Vet Tech to Innovator: Mission-Driven Career Path (Alexandre Contreras)

About the guest: 

Alexandre Contreras, VT, CCMT is a veterinary technician trained in canine physical therapy and is now an innovator and entrepreneur. He has built a service business called DogApy, a product business called KlipTrio, and a non-profit that brings together community and empowers students interested in careers in animal health. Alexandre is driven by passion and purpose and believes that anyone can put in the work to build a career that is meaningful. 

Resources:

• Video episode on YouTube
• KlipTrio.com 
• PetTrio Charity website

Transcript

[00:00:00] I just happened to stay persistent on a goal that I had as a dream and never let anything that happened throughout my adult life chisel away at that.

Megan Sprinkle: Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. There are some people who just radiate purpose, and that describes our guest today, Alex Contreras, from watching Animal Planet as a kid to becoming a veterinary technician, entrepreneur and nonprofit founder, Alex's story is about passion and persistence. In this episode, we talk about a career path driven by the desire to build something meaningful in VetMed, not just a service or a product, which Alex has built both, but a life rooted in values, service, and community.

His ideas and enthusiasm have landed him on the cover of veterinary magazines and earned him several awards since 2022. If you've ever felt stuck or unsure about your next step in your career, this one's for you, Alex shares that you don't have to have it all figured out, but when you care deeply and keep moving, [00:01:00] things can happen.

Let's get to the conversation with Alex Contreras.

when did you know you were interested in veterinary medicine?

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, Anytime I get to tell my story to relive bits of pieces, I forgot along my journey. It kind of centers me, to why I even started this profession, why I was so in love with it from the beginning at a young age. , I attribute that a lot to my late grandpa, who literally stuck me in front of a TV at a young age. I was, uh, kind of captivated and, and motivated by the likes of, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter. The Animal Planet, the Discovery Channel, net geo wild, so all those animal related programs. So at a young age, I've already kind of was fixated in program and to knowing that I wanted to be in the veterinarian profession at some capacity.

I wanted to assist in surgeries, I wanted to help animals. But it was this one show on Animal Planet in particular, called Emergency Vets. There was literally a camera crew following the day-to-day activities of a veterinarian technician. [00:02:00] Right. And that's when I kind of honed in.

And I even remember telling my mom when I grew up, I wanna be that person, right? The person that I was seeing on tv, the person that I was kind of seeing in the trenches of it, the grueling work that happens behind the exam room doors, right? We all know that the veterinarians are the brains of the organization, at the end of the day, those veterinary technicians, the assistants, the kennel assistants and the receptionists, those are the inner workings of the animal hospitals.

And those are the ones that are in constant play, like in constant gauging, right? So, , after seeing that show, I was like, man, I wanna be that. And of course I had realistic expectations on myself. You know, I knew I wasn't gonna be an astronaut. I knew I wasn't gonna be the, the president of the United States, but I knew wholeheartedly that I wanted to be a veterinarian technician.

So, sure enough, as soon as I graduated from high school, we didn't have as many vet tech programs as we have now, obviously with the increase in technology and expansion and things like that. [00:03:00] But there was this one commercial there was constantly replaying on Animal Planet for this school called Penn Foster, , which offered, uh, a certification to become a veterinarian technician. So sure enough, as soon as I graduated from high school, I enrolled in a online EDU, became this veterinary technician, got my first job working at Town and Country Animal Hospital here in Miami, Florida. , They're part of the American Animal Hospital Association. Started out as a kennel assistant and literally never looked back.

From there, I slowly climbed the ranks, outta my 20 year career as a veterinarian technician. 10 of those years was in town and country animal hospital alone. Which is like a huge milestone for me because I've came to the realization that most techs typically burn out within like year three or year four. But the fact that I stayed dedicated for this long in this profession, but more importantly, at my first hospital for 10 years was true testament that , this wasn't a fab for me. This wasn't a summer gig. No, [00:04:00] no. This is something that I wanted to invest everything into it, and I'm glad that I, I, I was able to that dream as a young kid into my adult life. I'm about to be 40 next year, so the fact that I was there since I was 18 till now, just further prove that as we get older, we cannot, cannot, I stress this a lot, we cannot forget our dreams as kids because it's our adult life that hammers that away at us. I was just fortunate that I stayed persistent throughout my life so far and that this is something that I knew for sure I wanted to do long term.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Well, let's stay with your, the younger self because I think you, you had some great family influence, you know, your grandfather turned to the right channel for you. , But I, I think maybe you, you learned a lot of great work ethic too from your mother.

