Charting the Future: Leadership Lessons for Your Veterinary Practice with Dr. Matt Demey

• Dr. Demey is an avid adventurer who has climbed major peaks, trekked to the South Pole, and taught veterinary procedures internationally
• He attributes his ability to take these adventures to building a strong leadership team that can run the practice without him
• Trends facing veterinary owners include changing workforce/client expectations and corporatization
• Opportunities lie in distinguishing private practices and leveraging an established, income-producing business

Transcript

Welcome to the GeniusVets Show for veterinary practice owners and industry pros. At GeniusVets, 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.

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Genius Pet Show. I'm your host, David Hall, co founder here at Genius Vets. And today, I'm super excited for this interview. This is so cool. It's a real treat to get to talk to my guest here today, Doctor. Matthew DeMay, who is the owner of Seven Hills Veterinary Hospital, a ten doctor practice in Aurora, Colorado.

Now, I've known Doctor. DeMay for, I think, like, eight years now, and this is one of the most adventurous veterinarians on the planet.

Very easy to say that.

Doctor DeMay has has climbed and scaled some of the most treacherous, amazing mountain peaks in the world.

Recently went to Antarctica and did an eighty mile trek to the South Pole, and just got back from Ecuador where he spent time teaching orthopedic procedures to veterinarians in Ecuador. I mean, this is somebody who's truly adventuring and experiencing the world and giving back to it in amazing ways and running an incredibly, successful veterinary practice. So without any further ado, doctor DeMay, thank you so much for taking some time out of your busy schedule to join us on the Genius Pet Show.

Thanks, David. I appreciate you having me on.

And, yeah, just a quick introduction. Yeah. I've I've certainly have done my share of climbing and continue to do so. I climbed in Nepal several times and gone back there this fall.

Recently, like you said, it was through Did you say in in Nepal, they're opening up, like, a new range that's never been climbed before?

They've opened up a handful of peaks that have never been climbed, and we're we're gonna go take a shot at one of them. So Oh.

And then So are you literally, like, you're going up like, the Sherpas don't even know which trail to take.

You're just looking at it and trying to figure it out?

Yeah. We have a pretty decent idea, but it's, yeah, nobody's been up there.

So Oh my gosh.

No no fixed lines. Nothing like that.

So Wow.

That is insane. And and, in Antarctica. Yep. How many was that trip?

That was a month. We we skied what's called the last degree. It's about it's a little over seventy miles from the eighty ninth parallel to the South Pole. And then we came back to the Union Glacier, and then we flew in and climbed Mount Vincent, which is the highest peak there. So it was fun.

That I mean, that is a level of adventure that just I mean, to me, growing up, I was a big wave surfer and and loved to do a little bit of climbing, but nothing like that. You know? I mean, that is just so next level. I have so much such admiration for you going out and doing that incredible.

And some people call it, some people don't call it very smart, but it's funny.

Hey. You're still here and living, so, you know, maybe that trip that we that you don't come back from, maybe they can say that. But, but you're getting out and doing it. Tell us about this, this trip to to Ecuador. And, was that through through a specific, you know, a group? How did you get into doing that, and what'd you do down there?

So that just kinda came together organically. There's some, one of my mentors, doctor Dan Broad, is friends with a couple veterinarians that were up here in Fort Collins that had retired, and they moved to Ecuador and and started a nonprofit hospital called the Michiquanes.

And their doctors have, they're they they see a lot of cases that they can be doing. So a lot of different orthopedic cases, but they don't have the experience or the the mentorship to to really be able to do those.

So doctor Grodd and I, we, kinda, like I said, came together organically. We took, a four day trip to go down there, and we took a couple suitcases for events full of instrumentation for them. And it was a lot of fun. We we put on a two day just really in-depth course for these two very common orthopedic procedures that they see. And by the end of the weekend, they were they were doing cases. We actually did a couple with them. So it was it was really fun.

So Was it was it around a single hospital, or were they bringing in a doctor from other hospitals in the area?

It was it was that hospital, and I think there was six six of the doctors and then several of the support staff that were involved with this. But, they were just they were soaking it up and really were taking it to heart, asking great questions, and, you know, you they could they could they're really gonna make a difference down there with these with these pets, and and a lot of it actually is the stray animals in the community too. So they've over the last, I don't know how many years, they they do, I don't know, fifteen fifteen hundred or two thousand a year of sterilization. So spay neuters were the community dogs, and then they let them back out.

