Episode #20 – David Boguslawski

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.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast. On today’s show, we are talking with David Boguslawski, president and CEO of CityVet, which is a veterinarian-led group of practices headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Since taking over as CEO in 2019, David has helped CityVet double in size, but remain true to its core value of putting people first.

David has enjoyed a long career of success not only in the veterinary profession, but also within the world of business in general. Prior to joining CityVet, he was the chief operating officer at DECA Dental where he helped the organization grow from 25 locations to 85 locations, updating systems and processes to make the business more scalable. David also spent eight years working within Highland Capital’s private equity group, implementing strategic plans, leading mergers and acquisitions, and instituting continuous improvement programs for healthcare portfolio companies. With his impressive business background and his passion for helping pets and putting people first, we’re pleased that David has agreed to join us today for today’s show. Welcome to The People of Animal Health Podcast, David, and how are you today?

I’m doing great, Stacy. Thanks for inviting me and thanks for the very warm welcome and intro.

Well, we’re so happy to have you here, David. And 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, David?

Yeah. Yes, Stacy. I grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas, just a small suburb of Little Rock. A middle class family, we had a family of four. Back then, it was the era of no cell phones, so we just played outside all day, built forts, rode bikes, tried to stay out of trouble. Always had pets around the house, always had both dogs and cats throughout, really my whole life growing up. I had a sister that was four years older than me and she is very creative and is an artist. And I got the other side, I’m an engineer and I can’t do anything artistically. So we got total opposites there, but we get along great and we’re still very close today.

Had two wonderful parents. My dad was an engineer and worked for IBM for over 30 years. My mom was a business manager of a healthcare Arkansas ear, nose, and throat clinic. She worked there for more than 30 years, so very consistent long-term careers for both of them. And they really raised me on integrity and doing the right thing, and my parents were just awesome role models. I couldn’t ask for better role models growing up. Still married to this day and I see them quite a bit now that I’ve got the only grandkids. They come down and help play with them. So that was me in a nutshell growing up.

Well, David, when did you first figure out what you wanted to do professionally?

It’s I think in high school, I was always good at math and physics, and of course, my dad was an electrical engineer and one of our closest family friends ran a small civil engineering firm, so engineering felt like the right path for me. It was what I was good at and I had an interest in. And then when I arrived on campus, I met someone from the industrial engineering department who really told me about that and that it was a little more about management of workflow and people and processes versus circuits or building bridges or building drainage systems, which I like the people component of it and I thought that was very interesting. So at that point, I went into industrial engineering and really learned there was a lot about operations and process improvement. And so I always thought I’d go down the operational path.

But I think as we get later in this podcast, you’ll find that if at any point in my career, you ask me what are you going to be doing 10 years from now, I could have never have guessed. It’s moved around a bit. So if anyone, I always am impressed by people that have that clear vision. I’ve moved around a little bit, but I’ve all been very thankful and grateful for the experience. But I knew pretty early on, I wanted to get into operations management and process improvement.

Well, tell us about the start of your career. How did you get going?

Yeah, so first job… I went to undergrad at Arkansas. I got an industrial engineering degree and first job out of undergrad was at Lockheed Martin, which is where a lot of engineers go. They have a really good program called the Leadership Development Program. It was a two-year program where I rotated through several departments and got a lot of really good exposure and leadership training at an early age, so it was a really great experience. And then from there, I went and ran a sheet metal shop within Lockheed, which was a union shop where the guys were twice my age. And so really learned leadership very early, you can’t tell someone that’s been doing it that long what to do. You have to influence through other avenues. And so it was really, like I said, a really good learning experience.

While at Lockheed, I got my Lean Six Sigma black belt certification. I got an MBA from SMU at night. And so from there, I was wondering what to do next and I ended up going into private equity, Highland Capital private equity group, which is very strange transition, so we can go into that if you’d like. But my early career was at Lockheed.

Yeah, I’d love to know more about your time in private equity. How did you make that switch? And then after you talk about that, I’d love to talk about how you went from there to getting into the veterinary profession.

