The Power of Connection: Innovative Hiring Secrets from a Successful Veterinary Practice Owner

This week, the GeniusVets Show features Dr. Gregory Lloyd, of Hebron Animal Hospital, with David Hall, GeniusVets Co-Founder. 

This insightful conversation will dive into the Trends, Threats, and Opportunities facing veterinary practice ownership today. 

This far-reaching discussion will cover:

• Navigating the Recruitment Challenge: Understand the current landscape of veterinary recruitment in 2024, including the persistent struggle to attract talented professionals amidst competition with corporate practices and unrealistic expectations set by veterinary schools.
• Creating an Attractive Practice Culture: Explore strategies for cultivating a practice culture that appeals to prospective DVMs, emphasizing the importance of offering opportunities for practicing high-quality medicine and providing attractive facilities.
• Building Relationships: Learn the power of personal connections in recruitment by engaging with veterinary students through career days, externship opportunities, and preceptorships, highlighting the effectiveness of building relationships over traditional job postings.
• Addressing Financial Considerations: Address the financial challenges of hiring recent graduates, including offering competitive salaries, signing bonuses, and relocation allowances, while also considering the investment required as new hires may take time to become productive team members.
• Long-Term Retention Strategies: Implement multiyear contracts as a retention strategy, providing financial incentives and fostering a supportive culture to ensure long-term commitment from veterinary hires, ultimately leading to a stable and successful practice.

Transcript

Welcome to the Genius Vets Show for veterinary practice owners and industry pros. At Genius Vets, it's our mission to help veterinary practices thrive, and this webinar and podcast supports that mission by giving a platform to the best and brightest minds in the veterinary industry, where we identify challenges facing veterinary practices today, discussing ideas, insights, and solutions that practice owners need to know about. If you like today's show, that's something we'd love to know. Feel free to send an email to genius at genius vets dot com. And make sure to check out the wealth of resources available to veterinary practices at genius vets dot com slash pro. That's genius vets dot com slash pro.

Now without any further ado, let's dive into today's show.

Hey. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Genius Pet Show. I'm your host, David Hall, cofounder here at Genius Pets. And today, we're gonna continue exploring this topic of the trends, the threats, and opportunities facing veterinary practice ownership today. And I'm just so glad to have, a guest joining the program today that can really speak to this from the perspective of a very impressive practice owner. We have joining the program today doctor Greg Lloyd of Hebron Animal Hospital, a five doctor veterinary practice in Hebron, Kentucky. Doctor Blake, thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy day to join us on the GeniusDET show.

You're welcome.

So, you know, would you if we could start, would you mind telling, the audience sharing with the audience a little bit about your career, you know, kind of trajectory as a practice owner that's gotten you to where and where you're at today and kind of where you, you know, where you're looking to take your plan. What's your plan for your veterinary practice moving forward into the future?

Okay. Well, that's great.

Well, I graduated from University of Georgia in nineteen eighty seven.

Left Georgia for a little bit milder climate. I just, so I moved to Northern Kentucky. I was an associate veterinarian for other, groups for the first twelve years of my career, and then the door opened for me to own my own practice in nineteen ninety nine, and I have had that practice since then. So I've been in that practice for twenty five years. So at this stage of the game, I've been practicing for thirty seven years. I learned a lot about what not to do in a business environment, and in specifically veterinary medicine, working for others.

I really felt very strongly that people were weren't doing things right and, weren't taking care of people. And, when I took over my practice, it was a one man rural practice, that was grossing about, three hundred three hundred and forty thousand dollars a year, was what they did in nineteen ninety eight. And we we did, just a penny short of four million last year. So, it was by myself. We have had as many as four full time and three part time vets. We are currently five full time vets, at the moment.

Outstanding.

Were you were you honestly a penny short? Because that's where, like, somebody buy something. We gotta cross the line.

I'm just It wasn't quite it wasn't quite a penny, but we were we were really, really close. We were really close.

That is very impressive. That's outstanding.

Yep. So it's, it's been a it's it's you know, like I said, I've I've always been very unselfish, been very committed, always been very real and very caring with my clients and my patients.

You know, I'd always been doing fear free my entire career. I learned it early on, and then, didn't know how to teach it and was so grateful when, the fear free certification came on board. We we had our entire staff go through it in two thousand sixteen, and we keep everybody up on board since. But, that and, and just the caring attitude and the professionalism that we have and the, you know, the the business, you know, take care of the customer type, attitude.