And then they know we were driving around town, and they know each one of these dogs that lives there. You know, it's it's they're like, hey. Well, that's Bud over there. And and, and it's the the community really does kinda pitch in and take care of them too.

It's it's very unique. So we plan on going back once we get a handle on our schedules and what their experience level is, you know, getting to. But we'll go back and do two point o, next go around and take it to the next level.

So You know, it's I I know of a few organizations, a few different large veterinary hospitals that, you know, had run up against such, a difficult time hiring, you know, through the boom of COVID and and all of that, that they actually just started looking internationally and saying we need to recruit doctors internationally and bring them to the U.

S. Because we didn't have enough available.

And, one of the things in talking to them, something that's come up consistently is how the level of veterinary medicine that's practiced here in the U. S. Is just a few levels above of, of what you typically find at a lot of other places in the world. And so, it's interesting they, you know, that they started, as they started bringing vets in, they realized they had to actually put them through a lot more training and and help them continue their education so they could get to the level where they can really practice effectively here.

Very willing to do it, a really interesting take on its own. But you're the first that I've heard, you know, taking this other and I know that this happens. Happens. I know there's other vets that that do this type of thing that travel international and go and help out.

Have you, you know, do you know I know you this came together pretty organically for you, but do you have any advice or recommendations to other veterinarians who maybe wanna do something like that? Like, take that adventure spirit, go out in the world, go to another country, and and help and educate in this way.

Yeah. Definitely. I'm sure there's opportunities out there for for all of these communities.

It's a matter, I think, of getting those those connections, and I I don't know if there is inter international organizations that can do that.

Certainly getting in touch with, you know, with hospitals like Yamiche Canis and some of those would be ways to kind of spread that. And it's, like you just said, it's not it's certainly not lack of intelligence or anything like that. It's lack of of of resources and mentorship and experience. You know, there's only so much that they can be exposed to at once, and the cases are there. You know, it's just a matter of having somebody be able to show you what to do. And like I said, we we got all sorts of instrumentation to go down there, and and that's the other limiting factor too sometimes is resources.

You know, having the facility or having the the surgical instruments and things to actually still do these procedures, you know, they they it's hard for them to get a hold of that sometimes.

So Right. Absolutely. They need specialized equipment to go along with that education.

Would did you did you interact with any of the, veterinary organizations down there who at all maybe could certify them on these new, you know, procedures or specialties or give them, you know, an equivalent of CE credits or anything like that?

We didn't. It was such a whirlwind trip. I mean, we flew in on a Thursday or Thursday night. We had four four cases to consult on already. It was a Friday night. They had us consulting on cases. We did course you know, coursework all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and then cut a cut a case on Sunday night, and then we flew out Monday morning.

And so Wow.

Lovely.

We were sitting out for the rest. So but, I mean, there's there are local organizations and things that would be another area to, I think, to to research if you wanted to go in and help. So, and then maybe even some of the veterinary schools that are either international or ones like Ross and things in in the Caribbean that might might be able to give you better contacts.

It's tough to I bet.

And I'm sure that they could help line up and coordinate trips with people who who would welcome the expertise and to help to help guide like that. But here's the other. So the let's get to the brass tacks real question for any veterinarian who's listening to this and feeling inspired and going, like, I would really like to do that, which I bet is pretty much anybody listening.

How do you actually get time out of the practice? This is really maybe the most amazing thing of all. Right? Like, you run a very busy practice, very successful. You have I know you have a lot of doctors who built up the staff and, you know, that thing. But but just how do you manage being the the owner of a busy veterinary practice and still be able to you know, what's allowed you what could you speak to in your career that where did you have these inflection points where you actually got to the point where you could manage the practice by stepping out of it and go do these trips and take a little time for yourself, because this is one of the things that I hear most from practice owners is they they're just so in the thick of it that they they don't really have the ability to to create that separation. Any advice that you may have, that helped you?

So, yeah, it's this has been a kinda playing the long game here. I, I started at this practice when I graduated. I graduated at school in two thousand. I started here as a new grad, and we've just built this practice up.

