Six Forces Shaping the Next Decade of Veterinary Business: Law, Marketing, Leadership, Culture, Finance, and AI

Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Veterinary Business Institute's Summit series. I'm Donna Deisha, senior Executive and expert facilitator here at Qua, and I'll be your moderator for today's event, six Forces shaping the Next Decade of Veterinary Business Law, marketing, leadership, culture, finance, and ai. I know that's a lot, but don't worry because over the next hour we'll de be exploring how the most successful wener leaders our navigating change from financial strategy and marketing, innovation to leadership culture, and the rise of ai. of course, I would like to give a shout out to the Veterinary Business Institute's podcast, the Veterinary Business Podcast, because you don't need to limit, these two hours for this discussion.

the Veterinary Business Podcast is where you can get further information, thought leadership, and we are covering practice management, financial management, marketing and branding, technology and innovation, all these wonderful topics that you will find really interesting as really insightful as well. So, a new, episode drops every Thursday at 5:00 AM et you can find it on anywhere you're streaming your favorite podcast from. so just type in Veterinary Business podcast and, yeah, you'll find us there. And of course, I would like to also mention that this session is proudly sponsored by Eco Marketing and the Veterinary Business Institute organizations dedicated to helping veterinary practices thrive through smarter strategy, brand visibility and leadership development.

As well as I would like to thank the brand partners that we have on board over here, for this session as well. That being said, so tonight's session agenda will go like this. First, we will be starting with understanding the financial resilience, the finance talk with, none other than Holly. and afterwards we are get going to get into marketing. How are we going to market? and how are we marketing right now in 2025, turning visibility and trust into sustainable practice growth? Then we are going into innovation in action. Everyone knows that, these days, the number one word or two letters on everyone's mouth is ai. And, we have innovation in action, harnessing AI and diagnostics to future proof veterinary care.

Then we are going to look at some overlooked equations, right, when it comes to business planning people and the hidden costs of technology. once that's done, we are going to talk about how you're going to put all that together and then scale smart, optimizing operations and leadership in multi-location veterinary businesses. And then of course, at the end we have an interactive q and a session. But, you don't need to wait until the end to put your thoughts in chat, 'cause the chat box is always open and we would love to connect with y'all. This is a two-way conversation, so do let us know your thoughts, your questions. You can use the q and a or the chat, and, we'll try our best to, accommodate your requests.

without further ado, I would love to introduce our panelists for the evening. So first off, we have Holly Corcoran. Holly is the CEO of Corcoran Business Advisory Service says A CPA and financial strategist helping practices turn complexity into clarity. Holly, it's wonderful to have you with us here this evening. Thank you. Yeah. And then we have Leer Alvis, marketing Manager at Echo Marketing, a data-driven strategist, transforming Wener visibility into measurable growth. Lester, thank you very much for joining us this evening. Thank you. Adair is an honor, honor to be here. Alright. And then we have Albert Di Enzo, co-founder and CEO of One Health Group, a technologist, pioneering diagnostics and AI driven innovation in veterinary and human health.

Albert, thank you very much for, sharing your time with us this evening. Thank You. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Wonderful. And then we have Claire Pickens. Claire is the CEO of Clarity group and operations leader and business planner, helping practices align people process and profitability. Claire, thank you very much for being here. Lovely to be here. Thank you. Fantastic. And last but not least, we have Dr. Lauren Peka, regional VP at CVE and MNA integration expert and operations leader specializing in multi-location growth. Dr. Lauren, thank you very much for sharing your valuable time with us this evening. Thanks for having me. Wonderful.

Now, with that being said, we will be diving in to the first segment, financial resilience, creating sustainable growth in an Answer in Economy. And for this, discussion, we are going to have corker with us. So Holly, Shelby. Hi. Okay, I'm gonna stop sharing my screen real quickly. There we go. Alright, Holly, let's get right into it. What financial blind spots put veterinary practices at risk and how can owners address them? Early Veterinary practices, traditionally don't like the number side of running the practice, the business side of it, and I, I don't blame them. they're very good at what they do. and sometimes it's easier to keep, going into appointments and seeing, patients than it is to take the time to actually work on the business, which is a big challenge.

So it's, sometimes a blind spot is using the, not using the financial data that's available through the practice management software, the pims, or the accounting software. And sometimes it's worthwhile to, have someone facilitate in that process to make sure you're looking and understanding the numbers. And as, veterinarians are going into practice, sometimes they're buying an existing practice and they start with the same procedures, the same setup, the same software, everything that the previous owner had, and there's legacy issues and they're ignoring them. I had, one where there's the inventory was, cont consistently dropping. The PIMS was in a, it was on a desktop, not online.

It's an old system. And every year we ended up having to pay for that by, you know, the count never matching up. and I've seen where, you know, practice, you know, was purchased and they're still using the same website, the same Facebook posts that have the previous owner not keeping that up to date. You know, so there's a lot of areas, and that's not even financial. These are just things that are kind of go by the wayside when you're picking up or buying a new practice. but a unique area is sales and use tax as well, because, depending upon the state and the practice item or the sales item, some things may be subject to sales tax, some things may not be.

And so making sure that the, the items are set up correctly in the practice management software so that, they're identified correctly that staff is, you know, trained correctly on making sure they're identifying the right items that are subject to sales tax. 'cause you don't wanna go through a sales tax audit. That's no fun. It's almost worse than an IRS audit. and also the biggest area, especially, with fact practices that have, have high inventory purchasing and inventory controls where they, are actually, you know, making sure that they're monitoring the purchases, that it agrees to the, the online, pims and that the physical counts agree that you don't have things that are expiring, that you don't have, too much on hand or too little on hand, and making sure that you're not wasting your dollars by having it sitting in inventory that's, not producing any income for you.

So having really good procedures, SOPs, standard operating procedures around inventory can be very important. And cashflow is going to be one of the major issues, especially when people are starting up. or even if you're an existing business that that's going like gangbusters. I've seen, businesses that went bankrupt when they had a ton of, business, they just weren't monitoring the cash correctly. So making sure that they have a good cash flow projection and, understanding, you know, making sure they're watching those items because you don't wanna come up with maybe a Friday where you can't make payroll. You certainly don't wanna do that. Absolutely.

So, those are just a few items. the other thing too is, you know, when I talked about the sales tax, depending upon the state that you're in, maybe you're in, a small animal practice in Pennsylvania and de decide to buy one in New Jersey. You've gotta make sure that all of the tax items that you, that are subject to different states apply. Or if you have an ambulatory practice and you, travel between multiple states, you have to make sure that your time in there, whether it creates nexus and you have to file actually an income tax return there. So there's quite a few things that can be outside of the normal practice of, you know, running of the, the vet, the vet practice itself that, kind of come in and, you know, can be a rainy day surprise, if they're not properly addressed.

Right. going through a sales tax audit does not seem to be the best rainy day surprise to have, is it? No. And, Holly, how are you putting those risks? how are those risks tending to show up first? Are they numbers, behavior, or decision patterns? Well, a lot of times, they'll, they'll show up, you know, some practices just file a tax return at the end of the year and their records are a mess. and so then, you know, you're, you're not able even to pull together. And sometimes these are after the facts, items that, the CPA is encountering when doing the return or when, coming in maybe assisting with sales tax or setting things, setting the accounting software up.

So knowing ahead of time and having a good, professional relationship with a CPA or an advisor on hand prior to getting into, you know, a new business especially. or, you know, as I said, you know, if you ran into an audit, all of a sudden you'd end up realizing that you were misclassifying things that were subject to sales tax. So you really wanna keep those risks down. You wanna make sure that things are paid timely, because if you pay penalties, that's a waste of money because you don't even get to deduct it on your tax return. It's like throwing money out the door. So these things you really wanna make sure you're aware of. And, and the key is this delegate.

because, like I, I have pets. I don't know their, you know, all of the veterinary aspects to my pets, but I am A CPA, I can help with the business and the tax side of it. So it definitely makes, sense to delegate those services. Absolutely. Delegation, to experienced consultant like yourself with, when it comes to accounting services might be the best way to address, or even to identify those risks way earlier on. just if someone is listening and suspects that they have a hidden issue, right, what's the first diagnostic step you'd suggest they take this week? Well, I would definitely look at the numbers. you know, if you're, if, if the professional is aware of how their financial statements normally look, comparatives are always a good, you know, diagnostic tool when you look from one year to the next to make sure that things are in place, talk to the bookkeepers to make sure that everything is reconciled.

and, you know, depending upon the issue, because there's a lot of ways to go back and say, oh my gosh, I, I wasn't aware of that problem, or to be ahead of it, and then all of a sudden there's a problem that's brewing that you have to address. Definitely keeping on top of these things. 'cause I've seen instances where, you know, they have, there's an internal bookkeeper and they're not keeping up with the work that's being done, or it's being delegated to, a customer service rep that does, that's not a priority. So definitely making sure you have good records, timely records, to be able to make those decisions. I mean, in the ideal world, looking at key performance indicators and benchmarks, it should be something that would help you run your business.

And then also identify early enough in advance if there is a problem brewing and kind of make you aware of the issues. and, you know, go back and investigate and dig deeper, where you know your, your problem lies. Okay, Holly, we got a question from Renee, in the audience. Renee wants to know, are uncollectible accounts receivable commonly a problem? Yeah, it can be, but really it shouldn't be because, you really should have a payment upon receipt of services, contractor a credit card, on file or things like that. But that's another area they really need to be, on top of. I, I know some large animal practices that do all the work, and they bill it at the end of the month, and you know, it's gonna happen.

People are going to have accounts receivable. But really you have to make sure that you have good, strong, collection procedures that, you know, you're charging interest if the, payment is late, that you're calling or touching base within 30 days of the, invoice being late. or you may end up having to hire, a, an outside agency that does collections for you because it's no fun. I mean, nobody wants to call, especially your clients and, put them on the spot about payment, but if they're not paying you, they're not doing you, any favors at all. So definitely, you know, try to avoid that or cut off the bleeding now and make sure these type of procedures are in place so that going forward, you're not gonna have outstanding and make sure address that whatever is back, that that is, you know, gone goes through collection procedures.

