Episode #100 – Dr. Kwane Stewart

The Street Vet
Dr. Kwane Stewart talks about his remarkable Veterinary career and the experiences that inspired Project Street Vet. Known as “The Street Vet,” he shares lessons about homelessness and the human-animal bond, overcoming professional burnout, rediscovering purpose, providing Veterinary care without judgment, and expanding a humanitarian mission across communities throughout the country.

Transcript

Stacy Pursell:
Do you work in the animal health industry or veterinary profession? Have you ever wondered how successful people got their start and what led them to where they are today?
Hi, everyone. I’m Stacy Pursell, founder and CEO of The VET Recruiter, the leading executive search and recruiting firm specializing in the animal health industry and veterinary profession. I was the first recruiter in the United States to focus exclusively on this space, building the first search firm dedicated to this unique niche. Over the past 28-plus years, I’ve developed relationships with many of the industry’s top leaders and trailblazers.
The People of Animal Health Podcast features the incredible individuals I’ve had the privilege to connect with throughout my career. In each episode, you’ll hear their stories, their career journeys, leadership lessons, and the impact they’ve made on the industry. With a wide range of expert guests, you’ll gain insights, inspiration, and ideas you can apply to your own career. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the episode.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. This is a very special podcast for us as today is our 100th episode. And we have a special guest today. Our guest is Dr. Kwane Stewart, an accomplished veterinarian, humanitarian, author, and co-founder of Project Street Vet, known as the Street Vet.
Dr. Stewart has spent nearly three decades in veterinary medicine with a career spanning clinical practice, emergency medicine, corporate leadership, shelter medicine, animal welfare, film and television, and nonprofit work. His commitment to providing free veterinary care to the pets of people experiencing homelessness earned him recognition as the 2023 CNN Hero of the Year. A graduate of Colorado State University, Dr. Stewart is also the author of What It Takes to Save a Life.
Dr. Stewart, welcome to the People of Animal Health Podcast, and how are you today?

Kwane Stewart:
I’m great, Stacy. Thank you so much for having me.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I’m so glad to have you here. I heard you speak, excuse me, in Nashville last October, and your story is just so amazing. It is so heartwarming. I love to start at the beginning today. Where did you grow up and what was life like for you growing up?

Kwane Stewart:
I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was born in Los Angeles, but was there very briefly, just first few months of life. And we ended up moving back to Albuquerque where my parents had met in college. And that’s where it all began. School all the way through undergrad, University of New Mexico, and then eventually vet school in Colorado.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you grew up surrounded by animals, and you ultimately attended Colorado State University’s veterinary program. When did you first realize veterinary medicine was the career you wanted to pursue?

Kwane Stewart:
If you ask a lot of veterinarians, I think most of us can trace it back to a specific memory or moment. And for me, I was seven years old. I had just walked out of the theater of The Black Stallion, and I was so moved by that film. As my mother tells a story, I don’t have memories quite as strong as she does, but she tells a story that I looked up at her after walking out of the theater and said, “When I grew up, I wanted to be an animal doctor.” I didn’t know what a vet was, veterinarian was, the word was at the time. I just said, “I want to be an animal doctor.”

Stacy Pursell:
I love that story. Well, now you made the transition from veterinary school into the veterinary profession. Tell me about those early days, and what did those early days teach you?

Kwane Stewart:
My first days in vet school?

Stacy Pursell:
When you graduated.

Kwane Stewart:
Oh, when I… Yeah, so out of school. Here’s the thing about being a newbie, being completely green out of vet school is you don’t have a lot of confidence, and I’ll speak for myself. I did not. You go through all these years of school, you just don’t have the practical experience you feel like really arms you to step into a clinic where you’re maybe partnering with veterinarians who’ve been doing it for many years. Yeah, it took me a while to get my sea legs. And I don’t know, maybe it wasn’t until a good two years into practice that I really felt like, okay, I can see cases on my own. I don’t have to worry. But I leaned on the practice owner quite a bit in those first few months.

Stacy Pursell:
Your career has taken you through clinical practice, emergency medicine, corporate leadership, shelter medicine, entertainment, and nonprofit work. Looking back, how did each chapter prepare you for what came next?

