January 23, 2024 • 36 mins
Embark on an inspiring journey with Dr. Stephanie Morley, the trailblazing president of Vetlen Advanced Veterinary Devices, and uncover the diverse pathways a career in veterinary medicine can take. In this episode of Veterinary Blueprints, we sit down with Dr. Stephanie Morley, who shares the story of her remarkable transition from a small animal practice to leading a cutting-edge medical device company. Her narrative is a testament to the impact of seizing unexpected opportunities and the pivotal role that continuous learning and intentional career moves play in shaping a fulfilling vocation beyond the exam room.
We address the emotional toll of veterinary practice, acknowledging struggles Veterinarians face with perfectionism, self-doubt, and imposter syndrome. Stephanie and I dissect how these challenges are often magnified for women veterinarians by societal expectations, and we emphasize the power of networking and skill translation in overcoming these barriers. Our conversation is an example for veterinary professionals grappling with similar issues, offering guidance and a sense of camaraderie in the shared journey towards personal empowerment and professional excellence.
For those intrigued by the intersection of veterinary expertise and business acumen, Stephanie illuminates the path from employee to entrepreneur. We delve into the transformational shift from strategy implementation to creation, the art of team building, and the navigation of high-stakes decisions. Furthermore, we provide an exclusive preview of a groundbreaking veterinary drug delivery device, a game-changer for long-term treatment solutions at Vetlen. This episode is more than just a conversation; it's an example in harnessing one's full potential and a glimpse into the future of veterinary technology.
Guest Information
Dr. Stephanie Morley
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniemorley/
Email - Stephanie@vetlen.com
Vetlen - Advanced Veterinary Devices
https://vetlen.com/
RECEIVE A $5,000 RESEARCH AWARD!
Vetlen Research Resident Award - https://vetlen.com/resident-research-award/
Host Information
Bill Butler – Contact Information
Direct – 952-208-7220
https://butlervetinsurance.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbutler-cic/
Schedule a Strategy Session with Bill – Strategy Session
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's.
Translating those, those skillsets, into non veterinary terms
makes you really realize.
Well, oh my god, I could do alot of things.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the veterinary blueprint podcast
brought to you by butler vetinsurance.
Hosted by bill butler, theveterinary blueprint podcast is
for veterinarians and practicemanagers who are looking to
learn about working on theirpractice instead of in their
practice.
Each episode we will bring yousuccessful, proven blueprints
from others both inside andoutside the veterinary industry.
(00:37):
Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Welcome to the veterinary blueprint podcast,
where animal health meetsbusiness and entrepreneurship
ideas and insights.
I am your host, bill butler,and today we have the privilege
of speaking with dr stefaniemorally.
She has been newly appointed asthe president of vetland
advanced veterinary devices andshe assumed that role as
president recently here inoctober of twenty twenty three.
(01:03):
She is over twenty yearsexperience in veterinary
medicine and stefanie's careerspans from practicing small
animal medicine in new mexicoand michigan and three doctor
practices to leading roles inresearch and business
development.
She's helped the animal healthindustry by bringing
groundbreaking products to theveterinary field In.
(01:24):
Her unique blend of experiencein clinical and business makes
her a visionary for veterinaryleadership health care, and I
would love to welcome drstefanie morally to the podcast
today.
So welcome, stefanie.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, I'm really excited we connected on linkedin
is.
A lot of things happen in the,the Thought leader realm for the
veterinary space and we gotconnected on linkedin.
And while I was researchingbringing you on before we kind
of get into your background bio,I saw that you had the
opportunity to ring the openingbell on wall street.
(02:02):
You said before we got startedthat gets asked a lot and so why
don't you give us a littlebackground and how you went from
in your background, going froma small three doctor practice in
new mexico out of that schoolto being able to ring the
opening bell on wall street as aas a co founder of a medical
device company?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So how long is this podcast again?
Yeah, I think we all have thosestories right, so yeah, yeah, I
mean I won't, you know, I'll letyou ask any questions you have,
but to shorten that trajectory,I to the short answer.
I have no idea how I have it.
I would like to say that I hadsome, you know, strategy going
(02:44):
into my life and my career and Ideveloped it accordingly.
But that just wasn't the case.
But I do think that it was alot, of A lot of taking
opportunities that I didn'tthink.
Whatever come to me I think itwas some of it was desperation,
you know, leaving practice outof desperation and Jumping into
(03:05):
a world of of contract researchthat I didn't know anything
about and then kind of makingmore intentional decisions,
about Really wanting to learnnew things and work with people.
I enjoyed working with it.
With each move it kind of Ledme to really learning new skill
sets that I could apply to thenext thing.
(03:26):
And so when I had theopportunity to co found that
company, it was really, you know, an opportunity to build a
pipeline of products that I knewI would have used in in
practice, and part of thestrategy for zomadica was A
financial strategy to takecompany public.
But it was also then myOpportunity to develop that
(03:49):
pipeline.
So you know, it was all thoseexperiences that just kind of
built on each other, that Kindof all came full circle and led
me to that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So you know when the way back time machines.
You know Stephanie going toschool at the university of
michigan and you didn't go tothe university of michigan.
You two State university inmichigan state, so you were
spartan but then you wound upworking for the enemy and going
to work for university ofmichigan.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Little painful there, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
But you know, going from from that to practicing
medicine, your first job wasdown in new mexico as a
veterinarian.
Is that, is that right?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, that's correct, I I had an interest, so my
undergrad was in hospitalitybusiness, so I always kind of
had this interest in businessand just providing service.
I come from a line of smallbusiness owners and you know, so
I liked the idea of thebusiness, of practice, of the
(04:52):
business of offering better care, and so, and it, you know, I
graduated two thousand three.
So this is around the time whenconsolidation was really
starting to happen withhospitals and I wanted to move
out west.
And so, you know, becausethat's a good reason, I started
looking for corporate practicesthat had Hospitals out west, and
(05:15):
so that's how I ended up withthat role was I did an
externship with corporatepractice out west and they hired
me when I graduated.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And then you know you wound up back in michigan, see,
you know you get into theveterinary world, you wind up
practice out west and then youwind up getting, you know,
moving to a veterinary practiceback.
Now you're from michigan area,so it seems like.
So back to michigan.
I think that you know a lot ofveterinarians might have that
experience right where.
(05:48):
You know we have here inminnesota we have a lot of
transplant veterinarians comingto school from all across the
country and I think you know youwent to vet school close to
home.
I think some that's some of thetrains do that, but you know
they travel around.
They wind up doing anexternship where they go to
school potentially and they windup getting a job there Out of
(06:10):
state and then, you know, downthe road in their career they
wind up at some point maybetransferring home.
You transition out of see,transition back to michigan, but
then you transition away from,you know, practice and I think
there's a lot of veterinarianswho feel that they love the
(06:30):
industry but they have a hardtime with the work life balance
and you know avma has a lot ofstudies where you know you look
at the numbers fifty percent ofveterinarians are contemplating
leaving practice and you're oneof those veterans who did leave
practice but you're able totransition that you want to talk
about that for a listeners whomight be, you know, getting into
the, you know, in the industry.
