How the Realities of Pharma Sales Lead to New Purpose
In this gripping episode of the Medical Sales Podcast, Samuel sits down with Jennifer Jones, a former top Purdue Pharma rep who lived through one of the most turbulent eras in pharmaceutical history. Jennifer recounts her shocking personal encounters with the FBI, the emotional strain of grand jury testimony, the collapse of Purdue from the inside, and the complicated reality reps faced far beyond the headlines. She shares raw stories of ethical dilemmas, patient advocacy, “pill mill” misconceptions, and the unseen pressures of pain management in the 2000s. Jennifer then opens up about rebuilding her life and identity after Purdue’s shutdown, scaling a thriving wine business, launching a coaching company, and ultimately returning to medical device sales where she now leads in cardiology. This conversation delivers rare honesty about pharma, entrepreneurship, career reinvention, and what it truly takes to survive, grow, and lead in medical sales today.
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Transcription:
00:05 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Hello and welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast. I’m your host, samuel, founder of a revolutionary medical sales training and mentorship program called the Medical Sales Career Builder, and I’m also host of the Medical Sales Podcast. In this podcast, I interview top medical sales reps and leading medical sales executives across the entire world. It doesn’t matter what medical sales industry from medical device to pharmaceutical, to genetic testing and diagnostic lab you name it. You will learn how to either break into the industry, be a top 10% performer within your role or climb the corporate ladder. Welcome to the Medical Sales Podcast and remember, I am a medical sales expert sharing my own opinion about this amazing industry and how it can change your life. Take us back. Give us probably the craziest real life scenario you’re part of. Be as descriptive as you can. What was going on? What happened? Give us the whole story.
01:02 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
Okay, so I’m going to give you my personal FBI story first, and then I’ll give you a doctor’s FBI story. Let’s do it, so I was done with Purdue. It was probably two years later and I get a call from this number that I randomly answered. It’s like hey, jennifer, this is with the FBI. I need to meet with you. Would you like to come to my office, to my office, or would you like me to come to your home today?
01:23 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
This is a random call.
01:24 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
This is like Random call and I usually don’t answer them, but I just did and I go. I’m not stupid, I’m not telling you where I live. I guess I’ll come to your office and he goes. Well, I know where you live and I know that you just had lunch at Panera at XYZ address about 20 minutes ago, I know. And so what was really interesting? And so I knew he’s like this is about Purdue Pharma, this is about you know what you did at Purdue Pharma. This is regarding your tenure at Purdue Pharma.
01:55
And so I knew at that point there was no escaping this. I knew, and so I called Purdue immediately, thinking that they would give me some sort of assistance, and basically there was like one old elderly lady answering the phone Cause, like no one else really works there anymore. I mean, yes, they do still create products, but there’s no Salesforce, there’s no marketing, there’s like it’s nothing. So then I’m lucky that my brother my brother’s an attorney and I called him and he’s like this is big. So then the next day I get a summons for a grand jury testimony in Washington DC at noon, about a month later.
02:31
And so I’m like this, this is not looking good for me, this is not looking good for me. And so my brother’s like listen, this FBI agent, he’s going to act like he’s your best friend. You can’t let him in, like like into your circle. He’s like he’s going to say all the things he already knows, all the things you can’t let him get close to you, just keep your guard up. And so I had a conversation with this agent over and over and over again and my I was like I know what you want me to tell you, I know what you want me to say. But that was not my experience. It was right, patient, right, duration titrate down. Right, patient, right, duration titrate down. I know what you think you know and what you maybe knew before I started. But while I was there, right, patient, right, duration titrate down.
03:15
And sure enough, he’s like trying to get it like flirting with me, asking me to go for drinks, like just trying to like get into the circle so you like that’s a tactic, yeah oh for sure.
03:28
Or like I’ll stop by, you know I’ll talk to your husband and you, or like he knew my girls, he, he, they know, he knew everything. Okay, and so it was like a month until we had to do this grand jury testimony and he I mean I, I had to answer his calls, or at least I felt like I did right. And so we would go back and forth and he couldn’t have been. I had to answer his calls, or at least I felt like I did Right.
