Blunt Dissection

On today’s show I am joined by my good friend Dr Andy Roark. Andy is one of the hottest properties in veterinary medicine with good reason. He’s a tireless networker, innovator and one of the best presenters on the vet speaking circuit. His accolades to date include winning NAVC speaker of the year three times over, creating and presenting the “Cone of Shame" Youtube show and founding the Uncharted Vet Conference.

Much of this being possible because he has built one of the largest personal brands in vet industry, amassing well over 200,000 fans on Facebook on the way to becoming a social media personality.

A phenomenon that makes it truely a pain in the backside trying to have a quiet drink at the bar with him at any vet conference, such is the omni-present demand for selfies with Andy or “Roarkies” as I now decided to call them.

We had a great chat and got stuck into some great topics including:

1. What inspired Dr Roark into becoming a vet.

2. Why networking is an essential part of having a great career and how you can be a great networker too.

3. How to build a personal brand.

4. How to do social media without it taking over your life - Andy shares why despite his huge Facebook following, he’s removed the Facebook app from his phone.

We also cover:

5. The best advice he received from Dr Marty Becker.

6. Why advice (even his own) should sometimes be taken with a large pinch of salt

7. And we learn more about his Uncharted Vet Community.

This episode was a pleasure from start to finish. Often, by the time I publish a blog, book article or podcast, I’m kinda getting to the point of being sick of it, such is the effort and detail focus required to create content of a quality anyone would want to consume regularly.

This podcast, however, was a rare exception. There’s great advice a plenty from Dr Roark of course, but there’s also flow, humour, warmth and candour woven through the conversation that made is a great interview to perform and work on afterwards. Of course, that’s just my take, you get to be the judge. So sit back, plug in and enjoy my conversation with the humbly available, Dr Andy Roark.

On today’s show I am joined by Dr Dani McVety. Dani is the CEO and co-founder of Lap of Love, a business that delivers end of life hospice care to pets across America. She started the business immediately after graduation with nothing more than a website and cellphone and over the ten years since, it has grown into a multimillion dollar business employing more then 100 vets across the US. Performance that has won multiple awards and marks her out as one of the best entrepreneurs in veterinary medicine.

Dani is a quick thinker, great raconteur and is in possession of one of the sharpest minds in veterinary medicine. This was a conversation on rocket fuel and is rich in lessons on leadership, life and running a successful business. So sit back and enjoy my chat with Dr Dani McVety.

1. How failure as a student spurred her on to greater things.

2. How her parents were such a positive influence

3. Why she started Lap Of Love.

4. What hospice care and why it matters.

5. Some insights into how we might better engage vets in practice.

6. How she manages to have such a high staff retention rate.

7. Her thoughts on leadership

8. And her tips on how to give a beautiful end of life experience.

So sit back and enjoy my conversation with Dani McVety.

Today’s podcast guest is one of the UK’s finest, Professor Stuart Carmichael. Stuart is one of the few people on earth to have headed up the clinical services team of not one, but two of the best Vet Schools here in Britain - the Royal Veterinary College in London and Glasgow Vet School in Scotland. During his tenure, both locations successfully underwent rapid business growth and transformational cultural change.

Prof Carmichael also seems to have a masochistic streak having overseen three, that’s right, three large-scale construction hospital construction projects across the UK, the last of which was the Fitzpatrick Oncology and Soft Tissue Referral Hospital in 2016.

Prof Carmichael, I call him Stuart since I've been annoying him since he taught me as an undergraduate, has a list of qualifications and publications that would take days to read out. I’m going to spare us all the sense of crushing disappointment that our careers didn't go like this by not doing that. What I will tell you is that the cherry on the top of Stuart's large, well-iced career-cake was being elevated recently to elite status as a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons a level of recognition for huge and sustained contribution to the profession.

In the podcast, we discuss many topics including self doubt, networking skills, the paradox of skill acquisition as a surgeon, team building, self-esteem in the vet profession and most importantly the lingering doubt that he once played professional soccer.

This was a great fun conversation to have with one of my favourite people in veterinary medicine. It was such a privilege, and Stuart did not disappoint.