(06:52):
Now we're thinking about maybetransitioning out and how you're
able to leverage that as thenext phase of your career in the
animal health industry.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, I mean, when I left practice both my practice
my first practice experience waspretty bad.
Long story short, I end up insolo practice about three months
after I graduated from vetschool.
So it was a really rough firstpractice experience for me.
And then when I came back tomichigan and practice, I love
the practice, I was in, love thepeople, but we did our own
emergencies and I just thatwasn't going to cut it for me,
(07:27):
starting a new family and comingin for weekend and evening
hospitalization and emergenciesand everything so.
But I had a non compete and so.
So that's what really forced myhand into leaving practice and
ended up in lab animal.
So you know that transition.
(07:50):
I think what I learned was youdon't as a veterinarian, they
tell you in school, they tellyou but you don't believe them
that there's so many things youcan do with this degree, right.
But when you get out there andyou're doing the work, sometimes
you feel like you're only goodat the things that you were
trained to do and that you can'tnecessarily apply new things
(08:12):
because you've never done thembefore or you don't have a
degree in it, right.
So I don't know if I would havemade the leap to lay on the
animal if I wasn't so desperateto leave practice because I'd
never worked on the majority ofspecies I was going to be
working with.
I'd never worked in a researchsetting, but I did it and I
(08:33):
learned a lot and I got exposedto the whole world of how drugs
and medical devices are createdand researched and approved, not
just for human medicine but forveterinary medicine as well and
worked with a ton of speciesI'd never thought I'd work with,
etc.
And it really kind of helpedopen my eyes to realize.
(08:57):
Like you know, we all learnthings on the job, right, and so
sometimes it's just a matter ofsaying like I'm open to
something new and I will learnsomething new.
And I was really fortunate inthe position that I ended up in
because that institution gave meI think I had maybe seven or
eight titles in eight years.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, looking at your it was like holy cow.
You just you really did it allin that role that you had and
you were exposed to that.
Were there times where youthought I have no idea what I'm
doing, but they're giving methis opportunity, so I shouldn't
say no, I should say yes.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Every day, every day, and I think that's what, that's
what you know.
Life experience has allowed meto be able to look back and
recognize nobody knows whatthey're doing every day, like we
all have our imposter syndromeright.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
They talk about imposter syndrome all the time,
right Like all the time.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, and women are particularly bad with it,
because I don't know if you everread I think it's called the
confidence gap.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I have not.
I'm going to write that down.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, it's a very good book.
It talks about the differencein confidence between men and
women and the good example thatI had.
I was on a panel with somebodyone time a woman that was high
up in HR in a large company andshe said you know, if you have
10 requirements for a jobdescription, a woman will look
at it and say, well, I have nine, so I won't apply.
(10:27):
A man will look at it and say Ihave five, so of course I'll
apply and I'll get the job.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And that's stereotyping, but still.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I think it's accurate .
I don't think it's stereotyping.
I mean I think it's accurate.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And so, and then you put that we're veterinarians on
top of that, and veterinariansare perfectionists.
You have to be perfectionists,you have to be really hard on
yourself in order to get intothat school, and then you're
thrown out to practice and it'snot called the art of medicine,
it's called the practice ofmedicine.
So you're not going to get itright every time, and that is a
(11:06):
really challenging thing forpeople like us who have had to
get everything right all thetime to get to that point.
So you lower confidence or youhave this self doubt, you have
this imposter syndrome, and nowyou work in a perfectionist
mentality.
Yep, and you're working in acommercial world where you're
providing a service to somebodywho can go ruin your reputation
(11:29):
on guilt in you know fiveseconds.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
So and you're going to internalize that I mean to
use the stereotype right BecauseI mean the majority of
veterinary students are women.
There's a lot more diversityhappening in the veterinary
community, which is awesome tosee.
But all of those issues thatyou're talking about, like I'm
married and the things thatyou're talking about, my wife is
not in the veterinary animalhealth world, but it's the self
confidence and perfectionism andyou know all the things that
(11:54):
are set in society and I thinkthat just amplified in the
veterinary community becauseyou're also empaths and you're
not not very extroverted, you'remore introverted.
You'd rather deal with theanimals than the, than the
clients.
Like I'm here for the dogs andcats and kittens and horses and
ponies and I have to deal withthe people because they pay the
bill, but I'd rather deal withthe animal.
(12:16):
And so you just kind ofcompound all those things.
You know I wrote a book aboutinsurance for veterinarians and
like people are like, oh, you'rean author, is like, well, I
don't really feel like an author.
I'm not.
You know, I'm not in Barnes andNoble.
So that imposter syndrome, youknow that's real.
I think to stereotype men havean easier time shaking that off.
In a lot of respects.
I have imposter syndrome aboutthings, but I think in the
(12:39):
industry of the veterinarycommunity it's more prevalent
because of all those externalsocietal things that are in
place, and so it's harder forwomen traditionally to say yes
to those opportunities and takethe risk than it is for men,
because we're supposed to takerisks and it's ingrained in us
(12:59):
from a young age, which is whywe have a shorter life
expectancy between the ages of,you know, five and 20, because
we do take more risk.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think what I learned was one
I was desperate the first time Ileft practice and then a lot of
those opportunities I gotwithin that, you know, within
the CRO I was working in.
One of the most importantthings was it was actually a
woman who was hiring and wantedme to apply for a job that I
(13:30):
hadn't applied for, and she, youknow, asked me why I hadn't
applied and I said well, Ididn't think I was qualified.
And she said you know, in thefuture don't ever keep let
something you know, you thinkingyou're not qualified for
something, keep you fromapplying for it.
And that was a good lesson forme to learn there.
So, you know, my advice toveterinarians is also one that's
(13:53):
life experience.
It's like you just kind of gainsome confidence and wisdom.
And also it's do not be fooledinto thinking that you are only
trained to be a veterinarian.
Everything you do in privatepractice is applicable to things
outside of veterinary medicine.
And I mean, if you, you don't,we don't like to be salespeople.
(14:13):
Veterinarians hate salespeople.
That's what you are asalesperson, because your
patient is not going to get whatit needs If you can't
effectively sell thatrecommendation to the owner.
You don't like, you knowmanaging people, but you manage
people all day, every day,whether it's the staff or the
relationship with the client.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Or even your vendor relationships with
pharmaceutical companies or anyof that.
So you have to manage all thoserelationships.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And the other one I say to people all the time too
is like you know, if you put onyour resume, I can do surgery,
like okay, that's fine, mostpeople outside of veterinary
medicine are not going to careright.
But when you say that you arean effective decision maker in
high stress environments, guesswhat, that's applicable and
(14:59):
that's what surgery can be.
So it's translating those skillsets into non-veterinary terms
makes you really realize, well,oh my God, I could do a lot of
things, but then it's okay.
But how do you go find that?
Next thing that's where I thinknetworking is important.
So you said we found each otheron LinkedIn.
(15:20):
There are not enough practicingveterinarians on LinkedIn, yeah
so it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I've done some research on that, stephanie.
Just where's the marketplace tospeak with veterinarians or
centers of influence?
All of the thought leaders inthe veterinary community,
whether it's lenders, attorneys,a medical device they're all on
LinkedIn, which is where thebusiness world lives.
