Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast, and thank you for joining me for this special solo episode, for this Thanksgiving week where I'm gonna talk about gratitude and why I think it's an absolute must for career advancement. I hope you guys like it. Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSL's and all things field medical. So happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Thank you again for joining me.
And let me just start by saying that this is a kind of impromptu, episode, which came out of kinda came out of necessity. My episode this week, got postponed unexpected. So I had 2 options. So I was either going to not have a Thanksgiving week episode, or I was just gonna do it myself. So here I am. And today's topic, as I mentioned, is on gratitude.
And the reason I think this is so important is because I just feel like there's such an opportunity for all of us to incorporate being gracious and showing gratitude in our daily and annual, interactions with each other, both internal and external stakeholders, that we're not taking advantage of. Let me let me actually start by, with a little bit of a disclaimer.
I think that it's important to mention that for, medical science liaisons out there, I think it's very important that you make sure you follow your SOPs and remain compliant at all times with your external customers, your key opinion leaders, and KMEs, and, you know, whatever we're calling it, within your organization.
Because some of the stuff that I'm gonna be talking about today, as it relates to email communication and gifts and things like that are not going to be possible for a medical science liaison. The information that I'm going to share is going to be important for your career and for how you interact with others. But it might not be appropriate for key opinion leaders. So let's jump into it, and and bear with me. I'm, I kinda put this together really quickly.
So, I wanna start by saying that the one thing I can tell you is that good things come from gratitude. A simple thank you, a simple message of your appreciation is going to elicit a response. It's gonna make you feel good, but it's gonna make somebody else feel really good. And I've always felt that the foundation of our careers is the relationships that we build. And that's why this is so important. And there are different ways that we can look at showing gratitude.
We can do it on a daily basis, and then we can look at it annually. We're going to actually take a look at both. But before I do that, I wanna start with some statistics because I thought this was really interesting. I did some research in a in a recent John Templeton Foundation survey of 2,000 Americans. People are less likely to feel or express gratitude at work than any place else.
However, almost all respondents reported that saying thank you to colleagues made them feel happier and more fulfilled. But on a given day, only 10% acted on that impulse. I thought that was really interesting. And then it goes on that 60% said that they either never express gratitude at work or do so perhaps once a year. So there's clearly an opportunity here for all of us to change this, and to stand out and help our careers by doing something that clearly everyone appreciates.
We ourselves feel better when we show gratitude, but it's not as common as you would think. It should be, but it's not. So, you know, it's interesting when I look at this topic and I break it out into sections daily versus annual, it seems so obvious. Every day, we're sending emails. I think, statistically, we're up to globally, I think we send 250,000,000,000 emails per day.
So there's a tremendous opportunity for each of us to use the right words, the right phrases, and the right close to our emails to try to connect with people better through gratitude. And I'm gonna give you an example. And here's more statistics, and I hate to keep jumping on the statistics. But if you want to drastically improve your email response rate, use words of gratitude. Here's the statistics. If you close your emails with the word thanks, you will get a 58% response rate.
This is the statistics that are very, very recent. Thank you has a 63% response rate, and the term thanks in advance had a 65.7% response rate. Now this just seems so simple. We can use we can use this technique, if if you call it that, or practice on a daily basis without really changing what we do. So instead of signing our emails sincerely or best regards, we just say thank you or thank you in advance depending on the situation in the scenario and how we might wanna use it.
So I think that that is really significant, and it's gonna get you a good positive result. The other thing too is I think we have to be very mindful of the language that we use in emails. I think that it's important to have a proper greeting. Obviously, we just talked about the close. But in between, I just think it makes sense that and, obviously, in in email with business, you know, we wanna be concise and direct, and we wanna provide the information that's provided.
But there's no reason why we can't say, hey. I really appreciate your time this week. If we started off like that. Or I appreciate you doing this. Use the word appreciate as much as you can. It's funny, but we in we have a kind of a joke in our office. There was a candidate that a couple of us, have interacted with pretty regularly over the course of, you know, many years. And he's a southern guy.
And and every time you talk to him, he says, I appreciate you, At least once, maybe twice, you know, maybe more. But every time you talk to this guy, he closes by saying, you know, I I appreciate you. I appreciate you. You know, think about those three words. I appreciate you. How hard is that? How hard is that to say every once in a while? Hey. I really appreciate you. Thank you. Very, very simple. Again, I I really think that it's important to be careful when you use these things.
This work kind of emotional intelligence comes in. You don't wanna overstep your bounds. You don't wanna, use this in the wrong place. But I think that by, just including these types of words and phrases and expressions. This these are expressions of gratitude. I think it could go a long way. So what's an what's another way to show gratitude on a daily basis? Well, we have we're constantly having meetings and interviews. I mean, interviews are it's a no brainer.
