July 29, 2024 • 28 mins
In our season finale, we dig into some game-changing customer engagement strategies that fueled our startups. Ever thought about how an app or a clever email campaign could transform your business? Or imagine hosting a Willy Wonka-inspired event in Las Vegas complete with golden ticket candy bars and a lovable mascot named Mr. Meowgy. We share behind-the-scenes insights that can inspire your next big idea. It's all about building a community that is both engaged and excited.
As we toast to the end of an amazing season of "The Accidental Entrepreneur," we express our heartfelt gratitude for your support and look forward to more enriching discussions in the future. Cheers!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ira (00:04):
Hello and welcome.
I am Ira Gordon and, along withStace Santee, the host of the
Accidental Entrepreneurs podcast.
We each previously foundedsuccessful companies Along the
way.
We became business owners andeventually sold those businesses
despite us having no realbackground in business or ever
even planning to becomeentrepreneurs.
In other words, we did this alldespite originally having no
(00:25):
idea what we were doing orgetting ourselves into.
In each episode of this podcast, we will share stories and tips
from our journey and we'llanswer a randomly chosen
question about our experience.
Let's jump right into the show.
Well, hello there, stacey.
How are you doing?
Stacee (00:42):
It's been a little while it's been a little while and
it's kind of a weird one.
Today it's our last episode ofthe season.
Did you bring your tequila?
Ira (00:52):
I did, so I am prepared.
Stacee (00:54):
All right.
So I'm curious as to what kindof tequila you brought, and I'm
also curious are you going to doit Mexican style or American
style?
Ira (01:06):
I was just planning to, you know, throw it on back,
whatever style that is.
Stacee (01:11):
That's American.
I went to Mexico City last falland I was hanging out with a
Mexican veterinarian gentlemanthere and he ordered us all
tequila, and me and Ellis throwit back and he's like "oh, you
americans.
He's like you only learn thisfrom jose cuervo.
Ira (01:37):
I'm not planning to swallow the worm, if that's what you're
asking.
So I brought my bottle of uhCabo Wabo reposado tequila here,
um you know, repped by SammyHagar, the red rocker oh yeah,
you can't drive 55 that's rightguitar solo.
Stacee (02:33):
I love him.
I am drinking.
This is my new favorite tequilaokay, the 1800 Coconut and it
is so delicious it it goes downvery easily.
You can add it.
You know, lemonade, raspberrylemonade, pineapple juice.
Like you can't mess it up .
Ira (02:55):
If memory serves, you are a big fan of one of my favorite
tequilas, which is the Kirklandsignature tequila.
Stacee (03:02):
It was between these two .
I was going to bring theKirkland signature tequila.
It was between these two.
I was going to bring theKirkland.
I've lately been more obsessedwith the 1800 Coconut.
Now that we aren't going to beseeing you every week, what are
you going to be doing withyourself?
Ira (03:17):
Well, yeah, my copious free time now that I'm not going to
be hosting a podcast for alittle bit.
Now I'm working on a few things.
I have a number of volunteeractivities I'm involved in.
So, for example, tonight I havea board meeting for a charity
that I am the CFO of called WeRock Cancer, which does cancer
education and screenings atmusic and other arts events, and
(03:39):
so that should be fun.
And I have been advising andworking with a colleague of mine
on a startup focused onveterinary oncology drug
development that we're open to,you know, get moving off the
ground quickly and, if and as itdoes, I'll be taking a bigger
role there.
And then I have a startupproject, also a not-for-profit
(04:04):
startup project with a friend ofmine to try to build a
veterinary specialty center inan underserved community in the
Chicago area to provide accessto advanced specialty care to
people that otherwise wouldn'tbe able to afford it, and also
to do much-needed teaching andresearch for animal health in
the veterinary community neededteaching and research for animal
(04:27):
health in the veterinarycommunity.
So a little bit too ambitiousperhaps, but I'm really excited
to be trying to work on that andsee if we can put together
something amazing.
Stacee (04:33):
Plus, you have like two other jobs.
You have your work at yoursynagogue, you help there, and
then you also.
What's the other one you'redoing?
Oh, you're running forpresident for the American
Veterinary Cancer Society, right?
Is that what it's called?
Ira (04:49):
I will be running for president of VCS.
You have a lot of jobs.
Stacee (04:54):
What percentage of these jobs pay?
Ira (04:58):
Like 2% of them pay me anything, but you can't put a
value on doing interesting stuffand having fun with other smart
people.
It's not like this podcast,Stacee.
Stacee (05:11):
Yeah, you're not making any money on this job either.
I see a theme with you.
Ira (05:16):
Indeed, so what are you going to be doing?
Stacee (05:20):
Well, I am going to be working on my golf score, like
President Biden and formerPresident Trump.
I'll be trying to get thatgoing.
I've been playing a coupletimes a week, so I like that.
And I'm working on my book, theStop Acting Like a Girl.
I've got it almost ready.
(05:41):
I'm trying to decide if Ishould self-publish it or go
down the harder path of tryingto get an agent.
I'll probably end upself-publishing it because I
don't think I have.
I don't think I can wait thatlong, like a year it takes to
get an agent and all that.
Ira (05:58):
I don't know and I'm not even sure it's worth it.
Stacee (06:00):
So yeah, and then I'm doing my street dog thing here
in Durango, where we are goingto the soup kitchen and we go
every quarter and we see thepets of the people experiencing
homelessness and that's beenvery rewarding.
Like I don't know.
If you know this, there's ahuge obesity problem in the pets
(06:24):
of people that are homeless.
I was shocked.
I was giving the fat dog talkto almost all of them and I
realized what it is is they givethe dog all of their food, like
from the soup kitchen.