Definitely. Thank you very much for that, Holly, strong collection procedures and, delegating it. hope you got the answer there, Renee. If you have any further questions, please feel free to continue asking us. with that being said, Holly, how can practices balance reinvestment for growth with maintaining cashflow and profitability? So, equipment is probably one of the biggest purchases, outside of the actual purchase of the practice itself. But, equipment on a yearly basis, yearly basis may be, one of the biggest areas that you wanna reinvest in the practice. But you have to look at, make, making sure that the, the cash flow associated with that purchase is going to make sense.

You've identified any out outside costs such as sales tax, sales and use tax. If you buy the piece of equipment in another state and it doesn't charge you sales tax, you may be subject to use tax. and, you know, making sure that there is a return in investment on that purchase. I know it's, you know, the, the medical ideal is great to have that piece of equipment, but if it's not going to be used or it's sitting there collecting dust or it's used once a month or twice a year, it was not worth the money to buy it. the other thing too is for tax purposes, you wanna weigh these for business and tax purposes to say, on a business sense, yes, the ROI definitely makes sense.

I'm coming towards the end of the year. Does it make sense to buy it this year or next? So you may wanna look at the timing, and, make sure that you are taking advantage of the best time and the best dollars to make that investment, and also how it's being financed or whether you're gonna pay for it out outright. so definitely another thing that comes into cashflow, projections to make sure once you bought buy it, if you have it financed, you know that monthly payment's gonna come up. Is that within your cash budget? another thing is, which was just brought up, was monitoring receivables and payables, is you wanna make sure that, you are on top of your receivables, because if that money's not coming in, it doesn't matter how hard you work to get it and you don't get paid, it's not worth the work that you did to get there.

payables are another thing where I, I find that many practices and because we're in a, in a society that does auto pay or, you know, everything's pretty much electronically set up, sometimes those miscellaneous bills or that come through the door, maybe not necessarily prioritized or categorized or put into the accounting system to make sure that they're paid in the due date time. So make sure that you have a good feeling for the, the payables, that nothing is going over time, that you're ha having to pay interest on your payables and make sure that you have a budget or a, a sinking fund for, for these reinvestments. But not just that, but also the taxes and, other liabilities or unexpected things that come up.

Okay, a piece of equipment really does die and all of a sudden you need to replace it. You know, make sure you're in that situation where you have, you know, kind of a, a buffer to make sure that you, you can, step up and have the ability to replace it if need be, or acquire the financing if necessary. And make sure that you're working with a, a good tax professional that keeps you aware of tax credits and deductions. deductions are great. That saves you at whatever your tax rate is. So you know, if it's a hundred dollars and your tax rate is 20%, it saved you, you know, 20 bucks. But a credit, if it's a hundred dollars credit, it actually saves you a hundred dollars.

And there's some things out there like for childcare costs that, you know, if you have, a larger practice with, you know, the, with kid people with young kids, or you yourself have young children as a practice owner, you could create a childcare, or have joint childcare, and those have great credits that are associated with it. So, you know, make sure that, that, you are familiar with these ideals that your bookkeeper is well trained so that they identify these items and, that you have a good grasp on your cash flow. Wonderful. And when you do have this good grasp on your cash flow, right, and you have balanced things out, when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, what are the key financial indicators that veterinary leaders should prioritize?

Okay, so when you're going into a merger and AC acquisition, the, probably the biggest thing that people want to address is the tax structure of the transaction. You know, is it an asset sale or are, are you selling your business interest? So in other words, I have a BC Practice Inc. And the, the, practice coming in is going to buy the stock of my corporation. That is a, a business interest sale. They are buying the assets as well as the liabilities, and that's a little bit more risk. Most buyers will probably not opt to do that. Their attorneys would tell them not to because you're also buying unknown liabilities and risks. so it's most likely set up as an asset sale.

And, then it's going to be a question as to how are assets, you know, assigned, you know, you have a million dollar sale and how much of it's going to go to fixed assets, inventory, goodwill, and so forth. And each of those items have different methods of being deducted. buyers and sellers are going to have conflicting desires to put the greatest benefit, you know, in other words, the, the, the buyer might want higher equipment costs. So they can take these bonus depreciation, section 1 79, take immediate deductions. the seller might want things that are subject more to capital gains so that they can, gain a, a better favorable rate with that, inventory is ordinary income.

So that's, that's what it is. I mean, you've gotta count that and make sure the, the levels at the right spot when you're selling. and you may have some, in, you know, in intangibles that are amortized, you know, how does that affect on the buyers or the seller side? You know, when, when they're, buying the goodwill that's subject to amortization, it's not something that's immediately deductible. So you really wanna take a, make sure you're aware of the type of assets or that you're buying when you're buying the practice. and there is actually a form that gets filed with the IRS that should be mirrored on both sides that says, you know, we're, we're buying X in these classes of assets and we're selling X in these, these class of assets.

And so it, corresponds on the tax returns. 'cause the IRS has found that, you know, because of these conflicting desires, sometimes the numbers a little bit, different. And then obviously as you're, as you're going into that sale, making sure that the cash flow and the working capital and the historical and projected cash flow makes sense. you know, looking at maybe, 24 months of, you know, cash, historical cash flow to make sure that you know when you're gonna have your dips and downs. And, how is that going to factor into the expenses that you may not have that this practice has or that you will have because you finance this agreement and making sure that maps out and that, it's going to, be cashflow positive, liabilities and contingencies, that there's not anything outstanding, such as, you know, overdue taxes.

This is especially important if you're buying a business interest. You know, are there, overdue taxes somewhere? Are there unfiled taxes out there? I had, you know, in Pennsylvania we have to file, for our LLC registration every year, and I had an entity that did not have that filed because they weren't aware of it. so we went back, filed it, got all that done and paid. And, you know, that way everything transfers, free and clear. And of course, you know, your state and local tax, you know, where that, where that's going to be. Making sure that you're familiar with the tax impacts, the allocations according to where the, practice is located, or if there's multiple offices where they're located.

And, you know, making sure that you're filed in the right place because you have to re-register when you're, purchasing a new practice. and of course, you know, making sure all of your tax registrations are closed when you're selling the practice. so there, those are just a few things to keep in mind when you're, in the process of mergers and acquisitions. Absolutely. A few things. and just one thing, what are some red flags in financials that you have, you know, learned to spot immediately, Holly, according to you, Red flags? well, if you have just, you know, the percentages don't make sense when you're looking at their revenues or their comparatives, that the cost of sales are, and the gross profit percentage is, you know, way out of line for the type of practice because you, you could have small animal, that's one thing.

You can have large animal, you can have equine, these are all gonna have different, different percentages. You just wanna make sure that they're within the industry that you're looking at. and small practices are gonna be a little bit more challenging to look at because they're, they don't necessarily follow the exact industry percentages. but you wanna look at these items and say, Hey, you know, are the wages way outta whack? Are the way too high? Or is the owner receiving too low of any, of a wage? and, and things like this, you know, consistent losses, why is it, is it because of, you know, or tax losses? Okay, it could be because of depreciation or aggressive, depreciation that you're taking, but if it's consistent financial losses, what is the reason behind this?

I mean, you know, we have to make sure where the, the, leaks are. Is it, is it expenses, is it not pricing properly? 'cause I've seen some older practices that just never increase their prices and they can't do it in this day and age. so there's a couple things that you can look at and the practice management software to see how the, you know, the doctors are billing, you know, what the percentages, the average invoice, these items can really help identify, you know, issues and problems as well. Okay. That's, that's fantastic Holly. And, Renee actually has one, follow up question here. Renee is asking, do veterinary practices sometimes hire independent contractors rather than employees? What's the percentage On that we know? Well, that's a really good question.

and honestly, it's, based upon the behavioral, guidelines in the IRS, and normally the quick answer is you're gonna have employees, because the problem is, is if it acts and talks and walks like an employee, it's going to be an employee. if you have a relief vet who does relief work, you know, throughout different practices, then yeah, they're gonna be an independent contractor and they're gonna be subject to 10 90 nines. But the IRS has behavioral, guidelines that basically say if the, worker is coming in and using, you know, within your timeframe, under your jurisdiction, using your tools and equipment of the trade, whatever it may be, that, and you're exercising control, then you are really, you know, those are really employees.

But yeah, on those c certain circumstances where Yvette is, going from, you know, practice to practice, filling in, then that would, you know, most likely be an independent contractor in that instance. Okay. fantastic. And, we have a small question from one of our audience members, who is wondering if they can access the French translation, because the debate is interesting. Omar, if you can turn on your captions, right, there's a CC button that says CC on here, right next to the q and a. And, there should be, an option to say my speaking language. And from there on, you can choose French and, it shall translate it for you automatically. do let us know if, you were able to find that and access that way, because absolutely, we love, we love to have you here and, you, for you to understand what's going on over here as well, because we really appreciate you coming here, Omar.

with that being said, Holly, we are now looking at the future. How can owners use financial data as a strategic tool rather than just compliance requirement? That is actually the ideal that, you know, you're not using your financial data just for compliance for just to, prepare a tax return at the end of the year. You are using it dynamically on, a monthly, maybe weekly basis, quarterly, depending upon what the items are. And we're talking about benchmarking, like using, key performance indicators. You know, I mentioned before, revenue by veterinarian or average transaction value. other things that are more soft items like client retention can be done through, surveys, but you wanna make sure that you're, you're using the, that data, looking at it on a consistent basis.

'cause those are the times when you have wild fluctuations. It might give you an idea that there's, you know, potentially a problem. also, you know, you, if you keep good records, and you're aware of what you need to do to be able to run the business and keep the records in shape, it'll lend to business and tax efficiency in that you're optimizing either the entity type that you're using or, how you are filing your taxes or how you, what deductions you're taking, or identifying those deductions and credits that we were talking about before. and also if you're looking at the financial data, and we talked about, using comparatives, you can do a trend analysis too to say, okay, you know, are my revenues going up or down?

