Angela Demaree: Finding Time to Live Your Dreams

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Angela Demaree joins us today, COO of a tech startup. And in recent years, she ran for Congress and ran for president lack of a national organization of veterinarians. And at the time she did all about while working only two and a half days a week. And now as the COO of the tech startup, I’m assuming she works a little more than that, but she also finds time to squeeze in horse riding. 

Angela, thanks for jumping on today. Oh, thanks so much, Damon. It’s so great to be here with you. So that’s a lot of stuff, you know, what, um, how do you, so your area of expertise now, correct me if I’m wrong is, is kind of helping entrepreneurs figure out how to balance. Like you’re a perfect example of figuring how to balance all of those things is, is, is that the value that you bring though to the listeners today is that you help busy entrepreneurs?  

Yes. And in a multitude of ways, really. So I am, I’m a certified high performance coach working with my consulting company, which is paws consulting. And, you know, I just really want to inspire and encourage everyone to go after their dreams and to be able to live the life of their dreams now, not in 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, but why can’t we start.  

Implementing those daily habits and finding the time and the space in our business, the lives. So start living that life of our dreams. What does that look like to you? You know, is it carving out every Sunday to go on a picnic with the family? Is it sure you can ride your horse in the middle of the day five days a week?  

Or, you know, is it running for office or something? That just seems so out of reach, but if only we could just take a little bit of time and be a little more strategic about our days. We could actually figure out that that’s possible right now. We don’t have to wait. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I talked a lot of people and, and about how a big priority for me is balancing family with all the things that I do.  

So, one thing that I find common, I’d be curious to know if it’s a circumstance for you, is that it seems like the people that figure it out like you have, um, like didn’t figure it out at first. Like you had to, like, you had to like. Hit a tipping point. Is that the case for you? I mean, w I failed, failed, failed, you know, over and over and over again.  

And I kept reaching out to other people who I aspired to be like, how did you do this? How did you figure it out? Who can I surround myself with or ask questions of who is living a life similar to what I aspire to, or kind of had it figured out, or what skill sets do I have that allows me to get a step further.  

And so just by kind of looking around and taking inventory of what my skill sets are, people I know, or even if I didn’t know them, can I reach out to them on LinkedIn and do they have, you know, open messaging? Most of the time, people are so excited to share their insights and connect with others. And I’ve just been so blessed and lucky that people have been willing to help me along the way.  

And I’m so excited to help others too. So, where does it all start at? At what point? So you have all these cool things you’re doing and you’re trying to balance your time. And at what point did you say, Hey, like I’ve kind of figured things out and I can probably offer this value to other people too, to help them find the path as well.  

Yeah, I would say probably just within the last year. So I went through a really tough time. In 2012. I came back from deployment. I deployed. I just retired as a major in the United States army reserves and I was lugging almost my body weight around for an hour, a day, multiple times a day for up to two weeks at a time, just to be able to travel within our area of operations, to, you know, do the veterinarian things that I do, like take care of the military, working dogs and ensure that our soldiers had a safe food supply.  

So when I got home, I needed a service connected surgery. And what I found out is that it’s more difficult to work through the system then than what you think it should have to be. It took me two and a half years and a congressional inquiry to get that service connected surgery approved the meantime. I needed two more emergency surgeries.  

Um, you know, the, the issue or the big issue compounded itself and emergency appendectomy and, you know, all heck broke loose. And then two weeks before that last surgery that I finally got approved, the state who I was working for, you know, I was working for the state of Indiana. It just eliminated my position.  

Wow. I learned was that there are a lot of loopholes in the law that just don’t protect our veterans. So I, did, you know, what any reasonable person would do? I ran for Congress, right. Okay. I said, you know, well, how can I solve this problem? How can I help others? I had some experience working in DC and the politics and policy side of things.  

I had an inkling of knowledge about how to run a campaign. Yeah. Um, with public health campaigns, I’ve been involved in, in some other things. So I put all of those skillsets together and said, well, what can I do? I’m recovering from surgery on crutches. I can’t go out and practice veterinary medicine on horses, which was how I had been earning my living.  

And I said, well, I can stand. I can walk and I can talk. So. Let’s go do something meaningful. And I think, you know, so often we come across these really these hardships in our lives, you know, I’m not alone. So many people have had similar experiences or experiences in their own life that were really devastating at the time.  