03:44
And so we would go back and forth and he couldn’t have been more nice and I want to help you, I want to protect you, I’m okay. So then we walk into this room where there’s like three lawyers, like deputy I don’t know, like big, big wigs and black suits, and I walk in with my brother, who’s my attorney, who’s just helping me out for free, and I go over to this FBI agent who I feel like I know, I feel like he’s a friend, could not have been more frigid, wouldn’t even shake my hand, just like, stared straight and I was like, oh so that’s how it is and I had been warned, okay. So then, over the course of several days, they had data and voice texts. And so, back in pharma, you leave success stories for your manager. They had success stories. I had left from 2007 to 2010 on voicemail.
04:38
I was doing my job, okay, I was doing my job, okay, I was doing my job, and all I thought is like I see what you see like and you think I was doing my job, but I can see how now it’s spun to where I’m like criminal, like I can see how I can see how that happens.
04:59
So, thankfully, they weren’t in it to get me. They were trying to go after the people at a higher level, so I was just a pawn, you know, in the whole thing. But I will say to this day, like on record, purdue never told me to do anything unethical. This is, on my hand to God, like I was advocating for the patients and I thought and still believe in most instances still believe, given the information I have now or then that I was doing the right thing. But of course things evolve, things change, we learn things about medications Like no, don’t do that anymore. So at the time, okay so, and then I swore I would never be in pharma again. But to go back to one of my doctors, one of my biggest doctors here in my geography, I was just sitting there one day just waiting to chit chat with them and here they come, they got the bulletproof vests on and they have, they’re all in black and they just come in and take all the files.
05:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Wow, take them out. Patients are there, everybody’s there.
06:01 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
Yes, but then life goes on. Cindy the receptionist is like oh, here they are again. Like we’re used to this, he keeps seeing patients the rest of the day, and so that was one of many times that I’ve seen that happen. Now obviously a lot of offices have electronic records now, but this was back in 2010. Some of them were still going over to Epic, but then life went on, and then what was very common and I think a lot of pharma reps can relate to this is lawyers in the office waiting for the doctor to you know, have a discussion, get a download on what happened with whatever patient, but that was very common also. So those are two different FBI situations that I experienced, but the one for me personally was so rattling I’m like that’s wild.
06:48 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
That’s wild, so, so okay. So then let me ask you this you know, cause I love, I love your position on you were doing your job and you were never coached on being unethical. Do you feel that Purdue was more of the ignorant child that had something on their hands that lost control of it? Or do you feel more that Purdue was knowingly belligerent to what was going on with patients and just wanted to get what they wanted as far as their bottom line?
07:18 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
So I think if you had asked a rep that had been there 10 years before me, they would answer it differently. I feel like they learned their lesson and I was brought in again to do what I believe to be ethical work. But then you find out that we have data that Q8 dosing is actually where OxyContin should have been dosed the whole time and that wasn’t ever released until after, essentially, the company closed. That made me second guess things. But I mean, you have to understand.
07:46
There was hundreds and hundreds of sales reps and these are like like moral, ethical people you know and we would talk about in pharma. You guys know the patient profile, the patient picture. Like I felt like I was the advocate for the pain management patient who needed medications, who didn’t want to be addicted, because all doctors think about is like, oh, that one guy that’s you know just kept asking for stuff and he was selling it and all this. They always think about that. But then I’m thinking about again the 35-year-old mom of three who has cervical cancer and just needs to manage her pain you know.
08:21
So, to answer your question fully, I think Purdue knew that they had gone, done something wrong. I think they tried to course correct during the time I was there, and then I think it was too little, too late.
08:33 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Too too little, too late. That makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. Are the, have you seen the TV shows and the movies and whatnot?
08:39 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
All of them. It’s a lot of. It’s accurate.
08:42 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Which one Okay.
