The Blogger, The Podcaster, The OR Nurse With Melanie Perry

POSTED ON December 28, 2022

Medical sales representatives must continue to expand their knowledge about the medical world. In the same way that numerous health concerns are present, there are also solutions and experiences. In this episode, Samuel Adeyinka helps you further expand your knowledge about the health industry, taking you deep into the world of orthopedics in the operating room with Melanie Perry. What areas are covered by ortho? What is sterile processing, and how can medical sales representatives help facilitate it? Why is it important to bring awareness to this often-overlooked department? What are the crucial relationships medical sales reps need to foster? Join Melanie as she answers these questions and more, bringing her insights and experience as a blogger, podcaster, and OR nurse.

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Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

The Blogger, The Podcaster, The OR Nurse With Melanie Perry

In this episode, we have with us another special guest. She goes by the name of Melanie Perry. Melanie is a bit unique because she specializes in the operating room, but her background is nursing. She was OR nurse with experience as a circular, scrub, change nurse, team lead, and manager. She’s had an extensive career. She has spent many years as a neonatal ICU nurse, OBGYN, med-surg, pain management, and then operating nurse.

The operating room came to her in 2011. Since then, she’s catapulted into somewhat of a businesswoman and started a blog called The Circulating Life in 2018. It was a space for everyone that was in the operating room, a community where they could all come and discuss what was going on and talk about everything that had to do with the operating room. This led her to be in First Case Podcast. She helped develop that brand in January 2021. This has become quite the business for her. She also deals with everything operating room.

This is a treat because she’s a unique individual that has done a lot of unique things, and she’s truly enterprise herself. We are going to talk a lot about the operating room, her background, and her perspective as a nurse. For all medical sales reps out there, this is something you can take away from this. For all of you that want to get into the industry, you really want to read this episode. As always, we do our best to bring guests that are innovative, doing dynamic things, and changing the space within medical sales. I hope you enjoy this interview.

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Melanie, how are you doing?

I’m doing great. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for being on the show. Please tell us who you are and what you do.

I am Melanie Perry. I’ve been a nurse for many years. I’ve been in the OR for several years. In all the areas of nursing that I’ve worked in, the OR was by far my favorite. Within the OR, I worked primarily in orthopedics, and I loved it. People love it or hate it, and I am one of those people who loves it. Through my work in the operating room and some work that I did on a blog and the social media page, I connected to the people at the company I am working with.

Our company is dedicated to sterile processing education, and they needed somebody with some OR insight. They brought me on to help with that. They also wanted to launch a brand for the OR. They brought me on for the First Case brand. If I could be a circulator and not in the OR, I would be the circulator for the First Case brand because I do it all. That is what I do and a little quick intro about me.

I’m going to bring it way down to the basics. Let’s start with ortho. When they think ortho, they think they think bones, trauma, and ER, but you said OR ortho. Go ahead and define that for us.

Orthopedics in the operating room is a little bit of what you said. Certainly, there is trauma. People have accidents. They break things all the time and have to get fixed. Trauma in the OR is a very real thing. There are also total joint replacements. If you have a joint and you need it replaced, we can do it from your finger to your hip. There is pretty much a joint replacement option for any joint in your body.

Fractures that maybe aren’t trauma don’t need to be done immediately, but something that needs to be fixed or even something in your foot like a bunion, all of those things fall into ortho. There’s an ortho spine. If it’s related to the bones in your body, we can operate on it and make it better. There are even surgeries where they can do limb lengthening to make you taller. All of these fascinating things can be done in the operating room. The fractures, trauma, broken bones, but also joint replacements, or you even hear people saying they put a camera in their joint and looked around, that’s a knee scope or a shoulder scope, an arthroscopy where we can get in and very minimally invasive, but we can get things fixed. That’s a lot of what I did.

That’s interesting. What procedure makes you taller?

It’s a limb-lengthening surgery. Did you ever see the movie Gattaca where the guy had his legs lengthened?