I'm in the insurance world,like every insurance agent in
the world insurance company.
(15:46):
They're all on LinkedIn.
Only 12 percent of surveyedveterinarians or people inside
Animal Health are on LinkedInand 93 percent are on Facebook
and Instagram.
I think, again, that's thefunction of the mindset, of
their role in society, is thehappy picture stuff and putting
(16:07):
on your practice owner hatversus just an associate.
You have to step up your gamejust a little bit to be able to
network and connect andcommunicate and build a network
around you, whether you own apractice or you want to leave
practice or any of those thingsWe've touched on it.
What was your biggest challenge?
Was it getting out of your ownself-talk, self-doubt in your
(16:29):
head?
Was that the biggest challengethat you had as you progressed
through your career afterleaving practice?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
If I had to narrow it down to one?
Yes, probably because I wasgiven so many opportunities that
were so valuable and led to thenext opportunity that the
challenges were.
Sure, there were otherchallenges, but if I had to
narrow it down to what's thatone thing that really, I guess
(16:59):
it was a challenge, it also justdepleted joy.
I was talking to another friendyesterday about the whole
startup experience.
If I could go back and redo mycareer, I would have been easier
(17:19):
on myself so that I couldreally enjoy the moment of what
I was learning and how it wasgoing.
That little inner voice is areally powerful and nasty beast.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
We touched on the imposter syndrome piece, or the
I can't do this or my backgroundis not business.
I didn't a middling student inhigh school, not good in English
, wrote a book.
My mom has a background inteaching and she couldn't
believe it, just absolutelycouldn't believe it.
(17:59):
So the limitations that we puton ourselves and I think you
have to get through men don'treally mature until they're mid
30s, early 40s.
There's a lot of studies andscience behind that, where our
brains are developing.
Until in our 20s, I think youdon't have that life experience
you were talking about, whereyou have to give yourself grace
(18:19):
to go through all thosechallenges and to go through all
the education thatveterinarians need to do to
become a veterinarian, just tobe able to go out and practice
your profession.
Like that life and worldexperience that you gained
through school actually givesyou a leg up on the rest of
society because you've done thatwork.
And so I think, transitioningfor you from some of those
(18:44):
things where you co-founded acompany, what were you know when
you said, okay, I'm gonna leavethe research space and co-found
a company how was thatdifferent than from being an
employee, to say, okay, now I'mactually running the show versus
just being in charge ofdepartments.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, that was a huge transition that, you know,
hindsight is so, 2020 on.
You know, it's a really goodexample of my life, like if I
had known what I was gettinginto at that time, what I had
made the same decision but I'mso grateful that I did, you know
, because the amount of lifeexperience and opportunity I got
(19:26):
, you know, was just like Inever could have imagined.
But, yeah, it was transitioningfrom kind of, you know, being a
leader, being a bit of a doerbecause I wasn't, you know,
developing the strategy to, allof a sudden, developing the
entire strategy and you knowwhere are we going and hiring
(19:47):
the right people and, you know,making the best decisions for
our investors and all of thatstuff.
That was, that was a new worldfor me, but I think I really
enjoyed it because I always said, like I went into veterinary
medicine for a lot of reasons,but like I was meant to be a
(20:08):
veterinarian because I enjoyeddecision making, like I like to
be in a position of making thedecision because I'm totally
comfortable with if I make thewrong one, I will own it and I
will learn from it and we willall be better for it moving
forward.
But if I.
I hate being in a positionwhere someone else makes the
(20:31):
decision for me and I know it'snot the right decision, but I
have to do something, I have tomake it happen anyway, and so
being starting a company fromthe ground up really gave me
more opportunity to have morecontrol over a lot of those
decisions than I had ever hadbefore, and that was a really
good place to be.
But yeah, it was.
It was a big switch from what Ihad been used to.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
So I was actually on the phone with insurance, a life
insurance broker, this morningin my local area, and we partner
on a lot of stuff and we'reactually talking about a
veterinary practice that we'regoing to go work with on a
couple items and we both his dadstarted his business, his life
insurance brokerage and my dadstarted my agency and we, you
(21:15):
know.
So we're a couple of second geninsurance nerds and who run our
business and, just like in theveterinary community, there's a
lot of money out there.
There's a lot of opportunity.
If I wanted to sell my practiceright now or my insurance
agency there's no shortage to dothat I could go leverage my
experience into, you know,probably making substantially
(21:36):
more money working for somebodyelse, but at the end of the day,
there is an element of beingthe captain of your own ship and
being able to make thosedecisions.
And I said I really don't, I'lltake the pay cut to be the
person in charge.
And I was in the middle.
I told my buddy, chris.
I said I was in the militaryfor 12 years and I signed away.
(21:58):
I signed away my actualconstitutional rights to be in
the military and so I don't wantto be in that position again,
I'd rather.
You know, I'll ride the sinkingship down.
Hopefully I ride off into thesunset with it, but you know, I
think there's a lot ofopportunity for veterinarians
out there.
It was interesting.
I just had the opportunity tospeak to the VBMA at the U of M
(22:20):
and over 40% of the students inthe room the vet students in the
room these are first and secondyear, a couple third year
students.
I said who's going to open apractice or own a practice
someday?
And, like almost half of theroom, raised their hand where I
think five years ago that wasn'tthe case and I think there's a
lot more entrepreneurial spiritwith the incoming veterinarians
(22:40):
out there and the opportunity tosay yes to the opportunities
that are presented to them isvery important.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yes, I agree, yeah, and I think the VBMA like having
that wasn't around when I wasin vet school.
That would have been amazing.
But I think even having anorganization like that, that
you're developing businessminded students, is awesome.
I think it's also a.
You know, it's impossible forvet schools to teach us
(23:10):
everything we need to know,because better you have to learn
the science.
But then you know, most schoolshave like one practice
management course or whateverand it's like.
But the hard part is mostveterans who go into private
practice like it is business,whether you like it or not.
And so I'm happy to seeorganizations like that going
(23:35):
and happy to see more and moresupport things outside of that
schools, you know, throughorganizations where they're
teaching financial literacy andteaching you know more
professional development andhuman resource skills and things
like that, because they reallyare absolutely required for
people to be successful inpractice.
(23:55):
And if they don't have thoseskills, even if they don't think
they want them, if they don'thave them, you're just going to
reduce professional satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, you're a business owner.
You might be a doctor ofveterinary medicine, but I own
an insurance agency and you owna veterinary practice and
they're both businesses and weboth employ people and we both
have clients and we have a P&Land all those things that you
have to pay the rent and do allthose things and you can hire a
lot of that out, but you've gotto do that and so when you're
the person at the top, you'remaking those decisions.
(24:25):
And now you're the person atthe top of VetLen and you were
recently named the president inOctober.
How did that come about and howdid that feel, being picked or
named as president of a medicaldevice company, specifically in
the animal health community?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, so through my time working at business
development, academia and beingon the innovation side of
biotech and the human side, andthen transitioning and starting
a company and really lookingspecifically for technologies
that were being developed forhuman medicine but licensing
(25:04):
those rights and looking for anopportunity in VetLen, I kind of
established a reputation, atleast in some communities and
definitely in the Michigancommunity, for being a
veterinarian who can look atsomething and say whether
there's a place in VetLen for itor not.
