Episode #90 – Wesley Godwin

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. Today’s guest is Wes Godwin, a seasoned leader and innovator with more than two decades of experience in the animal health industry and veterinary profession. From his early days working in his father’s veterinary clinic to building and scaling Valley Veterinary Care into a 24 location, multi-state organization Wes has consistently driven growth and change. He’s also the founder of Puri Sanguine, a pioneering biosecure animal blood bank and co-founder of Texas Animal Health Innovations. His career reflects a deep commitment to advancing animal care, supporting veterinary professionals and creating meaningful impact across the industry. Wes, thank you for being my guest today on the People of Animal Health Podcast and how are you today?

Wes Godwin:

Very good, Stacy. Thank you for having me.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, Wes, I’ve known you for a long time. I’m happy to have this time with you. I’d love to start off at the beginning. What was your life like growing up and where did you grow up?

Wes Godwin:

Sure. So I grew up in the veterinary business. My dad was a veterinarian and so he was a pioneering early stage veterinarian in a lot of different ventures. One of the founders of the first emergency hospital in Texas, potentially the first in the US. Grew up, cut my teeth on emergency business and early days of specialty care, as well as general practice. We also ran cattle, farmed a little bit and did quite a few other things. So had a broad experience growing up primarily focused on animal health in some form or fashion.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, tell me about your early career. How did you first get started?

Wes Godwin:

Well, Stacy, when I first got out of Texas A&M, I stayed out of the animal health sector. I thought I’d had enough of that early on. And so I wanted to try something new. And so for about four to five years, I worked in a different field, in the legal field, a few other areas, and realized at some point that I needed to come back home. I missed the business as well as the sense of community that animal health had provided for me growing up. And so I wanted to get back into that. An opportunity came available with Novartis Animal Health. And so went ahead and jumped back into the business with Novartis Animal Health with Bob Jones and that team in about the year 2000.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, and you actually started your career doing kennel work and janitorial tasks for your dad’s veterinary practice. How did those early experiences shape who you are today and your leadership style?

Wes Godwin:

Yeah, it was really healthy. It was really good for me. I think it’s good for anybody when you start young doing hard tasks. And not necessarily that those were hard tasks, but for those who grew up in veterinary hospitals, you realize that the person who doesn’t get paid is the person who gets to do the worst jobs. And so my job when I showed up at the hospital was to go out with a trash bag in the front parking lot and pick up trash and then go clean out the kennels. I had spent a lot of time with a water hose and a spray nozzle and chain link. And so people who have done that before know what I’m talking about. But it was really good for me. Helped me develop and an understanding that it doesn’t really matter who does what. Regardless, the job has to get done.

And so it was a lot of fun at times. There was always somebody having a good time or joking in the hospital. Those who’ve worked in hospitals understand that there’s brevity and you have to make light of certain situations, a lot of brevity in the hospitals, but always a sense of family and community. And so that was really what left me with a really great understanding and love for the industry.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, growing up with your dad being a veterinarian on a ranch, what lessons from that environment still influenced your decisions today as an entrepreneur?

Wes Godwin:

Well, so Stacy, what it really did for me was it taught me that no matter what happened in life, there’s certain things that are out of your control. I’ve heard people talk about this with people who work either in ag or farming, et cetera. You can’t control the weather. You can’t control when things don’t go your way. And so at some point it gives you a sense of the fact that you have to continue to persevere no matter what. Whether it’s in a boardroom or in a tractor or in a veterinary hospital, you have to continue working no matter what might happen in that facility. And unfortunately, I think we’ve lost some of that, not just in society, but in the profession. A lot of people nowadays, they like their eight to five schedule. And when something doesn’t go their way, they have a difficult time with it.

And so growing up, I think I was blessed with the fact that I was able to experience what I experienced, not having to deal with a lot of some of the challenges or having challenges that developed me into the person I was. So no matter what happened, positive or negative in my career, it was always a step forward.

Stacy Pursell:

Now, Wes, you have worked in both big pharma and in private veterinary practice. What key differences have you noticed and how did each of those prepare you for building your own companies?

