In this episode, my guest is Maria Erso, associate director of MSLs for Exact Sciences. And we talk about MSL onboarding, training, and the first 60 days as an MSL in addition to some other things, I think you really enjoy it. Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSLs and all things field medical. So hey, guys. Thanks for joining us. I have a very special guest today, Maria Erso. Hey, Maria. Hi. How are you? I'm doing great.
So thank you so much for joining me today. And should we start with congratulations, you got a new job recently? I did. Yes. Thank you so much, and also thank you for having me on. I was thrilled when you said you were starting this because I can't think of anything more valuable than you pulling together so many of the rock stars that you worked to with. Not implying that I'm a rock star. You are a rock star. Many of the rock star.
So many of the really highly accomplished people that you work with and just sharing, expertise. I just think it's so important, and it's great that you're doing this. Thanks for the congratulations. I just started about 2 months ago with a company called Exact Sciences. So, their premier product right now that's on the market is Cologuard. It's a colorectal cancer screening test. Awesome. So it's in the oncology space. Yeah. Thanks. So now what are you doing there? You're an MSL director.
Right? I am. We just expanded the team which is also exciting just to say, how Exact Sciences is doing right now. It was a team of 8 and there was one director of MSLs and they doubled the team. So now it's a team of 16 MSLs. So I have the entire East Coast, but 8 MSLs who directly report to me. Awesome. That's exciting. So you so we're gonna talk about onboarding today. I don't wanna get into that just yet because we still have some other stuff to talk about.
But so that's partly because you just got done, you know, hiring and onboarding, so you obviously are fresh off of, probably still into that. So I'm looking forward to getting there. But before that so you have a new job and you just moved. Right? Correct? Mhmm. I did. Yes. Warmer latitudes. It was time. I was sick of shoveling snow. Well, can I tell everyone the real reason you moved?
I know the real reason you because you're a crazy freak athlete that gets up at 4 AM, serves for, like, 2 hours, works a full day of 12 hours, and then does, like, a half a triathlon before you go to bed. Correct? And the only way you can do that is you can let well, the thing is if you run out of minutes in the day when you have to spend about 30 minutes in the morning taking the snow off your car and deicing it, and then another 30 minutes in a warm shower after you've been outside freezing.
So, yeah, you're you're pretty spot on with that. But, yeah, about an hour to to keep myself warm. Now you and and you like, I know you're not gonna say it, so I'm gonna say it. But your background's amazing. So you have PhD in, like, muscle biochemistry. You were in the army. Correct? Active duty army. I was. Yes. So it it's very interesting story, and, I'm gonna keep it short since that's not what we're focusing on today.
But I definitely think it aligns with some of the things you've taught in the past, and you talk about, you know, as far as networking, and just keeping your options open. So never in my mind did I think I'd be an active duty soldier, doing research for for blast injury and skeletal muscle.
But when I was working on my PH PhD, and as you say, it was in skeletal muscle, you know, understanding how, different gene and protein changes happen in response to disuse, I I realized that the military did have this, and I always did. I kinda always had this little GI Jane fantasy. And so I said, you know what? I can do 2 things. I could be in the army and I can do research. So I was a bench top scientist for a few years, right after I got out of the military.
So then because I I I'm so impressed by that. And so you do that, and then how did you transition how did you wind up in pharma? Well, it was kind of a bunch of the tools I put in my toolbox over the years. I'd have to say that my time during my PhD, I I had an adviser who really encouraged us to to take part in everything, whether it was writing, whether it was public speaking. You can't, you know, win it if you're not in it.
Highly, you know, accomplished from a research perspective she was, and she drove that in us and figuring out different things. When I was in the military, I kind of pulled even more things together.
So now remember, I'm a scientist working among soldiers, noncommissioned officers and officers who needed to understand the work that I was doing and talk about a way to get your elevator speech down pat when you're doing a highly specific molecular biology work and you have to brief a general on why that work is important to their unit and keeping their unit safe. So, I realized I was pretty good at that.
