Virtual Sales RX

Virtual Sales Rx is a strategy and personalized approach that focuses on building trust and relationships with customers, understanding their needs and preferences, and providing them with tailored solutions utilizing brand awareness, content marketing, and personalized videos. 

We launched an agency for sales consultants that want to build a 6 figure side-hustle that can lead to a 7 figure stand-alone agency.

Chief Evangelist

FEED. The Agency

Voted #1 Agency by the American Marketing Association (Amy Award) for Best Cause Marketing Advertisement. 

FEED is an award-winning healthcare brand agency engaged by doctors and dentists who want to creatively differentiate themselves in their local marketplace in the mindset of their ideal patients. With more than 50 years of combined healthcare advertising and patient marketing experience, FEED can create, design, and deliver talked about patient campaigns for the doctor who is frustrated with cookie cutter marketing approaches.

Recent out of the box creative brand projects include:

1. Video brochures and marketing that generate more patient leads. 
2. ReBranding. We help practices revitalize their brand positioning at critical seasons of their brand cycle.
3. Healthcare professional brand platforms that help physicians and dentists differentiate their unique perspective, procedure, and protocol in the marketplace and mindset of their ideal patients. 
4. Brand Guides for medical device companies. 

Services we provide:

Brand Strategy
Website Development
Personal Brand Platform Development
Lead Generation Campaign Development
Online Brand Reputation Management
Increased 5 Star Patient Reviews
Video Marketing
Brand Journalism and Social Media Management
Creative Design

Principal + Managing  Director

Lorem Cytori USA, Inc

Senior Director, Social Media

The Strategic Incubator

The Strategic Incubator equips healthcare brands to monetize their healthy ideas.

Managing Partner

Smith & Nephew

Director of Pacific Northwest Sales 

MacroPore Biosurgery

Co-Developer and General Manager of a biotechnology bio-resorbable implant used in controlling cardiovascular adhesions.

Responsible for Global Sales & Marketing.

Vice President, Sales 

Straumann Group

Director of Craniomaxillofacial Sales

US Army

United States Army Officer

I help specialty surgeons avoid the money pit of traditional marketing, digitize trust, and monetize their digital thought leadership. 

We help medical technology develop (DOL) campaigns:

Instead of pushing cold outbound at unqualified leads, med tech will:
✔ Attract buyers who already trust & respect them.
✔ Nurture demand at scale with strategic content.
✔ Fill the pipeline with surgeons who are ready to act.

This is how the most successful MedTech brands in 2025 are winning.
Not by chasing leads, but by engineering intent.

I launched FEED. The Agency in 2010 to help med tech companies and specialty surgeons create brand stories that differentiate them from the sea of sameness. We received ADDY and AMY Awards for best healthcare brand marketing and were selected by The American Marketing Association as Best Cause Marketing Agency. 

Personal description:

82nd Airborne Warrior Poet. Army Officer. Husband to Sweet Sandi. Father of three fearless artists.

The $85K lesson my Rivian taught me about entrepreneurship

Of all the vehicles I’ve owned over the years, my Rivian R1T is my favorite.

Not because it’s the most expensive.

Because it represents a different way of thinking.

I remember when Tesla was taking over. Great vehicles. Just never wanted one.

I waited. Watched. Until the right opportunity came.

Best piece of advice when I was a med tech employee on the come up/invest in a CPA as soon as possible. 

Here’s what most high-earners miss about major purchases:

They confuse “tax deductible” with “smart financial decision.”

They purchase status instead of strategy.

The Rivian decision was different:
→ Exceeds the 6,000 lb weight limit (Section 179 deduction)
→ Qualifies for EV tax credits
→ Pay cash = 100% tax write-off in year one
→ Mobile service (no time waste)
→ Adventure-ready (because life shouldn’t be all work)

But here’s the real lesson:

Too many people hear “tax write-off” and think it means free.

It doesn’t.

It means you’re spending $85K to save $85K in taxable income.

The math only works if you actually have the $85K.

Entrepreneurs understand this instinctively.

Employees hear “tax write-off” and rush to make purchases they can’t afford.

That Rivian sits in my driveway as a daily reminder:

Stop buying things to look successful.
Start making decisions that make you successful.

Your 50-year-old self will thank you.

P.S. - The mobile service team came to my house today. Fixed everything in my driveway while I worked. That’s the kind of efficiency every entrepreneur should demand.

Matthew Ray Scott

Top Physician Brand Strategist for Surgeons | Physician Brand Rx™ Creator | Amazon Best-Selling Author | Voted Best Cause Marketing Agency by The AMA.

