Episode #42 – Bruce Truman

Do you work in the animal health industry or veterinary profession? Have you ever wondered how people began their careers and how they got to where they are today? Hi everyone. I’m Stacy Pursell, the founder and CEO of the Vet Recruiter, the leading executive search and recruiting firm for the animal health industry and veterinary profession. I was the first recruiter to specialize in the animal health industry and veterinary profession in the United States and built the first search firm to serve this unique niche. For the past 25 plus years, I have built relationships with the industry’s top leaders and trailblazers. The people of Animal Health podcast highlights the incredible individuals I have connected with throughout my career. You will be able to learn more about their lives, careers, and contributions. With our wide range of expert guest, you’ll be sure to learn something new in every episode.

Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode. Welcome to the People of Animal Health podcast. On today’s show, we are talking with Bruce Truman. Bruce Truman is the founder of BLT Technology and Innovation Group. Bruce provides his expertise in emerging companion animal digital technology, including business development, commercialization of SaaS platforms, healthcare informatics, virtual care, E-commerce, and other emerging digital technologies. Bruce is a founding member of the Veterinary Virtual Care Association, past president of VetPartners.org, the Nonprofit Association of Veterinary Business Experts, and a member of the APPA Industry Advisory Council. Well, Bruce, thank you for being on the People of Animal Health podcast today.

Absolutely. Glad to be here, Stacy. Thanks for having me.

Well, Bruce, let’s start off at the beginning. What was your life like growing up and where did you grow up?

Okay, grew up in Northwest, Illinois on a farm. We grew corn, soybeans, and a lot of pigs, so that was my life growing up. Our closest neighbor was like a mile, mile and a half away where I grew up. So very rural.

Well, Bruce, how did you get into the animal health industry? And I’d love to hear more about your early days in the industry.

Sure, happy to share. I got into the… One would assume growing up on a farm, and then I went to University of Illinois, received an undergraduate degree in Ag economics. It was called Ag Business at the time or Ag Industries. And then went on and got my MBA, and one would assume that I would just naturally go back to agribusiness or perhaps go back to the family farm, my journey didn’t take me that way, and I really wanted to go out and be an account exec for an ad agency. I had several interviews with consulting firms and ad agencies while I was in grad school, but ultimately Stacy. My career in animal health resulted because I went to a bar on the north side of Chicago one weekend. We were with some friends and I ran into a buddy from high school that I hadn’t seen since high school, and I’m like, “Well, what are you doing for a living?”

And he’s like, “Well, I work for a company called Pittman Moore. I work for an animal health company,” and frankly, I had never had imagined a role like that. So fast-forward a month later, I’m hired by Pittman Moore for an inside sales job. So I was trained on inside sales on a portfolio of products that included vaccines, anesthetic agents, some people on the phone might remember Metafame as the lead anesthesia before ISO came out. I was selling that and then they moved me to a sales territory in central Florida. And I’ll never forget when you’re young, it’s easy to move. I had like 10 boxes that I UPS’d down to a hotel in Florida. My boss, new boss told me, Mike Duvall, who’s still in the industry, Mike hired me. Mike said, “Well, why don’t you find a place to live? Take a couple of weeks, find a place to live, go out and make sales calls on your own because I don’t want to make you nervous and bother you on your first sales calls.”

I literally never forget, my first sales call in central Florida was for Pine Castle, I think it was called Pine, Castle Animal Hospital, just south of downtown Orlando. And I walked in with my sports jacket on my tie, my press shirt, my big bag, sales detail bag. And I told the lady as I was handing her my card, this is my first sales call I’ve ever made. And the doctor, I can’t remember his name now, but the doctor was the kindest guy. He’s like, “All right, come on in to the exam room.” And he’s like, “This is your first sales call.” And I told him the story and he is like, “Well, let me help you out.” He’s like, “Well, we don’t wear the sports jackets. You don’t need to wear a sports jacket, don’t wear the tie. If you want to wear a pressed shirt, you can, but wear a golf shirt.”

And then he was like, “Let’s look at your detail bag. Let me show you what you need to know in your detail bag.” And I’ll just never forget that memory of being so nervous, first sales call on your own and finding somebody that was so helpful. And then that launched the rest of my career from Pittman Moore to Rhône-Mérieux, to Rhône-Mérieux merger when they had Frontline with Merck Agvet to form Mary Owl. And I could talk about this for forever, so I’ll stop right there, Stacy.

Well, it sounds like you didn’t have a whole lot of training before your first sales call, is that right?

