Building your Brand as a Medical Device Professional

Have you ever had to “sell” your brand to someone? To do this effectively, you must master the art of networking and selling whatever it is that you bring to the table.

In this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast, Jon Speer talks to Chip Helm, a Dental School dropout turned National Sales Manager of a multi-billion-dollar medical device company. Also, Chip is a guest lecturer and bestselling author who is creating a sales revolution.

Together, Chip and Jon chat about the importance of a person's brand, which consist of three main types, and how medical device professionals can create new opportunities for growth with intentional self awareness tactics.

LISTEN NOW:

Like this episode? Subscribe today on iTunes or Spotify.

Some highlights of this episode include:

• Chip’s Books: It doesn’t matter what career you take and where you go, his books teach basic principles of business and lessons that fit into anybody’s career, any company.
• Importance of Branding: Whether it’s your personal or professional brand, you have got to have self awareness to build, develop, and write your personal brand.
• Google your name. What can you do if you don’t like the brand you have? Find five things about yourself and how others you trust perceive you and your brand.
• Compartmentalize: Perception is reality, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t do something. Your personal brand can take years to build, but it can take only seconds to lose it.
• Rules of Engagement: There’s three brands—personal, colleague/industry, and customer—observe and listen more, speak less to communicate.
• Your company must have a great product, but it’s still about networking and building relationships. Help people by offering solutions to solve their problems.
• Sales Component: If you’re just trying to sell someone something, they can tell if you care about them or not. Commission gets people too close to not doing the right thing for the right person.

Links:

Chip Helm’s Website

Everyday Sales Wisdom for Your Wealth and Career by Chip Helm

Bigger Than Sales - How Humility and Relationships Build Career Success by Chip Helm

To Sell is Human by Daniel H. Pink

Mark Cuban on Shark Tank

Greenlight Guru Academy

Greenlight Guru YouTube Channel

MedTech True Quality Stories Podcast

Greenlight Guru

Memorable Quotes by Chip Helm:

“It doesn’t matter what career you take and where you go, it teaches five basic principles of business. It fits into anybody’s career, any company, it doesn’t matter.”

“Everyone’s in sales.”

“Most people say when they think of branding, they think of corporate branding. They really don’t think that there’s a thing called personal branding out there.”

“It could take years to build up a personal brand, but it will take seconds to lose it.”

“If you want to get promoted, if you want to get a better paycheck, if you want to make advancements...you need to be up on your personal brand. You’ve got to understand it.”

Transcript:

Announcer: Welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast, where today's brightest minds in the medical device industry go to get their most useful and actionable insider knowledge direct from some of the world's leading medical device experts and companies.

Jon Speer: On this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast, I actually have a guest. Kind of a blast from the past, for me, somebody that I worked with many, many, many years ago, his name's Chip Helm. You can learn more about him by going to chiphelm.com. Chip and I chat at some length about the importance of brand. We talk about sales and how all of us are in sales. I know it's crazy, but we're all in sales in some form or fashion. And brand is important or should be important in any way at multiple levels from a personal perspective to a career perspective and so on. So lots of things to think about and lots of things to really help you be better as medical device professionals. So I hope you enjoy this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast. Hello, and welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast. This is your host and founder at Greenlight Guru, Jon Speer. Joining me today, well, for me, it's a little bit of a blast from the past, frankly, but joining me is Chip Helm. Chip has been in the medical device industry and some form of fashion for over 36 years. He's also an author. So Chip, welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast.

Chip Helm: Thank you so much. It did bring him back to past for me. I saw what you're doing. I was fascinated. I wanted to reach out to you.

Jon Speer: Yeah, glad you did.

Chip Helm: It's an honor to be on your podcast this afternoon.

Jon Speer: Oh, the pleasure's all mine. And Chip, I mentioned you're an author. I know you've got a couple of books. You've got a prolific career in sales. Maybe tell folks a little bit about who you are, your background, and point people where they can find more about your books and other content about you.