Kwane Stewart:
Oh, wow. When I reflect back on my career, it’s funny, you just sort of rolled through all the different areas of the industry I’ve worked in. One just came after another, and it almost just came naturally, I guess. I felt like for so long, and some vets will be like this and some won’t, I was in the exploration phase for a good 15 years. And I wanted to try new things, so I did emergency medicine. I worked at a regular corner clinical practice.
Then I decided to try shelter medicine as a county veterinarian, and that I knew nothing about. There was no shelter medicine track in school. And that then led to American Humane. I was chief vet for American Humane for a number of years and oversaw the No Animals Were Harmed program. Many of us may know that. If you sit at the very, very end of the movie, the end credit crawl, it will say, if animals were featured, “No animals were harmed during the making of this movie.” That’s a legacy 80-year-old program. I took that over for a number of years and cut my teeth on film animal safety. And then I moved on and started Project Street Vet.

Stacy Pursell:
When you became county veterinarian at a struggling shelter, you inherited an extraordinarily difficult situation. What did that experience teach you about leadership, culture change, and making difficult decisions?

Kwane Stewart:
It taught me a lot, because I felt like when I stepped into the job, I knew none of those things, leadership, how to lead a team, how to change a culture. We sort of just did it together and it was a steep learning curve. Again, never having done shelter medicine before, it took quite a bit. I did my share of reading and research. I visited other shelters in the area. I had a professor from UC Davis come down and show me a few things.
So it took some time. But I was there five years, and it was a good two years into it that we really developed programs that began to change or reface the problems the county had been experiencing. And that was TNR. We were one of the first in the area to start a TNR program. We were one of the first shelters in the country, actually, to bring on a private veterinary hospital to start doing our spays and neuters. So we actually built out a brick-and-mortar area within our shelter and we contracted people to do our spays and neuters.
The goal was to get as many dogs spayed and neutered as we could so we could adopt more. The adoption rate went up, the euthanasia rate went down, and these were all advances we made during the time I was there. I will have to say that of all the things I’ve done, and I know Project Street Vet gets a lot of attention as it should, and probably will be my legacy. The five years at the shelter is where I probably learned the most and a part of my career I’m most proud of.

Stacy Pursell:
You’ve spoken openly about experiencing professional burnout during your shelter medicine years. What was happening at that point in your career and how did it change the way you thought about your future in veterinary medicine?

Kwane Stewart:
Well, I thought about quitting. So yes, the burnout reached the extreme level because there was a day where I was just going to walk away from the work altogether. That happened to be the day that I stumbled upon that homeless gentleman and his dog, which started the whole street vet portion of my career. It was on the exact day I was going to walk in and quit that I met this man. I can’t say I’m a big believer in destiny, but something seemed to step in the way or get in my path that day.
What I realized looking back, and you don’t know this when you’re in the eye of the storm, is if you really can’t say no to certain things as a veterinarian, as a care professional, it’s easy to get burnt out. And for me, it required heavy hours, and instead of saying, “I need a day off,” or, “I need to leave early and spend some time with my son,” it was just grind, grind, grind to the point where I just started to resent doing the work. And in retrospect, I would’ve taken more time off. I would’ve put more help around me instead of trying to do it myself.
And then just the ability to say no to certain things. No, I’m not going to work that extra day. Or no, I’m not going to work that extra shift, if you feel like you can’t do it.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you have described treating a homeless man’s dog outside of the 7-Eleven as a pivotal moment in your life. Take us back to that encounter. What happened and why did it affect you so profoundly?

Kwane Stewart:
It was completely unexpected and spontaneous. And because of the state of mind I was in, thinking I was going to go and tender my resignation at the shelter, maybe I felt a weight lifted because I had seen this unhoused gentleman four or five times before and walked right by him, four or five times before. But on this day, I stopped, and as I got closer to him and his dog, I could tell his dog just had a basic flea issue. A basic flea issue that, over time, as many people know, can grow into a very big problem.
And so this dog looked like a burn victim on its hind end where the fleas were living. They just destroyed the skin. He had a really bad infection. The hair was gone. It was red and bumpy. I just told the gentleman, “I’ll be here tomorrow, if you’re here, with something that’ll work.” And he was just desperate for help. He said, “Anything. Please. Anything.”
I returned, I treated the dog, saw the same dog about a week and a half later, and the dog already was transformed. She had hair coming back, the infection had cleared, and the man sitting there. And this is the moment that got me, the man sitting there in the same spot just looked up with tears in his eyes, and he said, “Thank you for not ignoring me.” Then I took a knee and we both had a little moment, and I just made him a quiet pledge. I said, “I’m going to go out and find more people like you.”
That event, that time with that gentleman to treat the dog, took all of five minutes, and it was $3 out of my pocket. Five minutes of my time, $3 out of my pocket. I maybe restored humanity and that faith in that man himself, but I had pulled that dog out of suffering. It took so little effort from me as a veterinarian to change that dog’s life. And I just realized if I can find more folks like him and not give a whole lot of my time nor money, I could really help some people that desperately needed it.