We had a lot of insights, training and sales product knowledge, but not a lot of training. Well, let me take that back. We did ride Whiffs. So as inside salespeople, we would get assignments where we would go ride with a rep and not just a local rep around the Pittman-Moore headquarters in Mundelein, Illinois. They would fly you out and you’d spend four or five days with a salesperson. So I did have that training. Even the basics, well, when you park your car, don’t park your car in the very best parking spot in the front of the clinic. Like always go and choose the furthest parking spot or park on the street. Courtesy things that you do. So I had that training, and as we’re talking about it’s bringing up a lot of good memories.

Well, I love the story of your first sales call, and it sounds like that gentleman really took the time and to care and help you out there. Well, Bruce, you and I have known each other for a long time. It’s been probably 18 years, and I know we’ve had an opportunity to work together over the years on a variety of different projects. So I’m pretty familiar with your career. But just in a nutshell, just walk us through, because I know now you’re a technology consultant, but walk us through some of the other things that you’ve done from the beginning with your first sales call up to now.

Absolutely. I think the abridged version would be the field sales for Pittman Moore, Rhône-Mérieux. You moved into the New Jersey, Woodbridge, New Jersey office when Mary Al formed in what was the Merck Agvet offices? This was back probably in 98, 99, 2000. Did brand management on Frontline. May have helped a little bit on Heartgard, but most of my work was on Frontline. Switched to Pfizer and did the post-launch on Revolution and some global work on Serenia and Slin-Trol, I think it was called. They were discovery drugs at that time. And then as a result of that, sat next to a buddy of mine, Dr. Albert Ong on a plane back from Kansas City one time, and Albert didn’t move with Mary. Al down to Atlanta, stayed here in New Jersey and was working for Heart, setting up research and development. And after giving them a hard time about going to the pet retail side, two or three weeks later, I’m running their animal health division for them and worked with Albert and a couple of other colleagues that I still know to this day.

So for Hearts, I managed a broad portfolio, mostly flea and tick, probably a hundred million dollar business unit. Ran that for a number of years. And then Albert and I, along with Julia, Stefanis and others, got funding from the owners of Hearts, which was Sumitomo to start Summit Vet Farm and Vectra and Vectra 3D. And that was my first foray into startups. But I really had a passion for starting things, and my interest is always at the build or the beginning of a company or a product or a service, the life cycle of that. It’s always at the beginning. We scaled that up, got it to about 30 employees. I can’t remember the sales we were doing, but it was good for a kind of single molecule company. And then I went on to help, I was part of the management team at that street was, which was one of the first softwares as a service in this space that automated client communications for veterinary clinics. And after that startup, that’s when I formed my consulting firm.

Well, Albert Ong is a dear friend of mine. I’ve known him for close to 24 years, and he introduced you and I. So that’s how I got to know you because you and I met when you were at Hearts and you were starting Some Event Farm, and I helped you build your sales team.

That’s right, you did. You helped us hire several people in that organization because we had to scale up quickly and we needed the quality reps real quickly, so we needed to screen and get to the best ones quickly. And a comment I would make, this is maybe several minutes ago, but when I intended a better new innovation summit a few weeks ago, and I wrote about that in the latest animal health news and views, Veterinary Innovation Summit in the Vet Partners meeting, but Mark Cushing made a very, I think it was in the grand scheme of things, a minor point, but it was a pretty significant point for me where Mark said that we are all in healthcare. We are all in healthcare for pets and BLT Technology and Innovation Group focuses on the beginning of that, right? So the beginning of that care for the pet, whether it be a software as a service, a diagnostic, a product, that’s the space that we operate in, is how do we get these companies, the good ones with the good ideas, with solid founders, how do we get them scaled up and actively participating in the industry and bringing value?

Well, Bruce, you’ve done so many interesting things. You’ve been involved in lots of different aspects of the industry. You’ve seen some things along the way, and you’ve been at the forefront of emerging pet technologies for over three decades. Can you share some of the most significant innovations that you’ve witnessed in this space?

Oh my goodness, that’s a big question, and there’s a lot of different ways to answer that. I think the work that Vet Street was doing and ThinkPets, which was an entity that they acquired that some of our colleagues in the industry were involved with. I think those early days of connectivity to the practice software and how do we utilize the data contained within that software, I think that’s a big trend. We had a company, we scaled up and sold to another entity that was doing, the vision was to do insurance claims processing and automate that process better than what it is now. I think that was an innovation that did not scale up, but I think what we will see, and many people are talking about this, is that there will be another entry into that space that can help increase the number of pets insured so that there’s payment at point of care instead of delayed payment.