You said you, you were raised by a single, mom with a brother, and that you had to learn that if [00:05:00] you wanted something, you had to work for it. So do you mind sharing just a little bit about that too and, and maybe how you started to develop. Probably early signs of entrepreneurship and, and just your work ethic , 'cause I think that's a lot of, to that, you know, 10 year commitment there.

Part of that was you and, and your ability to have a strong work ethic. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that?

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, definitely. That's one of those areas where I feel I truly am the person because of my mom. Family household, the one mom trying to raise two kids. My brother and I had to learn early on that if we ever wanted anything extra, whether it was the latest game console, the latest sneakers, or even just a snicker bar, we had to find a way for us to get into, not overbearing my mom with the pressures that she had already, and, It kind of makes sense looking back at it now, Dr. Sprinkle, while my mom was busy working those two jobs, my grandma, my grandpa, were the ones that reared both me and my brother. So we got to spend a lot of time seeing our [00:06:00] grandparents, right? And my grandpa instilling that in me early on, putting me in front of the tv, seeing the animal planet, kind of planting that seed in my mind to let me know like, Hey, grandson, this is something I want you to gravitate towards. Let your mom work. Let your mom do what she has to do, but ultimately this is where I want you to be. And in envisioning and seeing that, that's when I was like, wait a minute. If I want shoes, mom is always working, but I see how grandpa is and things he does around the house. Maybe I should start cutting grass and maybe by me cutting grass, I'll get the extra $20 and I could take those $20, put it together with the other $10 that I made from washing the car. Now I got $30 or whatever the case now I could go buy those shoes. So I kind of earned early on the value of a dollar, but knowing that to get to that dollar, I gotta work, it wasn't gonna fall out of a tree, literally. And it's that early. Kind of foundation of knowing the importance of money, what money is [00:07:00] used for and how it can make your life better if used properly. Right? And that's what truly instilled that entrepreneurial dream in me at a young age, is the realizing that in this life, if I ever want anything or anything extra. I gotta figure out a means to getting that in a legal way, meaning that I knew a lot of people unfortunate in the environment that I was raised in that will find ways of getting that illegally. And I was like, no, no, no, no. I wanna do it legally because I'm not built for that world.

I don't wanna be in that world. I've seen too many of my friends go through that process that I was like, no, no, no. Lemme stick over here. You know, mowing lawns, washing cars, you know, doing the good deed to eventually buy the things that I want. But it was truly that watching my mom navigate that life is what instilled that entrepreneur and dream in me.

And at the same time, mom knows that my brother and I can be self-reliant and that we're gonna figure out how to make our lives better without having to overbearing my [00:08:00] mom.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Uh, love that story. And the other thing that I think was important to that, you know, 10 years of staying in one hospital is, yes, there's some that's on you, you know, it's work ethic 'cause it's not an easy job. But the other thing too is you have to have a good culture that's welcoming or you know, or you just go to a different clinic.

Right. And so you spoke very highly of. Some of the, the mentors and the doctors that were in that particular hospital that really built a lot of loyalty as well. Do you mind sharing a little bit about the culture that you worked in?

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, I love it. I was introduced into the veterinary profession as such a great manner, um, you know, working at to Country Animal Hospital. , There with Dr. Michael Mordaunt, , Dr. Eric Wenke and the solid s upport system they had on the management side, , Cathy Bain and Christie Fearless, there are two hospital managers that , understood their employees and valued the employees.

I think [00:09:00] that's why my loyalty stayed there that long, is that not only did they get me at that tender age of 18, but they molded me to their standards. So I was taught the best way possible, like I got to really see. What it is to be a technician from the floor up. Meaning like, okay, you can learn all everything you wanna learn in the book, that's fine. Now you gotta apply it to practice. And what I was able to do is that while I was learning it in the books, I was applying it in practice and being mentored by them and them showing me, this is how you do it. To the point that, my first, and I, and I love this story because it is one of those where you look back on it and you're like, damn. Now I realize why this bastard was pressuring me so much and hounding over me is because he wanted me to excel. He wanted to be, to be under that pressure so that when I'm always constantly doing that task, I feel that pressure, but I'm executing it in a calm, manner because he is no longer there kind of shadowing, making [00:10:00] sure that I'm doing it correctly.

Right? So I remember we were placing the catheter and there's always a debate amongst technicians of. Man, you better put more tape on that. You better put more vet wrap. This doctor in particular, doctor Eric Wenke was like, it's a three tape minimum. Three tapes is all you need to safely secure this catheter.

Right? And after months and weeks of watching technicians using the three tape step, I was like, okay, , it's my turn now. Right? So when I would put on my strips, obviously, um, I started to realize why he's hounding on us. We have to make sure that when we shave that leg, that we throw that hair away as soon as we do it, so that when we pour our alcohol or our scrub, we're not mixing that now with hair everywhere.