And so that's how I wasintroduced to VetLen was because
(25:25):
the parent company for that,for VetLen, is developing a
product for the human sector andso they had done some animal
work and recognize there mightbe a place for this product.
I talked to I don't know atleast a company a month,
probably maybe even more, ofpeople saying, hey, I've got
this product, you know, and Ialmost always say no, that's not
(25:46):
going to work in veterinarymedicine for one reason or
another.
But when I met the group fromVetLen, from the parent company
from VetLen, I was like, okay,they got something here.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Right.
Why did you feel that way aboutthis product or service versus
the other opportunities that youwere presented with?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Because they had won.
The product works and there isa need for it.
So it's a device that deliversdrug locally up to 30 days and
can be removed like a drain.
So it's useful for surgicalsite infections as well as
existing infections and allowsveterinarians opportunity to
(26:27):
treat locally.
So that in and of itself waslike, okay, the product has a
place.
But then also it was theresearch behind it.
It's primarily significantamount of funding from the DOD.
It's being developed fororthopedic implant infections to
reduce biofilm development andto have, whenever there's
(26:51):
funding from DOD or they havelots of money, I hear, for
funding.
Yeah, when they're trying to dosomething to help the lives of
on the battlefield, therestrictions that occur to
physicians trying to treatpatients on the battlefield, or
what physicians are trying to doin third world countries, for
(27:13):
example, that's where humanmedicine starts experiencing a
similar constraints thatveterinarians feel, and so the
products that are beingdeveloped for those sectors
often, I think, have applicationto vet med, and so when I saw
that, and then the team is justawesome, the- yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
So the people are good, it's a good product,
there's a need, they're fillinga gap, and so I kind of checked
a lot of the boxes that maybesome of these other products
didn't have.
It really did yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and it was just .
It was also just the right timeI was ready to to go make
something happen again.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
For the next evolution, and so that's your
driving force and what for youpersonally, taking this role as
president of this company atthis time in your career, what's
the impact and what do youbring to the table and how do
you feel your presence therewill be able to make an impact
and help the veterinarycommunity in your role with this
(28:11):
specific product.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Well, I hope that my impact is.
I'm pretty passionate aboutvoice of customer, so I believe,
when you look at, when you lookat who the people are that are
leading the companies and makingthe products that veterinarians
rely on, most of them are notrepresentative of the
demographic of veterinariansthemselves.
They're either notveterinarians, they're mostly
(28:37):
men.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Why are you describing me Stephanie?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
You're providing a wonderful service to the
veterinary communities, thankyou.
But nonetheless, I think andit's true on the human side too,
because I was on that side toois that if you can bring the
voice of customer into so put itthis way startups in like the
tech space.
They're developing technologyapplication, things like that.
(29:04):
They bring market research inso early in that process because
they have to make it right foradoption.
On the medical side of things,we don't do that.
They just develop somethingthat's like oh yeah, this solves
a problem.
That's really great.
We patent it, we develop it andwe launch it.
They're not out there talking toMDs or talking to DBMs and
(29:25):
saying does this fit your need?
Could you do it better?
Would you like it smaller?
Would you like it bigger?
Is it the right color?
Is it the right size?
How else would you use thisproduct?
Do that early on, and thenyou're actually pulling those
customers into the productdevelopment process and then
you're actually creatingsomething for them that they
will use and that's made forthem.
(29:46):
Veteranians have notexperienced that, because we
don't get a lot of products madespecifically for us.
As a veterinarian, as someonewho has been in private practice
and as someone who has alsodeveloped products for
veterinarians previously, Ibelieve that Vetlin asked me to
come on board because I bringthat perspective I am very, very
(30:09):
much about.
I want to tie my names toproducts that I know work and
they're going to add valuebecause I mean frankly, a lot of
my friends are veterinarians,right?
So I believe that's the benefitI will bring to the company.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
And with launching a product from.
So you're in right now.
We're recording this Decemberof 23, so you're in pre-launch
of the product.
So I've out on the website,like I said, doing some research
.
And for the laynon-veteranarian mind, lizard
brain that I have, again kind ofthe insurance guy, it's
(30:51):
basically a medical pouch thatgets inserted with a catheter
into the site localization andit will deliver antibiotics,
drugs, pain meds or whateverit's going to be localized to
the site, and so that's kind ofwhat it does, right.
I mean just describing theproduct for our listeners who
aren't going to go out andGoogle Vetlin.
It's basically just a and, ofcourse, this is the most medical
(31:15):
thing I've discussed on thepodcast to date, so I'm way out
of my depth of knowledge, butthat's basically what it does,
right.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Basically.
Yes, I mean you're pretty close.
It's not inserted with acatheter, but there is a
catheter that's exteriorizedfrom that site so that you can
basically deliver drugs everyday up to 30 days locally.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
And what's on the market like this right now for
veterinarians to be able to use.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Really nothing.
There's really nothing thatallows this amount of
flexibility to provide the rightantibiotic at the right place
at the right time for thatlength of time.
So yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So your pre-launch.
Now we're recording thisDecember of 23,.
Kind of, what's the timeline?
You know, magic wand, wave it.
Where are you?
You know, six months from now,or three months from now, or
kind of, where are you going tobe in the future with this?
And for the veterans listeningout there going, yeah, we really
do need this.
What's the timeline for them tosee this?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, so first quarter of next year, so the
first three months of next year,I'm going to be focusing most
of getting products in the handsof boarded surgeons and other
veterinarians who want to bekind of our beta testers and to
get some clinical studiesstarted, because I want to have
that data to really support theefficacy of it.
And then in second quarter ofnext year we will have our first
(32:42):
product ready for launch andthat's the first size product.
And we have a program.
If you go to our website, whichis just vetlandbetleancom, we
are giving away one free pouch.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
So I saw you do have some clinical trial stuff.
You're giving away free pouches, like there's some opportunity,
like right now, forveterinarians out there who want
to check this out, also some Iwon't go into the great detail,
but we'll have links in the shownotes for people to go, for
veterinarians to go out andcheck this out.
But there's some grants as well, I think, for research grants
(33:17):
that you're going to be givingaway as well, correct?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yeah, we have a few research grants.
For any residents that aredoing that would be open to
doing publishable research withour device.
We will provide $5,000 andpouches for that study.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Great.
Well, I really enjoyed our timetogether.
We've kind of covered the arcof how to get into vet med being
an entrepreneur and hey, here'ssome medical device stuff that
Bill doesn't know what he'stalking about on.
So thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
What would you for ourlisteners out there?
What would you leave them withof the one thing that if a young
(34:00):
Stephanie branching out, youcould give out?
What would you tell your othervet students as a third or
fourth year student beforegetting into the veterinary
industry as a DVM?
Speaker 1 (34:12):
It would be really to think beyond what it is you
think you want to do.
Do what you want to do, do whatmakes you happy, learn from
everything you do and establishthat network, because I can
guarantee you don't know whatother possibilities you have
down the road.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah Well, that's awesome advice.
Stephanie, thank you so muchfor joining us on the podcast
today.