It was something that I was good at taking the complex science I was doing, and I I was good at writing about it so that people could understand it, and also lecturing about it. And as far as, you know, from a research perspective and getting grant money, you know, speaking with generals and talking about the work that we were doing and why it was important to soldiers. And that kind of got me into more realizing that as good as I was in the lab, I really like talking to people.
I like talking about the science, and I like talking about the therapeutic end. So I had an opportunity to go over to industry. Again, it was someone I worked with. We worked really well together. We accomplished a lot together. They got a inroad to industry. And as soon as they had to build a team, they invited me over to work on their clinical research team. And that was my foot in the door with industry.
And the way that ended up in the MSL role was I actually got up at a conference and asked a question that was in in line with some of the work I did during my benchtop research. And an MSL director who is hiring came over and said, why did you ask that question? We ended up going to lunch. They invited me for an interview, and that was it. The MSL world became history. Yeah. It was really it was very interesting. That's great.
I think it's a good story because, you know, I have to tell you, I sat there. It was a big conference. As much as I don't mind and as much as I actually enjoy public speaking, I even do it on this side. There's something about asking a question at a scientific congress. It's it's intimidating. You know, you're sitting there with all the experts. And I remember sitting there and saying, I wanna ask this question. I wanna ask this question. But I was nervous, and I was kinda sweating a little bit.
And should I do it? And I remember I my voice shook a little when I stood up to ask the question. And I think about just getting up and asking that question that I really did sit there for about 2 minutes to think if I really had the guts to do it. And if I didn't do that, my life would have taken, like, such a different path. The way that it opened so many doors yeah. It's really interesting how it worked out that way. That's a great that's a great story, and that's a great message.
Because I think there's a lot of people that are at those meetings and they're sitting there and they have a great question, and they don't stand up. Because there No. Or how many times I'm sure that happens at every single conference in so many meetings. So hopefully, you're an inspiration to people that, you know, next time they stick to their convictions, put themselves out there. And I talk a lot about that. You you know? So you have to get out of your comfort zone.
You have to put yourself out there. And that's how you get noticed. So that's congratulations to you on your, you know, your new job, your move, and everything you have going on. That's a great story. So, and I and I think a lot of people are gonna appreciate that. A lot of people that listen are aspiring MSLs or they're looking to transition into industry. So I think they're gonna they're gonna they're going to appreciate that.
And then, you know, you have having come in coming off helping, you know, to build out your team and onboard MSLs, that's a great transition for us. Because I think a lot of people wanna know, okay, I land my first MSL job, what do I expect? So so what is the onboarding and the training like and the exam and how do I get through all this? So let's, like, let's start with, like, your 30,000 foot view of the onboarding process.
Sure. And I think it's one of those things, and I even remember this as, you know, an aspiring or a first time MSL, is I said, so I'm gonna go home and study for 8 weeks. And it was summertime, and all I thought about was, like, yay, pool days. I'm gonna sit out there reading papers by the pool for 8 weeks. And, ah, boy, was I wrong. It was intense, and it was hard. And, you're constantly being assessed. And it was funny because I always say never pass up an opportunity to be assessed.
And by the end of that week, I said I'm done being assessed because you're being assessed by your peers. You're being assessed by your manager, and you're even being assessed by the salespeople that you're gonna be working with out in the field. You know? Are you someone that's gonna seamlessly integrate? And so you're preparing to eventually be assessed by the KOLs that you're gonna interact with. You know? What's your scientific acumen? What's your grasp of the material?
How well can you defend a paper? How much do you know about competitors if they put something out there? So, overall, the entire 8 week program tends or if it's 6 weeks, it depends on the company. It's really about getting you into shape to be assessed by all these different people. So whether it's through learning publications, the PI, the ISU, the positions brochure, the safety information, it's really being able to to master those materials and be able to talk about them. Okay. Competently.
So so then you get you interview. Get an MSL position. You have to get prepared. So how do you what what advice do you have for MSLs to help them get prepared for onboarding? Is there anything you can do in advance? Absolutely. And that's one of those things that I think everyone has their own special way of doing it, and I've picked up tips from my colleagues and just things that I've done.