And and now I'm the sole owner, but it's been a long term goal of mine too. And a lot of this originated when I joined a a group called the BMG or veterinary management group, and it's really made me realize that I don't I don't have to be the one potentially producing all of the, you know, all of the income. I don't have to be the one doing all the surgeries. So when I really started specializing in in surgery and particularly orthopedics, once I got to a point where I was able then to pass some of that along, I again, my my goal was to try to build these veterinarians up to where I'm I I don't I'm not part of a celebrity practice.

You know, people aren't coming to see me. They're coming to the practice. And I've spent, you know, last five or six years training an associate to do to take over a lot of my orthopedic caseload. So it's been a very smooth transition, and it's not that I don't still enjoy doing that.

But I'll tell you that the things that I enjoy more now, is is teaching it. So, like, I've done thousands of TPLOs. I'm not saying that I don't like doing those, but it's more gratifying, more satisfying for me to to see somebody else be able to do that and know that I taught them that. You know?

And I taught them that thought, not necessarily the the mechanics of putting a bone on there or the screw in a bone, but the thought process of what you're doing and what you're thinking, and then what do you do when something goes wrong? You know? And and that's how I I've I've spent a lot of my career building that rather than just focusing on my skills. And that's allowing me then to back off of my clinical caseload, which then I can go to Ecuador and and teach down there, you know, and then help help spread some of this and still take time for myself to go do, you know, the these climbing trips and all that while while having not only just the doctors here, but spent a lot of time building up my my leadership team so that I know the hospital is being run, you know, while I'm gone.

And and and, essentially, my goal is to make myself irrelevant, you know, and that's a I like how you put that.

That's that's a good way to put it.

You know, it's it's I like when I come back from from a, you know, like, a month in or in Antarctica, and my staff had we had needed you know, this has been December, so we're finally being like you mentioned earlier, staff shortage and all that. We're we're getting more and more new support staff that it's coming in now. We're hiring them or getting them trained and mentored.

So it was really cool for me to to get back after this trip, you know, and and, looking like the Unabomber. You know?

And I'm walking through my own hospital. I'm walking through going through treatment and this new employee, and I don't know her name. She comes up. She goes, I'm sorry, sir. Can I help you?

Like, no. I got it. We're good. So it's kinda like, sweet. This place is still running. So, but if it's you know, you still have to be the visionary. You still have to guide things.

But, you know, getting yourself to a point where you don't have to be around the day to day, you know, that's that's been where I've been trying to focus.

So Yeah.

You know, it's, one of one of my biggest mentors in business, and I've said this on the the webinar podcast before. A guy named Roland Frasier, who I recommend to any business owner, follow Roland Frasier. He's legitimately just brilliant. And one of the things that, that, you know, he really finally managed to to pound through to my thick head was, you know, being the owner of a business, is you're supposed to operate above the business, not in the business.

You know? You, ownership is not on the org chart. And so when you start a business and and, you know, years ago, and I always operated as, like, I had to get in and do everything. And I know that there's so many practice owners out there that are in that mindset where they they're so hands on with everything.

And you probably, as the business owner, can do things better than anybody, you know, and those sort of things. You feel like, oh, if I want it done right, I gotta do it myself and those sort of things. But but, the job of an owner is really, you know, you start off by wearing all eighty five hats or whatever for every different position in the company, and your job is to hand those off and and teach people to wear it. You're not wearing any of the hats and they can operate without you.

And that's really ownership. And you could dive in. You could do something if you wanted to, but the the real joy is is having the whole business running without you. Was there, obviously, you've gone through that.

Does how much you know, you bought the practice from from some owners who had it before. How much do you feel it was kind of set up along that way when you when you made that transition versus you had to go through and identify those points and go through and create, you know, the the training for our for, you know, the doctors and and your practice manager and make sure all that stuff was was handed off?

You know, I don't think there's any specific point. A lot of that, like I said earlier, is what I've the experience I had through largely through the VMT group.

But it's in each practice is gonna be different. You know, the the mentoring of the of the doctors, a lot of that is some of the is what I've learned from my partners because, obviously, they were the ones who started mentoring me along the way. And I I one of my commitments was to really keep that process going where these guys, you know, these young docs can develop the way they want to, but yet still do it responsibly.

Right? Yeah. And then as we as I learn more and more business knowledge, I would try to incorporate that. And, you know, I think I taught them as much as they taught me coming in.

