Veterinary Blueprints
The Veterinary Blueprint Podcast is all about taking the blueprint of industry experts and breaking it down in short, digestible episodes you can use to take your practice to the next level. Join host Bill Butler as he interviews experts on client and practice management, financial strategies, human resources, and more. Gain valuable insights and stay ahead in the veterinary field by tuning in to tips from successful experts inside and outside the veterinary industry.
Veterinary Blueprints
Vision Beyond Medicine: Revolutionizing Veterinary Specialist Access
What happens when pets need specialist care but live hours away from the nearest veterinary specialist? Dr. Kenneth Pierce witnessed this challenge firsthand when he found himself the only specialist serving an enormous three-state region of the country. His solution? Create a virtual bridge connecting general practitioners with specialists nationwide.
Dr. Pierce's journey from New Orleans to becoming a board-certified ophthalmologist reveals how passion for a specialty can transform into something much larger. While studying at LSU, the language of eye diseases, surgical techniques, and diagnostic processes "turned the lights on" for him, setting him on a path through academia, private practice, and eventually entrepreneurship. His experiences across different practice settings highlighted a critical gap: while metropolitan areas concentrate veterinary specialists, vast regions of America function as "specialist deserts" where access to advanced care requires significant travel or weeks-long waits.
Vespicon emerges as Dr. Pierce's answer to this nationwide challenge. Unlike traditional telemedicine, Vespicon offers veterinary practices unlimited access to board-certified specialists through recorded video consultations across all specialties for small animals, large animals, and exotics. The subscription model removes financial barriers between veterinarians and specialist guidance, allowing practices to consult freely without passing additional costs to clients. Perhaps most importantly, the system maintains continuity by connecting veterinarians with the same specialist throughout a case's management.
Throughout our conversation, Dr. Pierce emphasizes the philosophy that guides both his business approach and advice to colleagues: "Be like water." Having clear goals while remaining adaptable to changing circumstances has allowed him to balance running a specialty practice with growing Vespicon. He credits much of his success to surrounding himself with exceptional team members who execute the vision daily, demonstrating that entrepreneurship isn't about doing everything yourself, but finding the right "who" rather than focusing solely on "how."
Ready to explore how specialist consultation could transform your practice? Connect with Dr. Pierce and the Vespicon team at VespiCon.com or on social media @VespiCon to learn how unlimited specialist access can improve patient outcomes while supporting your veterinary team's clinical co
Host Information
Bill Butler – Contact Information
Direct – 952-208-7220
https://butlervetinsurance.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billbutler-cic/
Schedule a Strategy Session with Bill – Strategy Session
Podcast Sponsored By:
Butler Vet Insurance: We wrote the Book on Veterinary Insurance
Running a successful veterinary practice comes with its challenges. At Butler Vet Insurance, we specialize in simplifying insurance for professionals like you.
"Protecting Your Veterinary Practice": Your Guide to Stress-Free Insurance
Insurance-related stress: Order Your Copy Now
Why Choose Butler Vet Insurance?
We specialize in risk management tailored for veterinarians, addressing unique challenges!
Butler Vet Insurance – Your Trusted Insurance Partner for Veterinary Practices.
Welcome to the Veterinary Blueprint Podcast brought to you by Butler Vet Insurance. Hosted by Bill Butler, the Veterinary Blueprint Podcast is for veterinarians and practice managers who are looking to learn about working on their practice instead of in their practice. Each episode we will bring you successful, proven blueprints from others, both inside and outside the veterinary industry. Welcome to today's episode and outside the veterinary industry, Welcome to today's episode.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, Bill Butler, and today we're joined by Dr Kenneth Pierce, a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist and the founder of Vespicon. With over 15 years experience in the veterinary industry, Dr Pierce has dedicated his career to advancing specialty veterinary medicine and improving access to expert consultations. Dr Pierce has dedicated his career to advancing specialty veterinary medicine and improving access to expert consultations. Dr Pierce, welcome to the Veterinary Blueprints podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you for having me, Bill.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm glad to have you and you know we had connected with your team and I ran into a number of your team members down at VMX and thought that it would be great to have you on the podcast with what Vespicon has going on and just your journey as not only a veterinarian a specialty veterinarian but as an entrepreneur and some of the things that you've done in your career. So you know, why don't you give us a little background on your veterinary career and how you wound up where you are now?