Before you sign on, they usually don't send you the syllabus, and you don't know exactly what you're gonna be preparing. Usually, if you had to give a presentation at your interview, you may have been given some of the the pivotal trials or maybe the IFU to work through with the PI. So I usually just kinda skim those and then the the time beforehand.
But something I feel really helpful is to start listening to podcasts, in the disease space about that drug, about competitor drug or devices, or even from congresses that you know that you may be attending. And the three benefits of that are you walk in not just reading something being like the receiver of it, but you're seeing a face. You're seeing a style. You're seeing kinda, like, the positioning.
And I just have to I just feel like the podcast and these these information sessions that you can have, you even understand who the KOLs are. So who tips tends to be on the podium? Who's asking questions in the audience? And I feel like that's a great way to walk into the role, understanding a little bit more about the disease space as well as the you know, where the product is positioned and also what what maybe, you know, some of the key people to focus on once you're out in the field.
Yeah. That's great advice. Yeah. I know that you and I also talked about, more, like, fundamental things beforehand. And, again, if you aren't someone who worked at home beforehand and this is gonna be your first time field based and working at home, you kinda have to just just clean up. You have to make I say, you know, an uncluttered desk is an uncluttered mind.
And when your goal over the next 8 weeks is to absorb as much information as possible, you really should take the time to figure out where are you gonna study, what does that space look like, is it gonna be quiet enough for you. One mistake I made early on was it was my first time at home, and I said, well, I can't possibly study at home. And I I rented an office space every day to go to, which turned out to be such a chore. I mean, I had to pack up my stuff.
I had to find a meal to bring with me, and and it wasn't anything that saved me any time or gave me any quiet. It just became something that made me feel guilty. So so finding that space that's gonna work for you is also something that's important beforehand. Good. Yeah. No. That's great. That's great advice. So okay. So you're you're you you get the job. Now you do your your pre onboarding preparation. You do your podcast. You do your research. You have your space at home. You know?
You follow all the tips. So now what's the day to day like? What could what can someone expect from a day to day perspective? If you could kinda just walk us through it. Yeah. So the day to day is, usually, you'll get a syllabus that lays it out for you. One of the best things you can do, and you should get the syllabus, you know, your 1st day or even before your 1st day, is to really sit down and and almost assign yourself. So you're not gonna have a day filled with meetings.
You're gonna have a day filled with content. Something I find critically helpful is to take that syllabus and say I'm gonna spend an hour on this paper, an hour on that paper, 2 hours on the ISU, an hour for lunch, so something like that. So setting up a schedule is probably the best thing. Most programs are gonna have early in the week.
You tend to get a call with either your mentor, your education, or it could even be your boss who's gonna set up the week for you and tell you the material you need to go through. Make the most of that time. I see different groups coming through where they might cut it short. I see others where they might go along. Ask questions. That's the only time that you may have that week to ask questions that you need to know.
Usually, there'll be some sort of an assessment, whether it's a closed book exam midweek, whether it's an open book assessment that you work on during the week. Do not copy and paste and put those answers down to try and finish it. This is your protected time to become a master of that material, and so that's another one of the things that you'll work on. And then usually by the end of the week, you'll be reviewing the material.
Sometimes it's in a quiz or an exam or just a didactic session with your mentor or onboarding person. So typically that's what it's made up of in the very early phases. So are you so the so how important is it to follow the syllabus? Is the syllabus like if you don't follow it, you're gonna and pace with the syllabus, you're gonna wind up 5 weeks down the road and be like, oh my god. Like, what did I do? Yeah. So so syllabus is a usually, it should be.
If it's done properly, it's a finely tuned, I I wanna say, map of success. And anyone who's been in research or in this area knows I call it the PubMed Rotary, where you'll read a great paper and you'll see 3 references, and then you go look up those three references, and there's 3 other references, and then someone's calling you to go out for drinks after work, and you're like, yeah. I'll cut out and I'll read more tomorrow.
Next thing you the week ended and you've only read one of the papers you were supposed to, you haven't gotten through the PI or the summary of safety and efficacy. You are going to be at a disadvantage because now you're rolling up to the next week where you're getting new information that's building upon that previous week if it was done properly. So the syllabus is critical.
