Intro (00:01):

Welcome to practice. Oh, mat where doctors and practice owners share business, lifestyle and marketing stories all well, guiding you to more patients. Here's your host, Zach Britton field.

Zack G. (00:14):

Welcome back guys. This is at Greenfield and another episode of practice Omatic today. We've got Dr. Makita Clark with us, and she's in the Atlanta Georgia area. She's the owner of Southwest veterinary clinic, which she bought from a Dr. McCann, who sadly passed away in 2017. Interesting fact about the practice is that he was the first or maybe second African-American veterinary to own his own practice in the Atlanta area. So the brand and the clinic has a history in the African-American community there in the Atlanta area, which is awesome. Uh, it was started back in 1972, coincidentally, my birth year and a Makita had a little bit of a challenge though, as the purchasing, the practice, which she bought in 2019. And this is where the story gets great because she bought really, as we slid into the pandemic, we'll cover that in a minute, but the business was considered a startup, even though it had been there for decades. So the last thing I want to say before we say hello to her is she started in community college and has now made it to ownership of her own clinic. And we're going to talk a little bit about that. Welcome Makeba. Thanks so much for being on the show with us today.

Dr. Makeba (01:40):

Yay. Thank you Zach, for having me. Um, I'm excited.

Zack G. (01:44):

Yeah. Awesome. So, so let's just dive right into the community college thing. Obviously it was a little bit of a, I think a tough start given that you went and got your doctorate and everything. So tell, tell us about how that worked against you and how it might've worked for you now.

Dr. Makeba (01:58):

Well, I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, and I attended a program called METCO and METCO was a bussing program where inner city kids were bused to the suburbs for a higher quality education. I had a super first through 12th grade education, um, and then life happens and I ended up at a community college. I tried to go to a four year school and it didn't work out my first semester. So I came back home and, um, my, my family's west Indian. So my family is from Barbados where they really, really value education. And my mother's stipulation. She had to, if you come back home, you have to work and you have to go to school. Um, so I did both. I worked at a gym and I went to a community college Roxbury community college. Um, at the time it was considered, it was considered a downgrade. You know, people at my school went to Yale, Harvard, Stanford. So it's a goal from the education I experienced to a community college at that time was a humbling experience, but in hindsight needed for where I was maturity-wise I, um, had been through a lot and hadn't worked it out. I needed a nurturing environment where I could fall down and get back up repeatedly,

Zack G. (03:29):

Repeatedly,

Dr. Makeba (03:32):

Um, and not be judged for it. And, um, welcomed. It was also my first experience being educated by teachers who may have looked like me, um, in 2021, a big buzzword is representation. Representation matters. I had not actually had a, um, African-American or black teacher until I got to Roxbury community college.

Zack G. (03:58):

Well, yeah. So I mean that, you know, that's tough. I, I want to tell you, I had a community college experience also. So I'll share that briefly because this is about you. But, so I went in to get my four year degree and I managed to scrape through like two years, but I got myself on academic probation and the guidance counselor. So this is all happening at Arizona state university, like I think, um, maybe 30 years ago. And yeah, it's been a while. And uh, I went home from that and look myself in the mirror and it was humbling because like you, I went to a great high school. I went to prep school in Jersey. Uh, everybody that was a hundred percent college bound, you know, the same sort of list of schools you just rattled off. And I was kind of a little bit of a little, a little bit of a road because I decided to go out west, get out of the Ivy league track and go to Arizona state. Then I'm in Arizona state. And I think, oh, this place is kind of a joke. I'm just going to skate through. And then I get myself into trouble

Dr. Makeba (04:56):

Skate through and you're like, wait, wait.

Zack G. (04:59):

Exactly. And it didn't work out at all. In fact. So I looked at myself in the mirror and probably just like you had to, I was very humbled. And I knew I was like, you know, there's only two kinds of people. There's people that finish this stuff and there's people that don't. And at the end of the day, nobody cares about the people in the middle. And you're either going to be one of those two folks. You're either going to finish this degree or you're not. So I ended up in order to get myself off of academic probation at ASU, I went down to the local community college in Mesa, Arizona, like not a glamorous place and, and a not terrible place and definitely booming now. But, but at that time it was definitely not a glamorous place and went to the community college and took a couple of great classes there and got straight A's and brought those back to the counselor at ASU. And they said, okay, we'll take you off of probation and, you know, blah, blah, blah. And the rest is history. I got A's after that moment through the rest of college. So I've been exactly in the spot you're talking about. Uh, and it, and it was an, I look back at that just like you do, I think, and I think I'm the better for it.

Dr. Makeba (06:05):

Yeah, definitely. Because at that time there's no social media, there's no examples. You're just in your own head saying, I can do this. Um, and you need to prove to yourself that you can start something and finish something and not only finish, but finish successfully and move on. Yeah,

Zack G. (06:27):

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And just, and just chalk it up. And, you know, I think now, you know, having, like you said, being able to fall down, get back up and, you know, and, and dust yourself off and decide, okay, I'm still, I'm still con you know, I still can fight this fight. I think that's, you know, a good experience for everybody because it characterizes how you move through business and, you know, and, and to pivot, look at you now as an owner of this practice who bought sliding into the pandemic, isn't that right?