And we had all these treats forthe dogs for being good, you
know, for their shots and theirmicrochips, and all of this, and
(06:46):
not one dog would take us up onour dog treat because they're
like oh, we eat way better thanthis.
So I was trying to telleverybody, like all right, your
pet's overeating, so you don'thave to give them all of your
food.
We see a lot of people and Ireally like doing that.
Ira (07:09):
So, yeah, those are the main things it's a testament to
just how much people love andcare about their pets.
Right, you wish they could dothat in a healthier way,
possibly, but it's sort of inits own way, kind of a beautiful
gesture.
Stacee (07:23):
I had a patient so fat one time and the husband would
give him Cheetos nonstop, and soI had to.
I made a sign and penned it onthe dog's collar Please do not
feed me any more Cheetos, I'mgetting so fat.
The wife just said I can't makethem stop.
I'm like, well, I guess Cheetosis his love language.
(07:46):
That's awesome.
Well, let's tackle the finaltopic.
Today.
The question is what are someof the most successful customer
engagement ideas you had at yourcompany?
Ira (07:59):
So one of the most fun and engaging things that we did was
we at VetPrep.
We had a professionalcollaboration sort of social
tool that we built called ViralVet, and you know people would
share images and tough,interesting cases with other
people in the community.
And we developed a partnershipwith Merck Animal Health and
(08:21):
they had recently launched a newtopical ear medication for pets
with a variety of earconditions.
And it was around the Halloweenseason and so we had what we
called the scary ear competition, where people would submit the
sort of most disgusting, scarylooking ear conditions they'd
(08:43):
seen in their pets and peoplewould, you know, comment and
upvote them and the you know,the scariest ears won a prize at
the end and the engagement wasunbelievable.
We got some of the truly themost disgusting things I've ever
seen, and if you're not aveterinarian, this doesn't
excite you, but if you are aveterinarian, disgusting things,
(09:04):
disgusting medical thingsreally gets you excited, and
especially things you can fix,and so it was fantastic.
We had hundreds and hundreds ofsubmissions coming in of all
these different ears and dogsand cats and other things and
close-ups of ear mites crawlingaround inside the ear.
It was awesome and everybodyloved it and it was one of our
(09:27):
only sort of uh revenuegenerating things that we were
able to do uh through viral vet,and so it was.
It was great and we werethankful to have, you know, our
partners at merck kind ofsponsor it and help us with it.
And yeah, that was uh quite thequite the how about you?
Stacee (09:48):
Well, first I have a few follow-up questions for you oh,
please.
Now, how did your customersknow to do this?
Ira (09:56):
So we promoted it through the app itself as well as
through email to the members ofthat community and also sort of
our veterinary student users ofour test prep product, and
promoted it primarily throughthose means.
Stacee (10:15):
And was there a price or was it just come and share?
Ira (10:17):
No, there were prizes.
I think I'm trying to rememberwhat they were, but you know, I
think there was like astethoscope was a prize and
probably a textbook, and I thinkI feel like there was some
other like big prize.
I can't remember what it was.
It might've been, you know,before it was quite as
commonplace.
I think there was like a thingto take pictures in a microscope
, like digital cytology.
Before digital cytology wascool, and so I think those were
(10:39):
the prizes.
Stacee (10:41):
And how did people submit their photo or video?
Because it's easier nowadays,but it was a little harder,
probably back then.
Did you just have them go emailit to you, or how did you do
that?
Ira (10:55):
We actually had built like a full app for this, and so
people would submit it throughdirectly through their
smartphones.
Yeah, yep.
Stacee (11:03):
So they could just use the viral vet and upload it
there through their smartphone.
Exactly, brilliant.
So you got people to use theproduct and you found something.
What do you think it was aboutthat that?
Is it just because we all canrelate to a nasty, disgusting
ear infection or ear problem orwhat?
(11:24):
What was the?
Ira (11:26):
combination of things I think, um, just the curiosity
and gross gross out factor,right like you can't look away
from something like that.
I think the competition elementof you know, people submitting
things and wanting to win andwanting their friends to look
and sort of vote up theirsubmissions and potentially the
(11:47):
prizes sort of related to allthat as well.
Stacee (11:49):
Ah yeah, those are all key elements sort of related to
all that as well.
Ah yeah, those are all keyelements.
Cool.
Well, for me I will say one ofthe most successful customer
engagement programs we did thiswas kind of a long, lengthy
process.
We were going to have this bigparty in Las Vegas for our
customers.
We decided and our mascot forVet2Pet was Mr Meowgy, this cat.
(12:14):
We had a giant costume builtfrom the people at the Looney
Tunes.
He was really cute and fun andhe was a ninja and he had a
sword and all this stuff.
So we got this big idea.
We wanted to have a party there, but it's too expensive to have
a party on the strip where wewere.
(12:35):
So we ended up finding thismansion offsite with a pool.
It was really cool grass lawn,but it was a ways away.
So then we had to rent vehicles,and we rented these stretch
Humvees to come and pick thepeople up and it just kept
(12:57):
building and building into thisbig party.
So then we're like how are wegoing to encourage people to
come to our party?
Because we're asking a lot ofthem, they're going to be tired
from conference.
Then we're gonna, you know,whiz them, whisk them away in a
vehicle for like a 30 minutedrive and then have this party
like who will want to do this?
So we came up with this otheridea where we started planning
(13:21):
way in advance and if you did somany tutorial videos with us or
lessons with us, you could geta Willy Wonka candy bar
delivered to you with yourchance to get the golden ticket.
So you had to do so many thingsto get yourself on the list to
(13:43):
receive a candy bar.
And then we hid five WillyWonka tickets in there randomly.
I think we had like around athousand people get the candy
bars.
