Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast. My guest today is Steve Saint Anj, and he is senior director of business development at Paratek. And we discuss his transition from medical affairs to m and a business development, how he got there. Awesome story. Really good information. I think you guys are gonna love this. Don't forget to follow me on LinkedIn. Check us out on YouTube.
All our videos go up on YouTube, and also visit us and join in on the discussion for our MSL talk live, which is the 1st Tuesday of every month at 1:30 PM EST. Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSLs and all things field medical. Hey, Steve. Welcome to the podcast, my friend. Thanks for joining me. Tom, it's been awesome, putting this together, and I'm looking really forward to it.
And I thank you for the opportunity to to come and, have my voice heard to your entire audience today. Yeah, man. I am excited. We've been trying to do this for a while, so this is great that we're finally getting together. I think it's an awesome idea, guys. Steve came up with this idea. I know Steve for a while, and we were kicking this this idea around. I think it's it's a great one. I think it's somewhat unique. We haven't done this before. So I know you guys are gonna enjoy it.
So like normal before we get into it, Steve, why don't you do a quick intro, tell everybody who you are, where you're from, all that good stuff. Yeah. So Steve St. Amge. I am the senior director of, business development and corporate communications at Paratek Pharmaceuticals. I'm a I'm a New York kid. Grew up in upstate New York, spent the first part of my career there. Moved to Florida in 2015, was there for about 4 years, and, now I live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
So it's been a fun journey seeing the East Coast and, you know my career progression has brought me along nicely as well as I've gone through that journey of moving up and down the East Coast. Yeah awesome. Well we're gonna get into that in a second. I knew you have a disclaimer we had to get that out of the way. Let's do all let's get all the legal mumbo jumbo out of the way.
Yeah. So the, you know, the many views that I will express today, are purely my own and not a representation of, of my employer or any other, arrangements that I have in place. Yeah, man. Well, let's, let's talk about your background. And if you wanna tell everybody, you know, go back and talk about how you got into industry. I think people love to to to hear that.
And then I wanna hear about your career transitions, because I think it's unique and I think it's something that people are gonna wanna know about. Yeah. So so good question. You know, my background, I was in clinical practice in academia for about 7 years and I have to give credit to actually one of my closest friends who consistently motivated me that, like, you you have the knowledge, you have the background, you have, you know, the tools to be really successful in industry.
And, so I thought about that for a long time while I was still in clinical practice, but my mindset was I wanted the transition to be as smooth as possible Tom and I wanted you know my skills to translate to that first opportunity because I knew there you know there would be some complexity and some issue needing clinical practice and you know, I knew I was betting on myself.
So I looked around for a while and finally found the right opportunity, and it was one where I was gonna be supporting a portfolio of products that I was actually really familiar with from my days in clinical practice. I knew the reps from the company that, you know, called on me in the hospital. I knew the MSLs that called on me. So naturally, that was a a really, you know, if there is an easy transition from clinical practice to industry, I had that experience.
And so I'll I'll be forever grateful for the folks at The Medicines Company that, that took that shot on that, you know, rather raw kid that had been in clinical practice in academia and brought him in for a baptism into medical affairs. My, you know, my first two roles in medical affairs, I will, you know, were what I would consider traditional MSL roles.
And so then, you know, after about those two and a half years or so, I was fortunate to be hired as the the first medical affairs person at at Paratek where I am currently. And, so, you know, for me, that changed the, trajectory of my career a lot, I believe. Coming into a company that was still in its pre commercial state, being at the ground level for the build out of the medical affairs team, and being involved in all of those those very early activities.
And over the course of those first two or two and a half years at Parentech, I had the opportunity to do a lot of non traditional MSL work. So, you know, I've been in a pre commercial state, you know, a lot of companies do offer that to their to their MSLs. I started getting involved with our clinical development and regulatory teams, working on life cycle management as well as our rare disease program which we have brought forward.
So that included doing really unique things to medical affairs like helping draft FDA briefing packages, going to FDA type c meetings, and really, you know, the output of that was I started to form a lot of really strong personal and working relationships across the organization Because I was I was touching, you know, many of the different functions and come you know, working side by side with with different SMEs outside of, you know, the medical affairs, our our typical lanes.
And how did that work? I know a lot of people that are listening that are that are currently MSLs and or or in a capacity where they're looking to do more than just traditional. You said nontraditional MSL stuff. Like, how did how did that happen? Was it because of the relationships? Did you raise your hand? Was it right place, right time? Just curious.