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I know a spine surgeon that lost a $6-figure advisory role because of 3 LinkedIn comments.

Not malpractice.
Not clinical outcomes.
Not surgical skill.

Three careless comments on someone’s post.

That’s all it took.

The Med Tech team was vetting him for their surgeon advisory board.

They checked his LinkedIn (they always do).

They saw him undermining other surgeons’ technique choices.
They saw him being dismissive in the comments.
They saw the ego without the emotional intelligence.

They moved on to the next candidate.

Here’s what surgeons miss:

Device companies aren’t just evaluating your CV.
They’re watching how you show up online.

Because advisory board members represent their brand.
They speak at conferences with their logo behind you.
They influence million-dollar purchasing decisions.

One surgeon with poor digital judgment = massive brand risk.

The spine surgeon didn’t know he was being evaluated.

But here’s the reality:

• Every post is a signal of your judgment
• Every comment reveals your professionalism
• Every interaction is either building or eroding trust

The surgeons landing multiple advisory roles?

They treat LinkedIn like the OR:

→ They prepare before they post (What’s my positioning goal?)
→ They’re strategic with engagement (Who needs to see this?)
→ They’re deliberate about relationships (Which companies am I signaling to?)

This isn’t about censoring yourself.

It’s about understanding the game being played.

Right now, medtech companies are scanning LinkedIn for surgeons who:

• Share clinical insights without ego
• Engage thoughtfully with industry conversations
• Demonstrate both expertise AND strategic thinking

They’re building shortlists.
For advisory boards.
For speaking opportunities.
For consulting contracts.

The question: Are you on those lists?

Or are you accidentally disqualifying yourself with every unconsidered post?

- - - 

We've worked with 163 surgeons (2025) who’ve used LinkedIn to earn thought leadership and many are monetizing their reputation - outside of the OR. 

The ones who break $200K+/year in advisory work all share one trait:

They stopped treating social media casually and started treating it strategically.

- - - 

If you're serious about reputation monetization, here's what I'm offering:

I'll personally review your last 10 LinkedIn posts and give you a 15-minute "Digital Due Diligence Audit"—the exact filter device companies use when vetting surgeons.

I'll show you:
What's working in your positioning
What's creating risk in your profile
The 3 changes that would make you advisory-ready

No cost. Just straight feedback from someone who's helped surgeons land contracts with top med tech and consumer brands. 

But I'm only doing 2 of these next week. 

Comment "AUDIT" below or DM me, and I'll send you the scheduling link.

Because the difference between surgeons making $50K and $300K in advisory income?
It's not clinical skill.
It's digital positioning.

Top Physician Brand Strategist for Surgeons | Physician Brand Rx™ Creator | Best-Selling Author | Voted Best Cause Marketing Agency by The AMA.

The book you've been dreaming about for 5 years?
Stop writing it alone.

I spent 3 years trying to write a book solo.
Outlines. Drafts. Restarts. 300 pages that never saw the light of day.

Then I did something counterintuitive:

I co-authored with two buddies and we wrote a BIGGER book together.

Result? 
A publisher. 
Bookstores worldwide. 
Impact I never could have made alone.

Here's why writing with a buddy(buddies) changes everything:

1. Two Perspectives > One Voice
Solo writing feels like talking to yourself in a room.
Co-authoring is a conversation that readers want to eavesdrop on.
Your co-author challenges your assumptions, fills your blind spots, and pushes your thinking further than you'd ever go alone.

2. Accountability That Actually Works
Writing alone means endless excuses.
Writing with a partner means showing up.
You have deadlines. Check-ins. Someone waiting on your work.
The book doesn't die in your Google Drive-it gets written.

3. Publishers Want Proven Collaboration
Two\Three established professionals co-authoring signals credibility and reach.
You're bringing two\three networks, audiences, sets of expertise.
That's what gets publishers' attention.

4. The Work Gets Easier
• You divide research and writing 
• One person drafts while the other edits 
• You promote to your audiences
The burden splits in half. The impact doubles.

5. You Actually Finish
Solo book projects? Most never get done.
But when two people commit to a shared vision, completion becomes inevitable.

How to find your co-author:
• Look for complementary, yet diverse expertise 
• Find someone with a similar work ethic 
• Choose a person whose audience would benefit from YOUR knowledge 
• Start with a small project together first

Stop waiting for the perfect moment to write your book alone.

Find someone brilliant who shares your vision.

Write something bigger together.

Your book doesn't need to be perfect—it needs to exist.