So you can imagine.
We ordered all these plainlabeled chocolate bars and just
(14:03):
like having them not melt in themail was a deal.
And then we had to hand wrapthem all with our labels and
print the Willy Wonka tickets.
Like it was an ordeal, I tellyou.
My team was probably ready topunch me in the face, but we
were had so much fun and so thenwe mailed them out and the five
(14:24):
lucky winners of the goldenticket got free room and board
and free conference pass for thewhole Western veterinary
Conference.
So all they had to do was getthere and then they could get to
come to the party, claim theirprize on the party, which they
got, to go up on the stage withMr Meowgy and get their ninja
(14:44):
bandana.
It was so fun.
I mean, people always ask mewhat's the ROI?
And that is just one of thethings you can't measure the ROI
on, because we dropped maybe$20,000, if maybe more.
But it was so fun and peoplewere following us to see who got
(15:06):
the Willy Wonka tickets if theydidn't get them, and people
wanted to come to the partybecause it was fun and we were
doing things a little different.
So, to be honest, that's one ofmy favorite memories of the
whole startup life company thing.
Ira (15:21):
So cool.
And so who was it inside the uh, the mascot uniform?
Stacee (15:26):
Well, that we had to arm wrestle for, like, if you lost,
you had to go in the costumebecause it was so freaking hot.
Where, like, if you lost, youhad to go in the costume because
it was so freaking hot.
But it was Kylee, one of myemployees in Rita, one of my
former technicians at my vethospital, and they're both
really funny.
But that costume is so hot andyou have to be really animated
(15:56):
and enjoy interacting withpeople.
But they had to switch outbecause you could only do it for
like 30 minutes to an hour at atime and you were dying.
But during that party becauseit's Vegas and it was pretty hot
that evening, I went in theback and Kylee had done her hour
and she was just like,stretched out, laying on the
floor with the fans and the ice.
She's like I think I'm dying.
Ira (16:19):
I'm like, oh, you're fine, you're fine, oh yeah, we, we
once tried the mascot uniform aswell.
We decided it would be cool tohave, uh, for vet prep.
We had preppy the dog, um sortof test prep mascot, and, um,
one of my partners I won'tmention their name for a variety
(16:40):
of reasons, but yeah, he put onthe outfit and, just as you
mentioned, like exceedingly hotand um, in his case it, uh, it
brought out a weird side of hispersonality.
I I would say sufficiently thatwe decided we would not have
another mascot.
Stacee (16:57):
Yeah, it's like nobody knows who you are now you can do
what you want.
I think, when it comes toengaging your customers, I think
if you're able to think outsidethe box, do something fun and
creative and a little bitdifferent than everybody else,
(17:17):
people will take notice and youmight not initially think they
are, but they are, and Iencourage people to try to be
different than everyone else outthere.
I mean, how many of thesebooths do we see at the trade
show where you can get a freeiPad or you know it's all.
Come on, you can do bigger,better, more fun things.
(17:42):
I think if you can pushyourself and maybe not worry so
much about offending people orstepping over the HR lines.
I mean I say that was like alittle quote because, um, I mean
there are some things thatcould have got us into trouble.
I, for example, it was this waskind of funny it was a Willy
(18:02):
Wonka theme party, right.
So I'm like, wouldn't it becool if there were Oompa Loompas
there?
Like, let's get some OompaLoompas.
So I found you know this place,we were renting this mansion
and I'm like can you get me some?
He's like we can get youanything you want in las vegas.
So he said I'm sure it's true hesent me the catalog of anything
(18:23):
I could possibly want and more.
In las vegas he's like usuallywe have midget wrestling if
we're doing this, but we can tryto see if we could get the
little people to dress up asOompa Loompas and I'm like I
think I'm going to put a we'regoing to go with the wrestling
is what you told them, right.
We're going to go with thewrestling.
(18:43):
We ended up going with MarilynMonroe and Elvis because I
thought that's a little bitsafer bet.
But you know, if you want tofreak yourself out, ask for the
secret PDF of all the things youcan order in Vegas if you so
desire.
Ira (19:01):
You're better off looking for scariers.
I can guarantee you that.
Stacee (19:08):
Well, let's share a final tip with our listeners.
What is your tip of the weektoday?
Ira (19:15):
So I have a couple of people I'm going to mention.
Actually, I wouldn'tnecessarily call them mentors
per se, but they're morecolleagues and friends.
One is Drew, and the other isNatalie Marks, and, and what
they both have kind of taught meand and do sort of uniquely is
(19:36):
they have a way of having just avery clear vision of how
something should be and they'revery confident in that vision.
And I am somebody that is likeI'm really a thinker and I love
sort of thinking about thingsand the complexity of things and
, um, trying to come up with,you know, solutions and sort of
(19:59):
think through that complexity.
But the sort of downside ofthat is sort of a lack of of
clarity and focus of like yes,like this is simple, like this,
if this, if this happens andthis should happen and this
should happen, right, and andfor a long time I thought like
well, that's like anoversimplification, that's not
good, because the reality is farmore intricate than that, right
(20:22):
, but what what they have sortof both taught me is that sort
of having that that clarity isreally sort of galvanizing,
allows people to sort of rallyaround sort of a more clear and
simple idea and vision.
And what they have that isunique is, I feel like a lot of
the time when people have aclear and simple vision, they
(20:43):
can be a bit sort of hardheaded.
It's really hard to changetheir mind because they have a
clear and simple vision and youknow how could you convince them
otherwise?
Like this is so straightforward.
But what Drew and Natalie bothhave the ability to do is, when
presented with, you know,additional new information or a
different perspective, like they, they can be flexible in that
(21:05):
vision and and then they developkind of a new clear vision.