I recommend if if you have extra time, save that till the end of the week, and really make sure that you focus on the materials that are given to you because they're given to you based on the fact that that's the information that's being shared in the field that colleagues ask about or the stuff that you have to be a subject medic matter expert on. Gotcha. So now in this day and age with technology and and tutorials and web and webinars and video, so what can somebody expect? Is it all reading?
I mean, are you reading for 6 to 8 weeks, or are you doing is it video? Is it is there anything interactive? What what what is it? And so, like, we're It depends. At different companies? Yeah. You you're you are going to have I mean, just based on the fact that, you know, as a medical science liaison, science is is really the fundamental part of your job and to know the science behind that product.
And, unfortunately or fortunately, the best place for science is in those peer reviewed publications because it's contested, it's been reviewed, the information is in there. So the peer reviewed publications are are truly as much reading as it is. They're they're very important, the core ones. But there's other things that are so important, that I tend to do on my own. One of them is, for example, in my previous facing, the cardiovascular disease space, I was reading.
All I was doing was looking at black and white text on a page, yet 80% of my job would be looking at ultrasound images or understanding what anatomy looks like and how that anatomy should be treated. So something that I did on my own was I would go to, like, Google images and Google videos, and I made myself, different things to review so they understood the anatomy and how that works.
In the, for the company I'm with now, because we do a lot with colorectal cancer screening and really understanding the different types of, polyps that you have or adenomas. Again, a nice visual aid that I put together is what those look like, a lot of different graphs. And so if you're a more visual learner, it's good to have those to kinda change up the pace from reading black and white text all the time, especially scientific materials. Yeah. Because I don't know. I'm a video guy.
Like, it sounds like a lot of reading to me. Like, how do you so if you're reading, like, you're supposed to be reading for, like, 6, 8 hours a day, like, how do you stay focused? If you're, you know, you're home, there's distractions, and you have this syllabus, and you have all this reading and all this stuff that you have to learn, how do you stay focused? What's your advice? Because I know you. You're military, and you probably have, like, a system down. Right?
Yeah. Well, you know, I'm military, but here's the interesting part. I I laugh because I was actually in a research study once where we had, what do they call it? The Fitbits on us, like, trackers, activity trackers on us. And they put data up from 10 people in the seminar room, and everyone's like, we know which one was Maria because there was activity at 4 AM. And we're like, so much for de identified data, which is very funny because it really was the time you went for PT.
My whole point of that story is that, you know, we really are hardwired whether we're, you know, like, morning larks or night owls, and that's such an important thing to consider. And so I know that while I can get up and get my workout in the morning, I really am great at memorizing stuff and absorbing at nighttime. When the world goes quiet, everyone goes home, the emails stop binging, the phone stops. So nighttime is really my time. I do my best writing and understanding then.
So, everyone has to tailor the day based on how they do best. Some people are great reading first thing in the morning. They don't wanna go for a run first thing in the morning. They wanna read that tip top paper and master it. So it's really knowing how what what you're best at during the day.
But, absolutely, no matter who you are, and I I don't care if you're military or what, but there's no discipline in the world that's gonna make your attention span last longer than we absolutely are wired to do. You need to put breaks in there.
I think it's a great time to to really start focused on a little bit more being a healthier person, you know, health and wellness, especially before you start a life of living on the road if you're gonna be 80% travel and figuring out ways to put exercise in those breaks in your day. One thing I did was I did have to make flashcards. A lot of our standard responses were to me, it was rote memorization because it was a lot of numbers.
So late in the day, it was another time I was studying, it was wintertime. I would go up to the treadmill and just walk on the treadmill and go through my flash cards just to move and, you know, exercise through it. During the afternoon, I would take a walk and just get some sunshine and movement. So it's really a chance to to stay healthy.
Otherwise, you'll see at the end of that onboarding program, you've been sitting in your elastic waist pajamas, eating popcorn and Cheetos, and it doesn't end well. It really doesn't end well. So you have to put those breaks in there to keep your mind fresh. Well, thanks for the visual. We needed the visual in your pj's in I never got there.
