Big Pharma to Big Screen: Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau

Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau is a filmmaker, syndicated talk radio host, and consumer health advocate. After a decade in big pharma, she finally walked away from the industry to pursue a lifelong dream as a filmmaker.  Her films include Side Effects starring Katherine Heigl and Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety which was deemed by the American Library Association as one of the most important films of 2008.

Kathleen has been featured by more than 100 media outlets worldwide, including the New York Times, The Economist, CNN, NPR, Atlantic Monthly, and Oprah Radio. She has also been a contributor to O, The Oprah Magazine.

Kathleen sat down with After Pharma to discuss what life has been like since making the transition.

Name: Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau
Pharma Career: 10 years
Position(s) Held: Sales Rep, Institutional Rep
Highlight of Pharma Tenure: The day I got the ovaries to walk away.
Currently Keeping You Busy: Making movies and radio. Being a mom and wife.

Questions:

1. If you could give any advice to those thinking of leaving their pharma to start a new career, what would you say?

Have faith in yourself. You landed in pharma because of certain attributes that will serve you very well in every other arena. You’ve also learned many skills (sales, marketing, presentation, etc.) that can easily translate to many other fields.

But be sure to use this as the opportunity of your lifetime to pursue the career that rocks your world. Use this as an opportunity to learn how to live lean so that you will never be dependent on ‘the man’ again. So that you can choose your life’s work, your destiny…instead of being trapped in a career because the stock options and bonuses have you locked up with golden handcuffs.

It may not feel like it right now, but leaving (by choice or by force) could be the very best thing that ever happened to you. Use it.

2. Kathleen, you made a personal decision to leave Pharma, and leaving a rather comfortable lifestyle. How did you prepare to replace the perks (the car, the per diem, the autonomy)?

At the time I left, I was so ready that I didn’t care if I had to flip burgers to make ends meet. (Convincing my husband of that is an entirely different story…but I digress.)

When I finally walked away, I was mentally prepared for a serious change in lifestyle. (But remember, I had been thinking of leaving for years.) On a very practical level, my husband and I scoped out a very used mini-van (my first used car in over 10 years) and when I sat down to do my new budget I actually had to look up the price of a gallon of gas. Again, ten years of never paying attention.

Losing autonomy wasn’t something I had to worry about because I was, well, unemployed. Can’t get more autonomous than that. Things were very tight, but it also felt good to have to check in and actually pay attention to my finances. Because one thing became crystal clear in the process—I had wasted a lot of money when I was a rep.

In addition to my work in film and radio, I also became involved in a few small business ventures that helped support our family along the way. What I have found is that the possibilities are endless—both to make a living and to live on less.

Again, have faith in yourself.  Be open. You will figure it out.

3. What was the most uncomfortable thing about leaving the industry?

Leading up to leaving:

Fear of the unknown. Worry that maybe I was making a mistake—that I’d regret leaving what everyone else considered a ‘great’ job. Worry that I wouldn’t be able to learn to live on less. Worry about loss of security (which with all the layoffs, etc. we now know is bullshit). Worry that I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life. You know, all the usual suspects.

Once I left:

Nothing at all. Zero. Zip. The most surprising thing about leaving (pleasantly surprising) was that all of the doubt and insecurity flew out the door the moment it was a done deal.

The very hardest part of leaving the industry…is fear of leaving the industry. You’ve gotta trust me on that.

4. How long has it been since you left, and where has life taken you After Pharma?

I left pharma in the spring of 2002. Throughout the course of my career I had jotted down many of the crazy—sometime hilarious—but other times downright shocking/scary experiences from my daily life as a drug rep. (Most of you know exactly what I’m talking about…those “did that really just happen” feelings that take place 20 times a day in doctors offices, in our cars with our managers or at district meetings/product launches.) It felt like I was constantly diving for a pen to capture these moments—writing on sticky notes, or on any paper napkin or company branded paper plate I could reach.

When I finally left the industry, I took a look at that stack of notes and realized people (patients and doctors) needed to know what goes on behind the scenes of the drug industry (the marketing, the suppressing, etc.) so that they can make savvier decisions and ask better questions about the pills they are taking and prescribing.  I decided to put this information in a screenplay because I thought a heck of a lot more people would sit down to watch a movie (especially one that stars Katherine Heigl) than a documentary.

Long story short, when my LA agent wanted me to dumb down the script for the big studios by taking out all of the meaty pharma stuff and adding in car crashes and other Hollywood BS, I decided I wasn’t going to sell out all over again and decided to make the film myself.

So I raised the money, cast Katherine Heigl as the lead and the result is my independent film Side Effects which unexpectedly exploded in the international press. We went on to do a limited theatrical and DVD release before the film was picked up by New Line Cinema and ultimately just released nationwide on DVD two weeks ago by Warner Bros (who absorbed New Line).

Based on the strong interest in Side Effects (including many great questions from the public and medical community) I did go on to make a documentary on this subject called Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety. This film takes a much more in depth and serious look at the many layers of pharmaceutical marketing/influence (beyond reps)—things like the FDA, lobbying, how studies are funded/written, etc.

But through this whole process, one thing became clear to me—that the more important message is one of prevention. Because if each of us were taking better care of ourselves, we’d be less reliant on prescription medication and the questionable marketing that comes with it. So I decided to launch a syndicated radio program called The Kathleen Show which focuses on taking charge of your life (yes, even career) and health. I feature interviews with the country’s top experts and our goal is to inform and inspire folks to push back and live their boldest and healthiest lives—to say a big ‘hell no to the status quo.’

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

Oh, and one more thing. (Because I know what some of you may be thinking):

Although one of the main goals of Side Effects was to inform (and entertain) the public about pharma marketing…at the heart of the film is the fork in the road we all face.

What am I doing with my life?

What am I selling myself for everyday?

Creating a ‘fiction’ film allowed me to explore that theme (a theme I had personally wrestled with for a long time.) Here I was selling out for the big paycheck and a company car—by staying in a job I felt was unethical, all the while lamenting that the industry was selling out for profits before patients. Hard to swallow, but true (for me).

And this was a chord that struck home with people everywhere—both inside and outside the industry. Do I go down the path of easy money and comfort but compromise my values/my passion? Or do I go down the path that is right and/or what I love?

I bring this up because many of you will be reading this specifically because you are trying to figure out which route to go next. Again, you now have this big beautiful opportunity…and these kinds of questions might help take you exactly where you want to go.

5. Any regrets?

I thought I would be filled with anxiety/doubt once I pulled the trigger. But the moment my manager turned out of my driveway with all of my samples and schwag filling up his Ford Taurus, the only thing I felt was…relief. I felt at peace for the first time in over a decade.

But if there is one thing I regret, it’s that I didn’t leave sooner. Seriously. That is my personal cross to bear. That I didn’t listen to my gut sooner. That I didn’t have more faith in myself that I would be fine without the money and the car. That I didn’t have more faith that my life was meant for something bigger. That I sold out for ten years.

However, I can also see that maybe I was exactly where I was supposed to be for that decade. Maybe it was part of my purpose—that I was meant to experience everything I did because it would be my greatest life lesson. And the basis for a story that needed to be told.

6. Any Life Motto or Words to Live By?

The tagline of my radio show is ‘Grabbing Life by the Ovaries’. I think that pretty much sums it up. (And guys…you know what to do too.)

You can visit Kathleen at:  www.thekathleenshow.com
You can follow her on Twitter at:  http://twitter.com/KathleenShow