Speaker 3:So thanks. So I'm originally from New Orleans. Growing up as a city boy caught frogs and lizards in the backyard and my parents never let me have a dog but knew I wanted to be a doctor growing up. But didn't know what and sat down. My cousin actually sat me down around high school. Timeframe was like you know, let's really consider your career and why don't you look into veterinary medicine?
Speaker 3:So I got connected with one of the veterinarians the only African American veterinarian in the state of New Orleans or city of New Orleans at the time, which was George Robinson. Spent some time with him and then knew I wanted to get out of New Orleans for school. So went to Tuskegee for undergrad because they also had a vet school there. But majored in animal science, did well, resident of the state of Louisiana, and in-state tuition drew me back to LSU for vet school. So was in LSU, did great there.
Speaker 3:I was in LSU, did great there, and during my third year, right before we started clinics, the neurology and ophthalmology class were combined and I knew that I wanted to specialize and at the time neurology and cardiology were actually number one and two respectively of what I would go into until ophthalmology came in. Until ophthalmology came in and the language, the disease processes, the surgery and medicine aspect of it and the variety of species that you know are available to you as an ophthalmologist like just was mind blowing to me and I was like that's the career path that I want to follow. So I geared my clinical year and externships and such towards places where there was ophthalmologists and then kind of went through the entire process of internship, specialty internship, residency and so forth.
Speaker 2:So that's what brought meians for a variety of reasons and you know you gravitate towards what that is and for you it was ophthalmology.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was blatant, like the lights went on. It was just so easy. So, yeah, I knew that was it, which is great because you know people don't like our eyes, so that's good job security for me.
Speaker 2:Well, that is good. And uh, you know, if there's something I know about my animals, they like to either poke their eyes or run into stuff, or you know whatever. So, um, some of my own issues, Um, and so you know, for for you, what, what's what, what's driven you over the course of your career and what drives you and what you're doing now with Vespacon.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I think obviously one of the main things that drives me is just the love of my profession and my career. So coming to work, seeing eye cases, seeing the impact that I have on not only animals but on clients, on the pet parents, turning an eye around that looks like the colors of the rainbow to and a non-functional color of the rainbow eye to an eye that is back to normal like is always rewarding and then throughout the years.
Speaker 3:So I always at least try to have some kind of plan. I think I either was raised or just kind of learned over time that you got to at least have a loose plan and be, I tell my nurses, be like water. Everything changes on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, but if you're able to adapt, be comfortable with adapting, then things come easy or can come easier. So I knew coming out of my residency that I wanted to at least start in academics but eventually probably get into private practice and then figure out life from there. Didn't have a major interest right away to own my own business but was open to the opportunity. So actually after my residency at Michigan State I was faculty at LSU School of Veterinary Medicine for a little over like a year and a half and then went to private practice in New Jersey. So I was out in New Jersey for over five years, then moved to Dallas.
Speaker 3:Just like New Orleans and Louisiana, new Jersey, it's like they're brothers and sisters right Right by the bayou, right by the shore in New Jersey. Very simple. But then so around 2020, so right in the heart of the pandemic I was at the time. I was transitioning out of my job in Dallas in April and came upon an opportunity of bringing my specialty to a region of the United States that never had permanent ophthalmologists, which was in Shreveport Louisiana center, and from all years of traveling around and seeing how much advice and access provides empowerment, comfortability and just the educational aspect of to veterinarians, as well as just the impact on clients and their pets, I figured that I need to see what I can do as just an individual, as a specialist, to bridge that gap for veterinarians across the nation.
