Sam Spoto: Creating Hope One Dog Story at a Time

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my new friend because we we have so many things in common. Sam Spoto, a credentialed veterinary technologist, pet insurance professional, and host of the Tell Me About Your Dog podcast. After nearly 15 years in veterinary medicine, including emergency and general practice, Sam experienced the burnout that so many professionals in animal care face and began looking for a more sustainable way to continue serving animals and the people who love them. Her podcast podcast began as a place to preserve meaningful dog stories and has grown into an advocacy platform that builds visibility and support to small, underfunded animal rescues. Sam, welcome to the show.

Sam Spoto: Thank you so much for having me, Trisha. It’s great to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: It took us a minute to get you here, but you’re finally here and we have so much to talk about. I’d love to dive in just straight into tell us more about who you are.

Sam Spoto: Yeah, absolutely. You gave a great introduction of me. I’m a credentialed veterinary technologist. I’ve been in the field for about 15 years now. I started out just as a baby nurse in an E.R. and went to college, worked my way up to being, you know, a head technologist at a really great hospital. And like you mentioned, I faced some burnout in 2021 just after Covid and all the quarantine shutdowns. And I wanted to help the animals. I wanted to stay in the field. So I went to behind the scenes a little bit and started working in the insurance space and have been doing that ever since. It’s been a great experience as well to be behind the scenes, but I wanted to do something more. I was ready to jump into that next step. And that’s where tell Me About Your Dog came from.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that so much. So let’s talk about the early part of your story and that burnout and getting into the insurance business. When did you know that it was time to start doing something else?

Sam Spoto: It was a hard conversation I had to have with myself, because I’ve only known veterinary medicine as a career I never had, besides a couple of odd jobs here and there. I never had a backup career, and I always knew from the start animals is where I wanted to be. That’s what I wanted to work with. So when I started facing burnout, I really started to question, well, what do I do now with myself? I don’t know anything else. This has always been my passion, and it wasn’t even a feeling of I don’t want to be here anymore. It was more of a numbness. I started getting very numb at work. I was very disassociating with everything inside and outside of work. I started to notice my mental health declining very quickly. And then the pandemic happened. So when the pandemic happened, my E.R. shut down that I worked at part time. I was only at my full time clinic at that point, so we had to shift the focus on that side, too. We did curbside service for the pandemic, which was great for two weeks. People were very appreciative that we were still helping animals and still open, but after two weeks, people were getting impatient and finances were always a hard discussion, especially during that time. And the compassion fatigue that we all face was pretty heavy. So that was when I started to really feel the burnout. And it’s happened to me a couple of times in my career, but usually a little break and a little just taking care of myself fixed it. But this was different. This was I need to get out of this Mentality mindset, and it’s going to require me stepping away to do that.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Tell me a little bit more about the insurance business, because we haven’t taken a deep dive into that. Tell me more about that.

Sam Spoto: So if you told me ten years ago I’d be working pet insurance, I never would have believed you because I was never an advocate for insurance. And one thing that I’ve noticed across the board with insurance companies for pets is there’s been great improvement along from the time I started in the vet field to now, there are a lot of great companies out there that are providing coverage for really unexpected accidents and illnesses that people didn’t foresee, and it’s providing financial assistance for owners, especially now with the rising cost of vet care. It’s become more expensive than ever to go to the ER, to go to your vet with a sick pet and even routine stuff, which some companies do cover has gotten really expensive. So it’s great that there’s an option to help people while also still just being able to take care of myself alongside taking care of the animals.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And for those of you who may have thought you didn’t hear it right, yes, there is such a thing as pet insurance. So reach out to Sam if you need more information about what that actually is. It can be a really great tool for you, especially around getting your pets taken care of as needed and financially being staying financially sound in your household. Um, all right, so vet tech insurance and a podcast. Tell me how you keep it all together and stay away from that burnout that you’ve already felt.

