Hey, guys. Welcome to the podcast. My guest today is Allison Trucillo. She is vice president of medical affairs at Avalon Pharmaceuticals, and we talk about time management for MSLs and field medical professionals from somebody who's an elite athlete. So this is an amazing conversation. I learned so much. I can't wait to go back and listen to it again. So share it with your friends.
Don't forget to follow me on LinkedIn, and join us for MSL talk live, which is typically the 1st Tuesday of every month at 1:30 PM EST. We're also on YouTube, so check out some of our videos on YouTube. And thank you guys as always for all your support. Welcome to MSL talk with Tom Caravella, a podcast specifically designed for MSLs and all things field medical. Hey, Allison. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me. Hi, Tom. I'm so thrilled to be here.
I feel like it's been a long time coming. Thank you so much for having me. Guys, like, literally, the line behind the Allison Trizzillo fan club starts behind me. Okay? I'm a huge fan of this woman. Been trying to get her on this podcast for a while. We've been talking about it for a while, and here we are. So I'm literally thrilled to share this person with you because she's amazing, and this is gonna be awesome.
And and, guys, this is gonna be unlike anything we've ever done, because Allison is really special in so many ways. So I don't wanna get too far into it. Allison, let why don't you do a quick intro and just tell everybody who you are, where you're from, and all the good stuff. Yeah. Sure. So I'm Allison Truzzillo. I'm a physician, based in Austin, Texas. Certainly not new to industry. I've been in industry now for about 20 years.
But, currently, I'm the vice president of medical affairs at Avalon Pharma. Awesome. Well and we're gonna get into some stuff, but hey, guys. Before I get started, this episode is sponsored by Fierce Life Sciences Medical Affairs Strategic Summit. So that's Mass East. For many of you probably know what that is. Mass East is one of my favorite conferences. I've been going every year for, like, 15 years.
It's the ultimate event for medical affairs, medical communications, and field medical leaders. It's the premier event for you to connect with medical affairs leaders across pharma for 3 days of focused learning and fun networking, elevate your expertise at Fierce Medical Affairs Strategic Summit this year. It is in Jersey City, New Jersey, where I live. Well, I don't live in Jersey City, but I'm in New Jersey. And that's May 6th through 8th.
Now, guys, listeners of the MSL Talk podcast can get 25% off registration by using the code MSLTALK. So there's no space, MSLTALK. This discount is valid only for professionals working in pharma, biotech, and medical device. You need to go to medaffairs summit dot com, and then put in that code, and you'll get 25% off. So it's medaffairssummit.com. I will see you in Jersey City because I'm definitely gonna be there. I want you guys all to come. Alright.
Allison, we decided to do this topic, and we titled it, too busy? I just do not have the time. Because so many people are really super busy. Now the reason I wanted you to come on is because nobody's busier than you in what you take on in your life, and we're gonna get into that. But let's start with I want to hear about your new job and what's going on with you. So tell us tell everybody a little bit about how crazy your life is and what you're up to from a professional standpoint.
Yes. There's certainly not a spare minute, I feel like, in my life these days. So I recently started with a new company, Avalon Pharma, last October as their vice president of medical affairs. We're a small but mighty and growing, biopharmaceutical company. And, really, I came on they didn't have a medical affairs team, so I came on to build and lead the global medical affairs team. So currently, I've been hiring both US and global MSL.
I just finished developing our global medical affairs plan, which really include it's very comprehensive for those of you who may or may not be aware, but it basically includes our strategy and tactical execution for our field based medicine team to KOL engagement, scientific communications, publications and conference planning. We're also, at Avalon, starting our phase 2b trial this year.
So the medical affairs team is gonna be absolutely critical in supporting, the study, just in terms of developing relationships with the investigators because we're a new company, so a lot of them don't know who we are yet. But also beyond the investigators, the study coordinators, the study teams, participating in the site initiation visits, and really just helping ensure that we're on track for enrollment. So there's really a lot going on at the company. It's very fast paced.
