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Welcome to "Visionary Voices" the podcast where we dive into the minds of business owners, founders, executives, and everyone in between.
Each episode brings you face-to-face with the leading lights of industry and innovation.
Join us as we uncover the stories behind the success and the lessons learned along the way.
Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or just starting your business journey, these are the conversations you need to hear - packed with visionary voices and insights.
Let's begin.
So Eloise, thank you for taking the time to join us on today's episode.
Could you give us a top level view about what it is that you're working on right now and
your journey so far?
Absolutely.
So yeah, just by way of introduction, my name is Eloise Moffitt.
I am the Vice President of Commercial at a company called Innovative Trials.
We are primarily in the clinical trial space, so concentrating on recruiting patients into
clinical trials and ultimately supporting them whilst they're in the trial as well.
And in my role, I am part of the leadership team at Innovative Trials and oversee four
teams, which is the marketing, proposals, contracts.
and sales team.
Amazing amazing.
think from our last conversation you mentioned you are one of the the youngest board
members over at Innovative trials.
So tell me about the story there.
Like how how did that happen?
How did that come to be and what did that that journey look like?
I mean, I think most people would just say I've got the gift of the gab.
I definitely suffer from imposter syndrome because I am um amongst a board of great
people.
But I think it's down to genuinely believing in myself, um you know, never being afraid to
say my perspective on things and bring in my expertise.
em And, you know, I think you'll hear me talk a lot about this podcast about trust as
well.
And I think that
I am known for being a trustworthy person and ultimately that's what got me into Inhibitor
trials and on the board.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I mean, in the, I guess the early stages, right, of your career, what did that look like?
Because it'll be interesting to understand where you came from, let's say, and then how
you end up to this role that you're in right now.
Because it's a very interesting role that you're doing right now and overseeing a lot
within the company as well.
So what do those early days look like in your career and what were you doing that?
Yeah, I think honestly I feel a little bit fluky and other people might not say that
because um you know I came out of school at 16.
I was, as you can tell from my accent, I was actually based in the UK at that point.
I was so eager to get out into the workplace that I was like you know I want to travel, I
want to be in the workplace so I actually started my career in the travel industry.
started off as a travel agent actually and you know used to get excited when I'd get my
three pounds per passenger when booking those holidays and we're like yeah you know this
is for me and kind of carried on through there so you know I was very fortunate to meet
various different people throughout my career and ultimately convinced them I was the one
for them you know they needed this role they needed me and you know cocky young
kind of girl in the working industry and kind of built my career from there.
So like I said, I spent 17 years in the travel industry actually learning.
What I didn't realize at the time I thought was sales was actually multiple different
commercial aspects.
um And, you know, kind of continued there.
And about nine years ago, I was actually contacted by a company called MD Group who...
had said to me, know what, Eloise, we want you to come and try our corporate travel.
It's something we want to get into.
So moved into that company and all of a sudden it was like, wow, this is a different world
because it was travel, but it was in the life science industry.
And, you know, before long we knew that, you know, corporate travel really wasn't the
direction that they actually wanted to go.
And I was given an opportunity by the owner and the CEO at that time to
have a go at selling investigator meetings.
And I was like, well, what the hell is an investigator meeting?
Coming from the travel industry, was like a whole new world.
So I had a half a day crash course with a remarkable lady who owns the company.
And she literally told me everything I needed to know about the clinical trial industry.
And then there I was away.
And it turned out that actually,
everything that I'd learned in the travel industry was absolutely adaptable to this
industry and actually maybe I bought a different perspective to not being in that clinical
trial space all of that time em and you know I had a wonderful career with them for six
years and then Innovative Trials approached me for a big girl job, a big girl opportunity
which obviously I took with both hands and
I'm continuing that learning journey now.
I've got a lot to learn as we all do and that's how I ended up here.
Yeah, I mean, amazing, right?
It's so, so interesting.
And I think the big takeaway that I get from this conversation is, any opportunity you
were given, like you would just take it, right.
And just, just lean into it.
And I think, I think I saw it from a lot of the kind of successful people that I spoke to
on the podcast is whenever opportunities came up, they just, they just took it right.
Because a lot of other people, even myself and kind of my, my early career, let's say, is
whenever opportunities came up, I wouldn't always lean into it.
Now I'm.
complete opposite but yeah but it's one of those things where and it seems like that's a
common trait as well with people I've spoken to and yourselves on top of that where if if
opportunities come up you just have to take it and sometimes you take it without you know
to your point you don't know what it is that you're going to be doing let's say yeah
through and go figure it out once I'm on there.