I think it's a combination of all those, but I think, it it was expressing my willingness to be more involved and, you know, being able to offer, you know, maybe tools or viewpoint that others in that working team, you know, just didn't have that same expertise or background. So really being able to to offer some type of incremental value to that team while at the same time expressing, you know, hey, this rare disease program is is very interesting to me.
I'm willing to commit 200% to my day job, but I'll tell you that the other whatever I can give, I would love the opportunity to be part of that. And so that's what I did. So was it a little it was it a lot of extra homework for me? Was it a lot of long hours? Yeah. But it was for me, it was worth the return because I got to see something, you know, totally naive to me and, you know, really unique to the to the MSL role. Well, it's a great story.
That's why we talk about how important it is to come out of your comfort zone. And if you truly wanna do other things and great things and and advance your career, it's gonna mean raising your hand first and foremost. And second, you're you're gonna have to be uncomfortable a little bit. You have to learn. You have to put in extra hours.
Yeah. So then that that transition, you know, after about those two and a half years of being in the field, being a part of the the rare disease program, you know, that tradition looked I mean, transition looked like, what was next for me? And I'll have to tell you, you know, I, at times, thought the grass was greener. And, you know, to take a lie from my grandpa, when you think the grass is greener on the other side, you should probably water your own.
And, so, you know, I started having some conversations within the organization about, you know, what the future may bring for me. And, you know, whether that was at Paratek or whether that was somewhere else. Yep. And, you know, I think I quickly came to the realization that there was more opportunity for me within the company, and, you know, I was fortunate to be approached by 2 members of the executive leadership team about leading the business development function.
We had had a senior vice president depart the organization, you know, in early 2020, and, you know, they approached me about taking honest responsibility. And for me, it was a little bit I would say, you know, easy. But as you mentioned, right, we have to get uncomfortable to grow personally, professionally, and, you know, I made a lot of phone calls.
Made a lot of phone calls to folks that I know that have done this in the past, that did industry fellowships focused on this and said, hey, you know, give me the puts and takes here, give me the the upsides, give me the risks. And those conversations all encourage me to this take this, you know.
Folks said this could be an opportunity of your lifetime and an opportunity that very few folks get in their career to, you know, step outside a comfort zone within an environment and a company that you know very well. Yeah. And, you know, you'll have the support there with those relationships you've already developed to be successful. Yeah. Whereas going to a totally naive working environment, imagine stepping into a new role that you're totally foreign to.
Yeah. Well, what's interesting is, so you are you're in medical affairs. You're doing your thing. You start doing some nontraditional stuff. Your people are taking notice. You're raising your hand. You're looking to do more. And then you had people come to you about this idea of going into business development. That's right. Yeah. And and so now you're like, wow. Okay. I got a decision to make.
So this is somewhat another nontraditional move, and I think a lot of people listening are gonna be interested in this to say, okay. Because people always ask me, Tom, what what's after medical affairs? What's life like after medical affairs? Do I need to be an MSL for the rest of my life? What are the next steps? So this is something that is certainly an option. But why don't you tell us, what do you do in business development?
What what does that look like as far as, what's involved in those job responsibilities in that function? Yeah. So it's, it's wearing a lot of hats, especially at a small company like Paratek. So, you know, my remit to the organization is to bolster and build upon our commercial portfolio. We have 2 distinct sales forces. We have 1 in the hospital and 1 in primary care. So find additional products that we can can place into that bag, and then also, you know, build out a a pipeline.
So that, you know, that is a lot of responsibility in itself. And then in addition to that, we're looking to outlicense our franchise product to other regions around the world. Currently, we we have a a partnership for our franchise product in China. We're actively looking to, you know, bring the product to other regions around the globe as well.
So it's out licensing that technology to folks that we think could be successful from a development and a commercial perspective in in other areas around the globe. So, you know, a lot a lot goes into those two things. I mean, it is really, you know, unique of the in licensing, bringing other products to the portfolio.
It could be acquiring other companies that we think, are very synergistic with not only our development expertise, but our commercial expertise and our current commercial field force structure. And then, you know, at at Paratek, business development also incorporates elements of corporate development as well. And so, you know, I often get the question, well, what's the difference between business development and corporate development? Right.
You know, corporate development is really all of those internal activities and processes that drive value for the organization. So it could be an organizational expansion, it could be an organizational restructuring, It could be, a refinancing. It could be, raising additional capital for commercial expansion or development projects. So, you know, those are some of the other activities that I get involved with on the corporate development side.