So that's kind of the work aspect of my life. I'm also a wife. I'm a mother to a 5 year old, Penelope. And, boy, she certainly keeps me on my toes. I'm an older mother. But between work, I field travel every week almost, you know, taking care of the family, taking to Penelope to all her activities, and then something additional I do, training, the training for exercise, it's it's very, very busy. So that's kinda what I have going on. I feel like there's just really not a spare minute in my life.
Guys, like, it's still understated what Allison just said because she's at pretty much one of the highest levels you can possibly get at in medical affairs, if not the highest level. And then she as she said, she's she's a mom, she's a wife, she has this beautiful when I say the sweetest, cutest little girl you ever wanted to see, and she's involved in all like, there's so much going on. But then on top of it, there's there's whole other thing that, to me, is actually mind boggling.
Allison, can you please tell everybody what your fitness hobby is? So drum roll. My fitness hobby is triathlon. So triathlon, as you may know, is swim, bike, run. It's something I actually started in 2019, and I did it to try and be healthy for my daughter. And I wanted to set a good example. I've always been into exercise, but no background in swimming, biking, or running at all, as a lot of, triathletes do. But, yeah. So, I mean, really, it's it's pretty crazy.
Once I decided I was gonna do it, I actually did my 1st indoor try, while I was pregnant, fell in love with it. And then the following year, once I had my daughter, my husband and I signed up for some local races, so Olympic distance triathlon. And then we finished the year with a half Ironman. Really, the rest is history. I I just fell in love with it. I got serious about it. I found out it was something I was pretty good at.
I hired a coach and I ended up qualifying for, the world championship. So I as you can imagine, with a coach being a part of a team, I have, very intense training. So you're training for 3 sports. You're also doing strength, mobility, and plyometric training. So every day, I've got 2 plus workout today. So and, you know, we can get into that a little more in-depth.
But, it my life was already busy before that, but adding triathlon on, especially doing Ironman races because this is purely endurance training and endurance racing where you're on the course for, you know, 6 hours or up to, you know, 12 hours if you're doing a full Ironman. You gotta train for that. You you can't just go out there and do it. So your training is very intense during the week and then even more so on the weekends. Yeah. And it's just crazy to me.
There's so much to unpack there because the first thing, as you're saying this, there there there are 2 things that in my mind don't really compute and go together is VP of medical affairs and triathlons. Like, to those two things, like, they I I got real that's why I wanted to talk about we're gonna get into time management, because that's the really the the what this episode's about.
But before we get into that, like, I just wanna really express the magnitude of what how crazy this is and how crazy your life must be. So can you talk I want I definitely want you to talk a little bit more about, like, the magnitude of the competitions that you go in. Guys, Allison goes into these world, like, renowned competition and, like, places, like, in the top, like, in her age cada however they categorize. Like, she literally, like, wins.
Like, it's crazy the level that you're competing at. So can you talk about the the types of events and then what maybe your what your training schedule Yeah. Is all about? Yeah. So my sweet spot is the half Ironman distance. So for those of you who don't know, that's a 1.2 mile swim followed by a 56 mile bike followed by a 13.1 mile half marathon run. So that's kind of my sweet spot spot.
It it's actually it's more it's it's a very intense race because you really are pushing your perceived effort should be about 80% versus a full Ironman. A full Ironman is is I mean, it's crazy. It's basically double those distances. So 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on the bike followed by a marathon run. So, you know, that you have to actually lower your intensity a little bit. But so you can imagine.
Just to be able to show up on race day, to be able to finish one of these races, the training is very intense. Like I said, you don't just decide you're gonna do one and then, you know, train for a month. I mean, I train year round. I would say before, you know, once I found my races for the year, probably about from the race day, 12 weeks prior is when you really start building. So, I mean, I'm I'm talking it's about 15 to 20 hours a week of training.
It can vary, but you're doing 2 workouts a day. So it might be a swim bike one day. It might be a bike run. Those are called brick workouts where you do one, you know, followed by another, immediately. So you're you can imagine 2 to 3 hours per day of that training. And then the weekends is really when you have to do more of the endurance training. So you can have anywhere from 2 to 4, 5, 6 hour rides followed by a 10 mile run because you just have to get your body in shape for that.