Chip Helm: Yes, you're right. I've been in the business, actually, I just started my 36 years in the medical industry for a multi-billion-dollar company. So I've been blessed, but out of nowhere, about 10 years ago, I shared a funny story around the Christmas tree with my kids and said, I think dad can write a book. I write a couple," Write a book.", that's all I said. Over the next 10 years, they bugged me and bugged and bugged me, because I got three kids. Where's your book? Where's your book? So finally just get them off my butt to finally do this. And I was scared to death, so a year to do it. And I wrote a book and then about two weeks or three weeks before it was going to go to publication, gets this call that, and say," Mr. Helm or Chip, you're going to birth two babies." I go,"What are you telling about birth and two babies?"" You're not going to just have one book, you're going to have two books." Out of that, came up, one was called Everyday Sales Wisdom for Your Life and Career. It's kind of that opening. I'm known as Chip and I have these Chipisms in there. Kind of, if I tell you Chipism, I want you to remember it. I want you to take, once you to change your behavior. And it was kind of a foundation kind of book. And then the second book is Bigger Than Sales How Humility, can you believe that sales and humility can work together? But how humility relationships build for a success? And that was kind of the, how to book. And in the last comment I'll make about that is I wanted to make them small as sweet. I'm a K-I-S-S guy, keep it simple. And so these things are about 115 pages. They're easy airplane reads, it take about two hours, but I give you the lessons at the end of each chapter. So if you'll do something like work to plan, plan to work, so that's kind of what I brought out and I shared it. And, but the whole premise around these as an inner seeing, when I'm going to say this, because most people don't believe this, it's a myth out there or something, but everyone's in sales.

Jon Speer: A hundred percent.

Chip Helm: But see that's the thing, Jon, most people don't believe that. I'm in marketing, I'm in IT, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a dentist, I'm a whatever. Well, christ, I mean, take example of my son, he's going to become an orthopedic surgeon. How do you think is going to get customers in his office? He's in sales. So that premise of it, I've been very, very blessed. And thank you again for allowing me on your show this afternoon.

Jon Speer: And then I love that last little bit about everyone's in sales. I think it was Daniel Pink. Are you familiar with that author? Yeah, he has a, I think he has a book called To Sell Is Human. And I think that's also a great read. I mean, grab your books, where can we find your books, Chip? chiphelm.com or some other website?

Chip Helm: Actually. You're right.

Jon Speer: Oh, chiphelm.com, okay.

Chip Helm: Yes, chiphelm. com. Also, they're on Amazon, easily. The second book, I think, Bigger Than Sales went the best seller. So yeah, I mean, and I've very, very approachable, chiphelm16 @gmail. com. I get calls all the time and mentoring, and I throw this out 812- 947-3528. It doesn't matter because I enjoy getting folks on the, it all started about six years ago when I started or seven years ago when I started speaking to colleges. So I speak around the country now at different places and yeah, around it. The premise of everyone's in sales, so it doesn't matter what career you take and where you go. I teach those five basic principles of business and it fits into any combined career. Any company, it doesn't matter, is where you're at. Maybe you're a banker or it doesn't matter if you're a welder, it doesn't matter.

Jon Speer: Yeah, and as you and I were kind of going back and forth prior to our session today, we exchanged a few thoughts on ideas and certainly there's a sales component to it that I want to dive into a little bit deeper with you today. And I also want to tie in the importance of branding. I mean, a lot of folks who are listening to the Global Medical Device Podcast, I assume they represent the demographics of the medical device industry, which could be anywhere from the aspiring entrepreneur who has an idea that wants to get it off the ground to, the multi- billion- dollar organization. But let's dive into that a little bit and talk a little bit about, how does branding, whether it be your personal brand or your company brand, how does that all play? Maybe that's a good place to start. What are your thoughts there?

Chip Helm: Well, first of all, let's go back to the beginning. Most people think when they think of branding, they think of corporate branding. They really don't think that there's a thing called personal branding out there. And god willing. I wished a headshot. When I started, and then that 35 plus years ago that somebody would have told me, Jon Speer of the world, from apart back, they didn't have podcasts. Would've said, Chip, you got to have self- awareness there's thing called personal branding. You've got to build your brand and Chip, you got to be careful because if you don't have a very good personal brand, you're going to be in trouble. So that's the first, we're going to realize there is a personal brand. So I do a lot of teaching about that. I'd explain what is a personal brand, how to develop your personal brand, how to write it? It's very simple as some simple tricks. And then what happens when you lose your brand? Because we all know that it could take years to build up a personal brand, build, take seconds to lose it. And my brand is going throughout my whole career. So that's the beginning of, it's extremely important, personal branding.