We can use, you know, bar graphs and things like that, that are a little bit more visual and say, Hey, are we, going upward downward? How is that in comparison to our profit? I mean, I've seen instances where, you know, the, the income went up from year to year, it went down in one year, the expenses went down and they ended up with the same net profit. So, you know, it, it's, you really wanna make sure that, if you're expending to have that extra employee, whatever it may be, that they are, you know, being charged out appropriately. So those type of, trends can definitely help you identify those issues. and you know, like when you're, when you're going into, merger and acquisition and what I, what I say to a lot of businesses that if you ultimately want to retire, we wanna put that date on the calendar.

We wanna make sure you have all of the pieces in place. and some, some practices that have been, you know, going along, you know, in good, financial order, but never really attended to their, record keeping. They need to have that in place before they decide to buy, to sell, because the buyer coming in needs to be able to see clear financial data. And especially, we usually look at tax returns because those are independent, financial records that go to the IRS, you know, and if, for some reason, you know, it's been down, down, and then all of a sudden maybe it goes up a couple years, you what you do, definitely wanna make sure that there's consistency there and that there's good record keeping so that a informed buyer can come in and make, an informed decision regarding the, you know, future acquisition of this big, you know, nut that you've created and, and definitely wanna be able to retire with.

Okay. And how are you translating all this, I mean, seemingly complex reports into actionable next steps for a team? Where would you say to start? Well, what we do is, what I like to do is really talk to the owners and identify the pain points associated with that practice. what is their priority really. there may be some financial priorities that they're not even aware of that we need to, to, to look at, but then also chunk it down and say, you know, what are we going to attack in the next month, maybe three months, and so forth? And create a plan and delegate who's going to be responsible for that, and how we're gonna come back and see if that, if we've accomplished that, if we have some wins, some losses, and then adjust, readjust the, the, you know, maybe there might be a new goal or maybe something that we've satisfied and go forward.

But yeah, it's, it, it definitely needs to be chunked down because if you looked at the look at the whole mountain, it becomes really, intimidating. But if you're doing little pieces at a time and seeing success, then I think that that's really the best way that people can tackle, you know, making meaningful changes in their practices and making sure documentation is done so that, you know, employees have good resources to be able to be efficient in their practices. Absolutely. Because who doesn't like efficient employees, right? absolutely. And, with that being said, Holly, we are at the end of the segment here for y'all. but our dear audience members, please do understand that Holly's gonna be here for a while, and so you can still ask your questions and perhaps she can answer in the chat.

with that being said, thank you very much for, your contribution there, Holly. And we will be moving on now to the marketing segment. right, so we're going to talk about marketing that works and, turning visibility and trust into sustainable practice growth. So we, we are going to talk to Lester Deve over here. Lester, are you ready? Yes. Let's dive right in. Alrighty. okay, yeah, we have bore just, saying very insightful, Holly. Thank you. we really appreciate that, bore. so yeah, Lester, you're, you analyze hundreds of practice yearly, right? And, what are you seeing right now in terms of growth and profitability trends? I think, that's a great question, and it's, I think, it's something that we've been watching and analyzing very closely because we analyze data from hundreds of veterinary practices every year.

So there's no doubt the last few years, it's been tough. Costs have been gone up, the gone up across the board, wages, rent and supplies. And at the same time, you see pet owners are expecting more convenience and faster communication. And to top it off, competition has exploded. So when we look at the data, preventive visits are down in many, in many practices. So more clients are coming in and only for emergencies, that that pattern makes revenue unpredictable. So it also adds stress for teams that already have heavy caseloads over time. That unpredictability leads to burnout and turnover. So on the other side, we are seeing corporate groups buying up practices fast.

There are focuses is on often, vol volume and profit, and that means short appointments, less personal connection and limited investment and brand building or marketing. So now I've talked to part, doctors, and who I've talked to doctors, and we've basically, as marketing agency, we've talked to many practices. What we see is that they left those settings because they feel that it's rushed. They say that, I don't get into veterinary, I didn't get into a veterinary p medicine to race through a 10 minute visit. So, and that's a powerful reminder of what clients feel too. So the notice, they notice that, when care feels personal, it's, it gets against, it, it gets either, transactional, and it gets, so that's basically something that we've noticed.

So this is where independent practices have a real advantage. when you take the time to build trust, connect with the clients, and show your values online, you stand out. So, so basically you remind the pet owners that your clinic is a part of the community, not just a stop in a large chain. So think, I mean, I would say for a reflection point of view, think, think about your own practice. And if a pet owner searched your name on Google right now, what they instantly see should be warm expertise and trust. And if that's there, that's what wins detention and loyalty today. So yes, costs are up, competition is fierce, but there is a clear pattern, the practices that stay true to their purpose.

Kia first and, relationship first are still growing stronger and more profitable than ever. I really like that part where you said, practices that stay true to their purpose because, many in the veterinary community have that resonating along with them in their hearts because they're getting into the practice, not out of necessarily profitability or anything, but rather for the care of, the animals, the patients that come in. and definitely, really appreciate your input on that. what practice owners really should be looking at is to be more creative, if what I'm understanding is correct, right? Be more creative, although the costs are going up and the customer demands are also increasing for customizable, experiences, looking at it a bit creatively can, change your outcome and increase your growth at your practice.

Okay. Is that correct, Lester? That is correct. Okay. right. So now some practices grow steadily while others feel invisible online. you mentioned this a bit before as well, right? perhaps that might be the reason. So what are the main differences between those that thrive and those that struggle? Yeah, a very good question. So, when we look at hundreds of practices, the difference between those that thrive and those that struggle isn't the quality of care. What I see is it's the communication. So every doctor loves animals. That's not the issue. The real difference is how clearly practice c the, the practice communicates their value online and offline.

So the thriving ones are intentional, their website tells a clear story or of who they are, what they believe in, and how they help pets live longer, healthier lives. So they have con they have consistent reviews, and if you go check their Google bus, Google My Business, they do have love letter reviews. So accurate Google listings and education and educational content, that helps pet owners trust them before they call. So I'll give you a simple example. One practice we worked with in, in Florida at a just one block post a week answering common pet questions within months that Google visit visibility doubled. So, and the phone started ringing more.

So it's not because they spent more, but because, but it's because they helped more to the community. So now compare that to the clinics that rely only on word of mouth. They might have an outdated website or no clear call to action. There are, there, there can be others. they might be missing from Google, but sometimes even their phone numbers is wrong. So if your phone number is wrong, you might not be able to get those, pet owners contacting you. So, so even that could be, a place where you should, you know, go and figure out. So even now, again, a reflection point is that the reality that owners judge what they see online before they ever meet you, if you look invisible or in inconsistent, they assume your care might be not the same way.

So marketing today is isn't about flashy ads. it's about making your car visible and easy to trust. So when you do that well, you attract clients and you who you attract clients who share your values, and those are the clients who stay with you for years. Okay. And, when you are talking about attracting value as well, we have a question from, Rene. Sh Renee is, really engaged with us, here this evening, which is wonderful, and I encourage everyone else to do similar, to get the best out of the most value out of this investment. Right? so Renee has asked a question, our practices using CRMs, newsletter, email lists, et cetera, are they effective?

Of course, they're effective. There is. They are. I would say they're traditional marketing, tactics that are, that are used by practices to, share what's going on with their practice. So if you do have a client base, of your, in your practice, you could basically send them a newsletter of, of what's happening, what of it, it doesn't need to be, about, a treatment. It could also be something that they need to be aware. The pet owners need to be aware. So for example, email, email marketing could be one, a newsletter. Marketing could be one method. You could actually, you know, send a newsletter a week to your, pet owners, making them aware of what, what's, what's coming up, seasonality issues with pets.

So these are things we can actually implement. Of course, CRM is another way that you can, do proper management of your, of your patients. So, that's basically, I think it's very effective, and those are tools that you should be using and incorporating in your practice. Lester right there, when you mentioned, bringing awareness to seasonality issues, recently, I mean, here this season, Halloween season, I mean, is a very interesting season in the veterinary industry, I'm sure, because apparently even I, I, I was also reading this through another newsletter, which says, a lot of cases where pets, especially dogs, they're seeing a lot of chocolate poisoning happening, right?

because of, of the, increased accessibility to candy and, just un attention to the pets during those times. But more interesting than that was the fact that during that time, it's not the, it also becomes a time where pets are, especially, you know, the domestic ones are subjected to car accidents more than, because like, what chocolate poisoning, right? that was a very interesting fact that I did not know, but it was pretty seasonal. and that's because during Halloween things are a bit hectic. There's, lights, and not everyone is really paying attention to their pets. And the moment they open the door for someone who's visiting for trick or treat, you know, they're out there.

And then, you know, the road accidents that can happen really increases. So that was very interesting. and when you mentioned that, it just came into my mind, and perhaps, you know, it's effective because it stick with my mind right there, that Halloween is not a season where pets are seeing the highest number of, issues due to chocolates, but rather due to road accidents. Exactly. Right. now you often say most practices don't have a true marketing strategy. Right? Why does strategy and not tactics change everything? Again, a very good question. I think this one is huge. Again, many clinics confuse doing marketing with having a real marketing strategy.

So tactics are the quick actions, running ads, posting acute bit picture, or offering a seasonal promo. Those things can work for a moment, just for a moment, but they don't actually build long term growth. A strategy, on the other hand, is your roadmap. It defines your goals, your message, and how every part of your marketing, your website, SEO reviews, the content works together towards this goal. So it's, it's more of like a fine tuned, Swiss clock. So basically, let's say a clinic runs a Facebook ad to bring in new clients, but their website isn't clear or mobile friendly, those clicks will go to waste. So, or they post, or let's say they post daily on social media, but they, and, but when it come, but when someone searches veterinary, a veterinarian near me on Google, they don't show up on Google.

So that's the difference between activity and strategy. A strategy brings everyone under one story, who you are, what, what you stand for, and why pet owners should choose you. So I think it's, it's all about if they can find you and they can choose you. So if you, your marketing strategy should be on that, on that, aspect. If you, if you know they can find you, that means they should also be able to choose you. So ask yourselves this, if I stopped all my marketing today, like literally stop all marketing, would my online presence still tell my story? If not, that's a sign. Your tactics are working harder than your strategy. So that's why we always start with the full review of what's working at the Echo marketing, what's not working and how to fix it.