Dr. Makeba (07:05):

I, um, I had been in contact with the family since 2017, but I got this great opportunity to work at a nonprofit in Miami, Florida. I don't know anybody who's turning down a job in Miami, Florida, but it was a great company that was helping the community. And I was coming out of a 24 hour kind of emergency care. I needed the break. Um, so I moved, but the family, we were in contact, they had some things they needed to work out. They had to figure out if they wanted to sell it. They had to figure out at what price, what is something, what is the vet clinic worth? If you're not a vet, they had to figure that out. Um, they had to figure out what to do with his estate, how to, um, send records to clients, how to grieve for their dad.

Dr. Makeba (07:57):

So we were in contact since 2017, but it got serious in 2018 when they said, we want to sell this practice to you, find money and also find money. So I ended up, um, I had these ideas for a while. Um, and I had a program that was helping me write a business plan already. I didn't know for what business I couldn't, I couldn't visualize exactly what the business looked like, but I knew that I probably wanted to work for myself. Uh, so I just kicked it into high gear. I started researching every aspect of a vet clinic, front desk behind the scenes, right. My favorite Clippers. What's the name of those Clippers? Everything like every possible aspect of a vet clinic. I looked at the size of the door, the lock mechanism, what kind of alarm systems they had, what the floors feel like?

Dr. Makeba (08:59):

What does the mat feel like? I'm like, man, my back doesn't hurt after these five surgeries. What kind of man are you using? I started asking all kinds of questions. So long story short, there was a government shut down if you remember at the end of 2018. Um, and that delayed it even further. And so we're going into 2019 now government shut down and I have about maybe a hundred tasks. I have to complete for the bank because they said, you know what? We'll give you funding. Finish the business plan in 2018. And, um, I want to say this backtrack a little bit. I could not figure out how to explain to bankers how I would make money. Um, I was like, I'm a vet. I'm going to see pets. They're like, we don't get it. We don't get it. How many pets, how, how much are they going to spend?

Dr. Makeba (09:50):

How are you going to make money on a day-to-day basis? Um, I ended up meeting an accountant and he's like, I think I can help you because I don't get it either. He's like, take me through your day. So over the course of like five to 10 hours, a veterinarian with very little knowledge on numbers and math explained to a banker with no knowledge on animals and veterinary medicine, how I would make money on a day-to-day basis. And he helped me scale that and translate that to the bankers. Um, I think I had to have two years of projections and, um, they accepted my business plan in November of 2018. Then the shutdown happened after the, the country reopened again, like the, on a federal level. We continued. And in June of 2019, I remember they called me and said, we got all our paperwork.

Dr. Makeba (10:50):

There's no liens on the property. Let's close tomorrow. I mean, they forgot. I was in Florida. I was like, um, let's close in a week because I'm off on Thursday and Friday and I can drive there and close. So I drove to Atlanta, Georgia spent the night, got up. They said, Hey, we need a letter saying you're going to transfer. He was $38,000. You're going to wire transfer. I am first generation immigrant child from Boston, Massachusetts. I've never wired money to anybody. I was like, I don't know what that means, but I'm going to figure it out. So I went to the bank, the bank that would not give me a business loan because I still bank with them. They're not the bank that gave me the business loan. And they're like, why do you need all that money transferred? I'm like, I'm closing on a vet clinic. And they're like, why didn't you go through was I said, I would have loved to, since I've been banking with you since I was six years old, but you kept brushing me off. It was like, every person I spoke to, they just were like, so uninterested in the bank that helped me get the loan or gave me the loan from the very beginning. They were like, we believe in you. We want you to get this loan. And it felt different. It felt like

Zack G. (12:18):

That makes a huge difference.

Dr. Makeba (12:19):

They knew they were going to get a return on their investment. They're like, yeah, we want to give you the money. Hey, after the shutdowns is done, we're going to continue the process and you're going to get this money. And that's how they were through the entire process.

Zack G. (12:34):

That's amazing. I mean, that's just, that's a good story about, well, two things you being persistent and, you know, having the optimism and confidence to know that you are going to find like literally manifest the right, you know, financial partner, if you will, no matter what, because this thing was gonna happen. Right. And that when you take that attitude, you're going to find it out there one way or another, because you just kept taking shots until you found the right person on the other end of the phone or whatever. Right. I mean, that's just exactly, yeah. Persistence pays. I always tell people that that's just, that's, that's what a great example, you know, you just stick it in there.

Dr. Makeba (13:15):

Assistance and blind fate, you know, I had to have a pep talk with myself in 2018, uh, right before the bank said, we will give you funding. I was dragging my feet and I couldn't, I couldn't figure out why. Um, and I had to have like a little pep talk with myself and the, why was, I was afraid of failing before I had even done anything.