08:46 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
I a lot of it’s accurate. Which one? Okay, I have to ask this. Okay, of course, which one is the most so? So, dope sick, I think that’s the girl in like kentucky or arkansas or something, and so there was a rap and I he was the rep in arkansas for 20 years, with purdue if I would never say his name good friend, since passed away but if I said name, anyone would know who we’re talking about and I’m like that was based on him.
09:11 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It had to be.
09:12 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
He was the only rep in Kentucky during for 20 years, I mean, but he was like an icon that you like, we loved this guy. It was like we love this guy.
09:21
So I have not a bad word to say about him. Truly rest in. We love this guy. So I have not a bad word to say about him. Truly Rest in peace. But I think a lot of it was accurate. But again, before the time that I was there again, I think that was like the late 90s, early 2000s that things were really going nuts. But I’ve watched all of them. I’m like accurate, accurate, heard about it, saw it, you know, type thing.
09:43 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So it’s fun.
09:43 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
Watch those you guys. It saw it, you know, type thing. So it’s fun Watch those you guys, farming reps, you guys need to watch that stuff. You need to like be armed with that from Farming.
09:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
When did you know that this was over? I’m assuming that when the FBI, I guess, was finished with what you just described, you still weren’t sure it was over. When did you know that? Okay, this is done. I can officially put this behind me.
10:06 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
So I was on vacation with my family in Mexico. I got the call from my manager. You guys, this is what they did they would have the managers call us and the managers laid us off. They thought they still had a job the next week. They all got hacked. So, like it was such a mind, you know what I’m saying. So I sat with my husband that day in Mexico and I was like my side gig at that time was going really really well.
10:29
The wine sales this clean wine sales I was doing online. So at that time I had essentially matched my pharma paycheck doing wine sales. But I, you know, more is more. Come on, you know like more is more. But he’s like, why don’t you just not find another job? So I posted on Facebook that day. Hey you guys, I was just laid off. I’m shocked. I’m in Mexico. My family, anyone got anything for me. I had a job the next day Guess what In pain management.
10:55
Again, I was hired by people that I had worked with prior.
10:57 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
No, by people that I had worked with prior no interview required and thank you for giving me a job.
11:01 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
You guys, that’s the power of social media and LinkedIn. You guys get your social media and LinkedIn going. So I had a job the next day. So I came home from vacation with a job but it just didn’t feel right and I was like you know what I feel like I want to take a risk. I feel like I really want to go in on this entrepreneurial venture and just see what happens. You know it was already matching my pharma salary. So I’m like let’s just see what happens.
11:24
So I worked at that next company for a couple months, went to training, did all the things. It was a long acting morphine product which was like not that exciting kind of dusty. And then after about six months I left that company and I wish I would never have accepted that job because what it did was held me back from really exploring that entrepreneurial itch that I had, that I already had rolling. So I always say that put me six months back in my entrepreneurial journey. So you guys like, listen, listen to what you’re like, listen to what’s inside. And I have no regrets in life for the most part, but I regret taking that second job because I knew at that point I can bet on myself and if I had a little bit more time I could really blow this thing out of the water, which I ended up doing. It just took another six months. I was busy working.
12:15 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
So the wine sales, you were doing that before you left the pharma world.
12:21 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
Yes, evenings and weekends.
12:22 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
how did you even what, what, what see? One of the things I say, especially now you know, pharma is different than what it was in the early 2000s. And when people are like you know, I, I look at pharma, I look at my device. I look at medical supplies. I look at you know, health care software, I look at my device, I look at medical supplies, I look at you know healthcare software, I look at dentistry which field should I be in? And we dig deep into what they want their lifestyle to look like. For those that really want to have a great career, be good at it and still explore something else that’s interesting to them, I always say, you know, pharma is a place to consider because if you can figure out your territory, be a rock star there and be a true asset to the company, you have the freedom to do whatever it is you want to do with your time outside of work hours and doesn’t really compromise the other. So you kind of live that. So when you were doing pharma.