We call it the marketing strategy meeting. And, it helps build a fountain where every effort connects and deliver measurable results. I hope I answered your question. sure. I think so too. I was just, reading a question here. Sorry about that. but yeah, what I was understanding was looking at it from angle of like a holistic approach, right? Instead of just one off things. And of course, all of these things have to tie back into a real ROI metric, right? likes and, now, well, page visits are also having a issue these days because of, Google's AI overview taking over and the zero click issue is up there. but yeah, of course, back to the ROI metrics, and what I'm understanding is, when you do these things, when you are chosen, right?

it seems that it doesn't, it overrides any kind of other vanity metric you may have. And you are getting that phone call from your idle ideal patient. Exactly. And then, yeah, you can, proceed with the care. then Lester, even large groups, miss basics, like SEO, okay? Mm-hmm. I know, SEO has transformed recently with AI driven practices into a more evolved version, but still, SCO search engine optimization is absolutely still there, just in different ways. Yeah. Right. So what untapped opportunities can independent practices use to compete and win? I think, again, a very good question. I think it's going to the roots. I think it's going back to the fundamentals.

So one of the biggest surprises in the industry is how many corporate groups miss basic marketing fundamentals? The, they might have hundreds of clinics, but most of their websites share the same content. They, that, that, that's where it hurts their CEO, because, the local is CEO. So they also, they also rarely connect with local pet owners in a personal way. There is no personal touch. So that's where the independent practices can actually, you know, capitalize. So that creates a huge opportunity for independent clinics to shine. And when you get the basics right, a consistent list, like for example, a consistent listing, strong local SEO, authentic reviews, and real community engagement, you can, outrank and outshine, the big guys.

So now we worked with, a small clinic in Texas. they, they focused, they, yeah, they focused on, local SEO and encouraged real client reviews, like love letter reviews. Within six months, they moved from page four on Google to the top three results ahead of corporate, competitors with 10 times the budget. So now, but visibility isn't about Google, right? It's about the connection. So clients want a story. It's more of the storytelling, part of it. So clients want, clients, or pet owners want a story that can relate to. So when your website and social channels show your team's compassion and your role in the community, it's like sharing a local event or, or, or even the behind the scenes stories so people can then remember you.

They will come again, again for you again, for care, just to your practice. So ask yourself, if someone visits your website today, can they feel your heartfelt for pets or animals? That emotional connection is what keeps your clients coming back and again and again. So you don't need a massive budget to compete. You just need clarity, consistency, and a right plan. And that's how independent practices win by authentic and, steady. Okay? Okay. By being authentic and, steady consistency is what I'm understanding by consistently showing up, as being authentic and ensuring that what is in your practice in that four walls is being represented, equally, on online as well, right?

Lester. So for a practice, unsure where to start, how can they identify what's working and where to focus next? These are practical steps you're looking for. Exactly. And this, I, again, this summit is about taking action, and this is where we should actually focus on. Now, let's talk about something practice owners struggle with and figuring out what's working and what's not working. So you can fix you, you can't fix actually what you can't see. So many owners have tried ads or social posts, but they, they're not sure why the results fell flat. They don't know what happened. So what, when we do audits, like a proper audit, we look at their website, we often find outdated websites missing keywords, duplicate listings, or poor Google's Google rankings.

So that's the, those are some things that we actually find. So that's exactly why we created this, marketing strategy meeting, which is called an MSM. It's basically, a, a call where our, our, our consultation with our team. It's a full detail audit of your entire marketing system. Our team spends around six hours of reviewing your website, SEO reviews and local visibility. Then we, then we meet for a 90 minute session to go through, a detailed report card and a 12 month growth plan just made for your clinic. Again, this is a complimentary session just for tonight's, summit. You'll walk away knowing exactly what's working, what's broken, and where your biggest opportunities are.

And it's about giving you clarity and confidence to make start marketing, decisions the right way. Again, it's, it's just a, it's just an audit. I think you need to know what's, what's really, what working and what's not working. Think about, think about this as your health card, for example, I think most of us, we do a six month checkup on about, on our, health. So this is more of the, the digital side of your health card, of your practice. So think about it, most of the stress in marketing comes from guessing and guesswork is not the proper way to, rectify issues. Once you have the real data and a plan, you stop guessing and start going with the purpose.

So, and that's what makes this MSM, or the marketing strategy meeting so valuable. Most owners leave saying, after they come to us, they say that, now I finally get it. I know what's holding us back and what to do next. So, so we are happy to help anyone. and I, if you want some clarity, you can go to the Veterinary Business Institute forward, veterinary business institute.com/msm to learn more and schedule your session, and we'll be happy to help you. You'll see exactly how to take control of your marketing and growth. Okay, Lester, thank you very much for that. And I think the link is being also dropped in the chat box below. So, just click on the link.

It'll take you less than, 60 minutes, sorry, 60 seconds to fill that up. Definitely not 60 minutes. but the, definitely around 60 seconds to fill it up. And, while you do that, I think the spots are a bit limited since there is a lot of pre-work that goes into ensuring every session is given the best value. So, first come, first serve, and, it will be great for you to take this opportunity to capitalize on that and put it into an actionable, action for your growth. Now, with that being said, I would really like to thank Lester, thank you very much, for your contribution here, and we will be moving on now to the next session. this is a very interesting and exciting one.

definitely, something I was, also looking forward to. And Amanda, Amanda, I have seen your questions here. I would've liked to answer them, live, but, yeah, because I think we have a great guest for you, who would be really appropriate to answer those questions just after this segment perhaps. yeah, if, if you are, if you could hang out with us for a little bit longer, I'm sure you will get the value that you're searching for Amanda. so with that being said, I would like to welcome Albert, Albert Zo, to talk about innovation in action, right? harnessing AI and diagnostics to future proof veterinary care. Very in interesting topic here, Albert.

Hi. Thank you. Alright, let's dive right into this topic here. So, Albert, how is AI currently being used to improve diagnostics and patient outcomes in veterinary medicine? Let's get a background check. Yeah, I, I appreciate that, and I'm gonna expand beyond, that I'm gonna do, do a little foundation setting first. you know, certainly AI is being used in a number of areas. it's being used with intelligent agents to answer questions, to create transcripts, to, to create a record of the event that occurred between the, the patient, the pet parent, the vet, the vet tech, and that could go home with the, pet parent. so they, you know, they have their questions answered before they leave, or it can be shortly, after they leave.

So there's those intelligent agents, chat bots, things of that nature. there's also ways that it's being used, to help with, drug development, right? Selecting the right molecule, determining, what is the most, probable, molecule, or, it could be some sort of, you know, stem cell related thing, molecular and genetic, related, sort of application that is gonna work for a particular, condition or a particular species and, and, and the like. there's also, things that are happening today, where you have, some of these, AI applications that are helping to interpret, image data, and there's all sorts of image data that's available out there, right? It could be ultrasound, it could be an X-ray, a CAT scan, MRI, whatever the case may be.

actually the AI systems, and I don't mean this offensively to anybody, but the AI systems have a higher hit rate than the human systems do at picking out anomalies. And that, and, you know, that's what computers, and, and they're good at pattern recognition and determining, what those anomalies are because it's, it things can be missed, certainly by the human. And I'm not saying that the, the computers are infallible or the AI agents are infallible. they're not. But over time, those systems can continue to get smarter and, and, and so it's pretty exciting to see where some of this work is going. The, the ultimate embodiment, which is not there today, but will be in the future, is really when you have a robotic application along with, the ai, information, right?

That's, that's sort of ultimate embodiment. And I'm not saying we have, you know, the veterinarian robot, I'm not, going to that extreme. But you could, have things that are test or different imaging related things, different lab related things and so forth, wellness monitoring, that could be done by those systems. And then, what I'll talk about is something that, I'm actually working on with a lot of very capable and smart animal health professionals and scientists and technologists, where we're, collecting data, in a manner that's non-invasive. it could be used in clinic, it can be used remotely to collect anatomical, functional, physiological and contextual information.

And the reason, the context is so important, you know, what the animal was doing when the, the data was collected, right? So in clinics, one thing, but what happens when that animal is in a, you know, their natural habitat, perhaps, you know, they're at home. Perhaps it's a horse in a paddock, you know, somewhere that, is really difficult to be able to monitor. So you can take that data from those different categories. you can register it and fuse it with other data such as lab data. you know, it could be blood work. it, it could be image data, it could be demographics, data. What's the species, the breed, age, weight, sex, so forth. and so you can collect all this really disparate information, other demographic information as well, and come up, with new learning.

So they're really predictive, algorithms, machine learning algorithms that, again, get smarter with the more exposure they get. And so you can now say, this animal is predisposed to this disease, this animal within one year is going to have X. And so, now you can engage early and you can say, okay, let me take the most minimal, most efficient, most effective approach to ensure that this animal gets what exactly what they need. So it's really personalized medicine. You know, you think of personalized medicine, A lot of people usually think about cancer from the human side, cancer therapies, but this is really personalized medicine or personalized health and wellbeing.

In the broadest sense, what is the best course of action for that particular animal, in order to ensure they have the best possible outcome? you know, so the, these, what, what is coming, and again, I don't mean this offensively, but what is coming is much, much beyond, what is there today you know, the technology moves very quickly, but it takes time to get it clinically validated, to, you know, to get it adopted. And, there's a, there's a number of factors that need to be, considered when you're thinking about, AI and diagnostics. But it, it, it, and AI just won't be from the diagnostics perspective, just like the drug development. It can also be from the therapy, or the therapeutic perspective.

And even when you think about, you know, the FDA came out with the edict more on human health, but it also applies to animal health, where they're saying, Hey, look, let's move away from testing a new drug or a new solution on the animals. Right? Ultimately, you know, it goes to humans just like it would go to an animal if it's a new drug, but AI can also help with what they call organoids or bioreactors, and determining this therapy is best for this particular animal. So it's, it's, really exciting. And there is much, to come in this, in this space. So stay tuned, buckle up. It's gonna, it's gonna get, pretty crazy in the years ahead. Absolutely. And we are just at the forefront.