What book idea have you been sitting on? Drop it below—your future co-author might be reading this.

Chris Lisle
G. Bryan Cornwall, PhD, MBA, PEng

28 October available in bookstores!

I co-wrote a best-selling book about pausing… and realized I’d forgotten how.

Success disguised my decline.
I was co-authoring men@pause: Life 2.0, helping top surgeons build memorable brands, and teaching physicians how to digitize trust.

I was winning on paper - and losing in private.
Business was scaling. Reputation growing.
But my health?
My energy?
My discipline?
All quietly decaying under the weight of productivity.

I had become what Ryan Holiday warns about:

“The obstacle is the way” — but I kept avoiding the obstacle called myself.

The paratrooper in me — the man who once thrived on ritual, discomfort, and purpose — had been replaced by a strategist hiding behind intelligence and “busyness.”

So I decided to reclaim my edge.
I call it: 

The Men@Pause Field Manual

The Proof Project: A Field Manual for the 77 Experiments That Reforge the Modern Man

No hacks. No hype. Just pain, prayer, and presence.
Because the real pause isn’t about stillness — it’s about submission.
To the truth.
To the body.
To the mission you’ve been avoiding.

That’s what men@pause really is:
A manual for men who can build empires - but can’t yet rebuild themselves.

⸻

3 Takeaways:
	1.	Discipline isn’t found — it’s remembered. It’s the muscle of integrity we stop training when success comes easy.
	2.	Pause ≠ stop. It’s the act of interrupting drift before it becomes decay.
	3.	Reforging isn’t reinvention. It’s burning away the version of yourself that settled for potential.

⸻

If Ego Is the Enemy was a mirror for the mind, then men@pause is a mirror for the soul.

Ryan, if you ever read this — I think it’s time we talk about what happens after the pause. 

P.S. Mama Scott, keep the faith for us!

Amazon Top New Release and Bestseller on Aging at https://a.co/d/gxmpHfX

The Slash Career

You don’t get promoted anymore.

You get obsolete.

I spent years believing the myth: Do good work. Get noticed. Get promoted. Repeat until retirement.

That’s not a career strategy. That’s a coping mechanism.

Here’s what I know now at 60, after launching 3 seven-figure businesses, writing 2 books in 2025, creating Feeding DaVinci (a no-strings startup fund), joining forces with venture capitalists hunting the next (NIL) surgeons, and med tech unicorn:

The ladder disappeared.

Not because you weren’t climbing fast enough.
Because someone took the ladder.

So I stopped climbing.
I started building.

Welcome to the slash career:

- Entrepreneur/Author
- Operator/Investor
- Community Builder
- Med Tech Veteran/Healthcare Disruptor

Not a portfolio. A purpose.

I’m not hedging my bets. I’m placing them. On surgeons becoming thought leaders. On researchers becoming rock stars. On engineers getting the spotlight they deserve. On the privatization of research. On making healthcare professionals as visible as their impact.

The old deal was simple:
Trade time for money.
Trade loyalty for security.
Trade dreams for stability.

The new deal is better:
Create value across multiple domains.
Build equity in ideas that matter.
Turn expertise into enterprise.

Because here’s the truth they don’t tell you:
Your job isn’t your career.
Your title isn’t your identity.
Your employer isn’t your future.

You are.

The question isn’t “What’s next?”
The question is “What else?”

What would you build if you stopped waiting for permission?

-----

That’s where slash careers begin.

The 7-before-7:01 am video nobody else is sending

Here’s what I do before most people have finished their first coffee:

I send seven personalized 60-90 second videos to physicians before 7:01 am. 

Not fancy. Not produced. Just me, talking directly to them about their specific challenge.

The results? 76% engagement rate. Three 7-figure businesses. Doctors asking me: “Why doesn’t anyone else do this?”

Here’s the thing nobody wants to hear:

Med tech is still selling like it’s 1994.

The industry convinced itself there’s “no replacement for face-to-face.” Which would be fine, except busy surgeons don’t have time for everyone who wants face-to-face. They’re drowning in their inbox. They’re triple-booked. They’re not sitting around hoping another rep shows up.

But a 60-second video? They’ll watch that between cases.

Why this works (and why nobody else does it):

Scarcity of sanity: While everyone else is fighting for the same 15-minute slot, I’m the only video in their inbox. Turns out being the only one doing something sensible is a massive competitive advantage.

Know-like-trust, condensed: Video builds rapport faster than any other medium. They see my face. They hear my voice. I’m not a logo or a LinkedIn request—I’m a human who took 90 seconds to speak directly to them.