We we just keep growing. I mean, economies will stub your toes every once in a while. We feel like we should be further down the road than we are right now, but we feel like the last year's economical our economy has definitely, we we haven't lost any business, but we haven't grown, and we typically grow double digits every year. So we've we've we've kind of been stagnant for the last, well, for twenty twenty three, basically.

Yeah. In twenty twenty three, I mean, so many practices across the country saw saw a decline.

So kind of, you know, in that environment, even holding steady is gaining, you know, on on what a lot of practices experienced, during that time. But, kinda goes back not quite to what we saw in two thousand eight.

Oh. But, you know, I a a a tiny, you know, move towards that direction a little bit is what overall things kinda seem to feel like.

So So just, I mean, holding strong in that environment is fantastic. And I could tell, like, number one, I know you to be a very innovative guy, in your approach, and you're also very, like, kinda culture first in the way that you, you know, approach your team and your practice.

So I know that has has fantastic effects.

Very, very strong.

In this study, we can jump into that. The first question was, what do you think are the trends that veterinary practice owners are facing in twenty twenty four? And what you had put there was you had noted the trend. Your answer was the difficulties in recruiting talented professionals continues to be a constant concern. It requires extraordinary effort extraordinary effort or so it seems.

Competing with corporate practices is daunting, and the various vet schools are painting unrealistic expectations.

Now as you and I were talking right right as we were kicking off here, you, you mentioned you'd been in a drought of not being able to attract doctors for quite a while, but that you've recently really overcome that. Now you're flooded with them, and and able to bring on all the doctors that you wanted to bring. Can let's talk about that. What do you attribute to that difference that that you've made? You you went from one side to kind of on the other, and I think probably every practice owner listening to this right now is like, what do we do?

So Well, I think it's important to have the culture, the practice, and you need to have an attractive facility.

And and, you know, you need to get the the especially the ones coming out of vets will need to be assured that they're gonna be practicing the level of medicine that they were trained to do. I mean, they're just not gonna take a a lesser job, unless there's a significant, bump up in pay.

There's there's too many. I I think I think it was over a year ago, somebody gave me a stat that, for every, every eighteen jobs that are open for DVMs, there's one candidate available.

So we're all fighting, for the same, individual.

And my thoughts on it are as a small practitioner, you you know, coming up with moving allowances and signing bonuses and, and a really, large, stipend, it's it's daunting. I mean, you're you you know that somebody who comes out as fresh out of school is gonna be a liability for, most of the time, six months. I mean, it's rare that you're gonna get somebody really sharp that hits ground running and and is productive in earning their salary. But six months, sometimes a year, sometimes I've had the young vets that was well into their second year before they were really productive. So when we extend ourselves and we give that person a large salary, I mean, it's a liability.

So we feel like, you know, way back in the day, I would put a like, the last time this happened, two thousand ten, I put an ad out in Jabber. I got forty applicants, and And it's never happened like that since. So, I've had ads in in JAMA and, for two years, and the only app I got was the seventeen year old girl in high school out of Louisville, Kentucky. She just thought it would be great to be a vet, but I would just hire her out of high school.

Well, she she wasn't real, realistic, but that was the only applicant I had. So, relationships are seem to be the key. You can get lucky if somebody wants to move back to the area. We've got one such person that we're interviewing now.

What we did as a practice was we literally hit the road. We actually set up a booth at all the career days at various pet schools, that are within about a four hour drive of us. So we've we're in Northern Kentucky, which is the greater Cincinnati area. We've been to Knoxville. We've to the University of Tennessee. We've been to Lincoln Memorial. We've been to University of Illinois.

Ohio State doesn't have a career day, so we haven't been up there, and we've been to Purdue.

So we we've been scouring and just meeting kids, realizing that we're building a relationship with these people and getting our name out there. A lot of times, it turns into the opportunity for an externship or a preceptorship, and that helps open the door. But you're just not gonna write an ad and people are gonna respond to us. So, oh, that sounds like a good job. There's got to be something personal about it. Somebody's gotta either make a recommendation.

The one that, there's one that we're talking to right now that's graduating vet school, and, she's from this area. But one of her classmates is currently doing a preceptorship with us, and he's raving about our practice. So that's intrigued her. Now she's she's willing to come in, but we've also found her list of wants and needs.

And, you know, one of the ways we handle the the big salaries that and, you know, they're they're in terrible debt for their education. They they need, a big salary. The problem that we have as owners and businessmen is that they they don't earn their keep for a while. So it's a bit of an investment.

So what we're trying to do is say, okay. We'll give you that, and and and we're we're extending ourselves, giving them the big salary. We are giving some signing bonuses and, relocation allowances, but, ultimately, we're signing multiyear contracts.