I'm really glad that we gotconnected and really glad that
you're out there providingresources for veterinarians to
fill gaps in their healthcareneeds.
For you know, I never know.
My little cat Louie one daymight need a vet land pouch to
post-surgery.
(34:50):
Hopefully he never needs it,but if he does, I hope your
product's out there for him.
So thanks so much to you andfor joining us today on the
podcast.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
And, as always, remember to like, share and
review the podcast.
It helps with our algorithmsand we'll catch you on the next
episode.
Thanks for tuning in toVeterinary Blueprints.
If you have any thoughts,questions or suggestions for an
episode, I would love to hearfrom you and please email me at
(35:22):
bill at butlervetinsurancecom.
Don't forget to subscribe soyou never miss an episode, and
if you could do me a huge favoryou know it helps with the
algorithm If you can like, shareor comment on the post, leave a
review.
I would love it.
Thanks for tuning in and untilnext time.
It's.
Translating those, those skillsets, into non veterinary terms
makes you really realize.
Well, oh my god, I could do alot of things.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the veterinary blueprint podcast
brought to you by butler vetinsurance.
Hosted by bill butler, theveterinary blueprint podcast is
for veterinarians and practicemanagers who are looking to
learn about working on theirpractice instead of in their
practice.
Each episode we will bring yousuccessful, proven blueprints
from others both inside andoutside the veterinary industry.
(00:37):
Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Welcome to the veterinary blueprint podcast,
where animal health meetsbusiness and entrepreneurship
ideas and insights.
I am your host, bill butler,and today we have the privilege
of speaking with dr stefaniemorally.
She has been newly appointed asthe president of vetland
advanced veterinary devices andshe assumed that role as
president recently here inoctober of twenty twenty three.
(01:03):
She is over twenty yearsexperience in veterinary
medicine and stefanie's careerspans from practicing small
animal medicine in new mexicoand michigan and three doctor
practices to leading roles inresearch and business
development.
She's helped the animal healthindustry by bringing
groundbreaking products to theveterinary field In.
(01:24):
Her unique blend of experiencein clinical and business makes
her a visionary for veterinaryleadership health care, and I
would love to welcome drstefanie morally to the podcast
today.
So welcome, stefanie.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Well, I'm really excited we connected on linkedin
is.
A lot of things happen in the,the Thought leader realm for the
veterinary space and we gotconnected on linkedin.
And while I was researchingbringing you on before we kind
of get into your background bio,I saw that you had the
opportunity to ring the openingbell on wall street.
(02:02):
You said before we got startedthat gets asked a lot and so why
don't you give us a littlebackground and how you went from
in your background, going froma small three doctor practice in
new mexico out of that schoolto being able to ring the
opening bell on wall street as aas a co founder of a medical
device company?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So how long is this podcast again?
Yeah, I think we all have thosestories right, so yeah, yeah, I
mean I won't, you know, I'll letyou ask any questions you have,
but to shorten that trajectory,I to the short answer.
I have no idea how I have it.
I would like to say that I hadsome, you know, strategy going
(02:44):
into my life and my career and Ideveloped it accordingly.
But that just wasn't the case.
But I do think that it was alot, of A lot of taking
opportunities that I didn'tthink.
Whatever come to me I think itwas some of it was desperation,
you know, leaving practice outof desperation and Jumping into
(03:05):
a world of of contract researchthat I didn't know anything
about and then kind of makingmore intentional decisions,
about Really wanting to learnnew things and work with people.
I enjoyed working with it.
With each move it kind of Ledme to really learning new skill
sets that I could apply to thenext thing.
(03:26):
And so when I had theopportunity to co found that
company, it was really, you know, an opportunity to build a
pipeline of products that I knewI would have used in in
practice, and part of thestrategy for zomadica was A
financial strategy to takecompany public.
But it was also then myOpportunity to develop that
(03:49):
pipeline.
So you know, it was all thoseexperiences that just kind of
built on each other, that Kindof all came full circle and led
me to that opportunity.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
So you know when the way back time machines.
You know Stephanie going toschool at the university of
michigan and you didn't go tothe university of michigan.
You two State university inmichigan state, so you were
spartan but then you wound upworking for the enemy and going
to work for university ofmichigan.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Little painful there, yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
But you know, going from from that to practicing
medicine, your first job wasdown in new mexico as a
veterinarian.
Is that, is that right?
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah, that's correct, I I had an interest, so my
undergrad was in hospitalitybusiness, so I always kind of
had this interest in businessand just providing service.
I come from a line of smallbusiness owners and you know, so
I liked the idea of thebusiness, of practice, of the
(04:52):
business of offering better care, and so, and it, you know, I
graduated two thousand three.
So this is around the time whenconsolidation was really
starting to happen withhospitals and I wanted to move
out west.
And so, you know, becausethat's a good reason, I started
looking for corporate practicesthat had Hospitals out west, and
(05:15):
so that's how I ended up withthat role was I did an
externship with corporatepractice out west and they hired
me when I graduated.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And then you know you wound up back in michigan, see,
you know you get into theveterinary world, you wind up
practice out west and then youwind up getting, you know,
moving to a veterinary practiceback.
Now you're from michigan area,so it seems like.
So back to michigan.
I think that you know a lot ofveterinarians might have that
experience right where.
(05:48):
You know we have here inminnesota we have a lot of
transplant veterinarians comingto school from all across the
country and I think you know youwent to vet school close to
home.
I think some that's some of thetrains do that, but you know
they travel around.
They wind up doing anexternship where they go to
school potentially and they windup getting a job there Out of
(06:10):
state and then, you know, downthe road in their career they
wind up at some point maybetransferring home.
You transition out of see,transition back to michigan, but
then you transition away from,you know, practice and I think
there's a lot of veterinarianswho feel that they love the
(06:30):
industry but they have a hardtime with the work life balance
and you know avma has a lot ofstudies where you know you look
at the numbers fifty percent ofveterinarians are contemplating
leaving practice and you're oneof those veterans who did leave
practice but you're able totransition that you want to talk
about that for a listeners whomight be, you know, getting into
the, you know, in the industry.
(06:52):
Now we're thinking about maybetransitioning out and how you're
able to leverage that as thenext phase of your career in the
animal health industry.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, I mean, when I left practice both my practice
my first practice experience waspretty bad.
Long story short, I end up insolo practice about three months
after I graduated from vetschool.
So it was a really rough firstpractice experience for me.
And then when I came back tomichigan and practice, I love
the practice, I was in, love thepeople, but we did our own
emergencies and I just thatwasn't going to cut it for me,
(07:27):
starting a new family and comingin for weekend and evening
hospitalization and emergenciesand everything so.
But I had a non compete and so.
So that's what really forced myhand into leaving practice and
ended up in lab animal.
So you know that transition.
(07:50):
I think what I learned was youdon't as a veterinarian, they
tell you in school, they tellyou but you don't believe them
that there's so many things youcan do with this degree, right.
But when you get out there andyou're doing the work, sometimes
you feel like you're only goodat the things that you were
trained to do and that you can'tnecessarily apply new things
(08:12):
because you've never done thembefore or you don't have a
degree in it, right.
