Episode #19 – Dr. Cade Wilson

A Big Picture Perspective
An entrepreneur and veterinary practice owner with a love of animals and technology, Dr. Wilson strives to achieve the perfect blend of personal ambition and professional growth while at the same time giving back to others.

Speaker 1:
Welcome to the People of Animal Health Podcast. The host of our podcast is Stacy Pursell. Stacy is the leading executive recruiter for the animal health and veterinary industries. She’s the founder of Therio Partners and The VET Recruiter. Stacy has placed more professionals in key positions within the animal health and veterinary industries than any executive search professional. And along the way, Stacy has built relationships with some outstanding people, who are doing incredible things to make a difference. The People of Animal Health Podcast features industry leaders and trailblazers, who have made a significant impact or are making an impact in the animal health and veterinary industries.

Stacy chats with them to learn more about their lives, their careers, and the unique and interesting things that they have done to contribute to the animal health or veterinary industries. She is here to share their stories with you. Now here’s the host of our podcast, Stacy Pursell.

Stacy Pursell:
Hello, everyone and welcome to the People of Animal Health Podcast. On today’s show, we are talking with Dr. Cade Wilson. Dr. Wilson wears many hats in life. He is a practicing full-time small animal veterinarian, sole owner of a mixed animal three doctor veterinary hospital, president and co-founder of Skoped Micro, and a consultant for veterinary medicine. He is married and an active father of two children. He loves his family, the outdoors, and believes in having a healthy work-life balance, which he said is easier said than done. Welcome onto the People of Animal Health Podcast, and how are you today, Cade?

Cade Wilson:
I’m great. I appreciate you having me on today.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, we are so glad that you’re here today. I know you’ve had such a busy schedule, and, Cade, I know that you’ve had so much success up to this point in your career. I would love to start off at the bottom, in the very beginning of your career. What was your life like growing up, and where did you grow up?

Cade Wilson:
Well, I grew up in a mixture of living in Oklahoma, and also a small time in Alabama. So growing up, I was born in northeastern Oklahoma in a small town called Miami, Oklahoma, and it’s a small town. It’s kind of a Midwest semi southern classic town, and in that area, pretty much everybody worked in some capacity for BFGoodrich, a tire manufacturer, and when I was in the third grade, that factory was shut down, and so that had a drastic change to that area, but it had a drastic change on my life, because my dad worked there and took a job with the company to move to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and where we lived for eight years, and that was what I always tell people is I’m an Oklahoma guy with a little southern seasoning, because that’s what Tuscaloosa did for me.

So we lived there till I was in the middle of high school and got a chance to move back to Oklahoma, to Ardmore, Oklahoma, with the tire factory. And so I’m a son of a tire manufacturer, and my mom was a school teacher. I’m the oldest of three tough, athletic boys. And so that’s how I was raised, just be a tough kid, and played every sport they’d allow me to play, and just grew up loving animals and the outdoors. So that’s the short version of me.

Stacy Pursell:
When did you first figure out what you wanted to do professionally?

Cade Wilson:
Man, I was actually interviewed this morning by a student from a school, a high school, and so I just told this story, but growing up I did not ever think about being a veterinarian. I have tons of young people that come to me and tell me that, that they want to be a veterinarian. They’re in high school, or elementary school, or even college, but I did not. I did not. I loved playing sports, and that’s what my world revolved around, and when I was in the middle of college, my dad came to me, again, oldest of three boys, and said, “Hey, I don’t really see the game plan here. What’s the goal of this?” And he gave me some really, really great advice that I’ve given time and time over of kind of how to find my way.

And in that talk it came to me that I thought about veterinary medicine, and I loved medicine and pets. I had torn an acl, a one at that point in my life, and loved how they put me back together. And so I kind of joined my interest in medicine and my love of pets and started on this path. So not your traditional way, but-

Stacy Pursell:
Well tell us about your start. Yeah, tell us about your start. How did you get into the veterinary profession?