Yes.

You can have it done. I’ve never seen it personally, but I’ve read about it. They go in and slowly lengthen the tibia and make it longer. It could be because maybe one limb is not as long as the other. There are extreme measure people have gone to be taller. There are different options for that, but it’s one of those cool ones.

Another cool one is rotationplasty. It’s another one I’ve never seen, but I have read about, particularly with kids. When a child has to have an above-the-knee amputation, they take the foot and the ankle and attach it up to the top or at the femur, so the child still has a joint that moves, but the foot’s pointing backward. It helps it go into their prosthetics so that the ankle joint will work like a knee and they can function better. I highly recommend looking at rotationplasty. It’s a very fun surgery. I don’t think it’s fun for the patient, but to me, as a nurse, I find it very fascinating.

That’s not where it ends with you. Now, with First Case and the company you work with, you guys have a very specific function within ortho, and that’s sterile processing. Some of our readers have heard of it, but they don’t understand what that is. Break that down for us. What specifically is sterile processing?

Sterile processing is the department within the hospital that is making sure that every instrument we use on every single patient is clean, sterile, free from contamination, and free from any harm that we could cause to a patient. They are inspecting and ensuring that all of these instruments that we use, whether we’re talking about using it in the OR, labor and delivery, wound care clinic, or anywhere where you might need an instrument that is clean or sterile, they are the ones making sure that instrument is exactly like it needs to be. They are the instrument experts.

MSP 118 | OR Nurse — OR Nurse Sterile processing is the hospitals department that ensures every instrument used on every patient is clean sterile and free from contamination and harm

Without them, we couldn’t do surgery because we cannot do surgery without a sterile instrument. Everything that we do and anywhere we’re dealing with clean or sterile instruments, it all hinges on the expertise of the folks in sterile processing. They keep everything going in the hospital to make sure that we have what we need.

The sterile processing companies or vendors are the ones that are making sure all the equipment is clean that is used within the surgery.

Employees in the hospital are the ones cleaning and doing it. Our vendors and the sterile processing companies out there are creating these products that make it work better for employees, make cleaning easier, or all these other things. These companies are constantly creating new technologies, new ways of cleaning, or bringing in new products that can make it easier, better, and safer. They’re also educating along the way so that staff knows how to take care of these instruments, inspect them, and make sure that they’re putting out a quality product. At the end of the day, it could be your mom, my mom, or your child on the operating room table, and nobody wants a dirty instrument and an infection.

Now that you’ve broken it down and explained it, where does the company you work with come into play?

It’s this new disrupting type idea of a company created out of a bright idea between two people named Hank Balch and Justin Poulin. They started as a podcast about sterile processing. There was no sterile processing podcast a couple of years ago. They started educating and bringing this very important department. We would be nowhere and dead in the water without sterile processing in the operating room.

We have to have them. We need this department, but they get overlooked. They don’t get the budget dollars, information, and things that they deserve. Sometimes, I don’t think the value that they provide is recognized. The podcast they started was there to pour that education into the sterile processing departments to bring awareness to this department that sometimes is overlooked down in the basement. The podcast validates and empowers these technicians to know their stuff, recognize that they know their stuff, and help them constantly improve.

The company started as a podcast, but that’s not where it stopped. What they started doing was they reached out to these vendors and companies that were selling into the sterile processing department and said, “We have a voice. We have this podcast and people listening to us. We can help you get your message in front of the people who want to buy your stuff.” They can partner with these vendor companies.

Let’s use an example. ONE TRAY/IST got subject matter experts about One Tray. We can interview them about their One Tray and find out about it like this show. It’s just a conversation. We’re talking, but people like to listen to a conversation. They don’t like to be talked at. They don’t like to sit in a meeting and go, “I’m going to die.” They change the dynamic and platform and put education into a podcast, even coming from a vendor. These vendor companies are the ones building the products and creating them. They know everything about it. They know why it’s designed to do what it does. Giving them that voice or that platform lets them get it out in front of the masses. We can give them an extra voice to share that education and information.

