In this episode, I talk with Alison Shekman, Chief of Staff at PhaseWell Research and a member of the CXO Fellows Program. Alison shares her journey from consulting into operations and what it has meant to step into an early-stage, acquisition-driven business. She reflects on slowing down to go fast, listening to frontline experts, and creating systems for prioritization. Alison also discusses lessons from the Shore Resource Team and why embracing iteration over perfection has shaped her approach as a CXO.

Key Takeaways:

• Go slow to go fast by taking the time to understand what motivates people and plan for change so it can be implemented more effectively
• Listen first and spend time in the field with the people who know the work best to close knowledge gaps and build credibility
• Create a system for relentless prioritization to bring clarity to the noise and stay aligned with leadership on what matters most
• Call it version one, move forward, and keep iterating rather than waiting for perfection

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 02:57 - Go Slow to Go Fast
• 05:01 - Closing the Knowledge Gap
• 09:35 - The Value of Networks
• 13:03 - Prioritization and Integration
• 19:47 - Lessons for Young Leaders

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You’ll also find other Bigger. Stronger. Faster. episodes, alongside our Microcap Moments and Everyday Heroes series—highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore Capital University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:23

Welcome to Bigger.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:24

Stronger.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:24

Faster.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:25

the podcast exploring how Shore Capital Partners brings billion-dollar resources to the lower middle market space.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:31

In this episode, I talk with Alison Shekman, Chief of Staff at PhaseWell Research, and a member of the Shore Capital CXO Fellows Program.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:39

Alison talks about her decision to join the CXO Fellows and her goal of developing a deeper understanding of what it really means to operate and build a microcap business.

Anderson Williams: 00:00:48

She shares how she's translated her previous consulting experience to the new business and how a brief stent on the Shore Resource Team or SRT prior to joining PhaseWell had a huge impact on her, especially around some things she didn't even know she needed to know.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:02

Alison talks about the process she's created to help her organize and relentlessly prioritize all of the strategic and operational work that falls to a CXO and Chief of Staff.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:12

She talks about lessons learned through early partnerships and integrations, including what makes the difference between an okay integration and a really successful one.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:21

Finally, Alison offers some great advice for overcoming perfectionism and working from a mindset where you expect to iterate not to get everything exactly right the first time.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:31

Welcome, Alison, will you start by just giving us your name and tell us what you do and where you do it?

Alison Shekman: 00:01:35

My name is Alison Shekman.

Alison Shekman: 00:01:37

I'm the Chief of Staff at PhaseWell Research based at our headquarters here in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:43

And you got to PhaseWell in part by being a part of the CXO program.

Anderson Williams: 00:01:47

Will you just describe what that program is and why that was the right opportunity for you?

Alison Shekman: 00:01:52

So going into my MBA, I had the goal of transitioning from consultant to operator, and initially I was super focused on deciding whether I want to focus on recruiting to a big business where there's maybe a little more bureaucracy, more red tape, things move a little bit slower, but you get to see what good looks like, what success looks like at scale or did I wanna go to a super early stage company, pre-revenue, super scrappy and entrepreneurial.

Alison Shekman: 00:02:22

It wasn't really until a couple months into my MBA where I learned I can really get the best of both worlds through these things called CXO programs.

Alison Shekman: 00:02:30

And the light bulb kind of went off for me that I could get this experience in a program like the CXO program with Shore, that's entrepreneurial building across multiple functions and really get to see what a strong growing business looks like that's already had a lot of success, but is looking to take their growth to the next level.

Anderson Williams: 00:02:49

What's something you've already learned about what it means to be an operator that you just couldn't have learned sitting in that consultant seat?

Alison Shekman: 00:02:57

I think one of my biggest learnings has been go slow to go fast.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:02

Certain things, the reality is you need to go fast and the faster the better to get some things done.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:10

But others specifically, I think around large change management initiatives, especially in our early days where we're looking to integrate our first two acquisition partners into the Shore ecosystem and into the PhaseWell platform.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:24

There are certain things that it's better to go slow so that you can ultimately go faster in the end.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:30

And when I say go slow, I mean really understand what truly motivates people.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:35

Ask the right questions, plan for change in the right, slow, intentional way so that you can implement that change at an accelerated pace.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:45

I think as a CXO and former consultant typically type a pretty competitive personalities and we can tend to come in a little bit hot into these new roles, wanting to make an impact and create change and improvement very quickly.