I never got there, but the the potential is there because you just sit and you're sitting and then you're on the phone and you're listening to a call and then you take an exam. You don't feel good about yourself if you didn't pass. No. That's great. Yeah. There's a there's a lot of chances. Yeah. You have to stay sharp. Especially so at the end of the day, you have to take an exam, and you have to pass the exam. Right? So Yeah. I mean and I'm gonna be honest.
I've had situations where we've placed an MSL within an organization, and then, you know, a a couple weeks later, a couple months later, I get a phone call telling me, well, you know, so and so didn't they didn't make it. Didn't get through training. They didn't pass the exam. It happens. Not a lot, but it does happen. So let's talk about the exam. You know, how do you prepare for the exam? What do you expect? Is it harder than you think? Is it easier than you think?
I first of all, I've had that situation, And when I asked that person to return their materials, there wasn't a I I don't think they ever cracked the book. So I if you do what you're supposed to do, you should be able to pass the exam. I do think that the exams are usually made to be very hard and challenging, and that's by design.
Because, you know, we always say that you'd much rather be challenged and have the worst, most difficult experience by your peers because there's some safety to it rather than being out at a conference or at a medical information booth or sitting in front of a top tier KOL. So they're usually very difficult by design. However, the syllabus usually reflects what you're gonna see in the exam. It's rare to have an exam at the end and have no assessments throughout.
One thing that I do is every time that I've had an assessment and I coach my team through this, we review it. So you don't just do the assessment and hand it in and you got these 3 wrong. It's I want you to tell me why you got those 3 wrong and what those right answers are. So now if you are onboarding mentor or your boss isn't doing that with you, you should have the discipline to do that yourself.
If you get something marked wrong to go back, learn it, figure out what the right answer is, and put it that way. The other thing that a lot of people have to do during, a final exam is deliver a presentation that's usually given to you. I think a lot of people get caught up in figuring out what questions people are gonna ask them, and they don't spend enough time focusing on how they're gonna deliver that presentation.
They also try and wanna tell everyone every single thing they learned, and they miss the mark because they spend 5, 10 minutes on a slide just, you know, barfing up information, which we know in the MSL world is just a really bad idea. You wanna keep your answers short and to the point. So, when it comes to the exams and passing them, it's making sure that between week 1 week 8 or week 1 week 6, every single week, you end that week feeling proficient in everything you were supposed to.
And if you don't, making sure you go back over that material. So the presentation, is it are you being judged on your presentation skills and the quality of delivery as much as the content? Because in an interview, you have to do a presentation, and they really wanna evaluate your presentation style, your skills. It's not as much about the content. Does is the presentation on the exam different than it would be for the interview, or is it kind of the same? It's it's kind of the same.
I think, usually your your interview is a chance to to get across your presentation skills. I've hired people who actually were okay presenters. They weren't phenomenal presenters, but I was like, that's something we could work on because their scientific acumen or their desire, their passion was or even their network and how well they were networked. They just had so many other things outside of that. So that was something we actually worked on during onboarding.
As you know, we did send them to speaker training that they learned how to deliver a better presentation. And I told them, you know, you have this syllabus you need to follow. In addition to that material, I want you to work on your presentation skills.
The content is also being judged, how you answer questions, and more often than not, a compliance officer from your company will be in that final presentation to make sure that you're staying on label and when you do go off label that you handle that material appropriately. Got you. So while we're talking so I mentioned the word interview, so now I have an interview on my brain. So Uh-huh. I always like to ask people, what what qualities do you look for in MSLs?
I have to say my very first thing is just a fire in the belly. You know, the MSL role, I think some people like to think of it as, like, oh, it's this cushy job. I work from home. I get to travel the world and fly for a class, you know, and talk to smart people and talk science all day. But it's so much more than that. The travel gets old. It gets tiring. It's a lot of closed doors and you're, you know, someone that doesn't have time and cancels appointments.
And so that resilience and that fire in the belly and just passion about the disease state or the product you're working with is really something that is huge to me. So if I have a first time call with someone and I say, so tell me, why do you wanna work with this product? And they're like, oh, I don't know. I just am really, you know, interested in MS MSL world or I don't love my job and the the conversation segues into what they don't like about their current situation.