That’s what the company you work with does. What does First Case do?

Our company was our proof of concept. They launched a couple of years ago. Through the success that they had as they did the podcast, they worked with vendors through vendor spotlights, expert series, or conferences where vendors could pour education into sterile processing and provide free CEs along the way because everybody’s always interested in CEs.

Our company heard time and time again, “This is great for sterile processing. What do you have for the operating room?” Hank and Justin were like, “We don’t, but we think we should.” They reached out to me through a Facebook group that I was already running on my own. They said, “You know the operating room. You speak the language and understand it. We want to take what we’ve done with the company and move it into the operating room, and we’d like you to join us.”

Honestly, I’d never listened to a podcast ever when they reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in hosting a podcast. I’m like, “Sounds fun.” You could say the rest is history because our first podcast launched in January of 2021, and we are still going strong. We just recorded a podcast interviewing a good friend of mine.

It’s been interesting and fun to watch First Case grow, almost following in the footsteps of our company and being able to offer industry partners and vendor partners this option of putting out the education of improving our space and also letting people know what it is that our vendor partners have to offer because sometimes they don’t know or you don’t get the message in front of the right person, but when somebody can say, “Here’s this podcast. They interviewed me about our new washer disinfector. They interviewed me about this new enzymatic cleaner that you can use.” People can go and listen to a podcast and find out about it. It’s very passive learning. You can do it when you want to. You’re much more interested if you’re choosing to listen to it. It gets the message out.

The company you work with and First Case Media partner with vendors that improve the space of sterile processing and also improve operating room practices in general.

Correct.

That is fascinating. Let’s go back to you then. You’ve been an OR nurse for several years, which is a significant amount of time. You are an expert. Are you still practicing as an OR nurse now?

I’m non-clinical at this point. I’m pouring all of my efforts, education, and social media into growing this brand and providing my expertise to help improve the education we can offer.

Being an OR lover, how much do you miss it?

I miss it so bad. There’s a little bit of a caveat there because I do miss it. I miss the environment, the people, and the energy, but I don’t miss the long nights, the on-calls, and the exhaustion that all of us deal with day in and day out from the grind of the hours, labor, and work. I am at a point in my life where I am proud and glad that I did it, and I would go back and work per diem probably if I could make it happen. Where I live right now, I don’t have that option. One day, it’s on the list, I promise, but for now, I’m enjoying the rest. Although, I don’t know how rested I am. I’m not just on my feet all the time.

When did you leave the operating room?

I left the operating room on the last day of June 2021.

I talk to a lot of nurses, and a lot of nurses want to transition into medical sales. We’re going to talk about that. Before we do, did COVID make you want to leave the operating room faster or were you already on your way out?

I was already burned out before COVID ever hit. I don’t think I processed the level of burnout I was dealing with until I did leave. In my experience with COVID, the hospital I worked at did a fantastic job taking care of their employees and paying us even when we could not go to work. The hospital that I worked in primarily did outpatient surgery. We had a couple of months where we weren’t at work, but our hospital paid us, which everybody didn’t have that option, and I’m very grateful we did. That rest was good for me because I was already dealing with burnout.

COVID was scary and all of that, but it’s like, “I can take a minute to rest,” but then we came back with a vengeance. With cases coming back, we were bursting at the seams with all the workload and volume. It was a lot. During all that time, I also ended up having to have surgery and other things done. It was one of these minor elective things, but it was my feet. I had plantar fasciitis, and it was so bad I could not do anything anymore. My body was falling apart from the constant strain of the work I had put it through for many years. I’m old, I guess. It was one of those, “Maybe it’s time to take what I know and what I’m good at and pour it into the OR from a different direction so that I can still be a part of this area that I love. I can maybe improve it or make it better and maybe not have my body fall apart in the process.”