Right, and that is a skill setthat I'm trying to hone a little
bit better and I don't thinkI've got it mastered by any
stretch, but it's something thatI would sort of encourage
people that are, you know, maybethoughtful introverts like me,
(21:26):
and sort of value that abilityto, you know, see things in gray
rather than sort of black andwhite, to say, well, actually
there is tremendous value insort of having more clarity and
not sort of being in this kindof gray space all the time.
But you also, to do that well,you have to have the ability to
(21:46):
kind of bank off of that andsort of rethink things when
there's you there's newinformation or perspectives to
think about.
So I credit the two of themwith giving me that insight into
sort of the value of that.
Stacee (22:00):
I love that.
So like it kind of reminds meof if you're at a crossways and
you're facing three roads andyou're wondering what should I
do?
Sounds like Drew and Natalie,once they're on a road, they are
saying ".
Ira (22:13):
And, they know exactly where that road's taking, they
know why they took it and andthey know, you know, what's
supposed to happen if they takeit correctly, right, um, and and
that's tremendously valuable asopposed to saying, well, you
know, if I take this road, likethere's 20 things that could
happen or could go wrong, but ifI take this road, there's a lot
of that, you know.
And, yeah, I think I tend tosort of appreciate and love to
(22:39):
sort of spend time kind ofworking through that complexity
and sharing my thinking aboutmaybe that complexity as well,
and I think sometimes that doesme a disservice.
Stacee (22:47):
I think sometimes that does me a disservice.
Well, and one of the worstthings I think you can do to
yourself is adopt any kind ofhypothetical regret where you
make a decision and you're goingand then you worry and fret
over.
Did I make the right decision?
What if I should have takenthat other road, or maybe that
even third road?
Wonder if I'd be further along,richer, more successful, more
(23:19):
you know?
Blah, blah, blah.
But it's a waste of time tothink about it because you have
no way of comparing the two.
Ira (23:23):
Yeah, when I think about bad decisions, we'll call them
and probably we've all made baddecisions.
I think I have.
But when you think about baddecisions, I try not to think
about them in the context of,well, this was a bad decision
because it didn't work out right, like this was a bad decision
because, like I didn't approachthe decision-making process
(23:45):
correctly, potentially, and thatI can learn from.
But a bad decision shouldn't bejudged strictly by its outcome,
because lots of decisions haveto be made with limited
information and an uncertainoutcome, right and um and sure.
It's easy to look back and belike, oh well, I thought that
everybody was gonna love thisidea and it was gonna take off,
but it didn't.
(24:05):
That doesn't make it a baddecision if, based on the
information that you had at thetime, like it was still the best
decision,
Stacee (24:12):
Right, , um and you have no idea if the other decision
could have been worse correctalthough this brings me to my
tip of the week, which is, uh,something my Ellis husband ellis
says with me.
of the things he says say, onthis, we have this conversation,
have had this conversationseveral times.
I said but your other decisioncould be worse, he's like, or it
(24:35):
could be better.
I'm like, oh, you're ruiningthe whole thing because it could
be worse and you don't evenknow.
So I want to share somethingthat Ellis says to me kind of
regularly.
That's some of the best adviceI could ever have.
Let me set the stage a littlefor those of you that don't know
(24:55):
.
My husband Ellis is a cowboy.
He doesn't do a lot of talking,he's more of an observer.
He's super funny.
But he's also pretty quiet incrowds and stuff like this,
unless he knows you or he's hadseveral, you know.
Uh, Bud Lights in him.
(25:16):
But he, he says and does thesethings sometimes that are just
so profound to me.
So you always have to perk upwhen he's around, cause he might
drop one of these littlenuggets on you.
But we have very differentpersonalities.
I'm type A.
I'm like wound up pretty good,like let's go, let's go.
(25:37):
I fret a lot, I worry about whatI should be doing or what my
purpose is and all these otherthings.
And he says to me, "staceythings tend to have a way of
working out.
To me, stacy things tend tohave a way of working out.
And when I'm worried about ifI'm going to miss a flight, if
(25:57):
I'm going to make a connection,if I'm going to have enough
money to pay the payroll, if I'mgoing to have my company is
going to be successful, ifquitting my job was a bad choice
to start my startup.
He always says this to methings tend to have a way of
working out.
And he's right, they do.
And I don't know if it's justbecause I adopt my new reality
(26:18):
and make it work or I don't know, but most of the stuff I panic
and fret over just doesn'thappen.
Ira (26:30):
Love it.
I think this is potentiallysomething I'm okay at, at least.
But I think a lot of peoplethey spend so much time worrying
about the bad things that couldhappen in X, y and Z scenario
that actually, like, theworrying about those bad things
is way worse than if the badthing actually just happened and
(26:53):
you hadn't spent all that timeworrying about it.
Right, and most of the time thebad thing doesn't even happen.
And so you got all the downsideof worrying about the bad thing
that might happen and didn'teven happen, sort of like.
Sort of like my kids right, likewhy don't you try this new
thing?
It's like, well, there's allthese bad things that can happen
with this new thing.
I might not like it, it mightbe terrible, right, it's like
(27:13):
okay, but you might like it.
And then ultimately they'll doit and maybe they like it, maybe
they don't like it, but like ifthey didn't like it, it wasn't
that bad and it was certainlynot as bad as all the worrying
they did about not liking it.
Liking it, and if they liked it, then like great, now they've
found something else that theylike.
Stacee (27:30):
Yeah, it's a really.
It's a simple thing and itsounds really basic, but I find
myself saying that a lot tomyself when I'm wasting time
fretting over something that Ican't even control.
Well, all right, let's have afinal toast to season one of The
(27:54):
Accidental Entrepreneurs.