So he wants to see the area clean. It got to the point, where we could place a catheter with no blood drip, right and under a minute with only three tapes. And that's how we each motivated each other to the point that when a new tech would come [00:11:00] in, we would be like, Hey. It's a three tape minimum.

You better do it like this, this and that. And that's when I realized the concept of what is it? Teach one, show one, do

Megan Sprinkle: Do one. Yep.

Alexandre Contreras: And, and that's the philosophy that we had there with every task, whether it was scraping or getting prepped for surgery, placing the catheter, setting up the vaccine tray.

It was always making sure that we do it in a clean manner. And once I developed that solid foundation. That's when I realized, like, you know, years into being there, I was like, I can't turn my back on these people. , They've educated me, they gave me a career. They listened to all of our needs.

Whenever we had an issue, we would bring it up to the office manager. The office manager would put us face to face with the veterinarian and hash out whatever issues we had at the moment. Like, Hey, Dr. Mordaunt, you know, when you told me that harsh word, I felt bad. And he'd be like, well take it. We'll be like, okay, well at least I brought it to his, at least I addressed it. He gave me his reply, I swallowed it and I [00:12:00] came into work the next day like nothing happened. And that's when I realized like I couldn't, I can't turn my back on these people. I stayed loyal to them for so long and it wasn't till the entrepreneur sparked that sparked in me that led me to leave that that was the only way I was gonna leave that place, because if it wasn't for that, I probably would've still been at that same animal hospital because. They took care of us, you know?

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. And, and it's so funny that as you were talking about, you know, this high standard for quality and cleanliness, I think that's gonna foreshadow something that comes later. , But yeah, you, seem to be someone who loves to grow and learn too, and so you started to get into like, massage and physical therapy as well. So how, how did you get involved in that, and then how did you start to implement that into the practice there?

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, that's one of those, um, You know, now that I'm thinking about this now, like again, every time I get to relive my story and tell it, I tend to forget, the long way it took me to get to this point, , I stayed [00:13:00] invested in something for so long as a career. now I can literally look back and be like, damn, I went through the gauntlet of things to get to this point and seeing everything that I wanna accomplish further. Everything I've done in the past, like it, it was prepping me for this moment basically. So when I was there at town and Country Animal Hospital, obviously whenever we recover the animals from anesthesia, you know, we try to wake 'em up as fast as we can. I, I started to doing, you know, just simple strokes, you know, movement of the body. , Obviously making sure I'm not messing too much with the endotracheal tube, but I started realizing, I was like, wait a minute, man, I wonder if the same methods that are being applied in sports medicine for human, you know, rehabilitation. I, I always wonder what more can I do as a tech? What else can I do? Right? I'm just standing here, you know, recovering this animal from anesthesia, but what more can I do? Right? And that's when it dawned on me, like, man, I wonder if there's like a massage therapy course that I could take or something that I could do to get some type of a [00:14:00] certification to not only. Continue to show my managers that I wanna excel, I wanna continue to grow, and I wanna be able to, to at least say that I know, have some knowledge on what I'm doing when I'm moving this pet in this matter in the surgical suite. Right? So I found out about this school called the Equissage, uh, that had a massage therapy course for horses, hence equissage. But they opened like a whole subdivision, specifically for canine certification, right? So I hopped onto that program, I think it was like a nine month program. I got to learn the ins and outs about anatomy of the muscles, the physiology and all that. , You know, sports medicine, sports massage and things like that.

And then once I got that certification, started out as a joke, Dr. Sprinkle, I was like, okay, I learned these techniques in order to graduate with this. I had to show like a 40 minute video on me going through the massage strokes that I learned. I did it on my own dog at the time, but now I was like, wait a minute man, let me try my neighbor's dog that has arthritis. messing with my dog's neighbor that had arthritis. They gave me 20 bucks. I was like, what the, I [00:15:00] was like, wait a minute. What you, you paying me? Yeah. You know, you're here for, you know, 30 minutes, an hour, and I, you know, here. And I'm like, whoa. I was just doing this for my certification course, but boom, was that light bulb moment that I was like, wait a minute. Looking back to my childhood, man, I cut grass, made $20, you know, washed the car, made $10, massage a dog, made $20 or whatever. Maybe I could start something here. And then sure enough, that's what started me to, to go ahead and, uh, create the, this service business called DogApy. And I got the name DogApy, obviously from, you know, dog and then therapy. Put those two words together. Learned about the trademark process. Got a trademark and then that's when I knew, okay, I'm a, I'm in this new phase of being a technician now I'm this entrepreneur in the same space. And then sure enough, I started DogApy, It got to the point that the doctors found out about what I was doing.