I think that could be a big innovation in the future. I mean, Stacy, there’s just so many innovations out there. I think that the DERM products that Zoetis are doing now are true game changers. Librela is a true game changer. I see the For OA, I see the positive benefits even on our own dog there. So I just love watching all the advancement and innovation. I mean, Elanco with the Parvo drug, right? I think we’re at a really cool time in the industry that we’re seeing biotech and different types of tech that’s entering in here and really making a difference. We’re even working on a company right now that is called Vet Breath and is using VOCs, so volatile organic compounds to measure disease in pets. And I think there’ll be a lot of interesting things out of that.

We’re working with a production animal company that’s helping visualize genetic data to tell you whom to breed with who. I mean, there’s a lot of different innovations out there, whether it be medical innovation or software innovation, the movement from premise-based software to cloud-based software, we as an industry may be behind other industries, but seeing that advancement is a big one too.

Yeah. So many interesting things. And you’re mentioning, you touched so many different areas of the industry, the companion animal, the production animal. And so Bruce, I know that you focus on advising early stage and channel expansion companies. What key factors do you consider when helping these companies navigate the companion animal industry?

Let’s talk about the startups in particular. My opinion, the startup companies, our make or break is the founder and the founding management team. When we’re looking at startups in the space, we really look hard at the background and experience of the founder, and typically in most of our work, it’s the founding CEO and CTO, -CIO, right? That’s for the tech stuff. And you really want to look at those two, how passionate are they, how articulate are they? How comfortable are they in front of crowds? And then look at the idea, what is the idea? What is the TAM? The total addressable market for the idea. Much of our work is in phases where early ideas that are just an idea, we will do a market assessment and give a valuation to that founder or company that’s funding them to figure out what the path for it is.

Then we go into a phase two commercial plan development. We’re going to map everything out for you for the next two to three years on where you need to be, who you need to support in terms of associations, which key opinion leaders you need to align with, which publications do you need to actively participate in? Which podcasts do you need to be on? I mean, it’s a soup to nuts assessment in a plan. And then phase three is…

And there’s always funding that happens along that way. Funding to get this started, funding after major deals in place, but in a stage three, it’s execution of that commercial plan. So all the work we’ve done over several months, we’ve all aligned on it. The management team aligns on it, the investors align on it. Now let’s go out and activate. Let’s build this business out. Strategic partnership social media, hyping them up, press releases, pitch competitions, you name it. With the ultimate goal being that we are unemployed, and that is success. Meaning that we are builders and we will build, we get the deals in place so that you can hire your operators that come in and take over. And I always tell people, that’s success. That’s not a sad thing when you say to BLT, “Hey, we’ve got our team hired. Thanks for all the help. We’ve got our revenue. It’s time to move on.” That’s a real positive and that that’s our goal always.

Yeah. Well, Bruce, you have played a pivotal role in virtual care, particularly with Veterinary Virtual Care Association or WWCA. How do you see virtual care evolving in the veterinary profession over the next five years?

Sure. That’s a good question. And it’s VVCA.org and I was one of the original founding board members, and I have to give a lot of credit to the entire board. It’s an incredibly talented board. I had imposter syndrome so much when I was around all the other colleagues that were on this board, but the idea here is, for me, it was almost a no-brainer. If we look at human health, and I know many times the veterinary community does not comparisons to human health, but the reality is what we see in human health will be happening in veterinary medicine in many cases, 10 or 15 years later, such as the shift of the pharmacy revenue, which we could talk about for hours also. But as it relates to virtual care, I looked at the, I think it’s American Telehealth Association, ATA. But I was looking at other organizations in human health. The advances in telehealth in particular with Teledoc and following Teledoc’s journey and following the challenges that they faced all the way up to allowing it in all the states and then allowing cross-state licensure so physicians could give advice across state lines.

All of that’s happening and has been advanced by the pandemic and is happening in the veterinary industry. Where do I see it in five years? I see the entities that are out there providing telehealth services that do not directly involve a veterinary practice to scale the most quickly and provide access to care. I see the after-hours service providers or overflow service providers like Guardian Vets, I see them as a big component serving the need of a veterinary practice that has staffing issues or with the downturn in client visits, the extension, the lengthening of the time between visits, retention of clients is critically important. So anything you can do so that after hours they don’t get voicemail or they don’t get simply referred to an emergency clinic, that’s all going to continue to grow. So telehealth platforms that do not involve the veterinary clinic are going to grow telehealth platforms or let’s call them after-hours service providers because there’s such a need for it and for overflow during the day.