I can't tell you how frustrated we get when we try to, prepare people and prep people for interviews, and we always say, make sure you send a thank you note, within 24 hours via email to the people that you interviewed with. And if you need their email addresses, let us know. We'll get you the email addresses. Sometimes people forget to do it, or they just don't do it. And it's a real mistake because it's a missed opportunity. It costs nothing but time and effort, but it could go a long way.
It could be the difference between you getting the job and not getting the job, and I'm serious about that. And it's and here's how simple it is. Dear so and so, thank you so much for taking time to meet with me. I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with your team, and I'm very excited about the chance to work with you in the future. Yeah. Whatever. It's just a couple of sentences, maybe some bullets after that as to why you think you're a fit for the position.
But very, very brief, very concise, couple lines, couple bullets. Once again, thank you in advance. Looking forward to next steps. Whatever. Really, really simple. But the same thing should happen, after meetings. And we have so many meetings. There's Zoom meetings. There's face to face meetings. Hopefully, when the world starts turning again and COVID's over, we get out and see people. Just make it a practice to follow-up with people with a nice thank you for their time. Let's face it, folks.
Time is currency. If someone gives you their time, you should thank them for that. I don't mean overstep your bounds. I don't mean be obnoxious. I don't mean overdo it. But I think by a simple follow-up, whether it's via email or maybe it's on LinkedIn. Maybe you use an opportunity after a meeting to go on to LinkedIn, look up that person, send a connection invitation, and put a thank you note in that invitation. Dear so and so, thank you again for your time this week.
It was such a pleasure speaking with you. I really appreciate your advice. I appreciate whatever. I was hoping to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. Thank you again. Boom. So now really nice chance to follow-up. Really nice chance to maybe add more connections, you know, and it's visibility. You're staying in front of these these folks. So I think that's a really good practice to get into whether you have a face to face or a virtual meeting.
If you're not connected to them on LinkedIn, maybe that should be your next step as a thank you. If you are connected to them on LinkedIn, you send them an email and thank them for their time and maybe go over the information that you, you know, talked about in the meeting to whatever. I mean, your follow-up might you might all owe them information as a follow-up from the meeting. Or if you need to put together information, it might take you a couple of days.
Send the thank you in between saying, just wanna thank you. I am going to take this much time to do the, you know, whatever the proposal or, you know, the research or the information or whatever, references, whatever it might be, and I promise to get back to you as soon as possible. Whatever. I know that this sounds so obvious. I know there might be people kinda, like, rolling their eyes a little bit saying, Tom, this is so obvious. Here's a problem. It gets missed.
The problem is not everybody does this stuff. So I I I wanted to have a conversation with you guys specifically about this because it's Thanksgiving week, and I think it's really important. And I think it's a no brainer. And, hopefully, I can give you guys some ideas. But the other thing that I think is important is, when you're looking to show someone appreciation, you know, get a little creative.
You know, maybe it's and, again, be careful with the whole gift giving thing, but maybe it's appropriate to send somebody something. Maybe they took enough time out of their day, and they did something really nice for you, and you wanna show their appreciation. I could tell you that recently, within the past, like, month or 2, I've helped a few people with their resumes.
I've helped you people with job searches, and they were so appreciative that they actually sent me, someone sent me, like, a box of chocolates, which are really nice, by the way. Another guy sent me a handwritten note, which I thought was really nice. And I guys, honestly, I'm, I'm not saying that it's it's something that I expect. But when I see it, it really goes a long way.
You don't forget those people that take the extra step that, you know, maybe it's a $25 gift certificate to Starbucks or a $10 gift certificate to Starbucks, whatever it might be. Again, where appropriate and and I'm I'm I wanna make sure that I put the disclaimer back into this conversation because, when we're, you know, medical science liaisons dealing with key opinion leaders, This stuff will get you in a lot of trouble. You can't be giving gifts to KOLs. You really need to stay compliant.
But I'm talking about how do we interact with each other? How do we interact with coworkers, colleagues, people that are helping us, with our careers? It's not just about our external customers that we're trying to influence all the time and that we're trying to talk about here on this podcast. It's everybody else that's helping your career. I know we talk a lot about mentorship and networking.
Well, any MSLs that are out there that have mentors, coaches, colleagues that are helping them on a regular basis, how have you thanked them? Have you thanked them daily? Have you sent them anything during, you know, maybe Thanksgiving is here? Maybe is it, you know, is it makes sense to send them something and say, hey. Really appreciate everything you've done for me this year.
This is something where I feel like we have a real opportunity to not only help yourself feel better, feel good about, you know, what you're doing and and how you're building your career, but make other people feel good. And, again, like I said, I believe that your the foundation of your career is set on the on the relationships that you build. This these are relationship building opportunities. When you go the extra step, you go the extra mile, to show someone, that you appreciate them.