And typically, the smaller companies, the business development and corporate development blend together pretty closely. Yeah. Yeah. I was actually gonna ask you that because I was curious myself. But as you're as you're talking, where did where does this department so your so business development usually sits within m and a. Does that sit what what department does that in? Is that a commercial department?
Yeah. So so I report to the president and chief commercial officer, but I'll tell you, Tom, it's a little bit different in every organization. So at some organizations, the m and a b d function will actually flow through the finance department. So those individuals will report up to the CFO just because there is so much impact in these things that we're looking at on, you know, the p and l for the company and the go forward operating plan.
You know, others, it it reports directly into, into the commercial department. And sometimes there there's a branch of BD that comes out of the executive leadership team. So it really depends on where you are. But the one thing I will say is that in these roles, despite who you report to or where you sit in the organization, you're gonna have touch points across every function.
You're gonna be working closely with those SMEs and their teams because when you're evaluating an asset to bring in either license it, co promote it, or acquire it, there's a a number of risk factors across all the functions. So I think, you know, for me when I first stepped into this role, that was one thing that it took me a bit of time to appreciate, right?
Medical affairs, we're out there, we're, you know, talking to clinicians, we're promoting the science, we're talking about investigator initiated research collaborative efforts, all the things that go on behind the scenes to bring the product to patients, make sure it's available to providers, I always took for granted.
So, you know, there's whole aspects of the organization, whether it's CMC, technical operations, you know, things that are really fundamental and foundational to the success of the organization, making sure that that product can get there Mhmm. That I never had an appreciation for, but now I do, because there are so many things that can go wrong within those functions that would devastate an organization in how they operate.
So when we're thinking about, again, you know, acquiring and licensing or co promoting assets, we have to look at it across the entire span. It's not just, does the science make sense and do we think there's commercial potential here? There's so many other factors to look at. Yeah. And I imagine it's great exposure being in that role. You're exposed to so much within the organization. I would think from a career standpoint, you're positioning yourself for additional and future growth.
Yeah. You know, I think I sometimes laugh, you know, I tell folks, well, I know enough about now about all aspects of the company to be dangerous. But it really is true. You know, I I have a appreciation for what our manufacturing and tech ops team does and what, you know, their struggles and the hurdles that they have to get through on a daily basis and, you know, how that impacts the overall operation of a company.
And in my exposure to those, you have given me an appreciation for just how hard it is to run a publicly traded company. Mhmm. Even, you know, a relatively small one like Paratek where we only have 300 employees. Yep. And so having that exposure, there's just so many moving parts, and this is a really difficult business. I'm sure. I'm sure it is. And, you know, and and that leads to my next question. This all sounds great. Right? But I'm sure there's a lot of challenges along the way.
So talk to us about the difficulties and challenges that you faced as you made this transition, and and I'm sure you're probably going through some challenges now. Yes. So I think in the early days the thing that was most difficult for me to conquer and you know I would say in those first 6 months is you know I went from really understanding what good looks like in medical affairs right and and knowing my day to day to suddenly I was leading a function for the organization.
And, you know, I was responsible for keeping people on track across the multitude of of projects, you know, coordinating those efforts. And then not only coordinating those, but providing regular updates or presentations on the output to our executive leadership team or board of directors. That was a lot it was a, you know, a lot for me at first. And, you know, you're swimming with a big fish at that point, and I hadn't done that, you know, on a regular basis in my career to that point.
So, you know, there's a certain level of expectation and a certain level of performance that, you know, it takes a bit of time to appreciate. But, you know, with time, obviously, though, those all overcome. I think, you know, my biggest challenge now is, you know, I joke with folks that I'm still friends with the medical affairs is, you know, when I was an MSL, I could probably keep track of my to do's on, you know, 4 or 5 post it notes.
I mean, now, I mean, over in the corner of my office here, there there's a large in there's a large dry erase board, and it's a disaster. But, you know, that's that's the life you live and, business development, corporate development is not for the faint of heart. Mhmm. There's a lot, it's a roller coaster of emotions. You think you're really close on something and all of a sudden the the bottom drops out, but you you have to, you know, think Yep.
The motivation, at least for me and most individuals that are in type of role is that we feel like we can be transformational in terms of the direction of the company Sure. As well as, you know, providing innovative therapies to patients that are in need. So that's what keeps us, you know, keeps us up and going every day. But it's the transition has not brought the challenge.