Speaker 3:Because of the fact around that time, shortly after maybe a year and a half of being in Shreveport, there was an oncologist another actually LSU graduate. There was an oncologist another actually LSU graduate. She graduated two years before me Amanda Beck, who was working in the same building as I set up Veterinary Vision Center, but she took a position on Florida. So now I was the only specialist in all of northern Louisiana, east Texas and southern Arkansas. And so, and again seeing the veterinarians do their level best. We're trying to manage all these different cases, all these different disease processes, and not having access to, you know, a comprehensive network of specialists is what how Vespicon came about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, like in the animal health space and correct me if I'm wrong it's a little bit like a food desert, right, where you live in the inner city and there's no access to you know vegetables and you're buying your groceries from a 7-Eleven or whatever, right? I mean, we have friends that live in inner city, minneapolis here, and it's like, you know, once a month, just because of where they live, they don't own a car my wife will pick up a friend and bring her to Costco because it's just, it's easier to do it that way. And so you know, unfortunately in the animal health world it's not like you go to your hospital and you see your general practitioner and then they say, well, here's a referral or a consult to go see, you know, the ophthalmologist or the oncologist or gastro or podiatry, three doors down. You know, I get my health care at the VA.
Speaker 2:Everything's under one roof and if you're, if you're a parent, pet parent, if you own an animal and you want to get more higher level of care, it's not that veterinarians don't provide good care, it's just you can't know everything, right. I mean, that's why they're specialists and I think and correct me if I'm wrong this kind of gets to. The question is like a lot of board certified, you know cardiologists, ophthalmologists, a lot of them wind up in academia. So you're in academia, you're teaching, you're writing papers and stuff for veterinarians, but you're not out in the community actually providing care. So it like you're covering a huge area as the only specialist for a specific area.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that is the academic population is kind of it is. It is small, small from overall numbers of specialists that are in academia and there's a huge attraction in the industry right now to try to get specialists back to academia, especially with all the new vet schools that are opening, and obviously they have a pretty wide net as far as area of service that they provide. But even if you are like, obviously the majority of specialists are in metropolitan areas within the nation, but a lot of the nation is not a metropolitan area, so that's a large net that they have to cast. And then the other problem that we're seeing in the industry with specialists or access to specialists even in those metropolitan areas it may take several weeks before you can get your pet into the specialist. So whatever's going on with your pet today may be totally different three weeks later, for the worse or for the better right, hopefully for the better. So that is also kind of the problem that we currently have within the industry and how Vespicon helps to solve that.
Speaker 2:So why don't you describe so you mentioned, you know, we've mentioned. You founded Vespicon, and what is Vespicon as a business? So you got the entrepreneurial bug and said, hey, I see a need for access to care. What does that look like? And you founded Vespicon. So what is Vespicon and how does it work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Vespicon is your veterinarians or your veterinary hospitals more personal, comprehensive concierge network of veterinary specialists that they have access to 24-7 for unlimited consultation support as a member, and basically what that means is that for that pet parent, they could go to their veterinarian. They can, you know, discuss their, they can present their animal to them, their veterinarian can go and talk with a specialist because they remember, get all the kind of specialist advice on how to manage that pet at no major cost to the client.
Speaker 3:And ideally our business model is they don't even charge the client for that consultation, because that sometimes can be a barrier to use because the client on the budget is going to tell the vet no, or sometimes in the heat of the moment, as human beings it's hard for us to say, oh, I need to go talk to somebody and I'm going to charge you for it and this is what we're going to do, or what have you?
Speaker 3:The hospital has a subscription, the doctors use us unlimited. They get the knowledge which will help that pet as well as future pets to come. They are now the acting specialists that can do everything in-house and generate at least more revenue, more education, have better patient outcomes, at least locally. Or we help them kind of manage that case until they can go to that specialty hospital for, say, a diagnostic procedure or diagnostic test, and the case doesn't fall apart in the interim and we're also a concierge referral service. So we take that pain point also off of the veterinary hospital by being members with us. Whenever a case does need to be referred, they get back to practicing and staying busy because I know they're busy already and we just help book that referral for them so in essence, for for me, as a lay veterinarian out there practicing you know bill's vet practice and I want to sign up with vespicon.