They started referring me cases, other hospitals started to find out what I was doing. And by the time you know it, Dr. Sprinkle, I had three or four cases that I [00:16:00] would do on my days off. Now I realize, wait a minute, I'm offsetting my not so great salary as a technician that we all know and I'm supplementing it with this entrepreneurial side business that I created out of the Nothing, you know, that essentially started out as a joke and I started videotaping some of my cases, hoping that I'm gonna put it on YouTube and some Animal Planet executive was gonna see it. And we're just gonna be like, Hey, look, this guy's Alex, he's in Miami. This unique service. It's proven, it's working. Let's give him a hit TV show on Animal Planet. Right? That's what my thought was. Obviously that didn't happen, Dr. Sprinkle, but I was able to be on the channel Morning news here in Miami. I got the anchors there to kind of crack a joke about the fact that the, the male, uh, anchor person couldn't get his wife to massage him, but she's paying for a dog massage, so where's the win in that? And that's when I realized like, oh, you know, I could, I could have something here with DogApy, right? So. Did the DogApy thing for about, uh, three or four years there while still [00:17:00] being a technician, and that's when again, that entrepreneurial kind of spirit reignited itself in me. And I realized that I could definitely do good in this position.

I could definitely do better as a technician, but more importantly, I'm gonna be able to kind of grow, but grow within this industry. Meaning like, I wanna be able to still stay in the same profession. It's not like I wanted to jump into, I don't know. carpentry. No, no. I wanted to stay in the same profession and just continue to try to make it better, while at the same time growing myself as an individual and as a person.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, well, so you got the taste of a service business, and then ironically, another TV show, I think Shark Tank, was on , and sparked a, maybe a track down a product business. So do you mind sharing your transition into your next venture?

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, so when I realized that obviously Dog Apy was a service-based business, meaning I had to take [00:18:00] my time, I had to really stretch myself out to make these things possible. I was binge watching the hit TV show, shark Tank, and I remember this was, , January 8th, 2016, with my 6-year-old son who's 16 now. watching and seeing people coming on there creating products, services, and business is something they have firsthand knowledge in. Right? With some of the most absurd ideas sometime that I'm like, what? And they will go onto the show, they will pitch the sharks and they'll get multimillion dollar investments or, you know, six figure deals.

Uh, some of the most craziest, dumbest ideas, but they put in the work to get there. Right? So when I'm seeing these individuals going on there, I'm like, wait a minute, wait. Come on now. If they can do that, why can't I? And it was always that curiosity of always sitting back and thinking, wait a minute, wait a minute. You are a human being just like me. You brush your teeth the same, you tie your shoes the same, you wipe your butt the same. You [00:19:00] are no better than me. I'm no better than you. , let me figure this thing out. And sure enough, I went back to work the next day thinking with an open mind, thinking, damn Alex. What in the veterinarian profession can be improved and made better and definitely safer. Not only for US technicians performing the task, but for the everyday pet owner, but most importantly for the pets. Like, how can I make their lives better, our lives better, and just make the profession better in totality?

Right? So that's when I like. Hyper laser focused on something. I've coined one of the most overlooked aspects in the animal care profession, and it's the dreadful nail trimming process in animals. We hate trimming animals' nails, and I'm saying it here. I don't care how much of a skilled, trained technician you are, I don't care if you're a gold star, elite groomer, you're gonna nip the quick, right?

And when you nip the quick. A, you gotta yell for one of your coworkers to first find the jar where you guys last left it. [00:20:00] Get that jar into the exam room, to the treatment area, crack it open. You know damn well when you crack that thing open, you don't even know when you opened it. You know for sure you're gonna find some contaminants in there.

Old nail clippings, for sure clumps of dog hair, little drops of blood here and there, and I realized. This has to be one of the most least hygienic things, yet it's one of the most, for sure. It's gonna end in bloodshed, meaning we're gonna nip the quick, and you mean to tell me we can't visit this in a hygienic fashion, right?

Because we have to pour the powder, dab our fingers on it, go through the whole gamut of that, and I said, no, no, no, Alex, this has to change. There has to be a safer, faster, and definitely a hygienic way of applying styptic powder to an animal's injured nail. Little did I know that Dr. Sprinkle that that idea was gonna take me on a four and a half years journey through the patenting process. I was able to secure two US utility patents on the [00:21:00] first ever disposable styptic powdered cartridge that's gonna snap onto a pet nail clipper. There also has a stainless steel nail file embedded right on the axle handle, virtually making it a three in one tool. The name of the product is gonna be called Klip Trio.