Those are going to really flourish. The other area that’s going to flourish are the deNovo’s with virtual care, and I think Petfolk is a great example of that. Built into their model is telehealth. It’s built in from the beginning. Where’s everybody struggling, and where do I think it’s going to be hard to find that role is going to be in what I’ll call the brick and mortar standard or established primary care veterinary hospital. Any changes we know to a workflow or a process within those facilities is a huge lift, and we see that segment of the market struggling, in my opinion.

Yeah. Well, Bruce business development is a major aspect of your work. Can you talk about the importance of aligning with the right partners in the pet technology space?

Sure. Well, that’s the fun part, right? And I’ve always… Dr. Marty Becker is the one that told me this, and I didn’t realize it, that there’s this book, I think it’s called the Abundance Mindset or the Abundance mentality, and Marty and I have known each other for a long time, but did some real close work with Marty for a couple of years and still stay in touch with him and Randy of course. But Marty’s like, “Bruce, you got to read this book. You’ve got this Abundance Mentality,” and I do. And that is the belief that if you’re connecting businesses, if you’re connecting people, colleagues, because the two of them, one plus one equals four or equals five, right? The two together are synergistic. I get a lot of passion out of doing that, and it’s not something you have to be paid for. It’s something that you want to do.

So it only came naturally to me when we formed the consulting business, and now we’ve scaled out having four consultants and a support team to help us with the business. But that same mindset now benefits our clients. So if we have a diagnostic client that’s working on an innovation, and I know of an animal health company that’s looking for that innovation or looking to solve a pain point, the beauty of connecting those two is just really rewarding for me, and it’s so fun to see these companies be successful and scale up and grow. It really is.

Well, you’ve managed key opinion leaders and influencers within the industry. How has influencer management changed in recent years, and what strategies do you find most effective?

Yeah, I think one of the big changes that’s occurred maybe over the past 10 or 15 years is prior to social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, most of the key opinion leaders in the space you met through their writing and they’re speaking. So where did you find your key opinion leaders back then was at the major conferences, and they’re still there. But now we have a real significant growth in the social media influencers. So Dr. Lisa Lippman, love following her on Instagram. Think we all love following Walter Brown and his journeys as the voice of the veterinary technician and really getting out there and advocating for that role. That’s what’s changed, is this social media component to it also.

Yeah. Well, as a past president of vetpartners.org, which I’m also a member of, and a member of several advisory councils, what role do you believe these organizations play in shaping the future of veterinary care?

Well, the associations like that, whether it be a vet partners or a VVCA or the work in the past that I’ve done with Dr. Jane Brunt and the Catalyst Council, which I really love the work they’re doing, those roles put you at the table with other leaders and thought leaders. And so it gives you an opportunity to learn from others, collaborate with others, but also gives you a format or a forum to express your opinions about what will be happening in the future. Prescription management, there’s going to be a lot of activity around that prescription management platforms. The shift in the pharmacy is going to continue whether we like it or not, because that’s the human healthcare experience that our clients expect. So I think those are all things that I’ve seen as discussion items in these nonprofit boards that I serve on. And you always learn something, and I would like to think you always contribute to help move the ball forward and advance the industry.

Well, Bruce, your experience spans both the companion and the production animal industries like we mentioned before. I’m curious, what are some of the unique challenges and opportunities that you’ve encountered in each sector?

Well, I think they’re both unique, and I’ll be very transparent that our one foray into production animal right now is with a startup company called AgBoost, which is doing great things with cattle genetics and visualizing the genetic reports so that producers can decide who to mate with whom. And I’m real transparent that even though I grew up on a farm, the work we’ve done has all been in companion animal. So production animal, we’re on that journey and we’re learning a lot of interesting things, but I’ll tell you what, it’s very similar. There’s associations on the companion animal side that we’re familiar with. There’s associations that are very similar on the production animal side, whether it be like, I think it’s a National Angus Association. Well, then you’ve got something similar. I’m just drawing similarities like to AKC where there’s a purebred association. So there are those similarities.

I think companion animal in particular, even though we say this is a small vertical, and everybody knows everybody. If you’re an outsider with an idea that fits into companion animal, and let’s drop it down, even a layer below that fits into companion animal veterinary industry, and you can even drop it down lower, fits into companion animal veterinary industry diagnostics, right? Going all the way down several layers. It’s pretty intimidating for somebody outside the industry to even figure out the national conferences or who are the key players and who do you need to talk to?