Wes Godwin:

So I’ve had quite a bit of a breadth of experience working for Novartis Animal Health, a global corporation traveling all over the country and the world with that company, seeing a variety of different roles, but at the same time, also understanding what matters in a large global corporation is not necessarily what matters in a small practice or a small business. So to be very frank with you, I think because of my background, I fit the mold better of a bootstrapper, someone who understands how to build something from scratch, how to tender that along and ensure that the business is successful rather than a large corporate environment, which really is a little bit of a more of a lethargic pace. You can really affect change slowly there. My personality is such that when we settle on a course of action, we like to get things done and move that forward. And so starting a business or bootstrapping a business is something that’s more akin to my skillset.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, Valley Veterinary Care grew to 24 locations and delivered a three-time return. What were the biggest challenges in scaling that quickly?

Wes Godwin:

So Stacy, that’s one of the most impactful times in my life, building that company. Like you said, we actually grew to 30 locations and we’re in California, Colorado, and Texas. But fortunately for me, I had already done it two other times. I think you’ve had Shane Kelly on. He and I built a company, Peak Pet Care, and then of course transitioned that into Best Friends, which of course is Lakefield today. But of course, that company had 60 locations, so it was quite a bit, double the size of Valley Veterinary Care. But fortunately for me, I had a good mentor in Shane. Had learned a lot of what to do, learned a lot of what not to do. We took our lumps there. But after a period of time, seeing how we put together and built best friends, it was really quite an easy transition into starting Valley Veterinary Care.

I saw an opportunity in a region of Texas that had been historically overlooked, which was the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, 1.7 million people with only 21 veterinarians. And so there was a bit of a service gap there. So we started there, continued to grow into other parts of Texas, some of the major MSAs, Houston, Dallas, Denver and Southern California. So there are two points, inflection points in my time building Valley Vet, and that was at the beginning, which we didn’t have to raise a whole lot of money for that.

But then in the mid-stages, we did, and we had to raise quite a bit of money. And that was always a bit of a frustration for me having to go back to the well to ensure that we continued our growth. So regardless, it was still a great experience for me. We eventually exited in 2024 to Summit Partners. And what I will say about that business, it wasn’t a challenge at all. What was most important to me was the relationship component of building Valley Vet. We had the opportunity and we were blessed for the fact that we had a lot of really fantastic people, veterinarians and non-veterinarians alike, in our organization that we built really strong relationships with that helped grow the company. I did not build Valley Vet. Our team, the entire team, all 1,000 employees built Valley Vet. And so there’s just some amazing people that were a part of that.

Stacy Pursell:

When you exited Valley Veterinary Care, what did you learn about timing strategy and building value in a veterinary business?

Wes Godwin:

So Stacy, when we exited, we had done a lot of… There’s a lot of things that obviously from every experience you should be able to learn a tremendous amount. And of course we did. The biggest difference between now and 2016 is the fact that the industry has changed. There’s very little arbitrage left. There’s very few businesses that have not been fully exploited in the animal health space. So when I started this, started working in roll-ups in 2011, most practices were still privately held. There was still a lot of upside in every practice you could buy. Most importantly, the veterinary community or cadre were of a different generation and a different philosophy. And so things were a bit easier. Things are tough now. The young veterinarians coming out don’t have the same mentality. They don’t have the same outlook on community and their job and their role in the community.

And so things are a little tougher. But what I did learn, there’s a few key things that I would say that I walked away from Valley Veterinary Care with. One of these doesn’t change. It’s still about the people and the community, but some of the other things that have changed is that veterinary medicine will never go back to the, as some people like to say, the good old days where a practice was there in this community, taking care of the people in this community. Now the goals are a little different. Obviously, you have to build margin, you have to throw a return for any type of veterinary venture you build. But all in all, I would say the biggest thing that I probably learned is the fact that you have to adjust with what the material you work with. And in our case, it’s the human component.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, Pura Sanguine is described as saving lives twice. Can you walk me through that mission and why donor wellbeing is so central to your model? And can you tell me more about the company?