Cade Wilson:
So at that point in time, I was actually working at a student program for Michelin. I was building tires while I went to school full time, and the other thing I did was I was a certified high school umpire, so I umpired a ton of baseball games at night. Everywhere they’d let me umpire, I did. And so when I decided veterinary medicine might be an avenue for me, I called a lot of veterinarians in my area and just said, “Hey, I’d love to come hang out there.” I didn’t know what the word job shadow meant. That’s what I would use today, but I just inquired of like, “I have a full-time job. I go to school full time, how can I donate my time just to see if this is what I want to do?”

I had a real struggle of getting somebody to say, “Yes,” to that, which has made me a hellacious mentor today. We’ll get into that later, but I found one gentleman that allowed me to come hang out right along as a large animal veterinarian, and I did that for years, and I decided really early like, “Wow, if I could do this just because I love it, I definitely could do this as a profession.” Now, along the way I learned that my skill set were way better for a small veterinarian than a large animal veterinarian. It just fit me better, so that’s what I am, but it started out just donating my time every free moment and turned into a whole lot more.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah. It’s so interesting to hear you say that you had a hard time finding somebody who would let you come in to do a job shadow. Why do you think that is?

Cade Wilson:
I really don’t know. I’ve wondered that ever since. I don’t know if they didn’t see the benefit of that. I don’t know if they just didn’t want somebody in the back to… I don’t know. I really don’t know the answer to that. Since then, most of those veterinarians are retired and gone. There’s a few that still practice, and I know them, and they still don’t do a lot of that. So I think that’s probably personal preference, and it was bad luck for me, but it has made me really see the benefits of mentoring. I don’t know how many dozens, if not a 100 young people have come through my practice now to job shadow, or hang out, or come ask questions. Literally, I had one today, because I want them to see like do they want to do this?

I think that there’s a lot of veterinarians, and it’s gotten us in a real pickle as a profession with suicides, because I don’t think we’re always completely vetted, no pun intended, on this is what real life is as a veterinarian. There are some not fun things that we have to handle, and I want them to see all the great things, because majority of things that I deal with on a given day is awesome. I love what I do, but there are things that are not fun, and it’s not fun to have to tell people some of the things I have to tell them, but I think that you have to show all the warts of our profession to the people that want to get in it, so that we can prepare them properly. And so I don’t know why they didn’t let me in. I’m glad they didn’t let me in, because it has helped me help so many others. So I’ll take the good with the bad.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah, them not letting you come in and do a job shadow has actually benefited so many other people that you’ve had the chance to help with mentoring them, so it’s interesting to connect those dots. When do you feel like you were first truly beginning to gain traction with your career?

Cade Wilson:
So about three years into practicing, I decided after going through all the struggles of being a new veterinarian, that I thought I could do more, and where I worked, I kind of felt like I was hindered. And so I made the decision to open my own veterinary practice in a fairly saturated environment, but I believed in myself. I believed in what I could bring to the table had value, and so I took a leap of faith to open a brand new veterinary practice as a solo practitioner. And, wow, I didn’t know all that really went into that, and there was some long, long days and hours, but I’ve never been afraid of that.

And so opening that new practice and seeing the things that I was doing to help my community and the pets, and grow the new things in veterinary medicine, and this is 20 almost years ago, but the new line of thoughts in veterinary medicine, and doing things by the book, man, I started feeling the wheels turning, and that grew. And so I’m going to say probably three or four years into my career, after I was about a year into owning a practice and realizing, “Wow, there’s a lot that goes into this,” that’s about when I really felt like, “Man, I’m on the right path.”

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I know that you have experienced massive success and possibly some low points. Walk us through the highest high and the lowest low of your career.

Cade Wilson:
Thinking about that, I’ve been very fortunate in veterinary medicine, and maybe I’m just a really glass always half full person, but I haven’t… I mean, I’ve some terrible times in veterinary medicine, but my lowest of lows were before I ever got into this, and I was old enough when my parents were dealing with a closure of a tire factory, and having to move halfway across the country from their family to a new brand new place, I saw how hard that was, and I’ve always envied… Maybe not envied. That’s probably not the right word, but I’ve always idolized my parents, and my mom and my dad, and so watching them go through that. And then also as a young man, middle of high school, I loved sports. I know I’ve already said that a couple times, but I would have done anything to play a sport every day. You name it. I love competition to this day.