Zack G. (13:39):

Uh, yeah, sure. Because it's easy to keep a dream at arms reach where it still looks like a perfect dream. And then you bring that up real close and then you start having to deal with all the ugly reality of it and the stress of course, of borrowing money and being responsible and taking all that stuff. And the risk of failure. A lot of people hold their dreams at arms reach like that because they can just stay perfect dreams instead of becoming, you know, a challenging reality.

Dr. Makeba (14:05):

Yeah. I mean, perfect dreams are, are, are perfect. And they don't take a lot of work or effort. They're exciting to think about, but to actually execute, um, and possibly execute to your fullest potential that you have inside of you and still fail. Right. It's hard to think about. Um, so I had to overcome the idea that I could put every possible effort in my wheelhouse, into this dream and still fail. And, um, that was my only reservation. And I, and I said to myself, if your only reservation is failing, you still have to go for it. I just couldn't, I couldn't sleep unless I at least tried, I not look at myself in the mirror, God willing at 60 years old and not have tried to do this.

Zack G. (15:00):

Yeah. And so here you are. So what's crazy about your story though, is you've never run a business that isn't in the pandemic.

Dr. Makeba (15:11):

No, I opened November of 2019. Um, and nobody knew what, maybe some people maybe risk.

Zack G. (15:24):

Yeah. You know, who knew my buddy, my buddy, who's a radiology department director at a hospital in long island. He knew he called me in like late November. And he said, man, I'm telling you, they're pulling me into meetings. He said, this thing is coming. I said, what are you talking about, bro? And it was, you know, 90 days later that you, you know, you were closed on your business, open the doors and then they told you that nobody could do anything.

Dr. Makeba (15:51):

Yes. That, I mean, when I think about it, my sister, she'd been thinking about moving to Italy for a few years now she's in Italy at a carnival in Venice and she's like, I'm coming home early. Something is going on and I'm kind of scared. And I was like, looking outside. I was like, what's going on here? I don't know what you're talking about. There's literally nothing going on. But just in case you're not being a hypochondriac, let me order some mass and some hand sanitizer. And that was actually the last time I could order from my distributor hand sanitizer and mass was February, 2020. And I could not order from my distributor again, I think till may or June

Zack G. (16:37):

Crazy

Dr. Makeba (16:38):

After that. And the prices have quadrupled, you know, a box of gloves is costing you anywhere from 14 to $20. And I believe when I started, I may have paid like five 50 a box.

Zack G. (16:49):

Yeah. Five or six. So, so the timing was literally you, you closed on the business. It's, January-ish the business owner. You're there in the office, kind of getting boots on the ground. You're not in Miami anymore. It's February. And what do you got? 30 days until Atlanta goes into full panic? Was it

Dr. Makeba (17:11):

It's a full lockdown? Um, the weekend of my birthday, my birthday is March 13th. I remember March 11. I still worked at other places, even though it was open. Um, so I didn't drain the business. I still did relief work Wednesday and Sunday for other companies just to take the edge off my personal finances. That's smart. So I remember I was in a town at like a vaccine clinic. We were at a Walmart and everybody was going crazy. Um, and I went home that night and I couldn't sleep. I was like, what is happening? Is it, uh, is it the apocalypse? Like what is happening? And I was eating fresh, you know, I would go to the supermarket every three days. I literally didn't have a can of anything in my house. And I think that's what freaked me out. I woke up at five 30 to go to Walmart, to go to the supermarket and they open at like 7:00 AM or something.

Dr. Makeba (18:18):

And I remember walking in and nobody was going crazy. I was like, I met a woman in the aisle with the cans and she goes, have you heard about some virus thing? And I'm like, yeah, are you, are you freaking out too? She's like, that's why I'm here. She said, I couldn't sleep last night. And we were the only two in the whole Walmart that were like freaking out in some way. And um, I went to work that day and customers are still acting normal and my employees are like, you hope up just to go shopping. And what we didn't know is as we were helping pets that day, that was March 12th. The whole world was buying every roll of toilet paper on earth,

Zack G. (19:03):

Apparently. Yeah. At least here in the United States where you know where every man for himself when things get nasty. I remember I remember that week also because my kids here in Arizona were home for spring break suddenly like this news hit and then there's on the school system, said the kids are home. They're not going to go back to my, son's not going to go back to school. My sister, I mean, my daughter, excuse me, my daughter, his sister was in boarding school. So her situation was different. They just locked the campus and kept the kids, you know? Uh, but for him, yeah, it was suddenly no school. And I was like, what, what does that mean? And then they, you know, and then they didn't even have really an answer of what if there was going to be classes. I mean, it just, there was at least, you know, several weeks of everything just got really weird quickly. There are. I remember that. So for a business standpoint, though, what happened at the practice? So the Atlanta goes into shut, shut down, but that coronary practices are technically essential.

