We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Benish Lalani. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Benish below.

Alright, Benish thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I have taken in my career was leaving the bedside as a clinician, during the pandemic. In a time where I knew I had guaranteed job security was the same time that I decided to take a leap from a bedside nurse practitioner role to a role in the world of biotech. Prior to the start of the pandemic, I had been heavily searching for roles in the health tech industry that would allow me to apply my clinical knowledge in a more innovative way. I was having a hard time finding roles that were appropriately titled for what I was looking for or roles that expressed a need for a clinician with bedside experiences. At the start of the pandemic I eased off on my search for a career change as I knew my help in the clinical setting was much needed during this time. In the Fall of 2020, once things had more structure around hospital policies, staffing was sufficient and safety of healthcare workers was being prioritized, I began searching again for roles out in the health and bio tech space. I was given my first non-bedside, clinical manager offer at a biotech start up and the transition was going to be quick! I requested a little more than two weeks for notice so that I could be sure my patients and schedule could be transferred over to other colleagues in the practice. The new company’s main mission was helping both patients and providers in the oncology space. My prior experiences had all been in the oncology speciality and this was the perfect opportunity to continue learning, sharing my expertise in the world of oncology, all while striving to make improvements to healthcare in an innovative way. I took the leap and haven’t looked back since! Since joining the company I have now transitioned into a new department working closely with our clinical trial program and have been promoted to senior manager, managing one of our largest client portfolios!

Benish, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Benish Lalani and I am a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Oncology Certified Nurse. I worked at the bedside for over 7 years before I took a leap into the health tech world. When I moved away from bedside practice, a lot of past nursing colleagues began reaching out to learn more about what I was doing and how I found this new, remote, flexible, yet clinically relevant opportunity. This is how Bedside to Boardroom came about. I wanted to share my experiences and coach other clinicians that were looking for opportunities beyond the bedside into the corporate world. I wanted them to recognize that there were plenty of roles that were not only flexible and remote but also those that continued to help patients on a greater scale.

Now with my new healthcare career coaching platform I am able to work one on one with clients to revamp their resumes, recommend roles they may be a good fit for, provide mock interviews and even tips and resources on negotiating offers when it comes to transitioning from Bedside to Boardroom. Since I launched my official Bedside to Boardroom platform in 2021, I have worked with numerous clients by helping them find a role that is either remote or hybrid, that they truly enjoy and will continue to have opportunities for growth in! Clients have ranged from nursing students, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dietitians, clinical lab scientists, and even healthcare admins!

Bedside to Boardroom now also offers templates that are easy to purchase and download for those clients that may want to start this work on their own before they decide they are ready to work one on one with a career coach. Working with a career coach requires effort from the coach and the client as both need to be equally invested in taking all the steps necessary to find not just any role but a role that will be a good fit for them.

What sets Bedside to Boardroom apart from other coaching services is that since I have done the work myself, I understand the struggles of job searching, endless applications, recruiter follow ups, interviews and negotiations to know exactly what companies, which roles and what types of benefits and offers that are available to clinicians. I want to save my clients the months to years of endless searching and go directly to the opportunities that are a good fit for what they are looking for. Also at Bedside to Boardroom, my goal is to coach my clients through this process the right way the first time so that wherever their path may take them onward, they are equipped with everything they need to apply this process for all future opportunities!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Over the years, even prior to the creation of Bedside to Boardroom, I have always been passionate about helping people find careers they are truly happy in. Having also had the bedside experience for 7 years and going through two degrees, working in both inpatient and outpatient settings and still being able to take those skills and transition into a non traditional clinician role has given me a great deal of knowledge and insight on where the future of medicine is headed. By continuing to share that insight with friends, past colleagues and my clients I have been able to build up the reputation as a trustworthy career coach!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I believe word of mouth, hearing about experiences directly from former clients and sharing those testimonials on my platform has been very helpful in the success of my brand! It’s easy to get swamped on social media with thousands of accounts wanting to offer coaching services, some for thousands of dollars even, without really knowing what their credentials and experiences have been. When you have clients that begin referring you to their colleagues or wanting to write you a genuine testimonial so that others can feel confident in the services you provide, that is the best feeling!

I also have clients that reach out via social media, mainly Instagram or through my website, who feel like they can relate to my content and are comfortable reaching out for questions or inquires on how to become a B2B client. I am always happy to help answer one off questions and I do frequently post opportunities for my followers to “ask me anything” on my Bedside to Boardroom Instagram platform.

Contact Info:

• Website: bedsidetoboardroom.org
• Instagram: @bedsidetoboardroom
• Facebook: Bedside to Boardroom
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/benish-lalani

Image Credits
J.R. Negron