Jon Speer: Yeah. And I agree with you that, I mean it's somewhere, some time along the way, I think I heard a tip or somebody has said, just say," Hey, just go Google your own name and see what kind of results come back and see what the images are and the different links." and that sort of thing. And it's the first time I did it, it was super enlightening because I'm like," Oh, wow." If I, because I'm starting a business at the time, and yes, I had a business entity and a brand associated with my business. But at the same time I was associated with that business. And I was the face of that business. And people are, especially in this day, and they're all into the internet to do all sorts of due diligence and their own research before they ever reach out and have a conversation. And so that was really important lesson, an eye- opener for me is like," Oh, wow, that's not exactly maybe what I wanted my brand others to perceive my brand to be." So, what can I do about that? Any, you get a lot of opinions on this, but what do I do if I don't like the brand that I have?

Chip Helm: Well, first of all, how do you start your brand? As a very simple process, get your best friend, get your mother and father, get someone you trust, go out to lunch, sit across from each other, get a piece of paper out. You have a piece of paper. If you're my best friend, and I got a piece of paper, we both got pens. I'm going to ask you this question. Jon give me five things when you think about Chip Helm, I don't care what it is. It could be as mean. It could be whatever it is. I want five things written down and I'm going to write what I think about myself. Because remember we love ourselves. Oh my god. We think we're the greatest thing since sliced bread. So we love, so I can guarantee you, Jon, my five things will not connect with your five things. That's the start, that's going to, wow. I didn't realize I could be such a a- hole or I could be such a bad person. I didn't realize I treated people very poorly. I didn't realize I didn't listen very well. So that's the start of building a brand. Then you put it on paper, then you develop it. You write a paragraph or two about your brand. You get it down on paper. So you have something to measure by and you have something to live by. So that's the next step. And then you start developing your brand and not call it rules of engagement because there's three brands out there. There's a personal brand and there is a colleague brand, your industry brand, and there's a customer brand. And I'm going to tell you one thing, the most important brand out there is the customer brand and your colleague brand. But unfortunately the real brand is your personal brand. And what that is, if you want to get promoted, if you want to get a pay a better paycheck, if you want to get make advancements, if you're working for somebody, you got to be up on your personal brand, you got to understand it. So the rules of engagement is, once you kind of get an idea, what that brand is and you write it down and you put your arms around it. You, I call it rules of engagement. You need to sit down across from your boss and say," Hey, how do you want to communicate? How do you want to, what do you expect of me? What's going on? I need to know what's going on so that I can make sure that I hear this brand. Is this the brand you think I am too?" I want to know also because somebody asked me the other day, well, can you get it from your boss? Sure. If you have that kind of relationship, but the best people to get it is your best friend, your mother and father, someone that you trust that will tell you the truth. Well, know what you want to hear. So that's what I didn't do. Probably seven years into my job. I didn't know what a personal brand, I didn't know what matter, I thought everyone like Chip Helm. I talk about self- awareness, you connect the dots. Self- awareness, nobody knows what self- awareness means. You got to understand what's going on around you. You got to observe more, listen more, and speak less. I wish it was some things in that I wouldn't have done in the past. And because of very voice for us, I'm very active. I've never not met a friend. So the issue about this person it's so important and it changes so rapidly that you've got to be aware. I just was not ever aware Jon for a long time.

Jon Speer: Yeah, and I think, in the era that where you and I grew up, in the time that we grew up, I think it was probably easier to not think about the brand. And I, fast forward to younger generations, it's certainly post- internet. I mean, everything that, like my kids, I mean, my kids are a little bit younger than yours, but they're 18 and 21. And they've got technology, and smartphones, and cameras, and video all the time. Things that they're streaming, watching, video recording, whatever the case may be. And it's like that, Facebook and this and that, and all this stuff that they're doing is going out into the internet and it's going to be possibly part of those search results whenever they Google themselves. Like," Oh my goodness. I can't believe that picture of me at that party last, last year is on the number one result of an image of me." And I think that's something that maybe folks don't think so much about it as like," Oh, wow, these things, the things that you do, things that you don't do, the pictures that you're taking, the videos that you're recording, these are all things that become associated with you as the brand." And it's now, it's a few key strokes away for anybody like," Oh my gosh, Chip, he's applied for this job that we have an opening. And man, it looks like he's got a lot of experience. Let's just do a little bit of a research." And then you pull up all these pictures of this and that. And so on. I was like," Hmm, is that the kind of person we want representing our brand as a company?" I'm with you though. I mean, I just didn't emphasize or even think about brand those early years, but you get a little bit older. It's important. It's super important.