That does not even put a blip on my radar. But someone who's got that passion and, like, you know, that, you know, that fire in the belly is is usually yeah. That's a home run for me. Yeah. No. That's it's almost the always one of the number one responses I get is, you know, enthusiasm, fire. You know, all things being equal, if you're interviewing and you have 2 candidates or 10 candidates and they're all equal, the job's always awarded to the person that shows they want it the most. Always.
You you do get an aid for effort, and I think that it's really important. That's a really, really important thing to remember when you're going out on a job interview or really, you know, at any part of the interview process, even after you get the job, people that show up early and stay late that bring that extra fire, they're the ones that get noticed all the time. So, yeah, it's important in the job interview, but it's also important later in your career.
So before we transition off the word interview, what tell me any, like, crazy stories, any crazy interview stories that you could share with us? I yes. Oh my god. I'm laughing when you ask me that because I forever in my mind have this image seared because I I think I sat there. So we did a lot of video interviews because, you know, with everyone's travel schedule, it's a lot of times it's difficult to get somewhere in the home office.
And I was doing one, and and they were on the East Coast, so we were the same time zone. It was mid morning. And in my mind, it's a 30 minute interview. Like, everything else should be able to be put aside, right, and focus on that 30 minutes. And this person had just gone for fast food, including, like, I think you called a a big gulp, like a 32 ounce, like yeah. And with a straw in it. And so during the entire interview, they kept picking up this big giant thing of styrofoam with a straw.
I'm not going on an environmental kick here, but it was just one of those things. It's, what are you doing? And they would kept sucking out of this straw, and then it's and then over the video. And I just was sitting there. I honestly was I think, and I'm not good. I have no poker face. I I can't go play because my the look on my face, I was like, how is this person not seeing that I'm absolutely appalled every single time they make this huge suck through this draw during the interview.
So, yeah, it was just one of those things. Like, how are you doing this over video when I all I needed from you is 30 minutes. Yeah. That is great. I love that. Okay. So real quick. Name of the restaurant was across the front of it too. So I never forget that. Restaurant. I just get never. It was so obnoxious. Note to self, no big gulf. And distracting. On the internet. No big gulf. That's great.
No. Yeah. So last question as it relates to that, then we'll circle back to, to the onboarding stuff. You know, I we do a lot of work with aspiring MSLs. So I would love to hear your advice on you know, what could you tell an aspiring MSL who's trying to break into into industry? They'd love to get some advice from you. Yeah. So you have to take chances. You have to continue. I always I've said this about any role is you have to keep putting tools in your toolbox.
You wanna be, like, the best marketable version of yourself. You wanna be interesting. What are you doing aside from you know, we all have a terminal degree or most MSLs, let's say 90% have a terminal degree. So you went to school for a long time. We're all smart people. You know, we all have a grasp of that. So how are you setting yourself apart? You know, saying, oh, I just think the MSL role sounds interesting or I wanna be an MSL. Where where is that demonstration?
So I know a lot of people, they they take part of the MSL society. They go to some of the training courses. They go to conferences. They go to medical affairs conferences, the medical affairs professional society just to understand more about the space, even shadowing. Find an MSL. I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me on LinkedIn just to ask mentoring questions, and it got to the point where, you know, can you tell me what a day in your life is like?
And we'd talk on the phone. And just having that conversation with that person, I knew next time I was hiring, I was gonna ask them to apply for that role because they care that much. It wasn't my time that, you know, I might have been spent doing something different. Yes. But someone who reached out and had that much, you know, enthusiasm is really important.
So, really, just put your time in to not just keep interviewing and throwing your CV all over the place and hoping that one of them is gonna stick. Really make yourself marketable to show that that's a role you want and you know about you know about the MSL role. Yeah. That's so important. I appreciate that because there's so many people out there that are trying. They're trying really hard and they're having a difficult time putting it together. But there's so many resources now.