13:15
You saw this wine opportunity. Talk to us about how that even come into your radar. What made you actually pursue it? You know what’s the story there.
13:23 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
A former manager in pharma at Purdue, who had become a good friend, is like listen, I know we want to get out of this. I know we want to get out of this. This is our way out, you know. And then she’s like it’s an entrepreneurial venture, it’s network marketing. And so I was like you know what? What do I have to lose? I love wine. I live a very healthy lifestyle. It’s clean, crafted wine. You don’t get a hangover, blah, blah, blah. I’m like I’ll do it. And so, samuel, you and I know each other enough you don’t have to ask anything, neither do I. So I’m like I was in.
13:55
I was committed from day one, but I didn’t think it was going to take off to the point of eventually having 4,000 consultants on my team and far surpassing my pharma salary two to three times. And it just eventually became something where the business runs itself. I mean, you work really, really hard. We always say like work a couple of years, work a couple of months, and then you can kind of coast in all of these kind of entrepreneurial stuff. So it started to run itself. But it was one of the things I would like do tastings on the weekends. I would do like it’ve got to crush the nine to five. If you’re not crushing the nine to five, you don’t have anything to do with something outside of that. But a lot of people can do many things well. Okay, and this is something I said in my interview at my current company, because they had done all the research and they were like what’s going on?
15:01
girl Like how can we trust you?
15:03 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
And I was like.
15:04 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
I commit to you that nothing else will be happening between you know, for my job and cardiology sales we save lives, so it really is 24 hour job, but at least I’ll say traditional business hours. I would not do anything else, whether it’s my coaching program or network marketing or anything, and you know what. Everyone was fine with it because you know what Results speak for themselves. So I find it very hard to believe that any pharma manager or device manager or lab diagnostic manager would come down on anyone for having hobbies or baking cookies for profit outside of the nine to five or teaching yoga on Saturday mornings if they were crushing their day job. The problem enters when you don’t get it done nine to five.
15:54 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
What else are you doing with your time?
15:57 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
So I want you guys to hear me on that. You have to be crushing the nine to five before you take something else on. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Okay, like very clear there.
16:08 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I hope you’re enjoying today’s episode and I want to let you know our programs cover the entire career of a medical sales professional, from getting into the medical sales industry to training on how to be a top performer in the medical sales industry to masterfully navigating your career to executive level leadership. These programs are personalized and customized for your specific career and background and trained by over 50 experts, including surgeons. Our results speak for ourselves and we’re landing positions for our candidates in less than 120 days in top medical technology companies like Stryker, medtronic, merck, abbott you name it. Would you run an Ironman race without training and a strategy? You wouldn’t. So why are you trying to do the same with the medical sales position?
16:52
You need training, you need a strategy and you need to visit evolveyoursuccesscom. Fill out the application, schedule some time with one of our account executives and let’s get you into the position that you’ve always dreamed of. Preach, I love it. Okay. So you did. The wine sales blew up, got a whole team it’s pain itself and then you started your own coaching company. Talk to us about how that came to be.
17:19 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
What inspired going that direction. So there was an unmet need in network marketing for someone to just tell it like it is. You guys, I’m always voted the person to say what we’re all speaking, what we’re all thinking. I say what we’re all thinking, so they don’t teach you this in college. So if you want to really benefit from a tax perspective, you need multiple businesses, multiple LLCs.
17:37
I have an S-corp, multiple LLCs. What does that give you Tax leverage? Okay, so my four girls are on payroll. They work within my businesses. They get paid every single month. That lowers. So talk to your accountant. That’s what I’ll say there. Talk to your accountant about the benefits of being an S-corp or an LLC. So I saw a need for an additional LLC. In my life I had an S-corp. I saw a need for people to have coaching, specifically pharmaceutical sales reps, on how to crush the day job but really do something else on the side, and so I, along with a team that helped me out, developed a digital platform called Ignite and Launch, where pharma reps mostly would log in to learn about how to master skills and network marketing, not so much like pharma nine to five selling skills, but like how to do this.