I love that you came from a good position. That’s some true insight that you got to give yourself before you make the transition into what you do now. Let’s talk about that because I want to know what your experience was like dealing with medical sales reps, specifically OR-based medical sales reps, when you were an OR nurse. Especially, a lot of nurses are making that transition, and we help them make that transition. Think back to when you were an OR nurse. If you could define your experience with medical sales reps in a couple of sentences, what would you say?

I have a wonderful relationship with so many of the reps that I dealt with. I loved them. They saved my tail on more than one occasion. They were the experts. They knew the trays, equipment, and stuff. I even had a couple more who didn’t know what was in their trays. They knew what was in other people’s trays too. Not because they were trying to do somebody else’s job but because they just knew.

There was a particular one, her name was Christine, and I still text her. I love her. She knew everything, and I could text her and be like, “Christine, I need this. I don’t know where to find it,” and she could tell me. It was one of these shining stars of the bunch who found that happy medium between always being prepared and available. They were there, or they had somebody who could be there.

[bctt tweet=”Medical sales representatives are the shining stars who found that happy medium between always being prepared and always being available. ” via=”no”]

They knew their stuff, but they weren’t pushy either. It’s that nice happy medium. My experience boiled down to having good relationships and good sales reps. They made all the difference in our cases when they were prepared, and they knew what was going on and knew their stuff. There is no comparison. I love them. They were great.

That is fantastic. That leads to my next question, and you answered it already. What makes a good medical sales rep besides knowing your stuff and doing your best to be an ultimate resource? What are some tangible things you would say that if someone reading this wants to become a medical device sales rep in the OR, they need to keep these things in mind?

One of the big ones that come to mind, and some of these maybe are negative because these are some of my frustrations, but if you don’t do this, it will make your life better. The circulator scrub tech or scrub nurse in the room is your best friend, or they can make life miserable for you. Having a good relationship, not just with the surgeon, because I realized the surgeon is the one you’re trying to have a relationship with and trying to get them to use your screws, plates, implants, or whatever it is you want them to use.

At the end of the day, you’re working with that circulator and scrub to get that room open and set up, have your trays ready, and have them there on time. Don’t make them have to chase you down on a regular basis because you don’t want to be known as that rep because everybody’s got that rep. You don’t want to be that one.

If it means getting to the hospital 30 minutes early to make sure that your trays have made it through sterile processing or trays are on the case cart. Don’t depend on the circulator who’s got 85,000 different things to do to also, “She can just go get my tray. He can just go get this.” A lot of times, depending on the setup of the facility, the rep is expected to make sure those trays are on the case cart, make sure the trays are there or make sure they are ready so sterile processing can put them on the case cart. Make sure they’re there in a proper amount of time so that sterile processing can get them ready. Dropping them off at 5:00 AM for a 7:00 AM case, your trays aren’t going to be ready. Your room’s going to be mad, and the case is going to be delayed.

I understand it can’t always be helped. Sometimes there’s one tray in the state, and it had to come from six hours away the night before. As an ortho team leader, my job was to reschedule the case to make sure we could do it. I realized there were extenuating circumstances, but that was always a big one. Not having their trays there, but also if they needed to be there for the case, knowing they were there, and not trying to call them ahead of time, “Where are you? We need you here.” That was always frustrating.

The other, especially in orthopedics, neuro, and even in cardiac, although I’m not experienced with cardiac. I can only imagine you would have it there too. You might have a long list of implants. We might have put in 20 screws, 2 plates, or put in 5 different implants for a total knee. The way charting most places is now, we have to document every one of those implants. You have the little paper that you’re putting all the stickers on or whatever, especially when it comes to screws and plates and things. You’ve got it all filled out. If you don’t give the circulator that page until we’re rolling out of the room, then I can’t do any of the rest of the charting I need to do until I get that patient to PACU. I then get back, and now my turnovers are delayed because I’ve got to sit here and chart all of this.