There's so much available. You mentioned finding a mentor is huge. You know, utilize some of the training programs and and, societies that are out there. You know, we we spend a lot of time obviously, there's recruiters out there. So there are a lot of you know, there's definitely a lot of resources, but you gotta put the effort in and it can't just be, like you said, just like throwing stuff out and, like, it's it's gotta be a process. You really have to work at it.
So then let's say they so they listen to Maria, they put themselves out there, they get a job. Now they know, they they know what to expect in the 1st 60 days through their onboarding and training. So final advice that you have for someone that is either about to start their onboarding or they're just about to finish or they maybe they just finished and then they're going out into the field? We covered a lot, but I kinda feel like just final thoughts as it relates to onboarding and training.
You have to put yourself out there. And I I think it gets a little bit so you have to put out yourself out there to even get the job. Right? You have to start reaching out to people and doing things you normally wouldn't do. But something interesting happens during onboarding because if you don't have a built in period where you're shadowing a mentor or shadowing shadowing appear in the field, you've been home for several weeks now. Right? It's comfy. It's cozy. Wearing the clothes that fit.
You go to sleep when you want to. You wake up when you want to. You eat what you want to. And all of a sudden, just going into the office is like, you know, after it's almost like being after being on vacation. So it's gonna be uncomfortable, and you have to be okay with being uncomfortable those first couple of weeks out there. So the very easiest part of that, the most you know, the easy part is just, you know, getting dressed and getting out there.
But the hard part, and I see this and, unfortunately, it impacts a lot of MSLs, and and I wanna put this as an isolated thing because this is kind of what makes or breaks a good MSL. Remember that after onboarding, you're still kind of in that probation period. You're still being assessed by the company. You're still being assessed by your team.
It's much easier to put someone on a PIP or let them go within that first 6 month trial period from an HR perspective versus someone who's been there for 2 years. And so I have to say that your activity in the field early on is really the thing that's gonna make you or break you as far as setting you up for success. It's uncomfortable. There's gonna be cold calls. There's gonna be emailing. There's gonna be a lot of times where you just have to figure out the answer to a problem.
So what's your barrier? I can't get into this office, and my boss and 3 other people told me I have to go meet with this k o. You need to find that solution, and it might not be a comfortable one. You know, it might be doing something where you're just like, wow. Nobody wants to talk to me, and I have to go in there, and I have to make this phone call. So it really is about making yourself uncomfortable and and stretching. And then you're gonna look back on that.
And the great part about it is you'll look back on that in 6 months and be like, I can't believe I was ever afraid of that because, you know, you you you're gonna do it, and it's gonna set you up for success from there on in. But it's scary the first few times. You know, the information is still kind of barely at the tip of your tongue. You're afraid you're gonna get a difficult question. If you have a field ride with your manager or something, you're gonna be afraid you don't handle it well.
We're all gonna fail. We're all gonna mess up, but it's much better to mess up while you're doing, or it's gonna be better to have that uncomfortable period while you're doing versus sitting at home and being told that you just weren't active soon enough. And I can't stress that enough because as you know, MSL and metrics and KPIs are are really how we bring value to our companies. So if you're not out there doing, it's it's really hard to show how you're bringing value. That's great.
That's great advice. Maria, you are awesome. I got fired up right now. I I wish I was starting a new job. Like, I don't wanna go out there. I am so ready right now. Well, thank you. It's funny. Whenever you start a new job and you do those, like, personality assessments or whatever, I always get the cheerleader thing. I'm like, why do I get that? And then I see, like, those things. Like, go do it. Enthusiasm. That's my personality. Yeah. You're the best. Yeah. I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Insights were spot on. I think this is such valuable information. It's gonna help so many people. So, let's do this again for sure. I wanna And thank you again. I'm thanking you not only from me, but when I shared, you know, with my colleagues and some of my teammates that you're working on these, everyone just they just adore you and the fact that you do so much more than what you need to do for your, you know, for your circle. And it's it's just it's really appreciated.
So thanks for putting the time in and and doing this for everyone. You're the best. It's it's really valued. Okay. Thank you. I wanna thank everybody for listening. Great. And you you have to come back. You have to join me again. Alright? Will do. Alright. Thanks for the invite. I'll talk to you soon. 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.