Listeners in America this podcast comes with a warning because it features not just one, but two Scottish accents. So you may not understand a word, but it’ll sound good regardless!

Normally on Blunt Dissection, I put a person under the spotlight. But in this episode, I decided to place a subject there instead. And since you can’t ask a subject questions I’ve invited two experts onto the show to share their stories. 

The people are Dr. John Dooley & Dr. Nadine Hamilton and the subject is suicide in veterinary professionals. 

John and Nadine have two contrasting perspectives on this morbid issue and together they share their personal and professional insight into the depressive state that leads to suicide. Plus they have some fantastic advice on what can be done to prevent veterinary professionals from falling into this overwhelming mental chasm.

In today’s show we learn:

The story of how one Aussie vet let past traumas in his life lie dormant for years until one day the emotions boiled up into his conscious and created “serpents in his mind” leading to a complete mental breakdown, depression and a very near miss with suicide. 

How he managed to pull through and was able to build a mental health management process that has helped him to maintain a great life, such that he now sees his ordeal as a positive experience. 

The signs and steps that usually mean some one is running in the danger zone.

Practical steps you can take to maintain your own mental health as a veterinary healthcare professional (not just vets). Think meditation, time management, self-awareness and positive psychology…

This episode was a goldmine of insight and I felt so grateful to have the chance to speak to both John and Nadine. 

So buckle up, listen in and take notes. It’s not an exaggeration to say that doing so may one day save your life.

Today’s guest is the global high priest of veterinary business John Sheridan. John, one of the profession's true trail blazers and his journey stretches back to a wartime education during The Blitz and early clinical experience in the Herriot Era of practice. He stood at ground zero for veterinary corporatisation in the UK when he set up Veterinary Practice Initiatives back in 1998. And he reaches into the future and remains on the cutting edge of thought leadership and content production publishing weekly on his blog and also the vet business video show - currently approaching episode 200.

Now did I mention that in addition to his veterinary degree from the RVC, John was president of both the British Small Animal Veterinary Association and the Veterinary Practice Management Association? Plus he holds a diploma in practice management, the CVPM and just because he’s showing off, the CVPA. He jointly authored the 'Business of Veterinary Practice' Book and recently received a Pioneer Professional Member Award from Vet Partners, the only non-US recipient of this award to date. If you are starting to feel like a sad underachiever then you are not the only one in the room!

I almost daren't go onto his roll call for speaking credits which is insanely long and would take an episode to list itself. Suffice to say, John knows his stuff and people over the past four decades have listened intently. I certainly did and still do, John is one of my Veterinary Heroes having a massive influence on my career. So it was a pleasure to have him as a guest on Blunt Dissection - hopefully I’m not too much of a fanboy!

In this episode, he gives a master class (in his charming way) on how to take risk, network like a pro, push through fear, learn from other people, how to start up a vet hospital and why no-one, but no-one wants to be the average client. Plus he practically gives away a blue print for what veterinary practice will look like five year from now.

If that’s not a valuable way to spend an hour of your time I don’t know what is. So sit back and enjoy John Sheridan’s interview on episode six of Blunt Dissection.

Also covered in this episode:

* How the RCVS came to allow non-vet ownership and the rise of corporate medicine.

* His fund raising journey and why no-one should start up a business without 1 a plan, and 2 having enough money (hint more than you think) to get going.

* How he would set up a veterinary practice if he were starting from scratch in today’s veterinary environment.

* Johns opinion on why nurses are leaving the profession in droves.

* Why he is bullish in the future of the profession but is concerned that we are in danger of missing out on the technological and information revolution in healthcare for the independent sector.

The first of my guests on episode five of the Blunt Dissection podcast is Dr Karen Bradley. Karen has been a vet for over twenty years and, having been inspired while working alongside a group of very strong female leaders early in her career, is now the solo owner of a successful 5 vet practice in Vermont (USA). She has also been super-active within the realm of US vet politics during her career with numerous influential roles and currently sits on the board of directors of The American Veterinary Medical Association.

During her career Karen observed that there many women in vet med but not many women in leadership positions—and so she decided that she should be doing something about that. She is one of the founding members of NFP Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI).