We typically do a two year contract because we believe the first year that person is not gonna produce, and the second year, we believe that they will. And then, hopefully, by then, they're well entrenched in the community. They love the job because we got a great culture. They They love what they're doing, and they stay.

Every vet that we've hired, in the last six or seven years is still with us except with one exception.

She was wooed away.

I mean, literally, somebody came in and stole her from us, but she was likely and told us this was her forever job. And then two years into her her job, she left. But, we've got a a graduate that graduated in twenty twenty right before COVID or right as COVID hit, and she's been with us ever since. Another doctor's in her ninth year. I have two other doctors who've been with me for twenty two years.

Wow. That's outstanding. You know, the the other part of what you had said there, and you kinda started getting towards this, I think, but, the various vet school is painting unrealistic expectations. Yeah. What do you think like, what are you feeling those expectations are from the grads that are coming out right now?

Oh, well, we we know of one school in particular, and I won't mention it here, but we know one particular.

They are reviewing all job posts as well as contracts for the students, and they're telling the students what they should be demanding or asking for.

And so the if you don't if you don't offer what this guy, this individual, thinks these students should be getting, you're not gonna get one of those graduates.

Period.

So I don't know if all the vet schools are doing that, but, but but but we're finding that the the schools are saying you have to get a hundred and twenty five your first year out of school. Don't even entertain any offers if they're not offering one twenty five.

So, it's it's daunting.

And then and then, of course, then they they find out that there's things like moving allowances and signing bonuses and, you know, PTO and, they they want the moon. And then they want, three or four day work weeks, and they don't wanna do any on call. They don't wanna do weekends.

And, I mean, so I think they're painting unrealistic expectations.

Yeah. Yeah. That that that sentiment was shared by an a number of respondents.

But I I really wanted to hear, you know, kinda where you were what you were seeing from that. And that, to me, that's an interesting insight that, you know, at least one vet school where someone's wielding that power and going and and really just training them up on how they go and advocate for themselves in the best deal that they can get. But my worry is, you know, it's one thing to ask for, hey. Here's all the different angles, and here's all the things you can ask for.

I I can't really fault somebody for for trying to prepare on those different things. But what I what I feel that is in danger of getting lost there is the thing that the independent in great independent practices like yours, what they bring that's the most valuable, just like the mentorship and the the community and the purpose and actually having a a place to work where you feel like it it does have a great culture and you actually, you know, feel the purpose, And you're not just practicing corporate, you know, medicine. Get them in, give the service, get them out. Like, you're building relationships, and you're really being, you know, a strong part of the community.

I mean, that is life changing.

Well, that's kind of where where we've we've changed. The big thing that changed in the last year, last fall, we visited all the vet schools, and we started making relationships with these kids. So the first thing is, you know, they're looking at what's the job offer. Alright?

And they're saying, okay. Well, this guy is not even offering close to what I need, so we're not even gonna talk to them. So you've gotta at least make an offer that, you know, that's somewhat attractive or at least make it look like you're gonna offer them that. Now once they see the facility, once they see the culture, once they see the met the, opportunity for mentorship, Now all of a sudden, they're willing to pull back a little bit.

You know, you're you're gonna start seeing them make compromises. Like, well, yeah, they're not quite offering me everything I want, but they're coming really, really close. And, man, they just got the best staff and, and and their their work schedule and their, their their work life balance is is really what we what I want. And, you know, and then from there, you can get these kids to say, okay.

But you you you gotta build a relationship with them. The one that you one young woman, I met at, University of Illinois, and, we initially we we connected right off the bat. Well, there have been a series of emails, texts, and, virtual interviews and phone interviews that have been going on since November. But I would tell you that it's been at least three virtual interviews, and, she's coming down this Saturday to spend the day with us to see the practice, see the culture, and then, we're gonna take her around the community, to to let her see what what's special about our our area.

And, and I we've put together I mean, I don't wanna say I'm desperate, but I'm desperate. We've put together an enormous compensation package. Enormous.

So if she doesn't come here, we screwed up somehow. You know? So but I'm I'm gonna say that it's it's it's been a long week. We interviewed four or five people in twenty twenty three.

We couldn't land anybody. You know? Some people some of them we didn't want, and some of them we we just couldn't get. I mean, they they one young woman took, she went one place, and they just offered her a schedule that we couldn't offer.

And, she took a job for less money because they had the schedule. We learned a lesson there. We're gonna have to be a lot more flexible.

Yeah. So but finding and and she was a seasoned vet. She was not a new grad. That particular person had been out of school ten years.