And to be able to say, okay, this is where I’m at. This is what I can do it. Start focusing on what I can do instead of what I no longer can’t do. And, and once we sort of do that and shift that mindset, we can really free up a lot of space and opportunity that we otherwise wouldn’t have seen. So I’m really excited and committed to helping others.  

We’ll see and learn what can they do and how can they become highly performing and achieve those goals and dreams a little sooner in life. Have you always kind of been that way where you look for the positive in maybe the more negative circumstances, or is that something that you feel like you’re forced to do a little bit in your circumstances?  

Yeah, that’s it, you know, not always intuitive or easy and I will have to say I had an excellent role model growing up. My mom, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was only eight years old. And by the time I was in college, She was a quadriplegic. So, you know, to really see her being a middle school, math teacher and going to work each and every day and not just teaching students and going through the motions, but really inspiring them that they could be successful in math and that it could do all these amazing things.  

I think I was so fortunate to have that role model that I probably never appreciated. Right. Let’s be honest. I never appreciated any of it. Yeah. Until I was really had the rug pulled out from under me and, and had to get up and, and shift that mindset. But it took consistent daily work and, and putting those positive mindset habits in place and, you know, really some strategic and consistent habits to really overcome that for sure.  

So when you start working with somebody, walk us through the motions, where do you start? Yeah. So we just take inventory, where are you and where do you want to go? And so, you know, maybe get on a strategy session call, or just, just really start understanding, you know, what are your hopes and dreams? What are your big frustrations and fears?  

Where, where do you want to go? So I, I like to walk through, like, how do you live the life of your dreams? What are those big goals and dreams of yours that really scare you? And then why are you scared? Or what hurdles do you think can’t be overcome? Like once you start naming all those barriers and excuses, then you can really take a step back and say, okay, Who do I know that might be able to help me through this?  

How can I take one big bold action that really scares me, but if I had the courage to do it, would I get a little bit further? How can I have more clarity about what those goals are? So it’s not just some big idea that I can’t quite figure it out, but I’m really clear on where I want to be. And then can we take some steps back and walk through?  

How can I get there? You know, it’s funny that you bring that up with like the questions about why are you scared? I went to lunch with a gentleman the other day and he has, he’s a VP of a company he’s successful. He has cash in the bank, but he’s not like satisfied in his job. And he wants to like, go do his own solo thing.  

And so. When he, he invited me out to lunch, he wanted to pick my brain about like, how did you feel safe to start your own thing? And like the main thing that he, like, you already nailed it. Like he was scared. And I go, why are you scared? Like you have a safety net and then he’s vested in this company too.  

So he has a payout coming up. So in addition to cash in the bank, he has future cash in the bank. And, and I just told him, I said, I didn’t use kind. I was kind in using non politically correct words, and I was just like, quit being a wuss about it. And he goes, you know what, you’re right. Like, it’s just all in the head.  

And, and, and is that what you find to be kind of the common. Reoccurring problem is just, it’s a mental block always, right? I mean, we all have our own crazy hang ups and the stories we tell ourselves, you know, I’m so like, what if I’m, what if I send that email? Or what if I put something on social media and it’s just absolutely the wrong thing.  

And people get really upset with me and, and, you know, we just get kind of spiraled out of control with all these what ifs and, you know, talk about the crazy stuff. You know, our parents say to us, Uh, my dad really put it in perspective for me. One day I was just chatting with him as you know, I’m sure many people do, Hey, you know, just talking with my dad.  

And I was like, gosh, I’m so afraid of, you know, whatever it was. And he goes, what are you afraid of? Nobody even knows you yet. And I started thinking about it. And you know, when you go to put an ad on Facebook, it’s like how many billions of people or millions of people would see it. And it was like, you know, over 230 million people or something crazy in the United States.  

And then, you know, I started looking at all these celebrities, Facebook pages, and at most they’re like two to 5 million people. So you still think of all the people in the world that don’t know who these people are and then think like, and I’m worried about one 1,000 people. Yeah. And so that really helped me get out, you know, my own head to say, okay, look, yeah.  

If I can help one 10 or a hundred people, I can equally ignore. The one, 10 or a hundred people who are upset with me for whatever reason or just bullies or, you know, those kinds of things. That’s just noise in the world that, you know, probably won’t even happen. So we can just day and add, add value and really be.  