Karen is joined by my second guest Dr Kim Therrien. Kim graduated from the University of Montreal and has somewhat different career path to normal starting out as a Canadian customs officer before heading to vet school. After graduating Kim relocated to the US and began her career with Banfield and has worked there ever since. Rapidly progressing and rising through the ranks to her current role which is Vice President of Veterinary Quality for the Midwest Region, a position that carry’s responsibility for running over 150 hospitals. Kim has been in board member of the Banfield Foundation since 2015 and this year became a board member of the WVLDI.

This was an awesome conversation covering huge topics like, women in leadership, fear, imposter syndrome, managing time as a business owner, having family and a successful career and many, many other areas that affect us all in veterinary medicine.

So, sit back and enjoy this conversation with the awesome Karen and Kim.

On the podcast today I talk with Dr Sue Ettinger aka “ The Cancer Vet”. Dr Sue is a boarded oncologist and heads up the Oncology Department at the Animal Specialty & Emergency Center in the Hudson Valley, NY. She is the co-author of the best-selling book "The Dog Cancer Survival Guide”, co-hosts The Pet Cancer Vet podcast and if that wasn’t enough, is a Certified Veterinary Journalist contributing content to Clinician’s Brief, Today’s Veterinary Practice, Veterinary Team Brief, and DVM360. Dr Sue is super-passionate about raising cancer awareness and developed the awesome “See Something, Do Something. Why Wait? Aspirate" program, more on that in the episode. This might be my favourite episode yet, the energy was insane, please enjoy this awesome conversation and get to know Dr Sue.

In today’s podcast, I visit the Royal Vet College, London to talk with five final year vet students ready to start their careers.

We talk vet school life, student debt, job expectations & get the student view on corporate vs independent practice.

This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in how the next generation of vets thinks. So sit back and enjoy the conversation with the class of 2017.

In today's episode we talk to veterinary entrepreneur turned private equity financier Garret Turley. Garret was one of the founders of Pet Doctors which he grew in 1995 from one site clinic to a 30 hospital behemoth, stretching across the south coast of England. He successfully sold the business to CVS in a multimillion pound deal in 2011. Garret now manages a London-based, private equity investment fund focussed on the healthcare and education spaces. In addition to his veterinary degree which he gained at Cambridge University, he holds and MBA from Henley.

Our conversation is wide ranging and covers a lot of ground including how an upbringing immersed in the sectarian violence of Northern Ireland helped motivate him to become a high performer and where he sees the opportunities/threats to the veterinary industry from areas as diverse as technology, corporate influence and the long overdue impact of female leadership.

Garret is a high octane but great fun person so sit back and enjoy some awesome insight and if Celtic accents are your thing then you will most certainly not be disappointed by this episode. Enjoy.

The guest on episode one of Blunt Dissection is Dr Diederik Gelderman Australian veterinary business legend, former veterinary hospital owner, current Australian Veterinary business Association (AVBA) President and creator of the Turbo Charge Your Veterinary Practice series of business development products.

Diederik graduated from the University of Sydney with First Class Honours in 1977,

established Greenhills Veterinary Hospital in 1977 and transformed it from a struggling 1-man practice into a burgeoning regional Veterinary Hospital servicing the wider Hunter Valley. This business won many Australian Veterinary as well as non-Veterinary (customer service) awards from 1996 till 2005.

He began coaching veterinary professionals with my Turbo Charge Your Veterinary Practice seminar, in 2004, to a small group of associates. Rapidly, these events became key opportunities on the Australian Veterinary calendar. In 2009, his seminars expanding internationally to Hong Kong, NZ, Europe and the US. Since then he has coached and consulted with more than 500 Small to Medium Enterprises in a diverse range of industries.

He sold his practice in 2009 though still works every other weekend as a vet because he loves it.

On the academic front, in addition to his veterinary degree holds a Masters of Veterinary Science, is a qualified NLP Master Coach (which took almost as long as his veterinary degree) and holds a TAFE Cert IV in Practice management and in Teaching.

In this episode, we go deep into his career which took him from happy times calving cows in Australia's Hunter Valley, to the point where he almost lost everything and how he rebuilt his life to become one of the world’s foremost veterinary business coaches today. Prepare for an epic story of struggle, survival and eventually success. Enjoy.