I had an amazing experience last Friday at the CBI “Next Generation Rx Sampling Strategies” conference. Michael DePalma (Senior Director at Healthbridge) and I sat down the night before we were to give our 8:15 a.m. speech on “360 Degrees of Sampling”. We had the unsettling realization that our speech was not that groundbreaking and we were even using many of the same statistics others had presented the previous day. Most people would have panicked, stayed up late and re-written it. We dumped the whole presentation and decided to take a different path. We KNOW the hot topics, the taboo topics and the have a pretty good view of the future of sampling, so we decided to lead the audience in a spirited discussion on those topics, offering everyone in attendance an interactive learning forum. That was the plan, anyway. So, we created 3 slides and went to have dinner with colleagues.

When I woke up at 6:45 a.m., I realized that this presentation would either soar with the eagles or drop from the sky like a wounded buzzard – it was about 50/50. Fortunately, both Mike and I are strong speakers and good on our feet – it went beautifully, the audience was really engaged, we ended up having a completely different conversation – and we had a blast.

I give great credit to Mike – who gamely went along with my idea and was the catalyst that made it work. Thanks, Mike!!

I always heard about how life (if you are indeed lucky) will offer up a few “brass rings” and if you are smart enough and in the right place at the right time, the brass ring will be yours. In business, it seems, that you don’t get a whole lot of shots at the brass ring – it only gets offered every once in a while (you might get a few iron rings!).

To get the brass ring, not only do conditions have to be just right, something else is needed- you have to be right there and ready at the time the brass ring appears. The brass ring is a special reward for perfect conditions. The person lucky enough to grab the brass ring will receive a free ride on the pharma-go-round – and capture more clients than they know what to do with and live happily ever after.

Lately I’ve gotten calls, emails, and information that tells me that conditions are just right to finally grab the brass ring. And keep it.