Sam Spoto: The key has just been balance. I balance out my time that I still work in the hospital. I balance out working remotely, which has been a great blessing on my end to be able to work from home and be able to have some capability to be more flexible, whereas working in the hospital full time, You don’t have a lot of flexibility. There’s not a lot of chances to leave early or take a day off here and there. So I’ve been able to balance out working on the podcast, really taking the time to build that and to work on the 501 C3 part of it, which is a lot of work. A lot of people don’t realize how much work it is to start a podcast, to start a business, to merge the two and try and make it work while still working a full time and a part time job. So it’s been a lot of balancing and some days are harder than others. Some days I’m sacrificing a little bit more and some days I have to put it all aside and say, nope, this is a me day.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So definitely putting you first and then everything else follows. And that’s so important when we are pulled in so many different directions. I want to talk about the mission of Tell Me About your dog. How did it get started? Why are you doing it and what can we expect from the podcast?

Sam Spoto: So tell me about your dog was actually more of a joke. The title because when I would go out in public with friends, I would find people who have dogs with them. Florida’s very dog friendly. So I would instantly just be like, tell me about your dog. I want to know about them. And people do not hesitate to talk about their dogs, and they want to share their stories. They want to say all the great things they’ve been through and what they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished, what they’ve faced and conquered. So that’s where the concept came from of the title. And I was having lunch with one of my veterinarian friends, and we were talking about her own dog, who we had just euthanized a few months prior. Great dog. She went to the hospital with us almost every day. She was a great dog with the clients and almost like a mascot. And everywhere she went she was very unique looking. She was a white Doberman. So everywhere she went, she drew attention. So we were just talking about how great she was and how much she made an impact. And I kind of made a joke of, why don’t we have a platform where people talk about these amazing dogs? And so many times we tell the story and then ten years later, we don’t remember fully the details that we do right now. So I said, what if I started a platform that lets people talk about their dog, not just, you know, what dogs they have now, but their sole dog who’s their heart dog that they never forgot. That has been there through thick and thin, through really rough times. And let’s honor them if they’re still here. Let’s, let’s honor them. And if they’re not here anymore, let’s remember them in the way that they want to be remembered. So that’s where the essence of the show came from.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So there’s more beyond the show. It actually serves even a bigger purpose. Talk talk to me about that.

Sam Spoto: So about six months into doing the podcast, which I fully intended to just be a fun podcast on the side, it didn’t intend to turn into a nonprofit, but I started having advocates from smaller rescues come on the show. And the common theme that I was seeing was a lot of these small rescues are not only underfunded, understaffed. But there’s a lack of awareness that they’re not getting any kind of recognition, attention, advocacy. And because of that, they’re not getting a lot of funding and a lot of supplies donated to them. So I started to think about, how can I use my platform to be a little bit of an advocacy for them? So when I am out and about, when I’m at conferences, when I’m doing things for the show, any donations and proceeds I make go directly to an immediate need of a small rescue. So I have a few here in the area that I work with directly that I’ve already helped. And my goal is to build a network that when they have an immediate need, I can direct funding or supplies to them.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. I get goosebumps every time you start to talk about this mission that you have. Um, we’re about halfway through our conversation. I would love for you to share where people can connect with you to continue watching, learning, and supporting.

Sam Spoto: Yeah of course. So the best way is through my email. It’s tell me about your dog podcast@gmail.com. That’s the quickest way to get in touch with me. I also have an Instagram for the show, which is also the handle at Tell Me About Your Dog podcast, and then you can watch us on YouTube at Tell Me About Your Dog podcast and Spotify.

Speaker 4: So smart.

Trisha Stetzel: Tell me about your dog. Fantastic. Um, let’s talk a little bit more about the mission and supporting these nonprofit organizations. How, um, how are you finding them? How do they, how do they find you? How do they get to be on the show?