So absolutely.
Exactly that, exactly that.
uh No, amazing.
And then in terms of the day to day now, like what does that look like?
Like what are you working on?
Because I know before we mentioned, you know, talking about like the creative angle of
your role.
So I love to like dig into that and what does that look like?
Yeah, so I think I am a bit of a quirk within the company.
You know, I like to push my boundaries and, you know, test the limits.
And I'm very fortunate to have one of the most amazing CEOs that trusts me to push a
little bit.
Obviously she does keep me grounded and brings me back into the space when I need to.
you know, at the moment, what we're trying to do is really kind of be known for the
company that we are.
So...
You know, I'm seeing a lot of posts now on social media which actually make me quite sad.
I'm seeing companies putting down other companies and you know, we don't want to be that
company.
We want to just concentrate on what we do, what we do well.
You know, we want to be an honest company.
We want to be the company of choice.
So we don't want people to just come to us for the sake of, you know, or we need to go to
them because we're in rescue mode.
We want them to come to us because they know what we do and they know what we're good for.
And that's really what we're focusing on now.
We're really starting to look at how can we spread our wings even further.
We have some fantastic clients that have been with us for many, many years.
And we want to replicate that on a global scale.
In particular, the US.
I moved to the US five years ago.
So I'm still kind of understanding that landscape because whilst we speak the same
language, culturally, we're very different.
That's kind of our focus point and my personal focus point at the moment for the company,
um as well as kind of education, which we can talk about a little bit further on in the
podcast.
Yeah, no, for sure.
For sure.
And it's really cool that the, you know, the leadership team and the CEO, cetera, is, um
give it like allowing you to kind of be creative in this role.
And I know, I've had, I've had managers before where, you know, they do allow you to
exercise that.
And I think it speaks volumes as well to the, to the level of all the type of company
you're working for, right?
Where they do care about obviously, you know, your work and everything and allows you to,
to experiment, right?
And experiment with all these different.
sometimes crazy things that you can do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, I mean, it'll be, it'll be cool to, you know, some, some examples, right?
Just so the listeners can understand like some of the cool things that you guys have
managed to do, um, you know, in, in, in the company.
Yeah, I'll give you one of the most recent examples because I think that's what we're
known for.
And actually just this week we won an award for it.
em obviously, you know, marketing, it's not a case of just kind of coming up with a wacky
idea and hoping it works.
There does have to be a reason behind it.
So this year we really wanted our messaging to be about back to basics.
You know, there's a lot of technology out there.
There's a lot of AI, but we forget the fundamentals of, you know, the art of conversation.
You know, so we wanted to make sure that, you know, we do what we do and our company is
very much based on uh relationship solutions.
So we really wanted to highlight, you know, the relationships and going back to basics.
So we decided at one of the largest conferences of the year in February to do a back to
basics theme.
So when you think to back to basics, we then got to back to the future.
Mmm.
we didn't want it to be gimmicky, you know, there was ideas of a DeLorean being, you know,
put on the booth and all of this, but it was how can we make people feel the booth, you
know?
And that sounds crazy, but we wanted people to feel the booth.
And what we did is we did a 70s theme booth.
So what this meant was as you were walking past the booth, you'd like, my God, I used to
have that telephone.
you know.
remember the VCR, you know, and we had a Pacman machine, so we made it interactive and
fun.
And by that point, it really didn't matter what we'd done, you know, and what we were
doing as a company.
It's like, my God, and you're having that art of conversation, right?
Then the conversation came naturally.
There was no hard sell, you know, come and look at our booth, come and speak to us.
It was, you come, you feel, and then we have a conversation.
And, um you know, we had people reaching out to us saying, thank you, you brought back so
many memories.
you know, from my childhood.
And that's again, going back to understanding your client persona, right?
Understanding, you know, who in our industry are going to feel this and don't get me
wrong, it wasn't just that narrowed persona.
We had people from all ages, you know, interacting with the booth.
We did the booth again, uh only just this week actually, at a conference.
And we did win an award for the most standout.
at the conference which for us, you know, we're a small company just meant the absolute
world.
Yeah, yeah, no, for sure.
And, you know, it's getting that emotional buy in, right.
And you can use it as, as your hook essentially to, get people over and talking.
And then it's very natural, right.
As you said, and, you know, to your point about your ideal client, it just goes to show
when you really understand who it is that you're serving and what language they speak,
then you can create things like this, right.