Virtual leverage: I’m not bound by geography, traffic, or their OR schedule. I can reach 20 doctors before breakfast. I can follow up without being “that guy” lurking in the physician’s lounge.

The real reason it works? Each video is personal. Specific. About them, not me.

Meanwhile, the old-school med tech dinosaurs are telling their teams to “fit in.” To keep doing the same tired dance everyone else is doing. To not stand out. To definitely not send videos because that’s “not how we do things.”

Cool. Keep doing that.

The uncomfortable truth:

Most people won’t do this because of imposter syndrome dressed up as professionalism. “Will I look stupid?” “What if they don’t watch it?” “That’s not how serious B2B works.”

You know what looks stupid? Burning through your territory with a 4% conversion rate while wondering why pipeline is dry.

I’ve built three 7-figure businesses doing the thing everyone agrees is important (personalization) but nobody actually wants to do (because it’s uncomfortable and takes effort).

The secret sauce isn’t the video. It’s that I’m willing to do the obvious thing everyone else is too scared to try.

While the industry clutches its pearls about “disrupting the sacred in-person relationship,” I’m building actual relationships. At scale. Before 7:01am.

My buddy said, “Matthew, you’ve been telling us this for 4 years. We would have done it by now if we were going to do it.” 

I think he’s right. 

I’ll press send on 7 before 7:01 am in the morning.

The People Who Jump

Legend has it that General Eisenhower approached a young paratrooper before D-Day.

The soldier was loading up. Combat jump. 101st Airborne. Into occupied France.

Eisenhower asked: “Son, you must like jumping out of perfectly good airplanes?”

The paratrooper looked at him and said: “Heck no, sir. I just like hanging out with people who do.”

That’s the thing about service nobody tells you.

You don’t join because you’re fearless.
You join because you want to be around people who are.

The valor isn’t just in the jump.
It’s in choosing to stand next to someone who will.

I served in the Army. Not because I had all the answers. Not because I was the toughest or the bravest or the most certain.

I served because I wanted to be in a room—or a foxhole, or a mess hall, or a transport—with people who understood something I needed to learn.

That when it matters most, you show up.
That your word means everything.
That the person next to you is more important than your comfort.

On Veterans Day, we don’t celebrate our service.

I celebrate theirs.

The people who taught me what it means to jump when the plane door opens.
The people who showed me what courage looks like when nobody’s watching.
The people who reminded me that you don’t have to be fearless to be faithful.

You just have to be willing to hang out with people who do it anyway.

To every veteran: Thank you for letting me stand next to you.

Who taught you what courage really looks like?

#VeteransDay

Prayers in the Desert

When you’re 24 and deployed to Iraq, everything sharpens.

The heat. The sand. The distance from home.

But mostly, the math.

My daughter, Jordan, was one month old when I left. She’d be walking by the time I got back. Maybe talking. Definitely different.

Here’s what they don’t tell you about being a new father in a war zone: You can’t protect her from there. You can’t teach her. You can’t even hold her.

All you can do is think forward.

So I did something that felt ridiculous at first. Then essential. Then sacred.

Every night in the desert, I prayed for the boys she’d meet. The men she’d date. The person she’d marry.

But that’s the thing about distance—it gives you perspective.

I couldn’t control whether I’d make it home. But I could send something forward. An intention. A hope. A father’s best wish cast into a future I’d never see from that desert.

Most people pray for protection.
I prayed for connection.

Not for her to be safe from the world.
But for her to find someone who’d be safe with her in it.

The prayer wasn’t about control. It was about trust. Trust that somewhere, another kid was being raised right. Being taught to show up. To be kind. To be worthy.

Fast-forward twenty-plus years.

She found him.

And now there’s Scotty Roe(land)—three years old, carrying my father’s name. My grandson.

The man she married? He’s everything those desert prayers hoped for.

Here’s what I didn’t understand then, but know now:

Those prayers weren’t just for her future.
They were for my present.

In a place where control is an illusion, prayer was action.
In a moment of helplessness, hope was power.
When I couldn’t be there, I could still be for her.

Your kids are meeting people right now. Adults. Peers. Influences. The ones who’ll shape them. The ones they’ll trust. The ones they’ll love.

You can’t vet them all.
You can’t screen every friend.
You can’t interview every future in-law.

But you can cast forward.

Not with anxiety. With intention.
Not with fear. With faith.

The question isn’t whether you have control.
You don’t.

The question is: Are you sending something forward anyway?

What would change if you started praying today for the people your kids haven’t even met yet?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

- - -

men@pause, our recently released book, teaches how transition becomes transformation. 