And so my first love is football, and I was a really good football player, and when we moved from Tuscaloosa to Ardmore, I had no fear, because I always succeeded on a football field. So I had no doubt I was going to come in and take some poor young man’s spot on a football field, but a few days into moving, I tore my ACL, literally my first football game in a new town. And when your whole identity is wrapped up in that, and at that point, it was. My whole identity was wrapped up in how good of an athlete I was. it was devastating, literally devastating to me. And there were times when I was like, “Why me?” But looking back on that dark moment of my life, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and I say that. It’s so weird to say that, but I was so wrapped up in that one thing that I didn’t realize all my other gifts.

I could skate through school, because I was an intelligent guy, and so I didn’t have to work really hard at school, because I was working really hard at the extracurriculars. And so when those things were taken away from me, that competitive thing was taken away from me for a short time, I had to have something to compete in. So I decided that I wonder if I could make straight As, because I had never done that, because I didn’t care to tell you the truth. And so I became a competitive student, not just a competitive student athlete. And I realized at that moment, “Wow, I’m good at this too.” And it opened my eyes to all of a sudden saying, “I wonder what else I’m good at?” And so it’s made me not be a one trick pony. I don’t care to be great at one thing. I want to be good at everything.

And so now flash forward 30 years later, that’s my goal is how do I be good at everything, and not have you be able to take something away from me? Because I’m going to always have something different. And so my lowest points were those things, how to deal with adversity growing up, and then how to take negatives and turn them into a positive. And so what’s so funny is I quickly got back into being a great athlete. I came back from an ACL tear in a little over six months, which was unheard of back then, and instantly wanted to be a good athlete again, but God decided to take my other ACL out, fix that for me, but I think that those lowest points have made me very glass half full and have made me a very good professional, because I’m not afraid to try something new.

Stacy Pursell:
When you were at that low point, what is the biggest thing that you learned from that experience?

Cade Wilson:
That’s an easy answer. It taught me that I literally can do anything that I set my mind and heart to. There is nothing that I can’t achieve if I just decide that’s what I want. And so it may not show up tomorrow, and it may take some time, but if you’re not afraid to work hard, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

Stacy Pursell:
So good resiliency is the word I thought of as you were talking about that, and what a great story. How have you seen the veterinary profession change over the years?

Cade Wilson:
Technology, that’s probably the most amazing thing that is coming to veterinary medicine is all the new technology, telemedicine, tele triage, the speed of how fast you can do things nowadays. I mean, used to I had to when I first got out of school, if you needed some blood work, wait, send it off to this place, maybe to the local hospital or wherever, and you’re going to have to get it later that day, maybe even tomorrow. And now, I mean, there’s times before I’m even done doing the exam, I’ve got my blood work results, or if I need a consult, I can do it via zoom, or I can do it right now. And it’s really amazing how quick we can do things today.

We take it for granted. I know my associates, my young veterinarians that work with me, I mean, I’m sure they would die if I told them, “Hey, we’re going to send this off. You’re probably not going to get it back for a couple of days.” I mean, they wouldn’t know what to do, or digital radiology, or all the different things that we have at our fingertips, that’s what I have seen over the course of my career, and it’s only going to get better. It’s amazing what we can do today.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, what does your crystal ball say about the future of the veterinary profession?

Cade Wilson:
I think that telemedicine is going to become a bigger thing. I think that there’s going to be ways to speed up our consultation process, especially with specialists. I’ve been very lucky in the last many years to get to know people literally around the globe, and there’s some amazing people out there doing some amazing things with telemedicine and the speed of helping our patients teletriage. I know I have classmates that all they do is they’re on a computer directing traffic for better… for no good word for that. They’re just trying to help send those patients to the straightest line to get help. The other thing I see coming, about a decade ago, I was on a board of directors for a human hospital, which was always amazing to me, because I got to kind of see how our human counterparts worked, and the biggest thing then were how they used extenders is the terminology they used, was, “Hey, we can’t find more doctors to be on staff, so how do we use extenders?”