So you've been dealing with a different side of it than most of the people that I talk to.

Certainly, the practice owners and certainly if they're not, you know, clients of ours, they just can't attract applicants.

So, you know, I mean, you have been working with us for a while. It's not you're getting applicants, and then you're No.

We're not.

It's an We went out and made relationships.

Yeah. We didn't get applicants.

We we they they I still don't have a resume. I mean, I think I finally got a resume on the one I'm interviewing this Saturday.

But but no. I we have not got any applicants. I have not placed an ad in JAMA for a year and a half. Oh, right. They they're they're they're not working for me. I don't get applicants.

I put the miles on my vehicle. I donated my time, and I took my manager with me or I took one of my head technicians because we've been to the tech schools as well. And then we've also, one of my other doctors went with me on a couple of outings, but we would sit there at a booth and just glad hand and tell people about us and pique their interest. And, really, a lot of them are looking for externships and preceptorships. So once we got their names and their email addresses, we were able to stay in touch, and we just we're slowly bit by bit bit by bit built a relationship with these kids and intrigued their interest.

But just, you know, saying I got a I got a, five doctor practice in Kentucky, that doesn't attract anybody.

Right.

You know? I mean, we've had to we've had to put ourselves out there. But, ads are we gave up on them. I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on ads, and I'm and I'm not getting applicants. The people that I have that I am currently in talks with to hire are people that we built relationship with. Now every one of them have hit our website, and, and and and we can see that organically.

And and this young one person is from Chicago, and we've got a huge bump in, the number of people from Chicago looking at our website. So, apparently, their friends, their family, and everybody they know are checking out where Yeah.

She's planning on moving. Right. So so we can we can see organically that, you know, why would Chicago be interested in Northern Kentucky? But we're getting a lot of people hitting, getting traffic to our website, from that area right now, but we think it's because of this young woman.

Right. She's telling everybody that's where we're going. So her community is going, where are you going? Let's look at the play. Because that's that is how everybody does their initial evaluation, what they're gonna look at. You know? Like, they're gonna look at your site.

They're gonna look at your social. They're gonna look at your reviews. But, you know, they're not gonna they're not they're not gonna gonna move forward until they've talked to you and start, you know, putting you through the paces, but that's that's that initial.

And I Right. And and and, of course, we've been working with you. We it was always a priority for us to have a top notch website. And then, you know, when we started working with GeniusVets, probably right at two years ago is when we started talks.

It's probably May before we did it, but we're almost at our second or third second anniversary, working with, you and, Genius Vets. And, I think we have a very top notch website. I'm I'm sure it could be better. I'm sure if I put more time into it and my staff did too, we could even make it even better, but it's good enough.

It's peaking interest. It's getting people looking, and it's getting people considering, moving to, to Northern Kentucky or the Greater Cincinnati area. And, so I I think that's part of the puzzle too. But, but the the big thing is placing an ad is it it never got me anything.

And that ad Especially during the last couple years.

I mean, you got thirty six thousand practices that are all placed in ad. They're all trying to hire. So it's just so hard to stick out in that in that format. You know?

Well, I I mentioned the vet school that's doing the reviews of all the contracts and stuff, but they're also they're also reviewing the ads. And we were we were told that we should give this guy our ad, and he would tell us what we need to change on that ad to make it more attractive to that school's, graduates.

So, I'm just because he's training them what to look for.

So he's like, if you I'm telling them to look for all these notes. And if you're missing any of those notes, then, you know, they you can't they can't check all their boxes.

I've never seen a pair I've never seen a paradigm shift like this in veterinary medicine, and it's incredible. It it's incredible. But, I mean, it's literally if you're if you're, I mean and and and moving forward, if we bring these people in, we've gotta we gotta groom them. We gotta build a relationship with them, and we've gotta do what it takes to make sure that they're not only, professionally satisfied, but they're personally satisfied, and they enjoy their the people they're working with and the environment that they're working in that so that they they don't wanna leave.

You know? We, you know, we we don't like turning over vets. I mean, the days of hiring a vet and, kicking them to the curb, after a year and getting another vet in, I mean, when I got out of school, that was common practice. There are a lot of practices out there to hire a new grad, use them, abuse them for a year, kick them loose, and get somebody else because they knew that you're gonna ask for more money the second year, and they just wanted to keep cheap labor on on staff.

And you can't do that. You can't do that at all.

No. No. The dynamics, I think, are gonna be shifting, though. We see the, as the schools have increased class size and there's new schools that are coming online, it's gonna be a few years, but that supply demand shift is gonna cause some some changes in those dynamics, but not not in the short term. That's that's, you know, those dynamics, but not not in the short term. That's that's, you know, mid mid to long term.

