Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Tom Salemi's DeviceTalks Journey: From Newspaper Identity Crisis to Million-Play MedTech Podcast Network

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Tom Salemi's DeviceTalks Journey: From Newspaper Identity Crisis to Million-Play MedTech Podcast Network · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:17
and today's guest is Tom Salimi. Tom is the host and Editorial
0:21
Director of Device Talks, the Med tech platform that brings
0:25
innovators together through podcasts, webinars and live
0:28
conferences. Device Talks runs a network of
0:31
11 podcasts that has logged more than 1,000,000 plays.
0:36
It also hosts the popular Device Talks Tuesday series and three
0:41
yearly conferences in Boston, Minnesota and Silicon Valley.
0:45
Their company's mission is clear, Connect the medical
0:48
device community, share real stories and help new ideas move
0:53
faster. Now.
0:54
Under Tom's guidance, the network grew from zero shows to
0:58
a full slate that features leaders from firms like
1:01
Medtronic, Abbott and Stryker. He also programs the live events
1:06
that draw engineers, investors and clinicians who want to
1:09
design better devices. Tom has spent almost 30 years
1:13
covering the Med tech beat for outlets such as Dow Jones and
1:17
Informa. His peers praise his subject
1:19
knowledge and his knack for guiding open conversations that
1:23
sparked fresh thinking. Now before we get into all that
1:26
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Add Back benefits.com. Now back to our guest today, the
2:11
editorial Director of Device talks Tom.
2:14
And am I pronouncing your last name correctly?
2:16
Is it Salimi Salemi? Salimi yes.
2:19
Tom Salemi, thanks for making the time to Share your story
2:22
today. Absolutely my pleasure to be
2:23
here. Thanks for inviting me.
2:24
Yeah. OK.
2:25
So you graduated from Boston University with a degree in
2:28
journalism, Yes. What first sparked your interest
2:31
in the field overall? Overall, the first thing that
2:35
sparked my interest was when I was in high school, I went on a
2:37
one of those explorers kind of career thing and they it was AI
2:41
spent two weeks over over a span of a couple months at the Boston
2:44
Herald and got to see how they ran.
2:46
And I went in that newsroom and I was just like, my brain just
2:48
lit on fire. It was just exciting and it was
2:51
fun. And I was a shy kid and I was
2:53
like, I kind of knew at the time, like if I go into like a
2:56
cubicle world, like I'm never going to come out, I'm never
2:58
going to exist and and be out there.
3:00
So I intentionally wanted to be in an industry that I had to put
3:04
myself forth and put myself out there and really talk to people.
3:08
And then once I kind of became involved with journalism, I, I
3:11
realized that the other thing I really like is just building
3:13
communities. And that's a, a direct way to do
3:16
that. So that's kind of how I where
3:18
where I see my my function and my purpose right now.
3:21
So it's interesting at such a young age that you were able to
3:26
be that reflective about yourself and say, hey, I
3:29
recognize that I'm shy. And while it would be more
3:31
comfortable for me to disappear into a cubicle somewhere, I know
3:36
that that's not going to be good for my long term development.
3:39
And so you pushed yourself into a career field where you're
3:43
going to have to put yourself on that edge of discomfort all the
3:46
time. Yeah, I know.
3:48
I remember being vividly aware of that and and also knowing I
3:51
didn't want to be that way. And it certainly helped.
3:54
I mean, I can talk in front of a room of 1000 people now and I
3:58
don't care at this. The stage fright eventually went
4:00
away as well. What I never really acquired was
4:03
the killer instinct. You need to be a good
4:07
journalist, like to really, not the digging of the information,
4:10
but putting that information out there knowing that it was going
4:12
to cause someone harm in a way, even if it's a person who maybe
4:17
deserve the harm. I didn't like putting myself in
4:19
that position. So what I found myself bumping
4:21
up against six or seven years in was like, I don't have the, I
4:25
don't have the IT that a really good journalist needs.
4:27
And if I can't be the best at this, I want to find a way I can
4:30
use my skills and still really succeed.
4:34
So they're probably people listening to this.
4:36
They're like, wait a minute, your stage fright eventually
4:38
went away. How did you do that?
4:40
Practice. I remember my first conference,
4:43
I think there was like 14 people there.
4:45
So it was a really good way to start.
4:47
But I think for me, ultimately the realization I had was
4:53
everyone up, everyone in that room wants me to do well.
4:55
Like nobody wants me to fail. No one wants me to trip it.
4:59
Well, maybe they want me to trip and fall and get back up, but
5:01
nobody wants me to because that would be hysterical.
5:03
But no one wants you to do poorly and be boring and not
5:05
engage. And once I kind of got past that
5:08
me versus them sort of thing, and I realized we were all in
5:10
this together, we all wanted a positive experience, it just
5:13
kind of changed the wiring in my brain.
5:15
Fascinating. That was.
5:16
What was it for you? It wasn't like one of those old
5:18
like, picture people in their underwear kind of a thing.
5:20
It was, hey, we're all in this together.
5:22
They they we're on the same side.
5:25
I believe that's true and I don't know, I don't remember
5:26
like the exact moment, like I wasn't like lightning came from
5:29
the sky or the sun. The clouds parted and the sun
5:31
shone down on me, but I just remember at some point, like
5:33
what am I like? What am I worried about?
5:35
Because maybe I just, I'm, I imagine myself in the audience
5:39
and I'm like, well, I wouldn't want me to fail.
5:40
I'd want me to really kick butt and really do well.
5:43
So that started to change things for me.
5:45
Nice. OK, so you tried out journalism.
5:49
There were parts of it that you were really good at and you
5:51
loved. You didn't want to be in that
5:53
position where you were blowing this big expose, putting people
5:58
into compromising situations, but uncomfortable situations.
6:03
That just wasn't something you wanted to do.
6:05
Yeah, that was that. And also my girlfriend, then
6:08
fiance, then wife also was tired of me covering like weird night
6:11
meetings and not being around when I and I was like, you know
6:15
what, this is too much, too many reasons not to do this.
6:18
So I moved into business journalism, which seemed a
6:20
little more civilized and and frankly, there's some parts of
6:25
journalism, some stories you have to cover that you just
6:27
don't want to cover. So it was it, it was easy to
6:31
move out of newspapers, out of like daily newspapers.
6:35
I did though. I have a really strong part of
6:37
my identity tied to newspaper journalism.
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When I left that I was in crisis for like a year or so 'cause it
6:42
just, I really felt like that's who I was.
6:45
So that separation took a while for me to work through, and I'm
6:49
glad I did. I want to actually hear more
6:52
about that if you don't mind, because there's so many people
6:54
that go through this identity crisis that you're talking
6:58
about, but not many people actually discuss it.
7:01
And so when and I've been through it myself and I remember
7:05
going through it the first time and thinking, what's wrong with
7:07
me? Why am I so broken?
7:09
Like why is this so hard for me to get from here to there in my
7:14
life? What did you kind of learn about
7:16
yourself through that process? So I think journalists really do
7:22
see themselves as like the only truth seekers in the world, like
7:25
they're, they're the ones out there like fighting the fight.
7:28
And it's a, it's a very binary sort of view of the world.
7:32
And I see that even now with people I know in journalism.
7:35
Obviously they're my age now and they're more mature.
7:37
But back then in the 20s, it was like you were selling out if you
7:41
did. We're not in newspapers anymore.
7:44
So I definitely had a strong identity.
7:47
The newspapers, I really felt like I was doing good in the
7:50
world. And when I went and joined a
7:51
newsletter that was centered around venture capital
7:54
investment in healthcare start-ups, I was like, who am I?
8:00
You know, the old journalism adages you want to comfort the
8:03
afflicted, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable like
8:06
you want to go after the in here.
8:08
I was basically comforting the comfortable, comforting the,
8:11
this, the VCs to give them insights on, on things they can
8:16
invest in and ultimately make money in.
8:18
Well, I think worked for me and it and it in the newspaper
8:21
thing, it took me a while to work through.
8:22
I think what ultimately maybe saved me or at least quickened
8:26
my transition was it was medtech and it was biotech and they were
8:30
investing in companies that were going to make people better and
8:33
help people fight disease and, and get people healthier.
