Clay Darcey: Medical Sales

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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Clay Darcy with us. He's a medical sales representative in Raleigh, North Carolina. So welcome to the show, Clay.

Thanks a lot.

Of course, man, thanks for hopping on. We'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Clay, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Sure. So, you know, I would say sometimes the most unexpected experiences are the biggest impact on your life. So for me, I would say one of the most important parts of me growing personally and in my career was being an intramural official. And that probably sounds crazy. It's not something that you'll see on every resume. But, you know, my brother had worked in intramurals during his college career and had nothing but good things to say. USA. So, you know, I was a freshman, wanted some extra cash, and I went out and got a job as a basketball official. And I was not good. And on top of not being good, I am not the biggest guy that you'll run into. So you've got players that are a foot taller than you yelling at you for making the wrong call. It's intimidating. But by my senior year, I was one of the best officials on staff. You know, I worked hard, really, really every single year. Getting that continuous feedback. So, you know, by my senior year, I was one of the best officials and I became a supervisor for intramurals. You know, from this experience, I really learned how to communicate effectively, whether it was with players, giving feedback to officials, or just working with my fellow officials. And, you know, most importantly, that's where I gained a lot of my confidence, not only to believe in myself to get to the point where I was one of the best officials, But just being able to communicate with anybody, you know, there's a lot of different players with a lot of personalities. And I think throughout your career, being able to communicate effectively with all those personalities is really important. So, you know, I guess what I'm trying to get at is never forget those experiences that developed you into who you are. And they're just as important as the experiences that led you to success in business tasks or anything like that.

And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

So I would say, to be honest, I'm really new in my industry, so I'm gonna take a different spin at this. But, you know, people, people always have this ideal candidate. They have this mold of a person that, you know, they, they think is gonna be the most successful in this role or that. So, you know, the best salesperson is the most outgoing, or the best marketing person is the most creative, and so on. But just because you don't fit as what has been put out there as the ideal candidate, it doesn't mean you can't have success. If you're willing to put the work in for something, then you can absolutely be successful. So, you know, don't let the ideal candidate, you know, people telling you, well, you know, this is how I think you should look. Sure, there are attributes with each position and each function that you should have, but that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be able to have success.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

Sure. So I would say my best piece of advice would be never stop learning and never stop seeking to learn. I feel like a lot of people get stuck in their functional realm. You know, it's happened to me being in marketing and sales. So, you know, if you're in sales, go out and spend a week with the marketing team. And maybe you don't have a week, maybe you have a day, maybe you have an hour to have a phone call, but really to understand what the different functions of a business does has nothing but benefits for you. So if you can sit in a meeting and understand the supply chain, understand the finance, and understand decision-making, I think that's really important.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Man, I wish I could give my younger self 100 pieces of advice, but if I had to pick one thing, and this, you know, this sounds kind of cheesy, but I would say to focus on my career from a much earlier age and You know, during my childhood, I went from wanting to be a veterinarian to wanting to be a lawyer to a politician, and then, you know, finally I arrived on business with a focus on marketing and sales. But I'm not saying, you know, you need to know what you want to do in kindergarten, go out, get that experience during recess. But what I am saying is when you're applying to colleges or when you're choosing a major, even when you're in school, um, especially your freshman and sophomore years, really seek to understand what your major translates to as a career. Just because you like debating with other people doesn't always mean that your career as a lawyer is right for you. And then, you know, for some reason, there's this ideal that you can't or don't need to worry about getting an internship until your junior year of college. And, you know, I will say it's definitely not easy to get a paid internship before your junior year, but not many people or businesses will say no to free help. So the earlier you can decide with confidence on the career you want, the better off you will be. So I mean, with that, the best piece of advice for my younger self would be to go out and get that real-world experience just to better prepare myself for the rest of my career.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

So, you know, I think this is really dependent on the individual. You know, every house has its own key. And I think with each person, they're going to have their own keys to happiness. But, you know, in my opinion, I would say there's two really big things that can contribute and will contribute to a person's happiness. Number one, I would say surrounding yourself with the right people is really impactful and really important, whether it's friends, family, mentors, having that good surrounding of good people who who challenge you to be better on a daily basis and who support you, I think is really important to your happiness. And then with that, at the end of the day, being kind and being a good person, I don't think really can have a negative impact on you. And just being the best person you can be, I think is a big key as well.

And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

So, you know, for business purposes, I would say one of the best books I've read was The Amazon Way. So this book contains 14 leadership principle each Amazon employee is expected to adhere by on a daily basis. And this isn't just about the managers. This isn't just about the C-level guys. This is about every single employee, top to bottom. And so with that, if I had to choose one principle out of those, it would be to think big. And this sounds really broad and general, but really focusing in on that. Choose long-term investments over short-term profits. That was one of the quotes from there. Sometimes we're always focused on tomorrow, how can we be successful tomorrow, but with your decision-making, and you might not be able to apply this to everything, but look at how it's gonna impact you or impact the business down the road. So I'd say that was definitely the best thing I learned from it.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

So my favorite quote, actually don't even know where it came from. I ordered a product and in the product on the bottom of the invoice was this quote. And usually I just throw invoices away, but I read this quote and it's about attitude. So how we react is everything and our attitude is the choice we have. It's a choice we make every minute of the day. It is a state of mind that no one can take from us. If we're in control of our attitudes, we're in command of our lives and that's the best way to live. So why is this my favorite quote? Well, first and foremost, I agree with it. Life is full of the unexpected. Things get thrown your way all the time. But with each thing that comes our way, we really have the ability to control how we react. So if you can control how you react, adapt, and move forward, that can only have benefits for you. And a bad attitude really can only make things worse.

Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

Definitely LinkedIn. My name should be pretty easy to find. I've got all my contact information on there. Feel free to reach out to me anytime, anyway.

Perfect, man. Thank you again for joining us.

We appreciate it. Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

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