And that were PAs, those were nurse practitioners that can be that extra person to direct traffic. I don’t know how we’re going to do that exactly in veterinary medicine, but it’s a need. We can’t fil all the “doctor” holes. We’re doubling what we’re putting out, but we’re going to have to do a better job of veterinary extenders. I don’t have the answer, but utilizing our technicians, maybe finding some middle ground that’s some sort of PA in a nurse practitioner type role with technicians, I don’t know, but we’re going to have to do that. Our human medicine counterparts are killing us with that. They are doing such a great job with that. We can do better, and we will. I foresee that coming.

Stacy Pursell:
The latest statistic that I heard last week is that we need another 25% of veterinarians to fill all of the demand right now, so I agree with you. I think you’re right about the extenders, and I hadn’t heard that word before, so I’ll start using that word extenders. I know there’s a lot of people talking about this, people working on this, and I agree with you, it is something that is needed.

Cade Wilson:
Yeah, I think that we’re graduating more of veterinarians, but there’s just as many in industry, in government, in different places that are still going to take their portion. We’ve got to find other answers, and I think it’s more than just more veterinarians. I think we can be more efficient. One of the things about my life is, and we haven’t gotten into all my other stuff that I do, is efficiency. I’m going to be very efficient, because at any given time I may be seeing a patient, but it may also be in Skope Micro work, and I may also be writing an article for a magazine, and so you’ve got to figure out a way to be efficient, not micromanage. I was a micromanager early on, because I thought I needed to be, but hire people that are great at their job, and let them do their job, and back them up.

And not everybody is good at that, and I’m not saying I am, but I think that being efficient, and maybe that means figuring out a way to help a technician even be more, give them extra schooling to be that nurse practitioner, a technician practitioner. I don’t know. I’ve never heard somebody saying that, but looking behind the curtain at human medicine, there’s a way, and I think that I foresee in my lifetime there will be such a thing. I don’t know what it’s going to be called, but I foresee it.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, I was at a summit a few weeks ago, and I was talking with a lady who works at one of the veterinary schools, and she told me they get about 2000 applicants a year, and they take less than 200 of those applicants.

Cade Wilson:
Oh, yeah.

Stacy Pursell:
And I was thinking to myself, “That’s 1800 people that want to work in this profession that where are they going, and how can we find a way to bring them in? If they’re not getting accepted to be a doctor, is there another place where we could bring them into the profession?” So it’s very interesting.

Cade Wilson:
Exactly. And I’ve never thought about it like that, but, yeah. I’m privy to a lot of those numbers too, and that’s about right. I mean, I know Oklahoma State takes 106 now, because I was in a meeting with them about a week ago, and A&M probably does about 165. There’s only a couple of schools in the Ross and Caribbean area that people trickle down too, but there probably is a way to if I’m a gentleman that wants to be a MD, and I don’t get in, but I can get to PA school, that’s going to get a lot of people. So there probably is a way for that middle ground, a little more than a technician, not quite a veterinarian, but definitely could get their foot in the door to do what they want to do and help us, because we all need help.

Stacy Pursell:
Yeah. We need to keep exploring all of these, these options and those [inaudible 00:23:43].

Cade Wilson:
That’s great ideas. You and I can work on that. That’s a great idea. Stacy, we’re going to coin that. I like it.

Stacy Pursell:
Let’s do it. Well, Cade, I would love for you to share with the listeners about the kinds of projects that you are up to. I know you started a company. What gave you the idea, and how did you get started?

Cade Wilson:
So Skoped Micro, so that’s the company you speak of. So about eight or nine years ago, it comes back to the outdoors. I love the outdoors still. I purchased a phone case to connect to my binoculars to film wildlife, and I went on a trip with my dad and brothers, and the whole reason I did this is my kids were young. I’m a father of two. My son is 14. My daughter is 11, but back then they were really little, and my son was old enough to know that I was going to do something really cool, and he couldn’t go. And that bothered me a little bit. He was too little, but I was like, “How do I bring some of this trip back to him?”