I don’t want to be handed a page of implants at the very end of the case when maybe we could work together, and you could tell me, “Here’s the number for this one.” It’s being able to chart at a time when it’s convenient for the circulator. At the end of the case, when we’re getting that patient off the table, getting them on the stretcher, and getting them out of the room, that is not convenient for me to chart. I don’t want to be handed a sheet of paper at that time of the case. That was another big frustration that we had.

Pay attention and see the flow of the room. How can you be the most help? I know different hospitals have different rules on what you can touch, can’t touch, and what you can open. There are a lot of rules, but when you can be helpful, offer advice, or have your implant sheet and hand it to them at a time that’s convenient for them to chart, it goes a long way toward being considerate that there’s a lot of work going on around you. Everybody wants to get their work done, and we don’t want to be delayed over something we could have done earlier.

For those that are new to the industry or want to get in coming from a different profession, define what a circulator is.

The OR circulator is everything for the room that’s not sterile. The OR circulator is usually an RN. It’s typically mandated that at least there’s an RN in the room, and usually, it’s a circulator. We are perioperative nurses, and our job is to maintain sterility, but we are not scrubbed in. We are observing or watching. We are making sure that the people who are scrubbed in are maintaining sterile technique and following everything they’re supposed to do.

If they need something, we’re the ones running to get it or open it because if you’re scrubbed in and sterile, you can’t do anything except within your sterile field. If you needed to open something out of a cabinet, you couldn’t do it without breaking the scrub, going back, and scrubbing back in. That’s why one of the reasons we’re there.

Primarily, we are there to be the voice of the patient. Our patients are asleep. They are trusting us at the most vulnerable point of their lives because they can do and say nothing. They are not involved in their care at that point at all. Somebody has to be there to advocate for the patient and says, “No, you can’t do that. That’s not on the consent. We’re not doing that. We’re doing a left, not a right.”

There’s got to be somebody tasked with that oversight. We all are doing it in the room, but as a circulator, one of our primary responsibilities is to make sure that we are advocating for the patient because the patient cannot advocate for themselves and then make sure they’re positioned correctly, their skin is prepped for surgery correctly, and that we have all the things that we need. There are a bunch of hats that we wear. We do the charting and all those things. We run our tails off a lot, but it’s the nature of what we do.

[bctt tweet=”One of the primary responsibilities of circulators is to make sure that we are advocating for the patient because the patient cannot advocate for themselves.” via=”no”]

Here’s one thing that is talked about often, especially now. I’m going to speak specifically to medical device companies. It’s becoming more prevalent because we’re at a time when more and more medical device startups are happening. They’re looking for talent. They’re finding any talent they can and throwing them into the fire as opposed to giving them thorough training. It’s one of the reasons why we have our training programs to help them have a better experience and be more effective in the field. I want to ask you. When you think back to your OR days, there’s case coverage and selling. How much selling did you see versus case coverage, and what did that look like?

I worked at two different facilities. I’ll talk about the most recent one first. That was effectively done because, in our operating room, our vendors and reps did not do a lot of selling. They were there to support the case. They were there to provide expertise and assistance for the case. Certainly, if a question came up and the surgeon asked about this or, “I heard you talk about this,” they would talk about it. As the orthopedic team leader, it was my job to help make decisions about new products and help provide input for that.

The reps would not stand there in the OR, distract the surgeons, and try to sell to them. We would talk to them. They would come to talk to us. It depended on our relationship with them. If it was a rep who never wanted to interact with me unless they were trying to sell me something, it was a little different than if it was somebody that was prepared and always there, and then when I trusted them, they came to me and said, “This is what we’ve come out with. Do you want to see about it or hear about it?” but there was never this pressure push, it was natural.