Wes Godwin:

Sure. Yeah, Stacy. So when we were wrapping up Valley Vet, one of the biggest issues we had, because Valley Vet, we were about 50% emergency specialty business. And so, one of the biggest challenges we had were obtaining veterinary blood products, whether it was whole blood plasma, packed red blood cells, whatever it might be. And so I started looking at it closely and I realized it was one of the few spaces left in the animal health space that had a little bit of headroom where you could actually take a business, make it better and be a market leader. And so we launched that in 2023 in a class three research facility. A friend of mine had a large facility south of Houston, so we stepped into that facility and from day one it was a really great… We just had a great mission. We all knew what that mission was.

We understood what it was. So what we do is we take animals from shelters, from kill shelters. Generally, those animals are anywhere from a day to a week away from euthanasia. We rescue them out of those shelters. We bring them into their new home, their Pura Sanguine home. Of course, we have to do a little bit of work, quarantine work, et cetera, to ensure that they’re disease-free and so on and so forth. And then at that point they get introduced into the overall colony or community at Pura Sanguine. And those animals, every day they go out and they spend anywhere from, depending on the weather, one to six hours outdoors. They live in a pod environment where they have a certain group of 15 to 30 animals, other animals, other dogs that they live with and get to know.

And so we love the fact that when we bring those animals in, a lot of time they have socialization issues with either other dogs or people, and then within two years, we adopt those animals back out. So what I love is the fact you can see the changes in some of these dogs when you bring them in and they’re not friendly. They’re scared. And within a year, sometimes two or three months, they have their pack, their family. They play with everybody, with the people, the staff every day. They intentionally spend time. We have a training, a enrichment program whereby we judge and we score these animals, these pets on… Dog, pets, whatever you want to call them, on their temperament, their personality, their engagement, et cetera. And we have not had a single animal who has not doubled their score within six months so far. And so of course, like I said, at the end of two years, those animals become available for adoption and we adopt them out whether it’s locally or a lot of these animals go to the Pacific Northwest or to the East Coast.

And so we do a lot of work to ensure that they have a really good home. But the most beautiful thing of these guys, of our heroes, our little heroes, is the fact that they come in and their life has saved themselves from euthanasia, and they come in and for two years, every time they give a blood donation between 30 and 45 days, they save between three and five additional lives themselves. So by the time they’re adopted and they get their certificate, their hero certificate, they could have saved two to 300 to 400 animals, additional animals themselves. And so we feel like our mission is that we have a lifesaving mission, but not just like a shelter where you’re saving one life at a time. We save many lives with which each donation that each little hero gives. But once again, our goal is to save as many lives as we can and to really impact the life of these heroes and their future families.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, being the only biosecure animal blood bank in the US is a bold claim. What makes your approach different from traditional blood banks?

Wes Godwin:

That’s a great question. So we have spent a lot of time in being very intentional understanding our mission, yet at the same time, understanding what the profession needs. And so there’s a lot of open colonies, not necessarily colonies, per se, but models built around donations. And the biggest issue with those is you have no control over the supply, whether or not they’re going to come in with a bloodborne disease, whether that blood is going to be safe and secure without any pathogens, et cetera. And then there also were some colonies back in the day that didn’t have great reputations because people didn’t do the right thing. So we put all of our animals online so people can see what they’re doing. They can see cameras, they can see what they’re doing all day long, primarily for the fact that we want people to understand that just because we’re a closed colony doesn’t mean that the animals are closed up.

They have a really rich life. But also what that does for the industry, it fills a need that our customers understand that blood supply, they’re guaranteed to have a blood supply that’s pathogen-free, clean and healthy. We test our animals every month. They are on monthly anthelmintics and they’re completely, like I said, they’re completely monitored and the blood supply is completely guaranteed. So yeah, that’s why we’re able to make that claim because we know for a fact we’re very confident and secure in the fact that we do things differently.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, let’s talk about Texas Animal Health Innovations. So with Texas Animal Health Innovations, you’re tackling major health challenges. What types of innovations are you most excited about right now?