Dr. Makeba (20:07):

Yeah. You would have to research that going on then

Zack G. (20:13):

What did you do? Like what, I mean, this is your you're, you know, you're about to make your first loan payment, right?

Dr. Makeba (20:19):

Yeah. I'm about to make my first loan payment. I implemented curbside March 13th. Okay. So the first full week of car curbside was March 15 where clients could no longer come back into the practice. And that week I distinctly remember about maybe 10 people getting really upset with me, 10 clients, potential clients. And they said, if I can't come in with my dog, I'm never coming back. And I said, um, the risks to my staff and myself is so great that I have to accept that you have to find a vet that's comfortable letting you in the practice with no mask on, but I'm not. I just was, I was so scared. I was so scared of my two employees getting sick.

Zack G. (21:09):

Yeah. Because your responsibility. Yeah. You're the responsible party at that point.

Dr. Makeba (21:16):

So I remember getting mask and I started buying face shield. Then we had gloves, but I was like, it doesn't make sense to wear gloves all day, just wash your hands obsessively. Right. And hand sanitizer. And then their hands started cracking. And I remember I had to buy lotion for the clinic and it was just, most people were understanding because nobody, we weren't getting good guidance from public officials. So a lot of people, they were staying home. Now their kids are home from school. They're noticing things on their pet that they had never noticed before. And I remember in April, I think like the third week of April 20, 20, all of a sudden there were so many people in my parking lot. I didn't know how to handle it. So I had to hire one more person. Now I have three employees. Right. And we're still a little bit overwhelmed, but we can handle this. I didn't want to over hire because I wasn't sure

Zack G. (22:26):

This is the most uncertain environment we've probably experienced since, you know, oh, a with a whole, you know, housing crash thing that really rattled everybody. But this was like a different, you know, reality with it become, it wasn't a money issue. It was like a societal health issue. So it was like, nah, I mean, you know, I mean, w when was the last time a hundred something years ago that the, that we've gone through this as a country. So there's like nobody here in living the can remember living through anything like this. So you have no nothing to draw nothing to draw nothing. No, no one has no wisdom. You can't call dad. You can't call mom. Nobody,

Dr. Makeba (23:06):

Nobody knows.

Zack G. (23:09):

Right. Can't call anybody

Dr. Makeba (23:11):

Thing. It's so great that you're like, can I, I can't even visit my parents. I don't know what to, what to do. So, um, it was hard. It was, um, I remember like buzzing, like feeling like, I'm not sure if I'm making the right decision for my practice, but like I promised myself in 2018, what every decision you make for your practicing, your team was the best decision you could make in that moment and keep yourself from making any mistakes. And I just went with whatever decision. There were a lot of, um, continuing education and hall meetings that some of the big, um, vaccine companies had Merck, uh, Ballinger, um, a long goal bait. They had these kind of town hall meetings, like what to do PPP loans and all this stuff. So my process with the PPP loans was pretty smooth. The bank was like, Hey, we put together some documents for you, sign them. And that was it. And I know that other business owners had a really hard time, um, maybe not in veterinary medicine, but

Zack G. (24:21):

Probably helped you, that you had just been through the lending process. Cause like, everything was like current and the files, you know what I mean? Like you didn't have it. Like some people were like had never taken a business loan and then suddenly they needed one and it's like, you're scraping to get everything together, you know? And, and then that's it. And you remember that took you, you know, eight months. Yeah. So you got on that one, you, you probably got a little lucky to kind of win blue in your favor on that. And then, so then Curt and I remember we, we had like, on my end here at the agency, we had like three weeks or it seemed suddenly quiet. Maybe like what you experienced.

Dr. Makeba (25:00):

And I was like

Zack G. (25:01):

April and you know, I was like, well, I got the kids home anyways. You know, I was like, okay, whatever. We'll just see what happens here. And then suddenly it was the same thing. I had my parking lot full, which is my email box of, yeah, let's do good. Let's do curbside. So we did a bunch of practices like you, where we set up mobile check-in so they could drive up and check in on their phone. And then that pings the front desk and all that. We set up a bunch of those. And for, I have some big restaurant groups that we work with and those guys all went to delivery and all this stuff. So suddenly everybody wanted changes with everything that we had been running for years. And then when we were busy suddenly again, like fixing all this craziness, but then I tell you then, and we got into that summer and then things slowed down a little bit because everybody suddenly got freaked out about money. You know? So I don't know if that

Dr. Makeba (26:03):

Yeah. Never came back. You know, some businesses that employed people literally didn't come back. They could not take man. It's, it's sad. It's it's like out of all the industries I could have been in veterinary medicine was the industry. That was part of my destiny. I guess if you say, or the industry that I went into, but what if I was a chef? Right.