Well, let's have a toast to thelast episode of the season.
Cheers, Ira, you can shootyours, I'm sipping mine
Ira (28:09):
You know, to a lot of really fun times chatting with
you for this podcast it's beengreat.
Stacee (28:16):
You got to get this kind .
It's so good.
We'll see you next time.
Hello and welcome.
I am Ira Gordon and, along withStace Santee, the host of the
Accidental Entrepreneurs podcast.
We each previously foundedsuccessful companies Along the
way.
We became business owners andeventually sold those businesses
despite us having no realbackground in business or ever
even planning to becomeentrepreneurs.
In other words, we did this alldespite originally having no
(00:25):
idea what we were doing orgetting ourselves into.
In each episode of this podcast, we will share stories and tips
from our journey and we'llanswer a randomly chosen
question about our experience.
Let's jump right into the show.
Well, hello there, stacey.
How are you doing?
Stacee (00:42):
It's been a little while it's been a little while and
it's kind of a weird one.
Today it's our last episode ofthe season.
Did you bring your tequila?
Ira (00:52):
I did, so I am prepared.
Stacee (00:54):
All right.
So I'm curious as to what kindof tequila you brought, and I'm
also curious are you going to doit Mexican style or American
style?
Ira (01:06):
I was just planning to, you know, throw it on back,
whatever style that is.
Stacee (01:11):
That's American.
I went to Mexico City last falland I was hanging out with a
Mexican veterinarian gentlemanthere and he ordered us all
tequila, and me and Ellis throwit back and he's like "oh, you
americans.
He's like you only learn thisfrom jose cuervo.
Ira (01:37):
I'm not planning to swallow the worm, if that's what you're
asking.
So I brought my bottle of uhCabo Wabo reposado tequila here,
um you know, repped by SammyHagar, the red rocker oh yeah,
you can't drive 55 that's rightguitar solo.
Stacee (02:33):
I love him.
I am drinking.
This is my new favorite tequilaokay, the 1800 Coconut and it
is so delicious it it goes downvery easily.
You can add it.
You know, lemonade, raspberrylemonade, pineapple juice.
Like you can't mess it up .
Ira (02:55):
If memory serves, you are a big fan of one of my favorite
tequilas, which is the Kirklandsignature tequila.
Stacee (03:02):
It was between these two .
I was going to bring theKirkland signature tequila.
It was between these two.
I was going to bring theKirkland.
I've lately been more obsessedwith the 1800 Coconut.
Now that we aren't going to beseeing you every week, what are
you going to be doing withyourself?
Ira (03:17):
Well, yeah, my copious free time now that I'm not going to
be hosting a podcast for alittle bit.
Now I'm working on a few things.
I have a number of volunteeractivities I'm involved in.
So, for example, tonight I havea board meeting for a charity
that I am the CFO of called WeRock Cancer, which does cancer
education and screenings atmusic and other arts events, and
(03:39):
so that should be fun.
And I have been advising andworking with a colleague of mine
on a startup focused onveterinary oncology drug
development that we're open to,you know, get moving off the
ground quickly and, if and as itdoes, I'll be taking a bigger
role there.
And then I have a startupproject, also a not-for-profit
(04:04):
startup project with a friend ofmine to try to build a
veterinary specialty center inan underserved community in the
Chicago area to provide accessto advanced specialty care to
people that otherwise wouldn'tbe able to afford it, and also
to do much-needed teaching andresearch for animal health in
the veterinary community neededteaching and research for animal
(04:27):
health in the veterinarycommunity.
So a little bit too ambitiousperhaps, but I'm really excited
to be trying to work on that andsee if we can put together
something amazing.
Stacee (04:33):
Plus, you have like two other jobs.
You have your work at yoursynagogue, you help there, and
then you also.
What's the other one you'redoing?
Oh, you're running forpresident for the American
Veterinary Cancer Society, right?
Is that what it's called?
Ira (04:49):
I will be running for president of VCS.
You have a lot of jobs.
Stacee (04:54):
What percentage of these jobs pay?
Ira (04:58):
Like 2% of them pay me anything, but you can't put a
value on doing interesting stuffand having fun with other smart
people.
It's not like this podcast,Stacee.
Stacee (05:11):
Yeah, you're not making any money on this job either.
I see a theme with you.
Ira (05:16):
Indeed, so what are you going to be doing?
Stacee (05:20):
Well, I am going to be working on my golf score, like
President Biden and formerPresident Trump.
I'll be trying to get thatgoing.
I've been playing a coupletimes a week, so I like that.
And I'm working on my book, theStop Acting Like a Girl.
I've got it almost ready.
(05:41):
I'm trying to decide if Ishould self-publish it or go
down the harder path of tryingto get an agent.
I'll probably end upself-publishing it because I
don't think I have.
I don't think I can wait thatlong, like a year it takes to
get an agent and all that.
Ira (05:58):
I don't know and I'm not even sure it's worth it.
Stacee (06:00):
So yeah, and then I'm doing my street dog thing here
in Durango, where we are goingto the soup kitchen and we go
every quarter and we see thepets of the people experiencing
homelessness and that's beenvery rewarding.
Like I don't know.
If you know this, there's ahuge obesity problem in the pets
(06:24):
of people that are homeless.
I was shocked.
I was giving the fat dog talkto almost all of them and I
realized what it is is they givethe dog all of their food, like
from the soup kitchen.
And we had all these treats forthe dogs for being good, you
know, for their shots and theirmicrochips, and all of this, and
(06:46):
not one dog would take us up onour dog treat because they're
like oh, we eat way better thanthis.
So I was trying to telleverybody, like all right, your
pet's overeating, so you don'thave to give them all of your
food.