I even tattooed the name of the brand on my forearm way before I understood the patenting process. I just believed in it so much and I knew that I dumped it into the universe in such a great manner and educated myself on the patenting process and all that grueling work that goes into that. That I knew that this was destined for me to be the one to innovate it, and the fact that I secured those two patents on it had to keep my mouth shut for four and a half years of going through that. 2022 was my breakout year, and I was able to openly speak about KlipTrio coming out. I've been on two Veterinarian magazine covers.

I won five awards so far, and Klip Trio hasn't even came out to market yet. [00:22:00] That's how much of a brand association that I created around it, that my journey was literally backwards. Dr. Sprinkle, normally when somebody innovates or invents something, they have the capital already to put the product out to then start working on the marketing and the press stuff like going after the awards, going after the recognition. I was literally building the product while getting the, the recognition, while getting the awards. that when the product comes out in 2026, the hard work has already been done. It's already been a valid product. It's already been tested, it's already been approved. It's already been recognized. Now it can lead me directly to sales versus it being the other way around. And the only reason why I mentioned that is because that's the way my cards were dealt. Like the access to the capital has been the hardest part of this entrepreneurial journey. To the point that even I try not to become jaded with the process, [00:23:00] Dr.

Sprinkle of watching other people with ideas less than mine, less innovation. No proprietary, no awards, no recognition. Getting the six figure deals, getting a million dollar investment funding, and I'm like, what? And I'm sitting here with awards, patents, recognition, you know, subject matter expert, being a technician. You mean to tell me that I can't land capital, know? But I realize, sit back, Alex, you don't know their story. They don't know yours. Put your head in the sand. doing the good deed, continue doing what you're doing, and eventually your opportunity to come. And I've been fortunate that hopefully in the next 60 days or so I can land my first deal to hopefully get the product out and eventually just start being the go-to person as a technician when it comes to innovation. I wanna be recognized as that technician who not only became this technician, but evolved and grew within the profession to become this entrepreneur, get [00:24:00] into philanthropy, and hopefully showing the industry that technicians are more than just techs.

We could be innovatives, we could be entrepreneurs, we could be in philanthropists or philanthropy rather. It's just showing the Don't just single me out as being a technician who's walking dogs and doing vaccines. No, no, no. Take a look at what we could do, because there's innovation here.

There's a brain here, and eventually I saw something that other people weren't seeing and I laser focused in on it.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, and I can relate to why you're getting so many acknowledgements for this idea because like the first time you told me the, the story of nipping the quick and then getting the, if I can say quick stop, it was always

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: quick stop, right. And you like teleported me back to those situations.

Like it's so, you're so right and to acknowledge the never put anybody in a box, right? The people that come with the best solutions are often the people that are [00:25:00] most connected to the problem.

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah.

Megan Sprinkle: And so, you're so beautifully understand the problem and then can start to put. A amazing solution behind it.

And yes, there's a lot that goes into product development that you're, discovering and having to hurdle around. But , don't be afraid to think outside the box.

If something interests you, lean into it because you never know what's gonna happen. And a lot of it does take, , a lot of leaning in and a lot of work and a lot of consistency and. And belief. and then you also talked about the philanthropy part too, and I know that's a huge passion of , yours, , and also your, great ability to network, because I think someone reached out to you, with this idea and you, you jumped on it.

So do you wanna share a little bit more about that aspect of what you're working on?

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, so once I knew Dr. Sprinkle, that obviously I know that Klip Trio is gonna be success with, not only am I addressing a major, major pain point, this is a huge pain point for both the profession and for the everyday pet owner. I [00:26:00] started to realize, wait a minute, Alex, I just don't wanna be seen that the guy who invented or reimagined the nail clipper or disposable styptic powder cartridges.

No, no. I wanna have a social calling attached to me that will cement a legacy in the future. Meaning like I was already thinking of, okay, I came to the profession, I wanna make it better, but how do I make it long lasting? You know, I can't just come out with a clipper and be like, oh hey, remember that Clipper back too?

No, I wanna be like, he came, he did this and now he's onto this. Right? So I've always wanted to have a social calling attached to myself, and that's what led me to start PetTrio Charity. , I was fortunate enough that through my Gorilla tactics of networking on LinkedIn. I was able to get connected with this organization by the name of CARE.