Wes Godwin:

Well, so Texas Animal Health Innovations is a group of industry professionals who, frankly, I’m probably the youngest one there so we’ve all seen a lot over the years. We’ve seen a tremendous amount of change in the industry, but we’ve also have quite a few connections. Now, the good thing about the group is it’s really strong and robust in its talents in that the fact that everyone there has a different background. So Dr. Vaughn, Dana Vaughn, he’s a pharmacologist, biochemist, et cetera. David Goodnight’s a veterinarian by trade, but been in private practice and industry. Dan Holland is an industry professional, been in a lot of different business development, et cetera, over the years. Myself, of course. And then we’ve got one other gentleman that rounds out the team, Samir Dotlow, who is our finance guru and has been around the block as well in regards to that.

And so we really feel like we’ve got an all star team that can put some things together. Of course, David and myself have spent a lot of time turning over rocks, looking for opportunities, and we’ve done a lot of that. And so we have a unique insight into whether it’s certain conditions or certain molecules or certain disease states, whatever it might be, where we believe that we can reach into those situations and figure out how to bring something to market. So currently right now, we’re working with a molecule with a unique delivery system that treats feline gingival stomatitis as well as other autoimmune diseases and issues. And so it’s really exciting and really novel and at some point we’ll be able to bring that out into the public eye at some point once we’ve completed a little more work.

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. If you are an employer in search of top talent or you work in the animal health industry or are a veterinarian ready to take the next step in your career, look no further than The Vet Recruiter. The Vet Recruiter has placed many of the industry’s top leaders from CEOs to COOs to chief veterinary officers to VPs of marketing and sales and heads of R&D and chief scientific officers.

We have built sales forces for many leading animal health companies and have placed more veterinarians in clinical practice than any other search firm in the US. Ready to take the next step? Visit the vetrecruiter.com today. That’s thevetrecruiter.com. And now let’s get back into the episode.

Wes, you have led M&A strategies and built multiple organizations. What advice would you give to animal health professionals or veterinary professionals looking to grow or exit their businesses?

Wes Godwin:

Yeah. So it depends on what type of organization you’re leading. If you’re going to lead an organization that you intend, that you don’t have an exit and don’t intend to exit from, obviously it comes down once again to building the type of culture and the personality that will last for a period of time longer than yourself, of course. And there’s a lot of people will give that type of advice, but it’s imperative that if you want to ensure that you have an organization that people want to be a part of, it comes down to the people. It really does. And so the advice I’d give to people who are looking for an exit, always prepare for an exit, always be building as if you’re looking for an exit. Don’t take side detours and don’t chase butterflies because unfortunately those are detrimental to your exit always.

And so that’s probably the two things I would give you advice for. Culture and purpose are the two things that you always have to keep in mind.

Stacy Pursell:

Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunities and disruptions in both the animal health industry and the veterinary profession over the next five to 10 years?

Wes Godwin:

Stacy, that’s an interesting question because I’ll be very honest with you, I think COVID was, for most every industry in the world, COVID was the biggest disruptor that there’s ever been in veterinary medicine that I’m ever aware of. I probably wasn’t alive for the biggest one besides… I guess you could go back to the other thing that disrupted and changed the industry was when they finally developed program for flea control back in the ’90s. And of course, topicals came around. That changed the position of the pet and the household. No longer were they were being kicked outside because they’re full of fleas. Now they actually had a place in the home. So that was probably the biggest disruption. And then the most recent disruption would’ve been COVID. We’re still trying to feel that out. We don’t know where… Everybody still has a hangover from COVID because we haven’t figured it out yet.

You saw an escalation of price for care just surge and now consumers are pushing back. You’re having declining visits. Revenue that continues to have to, or I should say price increases at the hospital level continue to go up because of pressure from manufacturers, who continue to raise prices. And so we haven’t figured it out yet. I think it’s going to take another five years to figure it out. You also have a lot of disruption too, because COVID completely flipped the employment industry. You had the older veterinarians who normally would’ve transitioned out slowly and would’ve had that chance to mentor young veterinarians who just all of a sudden just all went away because of COVID. They either sold because of multiples that were unrealistically high, artificially high. And so those people retired because they had potentially generational money. And so they just went away.