Which, are very successful, but it all comes from, I think that foundational knowledge of
who are you selling to like
but not on just on a surface level, on a deep level.
Cause that's how you manage to do this, right?
And um get this award, right?
Because it was just so good, right?
It resonated so well with your ICP.
And I think from the companies that I've worked with, just in the marketing space
generally, is that is the biggest issue they have, right?
Is that they don't know who they're selling to and they don't know who they're actually
serving.
And, you know, they come to us and they want to...
you know, start selling to companies where they've never even worked with them before,
like that industry.
And it's like, you you need to actually take the time to figure out your product and
service, like who does it actually best serve?
And it seems like you guys have done some deep work around that to figure that one out.
Has that insight come from, I guess, the existing clients that you've had and who's got, I
guess, the best, best results, let's say, you know, oh or how did you guys come up with
who ICP is and what was that, that kind of...
I know that that process you guys went through to figure that one out and really
understand them.
Yeah, I think it's understanding our industry, right, and understanding the core roles
that would be appeal appealed to our particular company.
So if I give an example, I get outreach to on multiple times a day, I've had for patient
recruitment companies come to me offering me their patient recruitment services, even
though we are a patient recruitment company ourselves, you know, and, it irritates me, I'm
not going to lie, because it's like, please do your research first on who we are.
you know, and who I am as well as a person, you know, just because my title is VP of
commercial, you know, that I'm not necessarily going to be interested in what you're kind
of selling to me.
Now I do have an empathy for, you know, BD folks and sales people because I've been there,
I still frontline sale now.
So I get it, but you know, if you start off on that foot straight away, then you're not
going to get anywhere.
you know, we understand who...
are interested in our services.
But we also don't want to be narrow minded in the fact of that's all we're going to have
because you've got that future generation, right, that's coming in as well.
So we want to appeal to that.
And, you know, we've got such a diverse team at Inivative Trials that we want to make sure
that all the voices have heard so we can bring in those different perspectives.
I don't want to just be focusing on the here and now and our audience here and now.
We want that future one coming in.
So I think by
in this particular example, finding something that resonated to actually quite a broad
range, but maybe in different ways.
We had people going, my grandma had one of those phones, that we had someone saying, I had
one of those phones.
So you can see already there's a correlation between the two, but a very different one.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
And it's interesting, you guys are also thinking of the, of the future as well, right?
With, this client persona, because that's going to be an interesting, let's say issue
companies are going to have to tackle, right?
Is, you know, not only is your, your staff and, you know, your, employees, right?
As, as they're starting to grow and over the years is like the newer generation is
obviously going to come up into leadership roles and manage everything, but also your
clients as well.
that's also gonna be the trend in case.
So, you know, it's really cool how you guys are piecing not only your current clients
today, but then also your future clients on who they are and, you know, how can we also
serve them, right?
And get them involved in all these things as well.
So, yeah, no, really cool to hear.
And then I guess with, you know, your role right now, so because you've gone through all
these roles and you've worked up your way to the role you are right now, from a leadership
point of view, how have you managed...
kind of managing a team.
So obviously you manage a few different teams right now.
So what are the lessons and learnings that you've taken from there?
Because for myself, it's actually quite timely because I'm starting to build out my team
right now, right?
So we're doing it through a hiring phase and all these different things.
So it'll be interesting to know how you found it and what are the lessons that you've
taken from it as well.
No, absolutely.
It's a great question and actually it's one of the easiest ones that you've probably asked
me so far because um I personally and we always hire for people that are better than us.
So obviously I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm an expert in all four of my
areas.
I have my niche in those four areas and I can oversee those four areas.
But my teams underneath me, have great leaders that know their areas.
So really the leadership is easier for me because they are the ones that are doing, you
know, their expertise.
And by building a team underneath you that know, you know, know what they're doing in each
of their areas, honestly, as a leader, it makes it much, much more easier.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's interesting.
It's good shows like it's who you hire, right?
And, who's actually going to be doing that, day to day work.
Cause I think if you obviously hire the wrong type of people, then they require, let's say
more management or such, which from a, from a managerial kind of point of view, then
creates a stress, right?
Because you're having to really micromanage someone or whatever that could look like.
So, so it all starts with higher than I guess is, is what it is that you're, you you're
saying from that.
Yeah, and you want people that...
kind of vibe with you, right?
You want people that are excited with you.
You know, I want to ring up one of my team like, my God, you'll never guess the
conversation that I've just had and then feel that excitement with you, you know, and
ultimately you've got to enjoy your job.