Chip Helm: Well, it hurts you. And the problem is I've fallen off tall ladders and hit that ground hard. And then the next thing I teach, you got to compartmentalize things because let me give you an example. It doesn't matter if you didn't do it. You hear what I said out there. I'll repeat a lot during this time, Jon, because two things in sales, repetition, repetition, repetition, and preparation, preparation. And unless you repeat things over and over again, so it doesn't stick in people's minds, but I'm just telling you that you hit that ground and it doesn't matter if you didn't do it. I get this all the time. Well, Mr. Helm, I didn't do it. So why should, it doesn't matter, compartmentalize it, dust yourself off and say, if Jon and my boss believes I did it, I did it. Now let's talk to Jon and see how I move forward. What do I do? Especially if you have to work with a guy named Jon for a long time to come. So it doesn't matter if you didn't do it, you've got to just understand that you did do it in their minds. Now, how do you change it? What problem is, people's listening to this, is that they can't get over it. That's when you compartmentalize it, you put it aside. Okay. I know I didn't do it. I know I'm a better person than that, but that doesn't matter. The person I got to work with, thinks I did. So now, how do I improve that brand in their eyes? Their boss's eyes, because I want to move this vast, or I want to get a pay raise, or I want to move this. So that's what really boils it. That's the hard part of what we call a personal branding versus, my gosh, my brand, the customer, that's the most important brand. If I would tell anyone, what your customer thinks of you and what your colleague thinks of you. But unfortunately that one in the middle of personal brand is probably the most important one. And devastating one, if you don't have it and don't know what it is. And you lose it.

Jon Speer: Yeah. I want to take a short break, Chip. We'll get back to maybe some action items for folks here in a moment, but want to remind folks I'm talking with Chip Helm. Chip is a seasoned, very experienced sales professional, and he's worked in the medical device industry for, well, this is his 36th year in the industry. He is also an author and you can learn more about his tips and pointers and where to get his books. It's very simple folks, go to chiphelm. com, C- H- I- P- H- E- L- M. com. While I'm taking this break, I want to remind folks about Greenlight Guru, we have developed the only medical device success platform in the marketplace today. It's designed specifically and exclusively for medical device companies by actual medical device professionals. So it helps you navigate the design and development process, document management, maintain your quality system and frankly manage the total product life cycle of your products and processes. So if you're interested in learning more about the Greenlight Guru medical device access platform, go to www.greenlight.guru. We'd love to have a conversation with you, understand your needs and requirements, and see if we have products and solutions that can help you. So Chip getting back to that, let's talk about falling off that ladder. Let's imagine that, maybe I did fall off that ladder or someone believes I fell off the ladder, either way, it is the truth. You are the reality, right? So what do I do about it? What are some practical tips and pointers? How do I, I mean, you talked about going and face in that, maybe that boss or that colleague head on, but sometimes I don't have that opportunity. I don't have that luxury to interact with that person face to face or I don't know who's consuming the perception of my brand. Are there things that I can do to sort of course correct and get things back on track?

Chip Helm: Well, we've got a couple of things here. First of all, hope you've got mentors in your life. I would be. And today, and then I went to dental school because of mentor. I got my job in the medical industry because of mentor. So I would say that you can't, if you can't get back in front of that, I think the first thing is to get with a mentor or have a mentor and have those. So that would be the first thing I would do. The second thing is you've got to learn how to compartmentalize things because most people can't, they can't give out, they can't get rid of it. They can't let go of the fact that maybe they didn't actually do it, but in the real world, perception is reality. So you've got to really coach yourself and teach yourself. And you know what else? So I would say really, hold on tight to a mentor to do it. I would say that you got to learn how to compartmentalize. I would say also you have to re- engage your, and look at your brand again. I would take that little test, get them, okay. Tell me about me. Tell me what you think of me and I'll tell you what I think. I mean, they're not going to work. They're not going to go together, but you're going to learn something and then you've got to write. You want to go back and you want to revisit your brand before. Okay. Write it down, have it again, rewrite it. So go through some simple steps, start working on your behavior on that and start working on those, the little things. But obviously if you can get in front of the person, that's the scariest part. You've got to sit down immediately and understand what your brand. I didn't do that. So if you're working inside of a corporation and most people work for people today, use my rules, engagement session, planning it out, go in there with a list of the expectations, how do you want to communicate it? Text, email. What do you want me to do from day to day? How can you get me from A to Z? All these things from, you got to start that rules of engagement, and you've got to start having periodic meetings with those folks, also their brand.