So you lost a whole generation of mentors. And so now you’ve got a lot of younger veterinarians trying to figure it out on their own. A lot of corporate groups who don’t understand veterinary medicine, don’t understand the industry, and they can’t give any type of guidance. In fact, there’s a lot of times that they probably are doing, are more detrimental to the veterinarians and to the industry than helpful. And so I think it’s going to take another five years to shake out. And then maybe another 10 years to finally get into status of some type.

Stacy Pursell:

Mm-hmm. How have you seen the animal health industry and veterinarian profession change over the years you’ve been involved?

Wes Godwin:

Yeah. It all comes down to people. I would say client expectations have shifted rapidly. And then for better or worse, your practitioners have completely shifted. It used to be in a community model. Veterinarians used to take their oath very seriously where… I remember growing up the phone would ring at midnight, somebody had a colicking horse or somebody would be knocking on the door because they had needed a laceration repair for a dog that had been run over or cut up. And no matter what, you took care of your business. And now you see a shift not just in veterinary medicine, but it’s a generational thing where eight to five is the norm and you cannot convince people that it’s otherwise. And so a sense of community has unfortunately passed and this new generation will see if they decide at some point to pick that up, pick that torch up, but we just haven’t seen it.

Stacy Pursell:

What has been the most surprising thing to you during your career in both the animal health industry and veterinary profession?

Wes Godwin:

Stacy, it’s really hard for me to answer that question because I’ve been in the industry, with the exception of five years, I’ve been in the industry my entire life. And so I would say once again, the thing that took me by surprise was the reaction to COVID. That was probably the thing that surprised me the most. I wouldn’t say there’s any individual trend. I would say it’d be the artificial or outside influence of COVID that surprised me and how it shifted the industry. It projected consolidation forward probably 20 years. It accelerated that probably about 20 years, maybe 15 years. And then of course, once again, the shift or the movement of older seasoned professionals out of the industry surprised me as well.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, let’s talk about your career some more. What’s been the biggest adversity or challenge that you’ve encountered that you’ve worked through during your career?

Wes Godwin:

Well, probably when you work for a large global corporation, you understand the rules of the road. They’re very easy to understand. Everything is in its place and runs a process. And so when I left big corporate, I had to learn things individually and separately. And of course, when you start doing a roll-up, you’re talking about you’re doing things differently than you would be if you’re just an employee, especially when you’re one of the founding partners. And so that was the biggest learning experience for me was understanding how to navigate those waters, whether it was with private equity, being in board meetings, negotiating deals, whatever it might have been. And for me, that was a little bit of a steep learning curve, in particular having to understand that you have to protect yourself. In a nice corporate environment, you generally understand what your role is and you can generally, if you do your job, you generally are always going to be protected outside of a downsizing, et cetera, something outside of your control.

But once you’re into a larger role where you’re raising money, you’re building companies, et cetera, it’s very turbulent at times. And so that was probably the hardest thing for me to understand was that sometimes things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to. Your budgets don’t always line up. Your strategic plans don’t always line up. Your sponsor sometimes doesn’t work out. So that was probably the biggest surprise or the biggest challenge for me was understanding how to… Although I rapidly figured it out, but was how to navigate those waters.

Stacy Pursell:

What are a few of your daily habits that have helped you to achieve success along the way?

Wes Godwin:

So I wouldn’t necessarily call this a habit, I would call it more of a frame of mind, but you always have to keep your focus elevated. And what that means is you have to have vision in everything you do. If you don’t think about the long-term and you don’t think about where you want to go, you’re always going to get into the weeds and you’re going to get bogged down. And so I’ve been blessed with the fact that I see opportunity in a lot of different situations and a lot of different opportunities. Whether it was through my family, my dad’s influence or through maybe my mentor’s influence, whatever it might’ve been, I’ve always looked at situations and looked long-term at the possibilities. And then once you have that understanding, you understand it’s an opportunity you want to dive into, you always have to keep your focus elevated, always.

Stacy Pursell:

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

Wes Godwin:

Yeah, that’s a good one. I would probably say nothing can replace work ethic, but hard work alone doesn’t always equal success. I would say that to work smart. Work hard. At the same time, work smart, because there’s a lot of people in this world, including myself at times, that can work really hard when you’re just spinning your wheels. So work hard. Work ethic with… Intelligent work ethic is probably the most important thing that I could have done a little bit differently at times.

