We were lucky to catch up with Morgan Fordham recently and have shared our conversation below.
Morgan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.
When I was 16, I began my first job as a compounding technician working for Eric Holgate at Custom Prescription Shoppe in Augusta, GA. I fell in love with compounding and knew that I wanted to focus my career focusing on compounding pharmacy. I worked for him all during undergrad, during breaks in pharmacy school, and now we are business partners. His family let me live with them for a few years before moving me to pharmacy school in Savannah. Eric has taught me everything I know about compounding and I’m still learning from him every single day. I hope to one day be as knowledgeable as he is in our specialty, but I know I have some huge shoes to fill.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Custom Pharmacy is an exclusive compounding-only pharmacy. In addition, we are one of three locations in the CSRA (we are also a part of Custom Prescription Shoppe of Augusta and Custom Pharmacy of Evans). Our business model is to bring back customer service in pharmacy. We offer one-on-one consultations and customer service that extends past our business hours. Patients can call or text after hours if they have any questions or concerns. I will check voicemails and call back if I need to as well as respond to text messages. We never want a patient to feel as if they are alone in their treatment. Furthermore, we center our business model around the patient/physician/pharmacy care triad. We work closely with physicians and our relationship with them is just as important as our relationships with our patients. We also are not your typical pharmacy in more ways than being a compounding-only pharmacy. We use a functional medicine approach to treating our patients by providing the largest selection of nutraceuticals in the CSRA. We also want to support as many other local businesses and artists and provide CBD, jewelry, candles, jams/jellies and other items from local business/artists. In the near future, we plan on expanding our services and opening another location in the CSRA pharmacy at the end of 2023/beginning of 2024!
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
Without question! I haven’t thought of anything else I’d rather do other than being a pharmacist.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My journey to becoming a pharmacist and making it through school in general has illustrated resilience. Since a young age, there have been many people hoping I fail, including those who were supposed to be the ones helping look out for me. I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today without the help of so many other people during the biggest time of need in my life. At the end of the day, I can’t let how some people feel about me change how I feel about myself regardless of who they are. I’ve had to understand support doesn’t always come from familiar faces or family, but sometimes the people in my corner are the ones I’d least expect. I turn any negativity into fuel for me to keep pushing through and becoming a better version of myself on a daily basis while accepting my flaws. Carolyn Holgate (Eric’s Wife) has been my mother figure in my life and my saving grace. She has always taught me to let my hard times in my life build my faith instead of losing it. There are things that I didn’t and still don’t understand, but I needed in my life to take my life further than I could have ever imagined.
I try to follow my dad’s lead in many aspects of life. Even through all of his accomplishments, he stayed humble and has treated everyone as though they are a part of the family. He is the person that taught me to never quit chasing my dreams no matter who is against you. Still today, he is always reminding me to stay focused on my “why” and not those trying to bring me down. My dad fought one of the longest/hardest battles that anyone could face for over 15 years before it paid off. He continues to show me to never give up fighting for something you believe in, no matter what. His resilience and love are what keeps me going. I want to make him proud and show him that Fordham’s can get through anything. Because of his drive and heart, what I thought to only be my imagination to work beside him one day is becoming reality! I hope y’all keep following along to see what the future holds for the Fordham family and pharmacy & finally being able to work with both men I look up to the most (my dad and my business partner).
Contact Info:
- Website: www.custompharmacyna.com
- Instagram: Business: @custompharmacyna Personal: @mo_fordham
- Facebook: @custompharmacyna
- Other: TikTik: @theneighborlydrugdealer
Image Credits
Branding: Samantha Guillebeau IG: @Guillebeauphoto