We see a lot of people and Ireally like doing that.
Ira (07:09):
So, yeah, those are the main things it's a testament to
just how much people love andcare about their pets.
Right, you wish they could dothat in a healthier way,
possibly, but it's sort of inits own way, kind of a beautiful
gesture.
Stacee (07:23):
I had a patient so fat one time and the husband would
give him Cheetos nonstop, and soI had to.
I made a sign and penned it onthe dog's collar Please do not
feed me any more Cheetos, I'mgetting so fat.
The wife just said I can't makethem stop.
I'm like, well, I guess Cheetosis his love language.
(07:46):
That's awesome.
Well, let's tackle the finaltopic.
Today.
The question is what are someof the most successful customer
engagement ideas you had at yourcompany?
Ira (07:59):
So one of the most fun and engaging things that we did was
we at VetPrep.
We had a professionalcollaboration sort of social
tool that we built called ViralVet, and you know people would
share images and tough,interesting cases with other
people in the community.
And we developed a partnershipwith Merck Animal Health and
(08:21):
they had recently launched a newtopical ear medication for pets
with a variety of earconditions.
And it was around the Halloweenseason and so we had what we
called the scary ear competition, where people would submit the
sort of most disgusting, scarylooking ear conditions they'd
(08:43):
seen in their pets and peoplewould, you know, comment and
upvote them and the you know,the scariest ears won a prize at
the end and the engagement wasunbelievable.
We got some of the truly themost disgusting things I've ever
seen, and if you're not aveterinarian, this doesn't
excite you, but if you are aveterinarian, disgusting things,
(09:04):
disgusting medical thingsreally gets you excited, and
especially things you can fix,and so it was fantastic.
We had hundreds and hundreds ofsubmissions coming in of all
these different ears and dogsand cats and other things and
close-ups of ear mites crawlingaround inside the ear.
It was awesome and everybodyloved it and it was one of our
(09:27):
only sort of uh revenuegenerating things that we were
able to do uh through viral vet,and so it was.
It was great and we werethankful to have, you know, our
partners at merck kind ofsponsor it and help us with it.
And yeah, that was uh quite thequite the how about you?
Stacee (09:48):
Well, first I have a few follow-up questions for you oh,
please.
Now, how did your customersknow to do this?
Ira (09:56):
So we promoted it through the app itself as well as
through email to the members ofthat community and also sort of
our veterinary student users ofour test prep product, and
promoted it primarily throughthose means.
Stacee (10:15):
And was there a price or was it just come and share?
Ira (10:17):
No, there were prizes.
I think I'm trying to rememberwhat they were, but you know, I
think there was like astethoscope was a prize and
probably a textbook, and I thinkI feel like there was some
other like big prize.
I can't remember what it was.
It might've been, you know,before it was quite as
commonplace.
I think there was like a thingto take pictures in a microscope
, like digital cytology.
Before digital cytology wascool, and so I think those were
(10:39):
the prizes.
Stacee (10:41):
And how did people submit their photo or video?
Because it's easier nowadays,but it was a little harder,
probably back then.
Did you just have them go emailit to you, or how did you do
that?
Ira (10:55):
We actually had built like a full app for this, and so
people would submit it throughdirectly through their
smartphones.
Yeah, yep.
Stacee (11:03):
So they could just use the viral vet and upload it
there through their smartphone.
Exactly, brilliant.
So you got people to use theproduct and you found something.
What do you think it was aboutthat that?
Is it just because we all canrelate to a nasty, disgusting
ear infection or ear problem orwhat?
(11:24):
What was the?
Ira (11:26):
combination of things I think, um, just the curiosity
and gross gross out factor,right like you can't look away
from something like that.
I think the competition elementof you know, people submitting
things and wanting to win andwanting their friends to look
and sort of vote up theirsubmissions and potentially the
(11:47):
prizes sort of related to allthat as well.
Stacee (11:49):
Ah yeah, those are all key elements sort of related to
all that as well.
Ah yeah, those are all keyelements.
Cool.
Well, for me I will say one ofthe most successful customer
engagement programs we did thiswas kind of a long, lengthy
process.
We were going to have this bigparty in Las Vegas for our
customers.
We decided and our mascot forVet2Pet was Mr Meowgy, this cat.
(12:14):
We had a giant costume builtfrom the people at the Looney
Tunes.
He was really cute and fun andhe was a ninja and he had a
sword and all this stuff.
So we got this big idea.
We wanted to have a party there, but it's too expensive to have
a party on the strip where wewere.
(12:35):
So we ended up finding thismansion offsite with a pool.
It was really cool grass lawn,but it was a ways away.
So then we had to rent vehicles,and we rented these stretch
Humvees to come and pick thepeople up and it just kept
(12:57):
building and building into thisbig party.
So then we're like how are wegoing to encourage people to
come to our party?
Because we're asking a lot ofthem, they're going to be tired
from conference.
Then we're gonna, you know,whiz them, whisk them away in a
vehicle for like a 30 minutedrive and then have this party
like who will want to do this?
So we came up with this otheridea where we started planning
(13:21):
way in advance and if you did somany tutorial videos with us or
lessons with us, you could geta Willy Wonka candy bar
delivered to you with yourchance to get the golden ticket.
So you had to do so many thingsto get yourself on the list to
(13:43):
receive a candy bar.
And then we hid five WillyWonka tickets in there randomly.
I think we had like around athousand people get the candy
bars.
So you can imagine.
We ordered all these plainlabeled chocolate bars and just
(14:03):
like having them not melt in themail was a deal.
And then we had to hand wrapthem all with our labels and
print the Willy Wonka tickets.
Like it was an ordeal, I tellyou.