If you're waking up on a Monday, like, Oh, I've got work.
Then you're in the wrong job.
You know, for me, this is like a hobby.
It's something that I really enjoy.
Um, and I'd like to think that, you know, even my team members that they're exactly the
same as me.
We're again, a quirky.
little team, you know, we get on really well and we all have this, you know, excitement
and this funness in our roles and I, you know, as well as the serious side of things, by
having that balance, it really makes a difference.
Yeah, yeah, no, definitely.
And I think there's a lot to be said, right?
When you wake up on a Monday and you're not, you're not dreading work.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, had a podcast recently.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, I had a podcast recently and what uh we're saying is, know, when you kind of
find your, you know, when your work doesn't feel like work, right?
That's when you're in this like flow state and it just feels like a game.
It feels like every day you're just like leveling up.
in the game and you're just playing this game of work.
But you're not dreading it, In the whole thing.
And I remember I've had jobs before where, you know, on a Sunday night, you really want to
go in the next thing.
You're like, oh, my throat's bit sore.
I'm feeling a bit rough.
Maybe I can't go in the next day.
But when you do find your why's, you you don't even want to have those days.
And when you are feeling rough, like, I'm still going to turn up and do what I need to do.
And so, yeah, for sure.
So I guess we do then from a...
I guess a personal development point of view, because you've gone through, you know, leaps
and bounds in terms of your career, right?
And into the world you are right now.
From a personal development point of view, what have you, what have you learned about
yourself over the years and what, what lessons have you kind of taken away?
Um, and I guess those lessons would have come from turning points as well.
So it'd be cool to like understand what those were for you.
Yeah, think, I mean, there's always loads of lessons, right?
And I could probably sit here and fill a full hour on the things that I've learned and I
still continue to learn today.
You know, I think that for me, one of the biggest things is to stop and think.
So not react, you know, in any workplace, there's always something that you might not
agree with or something that you don't like.
And, you know, I've learned and I am still learning.
I can still sometimes react rather quickly and in the wrong way to kind of stop and pause
and, you know, have a moment to think about how to respond.
Another thing that was brought to me many years ago now was that my emails were too abrupt
and too short and sharp.
And, you know, I never necessarily saw that because I
am kind of like.
straight to the point, you know, I'm just like, I don't beat around the bush.
say what I think, you know, and learning in a workplace that actually that can be
perceived in a different way.
And actually, especially in emails or even now, you know, we have the chat function can be
read in the wrong way.
So even again, taking that stop and thinking and, know, is that the right way?
Obviously now we have AI to help us rewrite our emails, which I'm incredibly grateful for
because it makes me sound a lot smarter than what I am.
But even with the AI, does make you, you know, stop and think it's like, actually, that's
a really good way of of wording that.
So, yeah, that's one of the biggest things I think for my career.
And I think I'm still learning that now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's definitely interesting what other people notice that, that sometimes you just
don't.
and it's always good when people call you out on some of these things as well, cause you
just don't realize you're, doing it.
Um, and you know, I'm the same when it comes down to like communication and emails,
everything, just, you know, one sentence, one message, right.
And it can seem a bit harsh.
So it's a, do we, how do we change that?
And, you know, I think as well, when you get into these, these leadership roles, it
becomes even more important because, know, you can send one message to someone and
like they're having a bad day then because of that, right?
Because they've taken it in a certain way.
And so you've got to be so diligent and careful with the way, you you say things, the way
you communicate, especially, you know, as things are all digital now as well.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So I guess, how are you envisioning like the, in clinical trials in the industry, how is
the marketing piece going to evolve over time?
Like now that we have AI technology and just just general things are evolving.
What are your, what's your take on like the future of this industry and where things are
going to go, do you think?
I mean, I genuinely don't know where things are gonna go, if I'm being honest.
I think there are a lot of, like I've just mentioned, AI and automated processes coming
through and I can see a lot more AI being used, but.
I think that there is a bit of a fear of that because, you know, as it is, we don't know
what's real and what's not anymore.
mean, you know, if you take Facebook, for an example, you know, a lot of them do say
generate by AI, but it's like, you know, is that a real thing or is that not?
And, you know, whilst it's great for automation and cost saving, the last thing that you
want is your perspective audience and your perspective clients to then start feeling like,
are you a real company or are the services that you're offering?
real so I think that
you know, an important thing if I was to look at the future was to again, remember the
basics.
And I know I started off with that, but I still truly believe with it.