Stacy Pursell:
It was such a simple thing for you, yet life-changing for him.

Kwane Stewart:
Exactly. That was a lightning rod moment is I don’t have to completely change careers or give up what I’m doing or even take away from a lot of my free time. It was just a few minutes in that case that was immensely helpful. So that is what started the path of the, well, the so-called street vet.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, that experience ultimately helped inspire Project Street Vet and its philosophy of no judgment, just help. What does that philosophy mean to you?

Kwane Stewart:
The no judgment, just help motto that we all carry, and this is the volunteers across the country, it wasn’t immediate. It took me time to do the work and realize that I myself carried certain judgments or prejudices against this population of people. I don’t even think we realize it sometimes, but we see someone panhandling on a corner or holding a cardboard sign, and there’s judgment. There’s, “You look able-bodied, why don’t you get a job?” We start creating or writing their story for them.
It took me a while, but after time, I just realized that’s not right. That’s not my place to create some mock story so that I feel better about myself or it makes me feel okay to judge you. Yes, over time, that became a very central theme of what we do, is that we approach these folks, there’s no judgment. We see a dog in need, we see an owner who’s in desperate need of help, and we try and help them.

Stacy Pursell:
Sometimes people make assumptions about whether someone experiencing homelessness should have a pet. What have your experiences taught you about the bond between people that are unhoused and their animals?

Kwane Stewart:
I have seen a tighter bond, in more cases, with people on the streets than I do anywhere else, in traditional homes, in these relationships, in the clinic or the hospital, these animals that I treat. I haven’t seen stronger bonds than I do in the streets, and it tracks. It makes sense. You got this four-legged creature that’s completely dependent on this person, but the opposite is also true.
The person is so heavily dependent, in many cases, on the dog for comfort and support, there’s a lot of women on the streets, for protection, for purpose. And I just realized that, yeah, keeping the dog healthy or doing what I can medically really helps the person. It keeps the bond intact. And again, like I said, it restores hope in some of these people. In some cases, it’s not a lot. Like I said, it’s a few dollars, it’s a few minutes of my time, but it’s so meaningful to them.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Project Street Vet has now grown from your own individual efforts into an organization serving communities across the country. What have you learned about scaling a mission while also preserving the personal connection and the humanity that inspired it?

Kwane Stewart:
Yeah. So initially, when I started doing the work in roughly 2011, I would walk the streets. I would pack just a backpack full of medical goods, supplies, and I would just walk the streets, the impoverished areas of different cities looking for people. And obviously it’s not very efficient. I’m not going to get huge numbers, but I’m going to meet people where they are and find these dogs and help. But over time, as we grew the mission and I started bringing in volunteers, and realizing that there was a lot of people around the country that wanted to do this. Clinics became very efficient. And we could see a lot of people in a short order of time organize, get 30, 40, 50, sometimes 80 people in a clinic, and that’s what we’ve done. So we do a little of both.
I will tell you, I still enjoy walking the streets. If I have my choice, I’ll grab my backpack and I’ll walk and find these folks. It’s the best feeling, almost like you just dropped out of the sky. And someone described it like that, like I just dropped out of a cloud, where they’re living maybe next to a dumpster and there’s a veterinarian with a stethoscope ready to treat their animal. There’s no feeling that replaces that. Now, again, the clinics, I can see big numbers, and that’s great. But yes, it’s a personal touch that we always try and keep, but also get to as many folks as we can.

Stacy Pursell:
What are some of the most common medical needs that you see among pets belonging to unhoused individuals, and how does delivering veterinary care on the street differ from practicing inside a traditional clinic?