My team was probably ready topunch me in the face, but we
were had so much fun and so thenwe mailed them out and the five
(14:24):
lucky winners of the goldenticket got free room and board
and free conference pass for thewhole Western veterinary
Conference.
So all they had to do was getthere and then they could get to
come to the party, claim theirprize on the party, which they
got, to go up on the stage withMr Meowgy and get their ninja
(14:44):
bandana.
It was so fun.
I mean, people always ask mewhat's the ROI?
And that is just one of thethings you can't measure the ROI
on, because we dropped maybe$20,000, if maybe more.
But it was so fun and peoplewere following us to see who got
(15:06):
the Willy Wonka tickets if theydidn't get them, and people
wanted to come to the partybecause it was fun and we were
doing things a little different.
So, to be honest, that's one ofmy favorite memories of the
whole startup life company thing.
Ira (15:21):
So cool.
And so who was it inside the uh, the mascot uniform?
Stacee (15:26):
Well, that we had to arm wrestle for, like, if you lost,
you had to go in the costumebecause it was so freaking hot.
Where, like, if you lost, youhad to go in the costume because
it was so freaking hot.
But it was Kylee, one of myemployees in Rita, one of my
former technicians at my vethospital, and they're both
really funny.
But that costume is so hot andyou have to be really animated
(15:56):
and enjoy interacting withpeople.
But they had to switch outbecause you could only do it for
like 30 minutes to an hour at atime and you were dying.
But during that party becauseit's Vegas and it was pretty hot
that evening, I went in theback and Kylee had done her hour
and she was just like,stretched out, laying on the
floor with the fans and the ice.
She's like I think I'm dying.
Ira (16:19):
I'm like, oh, you're fine, you're fine, oh yeah, we, we
once tried the mascot uniform aswell.
We decided it would be cool tohave, uh, for vet prep.
We had preppy the dog, um sortof test prep mascot, and, um,
one of my partners I won'tmention their name for a variety
(16:40):
of reasons, but yeah, he put onthe outfit and, just as you
mentioned, like exceedingly hotand um, in his case it, uh, it
brought out a weird side of hispersonality.
I I would say sufficiently thatwe decided we would not have
another mascot.
Stacee (16:57):
Yeah, it's like nobody knows who you are now you can do
what you want.
I think, when it comes toengaging your customers, I think
if you're able to think outsidethe box, do something fun and
creative and a little bitdifferent than everybody else,
(17:17):
people will take notice and youmight not initially think they
are, but they are, and Iencourage people to try to be
different than everyone else outthere.
I mean, how many of thesebooths do we see at the trade
show where you can get a freeiPad or you know it's all.
Come on, you can do bigger,better, more fun things.
(17:42):
I think if you can pushyourself and maybe not worry so
much about offending people orstepping over the HR lines.
I mean I say that was like alittle quote because, um, I mean
there are some things thatcould have got us into trouble.
I, for example, it was this waskind of funny it was a Willy
(18:02):
Wonka theme party, right.
So I'm like, wouldn't it becool if there were Oompa Loompas
there?
Like, let's get some OompaLoompas.
So I found you know this place,we were renting this mansion
and I'm like can you get me some?
He's like we can get youanything you want in las vegas.
So he said I'm sure it's true hesent me the catalog of anything
(18:23):
I could possibly want and more.
In las vegas he's like usuallywe have midget wrestling if
we're doing this, but we can tryto see if we could get the
little people to dress up asOompa Loompas and I'm like I
think I'm going to put a we'regoing to go with the wrestling
is what you told them, right.
We're going to go with thewrestling.
(18:43):
We ended up going with MarilynMonroe and Elvis because I
thought that's a little bitsafer bet.
But you know, if you want tofreak yourself out, ask for the
secret PDF of all the things youcan order in Vegas if you so
desire.
Ira (19:01):
You're better off looking for scariers.
I can guarantee you that.
Stacee (19:08):
Well, let's share a final tip with our listeners.
What is your tip of the weektoday?
Ira (19:15):
So I have a couple of people I'm going to mention.
Actually, I wouldn'tnecessarily call them mentors
per se, but they're morecolleagues and friends.
One is Drew, and the other isNatalie Marks, and, and what
they both have kind of taught meand and do sort of uniquely is
(19:36):
they have a way of having just avery clear vision of how
something should be and they'revery confident in that vision.
And I am somebody that is likeI'm really a thinker and I love
sort of thinking about thingsand the complexity of things and
, um, trying to come up with,you know, solutions and sort of
(19:59):
think through that complexity.
But the sort of downside ofthat is sort of a lack of of
clarity and focus of like yes,like this is simple, like this,
if this, if this happens andthis should happen and this
should happen, right, and andfor a long time I thought like
well, that's like anoversimplification, that's not
good, because the reality is farmore intricate than that, right
(20:22):
, but what what they have sortof both taught me is that sort
of having that that clarity isreally sort of galvanizing,
allows people to sort of rallyaround sort of a more clear and
simple idea and vision.
And what they have that isunique is, I feel like a lot of
the time when people have aclear and simple vision, they
(20:43):
can be a bit sort of hardheaded.
It's really hard to changetheir mind because they have a
clear and simple vision and youknow how could you convince them
otherwise?
Like this is so straightforward.
But what Drew and Natalie bothhave the ability to do is, when
presented with, you know,additional new information or a
different perspective, like they, they can be flexible in that
(21:05):
vision and and then they developkind of a new clear vision.
Right, and that is a skill setthat I'm trying to hone a little
bit better and I don't thinkI've got it mastered by any
stretch, but it's something thatI would sort of encourage
people that are, you know, maybethoughtful introverts like me,
(21:26):
and sort of value that abilityto, you know, see things in gray
rather than sort of black andwhite, to say, well, actually
there is tremendous value insort of having more clarity and
not sort of being in this kindof gray space all the time.