And it's every business is gonna be different. What works for me isn't gonna work for, you know, the practice down the street. It's it's being able to recognize what's working, what isn't working. And then, again, that's, I think, part of being that even though let's say, you're not seeing a lot of cases, stuff to be the visionary. You still have to be present in the practice. You don't have to be there every day, but you have to be the the one kinda guiding things.

Because otherwise, it's it's hard to have your team work, you know, and build that culture and work for, you know, for a common goal if they don't know who's the one really setting that goal and they don't know you. You know, if they don't know you or respect you, that goal they're not gonna care about that goal.

So Yeah.

So well said. The vision setting the vision, where are we going, the direction, and then having Why? Obviously, the eyes and things that you can watch, you know, monitor.

Yeah. Yeah. And and and as far as the staff goes, I think they really need to know why. Why are you doing this?

What is our what is our reason for being here? And then let me handle the KPIs and things and try to, okay. Hey. We're kind of slipping here a little bit.

Why is that? And I can work behind the scenes and then guide things back the way we wanna go. But they're the ones out there in the trenches doing the work. You know?

So and they they're the face of the practice. They're the the ones that are providing all the care, and that's my job to to make sure they have what they need to do to provide it, and it's also my job to make sure that they have what they need for themselves here too and that it's exciting and they have areas to advance and, you know, and and want to stay. So, otherwise, I mean, if they're stagnant, they're not gonna they're gonna move on too.

So Yeah.

I mean, you know, you I I love that you you you've came back around a couple of times. We met through through, your VMG group.

Mhmm.

And you brought VMG up a couple times, and that's just something so common with, every VMG, you know, member that I that I talked to is they really point back a lot to VMG. So anybody who's out there, if you haven't looked into VMG yet, I mean, another just huge endorsement from somebody who's obviously just doing it right, is you check out VMG. It's it's probably you know, so many practice owners I talked to say it's the best thing that they ever did in their career if they can point to one thing that helped them move along, was getting in a VMG group, and it just really gave them that sort of support. Do you feel that? Do you agree?

Absolutely. I mean, it it totally changed my my perception of veterinary medicine and changed my career. I mean, when I got into it, it was just you know, everything I had seen was you, if you're gonna own your practice, you get in, you buy a practice, or you start a practice, and you put your head down and you work sixty hours a week until you're seventy and, you know, hopefully retire. And, this showed me that that's not like you know, that's there's way more possibilities out there than just that.

And it's, you know, just different perspective, and and it's worked really well. So I'm okay. I take care of my staff very well, and they they take care of our clients and our pets, and everybody's better off for it. So Yeah.

And you're just crushing it. It's such an interesting time for for veterinary medicine. I mean, there's there's a lot of practices out there that are extremely successful like yours, and there's still a lot that are that are there and they're feeling the struggle, you know, of different things, you know, feeling their margins that are squeezed, feeling challenges from not being able to attract maybe doctors or staff, you know, struggling with pricing and, you know, worrying, like, what's this economy gonna do? Something you know, before I let you go, the topic that has been really I I've been talking with a lot of practice owners about, and I would love to at least get your I know that you're unlimited time here today.

But I'd love to get a quick take, a gut reaction from you on these three topics. What do you think are the trends that are facing veterinary practice owners today that they have to be aware of and deal with?

Trends.

Well, our our workforce has been changing, you know, as far as what doctor's goals are and what, you know, how much they wanna be in the hospital, what they wanna do.

And it's it's different than from when I graduated, and it'll be different again in twenty years from when people graduate right now. And it's you just have to I know in some docs, some owners have, you know, expressed kind of frustration about, well, you know, when I graduated, we had to do this. We had to do this. And, yeah, it's true.

You know? And and but not only is our workforce changing, but our clients are changing too. So it's it's more up to us to make sure that we know what's expected, what we can provide, what we can't provide. You know?

And as long as we can do that for our staff and our employees, guess what? Our clients are becoming the same people too. You know, our clients are not us anymore. So if we can relate to our staff, we can relate better to our clients and provide better care.

So that that's that's the big trend I've been seeing, and the trend Thinking of staying up culturally, it sounds like.