Read book: https://a.co/d/4gVFEd5

Co-authors: Chris Lisle and G. Bryan Cornwall, PhD, MBA, PEng

Walmart Wouldn’t Hire Sam Walton Today & Most Med Tech Sales Reps Have No Biz Starting Their Own Business 

Here’s an uncomfortable truth:

If Sam Walton walked into Walmart’s corporate recruiting office today-no degree, no pedigree, just grit and a dream about discount retail-they’d show him the door.

Too risky.
Doesn’t fit the profile.
Not “corporate material.”

The same company he built would reject the very person who built it.

This is the paradox of success:

Once you win, you optimize for protecting what you have.
You hire for compliance, not creativity.
You reward fitting in, not standing out.

And here’s where it gets personal:

Medtech salespeople dream about starting their own business.

But most can’t.

Not because they lack expertise.

Because they’ve mastered the service rep mentality (Nobody taught me this):

- Keeper of the fat flag
- “No replacement for face-to-face” evangelist

They can sell in a region radius.
But nowhere else.

The Fatal Flaw:

Ask them to:

- Record a video
- Build LinkedIn thought leadership
- Conduct virtual selling at scale
- Generate leads without showing up

Panic.

Because their dinosaur boss taught them: “Fit in. Don’t stand out.”

So they became invisible.
Effective in their territory.
Unknown everywhere else.

Why This Kills Your Business Dream:

If you can’t sell without face-to-face meetings, you can’t scale a business.

Entrepreneurship isn’t about buying lunch until they say yes.

It’s about:

- Attracting clients who already trust you
- Converting without geography
- Building authority that precedes you

Spent 15 years avoiding the camera and hiding from LinkedIn?

You’re not ready.

Not because you lack expertise.
Because you can’t demonstrate it at scale.

The Sam Walton Question:

Sam Walton didn’t wait for permission.
He had a point of view.
And he wasn’t afraid to share it.

Meanwhile, the medtech rep has:

- No digital presence
- No documented expertise
- No audience
- No proof they can attract clients without a badge

The service rep mentality killed the entrepreneur before they started.

The Mirror:

Can you generate leads without knocking on doors?
Build trust without buying lunch?
Sell without showing up?

If no, you’re right.

You have no business starting your own business.

Not yet.

But Here’s the Path:

- Record your insights (even badly)
- Share your perspective (even if uncomfortable)
- Build in public (even if your boss disapproves)
- Learn virtual selling (even if awkward)

Sam Walton didn’t wait until he had all the skills.
He learned them while building.

He was willing to be visible.
To stand for something.

The choice:

Keep playing service rep in a regional radius.

Or learn to scale.

What would your business look like if geography wasn’t your only advantage?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

- - - 

It’s why less than 1% of med tech sales reps attend Content Crib, The OrthoPreneurs Symposium, or Virtual Sales Rx. 

Keep your day job or adapt.

This morning, I’m recommending an orthopedic surgeon go from “one of many shoulder guys” to getting calls from NIL agents, medical device companies, and media in 6 months. 

What changes?

He stops saying “rotator cuff repair” and starts saying “throwing athlete restoration protocol.”

Same surgery. Different category.

Here’s what most surgeons miss: patients don’t remember your fellowship or your publications. They remember the problem you solve that no one else has named.

Category creation beats credential listings every time.

My 1:30 pm meeting, I’m recommending:

From the 11th hip surgeon in town to the hip preservation specialist who rebrands as “the corporate athlete longevity surgeon.”

I’m still searching for the hand surgeon wanting to move forward with my idea:  “musician’s performance restoration.”

Let me be clear:

They didn’t invent new procedures. They invented new problems to solve.

Three moves that separate category creators from everyone else:

Own the language. If you’re explaining your specialty using the same words as 10 other surgeons in your city, you’re building someone else’s brand.

1. Name the transformation, not the technique. 
2. Patients buy outcomes. 
3. Medtech companies partner with surgeons who define market categories.

Stop listing services. Start claiming problem solving. 

What category could you create that would make everyone else’s positioning irrelevant?

- - - 

Scott Sigman MD, my co-author - upcoming book, Physician Brand Rx, inspired this post.

Attending AAHKS this year?

Here’s how to turn the meeting into a month of LinkedIn content:

The secret? Your phone + 2 simple video strategies.

Here’s what to do:

Strategy #1: The Conference Backdrop Video

If you’re giving a talk, don’t let that moment disappear.

