Elevating Individuals Through Mentorship
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Character, integrity, and the ripple effect of paying it forward define the true mark of a leader. In this episode, host Tina Fox sits down with sales veteran Mike McNulty to discuss the transformative power of mentorship in medtech and how it shapes high-performing teams. From his early days serving on the DMZ to scaling sales organizations across the country, Mike shares candid stories about the importance of hiring for character over relationships. Listen in as they dive into the philosophy of “quantum giving” and discover why focusing on patient care—rather than just the bottom line—is the best path to professional fulfillment.
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Everyone, I have a guest who I feel is like a brother to me. If there is anybody who knows where all the bodies are buried, this is the guy, and his name is Mike McNulty. Mike and I met many years ago through business development. We were both sales leaders in a med tech company. A little company known as Johnson and Johnson. We were actually within a division of cardiology known as Cordis. We ended up not only working together, but traveling together. There was a hurricane that came through the place where we lived at one point in time. I found myself homeless and having to live with him and his family temporarily. This guy has been with me for so many years. I want to welcome the one and only Mike McNulty. Buddy, how are you?
I’m wonderful. Great to see you. Great to be on here with you. I’m really excited about this opportunity. You’re the best.
We were prepping for this call, and in true Mike and Tina form, prepping for anything means that there is this massive whiteboard, and nothing ever gets done. We just realized there’s just more and more and more that we could talk about. We decided to throw away the whiteboard, hit play, and let’s go. Mike, I told the audience a little bit about how we met, but would you like to share about the very beginnings of how we met?
I was insanely jealous of Tina Fox. I really did not like you. We literally grew up together in the med device world back in the rip-roaring 1990s, back in the 20th century. It is unbelievable. I remember being junior rookie reps back in ‘98, ‘99 together at Cordis Cardiology, like you said, a J&J company. I was trying to make my way, very insecure. Trying to prove myself and then comes this hurricane, this dynamo with a cool name like Tina Fox, right, and with style and sadness. Believe it or not huge personality and is insanely jealous from day one.
I owe this personality all to you.
I like to tease, but no, honestly, I am just being very candid with you, it is. You were a force of nature. You came in and really made a huge name for yourself and got promoted to the position I wanted. Ironically, I was blessed that when our good friend Tyler, Benny, moved on to marketing, I was blessed to come be your junior or your right-hand man, if you will, in the global sales training department for J&J Cardiology. It was probably the best year of my career to this day.
We learned so much from the Godfather Manny, a great mentor to us both. You mentored me right. You taught me how to run a professional sales training class. As much as I like to tease you, Tina, I mean, it is not a surprise to me and many others that you’re now the founder CEO of a mentoring company. It makes total sense because you’re a natural coach, a natural teacher at heart. That’s how we met. That’s the truth. You’ve never ever heard me be so nice. That is it for you.
I’m like, “I need to do this more often because those are the nicest things.”
No more soup for you. I’m done. The compliments are over.
Michael, I love everything about you because you’re the most real human. I get to be involved in so many aspects of your wonderful life. Being able to see you raise your kids, seeing them go off to college, seeing you move through the med tech world into some of the highest levels of both startup and established companies. You work with boards, you build hundreds of millions of dollars in sales teams. You do some crazy things. Yet at the same time, you’ve always been one of the most grounded people that I’ve ever met.
You have this sense of humility, always typically said in a way which is like self-deprecation. Mike is the first, and he’ll probably do it on this show. He’s the first to deprecate himself on anything. He’s always making fun of himself. When he makes fun of me, I know he makes fun of himself. All that to be said, it’s just been such a joy to watch you do all of these crazy things. At the same time, you are so grounded. You are such a nice person. You’re always somebody who wants to help.
The other thing I’m going to point out is that you are also a champion for women in business. I want to say thank you on behalf of all the women that I know you’ve hired, worked with, and mentored. You’re a guy’s guy too. You’re a total dude. Yet you’re like, “I have this way of connecting across all lines, and that’s how you show up. That’s one of the reasons I really appreciate you.” That’s me saying something nice back to you, and now we can go.
Now for the real talk. If you do not mind, I would not mind giving a shout out to Richard and Mary McNulty, Noni and Pappy, my parents. I never had a choice regarding staying grounded because they are the two most wholesome, down-to-earth, moral people I’ve met in all my years. To this day, I still have yet to meet anyone better than mom and dad. They would never allow me to be anything other than just a good old blue-collar Western Pennsylvania kid, regardless of any accolades or financial success, whatever it may be in life. What they care about is whether you are a good person.
Are you honest? Do you work hard? Do you take care of your family? They do not care about cars or mansions or W-2s. They care about what’s inside. I give them full credit. Regarding the women in business, seriously, all joking aside, I really appreciate you proactively mentioning that. It’s something that I’m very proud of. I actually have a little color commentary. It’s not about bragging, it’s just about providing evidence that that’s just not paying me lip service. We started a small company out of Plymouth, Minnesota, back in 2014, or at least we commercialized the business in 2014.
In four years, we recruited, hired, and trained more women for this small med device company in four years. I’m not taking a shot at my friends at Big Orange, but we were acquired four years later by Smith and Nephew, and we were integrated into their sports medicine division. Our company had, I think, when we were acquired, we had 60 humans, 60 W-2s reporting up to me. My little sales team was 60 humans. They had over 500 employees in their sports med division that we joined. We had more women on our team than they did on their team.