So I don't know if I would havemade the leap to lay on the
animal if I wasn't so desperateto leave practice because I'd
never worked on the majority ofspecies I was going to be
working with.
I'd never worked in a researchsetting, but I did it and I
(08:33):
learned a lot and I got exposedto the whole world of how drugs
and medical devices are createdand researched and approved, not
just for human medicine but forveterinary medicine as well and
worked with a ton of speciesI'd never thought I'd work with,
etc.
And it really kind of helpedopen my eyes to realize.
(08:57):
Like you know, we all learnthings on the job, right, and so
sometimes it's just a matter ofsaying like I'm open to
something new and I will learnsomething new.
And I was really fortunate inthe position that I ended up in
because that institution gave meI think I had maybe seven or
eight titles in eight years.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, looking at your it was like holy cow.
You just you really did it allin that role that you had and
you were exposed to that.
Were there times where youthought I have no idea what I'm
doing, but they're giving methis opportunity, so I shouldn't
say no, I should say yes.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Every day, every day, and I think that's what, that's
what you know.
Life experience has allowed meto be able to look back and
recognize nobody knows whatthey're doing every day, like we
all have our imposter syndromeright.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
They talk about imposter syndrome all the time,
right Like all the time.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, and women are particularly bad with it,
because I don't know if you everread I think it's called the
confidence gap.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
I have not.
I'm going to write that down.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, it's a very good book.
It talks about the differencein confidence between men and
women and the good example thatI had.
I was on a panel with somebodyone time a woman that was high
up in HR in a large company andshe said you know, if you have
10 requirements for a jobdescription, a woman will look
at it and say, well, I have nine, so I won't apply.
(10:27):
A man will look at it and say Ihave five, so of course I'll
apply and I'll get the job.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And that's stereotyping, but still.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I think it's accurate .
I don't think it's stereotyping.
I mean I think it's accurate.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And so, and then you put that we're veterinarians on
top of that, and veterinariansare perfectionists.
You have to be perfectionists,you have to be really hard on
yourself in order to get intothat school, and then you're
thrown out to practice and it'snot called the art of medicine,
it's called the practice ofmedicine.
So you're not going to get itright every time, and that is a
(11:06):
really challenging thing forpeople like us who have had to
get everything right all thetime to get to that point.
So you lower confidence or youhave this self doubt, you have
this imposter syndrome, and nowyou work in a perfectionist
mentality.
Yep, and you're working in acommercial world where you're
providing a service to somebodywho can go ruin your reputation
(11:29):
on guilt in you know fiveseconds.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
So and you're going to internalize that I mean to
use the stereotype right BecauseI mean the majority of
veterinary students are women.
There's a lot more diversityhappening in the veterinary
community, which is awesome tosee.
But all of those issues thatyou're talking about, like I'm
married and the things thatyou're talking about, my wife is
not in the veterinary animalhealth world, but it's the self
confidence and perfectionism andyou know all the things that
(11:54):
are set in society and I thinkthat just amplified in the
veterinary community becauseyou're also empaths and you're
not not very extroverted, you'remore introverted.
You'd rather deal with theanimals than the, than the
clients.
Like I'm here for the dogs andcats and kittens and horses and
ponies and I have to deal withthe people because they pay the
bill, but I'd rather deal withthe animal.
(12:16):
And so you just kind ofcompound all those things.
You know I wrote a book aboutinsurance for veterinarians and
like people are like, oh, you'rean author, is like, well, I
don't really feel like an author.
I'm not.
You know, I'm not in Barnes andNoble.
So that imposter syndrome, youknow that's real.
I think to stereotype men havean easier time shaking that off.
In a lot of respects.
I have imposter syndrome aboutthings, but I think in the
(12:39):
industry of the veterinarycommunity it's more prevalent
because of all those externalsocietal things that are in
place, and so it's harder forwomen traditionally to say yes
to those opportunities and takethe risk than it is for men,
because we're supposed to takerisks and it's ingrained in us
(12:59):
from a young age, which is whywe have a shorter life
expectancy between the ages of,you know, five and 20, because
we do take more risk.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, absolutely, and I think what I learned was one
I was desperate the first time Ileft practice and then a lot of
those opportunities I gotwithin that, you know, within
the CRO I was working in.
One of the most importantthings was it was actually a
woman who was hiring and wantedme to apply for a job that I
(13:30):
hadn't applied for, and she, youknow, asked me why I hadn't
applied and I said well, Ididn't think I was qualified.
And she said you know, in thefuture don't ever keep let
something you know, you thinkingyou're not qualified for
something, keep you fromapplying for it.
And that was a good lesson forme to learn there.
So, you know, my advice toveterinarians is also one that's
(13:53):
life experience.
It's like you just kind of gainsome confidence and wisdom.
And also it's do not be fooledinto thinking that you are only
trained to be a veterinarian.
Everything you do in privatepractice is applicable to things
outside of veterinary medicine.
And I mean, if you, you don't,we don't like to be salespeople.
(14:13):
Veterinarians hate salespeople.
That's what you are asalesperson, because your
patient is not going to get whatit needs If you can't
effectively sell thatrecommendation to the owner.
You don't like, you knowmanaging people, but you manage
people all day, every day,whether it's the staff or the
relationship with the client.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Or even your vendor relationships with
pharmaceutical companies or anyof that.
So you have to manage all thoserelationships.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
And the other one I say to people all the time too
is like you know, if you put onyour resume, I can do surgery,
like okay, that's fine, mostpeople outside of veterinary
medicine are not going to careright.
But when you say that you arean effective decision maker in
high stress environments, guesswhat, that's applicable and
(14:59):
that's what surgery can be.
So it's translating those skillsets into non-veterinary terms
makes you really realize, well,oh my God, I could do a lot of
things, but then it's okay.
But how do you go find that?
Next thing that's where I thinknetworking is important.
So you said we found each otheron LinkedIn.
(15:20):
There are not enough practicingveterinarians on LinkedIn, yeah
so it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
I've done some research on that, stephanie.
Just where's the marketplace tospeak with veterinarians or
centers of influence?
All of the thought leaders inthe veterinary community,
whether it's lenders, attorneys,a medical device they're all on
LinkedIn, which is where thebusiness world lives.
I'm in the insurance world,like every insurance agent in
the world insurance company.
(15:46):
They're all on LinkedIn.
Only 12 percent of surveyedveterinarians or people inside
Animal Health are on LinkedInand 93 percent are on Facebook
and Instagram.
I think, again, that's thefunction of the mindset, of
their role in society, is thehappy picture stuff and putting
(16:07):
on your practice owner hatversus just an associate.
You have to step up your gamejust a little bit to be able to
network and connect andcommunicate and build a network
around you, whether you own apractice or you want to leave
practice or any of those thingsWe've touched on it.
What was your biggest challenge?
Was it getting out of your ownself-talk, self-doubt in your
(16:29):
head?
Was that the biggest challengethat you had as you progressed
through your career afterleaving practice?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
If I had to narrow it down to one?
Yes, probably because I wasgiven so many opportunities that
were so valuable and led to thenext opportunity that the
challenges were.
Sure, there were otherchallenges, but if I had to
narrow it down to what's thatone thing that really, I guess
(16:59):
it was a challenge, it also justdepleted joy.