Uh, that's a Companions and Animals for Reform and Equity. It's a bipoc animal welfare organization, , headed by James and Jennifer Evans. Uh, when they heard my story about Klip Trio, when they heard about me wanting to donate a Klip trio for every animal that gets adopted from a rescue organization, I plan on partnering up with. And the [00:27:00] fact that I speak at various VE assistant programs here in Miami-Dade County's public schooling, they're like, Hey, you know, we could help you set up your nonprofit. So I got connected with them. I was fortunate enough that they were able to gimme my first grant for me to set up, the lawyers to set up my non-profit petro charity, get the website, was able to have access to my first grant so I could start not only assisting families as well, that needed access to care because. While I was still working as a technician at another clinic, when I would see cases where if a family will come in because I'm in an underserved community here in Homestead, when a family will come in and they won't have the extra a hundred dollars they need for their vaccines, I would be like, you know what?

I got my nonprofit PetTrio charity. I just got this funding. How much money you have, how much you need, $75. Okay, I'll go ahead and match that. I'll go ahead and assist you in getting the animal that cares. So when they started to see like. Alex is this technician, but he also has his philanthropy aspirations. That's when the CARES organization and I partnered [00:28:00] up and I'm, I'm so grateful that, that James and Jennifer gave me that opportunity because really the ones who not only took a gamble on me, right, but they also allowed me to realize that, wait a minute, this, this can actually happen. I got the access to the capital that I needed to start the nonprofit if it wasn't for them. Giving me that first kind of seed money to get going, it probably would've took me a little bit longer to set everything up. I would've missed opportunities along the way. But the fact that the timing was perfect, , I think they're, at that time, they were three or four years into their organization. So the fact that they caught me early, I caught them early on, it was like a match made in heaven to where now, you know, , the CARES organization is giving me this ability now to be at home now. I'm still this technician, but now I can assist them with mission trips that they do either in, uh, Philadelphia, in Atlanta, or in LA to being [00:29:00] boots on the ground in the community, seeing what the community's needs are doing food drives, helping them find access to low cost vet care in those different communities.

So now I'm realizing like my story really came back to where I first started, right? That. That inspiration of being a tech, wanting to be in the animal hospital. Now it's just like I have the scrubs underneath me, regardless if I wear a T-shirt or a suit, because I'm never gonna forget the passions I have as a technician. But now I got that freedom of saying that I'm not restricted to just the clinic, like I'm not in the clinic setting. You know? Now I can move throughout the community where the community needs are. And I'm fortunate now that through the CARES organization. I'm getting ready to have my first, uh, food donation drive here at Homestead Senior High School Veterinarian Assistant Program. We got about a thousand pounds of, dog and cat food that we got from the cuddly organization. I'm really putting all my words into action now. Like I'm really in my community helping those people who at this time, you know, it's hard to [00:30:00] have that extra income to get good premium dog food. Uh, so now they'll be able to go to the school, we'll have the students involved. The students will be handing out these, uh, uh, food packages to the people in the community. And then that's when I can sit back and be like, damn, now this assistant at the high school level. Is seeing what I'm doing. Who knows what spark or interest or curiosity they're gonna have now to realize, wait a minute, this guy was a technician. Now he did this and now he's doing that. Maybe I could follow those same footsteps because they were under the impression that the only way you could be in this profession is to be a veterinarian. So now the fact that they could see multiple avenues to it, not only now we're establishing that new workforce development. But now we got a new breed of technicians or assistants that are coming in with more sound mind and, and an open mind of looking for innovation and just looking to how to make their job processes or even the animal hospital function better. And I [00:31:00] think that my story is one of those of what's possible, because not to toot my own horn, there's a lot of technicians out there doing great things, but I have yet to run into one. There's doing the things that I'm doing at the manner of which the path that I took, um, maybe their story's a lot different than mine. And if I could be a prime example of what's possible, uh, then I'm willing to put my face on that poster for sure.

Megan Sprinkle: I can tell that's a big motivation for you is to bring others with you, and I think that's. Amazing. And, and you're right, we have veterinarians going to career days, but we need vet techs going to career days 

Alexandre Contreras: all, from my experience of speaking, you know, the biggest class I ever spoke to was like 90 students. I was typically 20, 24, 30. This one class I did last year, it was at , William H. Turner, uh, which happens to be a 90% African American student body school with a vet tech program embedded in there in agricultural, I realized, wait a minute. All these students were, and even though they're in [00:32:00] this program, they were under the impression that it's the, like you have to be a veterinarian. Like, oh, oh, it's a veterinarian coming to speak today. But when they heard it's a technician, they're like, wait a minute. And that's why the school piled in all those students.

'cause they realized, wait a minute, this dude is technician, but he's showing these students the environment that he came from, like, if I was able to reach these heights, so can you, because at the end of the day, I'm no different than anyone else, and that's always been my prime message Dr.

Sprinkle, I'm no different than no than anybody on this planet. I just happened to stay persistent on a goal that I had as a dream and never let anything that happened throughout my adult life chisel away at that. I just kept on trucking to what I wanted to do, and that, that's the measuring that I need to show these students, who knows what they can be or who knows what else that they can innovate.