Yeah. Yeah, so it was the private equity group’s called Highland Capital and they were looking for someone to come in and help work with their portfolio of companies to improve operations, run projects, do Lean Six Sigma projects, things like that, and I applied cold. I didn’t know anybody, but I ended up getting the role and really, really liked it. Got a ton of exposure there. It started as a project management, process improvement for portfolio companies that eventually grew into I was on the boards of these companies. I was helping recruiting C-suite executives. So over the course of eight years, my career path had escalated, but it was just having the exposure and being around CEOs and COOs from five or six different companies and literally being on site at those companies was just incredible experience for me and I value it still today.

And then from there, a lot of these companies we were working with were distressed and they were turnarounds and that wears on you after a while and so, I was casually looking. I met the founder of DECA Dental who was the founding dentist and they had just raised some equity capital and he was looking for a COO to come in and help them scale the business and so I did. I was the first executive to join the team at DECA that wasn’t one of the founding dentists. And so I helped grow it, as you mentioned earlier, from about 24 to 85 locations. Totally revamped a lot of the systems, processes, reporting, how we ran the business. Was there I think four or five years and wasn’t looking. I just happened to…

One of my neighbors actually happened to introduce me to the financial sponsor of CityVet at the time, who was RiverGlade Capital. I told them I wasn’t looking, but I went and met with them just for networking. I really liked them and they said, “Well, hey, I know you’re not looking, but just meet with the chairman of CityVet, Andy Anderson.” I said, “Okay, I’ll meet him.” Really liked Andy. And then Andy said, “No pressure. Just meet with the founder, Chip Cannon.” Really liked Chip.

Before I know it, everyone I meet, I’m falling in love with this company. I’m looking at the reviews. It looks like they have really good veterinarians. They have really good Google reviews. I like the brand. I like the fact that they gave their veterinarians equity. And so everything just fell into place. Oh, and by the way, I’ve always loved animals, even more so than teeth, and so it just happened naturally. Before I knew it, I was in a full blown interview and I came in as CEO I guess three years ago and haven’t looked back since.

Well, when did you first feel like you were truly beginning to gain traction with your career?

Oh, probably it started at Lockheed when we won some awards. I turned around a sheet metal shop and won a team award there. And then at Highland Capital, there wasn’t necessarily awards, but just the amount of exposure I got just really gave me a lot more confidence in my understanding of how things work. Being on boards at that age and that experience level, just really incredible experience. Because I think it was at, I was probably five, six, seven years out of school when I was having those two experiences.

Well, I know that you’ve experienced massive success, but probably also had some low points along the way. Walk us through the highest high and the lowest low of your career.

Yeah, I think the highest high came earlier this year when CityVet, we raised more capital to really grow the brand beyond Texas and Colorado and across several new metros over the next few years. I love that we can continue our mission and try to become nationally recognized within the industry for really good veterinary care. And several of our partner vets did really well financially, and that was part of my mission. I feel like veterinarians work really hard. A lot of them are underpaid. So I felt like we were finding a way to give back to them. And so I think raising that capital, it made me feel like we had fulfilled a good chunk of that mission, and now we’re trying to do it more broadly. And so I think that was very rewarding for me. And I think that was probably the high point.

Low point, I’ve been blessed not to have any just total devastating issues. I mean, if I had to point out one, I’d probably say being an engineer, I’ve always followed the facts and the data, and I’m always a black and white, trying to be very analytical about things and unbiased without politics or influences or things like that. And there are some positions that operate a little differently. For example, I don’t want to pick on attorneys, but if an attorney has to defend a client that’s guilty, that attorney doesn’t want to necessarily know all those facts, right? They want to be able to defend their client in the best way possible. So I’ve been deposed in a case before and it was just a very awkward situation where I thought, this person is not after the right facts or what’s accurate. They’re totally after what they want to hear for their client. And so, it was a good experience for us, I learned, but it was one that I wouldn’t want to do again or really encourage anyone else to do.

Well, what changes have you seen in the veterinary profession during your tenure so far?

I think over the last three years, COVID was a big change. We had volumes obviously shoot way up. They’ve leveled back off now. I think the shortage of veterinarians has gotten even more pronounced or probably two of the main things, and I think the staffing shortage and veterinarian shortage is probably not going away. And so I can talk more through that if you’d like.