I was talking to another friendyesterday about the whole
startup experience.
If I could go back and redo mycareer, I would have been easier
(17:19):
on myself so that I couldreally enjoy the moment of what
I was learning and how it wasgoing.
That little inner voice is areally powerful and nasty beast.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
We touched on the imposter syndrome piece, or the
I can't do this or my backgroundis not business.
I didn't a middling student inhigh school, not good in English
, wrote a book.
My mom has a background inteaching and she couldn't
believe it, just absolutelycouldn't believe it.
(17:59):
So the limitations that we puton ourselves and I think you
have to get through men don'treally mature until they're mid
30s, early 40s.
There's a lot of studies andscience behind that, where our
brains are developing.
Until in our 20s, I think youdon't have that life experience
you were talking about, whereyou have to give yourself grace
(18:19):
to go through all thosechallenges and to go through all
the education thatveterinarians need to do to
become a veterinarian, just tobe able to go out and practice
your profession.
Like that life and worldexperience that you gained
through school actually givesyou a leg up on the rest of
society because you've done thatwork.
And so I think, transitioningfor you from some of those
(18:44):
things where you co-founded acompany, what were you know when
you said, okay, I'm gonna leavethe research space and co-found
a company how was thatdifferent than from being an
employee, to say, okay, now I'mactually running the show versus
just being in charge ofdepartments.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, that was a huge transition that, you know,
hindsight is so, 2020 on.
You know, it's a really goodexample of my life, like if I
had known what I was gettinginto at that time, what I had
made the same decision but I'mso grateful that I did, you know
, because the amount of lifeexperience and opportunity I got
(19:26):
, you know, was just like Inever could have imagined.
But, yeah, it was transitioningfrom kind of, you know, being a
leader, being a bit of a doerbecause I wasn't, you know,
developing the strategy to, allof a sudden, developing the
entire strategy and you knowwhere are we going and hiring
(19:47):
the right people and, you know,making the best decisions for
our investors and all of thatstuff.
That was, that was a new worldfor me, but I think I really
enjoyed it because I always said, like I went into veterinary
medicine for a lot of reasons,but like I was meant to be a
(20:08):
veterinarian because I enjoyeddecision making, like I like to
be in a position of making thedecision because I'm totally
comfortable with if I make thewrong one, I will own it and I
will learn from it and we willall be better for it moving
forward.
But if I.
I hate being in a positionwhere someone else makes the
(20:31):
decision for me and I know it'snot the right decision, but I
have to do something, I have tomake it happen anyway, and so
being starting a company fromthe ground up really gave me
more opportunity to have morecontrol over a lot of those
decisions than I had ever hadbefore, and that was a really
good place to be.
But yeah, it was.
It was a big switch from what Ihad been used to.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
So I was actually on the phone with insurance, a life
insurance broker, this morningin my local area, and we partner
on a lot of stuff and we'reactually talking about a
veterinary practice that we'regoing to go work with on a
couple items and we both his dadstarted his business, his life
insurance brokerage and my dadstarted my agency and we, you
(21:15):
know.
So we're a couple of second geninsurance nerds and who run our
business and, just like in theveterinary community, there's a
lot of money out there.
There's a lot of opportunity.
If I wanted to sell my practiceright now or my insurance
agency there's no shortage to dothat I could go leverage my
experience into, you know,probably making substantially
(21:36):
more money working for somebodyelse, but at the end of the day,
there is an element of beingthe captain of your own ship and
being able to make thosedecisions.
And I said I really don't, I'lltake the pay cut to be the
person in charge.
And I was in the middle.
I told my buddy, chris.
I said I was in the militaryfor 12 years and I signed away.
(21:58):
I signed away my actualconstitutional rights to be in
the military and so I don't wantto be in that position again,
I'd rather.
You know, I'll ride the sinkingship down.
Hopefully I ride off into thesunset with it, but you know, I
think there's a lot ofopportunity for veterinarians
out there.
It was interesting.
I just had the opportunity tospeak to the VBMA at the U of M
(22:20):
and over 40% of the students inthe room the vet students in the
room these are first and secondyear, a couple third year
students.
I said who's going to open apractice or own a practice
someday?
And, like almost half of theroom, raised their hand where I
think five years ago that wasn'tthe case and I think there's a
lot more entrepreneurial spiritwith the incoming veterinarians
(22:40):
out there and the opportunity tosay yes to the opportunities
that are presented to them isvery important.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yes, I agree, yeah, and I think the VBMA like having
that wasn't around when I wasin vet school.
That would have been amazing.
But I think even having anorganization like that, that
you're developing businessminded students, is awesome.
I think it's also a.
You know, it's impossible forvet schools to teach us
(23:10):
everything we need to know,because better you have to learn
the science.
But then you know, most schoolshave like one practice
management course or whateverand it's like.
But the hard part is mostveterans who go into private
practice like it is business,whether you like it or not.
And so I'm happy to seeorganizations like that going
(23:35):
and happy to see more and moresupport things outside of that
schools, you know, throughorganizations where they're
teaching financial literacy andteaching you know more
professional development andhuman resource skills and things
like that, because they reallyare absolutely required for
people to be successful inpractice.
(23:55):
And if they don't have thoseskills, even if they don't think
they want them, if they don'thave them, you're just going to
reduce professional satisfaction.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yeah, you're a business owner.
You might be a doctor ofveterinary medicine, but I own
an insurance agency and you owna veterinary practice and
they're both businesses and weboth employ people and we both
have clients and we have a P&Land all those things that you
have to pay the rent and do allthose things and you can hire a
lot of that out, but you've gotto do that and so when you're
the person at the top, you'remaking those decisions.
(24:25):
And now you're the person atthe top of VetLen and you were
recently named the president inOctober.
How did that come about and howdid that feel, being picked or
named as president of a medicaldevice company, specifically in
the animal health community?
Speaker 1 (24:42):
Yeah, so through my time working at business
development, academia and beingon the innovation side of
biotech and the human side, andthen transitioning and starting
a company and really lookingspecifically for technologies
that were being developed forhuman medicine but licensing
(25:04):
those rights and looking for anopportunity in VetLen, I kind of
established a reputation, atleast in some communities and
definitely in the Michigancommunity, for being a
veterinarian who can look atsomething and say whether
there's a place in VetLen for itor not.
And so that's how I wasintroduced to VetLen was because
(25:25):
the parent company for that,for VetLen, is developing a
product for the human sector andso they had done some animal
work and recognize there mightbe a place for this product.
I talked to I don't know atleast a company a month,
probably maybe even more, ofpeople saying, hey, I've got
this product, you know, and Ialmost always say no, that's not
(25:46):
going to work in veterinarymedicine for one reason or
another.
But when I met the group fromVetLen, from the parent company
from VetLen, I was like, okay,they got something here.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Right.
Why did you feel that way aboutthis product or service versus
the other opportunities that youwere presented with?
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Because they had won.
The product works and there isa need for it.
So it's a device that deliversdrug locally up to 30 days and
can be removed like a drain.
So it's useful for surgicalsite infections as well as
existing infections and allowsveterinarians opportunity to
(26:27):
treat locally.