An N of 500 versus an N of 60, we had 17 women out of 60 employees. As in the med device world, that is a huge percentage. By the way, not just sales reps, not just case coverage reps, I’m talking about senior sales leaders in the organization that we hired, we trained, we groomed, and developed. I’ve got one, ironically, from my hometown in Pittsburgh, who is now a chief commercial officer. I’ve got another one who is the director of sales for Smith and Nephew down in South Florida. The list could just go on and on and on with not just their success.
I got to ask you because I know that you hire, you train, promote, and you do it not because we are women. They are women. You do it because you believe that these are the right people, and you’re the first to tell somebody you’ve never ever pulled a punch. You’re the first to, especially with me, you’re the first to tell somebody straight up, “This is what I see. This is what’s working. This is what’s not working.”
You have always been a mirror. For some people, that’s very hard. I fully appreciate that. Because you are a guy’s guy, you have been a hiring manager, you are a hiring manager, you are a leader in medtech, tell me what it is about what you saw in these women. Where is the disconnect? Why were you guys 17 out of 60, and Big Orange was not?
We were three at the time. Three out of 500, I think, at the time. Again, this was years ago. Smith and Nephew, if you’re tuning in, you have done a phenomenal job of changing that culture. I just want everyone to know that, because that is really true. I will tell you it’s as basic as you can because of how basic I am growing up in blue-collar Western PA. There’s some gray in life. A lot of things are black and white, and whenever I definitely have a system, a process, if you will, for recruiting first and foremost. I do not care what color skin I do not care.
I do not care about anything about demographics, and I’m never trying to fill quotas. To use it as a sports analogy. The great Chuck Noll, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach. He said, “All I care about is drafting or signing the best available athlete.” I’ll teach him how to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. This is back in the ‘70s. That has stuck with me all my life. All I want in that particular specific market that we’re recruiting in is the best available sales talent.
Regardless of their resume, their experience, their relationships, I want those who I feel have the most talent because I know my team and I will develop them into the very best version of themself. That may be a Black man, maybe a White woman, maybe a Hispanic dude. I do not care. I just want the best person. It starts with integrity and character. Everyone hears this until I’m blue in the face.
Unquestionable character and integrity are the number one things I look for because nothing else matters if I cannot trust you. If you cannot tell the truth the first time, we’re not going to be able to develop you. That’s just some of the basics about why, out of 60 employees, 17 happen to be women, because in those 17 circumstances, 17 recruiting efforts, they were the best available sales talent. Now I will tell you, and my boys, or my men, sometimes get a little bit annoyed with me. Is it a little bit tongue-in-cheek?
It’s not just them.
I’ll introduce you. We can hang out with Melanie again. Can I tell you something, though? This is what I know. I do not want to start stereotyping, and I do not want generalizations flying out of my mouth. I will tell you to take it maybe a step further. A lot of times, women are just more organized and more disciplined. Time management, definitely with the mothers, because they have so much that they’re balancing. It’s just amazing how efficient they are. In sports medicine, sometimes it gets a little bit too good old boy, relationship-driven.
Ex jocks calling on ex jocks and with women, they do not mess or I mean I’m not saying they do not develop rapport and general genuine relationships, but they do it much differently. They do it based on the most important thing that we should have in common with our surgeons, which is patient care. They focus more on that which is the thing. I always tell my reps, man, you got to keep the thing, the thing, and the translation is it’s all about patient care. Everything else, if you take care of the patient and you have that mindset when you’re in the OR with those nurses and those surgeons, everything works out.
The revenue, the cases, the growth, hitting your plan, making the money to sustain your lifestyle. You’ve got to keep the thing, the thing, which is making sure that the patient is taken care of. I just feel like a lot of times, women are better at focusing on the thing than some of my male counterparts. I probably get some hate mail for that, but that’s just been my experience in the last 3 or 4 companies that we’ve started.
If you do not like to read, a lot of times that means you do not like to learn. Share on XIntegrity and truth. Anything else to point out, because I’m going to go back to integrity and truth, because I failed to mention another very important connection.
Not to get a shameless plug, but I wrote an article for my LinkedIn page several years ago when I was working with Jen. It was called The 6 Pillars of Recruiting Superstars. Now I’ve increased it to ten. I do not know if I can rattle off all ten here. I should have written them down. It is always unquestionable integrity in character that is number one. Number two is a relentless work ethic. These people do not work to a clock. These people work to a standard, and they’re not going to stop until it’s taken. Whatever their goal was for that day, they did not stop until it was achieved.
Sometimes that’s six hours. Sometimes that’s fourteen hours. It is that relentless work ethic. We love people who are learners. That’s a huge part of our recruiting process, putting these candidates in positions where, like one of my great hiring managers, he’s actually my best recruiter. One of his favorite questions seems so innocent. “What book are you currently reading, and what’s the last book you read?” It is a real turnoff for all of us when they say, “I do not read. I do not have time to read.” That’s not a red flag.
That’s a yellow flag, because if you do not like to read, a lot of times that means you do not like to learn. We do not like to work with people who are not learners because learners love to grow. They love to evolve. They know that they’re not the best version of themselves. They want to continue to evolve to be a better version of themselves. Learners are typically more interested at the cocktail hour because they have more to talk about. We love another one of our principles when we recruit, which is, “Are you a curious person? Are you curious in nature?”