Selling and getting people to listen to what you want them to listen to comes with building those relationships. When I’ve got a good relationship with you as a rep, I trust you, and I know your stuff, it’s organic, and I’m going to be like, “Let me hear more about that.” I had some good relationships with more than the one rep I talked about. They would come to me and say, “We’ve got this new product. Do you want to want to try it or whatever?” I’ll be like, “Tell me more about it. That sounds pretty cool. I’m all about something new.” I’ve also had vendors who I always chased down or weren’t there for their cases, but then suddenly, I’d see them.

They’re trying to push a product.

I’m like, “No, I don’t think so. We’re good.” For me, it was a lot of relation relationally based because, in the operating room, you get to know your vendors and work with them so much. It’s not so difficult to think that building good relationships and treating people as people, regardless of the hat and scrubs they’re wearing or anything else. We’re people. We all have the desire to see patient outcomes improved and to have our patients have great surgical experiences.

If that means I need to try a new wound closure system, you’ve got a new irrigation that is possibly going to reduce infection, or this particular positioning device is going to reduce pressure on some of our nerves and going to help our patients, I want to hear about it. It works better on both sides when we can also have those relationships because we are all people.

You highlighted something. Would you say that a lot of people in this space look to the provider being the decision-maker? From your experience, it sounds like you were the decision-maker. The surgeon’s busy covering the case, and you’re telling me that you even created an avenue to invite representatives that had taken the time to develop a relationship with you to sell to you. You invited them to sell to you. Talk to us a little bit about how important it is to consider the nurse as a big part of the decision-making process.

You have to think about who your customer is because you want the surgeon to want to use your device or equipment. They have a loud voice. I would get emails from surgeons frequently, “I want to do a free trial on this. We’re going to try it.” They obviously could push a lot of stuff, but it’s not the surgeon who is the customer. In my role overseeing as an orthopedic team leader, I had a lot of input, and my opinion was valued by my director and the director of perioperative services, “They want us to buy this. Do we need it? Are we going to use this? Is this any different than the one we already have? Is it $20,000 more of what’s something we don’t need?”

You have to remember that. The surgeon might ask for it, but when the people with budget dollars are looking at the budget and asking the nurses and techs, “Is this valuable? Is this something we need?” you want them to also understand the value. You want them to see the benefit so that they’re also giving the same feedback.

When the person writing the check, whoever it may be, hears not just from the surgeon that they want this fancy positioner, but you hear from the scrub tech and the nurse, “This is amazing. This made my life so much better. For the patient, it was easier, faster, and awesome,” they’re suddenly more interested because they’re hearing it from multiple angles. Never forget that it is not the surgeon who is your customer. It is those nurses and those techs every single day.

[bctt tweet=”Never forget that it is not just the surgeon who is your customer. It is those nurses and techs every single day.” via=”no”]

How many representatives did you meet that used to be nurses, if any?

More reps that I met had been scrub techs. I had several scrub tech reps. I don’t know that I had ever met a rep who had been a nurse, but I had met reps who had been surgical techs. It made all the difference because they knew those instruments, and they could walk surgeons through cases like, “You need that.”

One more example, as an OR circulator, in my training, I was never taught to scrub in. I was not taught to put on all the surgical garments, pass instruments, and help with the case. In my role as an orthopedic team leader, I felt like that made me not a very good team leader because I was a team leader for nurses and techs, but I couldn’t help my techs. I couldn’t scrub in, give them a break, or give them lunch. I’m like, “This doesn’t work.” Over time, I worked with some of my techs and had them teach me the basics. “If I’m going to give you a lunch break, potty break, or something, what can I do to help set up a case or whatever?” They taught me the basics.

The problem with that is my charge nurse then found out, “You can scrub in. You can do this case. We need somebody.” It went from helping a little bit to scrubbing in, but the very first total hip that I had to scrub on my own, the rep saved the day because they knew the instruments. They didn’t just know their instruments. They knew the steps or the procedure and kept me one step ahead. While I had no idea what I was doing other than to make sure I didn’t contaminate anything, they did.