Jon Speer: Yeah, absolutely. Let's, I guess shift maybe slightly, this you kind of stick with the brand, but like I said, most of the listeners are across the spectrum and the med device industry and I want to maybe take a moment and speak to that. The entrepreneur, that startup, who's trying to make a name for themselves or get what they believe to be an exciting product to the point of market launch and that sort of thing. And any thoughts or tips for someone that might be in that situation, as far as their company brand and the connection to their personal brand, I mean, are they the same? Are they different? And when you're that small startup type entity, any thoughts about that?

Chip Helm: That it's even more important for that person that when you started your company 10 years ago, or whenever that was, you are your company, you're the brands. That's first of all, you are the person. Obviously you have to have a good product. That's first and foremost, no matter what, whatever, but it's all about, it's still my opinion about networking and relationship building. I mean, I know some entrepreneurs I've met. That's not their skill. Then surround yourself with the right people. But it's all about people. It's all about meeting people, networking. It's funny we've gone virtual now. Well, virtual is going to come. It just happened that the COVID- 19 speed it up and your work in the medical industry, and you know this, there's less sales reps down in the medical hospitals. It was moving that direction before COVID moving along really fast. So, but here's how I look at it, people are getting settled in virtual being, it's just part of the toolbox. You got to communicate better, learn virtually and communicate better. You got to learn how to do phone skills better. And you got to learn how to pick up the phone and know how to write creative text messages and emails, that kind of stuff like that. But of all the norms and rumors, I've got to get out in front of people. I still think it'd be a 90/ 10. Maybe it's down to 70/30, maybe it's 65/35. But I still disagree to people that I still believe, it's the people that you want to go face to face more. You see my hands just like you are, voice, mind, well that you still engage someone and build a relationship. I don't care if you're entrepreneur or you're starting a business, your work, it's all about building those relationships. You're not selling in a sense of the word, if you've got a good product. And, but what you're doing is you're solving a problem. And if they don't have a problem, then want to go somewhere else. But don't try to throw up on somebody, give them what they can solve their problem. Because I always said, if you solve their problem and you build a trust, you have them in your pocket. What's that mean? That means you don't draw less. You've got holy jeans, like my daughter, some pocket of jeans. And I told her I could give her more money. My point of it, is you build that trust, so you can build a good gizmo, good gadget. But if you're not out there and you're not working as I call it the" Great White Shark", it's you're going in, you're rotating around like a figure eight, and you're going to meet everyone you can. And I used to know my audience. You've got to know exactly who you're going to be walking up into. So those are some of the tricks and tips, but as far as you've got to learn how to network, no people don't know how to do it properly. And also how do you build that relationship? You build it because you're sincere and gracious and you deal with humility. You do it. What you say to somebody is how you say it to somebody. That's how those you build towards building a brand multi corp, both for your company and yourself. But if you're starting up a company, it's all about you. It's all about me. What Mark Cuban say, he invest on shark tank, not so much in the company, but he invested in the person that is there for that.

Jon Speer: Yeah. I was going to, I'm glad you brought that up. Because I was, I remember many, many years ago. I mean first several years of my career, I didn't really appreciate or really even understand startups or certainly investors and things of that nature in the startup community. And then, a little bit, I'll say med career, started getting some exposure and I'd always heard from an investor perspective that they invest in the team first and the tech, I mean, the product's important, but it's less important than the team. And that just didn't resonate with me at that time. But to your point, I mean, Mark Cuban, one of the wealthiest humans on the planet has been on record many times and he's put his money where his mouth is, the person, the people, the team, that's the most important part of this. And going back to your networking thing. I remember when I started the business before Greenlight, I started a consulting practice. And I like, at that time, I'm consciously in my head said, I'm going to make it my mission, that I'm going to have the strongest network of medical device and life science professionals. At first, I said in Indiana, because that's where I lived and I wanted to work in my backyard and I went and I networked like crazy. I mean, I call people say," Hey, can I buy you a cup of coffee? Can I buy you some lunch?" And I think that was really important. I don't know why I thought to do that, but I did. I just networked like crazy. That was my full- time job for a number of months. And I guess that's for many years later, I feel that was a great investment of my time and resources. And I think it was a great spring board. So I can a hundred percent agree with the importance of networking.