So as you can imagine, it's very demanding on the schedule. Mhmm. And like I said, I I had no background in any of these sports. Swim by far is my weakest. So I spend a lot of time in the pool, and I wake up every morning at 3, 3 to 3:30 because that's the only time I have for myself. I absolutely can't do it during the day. And then after, you know, the workday's done, I pick up Penelope, take her to her activity. So morning is critical for me. So I'm up early.
I'm at the gym when they open at 4. If it's you know, if I'm swimming or if I'm biking, I'm upstairs on my bike trainer. And we can talk about time management there too because I found some tips and tricks, when I'm on the bike and on the treadmill. But, yeah, it's it's crazy.
I mean, I don't you you have to have a true passion for something like this, but I will say that deciding to do triathlon has only made me a stronger person, better at time management, a much better employee, more organized. You know, I think there was someone that said that, you know, choose the goals or choose decisions that you fear because those are the ones that are gonna make you grow. And I I I was a little scared getting into triathlon, but it has made me so much of a better person.
And I really feel like I've more org I've been more I'm more organized and I'm more together than I've ever been in my life and in my career. That is just so amazing. And and it's, I I I don't know how you do it. I I I just respect the health out of everything you just said because I work out every day, and I I I feel like I work out hard. And I have a beach cruiser. Like, if I go 10 miles on my beach cruiser, I'm, like, patting myself on the back. You know?
I'm out for, like, a leisurely stroll with my coffee, listening to music. Like, you're literally going 56 miles. Like, it's it's just bonkers to me. So I guess the question that I have for you is and you just kind of explained it when you talked about some of the scheduling, but, like, is there can you balance how do you balance all this? Yeah. I mean, I I will say it takes a very supportive family.
You have to have a support system around you that buys into what you're doing, that understands that there are gonna be times where you may not be around. You may not be physically you may be physically present, but you're just not mentally there. I mean, there are times I'm literally sitting down at night trying to play with Penelope, and I'm so sore I can't get up off the floor. Or I sit on the couch and we're eating dinner or whatever, and I'm falling asleep, you know, at 8 o'clock at night.
So, you know, I mean, it's it's having a very strong support system. It's being incredibly organized. I I truly live by my calendar, and I used to not be so much like that in early on in my career, especially when I was in MSL. I was like, yeah. I'd have my meetings up there. But now I'm I literally block every single hour of my day. We have a family calendar too. So that's you know, I make sure everything is on my family calendars, on my work calendar because I do prioritize.
Family is the most important thing to me. Absolutely. And I don't wanna miss out on these critical years, where Penelope is growing up. So I do my best. You know, I like I said, I I have a coach, and so because I travel, she there's an app. She lays all my workouts out for the week. I let her know when I'm traveling. So we kind of adjust workouts, whether it's intensity, length, what I can do. I can't swim and bike when I'm traveling, so it's usually run and strength.
The other aspect I didn't mention is that when you have a coach and you're part of a team, they are analyzing every single workout you do. So I have to go back in after every workout, and I enter in. I analyze my data. I look at all of my, you know, various, you know, paces, my heart rate, my FTP, my functional threshold power, all that stuff. Put notes in for my coach and then she comments back. So we can see that, you know, if I'm staying on track and if we need to adjust my training.
But I would just say, you know, really, I mean, a support system, it's being very organized. It's it's, you know, time management is absolutely critical, and you've gotta have that passion there. Like, if it's something you don't love, you're not gonna you're not gonna make it work. So I think those are probably some of the some of the biggest things.
Well, the passion part of it alone I mean, to think about the fact that you have no back you have no background in any of these, really, these activities. You just said, oh, I'm gonna you know, I wanna get in shape, so I'm gonna try this thing. And then not only did you try it, but now you're competing at the highest level in in this space, which is really competitive. And this is like a whole subculture that exists. It is. It's crazy. There's a whole triathlon community.