And remember that we're all human and our audience is human.
can't, you're not going to have a bot that's talking to a bot.
So, you know, we, we still feel and we still have that.
So I think that for us, for me, whether it be here with Innovative Trials or be at another
company is absolutely remembering that we're humans and keeping that human element into
everything that
we do because otherwise we're gonna we're gonna lose ourselves.
Yeah, I completely resonate with this.
one of the core things that we always tell our clients, right, is it's just about the
relationships.
Like, like ultimately, and it's interesting now you're on LinkedIn and maybe just me, but
every single post sounds the same.
Like it's still like structured the same way.
It's got the same type of language and you can just tell us how it generated nowadays.
And it's a shame because it's going to be interesting on how you're going to actually
stand out, right?
Because the barrier to entry of posting content or doing these things is obviously lower.
So there's going to be more content.
So.
How do actually, you know, stand out?
Maybe the standing out is going to be because it's just not from AI, it's authentic, it's
raw, that type of thing.
And that's the direction it's going to go in.
But I completely resonate with the, with the relationship side, especially, you know, in
an industry where it is relationship based, right?
A hundred percent it is.
And I think the tricky balance is going to be, you know, how do you adopt AI practices
and, you know, stay ahead of the competition in that realm, but then also still manage the
relationship aspect of.
of the things you do.
I mean, what are some thoughts that you guys are, or what are some, some things you guys
are doing right now where, you know, you're leveraging AI, but maybe not, not all the way,
right?
For example, like what we've done, you know, first, what we did for, part of our services,
it was completely AI.
Let me realize actually, we need to have some kind of stop points to, know, a human needs
to go in and actually do some things, do some work to make sure it's accurate and it's
relevant.
So are you guys doing the same thing where you are leveraging AI, but still, you know,
got this human checkpoint, let's say, to make sure it's all running as it should.
Yeah, I mean, it's a hundred percent.
It's a bit of both.
mean, like I said, we are a relationship solution based company.
So the AI for us is rather limited.
We're implementing AI more from a cost saving and efficiency perspective kind of
internally.
So if you think about things like, know, proposals, how can we, you know, um have AI in
those that are still, you know, true to what they are, but is more efficient for us and
for the client as well.
means we can get them to them quicker.
But I think from a,
marketing perspective, this, this is
you know, real and you know, on my social media, especially on LinkedIn, I do a lot of
videos because I want people to hear it from the heart.
I'm not, I can't then amend what I'm saying to AI.
You know, what I put out there is, out there, but I can say it's raw, it's truthful and
it's me, you know, and my advice to anyone going forward is, know, you are your um own
branding, you are your own business card and the more that you can, you know, put yourself
out there.
know it's not for everybody and that's
okay as well but the more that you can have real people you know and we do the same at
Innovative Trials we like to showcase our people within the company as well so not just me
I'm kind of one of the faces that are out there but we want our other people to show that
there are actually humans behind the scenes delivering these services you know and we do a
lot a lot of focus on that and again how we keep in front from the marketing perspective
is showcasing us.
Yeah, yeah, amazing, amazing.
So one of the final questions we always ask guests on the show is if you can go back to
your 18 year old self and only take three lessons with you, you know, it could be some
philosophical knowledge, some business knowledge, some general advice.
What would those three things be and why would it be those three things?
Okay, so my first one would be education.
um Keep on learning, soak it in like a sponge.
I believe I have done that.
I've had times where I think I'm a little bit arrogant and think I know everything, but I
have been taught and very recently as well that learning and feedback is a gift.
And even the people that are at the top of their game are still learning and being
mentored.
So keep on learning.
So that would be um number one.
The second one would be to believe in yourself.
I mentioned earlier on, I do suffer from
imposter syndrome sometimes and I shouldn't I should believe in myself I've got to where I
am now so you know to keep on believing and you know literally the world is your oyster as
corny as that sounds you know and then the third the third one would be block out block
out the noise so any negativity I've been told more than once you will never make it you
will not get there you won't be there I got told by somebody I would never make C-suite
because I didn't go to private school I bet you don't
there you know and to be honest with you I'm grateful to that person because for me that's
a driver you know I'm that negative and thinking I'll show you you know so um yeah block
out the noise and just believe in yourself.
Amazing.
Well, so many good lessons and golden nuggets throughout this whole conversation and
episode.
So thank you so much for taking the time today.
I've really, really enjoyed the conversation.
Thanks, Aquil, I really appreciate you having me on.