Sure, go ahead.

Yeah, I think, and there was a Mars study, they did a study about this that said in 2023, the US will need I think it’s 40,000 veterinarians and they expect us to be 15,000 short. And so I know whenever I go to these conferences and we talk as CEOs, it’s our number one what keeps you up at night type question is the shortage of veterinarians, and it’s not going away. And so I think at some point, we’re going to have to find ways to get more people interested in the industry. We’re also going to have to upskill technicians to do more, probably do some lobbying to maybe even adjust some state laws in terms of what techs can and can’t do. There’s also this concept of a mid-level practitioner like a PA in the human medicine side, that’s somewhere in between a veterinarian and a vet tech that maybe gets a little more education and can do a little more, maybe do vaccines and wellness and things like that without a vet in the room.

And so I think we’re going to have to do all of those is attract more talent and upskill the talent we have and probably create new positions to continue to adjust for the shortage of staffing. I do think short term, just more globally, I think our economy may be either in a recession or headed for a recession, and some consolidators that have used a lot of leverage may feel the pinch, but there is a lot of equity money pouring in. So long term, I do think consolidation will continue to grow and I think a lot of those consolidators will start looking a little more at de novos, like at our model, just because it doesn’t rely on really high multiples to acquire clinics.

Well, you already mentioned one thing about the future of the veterinary profession that the shortage is not going to go away anytime soon. David, what does your crystal ball say about other things, the future of veterinary medicine, what does your crystal ball say about other things that you’re projecting to happen in the future of veterinary medicine?

I think a lot of it just comes down to we’ll have to get more creative to use, whether it’s technicians or we create this nurse practitioner role or mid-level practitioner, to use more of their skills and take the involvement with the veterinarian probably down a little bit, but still not lose that personal touch. So I think just the workflow within the clinic will probably have to change because I don’t think we’ll be able to plug the hole to recruit more people into schools and things like that. So I think that’s probably one big thing that I’m definitely working on, I know a lot of other CEOs are brainstorming on as well.

Well, I’d love for you to share with the listeners about the kinds of projects that you’re up to today.

Yeah, so again, what I just told you, I mean we’re trying to find ways to differentiate and really attract people. And it’s not just based on the fact that we give ownership and we share economics with veterinarians, but also I feel like we’ve got a pretty good culture and we’re always working on that. But our vet turnover is normally 8 or 9% and it’s typically not to a competitor. It’s typically like a maternity that doesn’t return or someone moves out of state or something like that.

Once a quarter, we ask all of our partner vets and our practice managers to rate me and my team on how well we’re doing. It’s anonymous so they can say whatever they want. And the last time we asked that question, we got a 9.2 out of 10. So I do think we’ve got some good things going. I think it’s hard to get the word out on that and really attract people to a culture I think they would thrive in. So really working on some marketing and some culture-ish initiatives, try to get the word out on what we’re doing.

In terms of developing our own staff, we’ve created a clinical skills assessment that we use to develop both veterinarians and technicians in where they want to be developed. And so we have a map of all 70 of our veterinarians and what their skills on a one to five are across the different things they do as a veterinarian. And so if someone, for example, is interested in acupuncture, I can go point them to the vet that’s really good at that within our clinics because not everyone does it. So we have this map of clinical skills. We’re trying to develop people where they want to get developed.

We also have a leadership development program within our CityVet Academy that we just rolled out. We’ve gotten rid of negative production accruals. We’ve enhanced our student debt and parental leave programs. And we’re currently in work on some important mental health and wellness initiatives that we’re hoping to roll out soon. So as you can hear, really all these are about one thing, our business is our people and we’re trying to find ways to take care of them now more than ever because I think we have to attract top and retain top talent or it’ll be hard for us to grow.

Are you able to elaborate on what you’re doing specifically to help with the student debt problem?

We did. So we have just a payback program and we have a software that tracks all of their debt. So far, let’s say a veterinarian wants to enroll in the program, it’s free to them and they can basically log it into the system and it tracks their mortgage, it tracks their student debt and it just helps them determine what debt to pay off. And then, we also chip in, I think it’s a few thousand bucks a year or something like that to help offset the debt.