Alison Shekman: 00:03:59

But I have actually found in my first six months that slowing down a little bit, asking questions, relying on others to gather information can really allow you to go faster.

Alison Shekman: 00:04:10

In the end.

Anderson Williams: 00:04:10

Yeah.

Anderson Williams: 00:04:10

It's interesting that, what have you learned as a type A Go, go, go, former consultant.

Anderson Williams: 00:04:15

What have you learned about yourself in this first, you know, really few months in the role?

Alison Shekman: 00:04:20

That's a hard question.

Alison Shekman: 00:04:23

What have I learned about myself?

Alison Shekman: 00:04:24

I think I have learned to be a better listener for sure.

Alison Shekman: 00:04:30

I think stepping into this role with not having much experience in the clinical research industry to close that industry knowledge gap, listening has been super, super important for me.

Alison Shekman: 00:04:41

I've also learned the importance of getting out into the field, sitting shoulder to shoulder with our team members who are carrying out research functions day to day and have been doing it for 20 years has been super eye-opening and helping me get smarter on the industry so that I can do my job better.

Anderson Williams: 00:05:01

Yeah.

Anderson Williams: 00:05:01

So let's back up a little bit and for anyone listening, will you just describe what PhaseWell does and where you are, just kind of generally in terms of the stage of the company for context?

Alison Shekman: 00:05:12

Yeah, absolutely.

Alison Shekman: 00:05:13

So PhaseWell is a clinical research site company that conducts phase one through four clinical trials on behalf of pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and contract research organizations or CROs who are trying to bring new drugs to the market.

Alison Shekman: 00:05:30

We are currently focused on select therapeutic areas, including oncology, central nervous system disorders, cardiometabolic disease, and dermatology.

Alison Shekman: 00:05:42

We are about seven months into our hold with Shore Capital, so it is very much early days working on integration activities for our first two businesses, while also balancing M&A and growth of ideally two to three more businesses this year.

Alison Shekman: 00:06:01

We've been really focused on laying the foundation and infrastructure for just good business practice hygiene.

Alison Shekman: 00:06:09

We completed our a hundred day plan with Shore, and then really quickly after that transitioned into additional integration activities around HR, IT, data, and really set our growth priorities for the remainder of the year.

Anderson Williams: 00:06:24

So when you think about your options for joining a company through the CXO program, what drew you to PhaseWell?

Anderson Williams: 00:06:33

As you mentioned, you didn't have necessarily a background in this space, but what was it that made this the right fit for you?

Alison Shekman: 00:06:39

So I'll actually maybe take a step back and talk about where I started my career 'cause I think that journey is what ultimately led me to selecting and joining PhaseWell.

Alison Shekman: 00:06:48

I, out of college started my career in healthcare management consulting, working with health systems to improve their financial outcomes, and no one in my family was a doctor or a nurse.

Alison Shekman: 00:07:01

I didn't necessarily have any personal experiences with the healthcare industry, and so I sort of stumbled into the business side of healthcare and into a pretty niche corner of the industry called Revenue Cycle Management.

Alison Shekman: 00:07:14

But it taught me a lot about process standardization, operations, and how healthcare is paid for today.

Alison Shekman: 00:07:22

And I, while it was super complex and super challenging, it's really what drove my passion for the business side of healthcare.

Alison Shekman: 00:07:31

And as I navigated my matching process through the Shore CXO program Phasewell was a completely different side of the healthcare industry in bringing new drugs into market and commercialization, and it was an area that I was super excited to learn about where I felt that I could bring a lot of learnings from my multi-site healthcare experience previously into this new clinical research business.

Anderson Williams: 00:07:56

And while you were looking for that right match and ultimately finding PhaseWell you did spend some time with the Shore Resource Team.

Anderson Williams: 00:08:03

Will you just describe what that looked like and some of the projects you worked on and maybe how that even informed or built some of your skills that you've taken into phase?

Anderson Williams: 00:08:12

Well.

Alison Shekman: 00:08:12

First, I'll say my time on the Shore Resource Team, or SRT a thousand percent made me a better CXO and better prepared me for the seat that I'm in today.

Alison Shekman: 00:08:22

They're just an incredibly talented group of high performers, and so I learned something new from them every day, whether it was how to run an effective a hundred day plan, setting up base business process hygiene as a newly integrated Shore backed business, or going deep on one of the incredible white papers that they do on 401k plans, all of the different rules and regulations around that features, how to set them up, different nuances to consider, how to engage your broker, various topics like that where you don't even know that you need to know those things before you get into the seat.

