Show Notes
What if the person you trust most with your pet's health knows the least about what's on their plate? Jessica Fisher, host of The Pet Parenting Reset, joins Clayton to challenge the comfortable assumptions baked into the pet industry.
This wide-ranging conversation digs into the nuance the industry often skips: the real risk-versus-reward debate around HPP, why "complete and balanced" was always a flawed promise, and the case for micro-layering products instead of one-size-fits-all feeding. Jessica also shares how a single YouTube comment redirected her career, and why she now champions home diagnostics and bioenergetic testing.
You'll come away with a sharper view on combination feeding, why consistency matters more than perfection, and how to position your products for owners who want to be empowered rather than preached at. Above all, it's a reminder that meeting pet parents where they are beats demanding perfection they can't sustain.
Tune in for a candid, myth-busting discussion that respects both the science and the realities of modern pet ownership.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Weigh HPP as risk versus reward, not as a dealbreaker — Jessica and Clayton agree there are far worse industry practices being ignored while HPP gets disproportionate attention from the holistic community.
Build products around micro-layering rather than a single complete-and-balanced bag, letting owners rotate proteins and add supplements on top — this is where the supplement and raw markets genuinely add value.
Position yourself as the head of your pet's care team, hiring and firing your vet, groomer and nutritionist accordingly — diagnostics and emergency care are a vet's strength, but nutrition usually isn't.
Get baseline blood work done early in a pet's life, not just when something goes wrong, so you have a healthy benchmark to compare against later.
Charge fairly for genuinely valuable advice — Jessica finds free recommendations get ignored, because owners with no skin in the game rarely follow through or value the outcome.
QUOTES
"You can't be everything to everyone all the time, and when you try to do that you're nothing to no one."
"I went to my veterinarian and said this is what I'm doing, how can I balance it, and she looked at me and said: I don't know, maybe add some tomatoes."
"You have pet stores with better nutritional knowledge than the vet."
"You can't patent eat uterus, you can't patent take dandelion root."
HOST BIO
Clayton Payne is an industry veteran of three decades of working in the pet industry. Brought up working in his parents' pet store, Clayton has seen the industry evolve over five different decades and has been on the cutting edge of the industry since the nineties. Building pet businesses from scratch, establishing multi-national distribution chains and having worked in every aspect of the industry, Clayton has a rare insight into the Pet Industry that is rivalled by few.
Clayton has been the spearhead of many of the industry's changes and has introduced numerous new concepts to market with a trail of success behind him. He has worked in numerous countries within the pet industry, speaks four different languages and has established both import and export relationships on all continents (excluding Antarctica).
As well as being COO of one of the UKs fastest growing insect technology companies, Clayton is a Pet industry consultant who has consulted for many household brands and delivers sales training to pet trade professionals.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/clayton-payne-a6772244/
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https://www.youtube.com/@PetBusinessDisruptors
This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/
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