And I think early on, it was important for me to identify you know, I always had advocates in the organization, but identifying those true advocates in my new role and those that could if I was drowning that I knew I could count on to go to the right folks and say, hey. How can we get Steve the resources that he needs to be successful given all that we have going on? Right. Yeah. No. It's a dynamic role. That's for sure.
And and I I being on this side of the equation as a recruiter, I do have I do know a bit about, that role that you're playing. And it it does it should only really be pursued by people that are ready to jump into that side of the equation and that type of thing. It's very customer facing. It's very dynamic. It's a lot of ups and downs. You have to be entrepreneurial. You have to have a really thick skin. So there's a whole skill set, which we I'm sure we'll get into.
But that that comes with that type of job. But before we get into more into that, I wanna get back to the medical affairs piece because I don't wanna lose sight of your background in medical affairs and in your experience because you have a a a great medical affairs background, vast experience. What do you what are your thoughts when you hear I just heard this term recently that there's a glass ceiling in medical affairs. Is that something how do you how do you respond to that?
Literally just heard this. I was like, and and, you know, I thought that was something I'd like to talk to you about and see what your thoughts were. It's interesting. So, Tom, my my heart tells me no, but I think my mind and my experience would tell me, yes. There is some to some extent, a glass ceiling in medical affairs. So I think if you if you think about it from a top down approach, right, look at the construct of executive leadership team at at most publicly traded companies.
Mhmm. There may be 1 or 2 individuals that have a scientific background of the 7, 8, or 10 individuals that comprise the executive leadership team. And so I I think I think of of a large organization that may have 30 or 40 MSLs. So you you know, you're competing amongst one of those 30 or 40 MSLs for all of those promotions all the way up to what may be a single executive leadership team function that encapsulates medical affairs.
Whereas I think if you have the opportunity to broaden your experience and your expertise at some point throughout your career by stepping out of that traditional role and becoming uncomfortable, you can go to any of the other aspects or functions within the organization. It could be finance, it could be business development, it could be commercial, marketing, technical operations, you name it.
I think it just by stepping in and getting that experience outside of the regular medical affairs channels, it offers up a lot of opportunities to to ascend the ladder in a different way within the organization. So, in my mind when I think about, you know, how do you lift that glass ceiling? I think it's by being diverse and having a skill set that, you know, can encompass multiple functions.
You know, the most successful business development, corporate development people that that I know and, you know, that are within my network still have a really strong scientific acumen. Mhmm. They have a clinical background. They have some type of scientific background. Because the number of, you know, individuals at a very high level that can understand, that can blend the scientific acumen with the business acumen, with the financial acumen, that overall n is pretty small.
Mhmm. And so if you can if you can bring all those skill sets to the table, it's not gonna only serve you well in business development or corporate development, but it's also gonna serve you well at the executive leadership or c suite level.
Well and I think just to kind of unpack what you're saying a little bit when we get back to that glass ceiling, you know, I think really a lot depends on the person where they're at in their career, what organization or organizations they may have been affiliated with, and what they aspire to be. Some people don't ever wanna leave medical affairs. They feel like, hey, I have this scientific background. I know medical. I love medical.
And I don't wanna make that transition to quote, unquote, the dark side, let's just say. But then there's other there's people that have other aspirations. So I'll give you an example. Sarah Snyder, who's on my team and is a recruiter on my team. She was an MSL for 20 years, decided she wanted to do something different. And and she's been tremendously successful. She's been with me for years. She's decided to make the transition. You are a great example of somebody that said, hey.
I I want to expand my capabilities, my career outside of medical affairs, jumped over into this m and a role. You're on the commercial side thriving. You have a great career. There's so much going on. You and I have spoken about, you know, how great of a move it was. So I think it's it becomes a matter of what do you want for yourself? Where do you see yourself? And what do you what do you ultimately wanna do next?
And I know a lot of people have difficult time answering that question because I ask that question every day. So I think that's what you have to decide first, and then that'll determine where you might wanna go. And then realize there's never ever ever a glass ceiling on your career if you're willing to step outside your comfort zone. Do you agree with that? Totally agree. And I, you know, I use this term on a a podcast that I did recently when I I got a similar question.
It was early in my career that I viewed myself as a business mind trapped in a scientist body. Mhmm. And so for a number of years I thought, you know, how can I how can I escape that? And so, you know, to your point, yes, you know, my my goal was to try to step outside of this and, you know, even throughout all my stops in medical affairs with all the companies that I've been in, I know that I've never been the smartest scientific person in the room, and that was okay with me.