Before or after your presentation:

• Grab your phone
• Position the meeting in the backdrop
• Record a 90-second executive overview

But here’s the key—don’t just summarize your talk.

Start with one of these hooks:

• “Here’s what surprised me most…”
• “This finding contradicts what we’ve believed for years…”
• “The statistic that changed my thinking…”

Lead with what’s contrarian, startling, or memorable.

Nobody wants another generic overview of standard practice.

They want the insight that made YOU pause and rethink.

Strategy #2: The Mentor Interview Series

This is the gold mine everyone misses.

Your mentors are all in one place. Use it.

Here’s the process:

• Prepare ONE specific question
• Find a mentor at the conference
• Record a 2-minute conversation on your phone

The questions that work:

• “What advice would you give surgeons starting in [specialty]?”
• “How did you balance career advancement with family?”
• “What’s one technical principle you wish you’d learned earlier?”

Your mentors will be generous with their time.

And now you have a content series that:

• Showcases thought leaders in your field
• Provides genuine value to your colleagues
• Positions you as a connector and learner

The beauty? These videos feel authentic because they ARE authentic.

No fancy equipment needed. No editing required.

Just real insights captured in the moment.

Most surgeons attend conferences and come home with nothing but CME credits.

You’ll come home with months of high-value content.

That’s the difference between attending and strategically showing up.

—

📌 I help orthopedic surgeons build their digital presence beyond the OR.

Want more strategies for leveraging conferences and clinical expertise into thought leadership?

James Baker lead the way!

JSESSIONID

li_at

Talks about #branding, #medicalsales, #healthcarebranding, and #medicaldevicemarketing

Physician KOLs respond to the industry narrative. Physician DOLs (Digital Opinion Leaders) write it.

“I help physician DOLs create the categories companies compete in.”

It’s how I answered a young surgeon that contacted me and hoping he gets picked by med tech to become a KOL soon.

I’ve worked with some of the top surgeons in the world, names you’d recognize from the podium. They don’t call me for more patients. They call because they’re tired of being “excellent” in a saturated market.

Here’s what they understand that most don’t: Clinical mastery is table stakes. Professional control and reputation monetization comes from strategic positioning.

That’s why we built the Brand Strategy Rx, a system that translates surgical precision into market dominance.

Here’s what goes into it:

1. Category Ownership. We architect the competitive space you’ll own alone. Not “hip replacement surgeon” but “anterior approach lifestyle design specialist for restless-aging patients.” Patients can’t comparison-shop what only you do.

2. Branded Protocols. Your surgical reasoning becomes a named system patients request and referring physicians remember. The moment your approach has a name, you stop competing on price.

3. Multi-Persona Architecture. One strategic narrative that works across patient acquisition, media placement, and MedTech advisory positioning. Trust and clarity for patients. Newsworthiness for media. Category expertise for industry.

4. Thought Leadership Engine. 144 posts per year that build the digital authority that opens doors. Speaking invitations, consulting opportunities, partnership offers.

The surgeons who engage our Brand Strategy Rx aren’t looking for visibility. They’re building the professional infrastructure that turns clinical excellence into industry influence and selective control over the opportunities they accept.

You didn’t spend 15 years mastering your craft to compete on the same playing field as every other surgeon in your zip code.

This is how you architect differentiation.

I share my mindset behind creating 1 minute videos using my phone, average a 76.3% engagement rate, and it’s been the key to building three $7 figure business e/zero dollars spent on marketing.

The Bestseller We Didn’t See Coming

We wrote a book about men, midlife, and finding your second act. 

3 buddies. 1 book.

Chris Lisle and I grew up together in the same Arkansas Ozarks small town, later enlisting several of our HS classmates to join us jumping out of perfectly good airplanes as Army Paratroopers. 

G. Bryan Cornwall, PhD, MBA, PEng and I met in a company boardroom and traveled the world closing deals and solving problems.  

We expected our families to buy it.
Maybe a few friends.
Perhaps some polite LinkedIn congratulations.

What we didn’t expect:
Bestseller status in three categories.
Week one.

Here’s what’s humbling about that:

It means hundreds of strangers saw themselves in our stories.
It means the conversations we had at The Odd Soul Pub (see you there tonight)—the ones about starting over, about being laid off at 43, about rebuilding when comfortable felt like quicksand—those weren’t just our conversations.

They were everyone’s.

So now people are asking: “Will you do book signings?”

Book signings feel formal. Scripted. Like we’re supposed to sit behind a table and sign our names while people shuffle past.

That’s not what this is about.