You’re like, ” Why is that? It’s because a lot of sales professionals think it’s all about advocating when you and I know it’s mostly about discovery. It’s mostly about using these two things more than this big thing. The great ones know to be curious and to ask more questions. “Tell me more. That’s really interesting, Doc.” Now, why do you feel that way? That’s just basic stuff, but a lot of people miss it. We do not hire for relationships. I think that is one of the most disappointing and overused. When a hiring manager comes to me and brags about this candidate’s relationships, I get very concerned.
I’m like, “We’ll see about that.” As Manny taught us years ago, there are very few actual, genuine relationships. That does not mean you do not have a lot of customers that you have a strong rapport. A relationship is very hard to achieve. The great ones probably only have five or fewer. Most sales reps really have 1 or 2. You’d better not hire for relationships, especially when you’re starting a company, and you need 100% growth year over year in the beginning, and then 75% growth year over year for the next chapter. Eventually, right now we’re at 50% growth year over year. That’s just what you have to do to cross the chasm. You have to have the right people in order to achieve those very lofty sales goals.
You'd better not hire for relationships, especially when you're starting a company and need 100% growth year over year in the beginning. Share on XCan I push pause on that? I want to direct people to your article because I think that they’ll get a lot more out of it. I know when you write, you write very thoughtfully. If anybody gets a chance to go see Michael McNulty. Is it Mike? If you have it, it’s Michael McNulty.
Yes, I think I’ve changed it to Michael.
His stuff will be below this episode, too. You can see his LinkedIn there, click there. Go and read what he puts out on his LinkedIn because I think that there’s so much wisdom. The funny thing about you is I can say any topic and say, “Go.” Because of your life’s experience, you have so much information to share. That is one of the most fascinating things that I find about you. I want to go back to two things, relationship, because I feel as though you and I have a really special relationship. It does not matter that we have not lived in the same state in decades.
We have not worked together in decades, but we remain very close as comrades in life and business and parenting and everything. We talk about all sorts of different topics, and this is what I find amazing about you. We’ll talk about the relationship part in a second. I’m going back to what you said about integrity and character, because I failed to mention, and I cannot believe I did this, especially after seeing my father this weekend. Thank you for your service. Although we talk a lot about med tech, Mike actually served on the DMZ when he was a young soldier for the US Army Cavalry Division.
One of the things that we have in common is the fact that I am deeply tied to the military, and Mike has served in our great military. I believe that still less than one percent of the United States chooses to serve in our great military to protect all of our rights and give us the freedoms that we so appreciate. I just wanted to say thank you for that. I believe not only is it Dick and Mary, your parents, but I believe it is the military that has taught you integrity and character because when you’re watching someone six, you need to know that that person’s got your back and you’ve got theirs. I had to remind myself about where your humble beginnings started, and it started there.
You’re so true, demilitarized zone, right, which is still technically we’re still at war. People do not realize that anyone who serves on the peninsula of South Korea actually is a combat veteran, because I’m a member of VFW because of that year on the DMZ. We never did sign a peace treaty. They’re still technically at war. Most people don’t realize that. To your point, when you’re in a situation like that, you tell the truth, or people can die. That’s even more serious than missing a sales number.
That’s probably why you’re like this is not that big of a problem. We have better problems than we had on the DMZ. Let’s start with that, and let’s go forward from there.
It does. When I speak to a lot of former veterans or former military veterans, very few things in life as a civilian, sometimes people get annoyed with me, like, “Why are you not stressed out?” It’s because I do not have a North Korean pointing a weapon at me right now. We’ll figure it out.
I say the same thing about what I’m doing now because when people are like, “How come this is not that big of a deal to you?” I say this because I came from the world of med tech. In med tech, you make a mistake in somebody’s brain or in somebody’s heart. We got some dire consequences to consider. That to me is far higher on the scale of urgent than somebody’s having a bad day in mentorship. It’s just not even comparable.
The great ones know to be curious and to ask more questions. Share on XThat’s the number six. I observed six patients expire during my time in the cath lab. As a rep, your mouth is shut, and you become a part of the back wall. You try to slither on out of there as the staff and they, cardiologists, try to revive them. You’re right that the cardiology experience was intense.
You do not forget. You do not forget your first. It makes you very aware of how fragile everything can really be. Our relationship is not fragile. We have endured a lot together. I do not know where we should go with this. Where do you want to go? Do you want to go on a mentorship? What are the things that you would want to share? You’ve got three grown habits too, that are making their way through this world now. One is still in college, the other is getting a PhD. Is Matty getting it?
The oldest Molly is working for a private equity firm in Birmingham, Alabama, like a boutique bank. Madeline or Maddie just graduated from Auburn, and then she’ll be going back to Auburn in the fall. It’s a four-year program where she’ll get her master’s and then eventually her PhD in audiology. She’s going to be an audiologist, which we’re very proud of. Ben is a rising sophomore. All three of my beloved babies turned down the great Clemson to go to Auburn, but that’s okay. They were raised in Birmingham, so that’s the Clemson of that part of the country.
It’s a wonderful university, great community. They have had such phenomenal experiences. I’m just beyond proud of them. If you want to, we can talk about mentorship. In preparation for this call, I thought I needed to take an inventory of my life and just think back to the different chapters. I like to segment everything I do. Whether it’s my personal life or my professional one, I’m like the king of segmentation. Just helps my brain process things and keeps all the chaos, I call it organized chaos, that’s going on inside there.