Alison Shekman: 00:08:58

That was a huge, huge benefit and I'm super grateful that I got to start my journey on the SRT.

Alison Shekman: 00:09:04

I also think the time that I spent there gave me a really great and much needed perspective on all the resources that Shore provides to their portfolio companies, and it allowed me to meet the right people who now can connect me to those resources now that I'm actually in the seat and need to utilize those resources that are available to me.

Alison Shekman: 00:09:27

So super grateful that I had the opportunity to start my CXO journey on the SRT, and it definitely made me a better CXO today.

Anderson Williams: 00:09:35

When you think about the CXO program and the cohort and the network of other CXOs and the programming that's focused on your professional development.

Anderson Williams: 00:09:44

Describe a little bit about what that looks like to you and how that has helped advance or speed up your launch with PhaseWell.

Alison Shekman: 00:09:52

I'll say two things I think that I really have taken away as huge value adds.

Alison Shekman: 00:09:58

The first, I think, is just our regular meetups that we have that really force us all to be in one room quarterly, as well as get on phone calls monthly.

Alison Shekman: 00:10:09

It really allows us all to take a pause and connect as a group and reflect and share learnings and experiences.

Alison Shekman: 00:10:17

And for me, I think in my role, pausing for reflection is something that I'm trying to get better at and unlock the value of that.

Alison Shekman: 00:10:26

So I think just those built in monthly, quarterly meetups that we have together coupled with the opportunity to reflect and connect, coupled with the incredible programming that Shore and the team bring to us are super, super valuable learning opportunities to immediately bring back to our portfolio companies and put those things into action right away.

Alison Shekman: 00:10:51

The second thing that I'll say that has been a super valuable from the program is that on a day-to-day basis, none of the challenges that we face as CXOs are super novel or super new, and the chances are that, you know, the problem that I'm facing today, someone else faced that problem one month ago or one year ago, and so they likely had solved it.

Alison Shekman: 00:11:14

And having that community to just problem solve with thought partner with, get their perspective on how they solve that particular challenge, whether it's.

Alison Shekman: 00:11:25

A vendor that they utilize that they can recommend, or a particular framework that they use that was helpful to communicate that idea to their board or to their leadership team.

Alison Shekman: 00:11:35

Like I said, having that community really allows you to solve challenges that might seem novel or sometimes insurmountable in the moment, but chances are you have another really smart person in your community that can help you through that challenge.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:49

I think that's one of the benefits of the pattern recognition across a portfolio that something Shore talks a lot about is this pattern recognition concept.

Anderson Williams: 00:11:58

Also think that really important to double down on something you said just about that idea of reflection.

Anderson Williams: 00:12:02

So I think when you're particularly in an early stage company, you've got so much to figure out and so much ambiguity and so many constant shifting priorities.

Anderson Williams: 00:12:11

It's easy to get swallowed by that and so even thinking about quarterly having a moment a day, a half day, whatever, is to step out, I think as just as a forcing function gives you the chance not to get swallowed, but to process and learn and share in a way that creates value by stepping out of that everyday hustle.

Anderson Williams: 00:12:29

I didn't have that one my, that's sort of my companies and I think like it's just so easy to get swallowed by all the things in an early stage.

Alison Shekman: 00:12:36

It's so true, and I think even just for my own personal prioritization and growth, it's super helpful to have that community and like you said, sort of that forcing mechanism to say, okay, let me take a step back.

Alison Shekman: 00:12:50

Let me reflect on really what my priorities have been, what they should be today and what they should be next month.

Alison Shekman: 00:12:58

Really taking that time to reflect and intentionally plan has been super valuable for me.

Anderson Williams: 00:13:03

Talk a little bit more about that, Alison, as you think about that prioritization, because if you haven't worked in this kind of environment, private equity backed, rapid growth, acquisition driven, and also in the early stage, how do you prioritize, how do you manage and what have you learned about managing those priorities in this first seven months or so?

Anderson Williams: 00:13:25

Because it's something that CXOs in these interviews often bring up and one of my favorite phrases was relentless prioritization.

Anderson Williams: 00:13:32

Talk to me a little bit about that process for you and your team with all of the options that are on the table.

Alison Shekman: 00:13:38

Yeah.