And like you said so, I mean, there's professional triathletes and elite triathletes. And, you know, in most races, you compete with them. They start first, but then it's by age group. And I'm an older I mean, on our team, you know, we have 100 of athletes now, but, I'm an older one of the older athletes. And so it it I think odd for age groups because it really you know, it levels the playing field.
You know, one thing I should add too in terms of just how how to balance all of this stuff is prioritizing. You've really gotta sit down and prioritize, you know, your work. You know, what's going on at work and what can you handle. You know? What are the top 3 to 5 things you have to get done this day or this week? Same with your personal life and, you know, so and same with exercise. I mean, there are times where I can't do everything I'm supposed to do on my training plan, and that's okay.
You know? It's I'm just a human being. Can't You you know, you're like a superhuman. Like, you're not just a human being. Like, anybody that's listening to this is like, yeah. No. Human being is really the way to describe you. But let's talk about because I know that there's gotta be some parallels, and there's some aspects. Yeah. I would imagine in triathlon that may maybe carry over into into your career or maybe vice versa. Can you talk about that from a performance perspective?
Yeah. I mean, I've I've learned I've learned so much from doing triathlon that has carried over into my work performance and just how I want to achieve success in my profession. And I kinda think in acronyms and stuff, so I kinda do this as an a, b, c, d, e, f. I think first, ambition. So I obviously, within any sport that you're competing in, you've gotta be you've gotta have that ambition. And what that means is you've gotta have goals. You know, you should be setting goals for yourself.
You should be, you know, excited about what you're doing. And, you know, in terms of goals, you know, it I think one thing I heard was, you know, choose your goals wisely because, you know, these are going to help shape, shape you and make you grow. They're gonna go your goals are gonna work on you.
So I think, you know, ambition, you gotta have ambition in sport of triathlon and that ambition I've always had ambition in work, so I think being so ambitious in my job has carried over to triathlon and vice versa. Balance is so critical. I've learned this in triathlon because when you're training, you can just go you get so gung ho and all you're focused on is training, and you kind of push intensity with every workout.
And, you know, you forget to take breaks and rest and let your body recover, and that can lead to detrimental consequences. Same carries over into work. You've gotta have that balance in work. You can't just be all work and no rest, no play. So balance is really critical, and it's carried through on on both sides, you know, both triathlon and then in my career. Consistency. Consistency is another big one, and you absolutely have to have consistency in training for triathlon and endurance sports.
And, you know, you don't have to be consistently great, but you have to be great at being consistent. And so, that's something that I learned really in triathlon. And because in work and in school, growing up, I always you know, I have a type a personality. I always wanted to be perfect or I always wanted to be the best. And that's just not the case in in triathlon. You're not gonna be the best.
There's always people that are much better than you, especially me, but, you know, having no background and not being a pro. So I just have to I you know, I've I've learned that it's all about consistency. You know? There's gonna be peaks and valleys along the way, but but you're gonna, you know, gradually make improvements, and you are going to achieve success in this is in the sport. And then same, you know, same with work.
You know, you don't always you're not always gonna be the the top performer, the shining star, but if you're consistent, people notice that, and you will be great over time. So consistency is huge. Drive and determination, that's my d. That's just, you know, really having that push. You've gotta have that push in triathlon. There are so many mornings I wake up and I don't want to swim. I don't wanna do my workout. But you don't need to feel good to get going.
You need to get going to give your chance, yourself a chance at feeling good. So I would say, you know, that that really pertains here. It's just continue to have determination. I do in travel on same with same with work. You've got to be driven, to to achieve your goals and succeed in life. And then e for me is just that enthusiasm, that passion, that excitement.
And, you know, as being in medical affairs, being in MSL, you know, hopefully all of us have that passion for improving patient lives and, you know, working with physicians and clinicians and helping to educate them and bringing those insights back in. Same with the sport of triathlon. You've gotta have passion about what you're doing because you you if you don't, there's there's no reason to do the sport. You won't you won't last.