18:26 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You know, as a side gig if you’re crushing it? How to do this thing on the side if you?
18:31 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
if yes, and if you’re not crushing it, you’re not going to crush this either, guess what? So you’ve got to crush that before you crush this because, again, out of respect for companies, these companies are paying you for your time.
18:41
So like, yeah and they’re paying you very, very, very well so do good by them, you know, do the right thing okay, and then with whatever else you have, you can do something else. So and then that kind of took off and again it’s another small business with tax benefits of being a small business. So yes, I did start my own coaching program specifically for that, which, super transparently, I did. I don’t market anymore out of respect for my current company and but again it runs itself. There’s old funnels and you know how this all this works. So there’s funnels that feed people in. But when I was interviewing at my current role, I literally took out my phone and I showed the area director he’s like, tell me about this Ignite and Launch. And I walked him through the whole thing on my phone and I was like, look, I do nothing, it’s all automated you know it’s all videos.
19:30 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
It’s all already done.
19:32 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
It’s not going to affect my, you know, 8 to 5, 7 to 7, whatever, and he’s like this is nice. So you guys, you never know if that side gig hobby actually helps get you in and propel you to the next phase of your career. Kind of fun.
19:49 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Very cool. So that brings us full circle to what you just mentioned. You have this successful wine business. You have your own coaching company for the tax benefits you already get from it. What still brought you back to a medical device position?
20:08 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
a friend, of mine from the wine business, because you guys, it’s all who you know and you know my linkedin. I was pharma quitter, never going back, never going back to corporate, never doing that, never working for the man, never working for the woman, never working for the man never working for the woman never working for anybody, you know, never working for the one, never working for someone again.
20:28
And I was on a walk and it was a July afternoon and a friend of mine actually was the same girl that brought me into the wine business, who was a manager at Purdue Again, all who you know called me and said hey, my friend has an opening at this leading cardiology company. She had someone really great. There’s no one better than you and would you be interested in talking with her? I’m like you know what?
20:51
I was at a place in life where everything was automated. I had a lot of extra time and a lot of times extra time is not a good thing. If you’re a high achiever, like cause, then you’re like what am I going to do next? What am I going to do next? I got to start something else and then you’re just spreading yourself so thin and I was like, yeah, I’ll talk to her. And I talked to her and a week later what’s done is done, and so it was really fun to step back into the corporate realm after dogging it publicly for seven years on every platform that would listen to me, like literally dogging it.
21:21 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
Life just seems to always do us that way, isn’t it? It’s fascinating.
21:25 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
But I was proud. I was like you know what we all evolve and you know, nothing has changed from my lens. Other things have happened and are still happening, but you know, now I’m a part of a company that saves lives every day. And the one thing I will say, samuel, I have found to be a dramatic difference between pharma and device is device is 100% an entrepreneurial mindset. Not to say that pharma isn’t, but in device you eat what you kill. As an entrepreneur, you eat what you kill.
21:57
So I had seven years of managing 4,000 people, teaching them how to get out of their comfort zone, to push the envelope, to rattle the cage Nobody likes vanilla, vanessa. Like, we have to do something different. Status quo is boring. Seven years of that gave me every arrow in my quiver to then go into the device realm in a territory where the competition was just leech, like, just, we were hemorrhaging business, hemorrhaging business with the competition. They had told me that going into it, and so I was.
22:31
Like I like to rattle the cage, I like to be unconventional, I like to do weird things, and so suffice it to say I’ve been about a year and a half. Well, a year and a couple months in, we got the competition out, we’ve got the business back and it’s been truly one of the most soul satisfying parts of my life. And it’s not even from a financial perspective, because it wasn’t about that. It was just about the next challenge, next challenge. So I’d be curious what you feel, samuel, from like if you’re an entrepreneur. You know a lot of people have to start in pharma, but we know that a lot of times, device doesn’t want to hire pharma reps, I’ll speak.
23:13 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I’ll speak to it all. Yeah, you know yeah. And you’ve, you’ve, you’ve, you’ve listened to the podcast, so you know.