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So I think I was able to transfer, and I haven't really
8:38
caught this before, but transfer that sense of mission to the
8:43
things that they were investing in and I still hold dear to
8:46
that, that that's drives me every morning.
8:49
This identity crisis that you were having in this feeling of
8:53
perhaps selling out, was that just a story you were telling
8:56
yourself or were you getting blowback from the folks that you
9:00
worked with before? Mostly myself, I mean, my
9:03
friends and newspapers, a couple of them would be like, oh,
9:05
you're, you know, you're going out to the big salary.
9:07
I probably make like made, maybe I made 30% more, but I wasn't
9:11
making much in the newspapers. So newspapers, shame on them.
9:14
They're not paying folks enough for what they do.
9:17
But it was mostly internal. And once I worked through it,
9:20
all my friends who were newspapers, we're still great
9:23
friends. Like there's no, there's no
9:24
difference there. And it and it feels silly
9:26
remembering it and silly you're talking about it.
9:28
But it was a very real deal. And my wife was tired of me
9:30
talking about it like, oh, did I?
9:32
Did I make the right move? Oh and she's like Oh my God,
9:35
just leave it alone only. Well, and that's that's good
9:38
that she was there to support you up to a certain extent.
9:41
And then at some point, she's like kind of kicking you out of
9:43
the nest. Like, all right, enough of this,
9:45
right? She let me stay in the house,
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but she certainly would was just we just listed quietly as
9:50
opposed to give me a there there, so.
9:53
And so that first step that you took kind of away from
9:56
traditional journalism, what company was that?
9:59
What role? So it was a newsletter called
10:02
and it was printed newsletter mailed every once a month,
10:04
called venture capital and healthcare and it was 1998.
10:09
All of my other friends, those that did others left newspapers,
10:13
but they all went to the.com stuff where they made a lot of a
10:16
lot of money and a lot of trips to Vegas.
10:17
I went to medical devices, which was starting to sag at the time,
10:20
which was typical me. I'm always a contrarian, but it
10:24
was very much, I had a a Word document with a bunch of phone
10:27
numbers and I would call venture capitalists once a month and
10:30
just say, what are you investing in?
10:31
What are you investing in? So it was very much old school
10:34
reporting journalism, trying to dig stuff up.
10:38
And yeah, it was just a printed monthly printed newsletter that
10:40
we would have a a digest of investments and then a few
10:43
articles sort of looking at broader trends.
10:46
And these venture capitalists, they were mostly willing to take
10:50
your call somewhat. Surprisingly, I'd say, I mean,
10:54
they, they want their, their focus is every VC wants to be
11:00
the first call. They want to get the first call
11:02
when a company's raising money, they want to be the first entity
11:04
of this call because if it's a really good deal, they want to
11:06
grab it. They don't want to be the third
11:08
or fourth because by that time someone else has already passed
11:10
on it or it's gotten so much attention that they're going to
11:13
be paying more. So by talking to me, they got
11:16
their name out there and they were, they put themselves forth
11:19
as someone who invests in this area.
11:22
There were some who didn't care much about that.
11:23
They were going to make money whether I talk to them or not,
11:26
and they were a little prickly, but I don't know.
11:29
I respect that as well. Some of those folks you were
11:32
calling on back in the late 90s, you still have relationships
11:36
with them today. I do, I mean, a few of them,
11:38
they're all probably 20 years old than me.
11:40
So they're mostly retired at this point.
11:42
But if I ran into some of them, I, I would, I and I do on
11:45
occasion. It's, it's, it's a, it's a good
11:48
feeling and, and it's interesting now being so I was
11:51
calling them when I would have been probably in my late 20s and
11:54
they were probably in their 40s. So they had kids.
11:56
I didn't have kids like I didn't, I was the young person
11:58
in the dynamic. Now when I'm talking to VCs and
12:02
CE OS, I'm either the same age or unfortunately slightly older.
12:06
So it's easier to engage with them.
12:07
We have a lot more things to talk about.
12:09
But when I was starting out, it was really hard for me to like
12:13
build relationships with people who, you know, they're went to
12:17
Stanford or they're, they've got a few houses or they've got kids
12:21
or ski trips and all this stuff. So, but they, I think respected
12:26
what I did and, and and how I reported things and that it was
12:29
always fair. So we built some good
12:30
relationships. You know, so you've been in this
12:34
a long time. So, you know, kind of mid to
12:37
late 90s. Jeez, man, I've got like 3
12:43
questions in my brain that I want to ask.
12:44
At the same time, I kind of want to better understand from your
12:47
perspective how this arc overall has changed in the media space,
12:52
right? You used to call these folks.
12:54
It was a printed newsletter. No doubt.
12:56
If it still exists, it went online.
12:59
You know, now you're doing a podcast and you're doing
13:02
conferences. Kind of step us through like a
13:05
little bit of this timeline and how things unfolded.
13:09
Well, that's a big question. So yeah, no, things definitely
13:11
have changed. I mean, now everything is a
13:13
press release for every, every news, every financing is a press
13:18
release. So you have to wait for that to
13:19
come out. Whereas before there wasn't that
13:21
sort of that sort of demand, there wasn't that news
13:24
generating industry. There certainly wasn't the
13:26
Internet with all, I mean, it was just starting to emerge, but
13:28
not to the degree it is today. You know, we don't see as much
13:34
with printed news stories anymore.
13:36
Things are online, but things are also changing for online.
13:40
I mean, now we're at a point where just talking about the
13:43
printed or the written word, you've got companies that are
13:47
out there that put news on websites and they count on folks
13:50
to click on their websites to, to to generate business.
13:53
Well, now people are going to ChatGPT and they're getting like
13:56
a sentence summary of what's on that.
13:58
And maybe half of them click on the article, maybe half of them
14:01
don't. So this industry is, is always
14:05
changing. People are always trying to,
14:07
it's like water. They're trying to find the least
14:08
resistance to news. So I've just seen this sort of
14:15
cumbersome process become easier and easier and easier for folks,
14:19
especially in the business world where efficiency and, and being
14:22
up to date is important. So it is, it has changed a great
14:25
deal. I, I wouldn't go out with a,
14:27
with a monthly printed newsletter today.
14:31
I probably wouldn't put together a website either and the the
14:37
question of what's next is always interesting cause media
14:40
continues to evolve. Where do you think it's going
14:43
next? I mean, 'cause this is
14:44
fascinating, right? Like, you know, I used to get
14:47
newspapers delivered to our front door.
14:49
Newspapers are failing or really struggling.
14:52
The ones that are still around obviously have some combo of
14:56
print and online. Yeah, You know, now the online
15:00
versions are starting to suffer for exactly the reason that you
15:03
talked about, because AI, ChatGPT, Gemini, etcetera,
15:07
they're making it so easy to get the little snippet of
15:09
information that you want. You're not clicking through to
15:12
their website, which means that those ads aren't getting
15:14
triggered. So how did journalists stay
15:17
alive in this next iteration? That's a fantastic question.
15:21
And I, I don't have the answer. I'm, I'm snickering on the
15:23
inside because my friend who's still in newspapers, actually
15:26
he's a photographer for Associated Press.
15:28
He sent me a photo today of him and his new dog, but it's a
15:31
photo of him and the dog in his lap.
15:32
And my friend is holding a printed newspaper.
15:34
And I'm just like, what is that in your hand?
15:37
I'm like, you're actually have a printed newspaper delivered to
15:40
yours. It really seemed, really seemed
15:43
out of out of time. So I think, I think people are
15:48
looking for, again, the easiest way to get information.
15:51
I think that's why podcasts are, are growing and evolving and,
15:55
and being and playing a big part of that role.
15:58
You know, unfortunately, I think TikTok and, and is, if you talk
16:02
more national news plays a big role in that as well.
16:05
And that's an area I haven't tapped into.
16:06
But it just you just have to find a way either to make things
16:11
super easy for people to get like the bare facts of
16:14
information, you know, or you need to have really you need to
16:19
become a trusted brand. And that's where a lot of these
16:23
podcasters have have really gained recognition as new
16:28
sources because the folks listening just kind of trust
16:31
that podcasters perspective on the world.
