We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sean Hagerty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sean below.

Sean, appreciate you joining us today. Looking back on your career, have you ever worked with a great leader or boss? We’d love to hear about the experience and what you think made them such a great leader.

I most certainly have. The boss that I currently have has been absolutely wonderful to work for. When you have someone you who works so hard all day and is willing to go into battle with you, it only makes me want to do more for her. I’ve been able to connect with her in such a way that I have become a better employee and a better person in the process. When I first started this position, she was just my colleague with the same title as me. She soon moved into the role of manager above me. I could not have asked for a better person to lead me along in this role. I strive to be as hard working and task oriented as she is. She cares about each and every one of us that are under her as manager. We travel all over the northeast portion of the US and she always makes sure that we have a good travel plan in place before scheduling us to go to another state.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Sean! Some people call me Shags, which is a mixture of my first initial and my last name. I ended up in the sleep apnea medical device industry. It all started college when I was deciding whether I should go into physical therapy school to get my doctorate or stay at my undergraduate school, East Stroudsburg University, and study for a Master’s in Clinical Exercise Physiology. I was extremely torn, as I wanted to have the earned respect from being a doctor but wasn’t willing to pay the $150K+ for more student loans. I decided to stay and study physiology for the next year. After that year, I worked for the next 6 months as an exercise physiologist. I didn’t make any money and could barely pay just 400 dollars in rent. Along with other monthly bills of course, but my problem was I wasn’t full time. I had rent, student loans, car payments, food to buy all while trying to continue to be social at the young age of 23! It was impossible. So, I took action and started applying everywhere that had some type of cardiac or physiology focus. I landed a job reading pacemaker reports in a cardiology clinic. I was able to move home and save money while making a full-time income. It was great, I hada reliable car that I could pay off and I could save to pay off my loans. After a year there, one of the pacemaker companies took me on as a clinical representative. It was wonderful. I got to travel around the city of Philadelphia and meet many amazing people. All while helping people continue to live their life with the help of their implantable device. After 3 years here, I started to realize that this lifestyle that I called a job was not it. I was constantly on the road and didn’t have the time to really enjoy my life day to day. Toxic relationships started to build, and I wasn’t feeling fulfilled in the position anymore. I decided to set me LinkedIn page to ‘Open to work’ and to my surprise, that very day I received a message from a recruiter about the current position I’m at now. We spoke on the phone, and he told me I had all the qualifications needed to be successful in this position. I was so excited to start. Since that day, I haven’t looked back! I get to travel around the country, mostly the northeast, and meet people from all over. Along with the travel, I feel fulfilled with my work. Every day I get to help a patient achieve a good night’s sleep. Who doesn’t love to wake up feeling refreshed? Some of these folks haven’t had a good night sleep in a decade. The fact the I get to work with them to treat that is extremely gratifying. The respect that I wanted all along from being a doctor came from simply doing good work with people who wanted it most. I think I do really good work with some of these folks. I believe my interpersonal skills with each patient is what sets me apart. Really understanding what their pain points are when it comes to the therapy, we are giving them and then finding the solution is just something I’ve come to enjoy. It’s not exactly work when I’m having fun finding the solution to their problem. I’m extremely proud of my ability to coach these patients. Talking with them about the problem and then simplifying the solution in such a way that they can grasp it goes a long way. I do believe I’ve found a purpose in this role, and this is to help people achieve their best self. Whether that is through sleep, mindset, nutrition… It does not matter. I just want to see you win.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I absolutely would. I am not the type of person who wants to sit at the desk all day. I would much rather be moving around and seeing new places and different faces each day. The only thing I would change is how I went about getting here. I went to college because I truly wanted to become a professional track athlete. I lived and died by track and field in high school I was obsessed. I carried that obsession into college. I still remember the last day where I sat and sobbed as I looked at the long jump pit for the last time. It was sad to let go. Enough of the sadness… If I could do it again, I would go to a different school to get a different degree so that I could fast forward myself into this industry or something similar. I’ve built myself into a confident individual who knows the product he works with. 10 years ago, I would’ve never believed in the position I’m in now. Looking back, if I didn’t have a choice, I’d do everything the exact same way.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Being able to speak to absolutely anyone. I remember when I used to be terrified of people that seemed to be doing better than me. I thought, “why can’t I be like them?” But really, why couldn’t I? It really was that simple. It was about understanding the certain sacrifices I needed to make and accepting them so that I don’t get in my own way. In this field, I don’t get to stay at my office all day. Some days I don’t know when I’ll be done work like people do who work from 9-5. I could show up to a hospital for an 8am procedure and not leave until 8pm when the procedure typically takes 2 hours. It’s unpredictable, but you have to fall in love with that. The mystery of it is what makes it fun for me. I also don’t have responsibilities like kids or pets, so traveling and being out on long days like above are something I’m capable of. You need to be willing to sacrifice some time to be successful in a field where our slogan is ‘hurry up and wait.’

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @shagertylife

Image Credits

Sean Hagerty, Shags