Zack G. (26:30):

That's the thing. Nobody knew nobody. It was literally like drawing straws, you know, that's the way I look it. Cause I, you know, we got, we got clients Mickey, but I mean, we, we focus on veterinary and human health and that's kind of where we've landed after, you know, 10 years. But, but we do, we still have book of, you know, lawyers and restaurants and small businesses and, you know, cleaning companies, all this stuff. And there was like som or suddenly, you know, full throttle. Others were like, we're closing the doors, you know, uh, don't invoice us for three months. You know, that guy stopped. And then it was like, you know, but it didn't make any logical sense. It was just like you said, it was like drawing straws. Nobody was prepared. It was like, some people benefited. Other people got completely, you know, they got their face torn off basically.

Dr. Makeba (27:17):

And they had no way of knowing. Um, I, you know, when I lived in Florida, I lived in a big high rise. I think it was 500 apartments. And then I moved to an area where I'm by myself and it's more land and trees and it just felt, it just felt like I was placed here at the right time. I don't even know if my business would have grown. Sometimes. I wonder if my business has grown the way it has because of the pandemic, because everybody got a dog or cat because everybody was home looking at their pets. People found excuses to take drives. They're like going stir crazy for the first time in their life. They're home with their husband, their wife, their kids.

Zack G. (28:02):

They're like,

Dr. Makeba (28:02):

Oh, we need milk. All right. I'm

Zack G. (28:04):

Not driving

Dr. Makeba (28:06):

Around. I had people like I was driving to Kroger's and I saw activity in a parking lot. You guys are open, you know, I started this, oh man, I started this with so little money. I did not have any money to advertise outside of Facebook and Instagram. I didn't do mailers in a mile radius. I didn't do, I didn't do the conventional marketing.

Zack G. (28:30):

It may not have done anything. Given the timing with all this anyways. I mean, you know, like I said, it's like, I mean, maybe he would've just been confusion. Yeah. Crazy. But you got out of the gates, they're just on word of mouth. And the fact that suddenly there was this little demand spike because everybody's at home looking at every pimple on their dog's belly.

Dr. Makeba (28:53):

Yeah. They're looking, they want to do dental. They want to stay all of a sudden, they want to neuter their dog because they're noticing, Hey, he's peeing everywhere. Cause I'm home. Oh my God. And I'm noticing it. They want to do everything. So slowly grew in the back of my mind though. I'm like scared to get sick because

Zack G. (29:19):

Keep going out. Yeah. And you got to keep going out and that's right. And you're the one who's creating the revenue for your team. I mean, from a practical you're, you're the billable, you know, sort of entity, if you will. So

Dr. Makeba (29:32):

While I'm building processes for the practice. So yeah. So we, you know, it hit Atlanta, March, 2020. And then my dad who had had a quadruple bypass the year before is like your sister got COVID. They live in the same house. Boy. I'm like for what does that mean? Are you going to go somewhere else? Are you going to quarantine? He's like, I should be okay. She said, she's going to stay on the other side of the house. And slowly, everybody in the house started contracting COVID and he kept testing negative. Um, he had a blockage in his heart and they wanted to do surgery. And right before all surgeries, uh, starting probably March or February, they gave, they give you a COVID test. His was positive. Um, and they will not do surgery on you. If you have a positive test, you have to wait. Um, and that was like December 12th or something. And he passed away December 20th, 2020. Yeah.

Zack G. (30:48):

Um, so I'm just, that's, you know, I mean, you know, I'm sorry to hear that. And you had to not only face this with your business for those previous 10 months, then you had to face this whole pandemic on a personal level that most people hope they'd never have to do.

Dr. Makeba (31:03):

Yeah. But half a million half, or probably more by now, but half a million Americans have died. And I know there's no, I know some people don't believe it, you know, and they're saying that doctors are putting COVID for everything, every death, but how familiar in Americans don't just die in one year? No. Um, and I, I believe that the virus is real. And at the time though, I'd never been a business owner and I'd never lost my dad. So I remember when my sister called me and said, daddy went into cardiac arrest. I was on my way to home Depot. I needed to buy trash bags. I needed to buy water for the clinic. And there are certain things that I have already priced shop and know the best deals. So I'll go to home Depot and I went into autopilot. I just kept driving the home Depot.

Dr. Makeba (31:57):

And she's like, well, they're saving them now. She's not in the medical field. I didn't think he would come back from that. I kind of knew he was not going to come back from cardiac arrest. Um, and I bought my water and I remember getting back in the car and she called me when I got back in the car and said he passed, but you know, she's hysterical. She said, I'm going to call you back. Um, and I just drove home and I don't know what happened after that. It was like, I left my body a little bit. Um, Yeah. I meant to call the staff. I meant to cancel appointments and I did none of that. I just remember waking up on the couch and it was like 8:30 AM. I might've, I might've went to sleep around 4:00 AM. And I was like, I gotta be at work in 30 minutes. So I just went to work. Um, could I still wasn't sure. I wasn't sure what to do. I was like,

Zack G. (32:55):

You know, and you don't know what to do. You just do it and you don't know what to do. You do what you need to.