And I think that that's the prime story there. Like, forget about KlipTrio, forget about PetTrio charity. It's the messaging of how can we improve the profession and it truly is [00:33:00] nurturing and cultivating the students at a young age. Get 'em at the middle school level as possible, get 'em at the high school level, mold 'em so when they get to the college level, you can already see like this is what they want to do.

They showed it for years on in to get to this point. and then from there, they could just put more gas on the fire and just let those students excel from there. 

Megan Sprinkle: well from student to those who are already in the clinic working. and maybe they're a little itching to do something next. What are your pieces of advice giving them words of wisdom and, and thoughts around possibilities for them in their career.

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, my, my word of wisdom has always been. If you're not growing within the clinic, go to where you can grow. , And it happens, and this is why there's not too many entrepreneurs in this world. It, it's a gamble that you have to take. It's a risk that you're really gonna bet on yourself at all costs.

That if this doesn't work out, you have nobody to blame but yourself. And you have to [00:34:00] take full accountability for it. whereas to, if you're in an animal hospital working nine to five. , you're just doing what you have to do. And I always tell, employees or coworkers, like, if , you're feeling like you're gonna get in a rut, like you're feeling like, oh, it's the same thing, man.

I'm always doing fecals. I'm always doing this. I'm okay. Okay. What is it that you wanna do? You know, man, I wanna learn how to put a catheter in. Don't tell me, tell your office manager. Tell your senior tech. Like, Hey look man, teach me how to place a catheter. You know? Then it falls on the culture of that animal hospital to be like, Hey, look, we, maybe not with this case 'cause it's a, you know, it's a critical case, but, you know, we got regular annuals coming up that we gotta do blood work for, place a catheter on that guy, you know, make it easier for us to draw the blood.

Whatever the case may be. It always falls on the, the employee taking the initiative to be heard. if you want to be heard, you gotta open your mouth. And if you see after failed attempts. You try and you get shut down at every corner. You feeling like you can't grow. [00:35:00] Then at that point you knew that you outgrew that place in particular, like you should be able to excel. They should be able to open up doors for you, for you to continue and growing as a tech. Because I was fortunate when I got thrown into the fire, so to speak, into the treatment area, , I was so curious about what was going on in dentistry that I was like, man, I would really love to be in there. Dr. Mordaunt heard it. He said, okay, no problem. Next Tuesday. Go in there. And I was like, okay. Next Tuesday. I was in there observing, watching, learning. The next week, the next two weeks, okay, well you assisted putting this dog down. Let's get him, uh, induced. him on the table. You know, let's get your X-rays.

And I'm like, x-rays. What? Yeah, here you go, eh. Okay. And then from there, I learned, and it was that curiosity that led me there. I opened my mouth. The doctor heard it. The doctor said, Hey, I'm not gonna give up good hands here, you know, get to work. And I stayed in dentistry there for the six year outta my 10 year career there at Tiny Country Animal Hospital.

I loved [00:36:00] every minute of it because I was able to, to look back, and that's really what it is. Dr. Sprinkle being able to be like, damn, I was in the back room, walking the dogs, feeding the dogs. , I learned all the background stuff. And that's another exceptional thing within the culture of the community is we're all crosstrained. We knew how to be a receptionist. We knew how to be a kennel assistant. We knew how to be an assistant. We knew how to be a technician. We knew how to be a some points. And it happens. We learned how to be a, shoulder to cry on. We learned how to be a mentor. We learned how to be a psychiatrist. Like you learn all of those things and to the point that. We understood that, okay, if the reception's having trouble in the front, I understand why she's having trouble because I played that role two weeks ago. So, hey, look, I'm not gonna overburden them because I know what they gotta deal with. Hey, I need the kennel assistant.

Hey, I'm taking the dog out. I know how it is back there. I'll figure it out. So we're able to do all those things. But while I was doing all those things, I was growing and I was able to show in my work [00:37:00] ethics, like I grew from each of these departments. So that's what kept me motivated. That's what kept me there. Because if I would've just stayed there, mundane, routine, ting, I would've been like, uh, I need to grow. But the fact that I was able to do all those things is why I stayed there so long for those guys. 

Megan Sprinkle: Well, and you make a good point too, wherever you are, do really good work. , And people see that. And so when you do ask to do something, they're like, oh, okay. I've seen her work really hard. Or he, I've seen him work really hard here. Then you know, it's a little bit more, , proof that you're gonna work hard wherever you ask to go.

So.