So that in and of itself waslike, okay, the product has a
place.
But then also it was theresearch behind it.
It's primarily significantamount of funding from the DOD.
It's being developed fororthopedic implant infections to
reduce biofilm development andto have, whenever there's
(26:51):
funding from DOD or they havelots of money, I hear, for
funding.
Yeah, when they're trying to dosomething to help the lives of
on the battlefield, therestrictions that occur to
physicians trying to treatpatients on the battlefield, or
what physicians are trying to doin third world countries, for
(27:13):
example, that's where humanmedicine starts experiencing a
similar constraints thatveterinarians feel, and so the
products that are beingdeveloped for those sectors
often, I think, have applicationto vet med, and so when I saw
that, and then the team is justawesome, the- yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
So the people are good, it's a good product,
there's a need, they're fillinga gap, and so I kind of checked
a lot of the boxes that maybesome of these other products
didn't have.
It really did yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, and it was just .
It was also just the right timeI was ready to to go make
something happen again.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
For the next evolution, and so that's your
driving force and what for youpersonally, taking this role as
president of this company atthis time in your career, what's
the impact and what do youbring to the table and how do
you feel your presence therewill be able to make an impact
and help the veterinarycommunity in your role with this
(28:11):
specific product.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Well, I hope that my impact is.
I'm pretty passionate aboutvoice of customer, so I believe,
when you look at, when you lookat who the people are that are
leading the companies and makingthe products that veterinarians
rely on, most of them are notrepresentative of the
demographic of veterinariansthemselves.
They're either notveterinarians, they're mostly
(28:37):
men.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Why are you describing me Stephanie?
Speaker 1 (28:43):
You're providing a wonderful service to the
veterinary communities, thankyou.
But nonetheless, I think andit's true on the human side too,
because I was on that side toois that if you can bring the
voice of customer into so put itthis way startups in like the
tech space.
They're developing technologyapplication, things like that.
(29:04):
They bring market research inso early in that process because
they have to make it right foradoption.
On the medical side of things,we don't do that.
They just develop somethingthat's like oh yeah, this solves
a problem.
That's really great.
We patent it, we develop it andwe launch it.
They're not out there talking toMDs or talking to DBMs and
(29:25):
saying does this fit your need?
Could you do it better?
Would you like it smaller?
Would you like it bigger?
Is it the right color?
Is it the right size?
How else would you use thisproduct?
Do that early on, and thenyou're actually pulling those
customers into the productdevelopment process and then
you're actually creatingsomething for them that they
will use and that's made forthem.
(29:46):
Veteranians have notexperienced that, because we
don't get a lot of products madespecifically for us.
As a veterinarian, as someonewho has been in private practice
and as someone who has alsodeveloped products for
veterinarians previously, Ibelieve that Vetlin asked me to
come on board because I bringthat perspective I am very, very
(30:09):
much about.
I want to tie my names toproducts that I know work and
they're going to add valuebecause I mean frankly, a lot of
my friends are veterinarians,right?
So I believe that's the benefitI will bring to the company.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
And with launching a product from.
So you're in right now.
We're recording this Decemberof 23, so you're in pre-launch
of the product.
So I've out on the website,like I said, doing some research
.
And for the laynon-veteranarian mind, lizard
brain that I have, again kind ofthe insurance guy, it's
(30:51):
basically a medical pouch thatgets inserted with a catheter
into the site localization andit will deliver antibiotics,
drugs, pain meds or whateverit's going to be localized to
the site, and so that's kind ofwhat it does, right.
I mean just describing theproduct for our listeners who
aren't going to go out andGoogle Vetlin.
It's basically just a and, ofcourse, this is the most medical
(31:15):
thing I've discussed on thepodcast to date, so I'm way out
of my depth of knowledge, butthat's basically what it does,
right.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Basically.
Yes, I mean you're pretty close.
It's not inserted with acatheter, but there is a
catheter that's exteriorizedfrom that site so that you can
basically deliver drugs everyday up to 30 days locally.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
And what's on the market like this right now for
veterinarians to be able to use.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Really nothing.
There's really nothing thatallows this amount of
flexibility to provide the rightantibiotic at the right place
at the right time for thatlength of time.
So yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
So your pre-launch.
Now we're recording thisDecember of 23,.
Kind of, what's the timeline?
You know, magic wand, wave it.
Where are you?
You know, six months from now,or three months from now, or
kind of, where are you going tobe in the future with this?
And for the veterans listeningout there going, yeah, we really
do need this.
What's the timeline for them tosee this?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah, so first quarter of next year, so the
first three months of next year,I'm going to be focusing most
of getting products in the handsof boarded surgeons and other
veterinarians who want to bekind of our beta testers and to
get some clinical studiesstarted, because I want to have
that data to really support theefficacy of it.
And then in second quarter ofnext year we will have our first
(32:42):
product ready for launch andthat's the first size product.
And we have a program.
If you go to our website, whichis just vetlandbetleancom, we
are giving away one free pouch.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
So I saw you do have some clinical trial stuff.
You're giving away free pouches, like there's some opportunity,
like right now, forveterinarians out there who want
to check this out, also some Iwon't go into the great detail,
but we'll have links in the shownotes for people to go, for
veterinarians to go out andcheck this out.
But there's some grants as well, I think, for research grants
(33:17):
that you're going to be givingaway as well, correct?
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yeah, we have a few research grants.
For any residents that aredoing that would be open to
doing publishable research withour device.
We will provide $5,000 andpouches for that study.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Great.
Well, I really enjoyed our timetogether.
We've kind of covered the arcof how to get into vet med being
an entrepreneur and hey, here'ssome medical device stuff that
Bill doesn't know what he'stalking about on.
So thank you very much.
I appreciate that.
What would you for ourlisteners out there?
What would you leave them withof the one thing that if a young
(34:00):
Stephanie branching out, youcould give out?
What would you tell your othervet students as a third or
fourth year student beforegetting into the veterinary
industry as a DVM?
Speaker 1 (34:12):
It would be really to think beyond what it is you
think you want to do.
Do what you want to do, do whatmakes you happy, learn from
everything you do and establishthat network, because I can
guarantee you don't know whatother possibilities you have
down the road.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah Well, that's awesome advice.
Stephanie, thank you so muchfor joining us on the podcast
today.
I'm really glad that we gotconnected and really glad that
you're out there providingresources for veterinarians to
fill gaps in their healthcareneeds.
For you know, I never know.
My little cat Louie one daymight need a vet land pouch to
post-surgery.
(34:50):
Hopefully he never needs it,but if he does, I hope your
product's out there for him.
So thanks so much to you andfor joining us today on the
podcast.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
And, as always, remember to like, share and
review the podcast.
It helps with our algorithmsand we'll catch you on the next
episode.
Thanks for tuning in toVeterinary Blueprints.
If you have any thoughts,questions or suggestions for an
episode, I would love to hearfrom you and please email me at
(35:22):
bill at butlervetinsurancecom.
Don't forget to subscribe soyou never miss an episode, and
if you could do me a huge favoryou know it helps with the
algorithm If you can like, shareor comment on the post, leave a
review.
I would love it.
Thanks for tuning in and untilnext time.
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