23:19
I know when I say it this way, I really do believe it’s very nuanced and I believe there’s different levels of it all. So, number one when we talk medical sales, we’re talking about it all. Right Medical device, pharma, medical supplies, medical diagnostics, medical software, and they all have their pros and their cons. And even within those different arenas there’s nuance. Right, a pharma rep, a general pharma rep, is not the same thing as a specialized pharma rep. That’s not the same thing as an oncology pharma rep. Right, a medical device in OBGYN is not a medical device in ENT and is not a medical device in trauma, cardio or even spine. Right?
24:00
Trauma they all have their very, very nuanced bases that look very, very different even within their fields. But, to marry some of the things you’ve just mentioned, I actually believe that if you’re going to be in medical sales, pharma included, you do need to have okay, you don’t need to have anything, but it would benefit you greatly if you had an entrepreneurial spirit and you had an entrepreneurial approach, because you are going to be given a territory, no matter what, whether you’re pharma or med device or any company, you’re given a territory and you’re responsible for that territory. Now to your point. Some spaces have more autonomy than others, right, some spaces, like you said, you can just get creative, you can get crafty there’s not all the same.
24:43
Or you can work in a pod with four other people and pharma on your own and some spaces you got to work in a pod and some spaces have a lot of regulation. It just depends. But at the end of the day you have an entrepreneur spirit and you treat in your territory like an actual business that you’re the CEO of is going to serve you greatly because if you can figure that out, you can put it on autopilot, you can go find new business, you can do all these things that are just going to help the company. So that’s how I see the entire medical sales world.
25:11 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
I love it and again, having been on both sides of it pharma and device which there is a great divide, I think you would agree. It’s different strokes for different folks. But I also think with device, at least from my perspective, there is no parachute. No one’s coming to save you. You’re either doing it or you’re not. With pharma, you have formulary. You might have someone who comes in, you know, on a more clinical side. But in device, I’ve listened to so many of your podcasts and it’s so true, like what you do, it’s up to you. You know you lose those trays or you. That’s not so for me. Where I’m at and this leading cardiology company, I don’t have to be in cases, which is what I want. I don’t have the stress of you know, packing the bag or waiting for the case to wait six hours or a doctor yelling at me.
26:01 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I don’t have anything like that.
26:03 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
So, from my perspective, I’m in the best place because I have the autonomy of being in a vines rep without the stress of yeah, you just identified it.
26:12 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I mean, just think about it, what you just said. Right, you have medical device spine reps, you have medical device for the space.
26:19
You’re in both medical device, but completely different worlds completely different, completely different the from the from the day to day to the individual nuance, to how often you work outside of work hours.
26:31
But but but I what I will say is the same thing exists in pharma and medical supplies.
26:36
In dental it’s, it’s a range in almost every type of medical sales there is, and I think, a lot of people you know. What I love about these discussions is we get to talk about the insights into these specific fields and people listening that want to get into medical device or might want to get into pharma or want to get into medical cells in general. They’re like I want to be here, I want to be there, and they just don’t know what they don’t know and they don’t understand how vast it really is and they don’t understand. The best thing you can do is understand who you are and what and what you naturally work best in, and then literally go find the field that matches that and it does exist. I’m the one that’s like it doesn’t have to look like you have to be waking up at 3 am. It doesn’t have to look like you have to be waiting in doctor’s offices all day. There’s another field out there that can be much more aligned to what you actually want to do.
27:30 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
But people need to take the time to find it and what they need to do is listen to every single one of your 250 podcasts, and I’m not kidding. So, samuel, when I stepped back into this corporate role with MedDevice, I was like I got it, I’m a little dusty. I’m a little dusty. I got to get back in. It’s been seven years and I literally binged. So, you guys, when you’re driving in your car, you can listen to music, you can listen to the news, listen to podcasts, listen to Samuel’s podcasts, and then what I would do in addition is listen to cardiology podcasts, cause I didn’t know what I didn’t know about cardiology. You guys, every moment, when you’re out on a walk, when you’re rucking with your, when you’re on the elliptical, whatever you’re doing if you’re not interacting with other human being, be listening to podcasts, making yourself better. 24 seven. I learned so much from your Samuel no kidding which is why I was so excited to be on here.