This was a rep that I had a very good relationship with. I told him ahead of time, I’m like, “I don’t know how to do this, but we can’t do the case if I don’t scrub in, so I have to. Please help me,” and he did, and he kept me a step ahead. Everything went fine. We might have dropped something on the floor a couple of times, but we made it through, and the case went perfectly. I can honestly say, on my part of it, it was because of the rep who helped me. You can’t put a price tag on that relationship, especially when you’re like, “I need help. Please.”

That is fantastic. Let’s switch gears a little bit. I want to talk about the sterile processing reps. That’s something that is not talked about or discussed a lot. With the company your work with and the First Case, you guys are partnering with these sterile processing companies. There’s a whole world of sterile processing sales reps. In a nutshell, what’s your experience with those types of reps? Do you know where they typically come from? Are they experienced? Are they relatively new? Have they come from a different sale from what you’ve seen? Talk to us a little bit about your experience with these types of reps.

My experience with them is more limited because I was more in the OR, but what I’ve seen with who I’ve worked with the reps a lot of times have healthcare backgrounds, or maybe they were a sterile processing technician, and then they went into being a rep. They speak the language and understand it. They know those pain points and how the product they’re selling provides a solution to those pain points. It always is helpful when you can speak the language. Even if maybe you go into being a sterile processing rep and you weren’t a sterile processing technician, there is a world of education available for you, especially through our company, where you can learn the language, what’s going on, and those issues. It can help make you more able to relate to your customer.

That’s what I’ve seen the most. Either they had other healthcare backgrounds and went over and were given the sterile processing product they are now selling, or they were sterile processing techs. With the education that’s out there, if they came in and it was their very first sales position, there is still a wealth of information that they could add to their repertoire so that they could be an effective salesperson.

[bctt tweet=”Any wealth of information that a medical sales representative could add to their repertoire could help them be an effective salesperson. ” via=”no”]

It was wonderful getting to the bottom of everything going on in your space. You’ve given us a thorough education on the sterile processing world from an OR nurse’s perspective and how to be the most effective medical sales rep. Is the company you work with a podcast, and then First Case Media is the company, or are they two podcasts?

The company I work with is the main one. It’s www.BeyondClean.net. The First Case Media is FirstCaseMedia.com. We’re separate but sisters. We provide a lot of the same services pointed toward either sterile processing or the operating room, depending on your flavor, with a lot of crossover in between.

People can listen to podcasts from both.

You can find podcasts from both. We are on every podcast platform that you’re interested in. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, or whatever you like. We’re there. You just search for us, and you’ll find us.

To wrap things up, I always like to do a fun little lightning round. Melanie, are you ready for the lightning round?

Go for it.

You have to speak to the first thing that comes to mind. What is the best book you’ve read in the last couple of months?

Empire of the Scalpel by Ira Rutkow. I’m reading it. It’s sitting here next to me. It’s the history of surgery. It’s very good. It’s all the way back to prehistoric drilling holes in skulls to let blood out and all sorts of crazy things.

That’s something I’m going to have to look into.

You need to read it.

What is the best movie or TV show you’ve seen in the last couple of months?

The Rings of Power, it’s The Lord of the Ring Series on Amazon. It’s fantastic. I’m watching the next episode with my kids.

I’m a big fan of the book. The movies were good too. Does it match up?

It is different because it comes before all of that. All of the information they used for the show came from a lot of Tolkien’s other writings and notes and world-building that he did before he wrote Lord of the Rings, so it’s different. It all is in the same vein and feel, and I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan. Call me a nerd if you want, but I’ll soak it all in.

I’m looking into that one. What is the best meal you’ve had in the last couple of months?

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago.

Happy belated birthday.

Thank you. My brother took me, my husband, and his girlfriend out to dinner at a place in Huntsville, Alabama. It’s in this old house that’s been remodeled into a restaurant. It had this great, fun feel. It was an upscale Italian restaurant because it was not like the shrimp scampi you would get at Olive Garden. It was this shrimp scampi pasta thing that was amazing. There was also a wine bar. I had never ordered a wine flight before, but I got to try a whole bunch of different wines from this amazing wine collection with delicious pasta and dessert. You will not leave hungry, and it was fantastic.