Oh my goodness. If I got out of graduate school in ’93, ’94, I’ve been in this industry a long time, and I’ve never missed a VMX in that entire time. I think it was even called Eastern States when I started. Then it changed names, what twice since then. But having that network, knowing… Our clients even, we give them tips on, okay, when you’re at VMX, this is where you have your meetings. If you want to have meetings where you’re seen in public for whatever reason, the startup might want to be seen, here’s where you have your meetings. If you want to have a private meeting. But most startups can’t afford to have where you can have your private meetings where no one will be around. It’s those little insider tips, I guess. Or when you’re at VMX, here’s the key opinion leaders that you need to meet.

Here are their sessions that they’re speaking in, and we even give guidance on, well, don’t approach somebody before their talk. Let’s wait till after the talk, let the other veterinarians get the questions answered from the speaker, then grab that individual and talk to them or whatever. We’ve tried to be really very helpful to our founders and our startups that don’t understand the industry and get them grounded in the industry because going to one of those conferences is not inexpensive in terms of time and travel and hotel and everything. The conference itself is cost-effective, but the expenses around it to a founder are pretty significant. So we want to optimize every single moment that they’re there for them.

And you and I have such a good time walking those conferences together. For example, the VMX, and I mean, we can spend four hours just going through and stopping at all the booths, talking to all the people, so much variety in the types of products and services and people, so much innovation. There’s so much going on at those shows. I thoroughly enjoy what we do together walking those shows. Bruce, you have a strong background in Parasiticide product development and commercialization. How has the landscape of Parasiticides changed and what future trends should we be aware of?

It’s a great question, and if I think back, I remember a friend and colleague, Mickey Court who I was on a sales call north of Orlando back in whenever program came out. Maybe that was ’96, ’97, ’98. And the courtesy is if you’re on a sales call most of the time, you’ll recognize the company car in the parking lot and you’ll just wait till they come back out. But in this case, I didn’t recognize Mickey’s car. So I came into the clinic, I want to even say it was a cat clinic, and she was doing a detail. There wasn’t anybody in the waiting room. So she was doing a detail, and I said, “Oh, sorry, Mickey, I’ll come back later.” And I said, “You’re probably talking about program.” And she was like, “Yeah, I am.” And she’s like, “You’re more than welcome to stay. I’d love to have you hear my detail.”

And so that was the shift back then from Vet Chem, right? All the topicals and environmental products, Vet Chem was the popular product. I remember the Ovatrol collar then program came out and did that channel shift from retail or OTC to prescription. And then fast-forward three, four, five years, maybe not that much more. And then you have Frontline, which was truly revolutionary at the time due to its efficacy now. We launched it in Florida with a three-month label that did not work. We had to go back to a one-month label. And I remember being involved in the home office making those decisions to change the label claim on the front panel to one month, even though efficacy data could support longer. That product was a blockbuster, I think the first billion dollar product. But then it shifted again, Stacy from topicals to orals, and now it’s oral. So what do I see? I see more Isoxazoline class.

I see more in that Isoxazoline class coming out. Certainly the generics are going to come out whenever the patents are off on the pioneers, but I think we’re going to stay in this oral space for some time because it’s less messy. There’s not a pesticide on the hair of the dog. The greasy spot is addressed. I think there will always be a role for topicals. And I am certain that the pharmaceutical companies are talking about the fact if a client can afford an oral, give them the oral. But if the client can’t afford the oral, don’t let them leave without protection. Make sure they’re given something.

Yeah, that makes sense. Well, what advice would you give to new entrepreneurs looking to break into pet technology space, especially in light of the rapid digital transformations that we’re seeing today?

Well, it’s happening very quickly, and I talk to entrepreneurs almost on a daily basis, but certainly a new entrepreneur every few days. What would my advice be? I think you have to ground yourself in the industry by going to some of the major events that are held. Our big annual conferences, VMX, WVC Viticus, think those, pick one of them. If you budget doesn’t allow to go to both, pick one of them and go. I think Caseco is doing great work with the pet care innovation, Summits and the Animal health, AHNT, animal Health, nutrition, technology, and innovation summits. I would definitely, if you’re an entrepreneur, put those on the list. Veterinary Innovation Summit is a meeting that I look forward to every year, not only because of what you learn and the great speakers that are brought in, but because the C-suites are there, the leaders are there, the folks that are on the cutting edge are there, and you get to connect with them.