And we can. I wanna look at so in question two, the what do do you think the threats are that are facing veterinary practice ownership? You said it's difficult to be competitive and profitable. The cost of veterinary medicine to the average person is rapidly increasing to the point where veterinary medicine will only be afforded by the well-to-do, And online pharmacies continue to threaten our livelihoods.

So the the two big things are competitiveness and profitability and really, you know, the cost of veterinary medicine. I mean, I feel you, and this is this is a sentiment that was shared by a lot of people, a lot of practice owners across the country. This was one of the, you know, most common themes that was noted.

I mean, what do you think do you think that there's a solve there? What do you, you know, where do you think we go from here with that and and keep veterinary, you know, medicine viable? Because right now, we already have, like it's it's only only, like, thirty percent. Like, seventy percent of pack pet owners don't go to the veterinarian. So we need to increase that access to care and all those sort of dynamics. I mean, what do you think? How do we address this threat?

I wish I knew. I I mean, I'm gonna be playing. I it's easy to point the problem out.

The difficulty is finding a solution to the problem. So, I mean, a lot of people have resorted to getting their own website, you know, but the reality is is people are pinching pennies and, trying to save where they can. So they're trying to buy online as economically as they can as far as the end consumer. But for for for the for the business owner and the veterinarian like myself, I mean, it just that that was part of the income stream.

So with that drying up, we're gonna have to focus on, you know, services that they can't, buy online and, charge a a larger fee for. In the end, the consumer loses because if I charged x for a spay and now I charge two x and, but they're saving, you know, one dollar on a a Bravecto, chewable, the end consumers, you know, out of pocket more money than they would be. But it it's we have resorted to the only thing that we've been been able to find that we can do is we're using a service that, that, takes advantage of, helps the consumer get instant rebates on those items that we sell, that they get an instant rebate, and we've got a loyalty card program.

So when people come in here and they spend x number of dollars, you know, and they can get so many punches on their card, they're gonna get seven percent off a future visit. And so one woman has been in here a lot with her getting her dogs their vaccines and stuff, and she's got a card punched up, and she needs to buy Bravecto for everybody. So between getting the instant rebate right off the top, which right now is, I think, fifty dollars if you buy a year supply per pet, And, and then they're getting seven percent off. It's it it it turns out to be great for them and actually less than buying it online.

So we're trying to drive people to be more loyal to us when they know that we're trying to help them. We're trying to help them get their rebates because we all know that maybe one in twenty people actually bother to fill out their rebate, mail it in to get their five dollar check when they buy, you know, heartworm preventative or whatnot. So, we're using a company that that that I think they keep a portion of it, of course, but they're doing instant rebate. The clients are seeing it the moment they check out.

And so we're we only started that this year, beginning of this year, but it's just an effort for us to try to groom people to to try to be more loyal to us. And so instead of buying the Bravecta from Chewy, they realize, hey. Chewy doesn't give rebates. We give rebates, plus they can earn a discount.

And if they earn a discount, I mean, we're we're gonna we're gonna beat the pants off of Chewy.

Yeah. That's that's that's solutions. It's too early to tell you how well that's working, but it seems to be working I mean, these are the comments that clients have made. So we're we're doing things that we can to try to curb people looking for, cheaper services somewhere else.

And we may not be able to get back to people that are already buying online, but, you know, when a client comes in and they're like, ouch. That's stung. They're gonna start exploring online and see if there's a way that they can save a couple of bucks. And that's where you're gonna lose them.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, we do, we have a online pharmacy solution that we're gonna be rolling out here really soon that, it beats the pants off of vets force vets, Vetsource or or Vets First Choice. It's gonna actually allow practice owners to compete with Chewy and Amazon.

I'm very, very excited about this. It's backed with one of the by one of the biggest pharmacy companies out there. It's really, really fantastic, but it's not it's not here quite yet, but it's in short order. So, I look forward to to talk to you about that. It's definitely I mean, for for all of us, though, that are on the side of of independent practices, I mean, this is the hill to die on here. We gotta gotta fight that and make sure because clients have said in studies, they would rather work with the the veterinary practice, but but what they don't wanna give up is that just the ease of use, you know, of user experience of just being able to get it sent to their house and and be very frictionless.

So, you know, that's that's a need to focus on.

And we hear that a lot. We do have some clients that drive a long distance to come see us. So it's not convenient for them to just drive up here, pick up a a monthly prescription. And so some of them, I can see them wanting to do that, and I can see having our own website.