Sam Spoto: So the nice thing about working in the vet for so long is I do have a lot of good connections. And if I don’t have a direct access to the people who run these nonprofits, I have connection through an advocate for them. So a lot of times it’s been word of mouth. I already knew a lot of great rescues in the area, and I had some connection with them. So that’s where I started. And over word of mouth. It’s grown into. Well, this person from this organization would like to talk to you. Oh, this person from this organization would like to talk to you. Getting them to come on the show is a little harder because not everyone is as camera friendly and wanting to come on and showcase themselves like that. But in that case, we keep the show the same. It’s about talking about the dogs and the rescue, and the work they do is mixed into the story. So it’s not just about the nonprofit of the episode, it’s about the dog. Still, the benefit is these non-profits are getting the awareness by talking about them.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. So let’s, let’s talk about the storytelling and how important that is. I think that that’s what makes this so special.

Sam Spoto: Absolutely. And storytelling, I think, is that one thing that through a changing world of technology and enhancements, we have to keep telling stories. We have to keep these stories alive. That’s the only way to preserve them, because a lot of changes in technology over the years, but passing down these stories and making sure they’re preserved is really important to me.

Trisha Stetzel: I see a gap, and you and I have talked about this where it’s most most of the time, the large, larger organizations are the ones that are receiving the most visibility and funding, while the smaller rescues, the ones that you really want to support are getting limited resources. So what other challenges are those smaller organizations facing?

Sam Spoto: Definitely. You hit the nail on the head. A lot of the bigger organizations get the government assistance. They get funding from large donations and large donors who are consistently making large donations to them. And unfortunately, a lot of it is people are just not aware that when you donate to a large organization, it’s only through that organization. None of it goes to these smaller organizations. They don’t work directly financially with other organizations. So when people do hear about these smaller places, they want to help them too. They just didn’t know that they existed or they didn’t know how to help them. Um. Go back. I can’t remember the original question. What was the.

Trisha Stetzel: No, you were you were headed down the right path. We were just talking about how the larger organizations. Yeah.

Sam Spoto: The smaller ones.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And the need for the smaller organizations. What, um, besides funding, what are these smaller organizations still challenged with outside of funding.

Sam Spoto: Outside of funding, they’re really just deprived of the basics, the resources, the feeding the animals, grooming, veterinary care. It adds up really quickly. And a lot of these people are paying for it out of their own pockets when they don’t have donations. And these are also the organizations that are taking animals that are, I don’t want to say the ones that the shelters don’t want to take, but they’re the more challenging cases. They come in, they’re pregnant, they have more terminal illnesses or chronic illnesses. They come in very emaciated and need some care before they can be adopted out. So these are the organizations that are doing a lot of the legwork, and they’re forking the bill out of their own pockets. So not only are they lacking in funding, but they’re lacking in the amount of food that it takes, the grooming, all of the necessary care, especially around livestock and small animals.

Trisha Stetzel: Uh, and volunteers and.

Sam Spoto: Volunteers and fosters. A lot of people say, you know, I can’t adopt, I can’t foster. And I said, that’s fine. You know, they can use time to volunteer for events that they work. You can donate supplies here and there. When it’s buy one, get one free at Publix. There’s a lot of ways to help other than adopting and fostering. If you can’t adopt and foster to your situations, that’s totally understandable, but there are plenty of ways to help.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So if someone who’s listening today is really, uh, this is really, uh, spoke to them, where would they go to find resources on how they can volunteer or donate time or even donate monetarily to these organizations in need?

Sam Spoto: Definitely. If you’re in the area in the Tampa Bay area, there’s a lot of great small rescues that I work with directly. If you are outside of the Tampa Bay area, the best thing to do is just to Google the rescues in your area. Find the ones that don’t have a big name to them, find the ones that are smaller or focus on an individual breed or species. Those are probably the ones that are getting the least amount of funding.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Talk to me about big dog senior dogs. Those that because I know I’ve, I’ve worked on the edge of, um, organizations like this and it’s really hard on, uh, for those particular animals to get adopted to. I know there are people out there that are fostering them, but not quite often people don’t adopt senior dogs or large dogs.