I mean, I could go on and on about the type of events. Pitch competitions that Plug and Play does. I’m a mentor for Plug and Play, and I’m getting grounded in their platform and the innovation that they’re bringing forward. And then the last thing, Stacy, I’ll say in terms of entrepreneurs, there are a number of free publications out there. There are a number of paid publications that you need to subscribe to, and we always get our startups up to speed by making sure they join VHMA so that they’re getting the daily newsfeed. I think that’s the wrong title, but it’s a forum that gives me and our team a pulse on what’s going on amongst that practice manager community, community of influencers.

There’s several other weeklies that I think are absolutely must. The Fountain Report is a must for somebody that’s trying to get grounded in the industry. And so do your homework, attend the events, do pitch competitions and startup events, and frankly, connect with a good advisor. I mean, that’s what we’re doing here is we’re guiding these companies early on so that instead of them taking nine months or a year to find the right partnerships and the right contacts and the right deals, we’re fast forwarding that significantly because the team has spent so much time in this industry that we love.

Yes. And I want to point out too, Bruce that you are a regular monthly contributor to the publication, Animal Health News and Views, and that you write on technology. So those in our listening audience that want to learn more about the work that Bruce is doing, be sure to check out his monthly articles about innovation in animal health news and views. Bruce, I’m curious, what has been the most surprising thing to you during your career in the animal health industry or working across the veterinary profession?

The most surprising thing to me, oh my goodness. I mean, there’s so many different things I could say there. I think maybe surprise is not what I would say, but frustration perhaps around the debate on whether we have a labor shortage in the industry and whether we have a veterinary shortage in the industry. It’s frustrating to me because all you have to do is go to a VHMA meeting. All you have to do is go… All you have to do is talk to Stacy Pursell. And we know that that exists, right? I think, I don’t want to get into the politics of this. That’s been a surprising frustration to me. And I think that innovation and advancement is sometime going to step over the line of what the current guidelines or regulations or thinking is, right? How do we advance? How do we innovate? Well, you’ve got to sometimes step over these lines and challenge the status quo. And I think I’m used to it now, but I think we could be doing a lot more in the area of being more open to innovation and how do we advance the industry.

Yes. Well, Bruce, how have you seen the industry or the veterinary profession changed over the years since you’ve been involved?

Well, significant change on a variety of different fronts. I think one is back in the nineties when I was making sales calls, I believe that was when I was first encountering veterinary clinics that were acquired by VCA, right? The growth of group practices and the huge boom that we experienced a few years ago, and now I’ll call it the slowdown or normalization. I think that’s been one big significant change, and it’s going to be interesting to watch how that’s all going to play out over the next few years with a lot of the buzz and chatter that’s going on there. I think that’s been a significant change. I think the role of the salesperson has changed, and the access to the decision maker has changed from a sales perspective, which can be challenging. From a pharmaceutical perspective, I think we could fast-forward this 15, 20 years, and the pharmacy is all going through the CVS, Walgreens and other entities.

I think there’s going to be a significant shift that technology will advance when it comes to the pharmacy because, and I know not everybody wants to hear this, I acknowledge that, but when I see my doctor and I need to renew a prescription, my doctor is on his computer and says, “Are you still going to the CVS on Grove Street?” Yes. Click a button. Viola. My prescription’s there. I think those experiences we’re going to become more and more familiar to us. In terms of other changes that I’m seeing, I mean, there’s a lot of different changes. We mentioned Stacy, the change from environmental sprays and on animal sprays to prescription oral to topicals again, now back to prescription orals. So there’s been those shifts too, and any number of other shifts.

Well, Bruce, what does your crystal ball say about the future of the veterinary profession?

Well, I think the future, I mean, it’s hard for me not to be an optimist. I think we’re all watching the slowdown that’s reported in the Vet Source numbers and look towards that. I look towards the write-ups that Dr. Karen Felsted does for BHMA, for insights. Look at all those things. I think the future is bright. I think we are experienced experiencing some shifts in learnings and lessons here. But even in my lifetime, pets have moved from only outside, maybe has a dog house to allowed in sometimes when the weather’s bad to now, the pet is part of the family. The pet is treated as a family member. The pet gets, in many cases, the same quality of healthcare as the rest of the family members do. That’s going to continue. That’s not going to change.

The growth we’re seeing in cats, I think it’s the year of the cat. Emmitt Nantz at Inventory Ally says it’s the year of cogs too, right? So we’ve got a lot of year of cat, year of cogs, and I think it is also the year of operational efficiency. I think next year is also going to be the year of operational efficiency. And we’re really going to focus on that in a couple of weeks. And I don’t know when this is going to come out Stacy, so it may come out after Vet Forum, but we’re going to focus on operational efficiency there. And we’re trying to bring forward suppliers to group practice leaders that can focus on, okay, my product or my service helps you operate your practice or your groups of practices more efficiently. If we can save you 2% in one practice, multiply that by a hundred. And what can we save you in time and money?