Dr. Makeba (32:59):

Yeah. So I went to work and I hit a customer in the parking lot. Oh my God. I like drove into a customer. Okay. Not their body, their car got it. Their car. I didn't run over it because I hit a customer's car. And at that moment, I said, you're not even here. You have the clothes, you have the clothes. And um, the staff went into overdrive. They're like, what do you need us to do? They canceled all the appointments for the next week. They, uh, took care of my dog for me. And they, they, they took care of my cat and they let me heal. And I closed for a week and a half to almost two weeks. And, um, when I got back, I had all this support in the community. I had cards. I had plans from people I had seen. One

Zack G. (33:59):

Is most of this from social media around the practice, getting out about what, you know, the reason for the closures. And is that where certain people became aware there was obviously awareness about what had happened?

Dr. Makeba (34:12):

Yeah. My staff just telling people, Dr. Clark had a death in the family. Um, I don't even know if we put anything on social media. It was just people calling to make appointments and them saying, we don't have a doctor right now because Dr. Clark had a death in the family and we'll be closed until July 30th or whatever date it was. Right. Um, and people just responding. Cause what, you know, we, we talk about differences a lot everywhere everybody's polarized. But what we all have in common is that we all have one mom and one dad and we all want love and we all want to feel part of something. Um, and it was after his death that I realized, um, that I was now a part of this community. They just,

Zack G. (35:09):

That's great. Let's say that's the best. I mean, look at you folks spotlighting the positive outcome of this, otherwise, you know, tragic story, but that's the best you can do with it.

Dr. Makeba (35:24):

My dad lived life to the fullest. He was, he liked to party. He liked to dance. He wasn't a drinker. Um, but he liked good. He liked beautiful women. He would say, I dated the most beautiful woman in the world. I've eaten at the best restaurant. I have been to multiple countries. He's lived in multiple countries. Um, and when he had his heart surgery, he didn't really want to, he did it for us. He has how many girls is. My dad has seven girls and we all begged them to have heart surgery. Um, and right before he died, he told me he was tired and he never said that. Um, and when somebody tells you that they're tired, you just believe them. Yeah, sure. And, um, and, and if I was the center, his life first, you know, I believe that he is at peace now. He was hurting. He was diabetic who's in kidney failure. He had heart issues and then he had COVID. Yeah.

Zack G. (36:37):

So it was like, from the COVID headlines, it was like, he was like the textbook at risk.

Dr. Makeba (36:42):

Yeah. He should have been put in a bubble by himself. Right. But he would say that he's like, I, I don't want to be alone. And if something happens, it's all in God's hands it's it's, I've lived a long life and I don't want to go. Cause we had talked about putting him in an apartment by himself and he didn't want to, he's like, I don't want to be alone. I just want to be with my family. And if something happens because I want to be with my family, it was my time. Yeah.

Zack G. (37:18):

Yeah. I mean, you know, and that's his choice and I guess, you know, hopefully, hopefully we all get to choose our last sort of chapter, you know? I mean, that's, that's the ideal situation. So how do things now having lived through all of this and now of course, you and I sit here today in the middle of this conversation and apparently things are maybe going to get worse, but you are, you've been on this trip now with your clinic rocking and rolling, making it work. See, you almost don't have anything to worry about.

Dr. Makeba (37:53):

Well, not necessarily. I opened in November of 2019, we were out of the pandemic for four months. But since then I have never returned to in-person. Right.

Zack G. (38:04):

So you're still ready for battle.

Dr. Makeba (38:08):

And I don't know how, what I was speaking to my business coach about. I'm like, I don't know what that looks like. Um, and that's my struggle. No.

Zack G. (38:22):

Well, you know, and, and one of the things I've learned through both my client work and doing the podcast that there's a shades of gray in here, you know, for everybody there's hybrids of everything, some curbside, some in person, we've got a lot of clients right now they're doing one person can attend the pet. So those are not like the whole family's coming in. Right. So that's eliminating limiting exposure inside the building. So there's all these, you know, potentials in there. If you will, it's not this or that, you know, nothing's mutually exclusive. It's not like you turn the big switch and then everything goes to one side of the fence and you live with that. So, you know, you're probably now with the way the headlines are this week, maybe not having to, not under a lot of pressure to make a decision, but maybe, maybe you make incremental decisions, which is, you know, I think what a lot of people are trying to do.

Dr. Makeba (39:21):

Yeah. I let you Canadians come in and I never stopped doing that. Uh, we would just connect multiple lines and I would stand like five, six to 10 feet away. It used a lot of products, but I didn't want to be too close, but I wanted the person to be there with their pet and their pets last moment. Right.

Zack G. (39:46):

I think that's a great, I think that's a great inappropriate choice, you know, and he did it and he did it in a way that was safe for everybody. So that's it, you know, that's a good one, but so do you feel, how do you feel right now in the practice or this is this the sort of background stress for you that taking that huge leap forward, you know, career wise, when you started, do you feel like you kind of got a handle on things like where's your head at and how, how does the next 12 months look for you?