And so we were going to Colorado and going to see a lot of wildlife, so I researched ways to do this, and I found a company that made a phone case that connected to optics, binoculars or spotting scopes, and I thought, “I’m going to buy that. It looks pretty tough. I’m tough on equipment. Let’s see if it’ll live through me, and I can take pictures and videos for my children.” And so I did. That company was called Phone Skope, and so I bought this phone case, came in, and off we go.

And so I took all kinds of pictures and videos of elk, and deer, and a bear, and all this different stuff that my kids loved, and so it was really a fun thing, and on my drive back, because we drove that all the way, and it was about a 17 hour drive, I’m sitting there looking at this phone case, and the one thing I didn’t talk about college was I was also a carpenter for two years, worked for a construction company before I built tires. And so I’m looking at this phone case, and I’m looking at how they made it, and I’m thinking, “What am I going to do with this when I get back home? Is this just going to go in a drawer, or what’s it going to do?”

And that’s still when I was a solo practitioner. That’s back before I was a multi-doctor practice, and I’m looking at it, and I’m like, “You know what? I think I could make an eye piece that would have fit this phone case to use on my microscope, because I do a lot of cytology. It’d be great to be able to take a picture for my files and be a better educator of my clientele.” And so I get home, and I go to tinkering on this thing, and so I make an eye piece adapter to fit on this outdoor phone case, and off it went. And so originally it was just pictures of cytology, and I was way better at follow ups, because I don’t care how good your notes are, it’s not a picture. And I could educate my client. This is what I’m seeing. We could do our follow up. I could show them what I saw that day, and they became better clients, because they knew what I was trying to achieve.

And so it was amazing, and I’m just using the phone that I already used, and the microscope I bought off Amazon. I mean, it was no big deal. And so along the way, it started finding all these new jobs as an easy way for me to teach my staff like, “Hey, here’s what we’re looking for. Hey, you missed this, but now you know. Now we can look at it together.” Then it turned into social media. It made a really easy way for me to teach my clients about normal things in my area, and they would see things in their pets, because they knew what I was looking for, and I could treat them faster.

One day, one of my closest friends is a veterinary pathologist, and he had started his own veterinary pathology group, and so I was using him, because I’m going to give back to my buddies, and I had a case. We’re taking this mass off of a dog, and I didn’t like my margins. I didn’t know if I’d fully remove this tumor, so I made a slide. I called him up, and I asked him what kind of phone he had, and I said, “Hey, accept my FaceTime.” And so he accepted my FaceTime, and we’re looking in my microscope through two iPhones, and he’s about eight hours away from me. And I just asked him. I’m like, “Do you see anything that you don’t like? Is there anything? I’m not going to leave the witness, okay? I just want is there anything you don’t like?”

And he’s like, “Well, there’s neoplastic cells there.” And I said, “Good enough. Let me let you go.” And so the dog is still on the table. I mean, literally, I made the slide while the dog is still anesthetized. So I walked back in, made a little bit bigger margin in that area that I was concerned about, and then went on about my day. That night, Ron called me, and he’s a mess. And so he called me. He said, “Okay, I’ve thought about this all day.” I’m going to use his terminology. He said, “How the hell did we do that?”

And so I explained him what I had going on, and he said, “Man, that is really, really cool.” And so we started talking about it a lot, about how I had done that. And what’s funny is the company that I was using their phone case not too long after that found me on social media talking about them through my microscope pictures and videos. They called me literally sitting at the desk I’m at right now and wanted to speak to whoever did social media. That was me. I’m a small company. So I talked to them, and they were very polite, but they said, “Hey, we just want to tell you that we don’t make what you’re talking about.” And I laughed, and I said, “Well, you kind of do.” And so I explained what we were doing, or how I had done what I did, and flash forward now many years, and now that outdoor company and I partner in Skope Micro. I use their phone cases, or we use their phone cases, and we make the eye piece adapter that I’ve designed, and we have patented.