Alison Shekman: 00:13:38

I'll definitely say it's a challenge and it's still a learning process for me, but what I've learned is that creating a system for yourself can oftentimes be helpful and clarifying in just making sure that you're on the same page, not only with yourself, but with your executive leadership team on what your priorities are.

Alison Shekman: 00:13:59

CXOs oftentimes are wearing many, many different hats, and so to simplify that, I like to think of my priorities in two main buckets.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:09

It's my more traditional chief of staff type of priorities.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:13

That's the strategic communication across our entire leadership team, making sure that we're all aligned between Nashville and our sites.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:22

Ensuring that we're tracking towards the quarterly and yearly goals that we set for ourselves and really load balancing, I guess I'll say, across our executive leadership team and our leadership teams at our sites.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:35

The second bucket is really more my operational hat, I'll call it.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:40

So that would be partnering with our site leaders to grow their operations and even within that operations bucket, I tend to break it down even further into data process and execution and that's just what has worked for me.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:57

I think from a data perspective.

Alison Shekman: 00:14:59

I view a lot of my role is getting our site leaders, the data that they need to make data-driven decisions on a day-to-day basis, and help our leadership team understand where we need to focus and invest based upon what the data is telling us from a process perspective.

Alison Shekman: 00:15:17

My consulting background was all about process change and process improvement, and so that's something that I've been able to bring to our team and our acquired sites of where can a process be modified or standardized or removed if it's redundant?

Alison Shekman: 00:15:35

Lastly is execution.

Alison Shekman: 00:15:37

The businesses that we're working with are strong businesses.

Alison Shekman: 00:15:41

They have strong leaders even before partnering with Shore, and we're all betting on the fact that they will grow faster with us and with Shore than they would on their own.

Alison Shekman: 00:15:52

And so ultimately what that comes down to for us is strong execution of the growth initiatives that we've set for ourselves.

Alison Shekman: 00:16:01

Sometimes that means me being the overseer or quarterback of a particular project.

Alison Shekman: 00:16:08

Other times that might mean me being the doer and pushing the ball forward.

Alison Shekman: 00:16:13

Other times that means me just completely getting out of the way and letting the experts do what they do best and so I think from a prioritization perspective, what's really helpful for myself is to break my role down into buckets and make sure that when I'm meeting with my CEO on a weekly basis that he knows each week what I'm focused on.

Alison Shekman: 00:16:35

And things that are typically at the top of the list he knows that those are my priorities and things that are on the bottom of the list are, might move a little bit slower and, and may not get done this week or next week.

Anderson Williams: 00:16:46

Well, and I love both sides of what you just described as I hear it, is, one, it's organizing your work so in your own mind and your own thinking and your own prioritization, you can get clarity amidst what I'm sure at times is really, really noisy, right?

Anderson Williams: 00:17:01

So you can feel confident at what you're working on.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:03

But I think the other side, as you were describing, working with your CEO, it also enables you to communicate better and align better with your CEO.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:11

This is what I'm working on.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:12

Do you agree these are the things I should be working on.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:15

So even that structure and that process that you've created, it helps you, but it also helps you communicate and stay aligned.

Alison Shekman: 00:17:21

Absolutely.

Alison Shekman: 00:17:21

And I think it sounds super simple in practice, but in reality it is very hard and very valuable to take that time to put down on paper and verbally align on priorities.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:33

Yeah.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:34

It doesn't sound super simple at all, but it sounds really valuable.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:37

Well, you were describing earlier, PhaseWell is in the process of integrating the first two companies, first two acquisitions.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:45

When you think about your data, your process, and your execution.

Anderson Williams: 00:17:50

What have you learned about those in the context of integrating a business that's already a great business, that's already got a founder that's already doing well, or you wouldn't have partnered with them because it's a very different environment, right?

Anderson Williams: 00:18:01

When you're bringing in somebody else's team, somebody else's baby, somebody else's business, they have process, they have data, they have their execution patterns, and now you're trying to aggregate those into a well run platform.

Anderson Williams: 00:18:13

Any thoughts on the integration process that you've learned?

Alison Shekman: 00:18:16

A lot of lessons learned in integrating our first two businesses, and I'm sure my answer today is gonna look super different than probably three months from now.

Alison Shekman: 00:18:26

But I would say comes down to one communication and two planning.

Alison Shekman: 00:18:32

I think for me, integration is kind of this fancy business term that maybe is a little bit elusive to some of the listeners.

Alison Shekman: 00:18:39

And at the end of the day, integration is really setting a process people or technology standard, and implementing the change to that standard.