We do not currently have one, but we having our own online pharmacy could definitely help people like that that wanna support us. But, the vast majority of people that we've seen are are just out there to save a buck. And you can tell because every time they get a new script, they're it's to another pharmacy, a different pharmacy. Yeah.

You know, somebody's like, oh, you know, get your first script with us and save this much money. And, you know, we'll give you a we they give them an incentive, and they move their prescription. And then, you know, six months later, they're wanting to move their, prescription again.

Yeah. Yeah. I hear you. You know, the the other bit on the cost of of medicine to the average person rapidly increasing, I mean, we know inflation and everything we just went through, You know? Thank goodness it looks like that's calming.

You know?

But, what what do you think about I mean, in you know?

Only about three percent of pet owners across the country have pet insurance. And I know that there's plenty of, you know, worry among veterinary, you know, veterinarians that we don't wanna see we don't wanna see it go quite the the way human medicine has gone where everybody has insurance and, really, the insurance companies get to dictate care to a large extent because a doctor can say, well, this, you know, this procedure or whatever would help you, but if the insurance company is not gonna pay for it, like, you know, how can you get it, with so many of those things? So but at three percent, I mean, they really have no power like that.

We're never gonna get to some seventy percent or something of of people having it. It could maybe get, though, to thirty percent and help a lot of, you know, a lot of pet owners afford more. Where do you how do you guys approach? You know?

Do you encourage clients to get insurance? How do you kinda feel on on that being able to help this affordability issue?

Well, I mean, we've gone through spells where we've promoted in the past. I mean, a lot of people are getting it. You know? Some some jobs are providing pet health insurance for for as a perk for people to work for a certain company. So we we know there are a few companies like that.

We've been underwhelmed by the the the services or the policies that they're getting. I mean and things have changed. I mean, there was a company that I really, really liked. There was actually two companies that I really, really liked.

One of them is not gained the kind of traction or kind of popularity that I hoped that they would, and the other one sold to a bigger firm, sold to a bigger company. And the dynamics of that has changed so much that it just doesn't seem like it's, you know, worthwhile. And it used to be you could buy, you know, wellness plans and things like that and no.

They're they're outrageously expensive now or they're they're no longer covering wellness. They're only covering, you know, illness, visits. But, I probably fill out one or two a month. I mean, I would say they're very, very I'm I'm in a unique area. My my clientele probably doesn't need insurance Okay. To to afford veterinary medicine. Sure.

I would say less than less than ten percent of my clients would need insurance for care.

They they just can come up with it. So I think I'm in a unique situation that way. I'm and and so I may not be a good person to, you know, reflect on what what the current industry is. Do I think that it's it would be a good thing? Yes. I do. Because, I mean, you know, if your dog tears his ACL, you're out a lot of money.

Hey.

I tell you what average client loves it.

I have a hundred and twenty pound silver lab. Last year, he jumped off a six foot wall in in bilateral cruciate terrace, both his hind legs.

I have Fetch Pet Insurance, Fetch by the Dodo. Thank god. They were awesome. They covered the whole thing.

So I'm a believe I'm already way up on that deal. And they said that they did one knee last year. The other one could wait. They're gonna do the other knee this year.

I mean, there's for the lifetime of him, I'm already way up on that deal. They they were great, but you know? So it's not that we couldn't, you know, have afford to do to do it, but being in the industry, you know, I'm like, okay. Let's let's check this out and do it.

And, again, it it worked out.

But, Well, I think it would I think it would be very important.

I mean I mean, if you educate your staff and you start actually if you really believed in one or two companies and then really promoted them, and and how they could help, I'm I'm sure we could do a a huge service to a lot of people to have, you know, at least catastrophic type care. You know? In other words, maybe people can afford Bravecto and a rabies shot, but, you know, that torn ACL, man, that's a deal breaker. That's like swallowing up all their savings if they even have any.

But, you know, around here, if we do a lateral suture at our clinic, twenty five hundred dollars. If you go see a specialist to get a TPLO, six to eight six to eight thousand dollars, and that's one minute. So, the average person and and they don't do payment plans. So, it's it's ouch. So and a lot of dogs just end up don't get get they don't get the care or, heaven forbid, they actually get euthanized because the the client's perception is that can't have a quality life without it, and they can't afford it. Right.

Right. I think I think insurance is something that, you know, we should be probably looking at, but, we're understaffed right now with five doctors. And to be honest with you, it's really a struggle to to sit there and welcome something else on our plate to fix or or to do. But I think that, you know, we we probably should.