Dr. Makeba (40:13):

I started feeling this immense stress, I would say right around February of this year. And I really couldn't figure out why. Yeah, we're getting busier. But what I discovered is I don't have enough standard operating procedures in place. I do. I constantly kinda say the same thing. Um, and I could no longer do that. So I'm actually working with a business consultant. Now my practice has exceeded our revenue from last year and in the first half of the year. And I cannot thank you. Thank you. But I could not continue, um, at that pace for very much longer. And I didn't want to go backwards in any way. And I know I needed help from somebody who had done this before. So I actually have a business consultant that specializes in vet clinics because I know that my passion I'm passionate. It's like me being Dr. Clark at Southwest veterinary clinic. I have a picture to show you. I hope I can put my hands on it, um, in under 30 seconds, but me owning this practice is like a dream come true, but passion hard work can only get you so far. Nobody's born as a CEO. No, nobody's born as a business executives. And the mistakes I could make at this level could potentially cost me millions and I no longer wanted to make them.

Zack G. (42:08):

Yeah, well, you know, but th this, this is an incredibly important point. You're making the S the, the thread that's in here is that, you know, we're not all experts at everything. And to think you are as a fool's game, the best thing you can do though, is continually reinvest in your education. Now, you know, you're a qualified vet. You can treat animals, you've got all these skills from vet school. Now you need an education and running your business, right? So you just, you know, got the consultant and other resources that are available to you in the, in the community and with, you know, colleagues and so forth and how to scale. And, you know, I can tell you, I'll share one thing with you from, from one of our clients. And she's, she's, uh, she's, she's you in 20 years. Okay. So I'll give you that.

Zack G. (42:55):

So I'll give you the picture. She only works five hours a week. She hasn't been to the clinic and five weeks. Okay. And, uh, it's, it's in the tens of seven figure value. She's got six doctors on staff, like 23 people full time. Okay. So that's the picture, right? But one of the things she says, I'll just share this with you. So one of the things that she shared with me, and we, we do all, we do all the, the marketing and everything for that business. So, and it's like one of my favorite projects. And I'll tell you why it's because she is willing to place trust in her staff and allow them to fail and figure out how to resolve that. And while still being accountable for the processes, like you're talking about like ironing out that the workflow and, and the count, you know, the inter countable responsibilities with the, with the office staff and so forth, but it's trust and delegation, and then be willing to take your hands off of the small stuff, you know? And it is really challenging because when you take your hands off, the small stuff, you feel like, you know, you're, you're like on the freeway going 70, and you're decided you're not going to hold the steering wheel anymore.

Dr. Makeba (44:16):

My system likings it because my sister has four, uh, four nieces and nephews. She's like, it's like leaving your kids at daycare for the first time.

Zack G. (44:28):

Right. You have to work. Gotta be, I mean, I had at one point personally, like about 25 employees, and I did make, you know, snarky comments about how I felt like I was running tickets, you know?

Dr. Makeba (44:45):

No, I mean, the, I mean, the business, like when you, when you step back from it, and you're not intimately involved in every small detail. Yeah. It's like leaving your kid for the first time. He says he cried like a baby, because she had to go to work. Her husband had to go to work, but I'm leaving my first born with a stranger.

Zack G. (45:09):

Yeah. And

Dr. Makeba (45:11):

This is still like my baby. Yeah.

Zack G. (45:12):

Yeah. And it, and it will be now. And I mean, it's still in the, in, you know, it's still in the, in the cradle, if you will, you completely unique situation that almost nobody's going to experience having your business in this crazy environment to start it's working. So thank God for that. And then, you know, and then at some point over the next, you know, year or two years or whatever, this, you know, situation looks like praise be, we get to normal and you transition to a more sort of, you know, traditional sort of setup. And then, you know, you will, like I say, you'll inch, you're going to make decisions and you got good resources, but you know, the, the, the big piece is bringing in experts to fill in your blind spots. And that's, you know, that's what, that's what, you know, our, our client did with, you know, with us.

Zack G. (46:01):

It's like, she's like, I don't want to worry about all the marketing and lead gen and, you know, promotionals and offers and stuff like that. She's like, I want to know the whole big picture. And I want to know that it's working out. I want to see the results. Okay. That's it, that's it. Right. Then it's off, you know, and, and she's also willing to allow for some screw ups, you know, which, like I say, it makes it, here's the thing, that's an interesting about that. Knowing for people that are on your team or for any team, knowing that they're, that they're okay to screw up every once in a while, changes their whole vibe with what they're willing to do for the business. I think, I mean, knowing that it's safe to make a mistake and not get absolutely skewered is a, is a cultural thing that's difficult to, to implement, but it's important. People should be allowed to screw up, learn and fix. I think we're, you know, a lot of bosses and, you know, oppor folks make a mistake is they make it such a threatening environment that no mistakes are allowed. Nobody grows in that situation. Everybody just feels like somebody has got a foot on their throat.