Okay. Well, what is a typical day like for you at CityVet? What time do you wake up in the morning? How do you organize your day? Tell us about what it’s like to work at CityVet for you on a typical day.

Yeah, so I’m structured in the morning. I wake up about 5:45 or 6:00. I have this thing where I don’t look at my phone for the first hour I wake up because I don’t want to become reactive. I want to stay focused on my priorities. So I get up, I read one page from The Daily Stoic, which is a book, one page from The Maxwell Daily Reader, which is a book. I’d say a quick prayer and I go to the gym and I listen to an audio book on the way to the gym. It’s probably about a 30-minute commute.

I work out for about an hour and I normally get to the office around 8:00. And I read an email news to get the day’s news. It’s from 1440 is the name of it. It’s probably the only unbiased news source I’ve found, which is awesome because I get one email with all the news. I can read it in a couple minutes. I check my Evernote to-do list. That’s where I keep all my priorities and to-dos. And then I check my calendar and then I do my email after I’ve done all that because I prioritize all the stuff that’s important to me. And then I check my email and see if anything needs to move around. But I don’t want to start my day in a reactive mode. And I normally don’t schedule my meetings to start until around 9:00. And that way, I’m fully organized. I’m focused. And frankly, I’m caffeinated for the day to start.

That all makes sense. Well, you’ve already given us some. My next question is about what are a few of your daily habits that you believe that have allowed you to achieve success? You just talked about some. What are some more habits that have led you to be so successful?

Yeah, I think, so I try to work out daily. I do think that’s a good way for me to remain balanced in my life. So I try to do that daily and it’s best for me to do it in the morning. That way it doesn’t get lost to something else. I’m big on reviewing my goals and priorities before emails. I hit on that. And I try to get home in time to spend at least a couple hours with family before the kids go to bed so I’m trying to get some family time in as well.

And at the end of the day, I try to make sure I clean all my emails out. So even if it’s putting it in a followup bucket for the next day, I can go to sleep easier if I know there’s not a bunch of stuff waiting on me or I’m going to forget about it or something. And so for me, it’s really about maintaining balance between, for me, it’s work, it’s fitness and its family. And I try to sprinkle fun in amongst all three of those, but I found if I can maintain balance, it just keeps me better focused, better moved, more positive, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, balance is so important. Is there a mentor that you’ve had throughout your life or your career that’s made a big impact on your career or life so far?

Yeah, there’s really, so I think most of my life it’s probably Greg Yamamoto, who was a guy I worked with at Highland who taught me just some really good leadership concepts and also, he was really good at building my confidence. So whenever I have an important decision, I’d call him and I normally just come out of the call feeling really charged up. So he’s been an awesome mentor for me. And more recently since I joined CityVet, our chairman, Andy Anderson, who’s a very sharp guy, I’ve learned a ton about business from him, but also just life. I mean, he’s very sharp and just has a good perspective on life and I really talk to him a lot about some of the stuff earlier I mentioned about balance and the important things in life. So I think those, probably the two people I would point to.

Everybody has adversity along the way that they have to deal with. Can you think of any time during your career where you’ve had to fight through any big adversity?

Yeah, I think so. I think most CEOs are natural-born communicators and leaders and you can feel it probably at an early age. That was not me at all. When I was younger, I was very shy, introverted, so I tended to get underestimated a lot. And so it took up a while to really build up my confidence and open up. And so I think probably the biggest adversity was just it took me a while to get out of my shell and be able to do the things that I’m doing today.

Well, what advice would you give the younger version of yourself?

I’d probably say do more stuff that’s uncomfortable, like public speaking or acting, things that are not right in my wheelhouse. I think the more I could have done that at a early age, I probably could have ramped even quicker. So that’s probably the piece of advice I’d give myself.

And what are some strategies for doing that? How can somebody challenge themselves in that way?