Well, from what you're saying, and it's really exciting times, Albert. something that I recognize over here when you were talking about it, is AI is really good at pattern recognition. Right? And now that we have the ability to give it all that context that can really, make it work really well and allow for that personalization to occur, at the end of the day, of course, what I'm understanding is human accountability cannot be, changed. Is that correct? Or, are we looking at straightforward answers straight from ai? Well, I think, you know, if you look at even things that are going on in, in human medicine space, you ultimately have to rely on the clinician.

I mean, the way the regulations are, the way the laws are, you know, you need to, depend on the clinician to make the ultimate, decision. So while the AI can recommend saying, here's what we believe is going to occur, or is occurring, or, oh, by the way, here's the disease progression. We've identified the disease, and now we can determine what that disease progression is going to be for this particular animal. but, you know, you've got to leave it to the professional, to, to make the decision. So it will that change in the future. I, I don't know. I'm sure there'll be big, you know, legal battles, over those sorts of things. But, you know, it's, it's, it's a tool to help, make the, the practice more efficient, more effective, take some of the stress off their life, be able to move the really complex things to the higher, levels within the practice.

And, and the more, you know, routine or simpler, things to a different level, in the practice, or maybe it's totally handled, by the in intelligent agent, Right? So it's definitely a tool to help practices be efficient, for now. Right. Yeah. it's very interesting things, and as you mentioned, I, yeah, I, I'm being human. I'm a little biased. I won't, I want my clinicians to definitely have the final decision, but definitely AI is the best, second opinion, perhaps like that. Right. now, mark has asked the question, Albert, with all of the different owners of the types of data that AI models need to learn and operate efficiently, do you see progress being the same in vet med as we see in human med?

Yeah. Boy, that's a great question. you know, I, I think, human medicine, typically has been more so at the forefront than veterinary medicine. I mean, there, you know, when you look at it, drug development, you know, a lot of the drug development companies won't take on, drug development unless it's many billions in return for what they've put in to develop it. so there's a lot of situations they don't address. also when you look at, human medicine, a lot of the, new diagnostics, have been applied to human, but the same sort of thing. Well, I could come up with a, you know, combination, CT pet scanner, and it's great for human, but to say, I'm also gonna do the same thing for animals, especially when you start getting into smaller animals, it may not be as lucrative, and so they don't take it on.

I also think, with veterinary medicine, very complicated. Many species, right? Many breeds that they have to deal with. And, and, and it's, and I will say it's a little bit more reserved or cautious before adopting, a new solution. Now, I do see a lot of that changing, 'cause I see a lot of the, newer vets and vet techs that are coming out of their training that, you know, they're very technically savvy, right? I mean, they're already very smart to be able to get through the programs, but they're, they're much more, comfortable using the tech. So I, I think that pretty soon it's gonna be on par where the vet, innovations are really accelerating.

And then that sort of goes to that one health paradigm, right? Of the inter integration of animal and human health and the data that's collected from the animal and human health. The key's gonna be access to all those repositories. So is it in the practice management system? Is it in, you know, the electronic medical record? Where's that at? Where you get access, to that data? Because there's a lot of valuable data out there, even environmental data, right? You know, all that stuff is important in turning, health scenario. So it's a big question that mark, answered. And it's, I think that, you know, we're gradually, moving in that direction with the veterinary, medicine.

Well, that's a very interesting paradigm, shift that you just mentioned right there. Animal and human health combined, like that just got me thinking, like, are we talking about all living health, you know, that, that would be very, very interesting to think about. Yeah, I mean, when you, when you, when you think about it in that whole, again, one health paradigm is really animal, human and environmental variables and, you know, animal human environment we're intrinsically linked. And, and so when you think about the, a lot of the infectious, I, I used to do, I, I was on the National Biodefense Science Board, under two presidential administrations.

And one of the things that we did is look at, infectious diseases that started with animal that could make a leap to humans, right? And then when you, and, and about seven out of 10, you know, whether you're talking a, a zoonotic disease or vector-borne, disease, they can, make that leap to human. And then you look at chronic diseases, well, animals, and, and it varies based on species of breed or so forth, they get about 70%, you know, we shared 70% of the chronic, sorts of diseases. And, and so that's huge data, and very important data is to marry what you get from the animal side with the human side. And what are the new predictive analytics, right?

What are the new learnings that you get that are gonna improve the quality of life for all, you know, all the living, beans. And, it, it's just, it's very exciting. And, and remember, as long as this data's available, it just gets, it, it just gets smarter. If the system is designed correctly, and it, gets, you can start bringing in more and more variables that you might not have thought of before, that can truly impro improve quality of life, longevity of life, you know, clinical, care could even create a greater stickiness between the pet parent or the patient, you know, in the human sense, E even in the, in the animal sense and the clinician, it cre, you know, creates a, be a better, bond or a stickier bond, and, and greater, connectivity.

Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating stuff, Albert. Thank you. And it's amazing to know that this is not just sci-fi, but rather things that are taking place right now. yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And, let's get back to, our veterinary community and how they can take this into their practices, right? So how can practices evaluate whether an AI tool or diagnostic innovation is truly worth investing in? Yeah, that's, that's a great question. you know, technology typically, just accelerates. And there is a lot, and it's accelerating at an unbelievable speed, right now with new compute capabilities, new hardware, new edge computing devices and so forth.

And, and so the knowledge just, continues to explode. And so I think what needs to be some gating factors is, ha has the technology or the application or whatever it is they're gonna be implementing, has it been validated? Ha you know, has it been proven out? Right? And, and, what are the, key opinion leaders saying about it? Does it fit with the practice? Okay. Is it intuitive to use? Is it easy to use? Is it simple to train on? Or maybe requires, you know, practically, no, no training at all. Is it cost effective? Is it efficient in what it does? So it does overall, it, it may be a, a practice by practice type of scenario, to determine, what is right for them.

'cause the last thing you, you sort of want to do is alienate the pet parent from the vet, or, you know, make, make it so it's very impersonal. You still want to have that, touch, you know, that human touch and the, human animal bond, component to all of this. And so, I, I think that it needs to be proven out before, rapidly adopted. And I also think there needs to be a trial period, potentially within, the practice to see how they like it. You know, maybe they get in on a beta study of a new technology. Mm-hmm. Maybe it's something that the colleges of veterinary medicine have already validated and run through. Are there publications on it, you know, that are by, you know, nobody would, I'm not a vet, I'm a scientist, right?

And so nobody's gonna believe me if I'm rolling something out for the veterinary committee. It needs to be the vets, that do this. So, those are some, you know, some of the things that, that come to mind. But, but the last thing you wanna do, you know, does it fit with the workflow? You all of a sudden don't wanna radically disrupt the workflow, that is gonna cause, you know, real issues for the practice? Sort of analogous. you know, when, the electronic medical records first came out for the human, side of the equation, there was very slow adoption. And it ended up taking some key opinion leaders to say, look, I just, I just powered through using this new electronic medical record.

It took me like a month to come up to speed on it. But after I came up to speed on it, my efficiency increased, it improved, and I had better interactions with my patients. I think, you know, some of those same things need to be looked at, when it, you know, before a practice adopts, these, these types of things. Now, I do think over time, workflows are gonna change, without a doubt, with the new, new innovations. But again, it's, it's, don't look to for the big bang look, don't look to do everything at once. You know, gradually bring things on. And, what, what does it de displace that you have? What does it make easier in the clinic? you know, a lot of clinics have sunk costs and equipment already, and so you can't, you know, adopt every, every new thing that's, that's coming along.

But, yeah, I think it's exciting future. It's, it's absolutely exciting. And what are some of the barriers that, you know, may prevent this widespread adoption of new technologies, you think? Yeah, you mentioned some early on, but like, what are the main ones? you know, a lot of times when, the colleges of veterinary medicine, when that, you know, new cohort of vets are going through, if they're trained on a new techno or if whatever they're trained on, typically it continues to be used in industry, right? So I think there's so much going on right now, and you can only change so much in the academic, you know, scenarios quickly, right? They can't, they can't adopt everything.

They've gotta, they've gotta train people, they've gotta get 'em prepared to enter, you know, practice. but I think that, it, it, it needs to be, entrenched in the academic world that will help speed adoption. It's just, it's, it's, typically slower, right? Because they, they look for it to come through that scenario. That's why I say, look at the key opinion leaders, you know, those people who are sort of on the leading edge of, of beta testing, new solutions, publishing on those, showing how they really, work in practice. And, and I think there's a lot of noise out there too, right? Everything, is ai, and, and the reality is it's not, you know, they, there's, there's a lot of different, variations on what that, that really means.

So I, I think, the, the challenges with adoption is filtering through that's out there, what has been validated, what has been proven, what, you know, what really works, what really doesn't, and then what's solving problems, right? Why would the practice want to take it on? You know, is there a big problem that this new approach is solving for them and just is gonna make their lives easier, make be, you know, better clinical outcomes or improve clinical outcomes, improve stickiness to the pet parent, better quality of life, for the animal, hopefully longevity of life, also for the animal. And so I think that, you know, if it's not solving a significant problem or problems, a why, you know, prob probably give it a pretty hard look at why to adopt in the first place.

Okay. Okay. and as you mentioned, you know, everyone thinks everything is ai. And that just clicked in my mind. You know, the main AI that we know are large language models, really. Yeah. And, right chat, GPT and whatnot. But you must know much more different variations. Yeah. It's, it is gonna be, it is, and it will be way beyond, the large language models, for sure. You know? and, and again, sort of, those, you know, we talked earlier about, you know, are they a super, you know, supervised system, unsupervised, at some point, they just continue to learn, right? Mm-hmm. On, on their own with all the new data or the new sorts of touch points they get.