16:35
And I haven't I don't listen to a lot of those podcasts and I
16:40
don't really know if in we're going far field.
16:42
I don't really know if I'm, if I want a podcast to be sort of
16:46
the, a podcaster to be at the curator of right or wrong or or,
16:50
or bias or not or, or perspective.
16:54
I don't, I, I, I don't think folks should just step within
16:56
their own bubble to become informed, although I probably do
17:00
some of that as well. But it's, it's an it's, it's
17:03
with all that's going on and I know I'm rambling between
17:06
podcasts and video and TikTok and, and I guess even websites
17:09
and, and ChatGPT go into that. There's just, there's so much
17:13
soup, so many ingredients in the soup.
17:14
I don't know. I don't know what it's going to
17:16
taste like when it's over and I don't know if it's ever over.
17:18
I mean, one of the things in Med tech we talk about that's,
17:21
that's a, a rising area, our brain computer interfaces, which
17:25
is like Neurolink, Elon Musk is sort of the highest profile of
17:28
them. But there's a whole class of
17:29
them where you get an implant in your brain and it can help a
17:33
folk who someone who's paralyzed walk or use a computer or
17:36
someone who's blind will help them see.
17:38
Ultimately, we're not there yet. But you know, does this get
17:42
become plugged into your phone and your news feed And and what
17:45
about the meta glasses? And what about everything else?
17:47
I mean, it's, it's an exciting slash scary time out there.
17:52
So when was your first introduction to the podcasting
17:55
world? I.
17:59
On the production side on. No, it's fine.
18:01
No, I about a little over 10 years ago, I was kind of getting
18:06
wary of I was writing for a magazine and it was, you know,
18:09
writing long articles and it was still about Med tech.
18:11
So I enjoyed it, but I really was kind of getting a little
18:13
tired of writing and I also was getting tired of just being just
18:17
quote UN quote, being a writer. Like I wanted to be a little
18:19
more engaged with things. So I ultimately, and, and I
18:24
mean, it actually, it was one of those situations where my kids
18:28
were probably maybe I'd get 8 and five or nine and six or
18:33
something like that. So you got the kids at home, you
18:35
can pick them up at school. Life is comfortable.
18:37
You've got the you, you, you don't want to change anything
18:39
and disrupt that. But I was, I wanted to do
18:41
something different. So I got laid off from my
18:44
writing job company that acquired us and I won't get into
18:47
it, just laid all the writers off.
18:49
They're like, oh, we, we bought you because we love your
18:51
coverage, but we don't need you to do it.
18:54
We're going to just do it without you with freelancers.
18:57
And I was obviously upset for two days, not deeply, but I was
19:01
a little annoyed like, how do you get rid of me?
19:03
Like, but it was a great, greatest thing that happened
19:07
because it just does, it gave me a chance to reset.
19:10
So I moved into, I kind of did contracting for a while, started
19:15
doing conferences. And then the podcast sort of
19:17
became a opportunity to market our conferences and kind of
19:20
build regular content and around around these events that only
19:25
happened two or three times a year.
19:27
And that's how I got into doing interviews.
19:29
And if my first one was called the OIS podcast, the
19:32
Ophthalmology Innovation Summit podcast.
19:34
And if when I listen to it, I laugh because I was terrible at,
19:37
I was just like, and I remember I was also doing some video
19:41
stuff and I had the company and I'm sorry to go on, but the
19:43
company was down on Long Island and I was up in Boston.
19:45
I would have to drive down and spend a couple of days to record
19:47
video. And first time I've ever had
19:50
we'd all do it. Now we all stare into this
19:51
camera and we're fine with it. But when you had it didn't do it
19:54
before and you're trying to say things and you're staring in the
19:58
camera, there's something behind the camera recording.
19:59
And I was, I was rocky to start with to the point where the
20:02
cameraman like went to the CE OS office.
20:05
It was like, I don't, I don't think this guy's going to work
20:07
out. I'm like, you told him that,
20:09
like, come on, give me a chance here.
20:11
But it was a, it was a time. It was a very freeing time.
20:14
So for me, that's how I got into podcast.
20:16
It's sort of a marketing tool for an event and it's grown from
20:21
there to now. I just see it as a, as a really,
20:24
I think, powerful form of media. So when you first got into it,
20:27
are we talking about the role at WTWH, the media company you're
20:31
with now? This was.
20:32
No, this was before. This was prior stop.
20:34
So how did the opportunity to join WTWH Media, the parent
20:39
company of Device, Talks? How did that come about?
20:41
So I was with that company that I referenced.
20:44
They ultimately sold their events that I was working on to
20:47
another company that was just a very nice people.
20:50
But as it's a very large conference company and I, I like
20:53
a smaller company like so this opportunity for device talks
20:59
came around. And so this was have been
21:02
November 2019. So I number one, I, I wanted to
21:08
move into sort of a smaller, a, a bigger role, a role where I
21:10
had more influence was I wasn't just a cognitive machine, but
21:14
also I wanted to really focus on just medical devices.
21:16
This other company wanted me to create all these innovation
21:18
summits around all these other industries like batteries and
21:21
things like that, which I think is a great idea, but I'm really.
21:23
Sorry, and when you say create like innovation summits, they
21:25
also want you organizing the live events.
21:28
Yes, yeah. So I was doing some of that with
21:31
this other company. I was more assisting with that.
21:33
So I wasn't just doing podcast was just a small part of what I
21:35
was doing. My my job job was creating
21:38
events. So we did one and did a one
21:41
every year in Med tech, did some in respiratory.
21:44
I helped with the ophthalmology one.
21:46
I didn't organize that one myself.
21:48
So it was very much a conference creation business with a podcast
21:53
as a marketing tool. When it came to WTWH, it would
21:57
have been very much a podcast, I'm sorry, a conference
22:00
organization organizing role. I was the editorial director of
22:02
three, the three Device Talks podcasts.
22:06
And that was November 2019. March 2020, Obviously the world
22:09
shut down South. We were cancelling our events.
22:14
No one knew when we'd get back. I think we had an event in June
22:16
that we cancelled and then we're like, well, maybe the one
22:18
September will still happen. This was in March and I just
22:22
knew like I, I just can't sit around and do nothing.
22:26
So I, I immediately launched this podcast.
22:29
I called my Co worker who I just started working with.
22:32
He's the editor of mass device and I said we're doing a
22:35
podcast, let's start doing a podcast.
22:37
He was like, OK, great. So we started this Device Talks
22:39
Week podcast in March 2020 just to initially we were just
22:42
talking about the news and then we started bringing guests on
22:46
and then and then it grew from there.
22:50
OK, so how many podcasts are we up to today?
22:55
Active. So podcasts we've got, we've got
22:58
the the number you mentioned there in our portfolio on our
23:01
website. If you go there, we're currently
23:03
producing. I still do the weekly one that I
23:05
started in March 2020 and we have some focused on a few
23:11
medical device companies and one focused on women in the medical
23:14
device industry. So probably four or five active.
23:18
And then we have a library of something.
23:19
We, we'd work with a medical device company to build a
23:22
podcast with their name on it and it would work.
23:25
It would be great for a year or two and then eventually they'd
23:27
like, you know what, I think we got what we needed out of this.
23:29
So we still have them on our website.
23:31
You can still go listen to them, but we're not producing new
23:33
episodes from those series. So when you work with a company
23:37
to produce this in conjunction with them to kind of talk about
23:40
the things that they're working on, they're paying you some kind
23:43
of a, a fee to do this. Actually, not so the the, the,
23:48
the, the, the, the code that we cracked was the larger medical
23:54
advice companies didn't really want to pay for these podcasts.
23:58
And frankly, I didn't really want them to because we wanted
24:00
to have I, I didn't want when they pay, you need to send them
24:04
the audio and they need to review everything.
24:06
And I get it, you know, they're paying for it.
24:07
They want to make sure it's perfect.
24:09
This was kind of a journalism vehicle.
24:12
So what they would do is they would do the work to get the
24:15
speakers that we wanted to, to get what we were able to do.
24:19
Though there's, there are contract manufacturers, their
24:23
design shops, there are others who want to work with these
24:26
large medical device companies and they want to find a way to
24:28
get out in front of these medical device companies and to
24:30
get their names known to these larger medical device companies.