Kwane Stewart:
I do most of my casework in California. California, we see a lot of skin issues, so a lot of it is dermatologic. It’s fleas and ear infections and allergies, which is great because those things are very easy to treat with a high success yield. All the things I just described, I can carry treatments for that in my bag. And it’s quick, it’s easy. There’s high compliance. I come back a week later, the dog looks great.
As far as the breadth of things I see versus what I may see in a clinic, a lot of it is still the same. You’ll see some older geriatric dogs in the streets that may have some arthritis, I can treat that. Bad teeth, little lumps and bumps that need to be removed. It’s all fairly similar. Now, I can’t do everything in the streets, obviously. This is my anecdote over the years, but this is 15 years. I can treat roughly 75 to 80% of the things I do see in the streets. So that’s a pretty high yield.
For the remaining 20% or so, we send them to a clinic. So if it is a procedure, a sedation anesthetic procedure, if it’s a mass removal, if the dog needs x-rays or blood work, we’ll find a nearby hospital, we’ll arrange for transportation, and then we cover all the costs.

Stacy Pursell:
I love that. Well, Kwane, you spent six years leading American Humane’s No Animals Were Harmed program and have advised companies such as Disney and Netflix. What might people be surprised to learn about protecting animals on film and television productions?

Kwane Stewart:
Oh boy, I can tell stories. The thing that’s interesting, and people should know first, when I’m on set, I’m not really there in the capacity of a normal veterinarian, meaning I’m not there to treat. I’m not wearing my medical hat, so if there’s an injury, I’m there to address that. I’m there for safety reasons. So I work with the production staff, directors on stunts, stunt safety, welfare, transportation, travel. But you have to understand, most people know this, that movies shoot for weeks, sometimes months, and sometimes these animals are on set or being transported in and out for months. And a lot of these animals may not be in their normal housing or normal environments. So again, ensuring the welfare, the comfort of the animal is important.
And then the real interesting part is some of these directors just don’t have a concept sometimes of what animals can do. I could name some big movies I’ve been on with really intense stunts with horses, but they think, “Let me just jump this horse over three train cars. Can I do that?” “No, you can’t do that.” It doesn’t take a lot. Some of it is common sense, but I think they just want to hear from an expert on what they can and can’t do so they can just make their algorithm, their decision tree a little easier.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you’ve worked in almost every corner of the veterinary profession. How has that breadth of experience shaped your view of the impact veterinarians can have beyond traditional clinical practice?

Kwane Stewart:
When I was graduating from vet school, I don’t remember much about my commencement, but I do remember one professor telling me that, “You have now been granted the most diverse professional license in the world.” And as I said, I’m just excited to get out with that piece of paper and get to work. I had no idea all the things I could do.
Again, I look back on my career and I’ve done a good share of them, and still more to go. With this degree, I have the ability, although I wouldn’t, to treat any living creature. I don’t know anything about dolphins, but my veterinary license allows me to go treat a dolphin, which I would not do. I can travel to other countries, and my license is good in most other countries to start treating animals, or to do humanitarian work in other places.
There’s still more to explore, but yeah, the things I’ve managed to do with this license are quite amazing, and you’ve named some of them. But if I had been telling my roommate, I joke about this actually with my… We’re still friends today. We were roommates in vet school, so this was now 30 years ago. That if I had turned to my roommate and said, “One day I’m going to be the head vet for Netflix, like I’m cool or something,” he would’ve said, “What in the hell is a Netflix? Netflix didn’t exist.” So who knows? Who knows what’s to come down the road and things that veterinarians will be able to do?

Stacy Pursell:
Hey, everyone. We are interrupting the episode briefly to talk to you about today’s sponsor. This episode is brought to you by The VET Recruiter. The VET Recruiter is the go-to executive search and recruitment firm in the animal health industry and veterinary profession, dedicated to connecting exceptional employers with high caliber candidates. With a deep understanding of the animal health industry and veterinary profession and a vast pool of talented candidates, we make the hiring process seamless and efficient for the animal health and veterinary employers who have critical hiring needs.
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Well, in 2023, you were named CNN Hero of the Year, and you chose to share your $100,000 prize grant with the other finalist. Why was sharing that award important to you?

Kwane Stewart:
I was there with… Yes, there was 10 of us total, and we got to spend the weekend together before the award show and I got to know some of them on a really deep human level. And all of them were doing amazing things to the point where I thought there was no chance I was going to win. Some of these people are feeding the hungry, the starving children in Africa, the big monumental things, restoring the coral reef off the coast of Florida so that the earth doesn’t just completely crash. I was in awe of them. And when they called my name and I stepped to the podium, I just thought, “I want to celebrate the prize money with all of them.” I thought, “We all deserved it.”