You can’t say all that and not give us the name of the restaurant.

It’s called Mazzara’s. It is divine.

You’ve sold successfully. Why did you become a medical sales rep?

Maybe I should. That’s in the future for me.

The last question is, what’s the best experience you’ve had in the last couple of months?

Maybe a little different than most. My oldest son went to college. He has joined ROTC at Auburn University. Sending him to college and watching him love, excel, and do exactly what it is he wants to do and how much he loves has been a great experience for me. I thought this was going to be such a sad, emotional, or terrible thing, and I’m like, “You’re going,” not because I want to get rid of him, but because I’m so excited about what he’s doing. It’s been fun to watch.

That is beautiful. We can’t get better than that. Melanie, thank you for the time you gave us. We’ve learned so much. We look forward to seeing more from you and the company you work with.

Thank you for having me.

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Fantastic stuff. That was Melanie Perry. A lot of you out there might be reading this episode and thinking about what Melanie has done in her career and the things she’s seen, and a lot of the things that she’s talked about, and you’re saying to yourself, “This is what I want to be a part of. I really want to get into this industry.” If you’re a reader, you already know what I’m going to say. Make sure you visit EvolveYourSuccess.com. We have a program there called the Medical Sales Career Builder. This program is designed to help you get a position in around 90 days.

If you’re serious and want to get into this industry, maybe you’ve been trying for a while, and nothing’s really hitting, you’ve been sending out applications and have heard nothing back, keep getting that rejection letter or that nice letter bittersweet that says, “We regret to inform you,” or “Thank you for applying, but we’ve decided to go with another candidate,” or maybe you’ve been interviewing and you’re getting to the second round, third round, or even the last round, and you cannot get to an offer. This is why we have the Medical Sales Career Builder program.

Medical sales have become such a competitive industry, and everybody wants to get in. There are so many qualified people going for the roles, so it has changed the game in how you actually approach getting a position. A program like this is what can do it for you. Many people had such a positive experience going through our program and getting into the role when they were hitting their heads against the wall when they were trying to do it on their own. If you’re trying to get in and want to make something happen, visit EvolveYourSuccess.com and select Attain Medical Sales Role. Have a conversation with one of us here at Evolve Your Success, and let us help you get into a medical sales position.

For you sales reps out there that are thinking about how you’re going to make this next year, what you’re going to do differently, how you’re going to make an impact, maybe get that promotion you’ve wanted, get into the President’s Club, or get into that rotation that you’ve been eyeing and you’re thinking to yourself, “I know I can do things just a little bit differently, but I’m not sure what,” visit EvolveYourSuccess.com, select Improve Sales Performance, and take a look at our medical sales training program, and let’s have a conversation and get you the results that you’ve been looking for.

As always, we do our best to bring you guests that are changing the way medical sales look. They’re innovative. They’re starting things like Melanie, like podcasts, information, devices, drugs, and everything that has to do with healthcare sales. They’re making waves. These are the guests we try to bring you each and every week. Make sure you tune in next time for another episode of the show.

About Melanie Perry

Melanie Perry, BSN, RN, CNOR, CSSM, is an OR nurse with experience as a circulator, scrub, charge nurse, team lead, and manager. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and in her 20 years as a nurse has also worked in Neonatal ICU, OB/GYN, Med-Surg, Pain Management, and then finally found her true calling in the Operating Room in 2011.

She founded The Circulating Life in 2018 out of a desire to create a space where anyone working in the OR could find community, and see what working in the OR is really like. Her success with The Circulating Life brought her to First Case, and she helped launch the brand in January 2021. She is the content creator, social media manager for First Case, along with the co-host of the podcast. When she’s not at work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and three children.

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