24:34
So they would sponsor each episode.
24:35
Each episode would would have a single sponsor.
24:37
And with our first, we actually the first one we did was with
24:40
Medtronic. And it was great because
24:45
Medtronic, they gave us the leader of each of their
24:46
different, they had 20 different businesses and these smaller
24:49
entities, all a different interest that one wanted to be
24:52
in cardiology, one wanted to focus on spine and they could
24:55
sponsor the episode that was most directly appealing to their
24:59
business. And it was a great model that
25:02
others and it was this has been interesting.
25:04
Like it's, it's, it's getting the sponsorship for the, for the
25:10
podcast was difficult at the start, but once we got one
25:13
right, Medtronic was working really well.
25:15
Then the other device companies start coming to you and saying,
25:17
well, you know, why don't you do one for us?
25:19
You know, but I'd be happy to like, here's what we do.
25:22
And that's how we got worked with a lot of these other
25:24
companies. It just takes 1 success story to
25:27
kind of get it. So let me see if I'm
25:28
understanding this, because I thought you were saying that
25:30
they weren't paying for the episode, but they.
25:33
The big companies, the big companies are not the smaller
25:36
suppliers that want to do business with those big
25:38
companies. I'm sorry if I'm not articulate
25:40
so they. Medtronic wasn't sponsoring.
25:44
Medtronic was not paying for us, but they were paying us.
25:47
But they were making their senior leaders available, which
25:49
is a huge contribution. It was kind of in, in kind
25:53
sponsorship, but the actual sponsorship dollars came from
25:56
smaller companies that want to make Medtronic's products 'cause
26:00
these larger OEMs will will often outsource work to these
26:03
smaller companies. So this is a way for these
26:06
smaller companies to get out in front of the larger companies.
26:08
And is that still the model today?
26:10
For the most part, yeah, we've done a few custom podcasts where
26:14
the, the big, the medical invest companies have paid us, but most
26:16
of ours are still very much, I'd say 99% of our sponsors are
26:21
still the the smaller suppliers who also sponsor our conferences
26:25
who also want to put on webinars.
26:27
So it's it's another product in our portfolio that we can offer
26:31
them. OK.
26:32
And so when we talk about having all these different podcasts, if
26:36
I were to look up on Spotify just to pick a platform at
26:40
random, am I seeing a dozen different separate podcast names
26:49
or are these all sort of subsets of the same thing?
26:53
I don't know if my my question is making sense.
26:55
No, it does. Yep, Yep, you would.
26:59
I'm not sure how Spotify organizes it.
27:00
We do. You are able to subscribe to our
27:02
individual podcasts on our new PAT podcast platform that we
27:06
rolled out last year. But initially we were sending
27:09
everything out through one podcast channel, the Device
27:13
Talks Podcast network. So on Fridays we would send out
27:16
the weekly and then on Tuesday we would send out one of the
27:19
specialty podcasts, but they're all medical device oriented, so.
27:26
So if I want to hear all of your podcasts, do I need to subscribe
27:29
to multiple different? Well, you could just.
27:31
You could just. Subscribe to the Device Talks
27:32
Podcast network and they'll all go through that.
27:35
Yeah. OK.
27:35
That. OK that, that.
27:36
Helps me frame it in my head. Yeah.
27:37
OK, so the podcasts. Are making money.
27:41
Right, because you get to interview, you know, top leaders
27:44
in the space, you're helping them tell their stories.
27:46
And then the smaller suppliers that want to work with them are
27:48
sponsoring those episodes. It's a chance to get their name
27:52
heard. That's right.
27:53
And then? You.
27:54
Also, do these live events tell us about that.
27:58
So yeah, the live events. Were the legacy business that I
28:00
got hired to do. So we have device talks Boston,
28:05
device Talks Minnesota and device talks W which takes place
28:08
in California and they all are centered around designing and
28:13
manufacturing and commercializing medical devices.
28:16
So we have a company, we have we'll, we'll invite leaders from
28:22
the big OEMs, the larger medical device companies to come and
28:25
present and talk about their products.
28:26
And then we'll also have sponsors who were who are
28:31
designers and engineer shops give presentations as well.
28:34
So it's a, it's an extension of our conversation from the
28:39
podcast where we're talking about different ways to make
28:41
metal devices. OK, and So what actually goes
28:45
on? At these conferences and like,
28:47
give me an idea of the size. Is it like 50 people kind of
28:50
hanging out around a couple of tables?
28:52
Is it like a trade show? We've got a bit of a.
28:55
Trade show element to it. So in Boston we'll have over
28:58
1000 people at the Boston Convention Center that will be
29:02
there. We've got an Expo floor with
29:04
boots and things like that and that's happening May 27th, the
29:06
28th next year. I'll just give a little plug and
29:10
we'll have upstairs in the session rooms, we'll have
29:14
probably four or five sessions going on and some keynotes
29:16
including sit downs with some of the larger CEOs or CEOs of the
29:20
larger companies in the industry.
29:22
So I'll do those interviews and then in the morning and, and at
29:26
the in the end of the day. And then in between we'll have 5
29:29
sessions going on talking about different parts of device
29:32
development. How long has have these?
29:37
Live events existed. So mass device.
29:41
Is the news organization that was started and they launched
29:44
device talks. Their meetings, I think 2012 or
29:48
so was before I came on here. Initially they were just sort of
29:52
a dinner in a in a one interview sort of thing and they evolved
29:56
into what they are today actually post pandemic.
30:01
So when I joined, they were slightly smaller, two track
30:05
discussions in two prior to 2019 or prior to my joining.
30:12
And then when the pandemic hit, we had that two year low.
30:17
The podcast really sort of helped me.
30:21
We'll make connections with a lot of the.
30:22
Comms groups, the communication groups at these companies also
30:26
help me sort of see how the conference could be expanded.
30:29
So when we launched Device Talks Boston, that was the first one
30:32
we did in 2022, we had the four tracks going on and it was a, a
30:39
much bigger event. I'm trying to remember how many
30:40
folks we had at that one, but I think it was 6 or 800 at that
30:44
one. And I think that had been the
30:45
the largest device talks that we'd had at that point, if not
30:49
the largest. It was very close to tying the
30:51
largest. I'm trying to remember.
30:52
So, so that's how it's sort of evolved.
30:56
Once we once I had the two years to kind of explore what it could
31:00
be during the pandemic, we were able to reset and really kind of
31:03
make it larger. It was also I think the first or
31:05
second year we moved to the larger Convention Center, which
31:08
makes those bigger meetings more, more necessary, but we
31:14
did. We we did.
31:17
Wait a few years to relaunch Device Talks Minnesota.
31:20
We actually just brought that back last year and that's
31:23
actually a smaller event that was 300 people in Minnesota at a
31:27
really cool site at the University of Minnesota.
31:29
Still multiple tracks, but it was more of a an intimate
31:33
conference. It wasn't an Expo floor.
31:35
And then W is kind of a combination of the two and so
31:38
now. That you're doing these bigger
31:41
events, you're doing all these podcast interviews.
31:46
How does how does your thought process in terms of relationship
31:51
building compared to back in 98? You know, when you have this
31:56
spreadsheet of folks that you were just calling every day, is
32:01
it pretty much a similar process or?
32:04
Well, because the. I, I deal now with a lot of
32:06
larger companies now in most of my initial communication.
32:11
We'll go through them. I will know some of the speakers
32:14
myself and I may reach out to them on LinkedIn and say, hey,
32:16
just, you know, I'd love to have you speak at this meeting.
32:18
I'm going to go through comms to let them know.
32:19
But so it's definitely more formalized than it was.
32:23
Everything is more formalized than it was.
32:25
As I said before, we didn't have, we didn't have press
32:27
releases coming out back then, at least not to the extent that
32:31
we do now. So it is much more managed now
32:35
in terms of jetting speakers and sort of developing ideas and
32:40
conversations which. I mean, it is what it is.
32:44
I don't. Know if it's better or it's
32:45
worse, but it is what it is. I can't believe it.