Stacy Pursell:
Your book, What It Takes to Save a Life, connects your professional journey with themes of healing, purpose, and hope. What did writing the book help you understand about your own life and career that you had not fully recognized before?

Kwane Stewart:
Yeah, well, writing the book, I didn’t realize really how much I had done. I had to give a lot of heavy thought to all the places I had worked, things I’d learned, the people I’d met, all these things. They just become a blur. It’s just a funny mosaic. But to provide detail and color to these stories, I had to give it a lot of thought. I was just really surprised at all the things I’ve gotten to do in my nearly 30 years, and I’m just grateful.
I still am grateful today to be a veterinarian. Obviously, I have pets, and I was telling a friend this, that I sometimes forget if anything happens to my pets, there’s a doctor that lives in the house. And being a veterinarian and having the knowledge and experience to treat your own pets, something you dream of as a boy, it’s still very cool to me to know if my dog gets injured or something happens, or they’re vomiting. They don’t have to go very far to get care, and it is still just a very prideful feeling.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you have experienced both burnout and a renewed sense of purpose within the same profession. What would you say to veterinarians who still care deeply about animals but are questioning whether they can continue doing the work?

Kwane Stewart:
Well, what changed for me, because I was on the verge of not just quitting the shelter, by the way, that experience, that moment I mentioned with the homeless gentleman, I was going to quit the veterinary profession altogether. I was that over or burned out from the work I’ve been doing, and I was just going to step away. I was renewed after that 7-Eleven few minutes I spent with that man. And so my suggestion to others, and everyone’s a little different, and they may need different things to re-energize them, but I would say just go out and find something different within the veterinary profession to do.
As you touched on, I’ve probably experienced four, five, six different areas of the profession, all very, very different, and all of them were fun and exciting in their own way, some of them just downright exhilarating. And if just, I don’t know, you’re in day-to-day normal practice and you’re over it, you can’t take it anymore, then sit back and think about something else you would like to do, and go do that for a while if you can. I know sometimes bills and life get in the way, but if you have the ability to do something else, explore something else within the vet profession, I would do that.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, if you’re not finding your purpose, go find a different purpose.

Kwane Stewart:
Yes.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, after nearly three decades in veterinary medicine, how has your definition of a successful veterinarian changed since you graduated in 1997?

Kwane Stewart:
How has a successful vet… My definition?

Stacy Pursell:
Your definition of a successful veterinarian changed since you graduated in 1997?

Kwane Stewart:
Well, I don’t know. I’d have to give that some thought. Off the cuff, I would say in many ways, not much at all. Our oath, I think, still stands. It dictates what our responsibility and our obligations to this profession are to prevent and alleviate animal suffering. I take that very seriously. And what’s changed is technology, the information and knowledge we have in front of us, but I think our role as care providers is still very much the same.

Stacy Pursell:
What has surprised you the most during your career in the veterinary profession?

Kwane Stewart:
Surprised me the most? I guess I sort of like people more. The reason I didn’t want to be a medical doctor, and that was a consideration of mine for a very brief time. My roommate went on, one of my best friends is a ER physician, he said, “Why don’t you just come my way? Why don’t we just be doctors together?” I thought about it for a minute. I was like, “You know what? I really don’t like people that much.” I even said that in my interview, my vet school interview, I was like, “Animals are my thing.”
But obviously, the two are inseparable for the most part. And getting to know the pet parent, the owner, and one time I was on the other end of the leash, but getting to understand that dynamic, that relationship, the bond, obviously, we talk about a lot. I’ve really enjoyed that. And now, working in the streets and spending a lot of one-on-one time with some of these people that are in a very unfortunate different place, I have learned the most talking with them. I have felt the most gratitude in my life because of the time I spend with them, and that has been the most life-changing part of my career.

Stacy Pursell:
And how have you seen the veterinary profession change over the years, for better or for worse?

Kwane Stewart:
Well, this is a black eye, we all have to accept and change, and that is the access to care and affordability crisis we’re in. It’s just a mess. When I graduated school in 1997, most of the practices were private practitioners. They were owned by veterinarians. They ran their own small businesses. That’s not the case anymore. It’s corporatized America. They have gobbled up all of the private practitioners, and their agenda is about their bottom line first. If we’re all being honest, that’s the case.
They’re looking out for the bottom dollar, how to make more, how to be more efficient, and that has a direct impact on pet parents, what they can afford, what they can do. I think it’s unfortunate. And I could go on and on about this, but the industry and the leaders in the industry, and the major corporations within our industry, they need to do better and they need to start finding solutions.