Yeah. That and and just being aware of what's changing in medicine and, I you know, what clients are expecting there too. But that that's been the biggest change, and it's some people can see that as a frustration. I kinda see it as an opportunity, you know, to to if, you know, if we're changing with the times and changing with the cultures and the expectations and the different generations, you know, we're gonna be ahead of the game trying to get get people on board and keep people on board and, you know, keep our our clients and pets happy too.

I mean, it's every generation changes. You know? My my generation my dad my parents thought we were the laziest generation ever, and now it's you know? My generation thinks that the millennials just wanna be cuddled.

You know?

It's it's every everything's you know?

It's the, oh, I need kids these days. And that's not you know, that's always gonna be trying to that that perception is always gonna change every generation.

It's up to us to realize that and and work with that. You know? It's it's not me. It's not them changing to meet my expectations. I have to, you know, I have to understand what they're looking for too. So Yeah.

Very well So What do you think, do you think that there's any real, there's a lot of different people who have different opinions on this.

Do you think there's any threats to veterinary practice ownership today?

Well, the the biggest one over the last few years has been the a lot of practice is selling to corporate.

So as far as veterinary ownership, that that can be a threat.

I think there's a lot of factors that went into it. I think there's there's a lot of good side to it. There's a lot of downside just from an economy of scale. They they, you know, they come in and they have as a business model, they have to change the way things are going, and that can frustrate a lot of people.

But, again, I I tend to see that as more of an advantage for me. It's like, I I that makes me stand out more now. Right? I'm one of the only privately owned twenty four hospitals in Denver.

I'm getting a lot of employees now because of that. So I I I stuck it out and, you know, didn't sell. And now I'm I'm I took that threat, and now it's becoming more of an advantage for us.

So There you go.

You took that threat, and you turned it into my next question. What do you think the opportunities are for veterinary practice owners?

For me, it's exactly that. You know, for private owners, I I couldn't speak to advantage of being a corporate owning it, but for private owners, that, to me, that is the advantage.

You know, I I've taken twenty four years to build this up, and now I'm starting to get to a point where I can I can take advantage of that? I don't have to be the one in here doing all the work, you know, all the all the revenue income, and it's coming back to me. So if I had sold two years ago, now I'm kinda back in the in the, you know, main doctor role, and I wouldn't be able to do these trips or do these you know, going to Ecuador and teach and spreading what I know and what I have learned from other people that are generous enough to teach me. So for me, that that is a big advantage to ownership is, you know, you have something that's income producing.

Why would I sell that now? You know, it's like, I I'm in the seventh. You know? I could keep keep running this for another ten, fifteen years, twenty year, and then look at what my options are.

But so Yeah.

You are, you're seeing all the advantages and taking advantage of all of them, it sounds like, man. Just really doing stuff right. And and parting wisdom, I know I know that you were short today, on time. So you've been very generous. Any parting wisdom to share with the audience before you go?

The like I said at the beginning, the the biggest thing I would say is play the long game. You know, there's there's times that it's you're gonna be like, why the hell am I doing this again? You know? But the economy goes up.

It goes down. You know, you had all these waxing and waning, but as long as you're continuing in the right direction I mean, this is this has been the best decision I've ever made. So, and it's allowed me to do a lot with my life that I that I thought was always a pipe dream. You know?

And it's by making these choices, the hard decision when I did, it's it's really coming together.

So It it absolutely it sounds like it is.

It looks like it is. Looks great on you, man. I really appreciate, you know, all you're doing out there, and I hope that some people are a bit inspired, by the trips you're doing, by what you've set yourself up able to do, and, you know, that they can maybe take a little, take a little of this inspiration and go out in the world on their own a little bit. Find a country to go to go help some people. Go take a trip. You can do it.

It's it makes life way better. Tell you that.

So Right on.

Well, thank you so much, doctor May. Very generous with your time today. I really appreciate it. I know that anybody who's listening in got some great benefit out of it.

And, hey. Remember, if you are listening, your veterinary practice right now has a full page profile on genius vets dot com. It's true. It's a full page profile.

It's really important that you go check it out. Make sure that the information's correct. You can claim the profile for free. It's a hundred percent free.

We just wanna make sure that anybody who's looking for anything related to veterinary in your local area that all signs in Google are pointing to you. And these profiles rank on page one of Google. They're really good. We just want people pointed directly to you because that's our mission.

So for Genius Bets and David Hall, thanks so much for joining us. Tune in next week. We got a lot more great stuff coming. Have a great day.

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