32:48
At that. All right, I'll, I'll read
32:51
between the lines. So you guys are at the point now
32:54
where? You've got over 1,000,000 plays
32:57
across your all your podcast episodes.
33:01
How have you grown that? What are some key strategies,
33:03
growth levers so? For the for the sponsorship side
33:10
and I'll, I'll just focus on I, I have found with podcast that
33:13
that. It's really important to be.
33:17
Very specific in what you're speaking to when you're trying
33:20
to sell AB to B podcast. Like there, there was very
33:22
little interest. And, and I maybe that's evolved
33:25
over the last four years, but in a broader Med tech podcast, what
33:28
people really like to assign to is a certain technology or, or,
33:32
or a certain company. So growing the, the, the
33:36
sponsorship side of things really required us to think
33:39
about different areas that we, we could focus on and make the
33:43
podcast interesting enough to everybody, but specialized,
33:47
specialized enough to the focus on sponsors in terms of growth
33:50
for listeners. I really feel like, well, the
33:56
host certainly is a is a part of it.
33:59
People do ask me what does it take to what's the secret to
34:03
running a good podcast and. I mean, you really need to be
34:07
good at sort. Of talking with people and
34:09
engaging people and being curious and asking great
34:11
questions. I think a lot of podcasts out
34:12
there that we that are put on by folks who are trying to use it
34:18
as a business development tool. I hear them talking as much as
34:21
their guests are talking like they're they're they're in.
34:24
And I don't think like that's the role of the podcast and you
34:27
are, you are not doing that. You're actually just asking
34:29
questions and stepping out of the way, which is what I try to
34:32
do as well. So I think that's a, a great
34:34
part of it. But I have found, and I'm, I'm
34:36
sure I'd love to get your take on it as well.
34:39
A lot of the growth can just come from the one or two right
34:43
guests. Like you get one guest who just
34:44
like puts on LinkedIn. Hey, I was in this podcast and
34:48
either everyone listens, which is great and it does happen, or
34:51
at least they get a lot of attention on LinkedIn and a lot
34:54
of thumbs up and, and what not. And it just really expands and
34:58
you have enough of those little wildfire moments and eventually
35:02
builds and builds and builds. And I think once you sort of get
35:06
someone, get a listener who enjoys the show, you know,
35:10
they're going to, they may not listen to every episode, but
35:12
they're going to keep their eye out.
35:13
And when there's something that connects with them, they're
35:15
coming back. I think they learn to trust your
35:18
brand and learn to trust how you will do an interview and know
35:22
that when they go back, they're, they're, they're going to spend
35:25
their time well, they're going to spend their 30 minutes.
35:27
Well, they're not going to click on something.
35:29
I, I have a hard time listening to new podcasts like like, like
35:32
just cold, like pushing a podcast, 'cause I'm, I got 30
35:36
minutes. I want this to be, I don't want
35:37
to waste 30 minutes getting like frustrated, 'cause they're not
35:40
editing out the umms and ahs or there's too many deep breaths or
35:43
they're just missing obvious questions to ask.
35:45
So I think once you get a relationship with a, with a
35:48
listener, it can, you can really you can build from there.
35:52
Yeah. I I.
35:54
Found something similar, right. When you're, you've got a guest
35:57
who's got a big following themselves and they're going to
35:59
promote it to their list, their group, Yeah, that brings in a
36:03
whole influx of folks. And you're right, a certain
36:05
percentage of those folks are going to be like, oh, I like
36:07
this style. And they stick around.
36:10
Yeah. From.
36:11
Your perspective. How do you think about that
36:14
storytelling part of the process?
36:16
How are you trying to help your guests bring out their story the
36:20
best way I. Always like to spend the first
36:24
third of a conversation talk talking about the guest and
36:28
really understanding. And I know this is important to
36:30
you as well, understanding the, the path they took and the
36:35
reason they took that right hand turn instead of that left turn
36:38
and really try to unpack who they are.
36:41
I mean, we all have the, the medtech element.
36:44
My, my first question ever guess is why did you get into medtech?
36:46
Like what was the one thing everyone has?
36:49
Some people would just be like, oh, I, I walked by this parking
36:52
lot with a lot of nice cars and I said, whose cars are those?
36:55
Those are usually the sales guys.
36:56
And like, I want to do that. But some of them are my parents
37:00
were doctors, or my mom was sick, or I had a friend who died
37:04
at a. There's a lot of those stories
37:06
of Med tech and I always try to. I really respect folks in this.
37:11
Industry a great deal because they could be doing what they do
37:15
somewhere else and probably making more money doing it.
37:19
But I really want to unpack the why and then I want to
37:22
understand why folks make these decisions in their life and then
37:26
one of my favorite moments was with with Boston Boston
37:30
Scientific's CEO Mike Mahoney. He was one of.
37:34
The most Well. Regarded CEOs in the industry he
37:37
was at Johnson and Johnson Medtech, very big company, head
37:39
of their, their medtech group, very established company at the
37:43
time, Boston Scientific was really struggling and he was, he
37:49
was being recruited for the CEO job of Boston Scientific.
37:53
So he'd have to leave this well established company to go to the
37:55
struggling company. And people thought he was.
37:59
Nuts. You're like you're in the the
38:01
leader. Why would you do this?
38:02
And he told the story at, at the Vice talks Boston a couple years
38:06
ago, you know, he hired A consultant to really like review
38:10
both options. And the consultant was basically
38:12
came back and said, no way, like, don't take this job at
38:15
Boston Scientific. You're, you're finding where you
38:17
are. And he was prepared to say no.
38:20
And he was talking and I, and these are the moments I love.
38:22
Like he's talking on stage. He's like, I can't believe I'm
38:24
telling the story, But I went, he's like, I went into the
38:27
bathroom and I looked in the mirror and I said, all right,
38:29
it's Monday. It was a Saturday.
38:30
He's like on Monday, you look at yourself and you turn this down,
38:32
like, how do you feel? And he said, I'll regret it.
38:35
So he went, he took the job. And now he and Boston Scientific
38:39
are, are regarded as one of the better or if not the best
38:43
medical device companies out there.
38:44
Like I love, I love those moments because just like you
38:48
alluded to earlier, we all have these moments where we feel
38:50
unsure and vulnerable. We, I mean, we, I think a lot of
38:53
people go through life thinking those folks in those senior
38:55
positions have it all figured out.
38:57
Every decision is easy and no one's, they're always sure of
38:59
what they're going to do. That is not true.
39:01
Like we're all flawed and we're all uncertain and we're all just
39:06
making it up. As we go along and.
39:08
It really, I think if I can bring and I, I think people like
39:12
to, I think even the people and the leaders like to tell that
39:15
story. I think they like to share that
39:16
little piece of humanity. So I, I always try to pull that
39:20
out of folks if I can. And some people are open to
39:23
doing it. Some people aren't.
39:24
And you got to kind of, and I'm sure you've picked up this too,
39:27
you got to know when people are live wires and when they're not.
39:30
Yeah. I I love that you shared that I
39:33
had a guest and I'm going to sort of butcher the succinct way
39:36
that they put it, but something very similar where they were in
39:40
a fork in the road and their career and they had to decide,
39:44
you know, right or left and how they made the decision was to
39:48
say. Which decision when I?
39:52
Look back on it in a year will I be most proud of?
39:56
Yep. That's a great point, yeah.
39:57
Yeah, Yep, that's which? Which of those people?
40:00
Will I look back and be like, oh, I'm glad I was that person,
40:03
right? Yeah, that's that's another
40:05
great way. To look at it and then I tell
40:06
that to my kids, the whole coin flip thing, like when they're
40:09
unsure, I'm like, well, imagine a coin flip like heads is this
40:12
tails? Is that what do you want it to
40:14
be? And they're always like, well,
40:15
heads I'm like, wouldn't do that.
40:16
Like, there you go, now I'm. Curious in your role, whether
40:20
it's with the podcast or with the live events and the panel's
40:24
discussions that you're leading, etcetera, have there been times
40:28
where you feel you played like a key role in helping to bring
40:34
together the right conversations at the right time in making a
40:39
breakthrough happen in Med tech? That's a great question.
40:44
I don't know if I've. I don't know if I could claim.