Chip Helm: You got to get uncomfortable, to get to be comfortable. You hear me? Uncomfortable, to become comfortable. And most people don't want to put their hand out or they don't want to say hello or they don't know their audience. And yes, we're in a virtual world. You can still do it virtually via Zoom. You could still use good phone skills. Again, it's just been a, I'm so much better today with my phone skills and my Zoom skills and my per engaging skills on Zoom. So it's just in my toolbox now, but I'm face to face person, but people don't know how to network, but you've got to goes back to, you got to start your audience. It's all about preparation, preparation. You have know who your audience, I know exactly who I'm going after. And I badge at a meeting, or I mean, that was that's Chip Helm. I mean, I can see you for 30 seconds and I'll go home and write a book. I have a to- do book. I have a book that puts your name in the book. It's another, you put a couple of things about that person. So if you see a few weeks later and I ran into him in a grocery store," Hey Bob, I remember we had a conversation six months ago about this are going"," What you remember?", I'm just telling you things that connect to people. I mean, right now I probably could sell my address book. It brought you cellphone numbers and you can shake a stick out. I know more chairmans, chiefs of surgery are in this country or people, but we've become friends. I never got what I was going to sell Monday, or next Monday, or three Mondays, or three months from Monday. I'm worried. Am I still working with you next year? The year after, the year after? Because at some point, Sunday, I was, I'm going to get you, one other, I may not have it now, but at some point that doors always, always open to a customer.

Jon Speer: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and here's another thing that I picked up on that I don't think it was, I don't think it was obvious and at the moment that it was happening, but when I was going through this networking, I'll say phase or introduction to networking to learn that from my own skillset perspective. I was back on the clock a little bit, as far as I wasn't trying to push my products and services. I was trying to understand who I was talking, to your point and jot a note, oh, favorite college sports team is whatever or really likes this kind of bourbon or whatever, just make some of those notes, little things like that. But I also was trying to listen and say, what is this? What do you need? Hey, Chip, what do you need? What are you looking for? And you would tell me something and it's probably wasn't going to be in my wheelhouse. But because I was networking like crazy, I had many, many, many, many times, I had already previously met someone else or met someone after that meeting who could provide or help what you need. And I would say," Oh, Chip, that's great. I met somebody last week so- and- so let me make a connection." And so I became this connector, right? To help facilitate. And, oh my goodness, the rewards that you get from that. Number one, you get to help somebody. You get to help two people actually connect the dots here, but it's just, it's so rewarding. And it just solidified my own personal brand. So, I mean, I'm sure you know all about that.

Chip Helm: No, but it's not what you know today, it's who you know. I mean, my son got into medical school because I had networked, my daughter got an Invesco because I networked. I help someone this morning while I was on the golf course with my son to get something done that in front of me, I did because I tell you, it's someone. That's why I tell everyone, you don't know who's next to you. You don't know when that you need a favor, put out your hand, be humble. I like to call it the humble card. Be kind, treat people like you want to be treated and you'd be amazed what comes back 10 fold. Because you never know when that person could help you, but that's not how I think about things. They're very self- serving and you've got it. That's all. This is all goes back to branding. I'm telling you everything we're talking right now, if you think about it, is how you build your brand by networking, and being who you are, and being genuine, and being sincere. Do you really care about that person? I know that you've got to start up and you've got this fantastic gizmo gadget, but do you really care about that person? or you just trying to sell something to somebody?

Jon Speer: Yeah. Sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off there, but if it's the latter, if you're just trying to sell something to somebody you might have, you might be successful a couple of times, but most people have pretty good bullshit meters there. They're not going to get through that one.

Chip Helm: Yeah. Well, I mean, and people see through you. Come on, people see through if you really care or not. Caring is, that's why I don't ever like the word commission. I think commission gets people too close to the line of not doing the right things to the right person. I mean, I always say two things all the time, that if you do it with the right heart, the right intent, you're going to be okay. You may not be, win everything, you may not begin to where you're going all the time, you may not become your CEO or whenever you think you're supposed to become, but you're going to be just fine. If you do things with the right heart and the right intent, and that's what you do every day, it's going to be okay.

Jon Speer: And I would encourage people to not expect instantaneous results here. I think, unfortunately where we've grown accustomed to instant this and instant that in our society. What Chip and I are talking about today, it requires you to make investments before you make withdrawals. Sometime this is a like a credit type situation. You got to be a little patient and just relax and just keep working the system, keep working your process, keep doing the right things. Keep making those investments because the more investments you make, you will have returns. I assure you, you will have returns at some point in time.