I see the future bright and the future is tech forward. Who are the losers? The losers are those folks, and I call them brick and mortar established practices that cannot change, do not want to change, will not change. And as a result of that, their valuations are going to be lower because of that. And so the exits will be different for those founders of those practices when they exit, unless they’re willing to bring in folks that can help them innovate and grow.

Yeah, very good points. Well, I want to get back to your career. One of the reasons that people listen to the People of Animal Health podcast is they’re very curious about people’s careers, how they got into the industry, how they got from point A to point B, the things that they’ve learned along the way. Bruce, you’ve experienced tremendous success throughout your career. What are a few of the daily habits that you believe have allowed you to achieve success?

Sure. I’ll share with you a few of my daily habits, but I do want to share with you a realization on when I feel like I really found my passion and what made me get up in the morning and throughout my career, whether it be in sales, product management, business management. I think as I developed and grew and matured and listened to others that I trusted and believed in that my early career I wanted to stay in my lane. I didn’t see the value of joining on the board of a nonprofit or even a contributing member of a nonprofit. And I think my thinking was not right then, but I was like, well, how’s that going to help me now in my career as the product manager for Frontline or the product manager for Revolution? How’s that going to help me? But the reality is, as I matured and I grew, I realized that giving back to the industry is critically important and learning from others and other leaders that are on these boards, that’s critically important.

That crossover in my thinking occurred during my Vet Street days after we had scaled up and I was responsible for business development and using, selling the syndicated data, and I had this more broad national lens on stuff. That’s when I had a lot more time out of the office. And I’m more productive for me when I’m not in an office environment. I’m more productive when I’m working in my own office or when I’m traveling, that’s when I’m most productive. That realization that getting out to join Vet Partners, be a Vet partners member, participate on the DVCA board calls, that there’s a really wonderful thing that happens by doing that. So I think that’s one thing.

And in terms of tips, what are some of the tips that I do? I read in the morning, at least an hour. Now, this may be at 5:30 or 6:00 A.M. but whatever comes in overnight or things I couldn’t get to the day, whether it be the Fountain Report, the VHMA News briefing, Today’s Veterinary Business, DVM 360, I read and digest those in the morning when it’s quiet and try to do that on a daily basis.

I mentioned Karen Felsted, but anything Karen writes, I digest. Anything that Vet Source writes, Sherry Gilmartin and her pubs. I read that. Anything that some of our leaders put out, whatever Matt Saloi writes and his great dad jokes on LinkedIn. And in my morning routine is LinkedIn. And I guess in closing out this section of the conversation, LinkedIn is critically important. I have a paid subscription to LinkedIn, I think it’s, but 60 bucks a month. But keeping a pulse, especially in the innovation space, in the startup space, LinkedIn is just so important. And I do see people making a mistake and founders making a mistake where they will be active on other social media, but not active on LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is where the C-suite is. LinkedIn is where the leaders in the industry are. I’m not saying don’t be active on the other social platforms.

Absolutely. But LinkedIn is central and core to your business social activities. And part of that hour, hour and a half in the morning is staying abreast on what’s going on LinkedIn and who’s posting what. And there are some great posters out there that I follow, like Matthew Boubert at Casco, the kennels, the well kennels. Follow Matthew, because Matthew is always going to have you plugged in to that side of the business. I mentioned Matt Saloi and his dad jokes, but there’s a lot of good content from him too. And there’s so many others that I’m… These are just folks that come to mind because probably they posted recently, but being plugged in on LinkedIn I think is critically important, and you have to allocate that time or it will never happen.

Yeah, I agree. I was one of the early adapters of LinkedIn. Got on there at the beginning, and it’s a great way to grow your career with connections, just seeing what’s happening in the industry, and so great advice there. I know that people’s careers, there’s highs and there’s lows. Not every day is the high. There’s adversities, things that happen maybe that we’re not expecting. Bruce, what has been the biggest adversity that you’ve had to fight through throughout your career up to this point?

That’s a really good question. I mean, I think when we did the first startup, having nothing mapped out at all, that was challenging. And there’s things to do in your first startup that you would never do again. You just learn, oh, I didn’t need to invest $500,000 in an ERP for a startup. I could just use HubSpot and whatever platform to get the business started at the beginning. I think those are some lessons learned. The greatest challenge or greatest adversity that I’ve faced, I think it’s all about packaging up the founder story and the startup story and telling it correctly.