40:47
That then maybe it's out there, but it's not coming to mind.
40:50
But I've had moments where on a more personal scale, there was,
40:55
there was last year. So every after every pod, after
40:57
every, at the end of every conference, we record a live
40:59
podcast. We get up on stage and me and
41:02
the editors and we'll bring the one or two speakers on.
41:04
And we kind of unpacked the the two days and then we take
41:07
questions from the audience and we'll run up the next day as a
41:09
podcast. And at Device Talks Boston last
41:13
year, a woman stood up and she said I, I can't recall her name,
41:20
but she's from Florida. She came up to Boston because
41:22
she's interested in in leaving banking and joining medtech.
41:27
So one of. Our panelists who was an.
41:28
Executive recruiter asked, well, why do you want to do that?
41:30
And she shared a very similar story.
41:31
My mom's been sick. She's been in the hospital.
41:33
Like, you know, I've seen these mental device folks there and I
41:36
really feel like I want to do that.
41:39
And it was. One of those kind of affirming,
41:42
oh, this is, you know, we we're we're in a good industry, You
41:44
know, we're drawing people to this industry.
41:47
What I found out six months later at device talks W was
41:49
someone else in the audience went up to her after and said, I
41:53
I head of sales at this medical device company, like why don't
41:56
we have a conversation? And he and ultimately ended up
41:59
hiring her and brought her into the medical device industry
42:02
because she stood up and asked a question at a stupid podcast
42:05
recording that I did at one of my dumb conferences like this
42:07
woman's life, her, her, you know, her, her dream of a career
42:11
change just happened. So if I know about this one, I'm
42:15
I'm almost sure there's probably 5 I don't know about, if not
42:18
more. And if I can change the world
42:21
one person at a time that way, I'm fine with that.
42:23
I mean, I don't need to help anyone cure cancer, but if I can
42:27
make a lot of people happier, that's great.
42:29
Of course, of course. You have, I mean, how many
42:31
podcasts have you recorded? Hundreds.
42:33
Hundreds. I can't.
42:34
Remember. Yeah.
42:35
And how many times has there? Been a listener there, like,
42:38
heard somebody talking and they just reached out to them on
42:41
their own. And I hope so.
42:42
You would have never known. Yeah.
42:44
I hope so, yeah. I think that's great.
42:48
Where do we go next here? You've covered a lot we.
42:51
Have. Why?
42:53
Don't, why don't we do the big serious challenge here, Tom
42:55
'cause I think that's where a lot of growth happens for
42:58
people. We don't often talk about these
43:00
really hard things that we go through.
43:03
And so people just see like where you are now, quote UN
43:06
quote, top of the hill. Everything came easy.
43:08
You know, Tom just had this path laid out for him.
43:11
It was inevitable. And it's like, no, there have
43:13
been some really hard things that have shaped you along the
43:16
way. What what's an example of one of
43:18
those? That's great.
43:20
I mean, I think I. Cheated and, and mentioned a few
43:22
of them already. I mean, the move from journalism
43:24
was big. The, the pandemic was, you know,
43:29
it just took this new job and then suddenly we can't have
43:31
meetings anymore and, and you're like, OK, I've just got to make
43:33
this work. And I ended up creating not only
43:36
the Med tech, but the podcast business, but our, our new
43:38
webinar business. That's we, it was just going to
43:41
be a fill in until conferences came back.
43:43
And then the conferences came back and our sponsors were like,
43:46
no, we still want to do those. So, but for me the going back to
43:51
being laid off at that time. It's the only time I've been
43:56
laid off. And actually, that's such.
43:59
I was laid off once when I was my first newspaper job.
44:02
I got laid off, but I wanted to, I was working on the Cape Cod.
44:05
I wanted to be up in Boston. I actually told him I'm like,
44:07
I'm 21 years old. I'm like, lay me out like you've
44:09
got to let someone go. Let someone go.
44:10
I ended up getting laid off, but then someone who was kept turned
44:14
down the job. So they laid me off, gave me the
44:16
severance and gave me a new job anyway.
44:18
So it was a real win for Tom on that day.
44:20
That was great. I got to keep that job.
44:22
But this time I was laid off. I had kids, you know, I had the
44:24
family and I still remember Sunday.
44:27
Night like knowing that. I didn't have a job to go to on
44:29
Monday. Was just the weirdest, weirdest
44:32
feeling. But I, I.
44:36
And I don't know if I, I don't remember doing this consciously,
44:38
but I really took it as like, this is not a moment to be
44:44
frightened. But I really I.
44:46
Felt unencumbered and free, like like the next, like I was really
44:50
grateful, not at the time, but in retrospect, I was really
44:53
grateful that the universe said no, like you need to change and
44:57
you need to evolve. And I did.
44:59
And I'm like, this is my chance to change and evolve.
45:01
So I didn't see it as a something I needed to recover
45:03
from. I needed it something.
45:04
I saw it as something I needed to really use.
45:08
As a? As a.
45:08
Transformational moment. So I mean career wise, that was
45:13
probably the the the pinnacle of my life or the one of the more
45:17
important tipping points of my life.
45:19
And you felt that way in the? Moment that hey, this is an
45:21
opportunity for change or you only realize that looking back I
45:25
felt it at the moment. I remember having I I was there
45:28
was certainly. I I was certainly frightened.
45:32
And, and to some degree, but I, I did feel at the moment, not to
45:35
be crass about it, but I remember having lunch with a
45:36
friend and I would just after a career of journalism where
45:40
you're not making a much, much money, I was like I.
45:44
Think I said Tommy's got to get paid.
45:45
I was like, I got to find a way to use my like I had, I
45:49
recognize I had skills and I had marketing and marketability or,
45:54
or I was starting to see it. Your your I was, would have been
45:58
mid 30s. No, yeah, no, no, it was 40.
46:02
It was 40 ish. I'm my math is my math skills
46:07
are slipping. No, mid 30s forties.
46:08
Anyway, I was, I was, I'd been working enough where I knew what
46:12
I was capable of doing, but I did.
46:15
I just knew at the time that I didn't want to go just find a
46:19
writing job somewhere. In fact, I actually like I was
46:22
recruited by one company. It's a very good company.
46:25
And the guy's great. And we're talking and he's like,
46:29
do you even want to do journalism anymore?
46:31
And he was kind of like this. And you know what?
46:33
I was like, you know what? I don't think I do like thanks
46:36
for the question. He was like, OK, like, well,
46:38
good luck to you. I'm like, OK, great.
46:39
Thank you very much. So it was definitely I, I, I
46:45
glad I used that time to really listen to the voice had told me
46:52
you, you, you want to be something different.
46:54
And I'm really happy with the way things turned out.
46:56
I mean, it, I was fortunate with the podcasting wasn't something
47:00
I was thinking of doing actively.
47:03
I'm fortunate that I'm, I'm good at it.
47:05
I mean, I've always been a good interviewer, but you know, I
47:08
think I'm, I'm engaging enough with, with listeners that they
47:12
like, they like to listen. So, so I think I, I always
47:16
encourage people when they're laid off, especially when you
47:18
see on the LinkedIn, like it's the most trite thing you can say
47:21
about like this really is an opportunity.
47:23
I know it feels bad right now, but this really is an
47:25
opportunity and I'm glad I, I, I took that opportunity at the
47:28
time. I feel like I'm rambling a bit
47:29
about it, but yeah, I I think people.
47:32
Would probably find it really helpful to hear more about how
47:36
you got through some of those like really sticky days, right?
47:38
Where because there's one thing to look in the rearview mirror
47:41
and be like, OK, now I've got a ton of gratitude for that.
47:44
And I, like you, were aware enough in a moment to say, hey,
47:48
like this is an opportunity for me to change.
47:51
But what wasn't immediately clear to you is what that change
47:54
needed to be. And I think that's probably the
47:57
sticky place where a lot of listeners are right now.
47:59
You know, we're recording this the end of December 2025.
48:02
The economy not great for everybody.
48:04
You know, some people looking for work.
48:07
Like what? What advice kind of looking back
48:09
and thinking like where you were and how you got through sort of
48:12
the day-to-day. Like what were some of the key
48:15
things that you did that might be helpful advice for others?