Chip Helm: Well, the medical industry is a difficult industry.

Jon Speer: So difficult, yeah.

Chip Helm: So you're talking about medical industry and what you're trying to do with their engineering design and all that stuff with these comments sounds phenomenal. Your company sounds great. More companies should utilize whoever's out there, now to utilize Jon's company resources is, its toughness industry today. With all the compliance things and all the regulations we have today. So a company that could really help you drive those kind of design processes. So, because it's not easy today in this industry.

Jon Speer: For sure. So Chip we're at a point where we're going to wrap things up, any final words of wisdom, Chipisms, tips, or pointers that you want to leave the listeners with this afternoon?

Chip Helm: Oh, that's a great guy. That's a great thing. I mean, there's a lot of different things I could probably say. I'd say the biggest thing is I strive when, with about being a leader, with humility. And I think this is our country needs more of that as not, what you say, how you say things, how do you treat people? You can be, you can still manage and lead with kindness in your heart and think of someone else. And a great leader always, gets always more worried about their employees get information to B to C, to D to Z. They're more worried about helping them get to where they need to go, and they empower people and they don't know what they're doing. They let someone else who does know what they're doing. He knows the teamwork, but I really believe in this humility and the humble card and someone who works like that. And that's probably what I try to push more and more because we don't see that a lot out today. And I mean that, I don't care if you're leading the team, leading yourself, we need more leadership with that humility concept of, you had that you actually care. Actually, it's not about you. And I like to see more and more people do that, then they'd be a lot more successful, but I appreciate you having me.

Jon Speer: Absolutely.

Chip Helm: Maybe we'll talk again on another sales type subject and anytime...

Jon Speer: Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to that. I think there's, yeah there's a lot of folks that, it's, I have a special place in my heart for startups and have been one and worked with so many. Sales is hard, especially if you're like, I, my upbringing in this career or this industry has been an engineer first and a business leader, many years later, but specifically engineers have a hard time wrapping their mind around or technical people have a hard time wrapping their mind around," Oh, well, I got to, I've got this wonderful idea for product." At some point in time, you're going to have to be a sales person in some way, shape or form. Now maybe you're not going to be going out into the field, selling your product, but you have got to sell somebody, a Chip Helm of the world or a key opinion leader or whatever the case may be. So I absolutely, we'll find another time to chat soon about that.

Chip Helm: And that's why I get into consulting. I help with sales strategies and sales fusion, sales development, because you're right. It's, setting that up and, a lot of people don't even know how to design a sales executed type business plan. They don't even know what that is and, or how to put a team together, structure it. And so how do you work? So yeah, I do a lot of that consulting too, and I really enjoy that part of it. That's what kind of what we're talking about right now. That's how you brand that and you instill that in the people you work with.

Jon Speer: All right. So we'll chat after the session today and we'll figure out a time to dive into that topic on a future episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast. But folks, I want to thank Chip Helm. Again, go visit his website, chiphelm. com, really easy, lots of great articles, downloads, links to buying his books. As he mentioned earlier, they're quick reads, got a lot of Chipisms. He's accessible and available. So reach out to him. If you're looking to grow your sales team, you want to learn more about you're building your brand. Well, Chip Helm has been doing this for a long time and he's a giver, he's happy to help. That's very obvious. So to you, the listener, thank you for being loyal listeners of the Global Medical Device Podcast. It's because of you that the Global Medical Device Podcast is the number one podcast in the medical device industry today. So I appreciate you. I thank you for that. Of course, hopefully you've picked up by now that we are on video. If you've been listening to us, that's great, we have a video now incorporated with the Global Medical Device Podcast, you can watch all the new episodes on YouTube. I would encourage you to subscribe. And if you click the little bell icon, they send you a notification that says," Hey, there's a new episode ready." So do those things, that way it's always coming into your feed so that you can hear the latest episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast. Until next time, this is your host and founder at Greenlight Guru, Jon Speer. And you have been listening the Global Medical Device Podcast.

ABOUT THE GLOBAL MEDICAL DEVICE PODCAST:

The Global Medical Device Podcast powered by Greenlight Guru is where today's brightest minds in the medical device industry go to get their most useful and actionable insider knowledge, direct from some of the world's leading medical device experts and companies.

Like this episode? Subscribe today on iTunes or Spotify.