But you also, to do that well,you have to have the ability to
(21:46):
kind of bank off of that andsort of rethink things when
there's you there's newinformation or perspectives to
think about.
So I credit the two of themwith giving me that insight into
sort of the value of that.
Stacee (22:00):
I love that.
So like it kind of reminds meof if you're at a crossways and
you're facing three roads andyou're wondering what should I
do?
Sounds like Drew and Natalie,once they're on a road, they are
saying ".
Ira (22:13):
And, they know exactly where that road's taking, they
know why they took it and andthey know, you know, what's
supposed to happen if they takeit correctly, right, um, and and
that's tremendously valuable asopposed to saying, well, you
know, if I take this road, likethere's 20 things that could
happen or could go wrong, but ifI take this road, there's a lot
of that, you know.
And, yeah, I think I tend tosort of appreciate and love to
(22:39):
sort of spend time kind ofworking through that complexity
and sharing my thinking aboutmaybe that complexity as well,
and I think sometimes that doesme a disservice.
Stacee (22:47):
I think sometimes that does me a disservice.
Well, and one of the worstthings I think you can do to
yourself is adopt any kind ofhypothetical regret where you
make a decision and you're goingand then you worry and fret
over.
Did I make the right decision?
What if I should have takenthat other road, or maybe that
even third road?
Wonder if I'd be further along,richer, more successful, more
(23:19):
you know?
Blah, blah, blah.
But it's a waste of time tothink about it because you have
no way of comparing the two.
Ira (23:23):
Yeah, when I think about bad decisions, we'll call them
and probably we've all made baddecisions.
I think I have.
But when you think about baddecisions, I try not to think
about them in the context of,well, this was a bad decision
because it didn't work out right, like this was a bad decision
because, like I didn't approachthe decision-making process
(23:45):
correctly, potentially, and thatI can learn from.
But a bad decision shouldn't bejudged strictly by its outcome,
because lots of decisions haveto be made with limited
information and an uncertainoutcome, right and um and sure.
It's easy to look back and belike, oh well, I thought that
everybody was gonna love thisidea and it was gonna take off,
but it didn't.
(24:05):
That doesn't make it a baddecision if, based on the
information that you had at thetime, like it was still the best
decision,
Stacee (24:12):
Right, , um and you have no idea if the other decision
could have been worse correctalthough this brings me to my
tip of the week, which is, uh,something my Ellis husband ellis
says with me.
of the things he says say, onthis, we have this conversation,
have had this conversationseveral times.
I said but your other decisioncould be worse, he's like, or it
(24:35):
could be better.
I'm like, oh, you're ruiningthe whole thing because it could
be worse and you don't evenknow.
So I want to share somethingthat Ellis says to me kind of
regularly.
That's some of the best adviceI could ever have.
Let me set the stage a littlefor those of you that don't know
(24:55):
.
My husband Ellis is a cowboy.
He doesn't do a lot of talking,he's more of an observer.
He's super funny.
But he's also pretty quiet incrowds and stuff like this,
unless he knows you or he's hadseveral, you know.
Uh, Bud Lights in him.
(25:16):
But he, he says and does thesethings sometimes that are just
so profound to me.
So you always have to perk upwhen he's around, cause he might
drop one of these littlenuggets on you.
But we have very differentpersonalities.
I'm type A.
I'm like wound up pretty good,like let's go, let's go.
(25:37):
I fret a lot, I worry about whatI should be doing or what my
purpose is and all these otherthings.
And he says to me, "staceythings tend to have a way of
working out.
To me, stacy things tend tohave a way of working out.
And when I'm worried about ifI'm going to miss a flight, if
(25:57):
I'm going to make a connection,if I'm going to have enough
money to pay the payroll, if I'mgoing to have my company is
going to be successful, ifquitting my job was a bad choice
to start my startup.
He always says this to methings tend to have a way of
working out.
And he's right, they do.
And I don't know if it's justbecause I adopt my new reality
(26:18):
and make it work or I don't know, but most of the stuff I panic
and fret over just doesn'thappen.
Ira (26:30):
Love it.
I think this is potentiallysomething I'm okay at, at least.
But I think a lot of peoplethey spend so much time worrying
about the bad things that couldhappen in X, y and Z scenario
that actually, like, theworrying about those bad things
is way worse than if the badthing actually just happened and
(26:53):
you hadn't spent all that timeworrying about it.
Right, and most of the time thebad thing doesn't even happen.
And so you got all the downsideof worrying about the bad thing
that might happen and didn'teven happen, sort of like.
Sort of like my kids right, likewhy don't you try this new
thing?
It's like, well, there's allthese bad things that can happen
with this new thing.
I might not like it, it mightbe terrible, right, it's like
(27:13):
okay, but you might like it.
And then ultimately they'll doit and maybe they like it, maybe
they don't like it, but like ifthey didn't like it, it wasn't
that bad and it was certainlynot as bad as all the worrying
they did about not liking it.
Liking it, and if they liked it, then like great, now they've
found something else that theylike.
Stacee (27:30):
Yeah, it's a really.
It's a simple thing and itsounds really basic, but I find
myself saying that a lot tomyself when I'm wasting time
fretting over something that Ican't even control.
Well, all right, let's have afinal toast to season one of The
(27:54):
Accidental Entrepreneurs.
Well, let's have a toast to thelast episode of the season.
Cheers, Ira, you can shootyours, I'm sipping mine
Ira (28:09):
You know, to a lot of really fun times chatting with
you for this podcast it's beengreat.
Stacee (28:16):
You got to get this kind .
It's so good.
We'll see you next time.
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