And so now we just can take anybody’s smartphone and connect to anybody’s microscope, and so that you can collect pictures and videos for whatever needs you want. If you want to be a social media wizard with things that you make, we can do that. If you want to drop those pictures or videos into your software, we can do that. If you want to do telemedicine, we can do that. And so it is I use the word telemicroscopy or digital microscopy, because you’re just taking pictures through a microscope by the simplest means ever. We are already using what you already own. We’re just connecting the two.

Along that way, we’ve come up with an app just again trying to make help others. How do we take better pictures? How do we use better Zoom? How do we do all that? So I’ve learned a lot about apps, and so we’ve been working on that. And so it’s been a kind of crazy ride. I did that starting in 2015, so we’re about eight years in to this, or I am. We didn’t launch that business until about a year and a half ago, because I wanted it to 100% usable. I wanted anybody to be able to do it. I made them promise me that we would never launch something that didn’t work 100% of the time, and that we did not 100% guarantee. If somebody buys one and doesn’t like it, we’ll give your money back. We’ll take it back, or we’ll fix it, or whatever, but it’s 100% guaranteed.

And so it took a while to make me feel comfortable about putting my name and face on this, but that’s what we do. And so it’s been a pretty intense, amazing year and a half since we’ve launched. As a small town guy in the middle of America, to say that the little adapter that I’ve made is now on every continent except for Antarctica, pretty amazing. We’re in about 50 colleges helping to teach. I have about 500 vet clinics using them in some capacity, and we expect more, but it’s been a pretty humbling experience, but it’s pretty amazing that I know a veterinarian or veterinarians on every continent, that I know by first name, and they know me, and I can’t wait to see how we help the next group. But it’s pretty cool. It’s allowed me also a platform to launch my CMW Consulting, and that’s what I use to help other vet clinics in different capacities.

I’ve gotten to teach CE using our equipment. I literally sitting here, I’m looking at the new veterinary practice news that’s on my desk, and I wrote an article. I’m actually one of the cover articles, so it’s pretty neat that that’s given me that platform to again help others. That’s what I want to do. If there’s a way that I can help somebody else by something I know, I’m in 100% of the time, and it makes my life pretty full, and that’s a good thing. And so I think that if you’re given a gift, you should give that. And so that’s kind of the story.

Stacy Pursell:
So if one of our listeners wants to get a Skoped Micro, how do they get in touch? How do they get one?

Cade Wilson:
A couple different ways, and so we do sell direct. So you can go to our website SkopedMicro, and that’s Skoped with a K. We now have them on Amazon as well. We have a couple of different people looking at being distributors. I’ve just recently met a gentleman that I really like, and he has a company called Microscope Supply. It’s Microscopesupply.com. He’s got a really amazing story too. It looks like he’s going to be a distributor here pretty quick. He’s got Black Friday ideas, so I’m thinking we’re going to be really quick, and then we have some different laboratories that we’re speaking with to help with different telehealth options through a microscope, but right now, Skopedmicro.com would be the easiest. You can probably even get to talk to me or Kiara, because I run that sometimes, and then Amazon. Amazon has them too. So you just Google Skoped Micro, and you can find out all about it.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Cade, you have already accomplished so much. So what are some future goals that you have set for yourself?

Cade Wilson:
Future goals? I love practicing medicine, so I don’t see me not doing that for a long time, but I want to expand on my ability to help with consulting by whatever capacity. I really have found that I like as the son and grandson of a teacher, I like teaching, and so the few options I’ve gotten this last year to teach some CE, I foresee me doing more of that. I really enjoy that in different capacities. Writing a couple articles, I’ve liked that. So I want to expand on my writing ability, and so I’m going to do some more articles I’m already working on, and then just continue to give back to my community and to my profession, whatever that looks like. I’ve had several people reach out to me, and I’ve got another meeting tonight about that. It’s how do I help others? And so I don’t know what that totally looks like, but I am open minded, and I am game to do it.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, there might be some people listening that are curious about some of your daily habits that you believe that have allowed you to achieve success. What are a few of those daily habits that have helped you to be successful?