So here’s what we’re planning instead:

We’re bringing the book tour home to Northwest Arkansas. To the Apollo Theater in Springdale, (see photo) where Chris and I grew up. We’re creating The Moth Podcast - style events—real stories, real voices, real moments. Fly in, share your favorite maxim from the book, tell us how it landed in your life.

Then we walk 150 yards down the street.
To The Odd Soul Pub.
Where most of these stories started.

Because here’s the thing about books that connect:
They’re not about the authors.
They’re about the readers who see themselves in the pages.

men@pause: Life 2.0 isn’t just our midlife crisis documented.
It’s permission for yours.

The bestseller status is humbling.
But the real measure?

That’s the person who reads it at 43, freshly laid off, wondering what’s next.
And decides to start.

The “comfortable” med tech sales manager tired of carrying someone else’s quota. And decides to get busy building their dreams, not someone else’s dreams.

If you’re in that moment, this event is for you.

Your next chapter is waiting. 
Will you answer the call?

We Procrastinated on a Book Idea for Five Years. Then It Became a Best-Selling Book in a Week.

Three years ago, two buddies and I had an idea for a book.

Good idea. Clear angle. We all had the expertise to pull it off.

So naturally, we did what most people do with good ideas.

Absolutely nothing.

Well, not nothing. We talked about it. A lot. We had calls about having calls. We debated structure. We worried about positioning. We convinced ourselves we needed to do more research first.

Classic procrastination theater.

Then something clicked. We stopped talking and started writing.

And here’s the wild part:

Within one week of launching, we hit multiple bestseller lists — including landing right next to Peter Attia’s Outlive in the aging category.

Three years of talking. One week to bestseller.

So what changed?

We stopped treating “start” and “ship” as two different projects.

Because here’s what nobody tells you: The gap between starting something and finishing it isn’t a creativity problem. It’s not a quality problem. It’s not even a time problem.

It’s a momentum problem.

Every day your project sits unfinished, you’re not improving it. You’re just giving yourself more time to overthink it, complicate it, and talk yourself out of it.

The book we shipped wasn’t perfect. But it was done. And done beats perfect every single time.

So my focus this year isn’t starting more things.

It’s collapsing the time between start and complete.

What’s your three-year idea that just needs a one-week push?

My take on our best-selling book that showed up next to Dr. Peter Attia Best Seller:

1. The Counterintuitive Buyer -We wrote a book about men's transitions. Women are buying it. Here's what that tells us about who actually does the work of growth.
2. The Format Innovation Angle -77 maxims. Poetic sentences. Optimized for phones, tablets, and paper. Why we designed a masculinity book like a product, not a manifesto.
3. The Collaboration Story Three longtime friends. One book on manhood. Zero testosterone-filled BS. We wrote men@pause as poetry instead of prescription.
4. The Audience Revelation - Here's the uncomfortable truth: More women than men bought our book on male transitions. That's not a marketing problem—it's a mirror.
5. The Category Challenge - Most books on manhood read like locker room speeches. We wrote ours like poetry. Turns out, transitions require nuance, not noise.
6. The Meta Insight - The people buying our book about men's transitions aren't the men transitioning. They're the women waiting for them to start. That gap is the whole story.

It’s why Scott Sigman MD and I created Ortho Mafia Poets.  

Every incision, every innovation, every heroic medical sales stewardship / that’s poetry. Ortho Mafia Poets isn’t about ego. It’s about legacy. Wear your craft like art.

Ortho Mafia Poets represent at https://lnkd.in/gsAFnFsG

Arnold Didn’t Sell the Surgery

He sold the comeback.

That’s the difference.

Zimmer Biomet could have done what every MedTech company does: Show the device. Talk about the technology. Let surgeons explain the procedure.

Instead, they made Arnold Schwarzenegger their Chief Movement Officer.

Not Chief Product Officer.
Not Chief Innovation Officer.
Movement Officer.

Because here’s what they understood: Nobody dreams about joint replacement surgery. They dream about playing with their grandkids. Running again. Getting out of a chair without wincing.

The “You’ll Be Back” campaign isn’t about implants.
It’s about what happens after the implant.

The genius move? They didn’t stop at celebrity.

They invited real people to share their stories. Hundreds responded globally. The docu-style follow-throughs turned passive viewers into active participants. The campaign became a community, not just a commercial.

This is rare in MedTech: A brand that talks about life, not devices. About movement, not mechanisms. About what you’ll do, not what they’ll install.

Most medical companies are still explaining features to doctors.
Zimmer Biomet is selling hope to patients.

The lesson for healthcare marketers?