Tina, it’s so authentic and genuine, but it’s also ironic that here you are, the founder and CEO of this amazing company that’s focused on mentoring young people. I’m not sure I’ve ever shared this story with you about what mentoring has meant to me. Let’s rewind to our time together at Cordis Cardiology J&J. Now you and I are grownups, man. We have gone from junior reps, and then we had that amazing experience together in Miami at the global self-training department.
You graduated, or you got promoted first, obviously, and started doing wonderful things up in the mid-Atlantic, running your first team. I eventually got promoted to the deep south and started running out of Birmingham, Alabama. My point is this. Just around the time you had had enough fun, and you were ready for a new challenge, I did not have the courage that you did to take that lead, and then go to that startup company as you did.
I stayed at J& J, and I was not miserable, but I was definitely feeling unsatisfied. I was feeling bored. I was feeling like basically an overpaid professional babysitter. I did not feel like I had autonomy anymore. I got restless, and maybe unbeknownst to you, I developed a little LLC and M and M coaching. The whole premise of this side hustle.
I did not know what was going on then, but I did learn about it later.
The whole premise of this project, or this little LLC, was a little side hustle. A little beer money or slush fund. It really was more about it. It was not about money. It was about helping young people be more prepared. I have all these people who want to get into med devices, and yet I’d speak to them while I interview them, and it was like, “Your resume is a mess,” and it’s not their fault. No one coached them. No one taught them how to speak. The vernacular that we would use as young professionals.
I said, “I’m going to do something about it. I’m going to quit complaining, quit making fun of them. I’m going to do my little part. I’m going to put my little dent in the universe and help out a bunch of young people.” Some of them will get jobs because of my help, and I know many will not, but I’ll feel better at night. Here’s the point of the story. Tyler, Benny, his name pops up again, calls me up and says, because remember he was an Atlanta regional salesman, goes, “Man, I’ve got this kid. I want you to meet this kid. His name is Jason Blevins.
He’s all over the place, but I’m telling you, I think this kid’s got it, man. I think he’s got natural talent. He needs some Mikey time.” I said, “Tyler, thank you, man. Absolutely will take him on.” By the way, I do not think I ever charged him a penny. I know I never made any profit on that little part, my initial LLC. Anyways, so I started coaching Jason. I met him in person a couple of times because he lived in Atlanta. I lived in Birmingham. I would drive over to Atlanta and meet with him. We had countless phone calls. I was really watching this kid evolve.
Next thing I know, he calls me up one day and says, “Mike, my dad wants to meet you.” Now, this is like what? You’re a 25-year-old dude, so that’s a little weird. I’m like, “Okay. Why?” He goes, “I’ve actually never told you the whole truth, but my dad is Coy Blevins.” I’m like, “Coy Blevins? I cannot believe I’ve been working with you for six months and never put your last name.” I’m like, “The legend Coy Blevins? The guy who just sold Perclose with Hank Plain for like $600 or $700 million to Abbott?”
He’s like, “Man, that’s my dad.” I’m like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Now I’m nervous. I’m like, “This guy’s going to be critiquing me.” I’m thinking I’m in trouble. I’m like, “This guy’s like, what are you doing with my son?” I drove over to Atlanta one night. We had this wonderful dinner. We break bread, and guess what? The mentor that night, I became the mentee. Coy was like, “Let me tell you something, I’ve been telling my son these things for years. Do you think he listened to a darn thing the old man told him? No.” He goes, “Next thing I know, he meets this Mike McNutty, Mike McNulty guy. He is like literally spewing all of my wisdom.” He said, “They’re telling you this. I know, Dad, but you know what? It’s different coming from someone else.”
That’s exactly right. It’s like, we always say at the show, we want to introduce a fourth P. If you are so used to, in college, their sphere of influence, at least mine was, was parents, peers, and professors. You’re in college. That’s your major sphere of influence. You got the three P’s that are always around you. They’re like, and they do. By the way, anybody who’s actually watching this video, Mike is now taking notes.
I’m taking that from you. I’m going to make it my own.
Mike is someone who is the king of note-taking. I thought I was the queen of note-taking. I would watch Mike and Mike take down every comma, every explanation. Just amazing.
Real quick. I’m not going to get you off. Do you know why?
Why?
It’s because of one of my great mentors, Martha Shaden. She taught me, and she did not tell me to do it. I just observed her, and I’m like, that’s why she’s such a machine. That’s why she never forgets anything. That’s why I cannot tell her a lie or even a little exaggeration and embellishment because six months later she’ll go in her notebook and say, “Now Michael on May 18th, my gosh.” I learned that from the great Martha Shade, like twelve years ago. True story.
Martha is wonderful. Thank you for introducing me. The three P’s have done everything that they can. The professors are teaching all in class. They’re offering office hours. The peers are in the same boat. The parents. The truth be told is that when kids turn twelve, they’re done listening to their parents. The majority of where they’re getting their influence is outside the house. It’s going to be through their phones these days. It’s going to be through their peers.
It’s going to be through other people that they connect with. By the time they get to college, those three Ps are baked. The goal is to introduce better Ps outside of the three Ps that the students will now listen to because there is wisdom there, there is experience there, and there is support there, and introducing them to another person and a professional, particularly in the world of mentorship, can augment that student’s perspective and their own experience.