If you’re working across the broad areas of expertise, I’m not a diagnostic expert, so I have to lean heavily on those experts to get even my wording right. So how do you communicate with a key opinion leader that’s an expert in this field of diagnostics? How do you appropriately do that? Well, I wouldn’t call that an adversity. I would just call it being very thoughtful in how you communicate with people. And before I send an email, I may phone a friend in the industry and say, “Hey, I’m sending this email to so-and-so, and I want to make sure I’ve got all my language right.”

Dr. Mike Greenberg is a buddy of mine down in New Orleans, and I rely on Mike a lot to give me some insights. Dr. Adam Christman, right? Same thing. I know I can always text him and ask a question. Other folks like that so that you communicate appropriately. I think if there’s any adversity, it’s just that, and this is said too often, but it’s tough to drive innovation sometimes. I don’t want to say that… I’m not a veterinarian, and I don’t want to say that veterinarians are not innovative. I just think that if you’re a scientist and you’re basing your decisions on science, you always have to have proof of what you’re trying to approve or get approved or get adopted. And I think that journey sometimes can be frustrating. The path to adoption and growth can be challenging.

Yeah, there has to be a market for it, and you have to know how to get it out there. Well, so Bruce, what advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Don’t burn any bridges, even if you want to. Don’t burn any bridges. Pretty straightforward advice. If something upsets you and you want to send an email back, don’t. You can write the… Well delete the person’s name from the to line, and you can write. So you don’t actually push send, accidentally push send. Write the email, and then sit on it overnight. I think that’s one that I… Early on, you make mistakes. I no longer leave a computer in the kitchen where I can, like, while we’re cooking, I can check email. I no longer do that because I don’t want… You have to have downtime. But also I think, I know I want to be very thoughtful on how I reply. I think that’s a… What was the question, Stacy? A lesson learned?

What advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Yes, I think be patient. Be thoughtful. Don’t engage in these tit for tats on emails. If you’ve got something that you’re not aligning on, pick the phone up and call the person and text the person and ask for a time to speak. I think those are all really important things to keep in mind. And immerse yourself in your industry. Absorb those journals, read those publications so that you’re really on point when you speak, whether it be in a business meeting internally or externally, right?

Well, great. All of that was good. But I especially liked the part about burning bridges because people don’t understand, especially new people coming into this industry, how small the industry actually is and how important the connections are in this industry. So don’t burn bridges, such great advice. Well, Bruce, some of our guests say that they have had a key book that they’ve read that really helped them with their mindset or their approach to success. You mentioned a book early on about the abundance mentality, which I agree with. I think having that optimistic viewpoint is a key to success. Are there any other books that have impacted you the most?

Yes. In fact, I’m looking at them right here. Confidence by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. I think everybody should read that book, especially if you’re a startup or you’re getting entered into the industry. I also, Patrick Lencioni has written a book and he’s written… Both of these authors have written a bunch of books, but the Four Obsessions an Extraordinary executive. I’ve read it time and time again to remind myself and unfortunately in some cases, to remind myself what’s flawed about some leaders in some organizations. So reading these books is a refresher. Those are two that would be on my list.

Good. Well, Bruce, you’ve got the mic. What is one thing that you want to share with our listeners of the People of Animal Health podcast before you drop the mic today?

Before I drop the mic today. Well, I would share with listeners, number one, thank you for doing this, and thank you for having the platform and the venue to give people in the industry the opportunity to hear what other leaders are thinking, other folks are thinking in the industry. I don’t necessarily have a drop the mic. I think we’ve covered a lot of drop the mics over this conversation in terms of where I see the future going with channel shifts, with virtual care, with the advancement of telemedicine. I do think maybe my drop the mic is one of the articles that I wrote for you a month ago, which is that there is now a career in virtual care for veterinary professionals. Whether you’re a veterinary technician/nurse or a veterinarian, a real solid path is giving you the freedom to work remotely, work from your home office and do exactly what you’re doing. Perhaps that’s my drop the mic that I see that future growing in a very positive way.

Well, Bruce, it sounds like you’re highly optimistic about the future of the veterinary profession. You’ve given some interesting stories. I’ve really enjoyed just speaking with you today. Thank you so much for being a guest of mine here on the People of Animal Health podcast today.

Absolutely, Stacy. Thanks a lot.