Your product isn’t your product.
The life your product enables—that’s your product.

Arnold gets that.
The question is: Do you?

When was the last time your marketing made someone want to move?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Ivan Tornos 
Joe Urban
Zimmer Biomet

CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO Zimmer Biomet & PHC Corporation

What would you do if you were not afraid? Would you start a pain-free life?

Some do. Some don’t. The choice is yours. The pathway is there. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger Kristen Cardillo Zimmer Biomet

Standing on stage in front of 1,000 people, holding awards for Most Creative Advertising and Best Cause Marketing Campaign in America.

Vodka to my left.
Tortilla chips to my right.
Beer behind me.

Not a single other healthcare brand in sight.

We were the only healthcare agency that won anything that night.

And it hit me like a brick:

Medtech doesn’t hire Creative Directors. We produce Product Marketing Managers.

I’ve spent years watching brilliant people in our industry get passed over for creative roles at major agencies—not because they lack creativity, but because their résumés scream “product marketing.”

And here’s the brutal truth:

Product marketing has become the sea of sameness.

While consumer brands are winning culture by hiring storytellers, we’re hiring spec sheet translators.

While they’re building emotional movements, we’re building feature matrices.

While they’re making people feel something, we’re making people read PDFs.

The gap isn’t talent. It’s philosophy.

Medtech has convinced itself that clinical data is the story.

It’s not.

The story is what happens when a surgeon uses that data to change a life. The story is the decision made in the moment of doubt. The story is the human who walks again.

But we won’t tell those stories until we stop promoting product marketers and start hiring Creative Directors who understand medicine.

Until we value narrative architecture as much as we value product specs.

Until we realize that the surgeon isn’t buying a device—they’re buying belief in a better outcome.

You can’t commoditize belief. But you can absolutely kill it with bad marketing.

I don’t want to see another medtech campaign that looks like a clinical trial readout.

I want to see campaigns that make vodka and tortilla chips nervous.

Who’s with me?

- - -

FEED. The Agency was created in 2010. 

🔥Voted #1 Healthcare Agency by the American Marketing Association for Best Cause Marketing Advertisement
National Addy Awards, Print’s Regional Design Annual, New York Art Director’s Club Annual & Show, Clios, One Show, Telly Awards, Communication Arts Design Annual, AIGA 365, POPAI Awards, and many more.

Three strikes and you’re out: My heretical take on prospecting

I’m a child of med tech sales. 

Most med tech reps are still playing the numbers game their dinasour boss taught them in 1997.

Send 100 emails. Chase 50 surgeons. Drive across the state. Book 10 meetings. Close 2 deals. Repeat until you hate your life or hit quota.

I vowed I’d never carry someone else’s quota ever again, left med tech, ran the pirate flag up the flag pole and launched FEED - a physician brand agency. 

I do something different. I send three personalized videos to a surgeon I want to help. That’s it. Three.

Each one is 60-90 seconds. Shot before 7:01 AM. Tailored to something specific about their practice, their patients, or a problem I know they’re sitting on.

And if they don’t respond to all three? I move on. No “just checking in” emails. No “circling back” LinkedIn messages. No desperate follow-ups that make both of us feel gross.

Here’s why:

If you can’t get someone’s attention in three genuinely useful videos, you’ve got a fit problem, not a follow-up problem.

Old-school Matthew believed you could brute-force your way into relevance. That “no” just meant “not yet.” That persistence always wins.

New Matthew? I believe the quality of those three videos tells me everything I need to know.

Either I nailed it — demonstrated I understand their world, showed them something they haven’t seen, made them curious about what working together could look like — or I didn’t.

And if I didn’t? That’s not a sales execution issue. That’s a signal.

Maybe I picked the wrong surgeon. Maybe my offer isn’t sharp enough. Maybe they’re genuinely not ready. Whatever it is, sending video number four isn’t going to fix it.

This shift changes everything about prospecting:

Instead of obsessing over “how many touches,” I obsess over “how good are these three videos?”

How different can I make each one? How helpful? How interesting? How tailored to this specific person that if they blow me off, I don’t lose sleep — because I know I gave them something valuable and they chose not to engage.

That’s a them problem, not a me problem.

The old playbook says never accept no. Never stop. Persistence is the path.

The new playbook says: make your outreach so thoughtful, so specific, so genuinely useful that if someone ignores it, you’re both better off going separate ways.

Three videos. That’s the test.

You either pass it or we both move on.

—

P.S. Now you know why your med tech company will never engage me to speak with your sales team. Indifferent never felt so good.

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