I know why Coy loves you so much because you took his son, his most prized possession, and you sat with his son and you helped him through decision-making and through thought processes that Coy himself was at a loss to provide, because it wasn’t that it wasn’t great advice, it was that the ears were just turned off.
That’s gospel truth. Here we are eighteen years later, and I can say with 100% accuracy, Coy Blevins and my relationship to him has changed my entire life, changed the entire trajectory of my career. I would never have had the amazing opportunities if it weren’t for my relationship with Coy Blevins. All it took was Mike McNulty having the desire to help somebody else through mentoring, and then look at what it did for me. When I was thinking about this show last night, I was like, “I’m not sure Tina really knows the whole story.”
I know you knew Coy, and I knew that he was a mentor to you, but I did not know that you had mentored his son. I did not know that connection.
By the way, I mean, it wasn’t just me. Coy and Ty, you and Tyler, you asked Tyler Binney, who his number one mentor in life is, not just for our careers, but like life, it’d be Coy. That’s just one example. That’s the most powerful example I have to share with you and your audience. As I was saying earlier, you really forced me to take a look in the mirror and be like, “You’ve had great mentors since Little League Baseball, since I was twelve years old.” I used to always tease that some people like to collect wines, some people collect stamps and coins, etc. I like to collect old, wise, wealthy people, man. That’s my collection.
I do not care if you’re a man or a woman, White or Black, I do not care. If you’re older and wiser, I want to learn from you. I want to be a sponge because when I’m meant now, when I’ve become more of a formal and informal mentor to a lot of younger people, I tell them all the same thing, T. I promise you I’m not smarter than you, more talented or skilled. I’m just older. I’ve lived more life. What you’ll get from this experience is probably what not to do as much as what to do. I made every mistake, baby. If I can help just one person avoid that left-hand turn when they should have made a right.
Another term for you, since you’re jotting things down. That whole story about Coy and his son. Thank you for sharing that, because that is proof positive of quantum giving, and Quantum giving is something that I am talking about more and more because I believe it is a thing that people do not recognize but need to have trust in. That is that when you do what you did, which is you took an opportunity to support a younger person.
In that, that ended up having you meet somebody who then mentored you. There is this ripple effect. Of course, I did not know the story. I did not know the totality of the story. There is this ripple effect that occurs every time we go out and give. We do not know where it’s going to land necessarily. We do not know where that, what shore or what person that ripple is going to finally touch at some point in time. I’m sure if you go back to your little league baseball coaches, and you have the opportunity.
Dave Wilson.
You still remember the guy’s name.
Are you kidding me? I’m still in contact with him. I never lose a mentor, man. These are lifelong relationships.
The beauty of that is that because you are who you are, you have gone back to him, and he knows your life story, and he knows that he made such an impact in your life that you wanted to stay connected with him. All these years later, here you are doing all of these things, and he was a part of that journey. That is quantum giving. Now you give back. I’m sure those that you’ve given back to in mentorship are now on their own journey to give back in mentorship.
This is quantum giving where it’s not linear. It just keeps going in circles and backwards and forwards. It just keeps going and keeps touching people in ways that you have no idea. Maybe if you’re lucky at some point in your life, you find out about a story, and you are either the origin or you are a big part of why that story ended up taking place. It is a beautiful thing. Thank you for being a part of quantum giving.
I love the term. We’ll steal that one too.
We’re trademarking that term so you can steal it. I didn’t take my stuff with you because you’re like a little squirrel finds a nut, and you’re like back in the tree. You make me lose my train of thought, too. Where were we? We were talking about how you are a collector of mentors. Yes, you are.
I am. The question I’ve been asked more than any other in the last 25 or 30 years of trying to give back and help younger people is the most consistent concern. “I do not want to bother you, and you’re really busy.” I’m like time out, time out. If you ask somebody to mentor you and they do not have time, that is not a reflection of you. That’s a reflection of them. That’s okay. The key is to be genuine with your mentor and always try to provide them value. Here’s the dirty little secret, Tina. Yes. I love to give back. Yes.
I love to give advice, but when I take an inventory or catalog of all these younger people that I’ve mentored through the years, I can guarantee you I have gained more from the relationship than the younger person. By the way, when I tell them I’m not smarter than you, let me tell you, I’m pretty convinced that nearly 100% of them were smarter than me. Even if they weren’t, it’s not a contest of intellect. It’s that God has created each individual, I believe this to be true, with a very specific DNA, a very specific footprint, if you will, and God-given talents.
It’s amazing how much I’ve learned from these people about all kinds of different things that I’ve never even heard of. Let me tell you, the longer it goes with the age gap, the more I’m learning. I am like, “Yeah, and I know the obvious one is technology.” Pop culture, slang, I mean, I love to annoy my twenty-something children with all their slang. I always misuse it, but they cannot even believe I know it. They’re like, “Where did you get that?” I’m like, “No, I’m just cool, man.” The thing is that again, the person looking to be mentored has got to get over that, “I do not want to waste your time.”
No, you’re going to bring value, and you need to make it mutually beneficial. For example, I always say, “Man, can I buy you a cup of coffee?” I’m always for my mentors. I’m always going to visit them a couple of times a year, buying them breakfast, lunch, and it’s not about material gifts for them. It’s more about, “I really value your time. I really value this amazing advice and wisdom that you’re sharing with me. I want to give back to you.” The number one way to your point about this quantum giving. That makes more sense.