Alexandre Contreras: and it's rewarding because you carry on that ethics everywhere else. Meaning like when I had this Gold Star standard of what I did at Town and Country Animal Hospital, when I left those guys to go on my hiatus with the entrepreneurial dream. Whenever I needed to double back to get into an animal hospital to keep me going. I kept that same work ethics that when I got into that place, . I still kept that gold standard and I was able to show the text there like, [00:38:00] Hey, it's a three tape system. I know you guys are used to five tapes and a mess.

No, no, no, no. This is how it's done. And when I was able to implement that, that's when I realized like, man, okay, I, I could take on this role now of a teacher, so to speak, because the experience that I have to where I could be like, Hey, you know, you messed up and that part because you didn't do this. But I would show them, I wouldn't tell them, and then they would catch and I was able to realize you can take that work ethics with you wherever you go because I had a solid foundation to work off of, you know?

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Well I absolutely love what you're doing. I love that you're bringing people along with you and you're doing good along the way. , I'm sure people are very curious to know when they are able to obtain one of these clippers, so. Where can people follow you to learn more and be ready 

Alexandre Contreras: Yeah, well, obviously they can go to the, uh, clip Trio website. Uh, it's not for sale yet. We're hoping to hopefully head into manufacture, hopefully by the end of December, early January. But you can go to klip trio.com, so that's [00:39:00] K-L-I-P-T-R-I o.com. , You can follow me on social media at Clip Trio, both on TikTok, uh, Instagram and Facebook. Uh, and like I mentioned, you could follow Pet Trio Charity on Facebook and on Instagram as well. And obviously, you know, my main message here, Dr. Sprinkle, is the moment you feel like you are discouraged, find out why you are feeling discouraged. Then put that face to face to why you got into a profession to begin with. Always remember your why, like why you started it, why you got into it, and just match those two things up together.

And you're gonna realize that whatever was that made you feel bad, it's not that serious. You'll get over it. Uh, but definitely address it with the person that told you or your office manager. , But definitely stick to it because this is a great profession to be in.

Megan Sprinkle: I, I will say, being able to carry forward the ability to handle discouragement is helpful when you're an entrepreneur, 'cause you'll often find lots of discouragement.

Alexandre Contreras: [00:40:00] listen, you have to live in a world of constant rejection. it's one of those things where you really do develop an even thicker skin because you realize like you're gonna hear like 30 nos. maybes or? Or, yeah. Right here and there. Or like you're full of it to a one day being like, damn, you know what? That works. Here's a check, or whatever the case may be. But I realized that at the end of the day, I really took on to this challenge. I don't wanna live to be a old and later on be like, damn, I didn't take a risk. I didn't take a gamble when I should have. And at the end of the day, Dr. Sprinkle, if I do all these things and it doesn't pan out, at least I can say I went for it. It didn't work. But at least I can know I could go to my grave knowing that I'm not gonna miss or have any regret when it comes to that. Because at the end of the day, I think living with regret will be the, I think it's one of the most dreadful things that most old people, when they get to their age, they're like, I should have went on that date. I should have called that person and said, I'm sorry. I should have told that person. I love them. I should have told that person that I [00:41:00] hated them.

So I really wanna live this life now knowing like, I'm gonna try if I fail at it, at least I can say I tried at it, you know?

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. I love to end on the question. Um, you know, a across the board, personal, professional, all of the above. When I say what's something you're really grateful for, what comes to your mind?

Alexandre Contreras: Oh man, it would definitely have to be my mom. obviously, because she birthed me to, gave me life. But more importantly, I'm 39 years old and my mom still is there for me in my corner. If I'm feeling bad about something, my mom's there to guide me through the process. case in point, when I needed to start the, uh, patenting process, I didn't have the first thousand dollars to start the process. I went to mom. I said, mom, listen, I know you're broke. I know I'm broke. I got this great idea. I need a thousand dollars. My mom said, listen son, I'm not gonna pay the mortgage on my house this month. Here's the first thousand dollars. Go do something with it. And I'm super grateful to that because now when I got the patents, I was able to show my mom, look. Look what we achieved here. [00:42:00] Something that no one in my family has embarked on, and the fact that I secured both of these things was something that I know my mom takes great pride in because she realized that I chased after something that I envisioned in my mind, and I just stayed persistent throughout, throughout the years to make it possible.

You know,

Megan Sprinkle: Alex has a bias for action. He believes that the future we want starts with each of us individually. We can all make a difference and build careers that give us meaning and purpose if we want it. If you're inspired, as I am to check out Klip Trio, I just looked and Alex's innovation. Is available for pre-order on his website.

And remember, you don't have to wait for permission to start creating your own version of impact. Let Alex's story be your nudge. Stay curious, and until next time, keep reimagining what's possible in veterinary life.