And I may bring that up with my manager and my marketing staff and see if they can't, you know, come up with something and maybe do a little little homework for me since all I do is see see patients anymore, and a lot of them. And then if I'm not seeing a patient, I'm operating on them. So, I don't have time to to to be the spearhead, for such an endeavor, but I I could, steer some people in that direction. We probably Well, I'll tell you what.

We'll off.

We'll reach back out to you. We have developed a special program that, utilizes, policy adviser.

And, I can I can, you know, have them set up with you or anybody who reaches out to Genius Bets? We can get policy advisor to set up a, lunch and learn for you guys. They'll buy you guys lunch, and they'll do a fifteen minute little talk where because the thing is you really don't want your staff talking about any specific insurance company. Because, god forbid, all of a sudden, the client gets it, and then that company doesn't cover a specific thing. And now they're mad at you for paying for the thing that's not getting you know?

You don't want True.

You really just wanna be like, you know, insurance is probably a good idea for you to look into. You know, check this company will help you out. And they have the white glove service where they will not only look at all the policies, but they'll say, hey. This policy is cheaper now, but it's gonna get way more expensive later. This one's a couple more bucks now, now, but it's gonna be steady. Like, that's probably better for, you know, types of things.

So it they're a good one to work with for practices. And like I said, if you're interested in the lunch and learn, contact us here at Genius Bets, and and we can set that up for you. But they're Sure.

I think I I think I would. I think I would. K.

So the the last question here was, what do you think the opportunities are? And, I know we've got way over time here, but I don't wanna leave without because I'll tell you what, fourteen percent of respondents to our study when in the section about what do you think the opportunities are, they said none. There's no opportunities in veterinary medicine. This is coming from type good owning, practice owners.

You know? Owners who own good practices, but they're just so, you know, head down, trudging through the mud of their daily that they're not looking up and seeing the tremendous opportunities in the industry. And so I I don't wanna skip this section. I I really wanna, you know, get your insight on this.

What you'd said in your feedback here on the on the survey was we're exploring opportunities to engage clients by creating loyalty programs, discount programs, and client education opportunities. We're also grooming youths showing promise to become veterinary professionals, either technicians or veterinarians. Visiting veterinary learning institutions and making relationships has helped us recruit as well as having a strong online presence through our website, has helped us recruit professionals as well. So, I mean, is that that's really and you've made that clear today that your focus has been on building those relationships and that that's the big opportunity because it feels like that that was your biggest pain point.

And so Well and and re having read that back to me, I I I guess I was having a very clear headed moment, wasn't distracted by a lot because I thought that was very succinct.

I can't I can't say that I can add anything to that. I can maybe dissect it and elaborate a little bit, but, I've already pointed out what we've done. I mean, as far as our website is, we wanna have an attractive website. We wanna promote our practice, but we've gone so far in our bios as to promote the area.

You know what I mean? Why would somebody wanna you know? Everybody wants to move to Malibu. Everybody wants to move to the beach in South Carolina.

You know? But they why would somebody wanna move to, you know, the heartland? Why would somebody wanna move to Northern Kentucky or or even Cincinnati? It's not not an area that everybody thinks of as, wow.

That's a great place to live. That's where I wanna go. We gotta promote our area. So we we use our bio and our website to to promote because they everybody reads the bio.

They wanna know about their future boss. So if you put it in there, we we we we spend a lot of time. These are the attractions. These are the fun things to do in our area.

This is why you should move to our area. So that's one. You gotta have that because the first thing you do when you talk to them, they're gonna look you up. They're gonna hit your website and every time.

I mean, that's that's that's the the world today. Twenty years ago, I mean, I remember getting my first computer in nineteen ninety eight. Not you know, that was a different time. But now everybody's got their smartphone, and now they're Apple Watches, and they're they're scouring the world and finding out, everything they can.

So the website, I think is number one. But number two, you gotta get people's attention to cut to look at your website, and we gotta put ourselves out there. And that's where we're visiting the tech schools and the vet schools. We're building, relationships with those schools to try to get externs and preceptors in, and that's going really well.

We've we've, we've developed a relationship with Sinclair Community College out of Dayton, Ohio. We've got a lot of their kids coming through here doing externships. We're working with Murray State in Western Kentucky, for their tech program. They're we're getting their kids in here, and then, we're we're meeting, people, and, like, by visiting the vet schools.

So I I feel like it's not an instant yield, but we did this for the first time last fall visiting University of Tennessee, LMU, Purdue, in the Illinois, as far as the vet schools. And then we visited Murray State, Sinclair, and, Morehead University for the tech programs. And we're visiting another one, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash campus has got a tech program. So we're gonna be visiting them the this spring.