48:20
I ran 1/2 marathon. I trained for 1/2 marathon and I
48:24
was not a big runner, but I was only doing some 5 KS here and
48:26
there. But I was like all right, I've
48:27
got time during the day, now's the time to do it and I'm glad I
48:30
I did that. But in terms of the work, things
48:34
came. Together pretty quickly.
48:35
For me, so I'm, I'm grateful of that, but I do remember thinking
48:39
actively like I'm going to every day, I'm going to meet with
48:42
somebody every day, I'm going to have a phone call every day.
48:44
I'm going to try to build, try to create an opportunity that
48:47
maybe can grow into something in the future.
48:50
So I was constantly out there and this isn't a unique piece of
48:55
advice, but. You really need to to.
48:59
Reach out to your network. And I do believe, and I do tell
49:03
my, my sons this all the time. Like people do want to help when
49:07
they can, like especially young people, whenever someone in
49:12
college reaching out to me on LinkedIn, you know, and if, if
49:15
they want to meet with me, I meet with them like, I'm like,
49:17
sure, like I can give you a half hour, we can talk.
49:20
I think people do want to help. So I do encourage people to get
49:22
out there and, and try to have a lunch everyday, try to have a
49:26
coffee everyday. But the most important thing for
49:30
me at that time was I, I didn't rush and I really valued myself
49:35
and even said no to a job offer that I would have traditionally
49:40
said yes to because I was always just.
49:45
So quick to accept other. People's value of my abilities.
49:48
I learned to say no, which is a pretty powerful thing to say.
49:52
Like when you say no, it's not the end of a conversation, it
49:55
just sort of. Gives that person that you
49:58
should. Know to an opportunity to really
49:59
assess is how much they value and if they want to come back
50:01
with more than then it's a stronger relationship.
50:04
Then then it's a strong relationship.
50:06
So I don't know. I don't know if I'm giving any
50:10
other piece of advice other than just listen.
50:13
Don't, don't act out of fear. Don't just take a job to take a
50:17
job and to really if you can, even if it sets you back
50:20
financially short term, try to set yourself up for a long term
50:24
gain. Well, here's what.
50:25
You just said, Tom, that I really liked do something every
50:29
day, right? A coffee, a lunch every day.
50:32
Get out there, talk to people. Just expose yourself to more
50:37
opportunities for doors to open. What I'd like to hear from you
50:42
is how you think about developing and nurturing your
50:48
network so that in the event something like this happens,
50:54
you've got some folks that you can reach out to.
51:00
And maybe that's the sorry. I'm just going to sorry.
51:02
To cut you off. Maybe that's the wrong way to
51:04
think about it. Like, oh, I'm going to develop
51:05
my network just in case somewhere down the road I need
51:08
to pull that string. Maybe that's not quite the right
51:11
phrasing, but I think you understand what I'm getting at.
51:13
Yeah, I know. And that's not.
51:17
LinkedIn just changes everything.
51:19
Now, right? I mean, I think we all see
51:20
LinkedIn is now this. As the primary way we're.
51:26
We're we're networking. It is a, it is a great way to
51:28
network and I love LinkedIn and I love getting it and it's a
51:30
good forum for me too. People like my voice and they
51:32
respond to what I write often. Not always, but what I found is
51:40
more broadly, on a personal level, it's just.
51:46
I, I, I do. Believe people pay it forward.
51:50
I, I do try to again, be helpful to folks, not with the idea that
51:53
I'm going to get payback someday, but I think it just
51:55
sort of creates an energy around you that can propel you forward.
52:00
And this is more getting more metaphysical or quantum than I
52:02
intended to, but I really do just look for reasons to say yes
52:07
to people and to to try to help people when I can.
52:09
If it's something I'm not going to respond to.
52:11
Every PR pitch I get from folks, I try to, but there's too many
52:15
of them now. And a lot of them are AI
52:16
generated, which is a whole new headache.
52:18
But if the folks reach out and LinkedIn and they need time to,
52:21
to talk about something, if I can help them, I'll tell them.
52:24
If I can't, they can't. If I can help them, I will.
52:26
If I can't, I'll tell them I can't.
52:28
But I'll also always make time for them and listen.
52:30
So. I think just be kind to people.
52:36
Be that person that you that folks can count on.
52:38
And I think that helps you in the long run.
52:40
And that sounds a little gobbledygookish, but it's, well,
52:43
I'm going to kind of sum up. What?
52:44
I think I heard you say give first and be a kind human.
52:49
Yeah, I mean, that's what. A great way to live life.
52:52
In general I I agree with you 100.
52:54
Percent. I just I just believe in it and
52:57
that's why I like what I do. I mean, I like knowing that
53:00
people enjoy the, the podcast we put together.
53:03
The the conferences are an absolute headache to put
53:05
together. But the two days I'm there are
53:08
like, you know, it's like a wedding, like you, you just, you
53:10
complain about it for six months and then you have the wedding
53:12
and it's the best day of your life.
53:15
Having those conferences are great because you get to see all
53:17
these people that you've been kind of emailing with for two,
53:19
2, two or three months. And then you get to see all
53:22
these people who you never met before or haven't seen since the
53:25
last conference. I love that stuff.
53:27
I really do enjoy being at those conferences and and really do
53:31
enjoy just making experiences for folks, so I know a big part.
53:35
Of, you know, what's behind device talks, you want to create
53:39
this open platform where collaboration never stops.
53:43
You've got the podcast, you've got the conferences.
53:45
How do you kind of fill the gaps in making sure that that
53:50
collaboration never stops in between the podcasts and the the
53:54
live events? Yeah, No, I mean the the.
53:56
Webinars kind of help with that for sure.
53:59
We do those once a week. We're expanding those as well.
54:04
And I think just being on LinkedIn and and sort of
54:07
connecting with folks that way is the way to do it right now.
54:09
But I'm sure five years from now we'll be talking about something
54:14
else that, you know, just kind of came out of nowhere and we're
54:17
all thinking it was the most obvious thing ever.
54:20
But folks like to be engaged and I think, I think there's an
54:26
unquenchable desire for for that kind of connection.
54:30
So I think folks with S technology becomes more and more
54:33
personal and more and more accessible.
54:35
I think we're going to find new ways, new ways to connect with
54:37
people for sure. Say more about the webinars.
54:39
Tom, what do you do there? How does that fit in?
54:42
So the webinars are. They were designed, I mean, we
54:44
launched them in 2020 to basically do our conferences
54:47
online. I, I was never a big fan of at
54:49
the time, a lot of folks were just saying, oh, we'll just have
54:51
our two day conference online and folks can sit at their
54:53
computer for two days and it'll be the same thing.
54:56
And I was like, no one's going to do that.
54:57
Like there's just that we have work to do #1 #2 it's just
55:00
uncomfortable to sit there for that long listening to other
55:03
people talk. So we built the, my, my whole
55:06
thing was TV. Like every, every Tuesday at
55:09
4:00 PM we're having a webinar, we're calling it Device Talks
55:11
Tuesdays because I love alliteration.
55:13
And we're just going to sell slots and folks can, we'll have
55:17
these, these conference conversations here.
55:18
So we did that. And then it just has become a
55:21
thing. And it is sort of appointment
55:22
TV. If you look at our
55:23
registrations, there's like a lot of people who are like, it's
55:26
kind of like a, a, a radio talk show.
55:28
Like I'll get a question. We take questions from the
55:30
audience. And I often recognize people who
55:32
have asked questions before. And it's like, oh, hey, welcome
55:35
back. I'm glad you're here.
55:36
But it's just a, a way to there. There are opportunities for
55:41
engineering firms and for manufacturing firms and others.
55:43
And we'll have metal device companies coming as well to tell
55:46
their stories on a specific topic.
55:48
And I'll treat it almost like a talk show as much as they want
55:51
me to. Like I can ask folks about
55:53
anything for any length of time or if they want to give a
55:55
straight presentation, they can. But usually it's a presentation
55:59
and then some conversation with me and then we'll take questions
56:01
from the audience. But it is every week for the
56:04
most part. And it's just a sort of a
56:06
regular way to keep in touch with our with our community.