Stacy Pursell:

That’s good advice. What message or principle do you wish you could teach everyone listening to our podcast today?

Wes Godwin:

Yeah, it’s all about the relationships. Always be intentional in your relationships. There’s no amount of money and no amount of plans can replace the impact that people can make into yourself or to your organization. And so always focus on relationships and how you treat other people, how you build your culture and how you decide and determine your reputation, basically more or less, how you want people to think about you.

Stacy Pursell:

And we both know how important relationships are in this industry that’s so small and close-knit.

Wes Godwin:

Absolutely.

Stacy Pursell:

Well, Wes, some of our guests say they’ve had a key book that they read that helped them along the way. Do you have a key book in your life that’s impacted you the most?

Wes Godwin:

I do. And I wouldn’t say, and it’s not some inspirational book, per se. Some people say, “Oh, this changed my life.” This is more a window into my personality, but I have abhor wasting time. And so when I was with a global company, there was a lot of meetings. Like any global company, there’s a lot of meetings and not necessarily always a lot of things done. And so at one point I bought my manager’s boss a book and it was by Patrick Lencioni. I don’t know how you say it. Some people say it differently than I do, but it was called Death by Meeting and he didn’t really appreciate it, but at least he knew where I stood. And once again, I don’t like to waste time and I don’t like to listen to people talk, to hear themselves talk. And I certainly don’t ever want to be accused of doing that myself.

So that’s the one book that always comes to mind when people ask me about a book. There’s been other books obviously that I’ve read, but that’s the one that probably had more of an impact on the course of my life.

Stacy Pursell:

Death by Meeting. So what are some of the tips that you learned from that book?

Wes Godwin:

Well, it talks about people and personalities a lot, but I think what I was trying to do with that book was not necessarily the content of the book, but I was trying to help my manager and my boss understand me better as far as what I needed to help them be successful. And so that was it. But the biggest thing about the book is just there’s a lot of people who function in certain ways and then there’s people who really function well and a lot of that comes down to communication style. And for me, it’s about don’t waste time on things that you don’t need to talk about. Be decisive, set goals and execute.

Stacy Pursell:

That makes sense. Well, Wes, 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?

Wes Godwin:

So Stacy, if I wanted to share something to make an impact on anybody that happens to listen to this podcast is that if you’re in the veterinary space, care about people, pay attention to people and their needs, build teams and build culture around people who, while you don’t want to build a culture where these people are needy, you need to support them and build them up that they can stand on their own. But once again, pay attention to your people, pay attention to your teams and build an intentional culture that’s built around building people’s ability, their career, and their confidence. Also, when it comes to veterinary medicine, remember we’re about community. We’re about keeping a veterinarian’s oath, and I’m not a veterinarian, but a veterinarian’s oath in part, I can’t recite it, I’m sorry, but they have an oath to protect and take care of animals.

And conversely, we’re along the same lines, every one of us in animal health with the same duty, but it just doesn’t come down to animals. It also comes down to the people too as well that are part of their family. We have a duty to these communities to take care of these pets and their people. And when we forget that, we’re no better than we go into a doctor’s office and have to wait four hours to complain about that. We don’t want to get there. We do not want to get there. We want to be compassionate and caring. And it’s funny because people seem to care more about waiting in a veterinarian’s office than they do about a human hospital. And we don’t want to get to the point where people just don’t care anymore because they understand that poor service and poor healthcare is part of the equation. We don’t want to get there.

Stacy Pursell:

I also want to let our listeners know that I had Wes’s dad, Dr. Tom Godwin, on the podcast. So if you’re listening to Wes Godwin on the podcast today, please be sure to also tune in and listen to the podcast that I did with his dad, Dr. Tom Godwin, a few weeks ago. Well, Wes, thank you for being my guest today on the People of Animal Health Podcast. It was a pleasure to have this time to visit with you today.

Wes Godwin:

Absolutely. Thank you, Stacy. It was a great visit with you as well. Thank you for the opportunity.