Cade Wilson:
So I’m a super active dad in a lot of different ways. In all the things I’ve already told you I do, I still coach little league things. I was coaching a flag football game for fifth graders last night. So I believe in having some sort of strategy to start my day. I like having something I can check off the list, and I’ve done something successful. So I’m still a guy that likes to make the bed first thing, check it off in the mornings. My wife is a professional too, and so she has things that she likes to do. So my job in the morning is I wake up. I start a cup of coffee, because I need that in my life. I get up around 5:30, between 5:30 and 6:00 usually every morning. I make my kids lunches every day. I make my children’s breakfast every day. And so I am doing those pretty much simultaneously, because I’m a multitasker.

Once I get those things completed, and I’ve got them eating breakfast, and getting ready for their day, that’s my spiritual time. I sit down. I do read the Bible. I meditate. I think through my day, kind of plan out how I’m going to be successful, and I think that’s important. I think you should plan to be successful, don’t plan to fail, plan to be successful in whatever that is. And then I get ready for my day, and so I’ve done all those things usually before 7:00. My goal is by 7:00, all that is completed. And then I can get dressed, get ready, and then see patients, or whatever my mid-morning looks like. Mid-morning to me is 8:00 to noon. And then I work out. I do a lunch workout. And so those are very important to me, and it keeps me kind of grounded. Most of my life is pretty hectic, but those things I want to do, and if I get those done, I’m a happier human being. And so that’s my day.

Stacy Pursell:
What advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

Cade Wilson:
Don’t quit, even when times look hard, and we all have them. All our lives are different, but they’re also the same. You’re going to get challenged, and there’s going to be times where you’re going to think about, “Man, is this worth it?” Yeah, you need to make sure it is worth it, make sure you’re on the right path, but don’t quit. When time is hard, man, that’s when you’re learning the most. That is when you’re training yourself how you’re going to react to hard times, and so if you give up, you’re training yourself it’s okay to give up.

I’m very fortunate every year I still go speak to my high school football team that I played on. Here I am, whatever years later, 27, 28 years later, and I give them my life pep talk, and I tell them that you’re practicing football, and you’re training yourself in the weight room, and all this, but you’re training yourself for life, and that most people are not going to be a professional athlete. 99% of people or less are going to be a professional athlete, but you’re going to be a professional something, and so training yourself to be a good player, to work well with others, to when life gets hard, how are you going to react? And so I think those are all important things to know.

Stacy Pursell:
And what principle do you wish you could teach everyone?

Cade Wilson:
To believe in yourself, to be positive, to project success, to whenever you’re starting a new job, or starting a new project, or whatever, envision those things being successful. I think that is very important. And anything you do is if you start having negative thoughts, it’s toxic. And so be positive, think positive, be prepared for something to go wrong, and when it does, you’re prepared for that to make yourself successful.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Cade, 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?

Cade Wilson:
All right, so here’s my mic drop. So I think that challenging yourself is very important. Even here I am in my mid forties, I like to still challenge myself in a lot of different ways, and athletically I still like to work out. I’ve started doing several years ago sprint triathlons. Why? Because it’s hard, and not everybody likes to do that, so I saw that as fun to me, and one of my first ones I thought I was going to die. I literally about tore my achilles. I struggled through that, but at the end, it was so rewarding. I was I mean emotional that I got through that, even when I was challenged.

And so my thing to the listeners is find your limits and expand on them professionally, personally, athletically, finding success at the outward limits of your abilities, and pushing yourself to where find what you think you could do, and find what’s past that. I think your greatest happiness and your greatest fulfillment of your life is finding the edge of you. And so I challenge you to find out what you really truly can achieve in your life, and I wish you the best.

Stacy Pursell:
Well, Cade, thank you so much for being here with us today on the People of Animal Health Podcast. I know you’re so busy in your practice and your business, and we’re so grateful for your time here and the advice that you share, and as we go out today, like Cade said, find the edge of you, and find your limits, and expand. Such great advice. Cade, thanks again for being here.

Cade Wilson:
My pleasure. Thank you so much.