the conversation below, I like to conclude with a quick fire round. So I'm wondering what is the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Bilal Bham:The one piece of advice I would give to my younger self would be before I went to university actually, or even college, choose what you enjoy. As I said, I'm not a natural scientist, but I enjoy science, so maybe I could have done something different and maybe I could have ended up in the same position, just in a slightly different way.

I dunno. So go out and explore beyond just the one thing. Look at other things as well.

Adam Walker:What are the top three qualities you value most when building a team?

Bilal Bham:Trust, loyalty, respect.

Adam Walker:Straight off the bat, what is your favorite thing outside of work?

Bilal Bham:I have a couple, so as I said, I gym, but my biggest passion is dance.

So I dance salsa. Bcha is, I dance at weekends. I've not been going too much recently, but I do. I will get back out there again. But I love to dance. That's when I feel free. I love dancing, partner dancing, it's great. Or dancing on my own as well.

Adam Walker:That's awesome. And finally, what is your number one golden rule in life and in business?

Bilal Bham:Always be nice to people.

Adam Walker:I think that's a lovely way to conclude the conversation. Bilal, and we have touched on many different aspects of. Personal professional life, and you've been entirely transparent and open and honest in this conversation. It's been really enlightening and uplifting to have this conversation with you, Bilal, because not only have I learned a lot about you, I hope that our audience will echo my thoughts in the fact that, you are really a very unique individual leading.

This industry doing something very special. So thank you for taking the time and being so generous with your time today and coming on Pharma Prescribed Podcast.

Bilal Bham:Thank you very much for your kind words, Adam. It's been an absolute pleasure and I appreciate you giving me the time and the platform to speak with you and it was good to learn a bit more about you as well.

And I look forward to continuing our conversation off podcast as well.

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