I didn't I didn't take issue with that because I was more focused on, you know, building other skills that that I thought could one day lead me to, you know, to to come out outside of my, you know, normal medical affairs role. And I think, you know, when I I didn't mention this at the beginning of the the talk, but when I first transitioned to industry, I went back to business school simultaneously.
And, you know, went back and got my MBA and a lot of at the time, a lot of folks asked me, what the heck are you doing this for? And, you know, my response was, right now, I don't really know, but I think it will be time that it is well invested and will open more doors for me than it will close at some point in my career. And, Tom, I was just lucky that those doors opened sooner for me rather than later. Well, it's great that you had that, you know, something had to have led you there.
You must have had this this inner desire, whether it was subconscious or conscious, that you knew that you needed to to transition into something where it was entrepreneurial. It was more business oriented. So maybe even back then, you just knew. You and I think that that's one of the things that most people need to try to get in tune with is what is your authentic self? What do you really want to do? How do you want to evolve in your career?
And I know that that's a very difficult question, but I think it takes a lot of self reflection, and and maybe a step back. You just said it. You know, you were a business mind in a scientific role or however you put it. Like, you knew. So I think that that's one of the things that's important is that each person has to kinda come to grips in terms with their strengths, capabilities, desires, where they see themselves, and where they wanna go. And you clearly did that.
And and you're obviously a success, and you have and and by the way, guys, for those of you who are maybe aren't watching this on on YouTube or you haven't like, Steve's a young guy. Like, he's got a huge career ahead of him. You know, it's not like he's at the tail end of his career. That he's he's right smack in the sweet spot. So this is a great story.
Steve, tell us for people that may be interested in this type of role in m and a, What skills do you think are most important for people to develop in order to find success in that type of role?
Yeah. So first and foremost, obviously, the business fundamentals, right, is really important to understanding, you know, how a business runs, how cash flows through a business, what are all the the puts and takes that you have to think about as you're as you're flowing through a p and l. But I think the other important thing, Tom, is just to be able to develop those working and personal relationships across an entire organization.
Yeah. You know, that's to me, I mean, the relationship building and relationship management is most important. A lot of those other finer details within the art of the business, the art of the deal, the art of negotiating, that comes with time and comes with experience.
But I think the people skills and and just the general foundational business skills are are foundational to someone's success in this type of role if they're looking to step outside of, you know, a traditional PharmD or MSO career path. And do you feel that your skills that you developed in medical affairs are ones that you routinely use now in your current role? Definitely. I think, you know, certainly the scientific acumen. Right?
If if we're thinking about bringing a product into the organization, if the science doesn't make sense, then nothing else matters. We're not gonna waste time on commercial assessments, marketing assessments, techno manufacturing and technology assessments, the science doesn't make sense. So I use that every day and it really helps me, you know, we may get, say, 50 inbound inquiries a year about folks that are interested in licensing their technology to an organization.
I can take those 50 inbound inquiries and pretty quickly decide whether one is worthwhile to bring forward and invest a lot of resource in the organization. So, you know, I think that that skill is foundational. The people management, right, at MSL, it can it can be a lonely life. We can be making a lot of cold calls to MSLs. There's a lot of rejection Mhmm. That we have to deal with. And I think that helps prepare you for the the roller coaster that business development and m and a can be.
Would you say that that those what you just mentioned, the scientific side and the and this this background as an MSL almost makes or or could make you a differentiator in that world? Definitely. I mean, like like I mentioned earlier, there are a fixed number of folks and the number is not large that are able to connect the dots between science, understanding how technologies work, and then the the business and financial side of of industry.
And if you can connect all those dots, you're gonna be really successful in your career in a in a role such as, you know, what I'm doing now. Well, you you mentioned something to me interesting. You said that for people that may be interested in transitioning into this type of role, it's important for them to understand the DNA of a company before they make that move. So can you explain what that means? Yeah. So, I I think I can section it into 2 two kind of unique things.
So if you're if you're an MSL looking for a medical affairs role at a company but also think that in the future you may wanna take on a nontraditional path. You wanna look at, you know, inside the organization. What have others in the MSL role at that company done? Have they gone on to be contributors in other areas? Have they been afforded opportunities outside of the traditional, you know, MSL day to day?
So I think, you know, if you're interviewing, that should be a question that you ask the hiring manager, but a question that you also want to hear from the current team members. Right? Were they were they promised one thing and then when they came in and got so, so busy with a launch or, you know, something like that that those opportunities for nontraditional work were, you know, were not there.