Speaker 2:I sign up with vespicon to get access to your stable, so to speak, of of experts or board certified X or whatever in an area that I've got a question on for a specific case, and then I get to use that advice to back me up and say, hey, I think I could do this or this with this case. What could have the best outcome? I just need a sounding board for this heart murmur or this eye issue, or, you know, I've got two treatment protocols I can do for oncology. Which one's the best one?
Speaker 3:Exactly so we. So what makes us different and what sets us apart is that we are it's, a more personal approach, right? Previous competitors are either you get a report or something's just over the phone or what have you. You don't really know who you're talking to, as well, as you get different people at different times. There we are a recorded video consultation service with one or multiple specialists at a time, and we cover everything for large, small and exotics, and as well as some additional and ancillary services.
Speaker 3:So you get that recording for your records. We are with you whether it's a recheck. So you get that recording for your records. We are with you whether it's a recheck, so that same case kind of followed through. You also have the ability to just have topic discussions with us. It doesn't necessarily have to be about a case, it's just you now have access to this cardiologist and neurologist that you never had Exactly. And then we also provide more too. We provide some teleradiology services. We provide CE. We actually are rolling out our business admin arm, vespicon, where we already have a veterinary, social worker as well as veterinary, which does you know practice and business leadership within the hospital as well, as we have some others that are currently finalizing the negotiations to round out our business admin arm. But pretty much we are that kind of firm of all types of support for DVMs, for the admin as well as, you know, the nursing team. Wow.
Speaker 2:So you've it sounds like you've made some pretty bold moves in your veterinary career, moves across the country doing different things you know. For veterinarians out there looking to make some bold moves in their career, their journey as a veterinarian, what advice would you have for them?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would definitely say and it's probably stuff that they've already heard but you know, definitely doing your research and really you know, figuring out, you know what's going to potentially set you apart, what is, you know, worth your time and your love? Because obviously, if you're making whatever pivot or whatever business move, there's going to be some labor of love associated with it, some sacrifice. So, making sure that that is appropriate for you, for your family, what y'all want to do, and as long as it's an investment in yourself, I don't think you can never go wrong with investing in yourself and improving that. And I think if you do all that, make sure everything's in a row, take that leap of faith and don't be scared. If it fails, no worries, you will learn along the way for the next best thing. So just just know that if it does fail, it's not a problem. We all have it in our life and we learn from it.
Speaker 2:So what's one of the biggest lessons you've learned along the way? You know you've worked at practices. You worked at academia. You started your own practice. You launched a separate company providing services to veterinary practices in addition to running your own. You know we were chatting before the call. You know you're in surgery today. You had jury duty this week. You had all this stuff going on, and so how do you you know what, what? How do you balance those things as a as a business owner and leader and leading your team and all those things? How do you balance that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you have to be like water, for sure. Yeah, I definitely like that philosophy as far as just just being amenable but also kind of having your boundaries Right. So obviously you got to protect your time. Time management is super important. Boundaries right. So obviously you got to protect your time. Time management is super important. Even even in your off time of work, like time management you got to. You know, take care of yourself, take care of the ones that are around you, your loved ones and so forth, and then and the your business or businesses. But you know, every day is something new, people are different, you know, from one client to the next or whatever, and probably the overall biggest thing I would say is for anyone is just communication. Make sure you're effectively communicating with whoever you're talking to, whether it's the most simplest thing or the most complex thing. Clarity of communication will save you in the long run. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to something you said about investment in yourself, and I really like a quote from Beyonce. Beyonce said I don't often gamble, but you said about you know, being willing to fail, understanding that you know a lot of times you didn't say this specifically, but I think it was probably what you meant A lot of times, you learn the most lessons from failure, not success, and I saw a Josh Brolin quote saying you know, I didn't learn anything from success, I learned everything from failure, and I may be wrong with that quote, but what, what have you? You know, where did you invest in yourself over over the course of the last you know, five years? As you're leading up opening your own practice and leading up to starting Vespicon, what investments did you make in yourself that that you look back on now and go yeah, that was really a good move to do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think just over the years again kind of starting from academics and then going into practice, paying attention to kind of the business aspect of it. So you know, there was when I was at, for example, when I was at LSU or an undergrad, really didn't take business courses or the business courses in vet school were like I remember one specific right that we had.