Stacy Pursell:
When you look into your crystal ball, what do you see for the future of veterinary medicine and what gives you the most optimism?

Kwane Stewart:
Well, I have to say that technology, when we think about AI, some of the other services, telemedicine, there are tools that are here now and will continue to evolve that will make some of this easier and fun, quite frankly. I didn’t have any of that. I mean, we barely had email when I graduated vet school. So you could imagine in my 29 years how much has changed, and I think it’s pretty neat.
Some days I feel like an old dog trying to keep up with the young vets who grew up with this technology. But I think the younger generation, and I do have a lot of optimism for them, I think their north star is heading in the right direction. They have technology in their back pocket, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do over the next generation.

Stacy Pursell:
Kwane, what are some of your daily habits or disciplines that have helped you to stay grounded?

Kwane Stewart:
Oh, I like to exercise a lot. That’s how I reset. So my daily routine usually includes something. It’s cycling or lifting or exercising, or going on long walks with my dog. But when I talk about fending off, burnout, staving it off, for me, it’s always been exercising or getting outside and being active.

Stacy Pursell:
What advice would you give the younger version of yourself just starting out in veterinary medicine?

Kwane Stewart:
I don’t know. Some of those lumps I had to take, I had to take. So I don’t know if I would give myself too much advice and steer me in a different direction because there were moments where I thought, “This is not working out. I’m failing at this.” And sometimes failing is necessary. I don’t know what I would say. I may just be a fly on the wall and just watch it go down as it did because it’s been a pretty neat journey.

Stacy Pursell:
What is one message, value, or principle you wish you could teach everyone listening to our podcast?

Kwane Stewart:
Oh, one value. Well, it probably goes to what I’ve learned since I started doing Project Street Vet, that there are moments where we have to step outside of ourselves and consider the person and pet that we’re trying to help. And I do feel like business, the bottom line, some of those things will interfere occasionally. Not that they shouldn’t always, but they do get in the way sometimes of seeing the moment or the issue with the pet just for what it is.
And I remember earlier in my career, my mentor was like, “You have them in our box, make sure to do X, Y, and Z. And I like to see estimates that hit this number.” And I regret some of those moments, because I look back and say, “I felt like I overcharged. I didn’t have to run all those tests.” And so for anyone listening, especially veterinary professionals, and obviously doing the work in the streets has provided me this lens, just seeing the person, the pet there in front of you, nothing else around them. And when you can, just ignore the budgetary or financial part of the care.

Stacy Pursell:
Some of our guests have had a book that changed the way that they think about life, leadership, or success. Is there a book that’s had a tremendous impact on you?

Kwane Stewart:
There was a book that I read many, many years ago called Blink, and I can’t recall the author, but-

Stacy Pursell:
Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell?

Kwane Stewart:
Was that it?

Stacy Pursell:
I believe so.

Kwane Stewart:
Wow. Have you read the book?

Stacy Pursell:
I have the book. But I buy books, and I read parts and parts and parts, then I skip to the next one. And sometimes I don’t read the whole book.

Kwane Stewart:
Oh, wow. Okay. Well, that’s great. Thank you. I remember reading that, maybe it’s been over 20 years, and it was about intuition, instinct, and trusting it, and how our subconscious is just a powerful guide. And I love that. And I do feel like when you pay attention to the inner voice, more oftentimes than not, it steers you right more than all the noise around you.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, you’ve got the mic, Kwane. What is one final thought you want to leave with our listeners of The People of Animal Health Podcast before you drop the mic today?

Kwane Stewart:
Before I drop the mic, we’ve covered a lot of ground. I just made a post the other day. I do want to say this, that the technicians in my career have been maybe the most important part of my support system. And I made a post about this very recently, but I’m not only grateful for my career, I am grateful for the people who have supported me, loved me, seen me through the hard times. And that’s family, that’s friends, but there have been so many good technicians over the years that have kept me on the straight and narrow, or stopped me from throwing in the towel, or told me to keep a stiff upper lip and get back out there and see the next client. All these things over the years, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to them and all the people that have helped me get here.

Stacy Pursell:
The technicians do an amazing job.

Kwane Stewart:
They do.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Kwane, thank you for being my guest today on The People of Animal Health Podcast. I enjoyed our conversation today.

Kwane Stewart:
Thank you so much for having me.