28:20
But to go back to your other point about there is a space for you. I think you guys need to ask in the interview like, again, am I autonomous or am I working as part of a team, a pod, whatever? Because again, there was a point in pharma I had six counterparts and we walked in the office and someone else is there, and she’s there, and she was there yesterday. What I love about what I do now is it’s me and me and me. The glory is on me.
28:44
Or if I’m not doing a good job, then all the stress and the angst is on me, and that’s where I thrive. I like the dopamine hits and I also, like you know, you kind of go into the rut. Now I have always worked with amazing associates that I help hire and manage, but at the end of the day, it’s me. So decide do I want to work as part of a team, as part of a pod, as part of a group, or do I want all the glory, or you know the, or the opposite of that. So I’m kind of greedy and I want all the glory for me and I want everyone to know that I did this. But you guys be thinking about that when you’re deciding what company to align with or who to work with. Those are important things.
29:21 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it. Look at you. Now we’re gonna bring this to a close, but I do have one question. It’s about wine and I’m just curious. So to do what you do in the wine world, do you have to like be a wine connoisseur, or could you even be a non-drinker and do it?
29:38 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
Yes. So we have people that either don’t drink or have stopped drinking for whatever good reason, because we also offer coffee. But here’s the thing Just because you go to a party and doesn’t drink doesn’t mean other people don’t want to drink. Or you’re socializing and you’re not drinking, or I just did a five week detox. That was all these work, meetings and everyone’s drinking and I’m not drinking. But they still want to know about the wine you know. So no, it’s kind of a turnkey thing. Everything is done for you. It’s if you were into health, wellness, but still understand that people.
30:07
You know most Americans do enjoy alcohol regardless. It’s just a better for you option and we can teach you about all those things and you don’t have to be a big consumer. Trust me, like I don’t even drink that much. I’m a high functioning mom. Before I’m up in the morning, I got a really intense job, but, but I do enjoy winding down with wine occasionally. So there is a spot for that. So if anyone’s interested in that, for sure let me know. But I think the key takeaway here, more than anything, is don’t let any manager, any company, any corporation put you in a box and tell you you can’t do other things because, okay, so then you show them. I can do a lot of things. I can do a lot of things well, and one is not going to sacrifice the other. But you have to prove yourself. Okay, you can’t be. You know 50% of goal. If you need to crush that goal, 130% or more to goal and then take autonomy and time to do other things.
30:57
First things first, the company that’s paying you. You do them right. Okay, so I think anyone can sell the wine with me, as long as you’re crushing your day job and I’m going to ask I love it.
31:07 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I love it, okay. So on that note, how can people find you? Yeah?
31:13 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
So find me on LinkedIn at Jennifer Schultz Jones, and that’s basically where I like to hang out, interact. You guys are going to laugh. I was removed from LinkedIn for like nine months because I was also Samuel. I was a LinkedIn coach for a little while a couple of years and I would coach people on LinkedIn, so I was unbeknownst to me. I can’t use LinkedIn to capitalize and make money. I can’t capitalize on their LinkedIn. So if only I had reframed it.
31:40 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You guys advertise yourself as a LinkedIn coach on LinkedIn.
31:43 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
They add you for nine months For nine months and I, so it’s one of those this is a side note but like it’s all bots, there’s no humans, right, and so once I got to an actual human and explained what was going on, they’re like oh yeah, we’ll let you back on, but now my views are terrible. I used to get like 52,000 views or something and now I get like 500. So I’m building it back up, but the whole point is, you guys find me on LinkedIn, Jennifer Schultz-Jones, DM me Happy to help with anything, med device or pharma. I like to bat questions back and forth about this company, that company, but more than anything, sign up for Samuel’s program.