And no longer does it have to be, you know, just a one, or two particular things. It's looking at when you think of, you know, you think of IQ and humans, it's sort of, you know, the, the processing power, but a lot of the edge sorts of things aren't taken into consideration. The same thing in ai. There's a lot of edge devices that can also, feed that a, you know, feed the AI and the growth of ai. But again, you know, again, sort of the ultimate embodiment is, within, robotic applications. Okay. I have a question from Amanda who is an associate. she is an associate DVM, right? and she, she said she loved this. How do you avoid hallucinations? Also, DVMs need a program to be the other doctor in the room to bounce off ideas and cases and results off of still maintaining the ultimate decision and expertise of us as clinicians would love apps referencing valid up-to-date references that bestow the current standard of care.

We are ready for this technology. I'm evaluating system for the above functions. Now, how do you avoid hallucinations? Yeah. well, that's a great, that's a great question. I think that, you know, if the system that you're using, or maybe it's a, a system, a system or what, whatever it is that you're using, I think again, has to go back to being verified and validated and, and proven out, right? And, so that you can trust, what is coming out of that, system. And there is gonna be a time that the systems are gonna be smarter at, determining, you know, anomalies, health anomalies, wellness anomalies or so forth than, than the human. Because we've only got so much we can keep in our memory only, you know, there's, you might only see a particular disease state, a few times in your whole career, whereas that system may have seen it a million times or, or, or can identify it much more.

So I think, it's, it's gonna be a little bit of a catch 22. These systems are gonna, are, are gonna feed information to you, give recommendations to you, whether you tr trust them or not, that's a whole nother scenario. That's why I say just, you know, again, make sure that they're a validated system and, and they've been proven in a clinical, sort of scenario. Otherwise, the practice could get itself in some serious, trouble. Right. And, last but not least, we have a follow up question from Mark. Mark asks, what is your vision for how practices and pet parent experience will be practically affected by AI in three years? I, I do think it will, create greater stickiness.

right. It'll make the interaction, more fruitful. Mm-hmm. more productive, more informative. And I think that a lot of the, the tools potentially, can go, you know, like the one that, my team and I are working on with other health professionals, it can actually go anywhere. So it can go home with the pet parent or it can be with the cow in the field, or the chicken, that's in a, in, in a pen, you know, an egg layer chicken or whatever. So I think that it's going to improve, the interactions. I think it's gonna improve the connectivity, and I think it's gonna make for, much happier and, more productive, relationships. so I, I, I, I see that, coming, you know, and, and still, and still the veterinarian, you know, they might, they, they'll certainly get a, a greater breadth and depth of information or data than what, you know, the pet parent, probably will, but the pet parent will be much more informed.

And I think we're also gonna see increased longevity of life for the animals and quality of life because of the predictability of, what's gonna, what's gonna occur. You know, we, we've worked on some stuff where we were predicting the onset of a disease, a year in advance of the symptoms even starting to manifest themselves. So, and that's just gonna continue to grow. Wow. Wonderful. I mean, that's, that's what all this is about, to maintain that longevity and, wellness for the animals. thank you very much, Albert, for your Thank you. Absolutely wonderful insights. And, mark, absolutely. You know, also says, thanks Albert. Great insights. My pleasure. Yeah, absolutely.

with that being said, we will be moving on to our next segment right here. So, yep. for our next segment, we'll be talking with Claire Pickens, E-M-B-A-C-V-P-M, founder, and CEO of Clarity Group, LLC. We'll be talking to Claire about the overlooked equation, right? Businesses planning, people, and the hidden costs of technology. This is going to be an interesting one and a very practical one. I might say so myself, Claire. glad to have you here, shall we? Yes, let's do it. Alright, all. So, Claire, why should practices update their business plan every three to five years? And how does this strengthen long-term resilience or prepare for a future sale?

Well, because Albert is inventing new items every three years, and you need to be prepared for what those are. In all, in all seriousness, that is part of the reason. the market changes, not dramatically, but it is making subtle changes every year. And election cycles do change the market and the economy and consumer behavior. It's very likely that somebody in a leadership position within the practice has experienced, at least to a minor extent, a life change of some sort within the practice. Or maybe there's been some sort of major accounting or tax change. That may mean you need to shift your strategy. Possibly you made a mistake within that three year period, and you need to shift some things.

So I think, like, to think a business plan as a one and done at the front of a business is a big mistake. It's actually should be thought of as a playbook that gets rewritten when you dramatically change leadership. If there's any big lead, life changes when you bring on partners. When you dissolve partners, or like, maybe you just find out you're stuck in a rut. Like I have this kind of running joke around the house that you should clean, like you're moving every three years. Well, it's kind of the same concept. You should, you should look at your business like you're selling it every three years. And like, you know, is, is it actually sellable every three years?

And, and it might not be, and that might be the mirror reflection that you need to rewrite some portions of it. Maybe not the whole thing, but I think we could all agree that sections like marketing, that's, that might be more of like an every year rewrite, because that is, that environment digitally changes so much year to year that the, the way consumers behave. But also this technology adoption topic, I really like, what Albert just said, like how people adopt that, how they navigate those decisions should be thought out. That should be planned out, not just knee jerk. Those are not knee jerk, decision making things that you should have a path for those things.

So, so that's why I think it's really important, and I think that it is skipped by the vast majority of business owners. I think they think of it as a, a way to get an SBA loan, and then when that is accomplished, the business plan writing stage is over and they don't have to do that terrible thing ever again because who likes to write papers, right? So that's, that's, that's kind of why people avoid that, often, but, but it is important. That sounds like a very dynamic strategy over there, Claire. And you just alluded to that playbook. Can we, as well as there was something very interesting, you said life change within the practice. Mm-hmm. Can you actually, elaborate a little bit on that?

Well, I mean, people have children, they're their children. They become empty nesters or they're, something happens within their family, like maybe they need are now caring for a senior parent. And that dramatically changes the schedule or they operating schedule of the practice. Maybe they thought they'd try urgent care on a whim, and now they don't wanna do urgent care because their family needs won't allow that. Lots of things happen, you know, a lot of it comes in the form of family change. That's what I most commonly see is marriages, divorces, children, separations, partnerships going well or not so well. Maybe, maybe they skip that step of developing an operating agreement before opening because everything looked like it was gonna go super duper idealistically.

Well, and I know that, I know that Holly's like, goodness. Yes. That's so fun to do the books in those scenarios because like, it just sounds like it's gonna go great at the beginning, but if you find yourself in that moment where you're like, you know what, this isn't quite, even if it's going well, you wanna keep it going well. But if you find yourself in that moment saying, this isn't exactly the story I thought I was gonna be living, this is not fitting my life like I thought it would. Mm-hmm. That's a great moment to rewrite it. Like, just stop, pause a second. Business plans take about 30 to 60 days to write. It's a great way to invest your time to just like, take that moment to, to pause and think.

'cause it can change the next three to five years of your life. Okay. And, how does leadership culture and financial planning connect? How do those three things connect and what risks appear when one is neglected? Well, a lot of people, in my experience when I'm writing plans, they like to see the numbers. are, kind of the sexy part of the plan. Like, how much money will I be able to make in the business? now I would agree with the comments on, once they get into business, the numbers are not always what people wanna look at. But when you're starting a business and you're trying to get money from a bank, the numbers are what a lot of people like to talk about.

However, if you don't chase that backwards to how you're going to lead your practice and how you're going to retain people, that's the number one big, giant, huge expense elephant in the room is the loss of people. If you can't build a culture that retains people, then you have just committed the largest financial mistake that you will make in your business, regardless of your business type. If you cannot retain people, don't, don't worry about the rest of your expenses. You, you're gonna spend a lot of money on sign-on bonuses and turnover costs and training costs, and onboarding to systems and paying that software company 10 times to onboard them into the system because you, if you can't retain people, you've got a real problem in this industry.

Wow. Wow. If you can't retain people, what I'm understanding is you don't even have any other problems. It's kind of like, like the song that reverse like 99 problems. You've got that one problem, then you've got like a really big problem. Like that is a really big problem to have. And it is the part that people should focus on the most when they're planning their business is the numbers are super important. But before a business is open, the numbers are the easiest part to plan. What you should be focusing on is what kind of leader will I be to make sure the numbers remain stable? Mm-hmm. How am I going to behave when things get tough to keep the numbers stable?

And that is the big hard question that a lot of people are living right now, honestly, because things are a little bit tough out there and it's very competitive and things are changing rapidly. Mm-hmm. And, and that's a question a lot of leaders are asking right now, and it has a direct connection to finances, and some of it's out of their control. The part that is in their control is how they lead their people. Mm-hmm. That's, really insightful. I mean, yeah, it cannot be understated how much a leader can make a difference with regards to the culture, the retention. And of course, if, if you're not paying attention to that and you're paying attention to every other metric in the world, and you're wondering why it's all in red, I might have a hint for you.

Right? Well, you might wonder like, well, where, where did she go or where, where did they go? And like, I don't, yeah, Why are they going, If if you find yourself as an, as a leader asking that question often I don't understand why they left, why'd they leave? Yeah. There's your financial red flag, because I would, almost make a one-to-one bet if I go talk to the accountant who takes care of that practice, that there's other problems. Like, well, I don't understand. I, I, when did I buy that piece of equipment? Do I, I mean, I didn't think I still had it. So like, those are the kind of, those are the kind of relationships you see between the financial side and the leadership side when people get complacent about the connection between the two of them.

That's, that's wonderful. and now I would really, I know Amanda has been waiting a while to have this question answered. but, Claire, I thought you'd be a great person to answer this question. How can I, as an associate DVM cultivate the trust in me personally so that I can cultivate trust and attract clients to me within a practice that may not be doing that on our general website or social network or media? Well, the great thing about our modern society is that clients don't just follow the practice, they follow the individual. So, you can develop an individual following, and I've seen lots of associate doctors do that. Now, that is a little bit of a risk for the practice, right?

Because if they fall in love with the individual, this is why retention is so important. If they fall in love with the individual and the individual goes somewhere else, that is detrimental to the practice. However, it is possible to create your own micro reputation within the practice and be, and, and make your own brand image within the practice. I don't know if it's been attempted to become a part of the marketing team of the practice and become a part of the social media strategy and offer to do some posting with the people that are in charge of that for the practice. I, I've, I've seen it many, many times that, that people see that as like a burden and that like, kind of like, I'm sure as a marketing firm, you hear that all the time.