Dr. Makeba (47:18):

No, we're all, we, we, I make mistakes daily, just little things where I'm like, oh, I didn't do that again. Uh, but in medicine, some mistakes are deadly. So there's certain mistakes that I'm like, like for instance, if somebody answers the phone and they got two lines going and they go, thank you for calling Southwest veterinary clinic. I want them to say, is this an emergency?

Zack G. (47:47):

Seems like a seriously, right. It seems like a small thing, but it's actually a big deal.

Dr. Makeba (47:51):

That's a small mistake. If somebody, um, is getting medication and not looking at the bottles properly and puts any medicine in the bottle and forgets what they put in there. And doesn't say anything, that's a big mistake because that can kill a pet. Yeah.

Zack G. (48:10):

That's huge.

Dr. Makeba (48:12):

So that's what I want to work out the kinks

Zack G. (48:17):

[inaudible] so those are, yeah, those are procedural policy and procedure type stuff, you know, and they, yeah. And that's, that's where you're going to build, you know, scale and freedom and delegation and individual responsibility and on and on and on. It's a whole nother, awesome discussion that you're going to be in the middle of the next, you know, three to five years constantly optimizing all of the processes in your business. You know, you're just going to be constantly making the situation better to the point where you can do what you want instead of feeling like you're drowning in small stuff.

Dr. Makeba (48:55):

Yeah. I'm losing sometimes the forest for the trees. I'm on, I'm on the leaves. I'm looking at lady bugs and I'm like, get me out of here. Airplane.

Zack G. (49:06):

Awesome. Well, I want to thank you for today. This, uh, I want to be able to also, I mean, I'm hoping that we can check back with you at some point, like in the next six months or so. I want to see, I'm really curious. And I think everybody is going to be to see how you go from this pandemic business baby to a [inaudible], you've got a business baby in the, in the band. Uh, but I, I think everybody's going to want to hear, and I definitely want to check back with you on how this looks, you know, in six or 12 months, when maybe we're not dealing with this, and let's just all, you know, put the best thoughts out there that we can, that we're gonna do a better job. We have tools now to manage this, we should know a little better than we knew a year and a half, two years ago, how to handle it. So hopefully whatever we're seeing in today's headlines is not going to end up being another disaster for everybody. But I just want to thank you. I have an awesome story and, uh, I certainly wish you the best. And I think though, like, you know, it's so cool though, is you're already ready to go, no matter what happens, you're going to be okay.

Dr. Makeba (50:17):

I'm going to be okay. I believe that in my heart.

Zack G. (50:20):

And I

Dr. Makeba (50:23):

Want to show you this picture. You're showing me the picture 10 seconds. All right,

Zack G. (50:28):

Go get it. So folks, she's getting the picture, but as you can tell, this is such a unique story for the whole show and, and the idea that somebody could store it, a business in the middle of the pandemic and be successful and lose family and all of that and, and be where they're at today. So let's see the picture

Dr. Makeba (50:50):

When I was probably in first or second grade, maybe kindergarten, the first grade, we used to write these short stories with pictures. My mother keeps everything. And when I graduated from Tuskegee university, she presented me with bits, which I had drawn. Um, probably in first grade it says Kiba and I guess the project, what do you want to be veterinarians? Look at you.

Zack G. (51:13):

You slide it up, slide it up a little bit so we can see the whole picture. Just lift it up. Yeah. Look at that. There you are. You're saving pets. The picture I liked the dog leg. I liked the dog face. That's laying down there. That's sucking

Dr. Makeba (51:27):

That I'm wearing a hat. So six year old me was convinced that that's more hats. And if you look closely, the teacher spelled veterinarian wrong, so humble beginning.

Zack G. (51:38):

Oh my gosh. That's great. Well, yeah, I mean, but you know, there you go. You manifested where you're at today with all the power of the universe and look at you and you got nothing, but you know, a great path in front of you, you saw, I'm just thrilled. I'm thrilled to share the story with you, get it out there, record it. Um, you know, for the, for the records, if you will. And then I want to see what happens and I want to see, I want to see what next year looks like. I can't wait to hear, I can't wait to circle back. I'm uh, I'm putting you on my, on my list. All right.

Dr. Makeba (52:09):

Yeah. Let's let's circle back. Thank you so much for inviting me, allowing me to tell my story and thank you. I'm thankful chairs,

Zack G. (52:18):

Chairs. We'll see you on the next one.

Dr. Makeba (52:19):

Perfect. Thank you.

Intro (52:22):

Thank you for listening to this episode of practice. So Matt subscribe to the podcast. So you don't miss any future episodes for additional help and resources for your practice. Visit Zack greenfields.com to connect with Zach. Visit Zach greenfield.com/zg.