Quantum giving is that it’s amazing how many times there are Coy and Jason Blevins stories out there where Jason Blevins is now mentoring people my children’s age, right? It just keeps going on. It’s like compound interest or quantum giving. I do not think when you asked me to participate in this conversation that you realized, maybe just how special mentoring has been in my life, both as someone who’s been mentored a lot and someone who loves to mentor. One last thing about the topic.
I find that through the years, I have gotten way less definitive with my advice, way fewer statements. When I was younger and less violent and less wise, “No, this is the way it is. No, I’m telling you.” Now I have found that I’m much more stoic and much more like my mentors, and I’m like, “They hardly ever make any definitive statements. They just keep asking me questions.” That to me is a really powerful, effective form of mentorship if you get the person, you get their juices flowing, and they sell it themselves most of the time.
What you just said brought up something that I recently just spoke about as people age, they do not give definitive statements. They do not tell you how or why. They ask you better questions. When they ask you better questions, they actually put it back on you to have to make the decision. They have you start thinking. I just told the story of my Popo, my Chinese grandmother. When she was 93, and I was 41, I came to her because that was the time when I was trying to figure it out, if you remember, I was trying to figure it out.
I was going to stay in my 22-year career as a med tech life or if I was going to leave and become an entrepreneur. I had never even thought that I would become an entrepreneur. That wasn’t like a thought. I did not major in it. I did not minor in it. It wasn’t a thought. I was always going to work for somebody my whole life. I was going to be happy working for someone and being a good employee.
When I went to my grandmother, and I was at that juxtaposition, I was telling her all about this stuff. She said to me, “Tina, she’s 93, she’s lying in her bed.” She looked at me, and all she said was, “Tina, what do you want to do for the next 50 years of your life?” That question was so loaded with where I went with it. First of all, I was 41. In my mind, I had already run half my life’s race. The cup was half full, and I only had this much space left to fill. My grandmother was looking at it as the cup was still half empty. You still have so much that you can put in that cup.
She changed my perception of time with that question. She also asked, “What do you want to do?” Actually, if I’m being honest, I still do not have it. I’ve never created a definition of success, my own, until she asked me that question. Nobody, prior to 41 years of age, had ever asked me if I knew what I wanted to do. It was always like, if I were in school, it was the expectations of parents and professors and whatever the system said. When I got a JOB, it was the expectations of the job. My goals were always aligned with somebody else’s idea of what needed to happen. You’re so right that as we age, we just get better at asking the questions.
I’m thinking of Danny Greg. When I was president of SAE back in my college days, he was our fraternity advisor. He became a great mentor and friend and my financial advisor for 30 years until he retired. He was the master at exactly what you just said. He would turn everything around. When I was younger, I would get frustrated like, “Dude, just tell me.” He’s one of the first people who taught me the difference between a fact and truth. He’s like, “Be very careful, Mike, that your truths in your mind are misinterpreted as facts.”
He’s like, “Really, a truth is just your opinion or your perspective of what you observe, what you heard, that’s different than a fact.” There are a lot fewer facts in the world than people think there are. They think their truths are facts when that’s very rare. That’s why I probably annoy people. Always like, “No, listen, disclaimer. This is not a fact. This is a Mike McNulty truth or my opinion.” Take it with a grain of salt, because for every Mike McNulty who feels this way, this has worked for me. There may be two guys who say, “Do not do that.” You’ve got to figure out what is best for you and your style.
There are a lot fewer facts in the world than people think there are. They think their truths are facts when that's very rare. Share on XThat is great. What’s his name who told?
Danny Greg.
Thank you, Danny. Danny Greg. Your mind is like a bank. It just locks it in there. A little bit ago, you said you could also probably tell people a lot of what not to do. Anything you want to share about life, I know you got so many stories, probably many of them, you always turn everything into a funny, it’s not funny at the time, but you always turn everything into like, what you are, so there’s a song that I quote often by AJR, this group AJR, and in the song it says, “A hundred bad days means a hundred good stories. A hundred good stories make you interesting at parties.” You, Mike McNulty, are so interesting at a party.
I got plenty of stories, yeah. The self-deprecation, by the way, that I do not know where that started. I do not know where it came from. I do know that it is a sign of confidence that I can, I think what I try to do to disarm people intuitively, instinctively, is to say the quiet part out loud. That they do not have to, and they’re like, “That guy’s confident. That guy’s got self-awareness.” That’s where that comes from. To me, there are very few things that are a greater turnoff than somebody at my level or even above who cannot admit that they’re wrong or cannot show some vulnerability, from time to time. I just think that it’s a Who you fooling, Jack? No one’s perfect. No one has all the answers.
I think your people will respect you more if you admit, “Man, I messed that up. The joke’s on me. Let’s all have a good laugh at my expense.” I’d rather laugh at myself than make fun of somebody else. As far as some advice, yeah, I think this goes for when I think about all the things that I wish I could have done, maybe better or not do, etc. The number one thing in both my personal and professional lives is that I believe I’ve assessed that my greatest strength in life is my passion. I just feel like I care more than just about anybody else.
I’m just going to try harder, work harder, whatever it takes, to win and whatever winning means in that situation. Whether it’s in a personal relationship, whether it’s on my sales call, what have you. Passion is good, Tina, but what I’ve learned is that when your greatest strength goes unchecked for whatever reason, typically you’re exhausted, you’re stressed, whatever, it typically bleeds into your greatest challenge or your greatest weakness. In this case, passion unchecked is called emotion. Emotion is really bad in business. That’s the number one way you lose people’s respect and trust.