56:10
Where do you see device? Talks WTWH, media going, What's
56:15
in the future here? Projects that are either
56:18
currently underway or something that you've got your eye on.
56:22
It's it's a great. Question.
56:24
I mean, we're. I mean, we'll, we, we'll be.
56:27
We'll be doing our three conferences and, and now that
56:30
we've got the third one back, those do take a lot of time.
56:32
The webinars we're, we're continuing to sort of introduce
56:39
themes around cardiac innovation or surgical robotics, like we're
56:43
trying to really make it more week long events as opposed to
56:46
just one single day in the podcasts we need to, we're
56:51
continuing to explore sort of new ways of getting sponsors
56:57
involved that that don't. Initially we started off it was
57:01
like a 5 to 7 minute ad and it would just be we'd ask them
57:04
questions about their business. We've since sort of unfolded
57:07
unrolled, rolled out rather a something we call FOMO, the
57:10
future of medical device opportunities or Med tech
57:13
opportunities, where we'll we'll talk with speakers at our
57:18
conferences about for 10 minutes about something they're working
57:21
on. But we're also bringing our
57:22
sponsors and ask them not about how they work with customers,
57:25
but really what they're doing for technology and how they
57:27
things see things moving forward.
57:29
So to to really treat them as subject matter, subject matter
57:33
experts and as they are and really kind of elevating them.
57:38
So the FOMO is one way. And with our women in Med tech
57:41
podcast, we're actually getting our sponsors to, they'll start
57:45
the show as a Co host with Kayleen Brown, our managing
57:48
editor, who hosts that. And they'll actually talk for 10
57:51
minutes about not about the company, but about the topic
57:54
about the guest that Kayleen talks to.
57:56
And Kayleen will talk to executives in Med tech and
57:59
they'll always have some sort of message that they want to
58:01
impart. And Kayleen will unpack that
58:04
message with the Co host. So we're, we're trying to find
58:06
ways to, to make everyone feel like, you know, the star and
58:12
the, and the guest and make everyone feel, get, make
58:16
everyone acknowledge everyone as the expert that they are.
58:19
So that's that's sort of what we're we've been working on
58:22
right now is to just get more voices in in our podcast are.
58:26
There podcasts that you learn from in terms of format
58:30
presentation or is it kind of like you guys just you've got a
58:34
bunch of folks internally that are really good at this and just
58:38
bounce ideas off each other? No, I mean the guys.
58:41
Kaylin and I are are device talks.
58:43
We're the podcast team. So I do, I'm, I'm, I'm growing
58:51
more fond of of sort of longer podcasts.
58:54
And one in particular, I don't know if you listen to the
58:56
acquired podcasts where they'll have podcasts that are like two
58:59
or three hours where they just unpack a, a story of a company
59:03
like, and it's really more of they call it a, call it a.
59:07
They call it. I forget exactly.
59:08
The term they use, but they see themselves as almost an audio
59:10
book, kind of a current event audio book.
59:14
So I think with podcasts, you can find a lot of different ways
59:17
to to tell different stories. So I'm constantly listening to
59:22
what other people are doing every time I listen to a
59:24
podcast. And I don't know if you do the
59:25
same thing you kind of have in my head, Oh, that worked, that
59:28
didn't work. I might want to try that.
59:29
That's a great way to do it. Well, I love that when you sent
59:31
me your questions, I'm like, Oh, I love the way he did that.
59:34
Like maybe I'll incorporate that going forward with my guests
59:36
because I always worry. I try to keep it very light with
59:39
my guests and really I don't give them too many details
59:41
because I wanted to be conversational.
59:42
But I also know that a lot of people haven't done this before
59:46
and they want some assurances. Yeah, yeah.
59:48
Yeah. So so I'm always learning and
59:51
absorbing from other podcasts, including including yours.
59:55
What's? Your superpower.
59:55
Tom. Oh, wow.
1:00:02
I, I think I've got, I, I, I reference at the top that I, I
1:00:08
enjoy building community. And I think that's really what
1:00:10
kind of drives me. I mean, I'm involved with town
1:00:13
government. In my town, when I was in
1:00:15
newspapers, I would always, I swore to myself, like if I'm
1:00:18
ever, if I ever own a house in a town, like I'm going to, I'm
1:00:20
going to get involved. I'm going to go to a meeting,
1:00:22
like I'm going to listen, I'm going to try to be part of it.
1:00:25
I've always been the, the, the, the soccer who's been the
1:00:28
assistant coach for whatever sport that I'm terrible at.
1:00:30
But I'm great at telling kids to like line up or or don't run off
1:00:34
and change chase butterflies. So I, I like, I like making
1:00:39
others, I like making other people feel welcome and
1:00:42
involved. If they're guests at my house or
1:00:45
if they're guests at my conference, I like to make sure
1:00:47
that they're having a good time and I'm comfortable going up and
1:00:50
saying hello to anybody. So I like it.
1:00:53
What's your favorite? Thing to do outside of work.
1:00:57
I'm a really simple person. I'm so boring.
1:00:59
I really am. I've got my boys are older now,
1:01:02
so we don't do as much anymore. I love just, I live in a town
1:01:06
where if I walk up the hill, I'm in the woods, I walk down the
1:01:09
hill, I'm in our downtown. And I just love having quiet
1:01:13
weekends at home, taking two or three hour hikes either in the
1:01:16
woods or through our downtown with my dog or with my wife and,
1:01:21
and just just, I don't know, just chilling.
1:01:24
So I don't have any grade. I don't own a boat.
1:01:27
I don't ski very much, but I just like quiet contemplation, I
1:01:32
guess. How old are your kids?
1:01:35
I've got a 20. Year old and a 16 year old.
1:01:38
So I've got junior in college and a sophomore in high school.
1:01:42
OK, yeah, fun. Stuff.
1:01:44
Yeah, very, very much so. Tom, I've just got one more.
1:01:47
Question for you today, but before I ask and I want to do 3
1:01:49
quick things. First, anybody who wants to get
1:01:52
in touch with Tom, his last name, SALEMI Tom Slimy and you
1:01:57
can find him on LinkedIn. We'll include a link to that in
1:02:00
our show notes. Also, as a reminder, if you want
1:02:03
to get more employees access to benefits that actually carries a
1:02:06
financial upside for the company, reach out to us at Add
1:02:09
Back benefits.com. And finally, if you'll pause,
1:02:12
take just a moment to leave us a comment or a review on your
1:02:15
favorite podcast app. And you hold a special place in
1:02:18
my heart forever. Thank you.
1:02:20
So last question for you, Tom, you and I reconnect a year from
1:02:24
today and you're celebrating something big.
1:02:27
What's that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from
1:02:30
now? Wow, I like that question.
1:02:35
I don't know if that was on the list you sent over, but I like
1:02:37
that question. I want to, I hope by then I will
1:02:42
figure it out what we just talked about a few minutes ago
1:02:44
about the next thing I want to be able to excitedly tell you
1:02:46
like all right. Remember when I told you about
1:02:49
the? Podcast and the webinars and the
1:02:50
conferences like this is this is the thing that's going to either
1:02:54
supplant all those or really connect all those all and make
1:02:57
them relevant. So I'm always sort of pushing
1:03:02
for the what's next. I hope I have some semblance of
1:03:04
an idea of, of what's the next way of, of connecting folks.
1:03:08
And it may be maybe a podcast, it may be something completely
1:03:11
different, but I'm, I'm, I've watched too many things unfold
1:03:17
to know that life remains the same.
1:03:20
Like we're always trying to find new ways of doing things.
1:03:22
So I hope I, I figured out the new thing by then.
1:03:24
Fun stuff. Well, it'll.
1:03:26
Give us an opportunity to check back in with each other.
1:03:28
I look forward to it, yeah. Tom.
1:03:30
Solemi from Device Talks, I want to be the first to thank you for
1:03:32
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:03:35
I really appreciate it, my pleasure.
1:03:36
This has been a A. Very fun conversation.
1:03:39
We've recorded things I don't, I don't think I've ever said to
1:03:41
friends, so this will be exciting.
1:03:44
I take that as a compliment. Thank you, folks.
1:03:46
That's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:03:49
Thanks for learning with us today.