It's like, it's a kind of a burden and it's a lot of work, and I'm not sure I wanna do it. So like, when people share the pie on that, they can become involved and they can start influencing the culture of the brand image for the, for the practice. the other thing I see associates do really, really well is become involved in the community, is do the community events. And then that draws more people into their brand image. And, and so like, I hate, that sounds a little selfish, but my, the, the error I see here is you do have to kind of be a little selfish in these moments and think about your brand image yourself, because that's who clients are coming to see.

And that's who they fall in love with. the person that is, that they trust with their pet. Wonderful. And I think that answered another question, which, Renee had asked a little bit early on, what about open houses or education days for the community? It's the gold. It's, that's the magic. I know you're gonna ask me a question about technology and how that fits into all this, but that is the gold and the magic that is the thing that technology cannot do for you. That that is the warm touch that is impossible for AI to execute on AI cannot blow up a glove hand puppet for you and give it to a Boy Scout troop or girl scout troop and make them laugh.

Like AI can't go to teach in day at the school and do a fake surgery on a stuffed animal in front of the room. Like they can't, it can't do that. Only you can do that. Those are the things that create those warm community touches that has made veterinary medicine one of the most trusted fields out there. So that trust has ODed a little because we've gotten away from that a little. whose duty is it to get it back? Everybody's so we all have to do it. We'll have to go get it back. So, yeah. So I, I wholeheartedly believe in those things. when I owned a practice personally, I spent a lot of time, doing all those things and the kids loved it, and, and I loved it.

And the parents of the kids loved it too. And that just, it just built a lot of relationship and trust. Absolutely. And, I think, Albert is getting some ideas of designing an AI that can blow Yeah. Don't get the ideas. Yeah, that's an interesting challenge right there, Claire. But definitely that touch is irreplaceable because, yeah. And as you mentioned, the veterinary field, you know, I'm very privileged to be a host, when it comes to these panels. The podcast and the amazing people that I meet, who are in this field are absolutely one thing that is irreplaceable amongst every one of y'all, is that passion and that care. you know, Holly, even if she's an accountant side or even Albert on the AI side of things, they have that connection somehow, somewhere, that is driven with a greater purpose.

So definitely let's bank on that and, move forward a little bit. so Amanda, I hope you are getting your questions answered, and I will ask the next question, of yours as well in a little bit, if time allows us. yeah. So Claire, now as you mentioned, I am going to talk a little bit about that technology, side of things, because we want to hear about it from you as well, from your perspective. And how does AI and technology impact profitability? Well, I think I'm gonna answer Mark's question at the same time here. There's a question in the chat about the biggest absolutely mistake I see in business plans. and what, what it's like, it's risk mitigation and what's the biggest problem?

so AI is fantastic. It is becoming increasingly fantastic for it as an efficiency tool. Like if you are leveraging it to speed up your workday and to really have that true virtual assistant in the room with you, that's great. But I'm, I am a little bit of a dinosaur of the industry, and I do know that we've had the ability to be paperless for decades. We've had the ability to speed up our day, optimize our inventory, digitally log things for decades. I tried to do a little research before this, Albert probably has the answer to this, but the best I could come up with is 60 to 80% of the features within the software that has been available to us for decades are unused.

And a lot of the work that's been done on software for the last couple decades has been to make those features more pronounced and to the front and get them used. So I don't, I don't know that the question is really, is the software gonna make us faster? Is the AI gonna make us faster if we use it all correctly? Possibly, potentially. Here's the danger I see. If you overuse AI to build your business plan, you won't know what's in there. And that's gonna be very problematic when you unlock that front door for the first day and you go to run your business. And I do see a lot of AI built, business plans, and I have to help people reconnect with their business and ask some questions to say, but where are you in this business plan?

And how are you gonna show up when you open the door on the first day? How will you talk to your employees? How will you talk to your customers? And this, this AI built business plan won't help you when the first dog bites you, and it won't, it, it won't help you when you have an in-person customer interaction that you need to react to on the spot, positively or negatively. It'll be fine when you need to react digitally, but it's not gonna help you in person. So that's where I see that the AI can be dangerous to people and can be actually pretty risky, is if you allow it to do work that you intellectually need to know to operate your business, us, then you are putting yourself at risk.

Like you need to know the laws of your state, read your state practice act, don't have ai, summarize it down to a couple of paragraphs, go pull that mamma jamma off of the website and read it because you're, your license. Depends on it. So these are the things that I think I see people do wrong, especially when they come out of industry and wanna open a pet business mm-hmm. Is that they have AI do a lot of summarizing, and they have AI do a lot of legwork that honestly, anybody who's worked in the pet business knows it's a very physical and emotional industry. You can't remove those elements no matter how efficient we get technologically, you cannot remove those elements.

You have to still build the muscle of emotional intelligence and conversational efficiency. You have to have live conversations with people. It's just, it's a necessity. So that's, that's the number one mistake I see. And that is the value of working with people that have had a lot of those human interactions is to say, no. Okay, now come right back out of that. These tools are great, but use 'em for what they're meant for, like, don't mm-hmm. You're not gonna be able to replace those interactions. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Building those interaction muscles and communication one-on-one heart to heart Yeah. is the critical part. And, it seems like you are helping a lot of practice owners stop their own hallucinations, from happening.

Right. we, that's what I kind of understood because, AI does its own thing a little bit, but it seems now, with the over reliance on it, is a little bit of an issue now. I think we have arrived at the end of our segment here, Claire. and we will be moving on. but again, thank you so much for your contribution, Claire. It was wonderful, having this conversation with you. Absolutely. Thank you. And right now for, our next segment over here, we'll be talking with Dr. Lauren Paska, DVM regional vice president at cve. So get all your corporate questions in line. we got the doctor in, so we'll be talking about scaling smart, optimizing operations and leaderships in multi, multi-location veterinary businesses.

Dr. Lauren, shall we, yeah, let's go get started on this. All right, here we go. Need to wake up a little bit though. It's been a long pause. I was gonna say. but yeah, we, we, took a little time over there, but really appreciate you hanging out with us. It's, it, it means so much, to us and definitely to our audience as well. so Doc, first off the bat, Dr. Lauren, what operational frameworks are most effective for managing growth across multiple clinical locations? Let's get this overview. Yeah, I think, kind of echoing what I think Lester had said in the marketing section today, absolutely very rarely is, medicine kind of the challenge when you start multiplying the locations.

for me it's always been the consistency without really losing that practice identity, and identifying issues really early to prevent that fire. 'cause, like Claire was saying, the secret sauce to most practices, is really the people in them. It's always the people in them and what culture they've already built to date. so the framework that has always worked best in my experience is really implementing that predictable system that can create alignment while also protecting that local ownership and autonomy and that specific culture that's, made them successful and probably a practice that we wanted to buy to begin with. so we really focus on getting every clinic running on the same communication foundation, like weekly huddles, on performance and client care, monthly reviews for talent and capacity, and then quarterly planning to realign goals.

And the goal is not bureaucracy. it's more of, a rhythm is probably the best way to say it. and those routines give us early visibility before those small issues become system-wide fires. I think one of the best lessons I've learned was during a really rapid period of growth a few years back, we had, doubled clinic count under two years, but we really hadn't built that unified operating rhythm yet. So each re each region was doing, their own version of sort of how to win the game. And it looked great on the surface, but it was incredibly chaotic underneath and behind the scenes. once we had standardized that cadence, the leaders in the organization, we were able to start really coaching instead of constantly firefighting and margins improved simply because we could really see what was happening in real time.

and I think my other sort of north star through all of these major changes is always to keep the decision making as close to the patient as possible. As we say in medicine, as a parent organization, we really exist to enable and, certainly not to override it. Really, we want that to be a partnership, and when we get it right, the clinic should feel supported and connected, not isolated and controlled, which is a common thing I hear sometimes after mergers and acquisitions. and if we can hit that kind of rhythm right, then we really start to see that scale become a strength instead of, a strain or an isolating event. Okay. I think that, provides a, I mean, what you're, what I'm understanding here is cons, consistency is number one, of course.

And then, you're maintaining that consistent communication foundation, right? Yeah. to have that alignment, and that rhythm as you mentioned, throughout the different locations. And, but never forgetting that it should come down to the patient, the all the decisions should be based around the patient. as well as I would like to segue into a follow up question. Amanda had asked early on, which is about, I actually work, she's a, associate DVM, right? So, Amanda actually worked for corporate and want to let my community know me as a person with my compassion and expertise. What do you think about this law? Dr. Lauren? sorry, was that a question? Think about?

Yeah. So, yeah, because, it seems like she wants her individuality to, shine out a little bit more, and to be that guiding factor which brings in people. Oh, gotcha. Yeah, absolutely. I think from my perspective, I always want every veterinarian in a practice, whether they're an associate or an owner partner to, to feel and act like a leader in their practice. And so, to echo, I think Claire had mentioned it earlier as well. very, I think it's an excellent goal and, certainly something that every vet should strive toward to, to sort of start building their own personal brand within their practice. to really, every time you go in that exam room, sort of look at it as going on stage with that client and that patient, making sure we're giving them the best experience possible.

And that's what's gonna keep 'em coming back, is that high touch white glove service from their veterinarian. Wonderful. I hope you got your answer that you were looking for, Amanda. if not, please do, raise a question again. now, Dr. Lauren, how are you, how do you integrate culture and clinical standards during an ma merger and acquisition without losing quality of care? Yeah, it's, it can always be a challenge 'cause there's always a lot of change happening all at once. my very first role of any integration though is that it, it can't start with systems. And that pains me a little bit 'cause I'm definitely a systems person. I like to get things streamlined and kind of running efficiently.

but where everything has to start is, really listening. So before we start talking about things, conversions and accounting, timelines, things like that, we sit down with incoming doctors and you just have to ask the, the really important questions, which are, you know, what can just absolutely never change about your care for your clients and patients. What is your driving force? What gets you outta bed in the morning? What is that thing that really makes your clinic special to you? and that conversation, will always build trust much faster than any, you know, onboarding deck or HR manual ever, ever really could. certainly our standards are very firm, when it comes to medical intensity, but the path to get there, the goal is always for it to be very collaborative.

and the way I look at it is trying to raise the floor for both partners in this situation. instead of really imposing like strict uniformity from, from above, or certainly ever putting a ceiling on it. one of my favorite integrations that I've ever done, it was a longstanding two doctor hospital that had, just incredibly deep roots in the community. They'd been serving their community for nearly 30 years. and their protocols weren't identical to ours by any means, but their outcomes were just excellent. And so rather than rewriting the playbook, we compare data aligned core metrics and then adopted some of their ideas, system wide even within the organization.