And I I I I feel like I have a like, I feel like I have a moment to to to throw in a a quote, but, like, I thinks I think excellence can be achieved in the mundane. I think it's the small things that we put together on a regular basis that e equal add up, I should say, and equal excellence down the road. There's a cumulative effect to this stuff.
So not to not to jump too far off, you know, we I mentioned that we were gonna talk about daily, you know, ways that we can show gratitude and and kinda more annual ways that we can show gratitude. And I kinda started to get into it a little bit. But every year during the holidays, we need to think about the people that have helped us throughout the year. I think we do that personally, but do we do it professionally?
Are we, you know, putting together a list of folks that were really appreciative of? And are we sending cards out to those folks? Are we sending a gift certificate? Are we sending flowers? Are we sending chocolates? Are we sending whatever? Every year, we take the holidays very serious with the Callen Group. We send missus Fields cookies to our, clients and and, you know, close colleagues and customers. You know, and it it's it's difficult. It's a lot of effort. It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of logistics. There's a a tremendous amount of effort that goes into it, just finding addresses and making sure that we're getting it to the right place. Do we send it to their home? Do we send it to work? Now with COVID, nobody's going into work. But it's the it's really the it's the the effort and the thought that people remember. And it's funny, but each year when we send out cards and we send out gifts and things like that, it's funny.
Some some people are tremendously appreciative, and some people don't thank us at all. We don't hear anything. Almost to the point where I wonder if they even got it. And I don't listen. I don't begrudge anybody. I'm not believe me. I I I hope that they got it. They appreciated it. They shared it with their families. But I, you know, I I remember those people that reach out.
Last year, I've a very, very good colleague and client and friend, sent me a video of her adorable twin daughters holding up this this tin of cookies that we sent saying thank you. You know, I remember I'll never forget that. I I mean, that simple gesture was a 5 second video that she sent me showed me that she and her family appreciate it. There's a gesture, and and it's a big one that resonated with me, and it made me feel really good that I'm making them feel good.
So on an annual basis, what are we doing? Are we making a list of people that we need to recognize and thank for their help with our careers? What about birthdays? You know, birthdays are a perfect opportunity to show someone how much you appreciate them. It's very simple. Just keep track of try to keep track of birthdays whether it's through LinkedIn or Facebook or maybe through conversation. There's apps that you could put on your phone as reminders.
You can put it in your Outlook calendar, and just send them a message. Every birthday, you send messages out to the people that you really care about in, you know, within your work life to say, hey. Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday on your special day. I hope you have a great day. Whatever it might be. I I think that people really do appreciate it. I know I just celebrated a birthday, and it's exciting. You go on Facebook and all these people are wishing happy birthday and and LinkedIn.
You know, it it makes a 53 year old feel like a 5 year old, to be honest. So, I I I can't I don't wanna overstate this stuff, and I don't wanna oversimplify it. And I don't wanna spend a lot of time talking about something that seems so obvious, but the reason I do is because I feel like we need to do this. This is something that needs to be implemented. It needs to be planned. It needs to be a part of our daily and annual ritual, in how we conduct business.
And, you know, honestly, guys, like, when I when I look at no brainers and opportunities of what we can do to help advance our career, this is one of them. This is absolutely one of them. Is it mandatory? I I know I said that in my my title gratitude, an absolute must for career advancement. I believe that. That's not just a clickbaity title that I put out there to get you guys to listen to this podcast. I really do believe it. I think it's a must.
And when when I'm bone gone and people look back at me and about my career, I hope that they say, yeah. You know what? Tom Carabella, great guy, hard worker, and I love the way he does business. I love the way he did business. That that's what it's all about. How are we doing business? And and what can we do that is going to leave an impact on others? That and and not just to benefit our career, because I know that that's what we're talking about.
But it's also how can we benefit someone else's career? You know? And and how do we and I know through appreciation. I I don't I don't know how much we're benefiting, but we are making people feel better. And if we're creating a work and a business atmosphere, of contentment and, you know, put a smile on somebody's face, it goes a long way. So I wanna leave you with leave you guys with a sincere show of gratitude, a sincere thank you.
I just posted today that, we reached a milestone of 25,000 unique downloads on this podcast, and I'm grateful. I appreciate every single one of you guys. I love doing this, and I I appreciate all the messages, and comments and LinkedIn, you know, notes that I get. And I wanna encourage you guys. You can always reach out to me. You know, send me a LinkedIn invite. I'll I'll definitely accept it. I'm I'm hoping that, you know, we can continue to the next 25,000 and beyond.
I'm gonna continue to do this, but I don't want this Thanksgiving time to go, without showing you my appreciation, my gratitude, and my thanks. You guys are the best. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. And I'm gonna leave it at that. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you so much for listening to the show. And if you enjoyed it, please subscribe so that you don't miss an episode in the future and feel free to leave a rating or a review or a comment. Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you soon.