Before I hit record, Etienne already left the room. Thirty Wim Hof breaths, legs propped on the couch, trying to get grounded before coming on a show he expected to be different than a typical podcast.
He came back with a memory he wasn't expecting.
The opening of show fifty-one is so good, you have to listen to fully get it.
If you want to listen to two podcast hosts and former colleagues discuss medical devices, networking, and what actually makes someone good at their job beyond competence, this show is for you.
👉 Listen or watch here:
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Months went by between the recording and the editing. Only then did I realize the err in my ways. The first thing I did after publishing this episode was send a message to Etienne.
Funny thing, I failed to have my correct mic selected for the show, so my audio is terrible. Hahaha. Perfect. The show I mess up the mic is the one where the guest is a professional podcast host.
It's kind of beautiful though, because you really take center stage.
And I love it, because Etienne does take center stage, from the moment the recording starts.
It’s worth noting that I lied to him. The same will be true for the next few episodes. Up to episode 49, I came to a decision that I’d record show openers for every guest. This came from an ask that I’ve received several times.
But alas, after much contemplation, and the hallmark episode 50 which I squeezed in between 49 and this one, I am coming from a place of authenticity. How about that?!
No intros. Sorry folks. If you are intrigued by a guest, there are plenty of ways to find them, including these show notes.
Listen carefully and you’ll hear me call this episode with Etienne, “Fifty.”
Etienne and I go back further than most of my guests, to a stretch of our careers we hadn't talked about since. That history changes the shape of this conversation. Less interview, more two old colleagues comparing notes on what actually stuck.
He told me about the cubicle his coworkers called cursed: sixty or seventy interruptions a day, until he managed to flip the distraction on its head and turn it into relationship building with a side of efficiency.
Underneath all of it was the same question, asked a few different ways.
What actually makes someone good at their job, once you strip away the baseline competence everyone in the room already has?
We got there through a baseball analogy. There are only thirty starting shortstops in Major League Baseball, and athleticism alone never explains why it's those thirty. We got there again through why so many medical device startups fail before they build anything. They assume they already know the unmet need instead of going and discovering it.
Near the end, I brought him a question I hadn't fully worked out myself. As AI starts generating health prognostics, does anyone study the nocebo effect, the harm of telling someone a bad outcome is coming? Neither of us landed on a clean answer. Etienne countered with his own belief in the power of the mind to heal, and we left it there, unresolved.
We didn't play a formal round this time, we ran out of runway and agreed to save it for a follow-up episode instead. But two tension pairs showed up organically in the conversation.
Certainty & Possibility.
The best of Certainty is the confidence to act, a clear read on the problem, a foundation solid enough to build from.
The worst of Certainty is assuming you already know the unmet need before you’ve actually gone and found it, the false confidence that skips real discovery, and the flat dread of an AI-generated prognosis you can’t unhear.
The best of Possibility is staying open to what you can’t yet prove, Etienne’s own belief in the power of the mind to heal, the willingness to keep learning instead of settling.
The worst of Possibility is denial, wishful thinking that waves off the data sitting right in front of you.
Together at their best, Certainty & Possibility mean moving with conviction while staying humble enough to keep testing what you believe, treating a diagnosis or an assumption as a starting point instead of a verdict.
Together at their worst, they trap you bouncing between false confidence and false hope, never actually checking either one against reality.
Ways to live the synergy and dodge the trap: go find the unmet need instead of assuming it and hold your read on any situation loosely enough to revise it.
Authority & Support.
The best of Authority is moving fast, protecting the standard or the safety call that actually matters.
The worst of Authority is steamrolling the people who could have helped you, pulling rank because you can rather than because you should.
The best of Support is what turned a document control clerk into one of Etienne's strongest allies, backing someone up instead of overriding them, trust that pays off later.
The worst of Support is capitulating on the things that genuinely matter, avoiding necessary friction, indecision dressed up as kindness.
Together at their best, Authority & Support look like using your position to back people up rather than push them down, exactly what saved a $120,000 piece of equipment and won over a clerk who could have made Etienne's life much harder.
Together at their worst, they trap you into performing support while quietly still pulling rank, or hiding behind "support" to dodge a call that actually needs making.
Ways to live the synergy and dodge the trap: default to backing someone up before overriding them, save real authority for the moments that truly require it, and ask yourself honestly whether you're building an ally or just being right.
If you’re into medical devices, you might love this show, but honestly, Etienne’s is better. This episode is for anyone early in their career looking to grow their responsibility and their network.
Etienne's stories are a working education in the parts of the job nobody puts on a resume: reading a stubborn cubicle for what it's actually teaching you, building an ally instead of steamrolling her, knowing when your training is enough and when you need to go find the unmet need instead of guessing at it.
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Etienne Nichols trained as a mechanical engineer, starting in aerospace in Tulsa before a move to Ohio took his career through a steel equipment plant. It wasn’t long before Etienne landed at Integra Life Sciences, a neurosurgical and cranial fixation equipment company, where his long journey into medical devices took root. There, as a project manager, Etienne, led the company's compliance effort.
He's a father of four who built an off-grid, solar-powered house on sixteen acres in Tennessee, largely by hand, and mostly over a paternity leave.
Today he hosts the Global Medical Device Podcast powered by Greenlight Guru (also on Spotify).
Thanks to Etienne Nichols for the conversation and for the genuine dive into authenticity. He showed us that when it comes to networking, it starts from love.
Go check out his own show!
And thanks to everyone following along with Authbition as this show continues to grow into what it's becoming.
If you like what we’re building, please like, subscribe, and share.
Thank you for reading and listening.
Health, happiness, kindness, respect
for every being and all things.
— Andrew