So that integration became, very much a two way street. And that culture shift that followed was really rooted in their sense of autonomy and pride, and collaboration versus any kind of resistance. what I've seen kind of time and time again is that when organizations kind of miss or get this wrong or try to kind of rush past that trust building stage, you see an exodus of talent, which, to Claire's point, she just hammered it home beautifully. When you lose your people, you, you lose your business. that retention rate is so important, to make sure that you're not, you know, being wasteful from a, business perspective, but also to continue to provide that same level and quality of care to your patients that they've come to expect from you over the years.

so when you do get it right, the opposite really happens. That engagement, rises, medicine elevates, and that kind of us versus them or corporate versus us line really starts to disappear. Wonderful. and, really appreciate you admitting that, systems is your thing, but, nevertheless, the real system for a great m and a is to start with listening. with that being said, I would also like to know, what's one mistake you see owners make during integration that's easily avoidable? Owners or buyers, sorry, Owners, owners, I would say, the biggest thing is not, not communicating well. So I've seen people shy away from having hard conversations. I think it's common in our field.

Veterinarians in particular can be a little bit conflict avoidant. So really making sure that you're voicing those things that I just touched on. So the things that, make your practice ticked, they're really important to you, that are really important to your staff. Those core belief in eth in ethics, having those conversations upfront, loudly and clearly, are gonna be the most important thing you can do to make sure that, integration goes as well as it can and that you're truly partnering, with your new business partner. Okay. absolutely communication is the key. Is there any kind of way of encouragement? I mean, I, I see like, that's a mistake, right?

So is there any kind of encouragement that, owners can have with regards to this, to communicate? I guess I'm not sure how to answer that to be honest with you. Yeah. that's fine because, the answer was in the question itself, which is it's the biggest mistake, that anyone can make, even myself included, not communicating well. So, the intention there is to communicate well and to build that, relationship and understanding. That's what I understood, right? Yeah, Absolutely. Just always approach any, anything with, you know, that everyone has a good intent that, you know, each party's coming to the table with wanting the best for the business and for the patients and the clients.

And I think if both sides can do that, then very few problems are unsolvable. Okay. Wonderful. And, what KPIs should veterinary executives track to ensure both financial health and patient outcomes? Similar to, the tech tax type stuff, I'm, I'm very much a data person, so I think, there's probably a million KPIs that people can focus on, but the one thing I always try to keep, front and center is that, data is really only useful if it's, going to tell you a story that matters. So I really like to track through three major lenses, to kind to keep balanced. the first one is a, a growth lens. So kind of the classics I think have already been mentioned by a few people on this, on this webinar already.

Revenue productor, active client growth, forward booking, all those good things that really show the demand of doctor efficiency. the second lens is what I think of as health, which is again, that forward booking rate, DBM capacity, staff stability, so looking at retention rate and if we're having a lot of turnover and also client sentiment. So those reviews your Google ratings, things along those lines that are gonna reveal the experience that, clients are having when they come into your practice. And then the third lens is gonna be risk. So labor as a percent of revenue, how many open appointment slots you're having continually, no-shows, compliance slippage, because really even profitable hospitals, can sort of quietly start to get into trouble if you're not tracking some of those metrics.

we've seen that time and time again, some high revenue clinics, can suddenly start to struggle a little bit. And when you really dig down into it, you start to realize that you're having some burnout issues, you're having doctors overbooked potentially cutting corners because of it, just trying to survive their schedule. So keeping close tabs on that sort of thing can really reshape, how you're viewing your performance dashboards. and it's just a really great reminder that data is truly only as valuable, is really only valuable when it's really connected to that human side of how the practice is functioning. and the other thing I always like to call out is that speed really does matter.

if you're always waiting for end of month reports, a lot of times it's a little bit too late, you're gonna be very reactive instead of proactive. So really great operations, you're gonna make that data visible in as much as real time as possible so you can empower those local leaders and the people on the ground to act on it immediately, so that the data can really become more of a compass versus, you know, a retroactive scorecard. Wow, that's wonderful. I mean, compass is definitely much more appreciative, especially, when we are looking at ways to grow and, keep alignment in a place, right? Mm-hmm. And, how are you differentiating or do you even differentiate between leading or lagging indicators in your dashboards?

not always. I think, I think, again, data can almost be a little bit personal when it comes to a clinic, depending on what your goal is and the outcome and what's happening on the ground in each one. so it's one of those things that I encourage leaders to sit down together and really review it as a whole and identify those, you know, two to three, two to three indicators that are gonna probably make the biggest impact on their, on their practice pending what challenges they're currently facing. Okay. And, Dr. Lauren, how can leaders empower their teams to embrace change during rapid expansion or restructuring? Change management is always, the most important thing that, that we need to do, obviously.

I have dealt with it often in my career. It's something I actually really enjoy because I find that it, it is very possible to overcome it. but one of the biggest lessons I've learned is that people don't tend to really fear the change itself. It's more of just not knowing what to expect, not knowing where they stand, within that change. and so kind of the most powerful thing we can really do as leaders is to try to replace that uncertainty with, purpose and agency. So I always start with the why, which is, you know, people talk about the why a lot. It's important to always know what your why is, of course. but I really try to emphasize the why we're growing, why we're evolving, and what problem we're trying to solve, in the context of the teams and the patients.

So when you can contextualize it that way for veterinarian and veterinarians, veterinary teams, you tend to gain a lot more ground because of course, we're all in this industry for the patients and the clients. and then after you establish that, you invite people into, into the how, so give them real influence and not just, you know, symbolic input. and one example of that, I'll say we were doing some restructuring and some, tech stack remodeling and, we built some cross clinic task force where local doctors and management managers, redesigned the workflows for new systems before we did the rollout. it definitely slowed us down by a few weeks, but the adoption afterward was, fantastic because they had helped design the change and they felt a strong sense of ownership towards it.

the other thing I like to call out as well is that this profession especially responds well to white coat, to white coat leadership. So doctor to doctor, a veterinarian will definitely listen differently when guidance comes from someone who has, you know, lived that exam room reality, hopefully is still living it to a certain extent. so we try to make sure our communication channels flow through those trusted voices first when possible. And then from a different lens with support staff, the same thing, finding those, leaders in the field, technicians and, CSRs that can really be an advocate for the change and speak peer to peer, to help kind of bring that comfort and make it a little bit less scary for everyone.

Okay. I mean, what I understood right there is, it's not necessarily the change that people are fearing, but rather the expectations that come with it. Right. so that's pretty easy to, I, I mean, I would assume, it's pretty easy to, identify and talk about it a little bit and then of course get in there, buy-in. Mm-hmm. which is key part of, having it. And, to do that, one of the best ways is to white coat, leadership, because that is the way of the industry, right. I think, I think knowing your audience and then, you know, just saying the quiet part out loud, which is that change is really hard and letting teams know it's okay and it's gonna be hard and we're gonna get through it together and making sure those communication lines are open is, is always gonna be fundamental to making it go well.

Right. addressing the elephant in the room right there and then, and, doctor, what's one leadership behavior that do you think instantly reduces resistance? honesty and transparency always. so for me it's kinda like we just talked about. It's, owning that things can be scary and hard if you make a mistake, own up to it, immediately have those open conversations and, really modeling that behavior you wanna see in people, which is that if something needs to be talked about, you know, bring it up, don't shy away from it, and, make sure everyone's on the same page. Okay. Wonderful. And, I think with that being said we have, approached end game over here.

I would love to open, the floor for any questions, that our audience might have before we, wrap up the session. So I'm going to let the floor be open for a few, seconds right now. Let's see if we get any questions here. Mark Frazier, what investment pattern do you see most effective in profitability growing practices in your brand or network? Example, operational excellence, custom intimacy, technology, leadership adoption. So what investment patterns are you seeing that are most effective in profitability, is what I think Mark is asking. Dr. Lauren. so for me it's I would say the most impactful for profitability. especially the ones you listed there is gonna be that customer intimacy.

So, I think it's a great way of kind of saying that, but it's being available to your clients. It's having that yes mentality, and making sure that you're there for them when they need you. So if it's, you know, it's one of those things that sounds kind of silly, but when you get towards the end of the day and you have that person call say, yes, come on in, we'd be happy to see you even if you do need to send them on to emergency clinics, something like that. growing that trust with your client base that you're there for them to help guide them through stressful moments with their patients is gonna be the number one thing that binds 'em to your client, to your, clinic and keeps 'em coming back.

Okay. And as a result, that always falls through to profitability. Wonderful. And, I think with that being said, we are here at end game. just going to share my screen real quickly. We go, there we go. So, we've covered tremendous ground tonight from financial strategy and marketing, innovation, culture and leadership to our panelists, thank you so, so much for sharing such actionable insights. And for our attendees, thank you for being part of this conversation. Remember to book your free marketing strategy meeting with Lila Stone. it's a $900 value and a great next step, to strengthen your practices, visibility and growth. the link will be one last time in the chat, below.

And, you'll also, when you exit out of this, session, you'll receive a short feedback survey. it'll take around 30 seconds to fill up. Please, take a moment to share your thoughts. It'll help us sha and shape even more relevant sessions for you. so with that being said, Claire Pickens, Albert Zo, Dr. Lauren pe Teka, and Holly Corkin, as well as our own, list d Elvis. Thank you so much. I'm Donna Deisha with equa and the Veterinary Business Institute. Wishing you continued success and inspired leadership to our panelists. Please stay on the line for two minutes as we do a quick post, session debrief. Thank you all, and wish you a wonderful, wonderful evening.