You won't make it through because it's it's just too it's just so time consuming and intense. And then I think last, you know, for f, I I really feel like focus. When you're doing triathlon workouts, you have to you know, so so many times I get so distracted. You know, my mind is wandering elsewhere. I'm thinking about so many other things. But, really, what triathlon has spoke taught me is that when you're doing a workout, focus on your form, focus on your case, focus on your heart rate.
Like, pick something to focus on. Be present in that moment, and you'll get that much better, and you'll get so much more out of that workout. The same goes through work. You know? And sometimes we grow on these virtual meetings. You know, people are multitasking, checking emails, responding, but, you know, be present. Be present in the moment. Give it your all. And, and then, you know, people first of all, your colleagues are gonna appreciate that, but you're gonna get so much more.
You're gonna be so much more efficient in your productivity and what you're, you know, trying to accomplish work wise. So hope that answered the quest. I gotta tell you, like, I literally wanna hit rewind. Like, I I I, me personally, wanna go back, and I absolutely will, and listen to that again. Because I just I feel like I'm talking to, like, an Olympic athlete or but and I am talking to a top notch athlete, by the way. Don't don't get me wrong.
But, like, I like, just listening to what you just said is so next level, and I feel like there's so much there's so many takeaways in what you just said, and just the amount of passion and details and and how organized you are. There's, like, there's no going through the motions at all. This is an all in sort of thing. Otherwise, you just won't be able to do it.
Yeah. The thing that's that becomes tricky is that triathlon's one thing, but in our day in our day jobs, they're like, we have to hold ourselves accountable because we can go through the motions and get away with it. We can hide behind our desk sometimes. Yeah. And and, you know, and who's there to to tell us otherwise? Now a lot of times, there are accountability partners and managers and coworkers or whatever. Sometimes there's a lot of things that we know we can get away with.
Yeah. So and I wanna unpack that for a second because there's like, you are a self motivated person, clearly. Everything you just said just oozes self motivation. So how much has your coach helped you to keep you accountable? And how much is it like, Tom, I just have to do this myself? With or without a coach, it's my conscience yelling at me every day, making me get up, forcing me to do things. Yeah. I would say I've always held myself accountable for getting in some sort of exercise every day.
So prior to triathlon, I tried. You know? And, I mean, I I was not nearly as stringent and regimented. So to answer your question, I'd say now doing triathlon, having a coach, it's probably 5050. I am very self motivated regardless. I'm getting up, and I'm doing some sort of a workout. But knowing that someone is taking first of all, I'm paying for a coach. So I don't wanna waste the money. There's that. There's that, and that's not cheap. But the second component is she spends her time with me.
She's a professional triathlete herself, but she spends her time with me laying out my workouts, reading my notes. So and and she's seeing, you know, she's seeing if I accomplished every day, she's seeing if I you know, it kind of measures it on an app. Like, did you fully accomplish your workout? Did you partially? Did you not do it at all? So I know she's gonna look at that. And I also know she's gonna look in my notes, and she's gonna see, you know, how I felt during the workout. You know?
Was it a success? What went wrong? So that that really holds my feet to the fire. So at whereas before, if I was kind of like, well, you know, I'm going in. I'm gonna do I'll do a 2 hour ride. I'm not feeling it, so maybe I'll just do, like, an hour or 30 minutes today. That doesn't happen with a coach. Like, you unless you're sick or you really, you know, have a a good excuse, she holds me accountable.
So, yeah, I think I think it's kind of 5050, which I think we also if you think about work too, I think some of the best managers I've had were not micromanagers, but they were ones who checked in with me. And, you know, how can I you know, they would ask me, how can I help you? What's going on? Were you struggling? What's been, you know, what's been successful for you this week?
So, you know, those were I was having that frequent communication, and it it really kind of holds you more accountable as well. And when you're accountable to your team, when you're on your team calls and y'all are sharing best practices or struggles. I mean, I think that that kind of plays a part in account accountability in the workplace. Yep. Let's talk about I I wanna get back to some of because I know you have a ton of tips and practical advice.