More positive and happy about the people we’re connecting with. Yeah. Is, is there, um, so what’s kind of like the average cycle of, uh, when you help somebody, do you, do you have them come on for a month, six months, a year? Yeah. So I, what I have found through trial and error and working with people and, and there are different, um, schedules is that if I can work with them on a 12 week high performance coaching program, which is once a week for 60 minutes a week, and, and there’s like a whole structure around it with, you know, some homework for them to do or some, you know, habits to implement in their daily life.  

During that week, they by far make so many gains and it is just so impressive at the end of the day, those 12 weeks, how much further along they are, how much more confident they are, how much more influence they have or better relationships that they have with their friends and their family. And just so much more happy and fulfilled.  

And it’s gotten to the point where I won’t even take on consulting clients without going through that program first, because it’s just. So powerful to see the gains that people are able to make and to get out of their own heads and to really live the life of their dreams. Do you have like a super aha moment that one of your clients has had, or, or even you where you’ve been like, wow, that was really impactful to see them grow in that way.  

Yeah. Um, that’s an excellent question. What’s the most impactful for me is. I always like to ask, what did you absolutely love about this program? Or what did you absolutely get out of our time today? And it blows me away every single time, because it’s never what I think. And, you know, people are so.  

Amazing at what they identify with or figure out for themselves. And even during the time with them, I could never have guessed what it would have been that they would have come away with. Or I would say, Oh, you know, you made all these gains and I can list off. Like now we’ve, we’ve helped with delegating and we’ve helped with productivity and we’ve helped you get over that hump and their insights are always so much more profound.  

And, and sometimes simple, you know, it can be as simple as I was able to so fully connect with my family at dinner and that’s something I haven’t done for a month or a year, or it could be so amazing as far as. I summon the courage to go ask my boss for a raise and I was prepared and we had a really meaningful conversation.  

And I’m now the lead on some new project and it wasn’t even something we had talked about, but they had kind of gotten to thinking about what it really was that they wanted and how could they really go about it. So I’m always just blown away. Do you find yourself kind of, um, going through self-discovery to like, as you help these other people, you, you find out things about yourself.  

I think that’s always true. Um, probably learn as much from everybody I work with and that I meet and my colleagues and my peers. Yeah. As, as I do by helping other people, and it just, it brings so much joy and learning. I’m a lifelong learner. And just like you are a Damon, I mean, I’m sure that’s why you’re doing this podcast.  

Right. Learning from others. And yeah, we can always learn so much more from other people than I will ever be able to provide into this world. And so I’m grateful every day for those interactions. Yeah, I think what’s been really interesting about doing podcasts and you have a podcast yourself. I’m sure we all agree is that, um, like it’s almost therapeutic in ways and, and you just like, just hearing stories it’s um, a lot of people kind of tying what I’m about to say back to you mentioning social media and people being scared.  

Is that usually those things that you’re scared about, or you think like I’m not special are the things that people relate to and, and are actually what ended up having an impact for you or your audience. Yeah, you just, you just never ever know what it is. That’s going to be impactful. And so I’ve just started sharing and sharing more about my life and my struggles and my failures and how, you know, none of this is easy.  

I think so often we look up in the world and we see people that have been working diligently for 10 and 20 years and we see all the success that they’ve had and we see. You know, especially in the startup space, there’s this hustle mentality that is just, you know, detrimental to our own wellbeing. Like we’re not getting sleep and, you know, it’s just it’s so, um, everyone’s aspiring to be that hustler that makes a big someday, but at the same time, at what cost and at the same time, what we forget.  

They don’t talk about all the millions of times that they failed all the hundreds of decisions they made in their business that costs them time or money that they had to learn along the way. Um, and, and I think the more we can really share that side of it as well, to the extent we can, you know, just, you know, we’re real people, everybody’s made mistakes.  

Nobody’s perfect. It took them 10 or 20 years of daily action to get where they are today. And they, they probably failed quite a lot along the way. And I always love to say I never fail, but I always like, and that is always the mindset that I try to bring to everything because it’s never going to be perfect.  

Yeah, I think that’s really important for entrepreneurs, business owners and even, you know, aspiring entrepreneurs. So, so you’ve done the military. You’ve done politics. You’re you’re in the entrepreneur world. What’s next? Well I’m in the thick of things. We just launched our pet pharmacy at pets, get it.com.  