Mhmm. Now if you're someone that is looking for a different business development role, I mean, the the DNA of a company, right, we have a strategic remit or strategic objectives that are corporate development business development related. So if that is to bring in additional commercial products, 1, does the company have the resources to do that? Do they have the financial resources to do it? Do they have the human resources to do it? M and A is really expensive.
You know, we don't go out and buy products for 5 or $10,000,000 usually. So is the capital available to the company to be able to execute upon that? Do they have the infrastructure that can support it? You know, you spent a a long time in you know, on the commercial side of the business. Does that Salesforce have the ability to take in another product given where it is in this life cycle?
If you're thinking about building a pipeline, again, does the organization have the talent and experience to bring those assets forward through late stage development to commercialization? If they don't have the talent, you know, do they have the ability to go out and acquire it or pay for it? So, you know, those are the things on kind of the financial side that you wanna make sure that you're looking at if you're thinking about taking a leap of faith.
So it's one thing to, you know, say I wanna grow my business, it's another thing to have the resources at your disposal to be actually be able to execute upon that. Right. Yeah. No. That's good info. And for for those for MSLs that are listening right now, I know you and I talked about you had made a comment and you said, yeah, people need to be careful because LinkedIn could be your best friend, but it could be your worst enemy at the same time. So explain with that what you meant by that.
Yeah. So, you know, it's taking a step out of your comfort zone, right, typically does not lead to a near term promote promotion. So Mhmm. What what I could, you know, comment on is my transition was very much a lateral move. And I knew that it was gonna require some time and investment before, you know, I would be promoted in a new goal.
And so, you know, the comment that LinkedIn can be your worst friend during that time is you're looking at all your old colleagues in medical affairs that have, you know, gone on to be, you know, senior executive MSLs. They've gone on to medical director. They've gone on to, you know, maybe it's leading, scientific affairs or or medical public publications or communications.
So you're seeing all these people that used to be your peers around you and, you know, you're watching their promotion and their success within their own career and it it at times it can be a little bit defeating and deflating. But, you know, in my mind, I always just had to have my eyes on the the long term and I knew that this would be time well spent stepping outside my comfort zone and growing my skill set.
And I I know that that one day, you know, I'll be able to keep up with all those promotions of folks that, you know, I've seen around in the last 5 years, but it's gonna take a little more time to get there. Sure. Yeah. And so for those, for people that may be interested in in making this type of transition, either to, you know, some type of role in m and a or business development, what would you say what advice would you give them as to what would make them attractive?
What sorts of things should they be doing to make them a more attractive candidate to make that transition from MSL over to m and a? Yeah. So I think number 1, it's raising your hand, volunteering to get involved in as many projects outside of medical affairs that you can. Mhmm. You know, developing those cross functional relationships, getting involved in those working groups Mhmm. Is critical.
Because, you know, when there's an opening in an organization similar to my own experience, there's a level of comfort, with those senior leaders knowing, oh, jeez. I've worked with Steve for, you know, a year on this project. He's, you know, always come forth and, you know, met timelines on deliverables and spend high quality. And those folks, you know, sometimes would rather promote from within the organization with a known entity and a known commodity rather than bring somebody in externally.
So I think that speaks to roles, you know, outside of business development and and broader, I think, from a BD perspective. If you have the opportunity to get involved in any diligence activities that your company is are taking as they're looking at other assets, you know, again, raise your hand and offer to be involved in those activities.
And sometimes it's maybe not even, you know, being a working contributor, but just being a silent observer, Understanding how the processes and flows work, and again, the more personal and professional relationships you can develop with folks in other parts of the organization, you know, the higher likelihood that they're gonna vouch for you in terms of being able to step outside your comfort zone, come in, and contribute in your your new role
in a meaningful way in a relatively short time period. Good stuff, man. Awesome advice. Let's leave it at that. You're you're the man, Steve. Appreciate you coming on. I learned a lot. I thought this was really insightful. So, yeah, man. We'll have to do this again. Thanks for joining me. Yeah. No. Thanks, Tom, for the opportunity. It's been amazing. And I think if I encourage one person today to think about stepping outside of their comfort zone, then I'll I will have accomplished my goal.
And for all your listeners, if you have questions about the journey or, you know, want some insight, I'm here to guide folks. I think, you know, giving back, the best I can to the profession is, you know, is what I love doing. So for anybody out there, feel free to get a hold of me. Awesome. Appreciate that. Thanks, guys, for listening. Appreciate you all. Love you all. And, we'll see you next time. 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.