So can you share some, like, scheduling tips and some Yeah. Scheduling hacks and how you're able to navigate your account. Because you talked about the calendar before. Yes. Okay. So for sure I mean, for me, everything goes on the calendar now. I wish I would've I literally wish I would've done this 20 years earlier when I started my career in the pharmaceutical industry. Like I said, I coordinate my calendar with the family calendar, and I literally block off.
I mean, I will block off every hour of the day. If I don't have meetings, I'll block that time for work. Or if I have, you know, a chance to get away at lunch and do a quick run, I'll block that. If Penelope's going on a field trip, like she is tomorrow, that's blocked off. So, I I cannot stress to people enough. If you don't really use your calendar, it's a great way to be more efficient. It's a great way to see where you're spending your time, when you have free time potentially.
And then, also, are you wasting time? Is there are there, you know, spots during the day where really you could be doing something? So I think that that to me is so just so important. Another big one is and I wish I would've known this too when I started as an MSL. I work wherever I can. Yesterday, I was in LA. I'm in my Uber. I am doing my expense report. I'm taking pictures of my receipts. At the airport, I'm in the club.
I am literally, what if it's not an expense report, I'm going through emails. I'm reading protocols. I'm, I mean, doing whatever I can. Same with the airplane. Now granted, we need our downtime, and, you know, yeah, it's fun every once in a while to just kind of relax, shut off, and you need that. You need that mental break. I even work while I'm exercising. So I've got a setup on my with my bike trainer upstairs where I have I have my actual, like, tri bike.
You remove a wheel, you put it on a trainer, and then I have a desk that's that's made for this bike trainer. I have my laptop on it. And so when I'm up early in morning, that's actually when I get my best work done. I'm going through emails. I'm reviewing PowerPoint decks, creating PowerPoint decks. I mean, there's so there's so much you can do. If I'm swimming or, let's say, running, I'm thinking. Like, I'm thinking about, okay, what what's in store for me today?
Maybe I have an upcoming meeting. I'm trying to just kinda organize my thoughts. If I'm on the treadmill, I've I've now I start when it's cold, sometimes I don't like to run outside. I bring my iPad. I'll watch, you know sometimes I'll watch educational webinars just to learn more about the disease state or, you know, conference sessions, podcasts. There's a really good podcast called the MSL Talk that I would send you to. So, and then driving. Driving is another to do.
Like, just get your mind organized. You can also listen to podcasts there. But so I I cannot stress that enough. Really making the most of your time because as an MSL, you are traveling quite a bit. So why not maximize that time? I mean, like I said, I think I Uber, airports, you know, airplanes is is is the big thing. So, also, I'd say as an MSL, you are the CEO of your own territory or region.
And when you're setting up your KOL meetings, pick the city or state where you can be for 2 to 3 days. You know, obviously, you wanna try to book as many appointments as possible. Some of them are gonna might get canceled, but I give my KOLs a few different options. So I say, okay. I'm gonna be just thinking. I'm gonna plan out the month of March. I'm gonna you know, this week, I'm gonna be in this city. The next week, another city.
Then I'll reach out to those KOLs, and I give them times and days. That kind of work for me. Usually, you know, you can find something that'll accommodate, accommodate them. Another thing, tips and tricks, you know, I I would say is I kind of set time limits and alarms too. So if I'm working on something, I'm like, okay. I'm gonna give this 30 minutes. I'm gonna really, like, focus, and I'll set my timer for 30 minutes and work for for that amount of time.
And then the alarm goes off, and then I'm done. I have to stop because sometimes I feel like you can just go on and on and just you end up wasting time, and you're not efficient. So that's important. Always allow for breaks too. I have been more recently trying to schedule more meetings to be 45 minutes so that people actually get a 15 minute break. But it's important to schedule breaks, you know, throughout your day. Your your brain needs step away.
You need to step away from your computer, or, you know, just kinda need that mental refresh. So, you know, and then I think just another one too. We talked about this leveraging your support system, communicating with your family, making sure, my husband travels too. So we really have to to plan. And then, another big one is learn best practices from others. Learn from your peers. You know, on my team calls, I like to have times where we talk about, like, hey. What was well this week?