32:17
I have looked at it. It is no truly remarkable, because a couple of years ago I thought about doing the same thing as you, Samuel, and I was like I can’t touch this guy. Like what he’s got, like there’s. It would take me years to build that kind of credibility and get all the so get his program too, and if you can’t afford it, I don’t know what to call it. Listen to all of his podcasts. That’s what you need to do.
32:38 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
You’re too sweet, jennifer, you’re too sweet. Okay, jennifer, it was truly a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for all the knowledge you’ve done for us today and we look forward to seeing what you’re going to do out there in the medical sales world and maybe have you again.
32:51 – Jennifer Jones (Guest)
Thank you, thanks for all you do.
32:54 – Samuel Adeyinka (Host)
I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and remember I have a customized and personalized program that gets you into the medical technology industry as a sales professional or any type of role for that matter. Become a top performer in your position and masterfully navigate your career to executive level leadership. Check out these programs and learn more at EvolvesSuccesscom by visiting our site, filling out an application schedule, some time with one of our account executives and allowing us to get you where you need to be. Stay tuned for more awesome content with amazing interviews on the Medical Sales Podcast.
Medical Territory Manager!
I was a Regional Sales Representative for Long-Term Care pharmacy services. I had dreamed of getting into the med sales industry when I went into my career as a nurse, but the pharmacy sales job came to me, and I had just settled. Fortunately, I had a job shakeup that allowed me to determine that now was the time to pursue my original vision.
I absolutely would not have this position without Samuel and the Evolve Your Success community. A lot of people my age would just stop trying, but EYS believed in me.
EYS allowed me to break into the industry in 90-Days after I had been trying on my own for over two years! I had lots of recruiter screenings, and a few interviews with hiring managers, but I was never offered a position.
Before EYS, I didn’t realize I was doing the bare minimum to get hired. I was applying everywhere, hoping to get noticed and waiting. It just wasn’t working! I didn’t know that that was not enough to compete in an industry this sought after, and against people who knew what I didn’t know about the process.
Of course, I had to think hard before making a financial investment that’s reasonably substantial. But when I read the testimonials of real med sales reps on the site and learned that I wasn’t the only one taking a chance on my success, that EYS was sharing that risk also, I knew I had to do it. Though you might be able to cobble together some of the steps of getting a role in med sales from online research on your own, you just can’t know what you don’t know!
The process of going through EYS presents this insider knowledge to the student, as well as giving you a progression of difficulty as you obtain the information, and you begin to master it. Not only that, but they give you access to amazing mentors and instructors, allow you to practice your interview skills, and teach you how to market yourself through social media and your own website! I cannot stress enough that EYS was the factor that made the difference in my successfully landing my dream job! The support, structure, and knowledge gained was invaluable!
I would recommend this course to ANYONE looking to break into medical sales
Thank you so much, EYS! This journey has been life changing and has resulted in the successful culmination of my 18-Year ambition! 
Sports Medicine in Phoenix! I extend so much gratitude to the Evolve Your Success group as I land this role and get ready to pursue my dream job. I am a Physical Therapist who became a little stuck in the profession due to issues with reimbursement and the difficulty for continued growth upwards. I turned to EYS to assist me in learning about the medical sales industry and gain knowledgable mentors who were able to help coach me in this process. I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the best and good things will happen. I did work hard, but with the support of my mentors and other colleagues going through a career change, I felt a sense of community and it confirmed my drive to get into this industry. I have already learned so much through the interview process, and feel very blessed to have had the resources this group provided. I have made lifelong friends and I cannot wait to continue to follow others’ journeys to pursue this incredible field. I urge you to give Evolve Your Success a try to gain mentorship, guidance, and support through any career transition.
and am excited to make a difference in patients’ lives as a Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist.
! Though I truly enjoyed working as a physical therapist, I can’t wait to start my career in the sales world as a Clinical Account Executive.
. I owe this opportunity to Samuel, the program, and the incredible mentors at EYS.