Speaker 3:So business acumen was real low coming out of vet school for me and it wasn't something that was taught for my family growing up.
Speaker 3:But being open, being receptive, listening, paying attention, learning along the way was, I think, kind of the subtle investments in myself over time and then just kind of figuring out and planning out and figuring out what was going to be the long-term goal Like where do I see myself in 10, 15 years and then what steps do I need to do to get there and that helped me with a little bit of direction of all, right, I'm going to start doing this, I'm going to start looking towards this. When the opportunity came about of starting Veterinary Vision Center, it actually kind of started from just a simple question of if I would come out and do a speaking engagement at a 12 doctor GP practice in Shreveport, louisiana, and so I was like, yeah, I can speak. And then I came into what would you do? Cause it's some consulting and I was already doing consulting for the practice. I was in a New Jersey. So I was like, yeah, I can do that. And then that divulged into the opening. Oh, I can easily set up shop here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's interesting and you know you had mentioned twice, talked about your team and being like water. But at the end of the day, I think as entrepreneurs or business owners or veterinarians if you say it's a veterinary career I want to own my own practice and I've said this with other guests and you know I've done this with my practice, my business. If you have a vision of what you want it to look like what color walls, how many exam rooms are there and all of those things you kind of have that mental vision picture of yourself. What does it look like for you know, dr Pierce, to be practicing at your practice versus a different practice? And then you behave like water along the way and just kind of let the decisions make themselves. Yeah, this is a decision that will help me get closer to that goal. It makes those decisions a lot easier to make. Would you agree, for sure?
Speaker 3:I would. I think, yeah, it definitely makes it a lot easier, a little less stressful. If you're rigid in your thoughts, it might get you there a lot faster. I mean definitely if you've got a plan and you execute like by all means, you will definitely hit your goal faster. But then if something doesn't work out, it derails you a lot faster too, right. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. Uh, have a good, have a really good plan. I'm not advocating, not planning. Uh, winston Churchill said you know, failing to plan is planning to fail. However, you've got to be able to adapt that plan if something doesn't work out. And so you know, for you, with Vespicon and everything that you have going on there, you know what's the future for you. And you know I talked about 5, 10-year planning for you and your practice. I mean, you're growing a practice, you're growing Vespicon. How do you see being able to do both of those? You know it's probably not some sort of duality where it's one or the other, it's. How do you do both?
Speaker 3:I've actually cloned myself.
Speaker 2:Oh, you have.
Speaker 3:Speaking of Dr Pierce 2.0. That's one of my favorite movies is, uh, multiplicity with, uh, michael keaton has an awesome movie. Yeah, it is a good movie. Um, but part of the plan with veterinary vision center was to eventually get an associate in here with me, uh, to help kind of take off some of the burden with managing two businesses. And as of October of last year we hired our associate, dr Kelsey Bailey. So she has been working with me at Ben Air Vision Center, which is great. And as time goes on and as Vespicon continues to grow, my plan is to kind of shift my focus a little bit towards Vespicon more um but I think you also have a good team, right so?
Speaker 2:like you didn't reach out to me about being on my podcast. Somebody from your team reached out to me from being on the podcast and I didn't see you standing in the booth down in VMX. I ran into your team in the booth at VMX. So you've, you've, you've got a good team behind you, that's. That's kind of putting some wind in your sails, so you're not trying to do it all by yourself you 100% about that.
Speaker 3:So along the way of all these travels and places, I've been fortunate to have some really key smart ladies yeah, that's all that so around me and they are efficient, they execute, they do their job and it takes a lot of stress and burden off of me at times.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:The majority of time, but yeah, so I've kept them. You met Lauren Tufts, who's head of operations for Vespicon. She used to be my former nurse, oh wow.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, in Veterinary Vision Center, and her husband is in the military. They got deployed to a different state and so I told her like you're not going anywhere.