And so we’re just super excited to make it easier for pet owners to medicate their pet. I dunno. Do you have any pet statement? I do. I got, I got, um, my, I got two little dogs, one named Bentley who is my wife’s wedding gift 13 years ago. And then, um, we got a little, a rescue dog named Corbin. So two little guys.  

Oh my goodness. I don’t know. I mean, have they, are they picky eaters? Are they pretty good? Um, They’re they’re, they’re pretty good. Uh, Bentley is continually overweight because she’s not a picky eater. The other side of the struggles. So a lot of cat owners or dog owners that have like really picky pads.  

And, you know, I had this problem with my own cat Jack a couple of years ago, he had some heart problems and he was getting older and he had like high blood pressure and you did multiple pills a day, but you know, They don’t make pills in the right size for a 10 pound cat. So I’m trying to cut this pill into like four pieces and it’s flying off the table and I’ll find something and I’m a veterinarian and I’m finding these pills spit out behind the couch, you know, and I swear to God, but they got these, you know, pill.  

I got it down him and he swallowed it and Nope, the dogs sniffing it later and I’m thinking, Oh my goodness. And there just was no real support and the medicine tasted bad. And so we started up this pharmacy to really help, um, pet owners be able to more easily medicate their pet. And we’ve got some really super cool technology out of Purdue university that can actually measure the dose.  

So there’s no more guessing it’s all, pre-measured for you a hundred percent of the time. And you know, it just really takes all the guesswork out of it. Makes it your stressful time of having a sick pet? Just a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool now, but my two dogs are older. I mean the, the Bentley, she, she has arthritis and starting to get old and, um, and, and after we’re done chatting, I want to introduce you to somebody that might, might be able to help you out in that world.  

So that’s cool that you’re, um, you know, helping entrepreneurs and then taking on the entrepreneurial role yourself. Um, W is there like a single piece of, of advice that maybe you could offer the listeners from either of your roles being back in the startup world or being, uh, you know, the experienced person that helps other entrepreneurs?  

Like, is there like just a. A go to thing that you can advise. Yes, probably two I’m one do not take yourself too seriously. Um, just enjoy the journey, you know, try to enjoy the journey rather than just how quick am I going to get there? Because for so many years it was, I want to achieve this goal and then I want to achieve that goal.  

And then I’ll be happy when I get there and, and really. It’s so much more fun when you’re enjoying the journey along the way. And then the second for all of the managers and people who have employees out there give people the space to learn and grow and support them along the way. Because even if you have all the answers and you implement all the solutions, They still need to figure it out and have some ownership on it too.  

And it’s given me so much joy to watch people kind of learn and grow and give them the tool set, but then just step back and let them figure it out on their own and really take ownership and, and just exceed beyond my wildest expectations too. So that’s been a lot of fun. Yeah. I agree. You know, I’ve had, um, employees over the last 10 or 12 years and, and.  

When you give them that little piece of opportunity to learn and have ownership, then they become more vested in you and the company. And then they build that loyalty. And you know, that it’s made a huge difference. I never have turn and burn with my employees. And then I look at other agencies and they’re just turning and burning their employees left and right, because they don’t look at them like individuals and give them that opportunity to, to, to get a piece of the action and learn.  

Yeah, and very rarely are they mistakes that are going to cost very much time or money or anything like that. So, um, I think that opportunity to learn and to build that loyalty and trusted, as you mentioned far, outweighs the oops, that might happen. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Angela, I appreciate you jumping on. I want to give you the opportunity to put out your contact information and if you’d like to give a little sales pitch and do your thing.  

Yeah, thanks. Um, so anyone let’s, who would like to connect with me can through LinkedIn or Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook @DemareeDVM, and four for your listeners today, if anybody’s excited about learning more, just jumping on the strategy session, um, I’m happy to do a free one-on-one 60 minute strategy session.  

If they go to pawsconsulting.com forward slash strap session, just S T R a T session. And that’s paws P a w S consulting.com. Demaree. It’s been, uh, Angela Demaree, it’s been a pleasure. Um, I want to leave you with the one last question we ask our guests, what do you want to be known for? I would love to be known for being somebody who is fearless, who fearlessly, pursues, their dream, who is kind to others, and hopefully inspired a few people along the way.  

There you go, Angela. Demaree. Thank you so much. Thank you.