Sam Spoto: It’s true. And oh my gosh, I love my senior dogs and senior cats. That is where my my face lights up when I see the little old dog walking into the hospital. That is where I just beam with excitement. But there’s a lot of ways you can help a senior dog. And it’s very common. Like you said, that they don’t get a home as quickly as some of the younger dogs do. And typically that’s because people think they don’t have a lot of years left. And that might be true in some cases. But we have senior dogs that live great rest of their lives with little to no medical intervention needed. They just need a place to live out their life. And they’re typically quieter. They have less energy. It’s better for a family with children or older relatives in the house because it’s a dog with less energy. But in general, senior dogs are a great addition to the house. They are wise beyond their years, and you’re also giving a dog a second chance at life. Because typically these senior dogs have been through something really traumatic, like losing an owner, losing a house, changing their household multiple times. And as you can imagine, that’s really stressful on an animal. So to skip the shelter process and be able to go straight into a home is really special for a senior dog, especially.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Tell me your favorite senior dog story.

Sam Spoto: So I had a senior dog patient named Cheech, and he was a little Chihuahua. He lived to be, gosh, I want to say 18 or 19, but his owner was always on it. And she would bring him in and hold him like a little baby. And he just wanted to be held. Most docile dog ever. Very sweet natured and a Chihuahua. And I’m sure in his younger years he was probably crazy. But there was just something about his sweet old man nature. He. He just stood out to me every time I came in and all the. All the nurses and receptionists knew that I loved him, and the day we had to put him to sleep was a really sad day, but we had a great bond, and I have a great bond with that client and all her animals, but that was my senior favorite patient of the year.

Speaker 4: Oh, I love that. That’s so.

Trisha Stetzel: Amazing. We love Chihuahuas at our house and Dobermans and boxers and staffies. I think we’ve had it all up. Um. How. How do you. I know I’ve already asked you how you balance everything, but I also know that you’ve poured not only your time, but your own funds into building this organization that you feel so passionate about. So tell me about giving back or being part of the community and why, why you felt the need to not only give your time, but to build this organization with your own funds?

Sam Spoto: I knew that building this would take a lot of my own money to start because like I said, it’s, it’s very timely, costly to start a podcast and to put in all the time for working on a nonprofit to build connections, to network, to do all the things. It does take a lot of time and money. But at the end of the day, I wanted to make the sacrifice when I was in that place in life. And I always said, one day, I’m going to do it, one day I’m going to do a senior rescue, one day I’m going to do this kind of rescue. And I stopped asking myself, when is one day and why isn’t it today? So I made the commitment, I made the investment, and I told myself, we’re going to go all in on this. And there’s never a better time than now to change something you want changed.

Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: Tell me about that drive. Now that you are the I’m going to call it the owner or the caregiver of this organization. How did that mindset shift work for you? Where you went from one day, one day, one day to, I’m just going to do it.

Sam Spoto: I think a lot of it was self doubt. You know, you never you get a little bit of an imposter syndrome of I, I’m not qualified to run a rescue. I’m not qualified to be this kind of person. That’s always that always seems above my head of my capabilities. But I started to, to stop having those thoughts when I said, well, now people do want to talk to me. Now people do want to get involved. And it was a little bit of a domino effect because it’s very scary at first to dive right into the unknown. That’s one of the scariest parts about life, but it’s been the most rewarding too, because every step, even in a small conversation like we’ve had, it’s a big inspiration for me to keep going. And as long as I keep getting those inspirations, I don’t ever see myself stopping.

Speaker 4: I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: So talk about the people that you surround yourself with. It sounds like there was there were some great people that were around you that were supporting you. And that’s one of the things that helped you get this thing rolling. So how is it, how important is it to surround yourself with the right people?

Sam Spoto: Oh, my circle is everything. I’ve always grown up in a family that loves animals. We always had pets growing up. My parents were always very encouraging. When I said I wanted to work in the veterinary world. They have always had my back and have pushed me and supported me along the way. And then of course, the friends I’m surrounded by, a lot of them are veterinary people. I have a lot of veterinarian and nurse friends that they understand the things that I talk about in my episodes. And a lot of them have actually come on the show and talked about their own pets and their own experiences in the vet world. So it’s been a fun way to not only connect with the community, but connect with each other and say, we got to remind ourselves that we’re not alone here. We have a lot of support with each other. So I think having a circle around you that supports you is everything. But I’m so incredibly blessed to have a circle of friends who support me, support all my crazy ideas, support all my crazy inspirations when I have them. And they really encouraged me.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s amazing. So this show, we’ve talked about a couple of aspects of the show. The, the one big one that’s overlying is the storytelling. And it sounds like you’ve had individuals on to talk about their pet and their story, as well as organizations to come in and tell their story, whether it be about a particular animal or their organization. What tell me a bit about what we should expect when we go and listen to the Tell Me About Your Dog podcast.