But everything that we're doing is just meet the people, get them to wanna check us out. You know they're gonna hit the website. They're gonna see it without having to drive over here. They're gonna see a lot about the practice and the culture.

We intentionally put pictures on there about what the staff does together off when we're closed and when we're off-site. So, I mean, our staff is they're everybody's friends. Nobody wants to leave their friends, so they all wanna stay. And we treat them well too. We pay them we compensate them well.

But getting back to the visiting the schools, then they wanna come see us, then they wanna do an externship, and you would not believe how many times that turns into a job.

Yeah.

But I would say it's fifty percent or more, the kids that actually do any externship or preceptorship with us. And going back to the youths that we talked about, so we do have some kids that that that the high schools do some co op programs where the kids come in a day or two, in the afternoon. We work with a couple of local high schools that way.

If we like the kids, we usually extend a summer job to them, and then they they we can't get rid of them then. They're they're, like, hooked. They go on they get their undergrad degree. They go on to vet school or tech school, and and they're they're wanting to come back here to work after that.

So we're having a groom people from within. So there is no quick fix. These are efforts that we've been some of it we've been doing for years. Visiting the vet schools only started last fall.

But last year, we we we had a total of four applicants. Two were legit. Two were not. We couldn't win the the two that we really wanted, and, and it it's it's been quite the drought since probably March of last year.

And then all of a sudden now we're of course, I've been grooming one of them since November, and then another one just kinda fell into our lap in the last week or so. But, again, we've had to put it out there, what we're willing to offer and what we're willing to do. And, apparently, we have everything that's hurt hot button. So there's every real possibility that we will we will land two new grads this year and fill and flesh out our staff.

Yeah. It's just fantastic to hear. Fantastic to hear. I'm glad that things are are, you know, looking up and going really well for you.

Not the least bit surprised because, like I said, you're you are a very dynamic, practice owner, innovative in your approaches to things, and hard charging. You get after it, man. You may you make things happen. I I very much respect that.

Well, the other thing that we're doing this year is we're actually going to there there's a lunch and learns, you know, like, you you brought up the subject about doing a lunch and learn about your, your online pharmacy that you guys wanna roll out, or or even the, policy adviser.

So, we are actually engaging with doing, and promoting and doing a lunch and learn at a vet school. Mhmm. Where we're gonna go in and and literally, I'm gonna get up and speak and and talk and teach, for an hour. And and I gotta buy them all lunches, but what do you do? They're costing you.

Bunch of pizzas, and, they're happy to listen for a little bit. Right?

Yep. They are. Yep. They are. But, we we gotta we gotta get their attention. They're like, wow.

That sounds really great. And then they visit your website. But, you know, if you put an ad in Jabma, it it gets you nothing. I hate to bad mouth Jabma, but I'm just saying, I've I I have wasted ten thousand dollars in the last couple of years on ads, and I won't even put put one now.

And they were on you know? And then wants me to do and their their career, recruiter, I'm we're we're an accredited animal hospital, so I won't even spend the money with them. I I I I I see it as a low yield.

I I feel like you really gotta put yourself out there. You really gotta build relationships.

You gotta get people's attention, and then you gotta get them in the door. And then and then you better follow through with a decent compensation package.

It's not easy, and I I I find it very difficult.

But it it's exciting because we we're like, what can we do? What we do we we can no longer just sit back and wait for them to come to us. That doesn't work anymore.

Hasn't worked in years. Probably close to a decade, it hasn't worked.

So, I've gotten lucky with the two new grads I got four years ago.

But before that but I've been trying to hire for two and a half years.

Nothing.

Yeah. Well, the, the the cold streak is over. It sounds like you've you've really hit the right notes and, heated right up. So so glad to hear that you guys are expanding or bringing those on. And, thank you so much for for taking some time to meet with me today and to share some of your wisdom.

I know that it has certainly benefit a lot of people in the in the audience. Any parting wisdom for us?

Who?

Or recommendations? What do you think practice owners should be doing now other than, going and recruiting at schools, putting themselves out there?

Think outside the box.

I mean, what what what we've been doing I I mean, I'm a thirty seven year veteran, but I'm a twenty five year, year business owner veteran. And, and it's it's constantly changing. I don't know what's gonna work next year. I can tell you that this year what worked for us.

I tell you what, I know that you have to go. This has been a fantastic conversation, doctor Lloyd. Thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy day to join us.

Alright. Well, thank you very much.

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