Speaker 2:You're too good, you're going to help me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're going to help me execute this thing, but yeah, so I can't do it without the team and, as the future goes, there's definitely plans for expansion for both of the businesses and expanding the teams as well.
Speaker 2:Like there's a, there's a no, no one person.
Speaker 2:No, there's a really good book out there called who, not how, and it's it's thinking about who's going to do this stuff, not how am I going to do it. And I think, how am I going to do all these things? For to grow my practice or grow my business? Or I want to launch a side hustle just to see if I can get something going. Whatever that might be, it's not really a how question, it's who's going to do the work, because I can't do all the stuff at Butler Vet Insurance and everything else, and so it's that helping you along the way versus that solo person at the top. A lot of times it looks like that solo person. It looks like Dr Pierce is doing it all or Bill's doing it all, but it's really not.
Speaker 3:No, no, but I'm okay with taking the credit Sometimes.
Speaker 2:Sometimes that works out as long as you got to share the love. Well, I've really appreciated it If you had one gold nugget piece of advice for our listeners out there, veterinarians who want to want to make a bold move. You know you chat about it a little bit, but what's the one thing that you would recommend to them?
Speaker 3:Sorry, I started a little bit because. I went to my Vespicon brain and one of the things that Vespicon does that is helpful for veterinarians is basically one of the things that I saw that was lacking somewhat in the industry is supporting veterinarians right.
Speaker 3:We do a lot with supporting the clients with supporting our nursing staff, which is very important as an industry, but from a practice owner standpoint, supporting your doctors, who are like your main moneymakers or whatever, sometimes kind of falls and there's a lot of, you know, deviant burnout and all this other stuff that goes on, which was also one of the things that kind of VespaCon broke the barrier for of if you're supporting your doctors with this team of experts, now they've got clinical support.
Speaker 2:They've got clinical mentorship ready.
Speaker 3:Yep, they're going to love their job, they're going to love the fact that they can, they have access and they're able to do more and have better outcomes. So that in itself for a hospital is like the most better outcomes. So that in itself for a hospital is like the most, one of the main things you could do from a from a veterinary standpoint is we've got you covered.
Speaker 2:Support, support, unlimited access. Well, that's a great piece of advice. You were going to say something else. What was it going to be? I didn't want to cut you off. What was it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just thinking just from someone who's again trying to make a bold move do it, yeah, just do it, yeah. That would be my short and simple uh as. Just do it.
Speaker 2:As I had. I was on a call with another insurance agent, a good friend of mine down in texas, and we were chatting about he spent I specialize in veterinarians, he specializes in agriculture and we talked about burning the ships. And uh, you know, sometimes you've got to make a bold move, burn the ships and say, okay, we're all in on X, whatever it is. And, uh, we're going to make this work. You know, we're. We're going to make it work or we're not going to make it. It's going to fail, but it's going to fail spectacularly.
Speaker 1:But I'd rather have the.
Speaker 2:the fear of defeat? Uh, I wouldn't have. Uh, the fear of failure needs to not stop me from doing it. It's that man in the arena quote about. You know, I'd rather have the loss of failure than never having done the bold deeds. Exactly, exactly. Well, what's the best place for? If somebody wanted to reach out to you, and reach your team at Vespicon, or reach out to you directly, how would they get a hold of you, dr Pierce?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can consult with us today at VespaConcom. If you have questions, there's a contact, or if you want to sign up, there's a sign up button right on there. We're also on all social media Facebook, linkedin, instagram and X at VespaCon. And that's V-E-S-P-E-C-O-N for Veterinary Specialty specialty consultants. It's actually an acronym for those three words.
Speaker 2:VESPA-CON Altogether. So, yeah, well, we'll have that information in the show notes for those listening along, and thanks so much for joining us on this episode of the Veterinary Blueprints Podcast, dr Pierce.
Speaker 3:Thank you, bill. Thank you for having me, and best of luck to everybody out there listening to this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, as always for those listening. Please like, share and review the podcast. It helps get our message out to veterinarians and practice managers looking to grow and spend time on their business instead of in it. Thanks for listening to this episode and we look forward to seeing you soon.