Alison Shekman: 00:18:50

And what I've found is that effective communication and how you talk about that process change or that technology change is ultimately what takes maybe a okay integration to a truly effective integration.

Alison Shekman: 00:19:05

Framing it through the lens of the audience is super, super important in trying to put yourself in the shoes of founder-sellers that we work with, the teams that we work with, who have been working with these businesses for 10, 20 years and are now going through this major change.

Alison Shekman: 00:19:25

It's really important to.

Alison Shekman: 00:19:27

Get them some early wins and communicate the things that you are doing from an integration perspective in that way 'cause ultimately that is what we're trying to do.

Alison Shekman: 00:19:36

We're trying to bring value to them.

Alison Shekman: 00:19:38

And so I think it's important not to lose that and what can oftentimes be hard, nitty gritty system or process change.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:47

So when you think about your time as a CXO, you're going on about a year including, or maybe a little over a year, including your time with SRT and now with PhaseWell.

Anderson Williams: 00:19:57

What advice would you offer someone who is considering a CXO role or perhaps has just started a CXO role about how to make the most of the experience?

Alison Shekman: 00:20:06

Spend time in the field.

Alison Shekman: 00:20:08

I touched on this a little bit earlier, but spend time in the field, get close to the industry, talk to people.

Alison Shekman: 00:20:17

Really humanize yourself, not only at your businesses, but industry conferences develop your network and community within the industry.

Alison Shekman: 00:20:26

As CXOs, oftentimes we're coming into these roles with no prior experience in the industry that we're entering, and so we're really starting from ground zero.

Alison Shekman: 00:20:37

I think the best way to learn the industry is to spend time in the field and get to know your people as they are the real experts of the industry.

Alison Shekman: 00:20:47

I think the second piece of advice that I would give to new CXOs or folks who are considering becoming a CXO is expect to iterate and embrace that.

Alison Shekman: 00:20:58

I think that's hard for a lot of us who are Type A perfectionist.

Anderson Williams: 00:21:03

That was gonna be my question.

Alison Shekman: 00:21:04

And wanna get it right from the beginning, and what I've learned is it's okay to call it version one and move on and iterate on that over time.

Alison Shekman: 00:21:13

Have that bias for action.

Alison Shekman: 00:21:15

Try something, put it in place, and then iterate and improve on it over time.

Anderson Williams: 00:21:20

Yeah, I that it's really important insight.

Anderson Williams: 00:21:23

You're in a CXO role because you've been really successful, you've done really well, and you're probably used to succeeding at most things that you do.

Anderson Williams: 00:21:31

There is some degree of failure that is innate in building a business.

Anderson Williams: 00:21:36

How do you deal with that?

Anderson Williams: 00:21:38

How do you shift your mindset from how maybe you came in as highly accomplished to this kind of humility it takes to do what you just described in iterating and moving on?

Alison Shekman: 00:21:48

Yeah, I think something that's worked for me is setting the long-term goal, putting that down on paper, and then defining what is version one and what is that first step towards the long-term goal.

Alison Shekman: 00:22:01

It just gives me some comfort that this isn't the end game.

Alison Shekman: 00:22:05

I think being open and transparent with my CEO, my executive leadership team, the leadership teams, and that we have at our sites that this is version one and being transparent that this is just the starting point and it will be a journey to improve this together over time has helped me gain some comfort with the version one concept.

Anderson Williams: 00:22:35

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure and check out our Bigger.

Anderson Williams: 00:22:38

Stronger.

Anderson Williams: 00:22:38

Faster.

Anderson Williams: 00:22:39

episodes specifically highlighting the CXO Fellows Program as well as other CXO Fellows profiles at www.shocp.university/podcast or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Anderson Williams: 00:22:51

This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners and recorded in the Andrew Malone podcast Studio with story and narration by Anderson Williams.

Anderson Williams: 00:22:58

Recording and editing by Austin Johnson.

Anderson Williams: 00:23:01

Editing by Reel Audiobooks.

Anderson Williams: 00:23:03

Sound design, mixing, and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Anderson Williams: 00:23:07

Special thanks to Alison Shekman.

Anderson Williams: 00:23:09

This podcast is the Property of Shore Capital Partners, LLC.

Anderson Williams: 00:23:12

None of the content herein is investment advice and offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation nor offer relating to any security.

Anderson Williams: 00:23:20

See the Terms of Use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.