Whenever you blow up, and they’re like, “Dude, calm down, man. Why are you so emotional? I cannot trust this guy to be a senior leader.” In your personal life. Blowing up at your children or raising your voice at your spouse or friend, whomever. That would be my number one piece of advice on what not to do. If you’re a type A amped up person like I am in, you’ve got to learn. I would do a lot of stoicism. That is my big push this year. That’s my word of the year is stoicism. I want to be more of a stoic. There are more stoics than Marcus Aurelius.
I have his book. I was going to send it to you. Do you already have it?
I do. I watched an interview of all things with a comedian, Jerry Seinfeld. He was being interviewed last year, and he mentioned that book by name. I thought about what it had meant to him in his life and calmed him down. That’s my obsession. Every morning I start with my prayers, my devotional, my four agreements, and then my stoicism. I got two books on it.
It’s really the one other than Marcus Aurelius when you have to send me the other one that you’re reading.
Yeah, sure.
I learned something new from you in that one. That was another great pearl that you cannot leave. You really did do some self-reflection to get prepared. Michael, thank you so much.
You live this long.
You said something that struck something in me, it struck a chord in me. Speaking of striking chords, I’m going to talk about frequency for a second. You said you just care, your passion, you care more than other people. One of the things I hear, and it’s funny because I think every generation says the same thing about the next generation in this one vein. They just do not care. The older generations right now look at the younger generations and say, “They just do not care. They’re always on their phone. They do not care.”
It’s like, “No, they do care. They care passionately about a lot of things. It’s just that they might not care the same way that you care.” When it comes to this whole concept of finding your frequency or being around people who care or identifying what you care for and pursuing that care, I do not want to lead you down any path. Remember, I told you I can throw out any subject, and you probably are going to have some thoughts on the subject. I’m just curious as to your thoughts on frequencies and caring, or maybe not, because you just said, yeah.
I’m trying to. Sometimes, Tina, I’ve learned I have so much that I need to pause because I can take that question probably a dozen different ways for me. To me, it’s leading a purpose-driven life, and it’s changed my outlook and my frequency, in that it used to be just about the money. When I was younger and so much less deaf, I was like a robot, and all I cared about was money and prestige, recognition, promotion for the sake of promotion. Remember the beginning of this conversation? I said tongue in cheek, but there was a lot of truth in how much resentment I had before you, and I worked together and became friends.
I saw your greatness, upfront and center, every day. I was like, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to get in front of the classroom and riff like she just did.” Like, “She is definitely more articulate than I am. She uses second-semester words.” I’m trying to be intentionally self-deprecating. I’m just trying to give you a really pure, honest answer in that through the years I’ve evolved into actually helping other people achieve greatness and achieve their dreams and being a better version of themselves or the best version of themselves. That’s my frequency. That’s my purpose. I need to do this. I cannot help myself. If I’m in a conversation, I’m going to bring up Dabo Swinney. At least one time.
We might be clear of that.
Shameless plug for Clemson. Listen, I get to spend a lot of time with that man and his coaching staff with that PAW journey that I was a part of for a decade.
One more time, Pittsburgh. You’ve got to say that word one more time.
Its P-A-W is an acronym. Obviously, it’s a play on the Tiger Paw. Our emblem. It’s positive about winning. Ironically, it is a student-athlete mentoring program that Dabo started with all-time great linebacker Jeff Davis. Those two had this vision. He shared it with me back in May of 2014 that he was going to go above and beyond for his student athletes, for his boys, as he called them, because it wasn’t just about bringing them in and winning football games. Tina, listen, he’s been saying this for twenty straight years. I’m telling you, it’s genuine.
His purpose in life is to take these young boys, these eighteen-year-old kids, from whatever different demographic, different background. He feels it’s sacred that these parents trust him to then take their boy and help develop them into a young, great man. He’s got four or five years to do it. That is his real focus. That’s his real passion. That’s his purpose for being the head coach of Clemson football. They’re going to win. He’s like, “We’re going to win a lot of football games, but I’m not in it for national championships.” Let’s say I was one of his players.
That Mike McNulty becomes a great husband, a great father, a great employee, a better friend, so on and so forth. That may sound hokey, especially in 2026, but he’s never ever wavered. I’m sure I get accused by some of my employees behind my back. I run my sales organization with the same purpose. I tell them in the interview process, early on, “Listen, man. Just like Dabo says, “Not everybody’s cut out to come play for Clemson because it might not be your culture.” Same thing with every company I’ve been at, whether it was probably started with Rotation Medical, honestly.
I did not have this mentality or this mindset at Ostasis because this was before I was around Dabo. Beginning with Rotation and then Smith and Nephew, and of course now Osseo, all these companies, my purpose is I want you, Mr. or Mrs. Sales Rep, to not just achieve greatness in your sales position, I want you to achieve greatness in life. I want you to look back on this experience. However long you’re with us on this journey, and 10 years from now, 20 years from now, I want you to tell your kids, your grandkids, “Man, the best chapter of my career was those couple of years that might mean no tea at Osseo.”
It was so much more than just sales results, making good money. It was about challenging me to be the best human I could be, the best version. I feel like a lot of my employees really embrace that, and they appreciate it, and they mention it time and time again when we have these surveys as far as our culture. Some employees, and this is okay, they’re like, “Yeah, whatever, dude. I’m here to make a paycheck.” That’s okay. We do not have to have mandatory fun. Sorry for the sermon.