Sam Spoto: So the episodes are pretty consistent. I have usually a guest on me who is a dog owner, dog parent of some sort, or they’re a professional in the veterinary world. And we talk a little bit about, you know, them and what they do, but we jump pretty quickly into let’s talk about your dog, because that’s the real reason we’re all here. So it’s great to hear the stories of how they became part of their family, what they’ve gone through together, and how being there with your dog has made it all better. Talking about the emotional benefits of having dogs, and especially if I have a veterinary professional, we talk a lot about medical reasons where there’s benefits to having dogs. We talk about the emotional benefits of it. We talk about cases that we’ve had in the hospital, and a lot of times we just end up talking about anything and everything along the way. We have some some that come in and play games. We have some that come in and answer some hard questions, and everyone is very open about it. It’s very light hearted and very fun and just emotional, but not not draining. I didn’t want to show that was controversial or taxing or emotionally really hard. I wanted it to be a light hearted place where people could just listen.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, so. Are you looking for guests?

Sam Spoto: Always. Always looking.

Speaker 5: For guests and.

Sam Spoto: Dog owners and dog lovers and anyone who wants to connect.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, fantastic. And how would they connect with you to be a guest on the show?

Sam Spoto: So the best way by email. Tell me about your dog podcast@gmail.com. I also have social media. I’m on Instagram with the handle at. Tell me about Your dog podcast. I just made TikTok as much as I didn’t want to, but I decided to do it. But that is. Tell me about your dog. Nice and short and sweet. And then on YouTube and Spotify, you can listen to episodes, their audio and video, and the handle is tell me about your dog podcast.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh that’s fantastic. All right. You have to tell me what kind of animals are in your care right now.

Sam Spoto: So currently I have my cat Lila, and then I have two foster kittens at the moment. So I have two bottle babies that I am weaning up to get big enough to have surgery and to get adopted out. So they, I just got them about a week ago and they’re doing great.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh that’s fantastic. So if, if, if our listeners remember just one thing, just took one thing from today’s conversation. What do you hope that is?

Sam Spoto: Be the change you want to see in the world.

Trisha Stetzel: Tell me more.

Sam Spoto: There’s a lot of complaining and problems and issues in this world, and it’s great to talk about it, but it’s better to find a way to help than it is to just complain about it. So that’s what I want people to always remember when it comes to problems in society, problems in the industries that we work in is we can complain about it or we can try and help.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Sam, thank you so much for being with me today. This has been a fantastic conversation. I hope that all of you who are listening will go out and volunteer or find a way to monetarily donate to a local shelter. Tell us one more time where people should go before we close.

Sam Spoto: So for my socials I am at. Tell me about Your Dog podcast on Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube. My Zelle is tell Me About Your Dog podcast@gmail.com. For anyone who wants to make a donation. We are currently collecting donations for cleaning supplies for one of our local pet organizations here in Saint Petersburg who need some cleaning supplies really desperately. So that’s currently what we’re raising money for. And then, like I said, tick tock, we’re at. Tell me about your dog.

Trisha Stetzel: I love it. I had to like break and go to TikTok to just putting that out there. It was not it was not really by choice, but maybe. Uh.

Sam Spoto: Sam, I’m hoping my algorithm stays just dog focused so I don’t see too much of the TikTok world.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, exactly. You don’t want any dancing ducks or anything, right? Oh, Sam, again, thank you so much. I appreciate you spending time with me today.

Sam Spoto: Thank you for having me on. It’s been fun.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that I had with Sam, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran, Houston leader, or dog animal lover out there. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds and dog lovers like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.