I think, well, it’s different person by person. So I think most people have an understanding what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are and what they’re frankly just have fear around. And so what I would encourage people to do is write down the stuff you have fear around, the stuff that when you think about doing it, it just makes you uncomfortable and you go, “Eh, I’ll put that off,” and then find a way to do that. I think that’s how you really grow is stretching yourself to do stuff that is not easy. Trying on new opportunities, things like that, I think that’s a good way for people to grow

To do it anyway, even if it’s uncomfortable.

Right.

Well, we find that many successful people tend to have idiosyncrasies that are actually their superpowers. What idiosyncrasy do you have?

So as an engineer, [inaudible 00:24:57] super analytical and pretty stoic. And so, what that really means is I don’t get real overly emotional even in times when something big happens. I think it allows me to really focus on information and make decisions very quickly and pretty accurately. As an example, someone could accuse me of doing something horrific or just there’s no way I would do it. It’s way out of character. And most people would react to that and they’d immediately get emotional and defensive and they’d start bowing up. I don’t normally feel that way. I normally want to understand where they’re coming from. So even if someone accused me of something terrible, I’d probably respond with, “Huh, what makes you say that?” So I just don’t have the real emotional ups and downs as much. And I think that just helps me remain grounded and that calmness in the moment really helps me be efficient and do a lot of critical thinking in the spot.

Well, what message or principle do you wish you could teach everyone that’s listening today?

Probably, I mentioned the book earlier, probably the principles stoicism, which is just focusing on certain priorities and how you think about life in general. Also, I’d probably, I think my team would tell you, I’ve got a pretty nifty prioritization system and the things that I do in Evernote. I know Peter Drucker once said, the ability to prioritize is the single greatest criteria that separates an average executive from an effective executive. So I’ve spent a lot of energy in trying to build my prioritization system and a lot of it’s based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done, but I’ve made some tweaks to it over time. And so I guess what I would tell people is read some stoicism because I think you’d appreciate it. And then, develop your own system on how you prioritize because you don’t want to be in always reactive mode, which is not a good place to be.

Don’t be reactive.

Yeah.

Good advice. You’re super successful, but what do you struggle with the most? What is your weakness or what is your kryptonite?

I can still do it, but I don’t love public speaking in front of really large groups. So I’m comfortable doing it now, but it’s still never… I don’t look forward to it. And I’m probably not the best shoulder to cry on. I have a high EQ, I’m very empathetic, but given the stoic nature I just mentioned, doesn’t always come across. And so even though I can feel someone’s pain, I’m probably not the best person to, shoulder to cry on, if you will.

You mentioned a couple of books already. Are there any other books that you would recommend to the listeners today?

Yeah, so I think Daily Stoic I mentioned by Ryan Holiday so that’s a really good one for, like I said, just principles of life and especially if you’re feeling stressed out, it’s a really good one to turn to. I think Maxwell’s Daily Reader by John Maxwell’s a really good… For any leader, anybody wanting to be a leader, it’s got all of Maxwell’s work is consolidated into this summary with one pagers from all his material, and so it’s a really good reminder of different leadership stuff. And then anyone in sales or wanting to get better in influence, I’d probably say the book Influence by Robert Cialdini was very informative for me.

I have that book on my shelf. I haven’t read it, but it’s on my list of books to read. Well, David, 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?

Yeah, I think what I would share is I’m going to assume a lot of your listeners are probably veterinarians or in the industry at a minimum, and veterinarians work their butt off. It’s a very busy… Everyone’s got a ton, a very high visit volume. I mentioned the staffing issues. So you’re probably facing a lot of stress. And so what I would try to, I think probably the one thing I would leave you with is try to find that balance I mentioned earlier between whether it’s fitness or work or family or fun or faith, just try to find whatever that balance is. And when you get stressed, change to another pillar. So for example, if you’re stressed at work, go for a walk or go to the gym. If you’ve got body aches, try calling an old friend. Just try to do something, change it up and change your environment and your paradigm. And I think that’s something I’ve found very helpful for whenever I’m feeling down or feeling stressed or anxious around something, I just try to change my total environment and I think that’s helpful for anyone.

Those are some good words of wisdom. Well, David, thank you so much again for being on our podcast today. I know you’re very busy and we’re grateful that you joined us today. Thank you.

Thank you, Stacy. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciate you having me on.