No, I think you’ve brought up something that I believe many people in business feel as though is lacking, which is leadership that brings humanity into the business. When people leave a job, and folks in the company are like, “Why did they leave?” At least 50% of the time, it’s because of their leadership.
It may be more than that. may be more than 50, honestly. It’s funny. I do not care who runs the survey. All the great organizations out there, Harvard Business Review, etc. Never have I ever read where money was the number one reason why an employee leaves an organization. In fact, it’s typically between the third and fourth reasons. It’s not even a second.
We’ve decided on a boss. The other one I’ve read is not feeling valued. Not feeling valued. “I just do not appreciate it. I cannot stand my leadership because of” whatever the reason is, or “I don’t feel appreciated.” You’re right. Money is typically after that.
Most of the time, they justify those first 2 or 3 thoughts, or true feelings, with, “I’m leaving for a better opportunity financially.” That’s a smoke screen most of the time. Now, recently, I’ve had one, maybe two employees leave our organization voluntarily. I truly believe that they were in a financial hardship position where, because neither one of them wanted to leave, they loved their managers. They loved our culture.
They felt appreciated, and they felt like, “Here’s the other one we forgot, development.” That one’s tricky though, Tina, because I’m a little conflicted. I get it, but I sometimes push back and say, “Our company has a responsibility at a macro level to provide you proper training, education, and ongoing training and education, not just for new hires.” Many companies do not do a good job of either. That’s why I think you and I really bonded and connected because that sales training program at Cordis was world freaking class.
Not because you and I, but because of the people, hopefully, we enhanced it. Man, that was that thing. They had that thing on autopilot. I feel that I sometimes push back and say, “Do not be entitled here, wait a minute now.” If I were talking to you, you would say that to me. I say, “Miss Tina, I hear you, and I will absolutely provide you with whatever your needs are, but guess who’s responsible for their development the most? The mirror.”
You’re absolutely right. You’ve just dropped so much wisdom.
I know about that.
We can talk forever, and I’m so grateful. I had a chance to see you recently, even though we do not live in the same general location. I want to wish you a very happy wedding coming.
I cannot even tell you I am so happy, man. She is just a dynamo. She’s right. That was a really special night. Really wonderful to get to see my boy Jeff after all these years. I haven’t seen my good old Michigan boy in a minute, and we could commiserate over our equal misery and watch Michigan State and Clemson football last year. This year is going to be better.
I love the dedication. I honestly love the dedication between the two of you. While we wrap, because we can talk about so many things, I want to give you an open floor. Is there anything that you want to end with before I close? I’m sure I’m going to have you back for something else. I’m going to talk to you.
The more you help people, the more it comes back around, and you get a little bit of that taste of goodness, too. Share on XAmazing gratitude for you to even think of me and give me an opportunity to express some of my thoughts, a lot of my opinions, my truths, not my facts. Just at the risk of sounding a little bit, I’m just really proud of you. I’m really proud of you. I think what you’re doing is next level. It’s phenomenal. It’s very much aligned with what I just preached about Dabo and me and our purpose. This is a higher-level purpose, and that’s why you’re going to be so successful.
This is about helping people, and the more you help people, as Dale Carnegie said. The more you help people, the more it comes back around, and you get a little bit of that taste of goodness, too. That’s how I’d like to end. You’re better than ever. You’re the best. I cannot wait to come see you and Jeff again. Have you all come down to Charleston? Mel and I will show you a pretty big time. I promise you.
I traded using guys or guns for you all. I love that transition. You can teach an old dog.
When you live with a Southern fried girl, you’re going to learn to say you all and fix and suppertime and darling and I love it all.
Everybody, I’m going to post all the connections for Mike McNulty below so that you can get a hold of him. LinkedIn is probably going to be the best way to get a hold of Mike, and unless he gives us other things. You’ve heard from one of my favorite people on earth. He is fine, and he is flawed, and he is fabulous. That is why I absolutely love this guy. We grew up together in business, and he keeps me on the straight and narrow for sure. It’s because of his integrity and character. Check yours as we move forward in life. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and we’ll see you on the next episode. Bye everyone.
Before Ossio, Mike served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Miach Orthopedics. Mike created the commercial launch plan for the BEAR implant, the fastest growing product in the ACL (knee surgery) market. Prior to Miach, Mike served as Vice President of Sales in the newly created Biologics Division at Smith & Nephew following the company’s acquisition of Rotation Medical, where he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for four years.
Under his commercial leadership, sales of the Rotation Medical Bio inductive Implant for rotator cuff tears (now known as REGENETEN) greatly outperformed expectations at both Rotation Medical and Smith & Nephew, which led to a successful acquisition ($225M). Prior to Rotation Medical, Mike served as Vice President of Sales for Arstasis, where he was responsible for market development, commercial launch, sales training and sales management for a vascular access technology. Prior to his start up career, Mike held multiple roles at Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson Company.
Mike helped launch several disruptive technologies to the market and led sales training and sales management for both the Cardiology and Endovascular divisions. Mike was the Global Sales Trainer during the launch of the Cypher Drug eluting stent; the largest revenue product in the history of the Johnson & Johnson medical device division. Mike served as an officer in the Armor Cavalry Branch of the United States Army from 1995-1998. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and graduated with honors from Clemson University. He and his family reside in Charleston, SC.
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