What's the best practice for how to handle this? And so we can all learn from each other and just make us stronger individuals. I love it, man. That though that's such great advice, and I think that it's I think everything that you just said, like, the whole idea of just really working constantly Yeah. Doesn't have to be a grind where it's like, oh my god. I don't get a chance to because you just said put like, factor in breaks, but make the best use of your time.
Don't just think, well, I'm I'm in an Uber or I'm on a plane. Like, that's such valuable time that you can either catch up or get ahead. It almost like, for somebody as busy as you is there's just no excuse when you hear that. Yeah. So let's talk about real quick. Like, what are some of the biggest, like, time killers that MSLs just kinda fall into? You know, honestly, I I I mean, for me, one of the big ones is the expense reports. You know, we're getting back to it now.
It's, you know, not so much personal where we're all out in the field and, you know, when you're traveling on a regular basis, your expense reports start adding up, you know, the number of receipts you have. And in the past, I'd always just kinda put my receipts aside and, like, stay until the end of the week or sometimes the end of the month. That is such a time suck. When you wait to do an expense report, it's amazing how much longer it takes to complete.
That's why now, like, I I really feel like I'm the most I feel like I've mastered expense reports now, and we don't even have Concur at my new company. So we're doing this all kind of manual on the spreadsheet, but with Concur, I mean, that makes it so simple or any other expense app. But I think that's a I mean, I've seen it and I've heard it from other MSLs.
That can be a big time suck, especially if you delay or you prolong doing them, you know, getting your seats, you gotta take pictures, all that all that good stuff. So, and I think just too I mean, I kinda touched on this. I feel like there's a lot of free time when we're traveling. And, you know, whether it's, you know, at the airport, while you're on the plane, in the Uber, even at conferences, at medical conferences.
It's not like you're in back to back scientific sessions every you know, from 8 to 5. You pick the ones that are relevant. You go to those. You go to, you know, the poster sessions when, you know, you're you know, the posters that you're interested in are being, presented. Maybe you have some KOL meetings in there, but there's also a lot of downtime at conferences. So what I've always done is, like, we have a template that we use to to produce the executive summary.
So I'm already starting to write up my sessions and write up insights from my KOL meetings and, you know, write up the posters so that when we actually have to sit down after the conference and put it all together because those documents can be a beast to create, you know, depending on how extensive your your executive summary is and how large the conference is. But, I mean, just being efficient with stuff like that, I, you know, I think that's good. You know, I don't know.
Some a lot of MSL teams use some sort of a, you know, platform for or CRM for capturing, 8 you know, interactions with your KOLs along with insights. Sometimes, like, I used to wait to do that until, you know, like, the end of the week or when I was back in my office. And it's first of all, it's not fresh in your mind anymore. Then you have to take kind of a whole process to, you know, log in, and you're kinda, you know, doing it all from scratch.
But, you know, what I found I was doing is when I had, you know, KOL meetings booked, I'd have the meeting, and then right afterwards, I just kinda step aside, log in to my Veeva CRM and enter that interaction and, you know, capture my insights. And so fresh in mind, it's done right away, and I don't have to worry about it later. So I think those are kind of time killers, but then also tricks of of how you can overcome them. Allison, you're like superwoman.
You're you're inhuman, and I I I got so much out of this. So I just wanna thank you personally for coming on. And it's just this knowledge just flows so freely from you. You really are amazing, and I just I'm so grateful for you as a friend and colleague, and thank you for I'm glad we finally did this. Me too. And that I got to kinda share you and how awesome you are with everyone. So, guys, I encourage you to share this with others because there's so much really good information in here.
I know that I'm gonna listen to this again. But, Allison, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Tom. And, also, thank you so much for all you do for the MSL community. I mean, you're incredible. If you haven't had the chance to work with Tom, he is the best recruiter, he and his team. And so I just I've learned so much from your podcast. I listen to them, and there are pearls in every single one of them.
And I jot them down, and I, you know, I feel like it's made me a better, medical affairs leader. So thank you, Tom, for having me on. I really appreciate it. Well, you're the best. I appreciate you. And, guys, thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing the show, 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.