Veterinary Voices

By Julie South | Veterinary Recruitment & Culture Storytelling StrategistBusiness Marketing Careers Management

Veterinary Voices episodes

October 27Could a Vet or Nurse Picture Themselves in Your Culture Story? - 295
Could a vet or nurse picture themselves in your clinic’s Culture Story? Would it make them want to apply for a job at your clinic?
“We help each other” leaves plenty unanswered. When a nurse asks for help, does the other nurse take over? Help them work through their thinking? Make them feel like an inconvenience? The details give the next vet or nurse more to imagine.
Episode 295 is the 12th episode in the 16-part REAL•CULTURE•STORY series. This week, Julie South looks at S for SPECIFICITY, beginning the STORY—or felt—part of the framework: the details that help a vet or nurse imagine what working at your clinic could feel like—and think, “That sounds like My Kind of Clinic.”
Stay to the end for this week’s practical takeaway: how to Spot it. Source it. Share it. using a team member’s experience from your own clinic.
Previously in this series
Two episodes referenced in this conversation:
Episode 294: E for EVIDENCE — whether your team’s experiences give vets and nurses good reason to believe the picture they’re forming of your clinic.
Episode 290: L for LIVED VALUES — what happens after a new grad’s request for help gets a sigh, an eye roll and a put-down.
This episode covers
How an illustrative first nurse consult story shows what “helping each other” could involve.
Which details help a vet or nurse imagine asking for help at your clinic.
Why telling vets and nurses they’ll feel supported leaves them with questions.
How to preserve the meaning of a conversation when a team member can’t remember the exact words.
Why different vets and nurses can respond differently to the same Culture Story.
What a Culture Story Centre does, where it fits alongside your clinic website, and how it gives stories an enduring home.
How those stories help answer Job Application Decision Gap questions and open conversations, including when the timing calls for keeping in touch.
What to ask when gathering a team member’s story, including what changes when the clinic gets busy.
Next week, Julie continues through STORY—the felt part of the framework—with T for TRUTH: how a story can lose its honesty when it’s tidied up for recruitment.
If you’d like help turning your team’s experiences into meaningful Culture Stories—even when you’re not currently advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and the United States who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
11 min
October 20Your Job Ad Says “Supportive Team”. Why Should Someone Believe It? 294
Your job ad promises a supportive team. But what could a vet or nurse find online that gives them a reason to believe you?
For a new grad comparing jobs, “experienced vets available for mentoring” leaves plenty unanswered. Who helps when the clinic gets busy? Can they ask a question without feeling silly? What happens when their mentor leaves?
Episode 294 is the 11th episode in the 16-part REAL•CULTURE•STORY series. This week, Julie South explores E for EVIDENCE, completing the CULTURE—or understood—part of the framework: whether your team’s experiences give vets and nurses good reason to trust the picture they’re forming of your clinic.
Stay to the end for this week’s practical takeaway: how to Spot it. Source it. Share it. using one claim from your own recruitment marketing.
Previously in this series
Two episodes referenced in this conversation:
Episode 293: R for REALITY — helping vets and nurses picture their working day at your clinic.
Episode 290: L for LIVED VALUES — what happens after a new grad’s request for help gets a sigh, an eye roll and a put-down.
This episode covers
What a new grad might need to know before believing your promise of support.
How three different team perspectives could show what support looks like in practice.
Why three positive stories don’t necessarily prove that support is consistent.
How specific experiences give vets and nurses questions for a pre-application conversation.
What a Culture Story Centre does, where it fits alongside your clinic website, and how it gives stories an enduring home.
How those stories help answer Job Application Decision Gap questions and open conversations, including when the timing calls for keeping in touch.
How to collect and share first-hand accounts, preserve each person’s voice, and check whether an experience reflects everyday culture.
Next week, Julie moves into STORY—the felt part of the framework—with S for SPECIFICITY.
If you’d like help turning your team’s experiences into meaningful Culture Stories—even when you’re not currently advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and the United States who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.

Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
16 min
October 13Could Your Clinic’s Everyday Reality Be Why Someone Wants to Apply to Your Job Ad? - 293
“Great lifestyle location” might help a vet or nurse imagine their weekends. But what could they look forward to on the days they’re working at your clinic?
Your team’s ordinary working day could contain something someone else would love to have in theirs. If that detail never makes it into your Culture Stories, someone considering your job ad may never discover it.
In episode 293 of Veterinary Voices—the tenth in the 16-part REAL•CULTURE•STORY series—Julie South explores R for Reality, within the CULTURE lens: what’s understood.
This diagnostic helps a vet or nurse answer: “Can I imagine my working day looking like this?”
Through a real story about some team members sometimes walking to the beach for lunch, Julie shows how a location feature can become a specific working experience someone can picture—and ask about before applying.
Previously in this series
Episode 292 — Uniqueness: What Your Team Takes for Granted Could Be Why Someone Applies
This episode covers
Why the ordinary good bits belong in your clinic’s culture stories alongside the pressures and interruptions.
How a lunchtime visit to the beach gives “close to the beach” a practical meaning for someone considering relocation.
Why details such as “some of the team” and “sometimes” matter when setting expectations.
How commutes, working hours and going home for lunch can help someone picture the quality of life available in a role.
How to Spot it. Source it. Share it.—find a detail, source a particular occasion and make the story accessible from your job ad.
Next week, in episode 294, Julie explores E for Evidence: once someone can picture working at your clinic, what helps them trust that picture?
If you’d like help turning your team’s everyday experiences into meaningful culture stories—even when you’re not advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
10 min
October 06What Your Clinic Takes for Granted Could Be Why Someone Applies - ep. 292
What your team takes for granted could be why someone applies. Something that feels completely routine inside your clinic may be exactly what a vet or nurse wants to know about before deciding whether to apply.
“Opportunities to develop your interests” leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination. A Culture Story showing how one nurse’s interest became a regular part of her working week gives them something meaningful to compare—and something specific to ask you about.
In episode 292 of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores Uniqueness, the ninth diagnostic in the REAL•CULTURE•STORY series. We’re still in CULTURE: helping vets and nurses understand how your clinic works, from their perspective, so they can decide, “Is this My Kind of Clinic?”
Uniqueness doesn’t require something no other clinic offers. It requires something specific, meaningful and useful to vets and nurses considering their next career move.
Previously in this series
Episode 291 — Team Voice: how your team’s own words, tone and humour help an outside vet or nurse get a sense of the people they’d be working with.
This episode covers
Why familiar job-ad promises give vets and nurses so little to compare between clinics.
An illustrative senior wellness nurse consult story: how a special interest can become an established part of someone’s role.
How nursing skills, diary time and an available consult room make the opportunity concrete.
How a specific Culture Story helps someone ask whether that work would be part of the advertised role.
Why the same story can interest one nurse and help another recognise that they’d prefer more theatre work.
Spot it. Source it. Share it. How to find an overlooked story, capture the person’s own words and make it accessible from your job ad.
Next week, episode 293 explores Reality: can someone outside your clinic picture the pace, interruptions, pressures and support on a regular shift?
If you’d like help turning your clinic’s vanilla statements into Culture Stories that give vets and nurses something meaningful to base their application decisions on, contact [email protected]. You can start sharing those stories well before you have a vacancy.
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
13 min
September 29Does Your Vet Clinic’s Job Ad Sound Like Your Team—or Marketing? ep291
If you removed your clinic’s name and logo from your job ad, would your own team recognise themselves—or could the same words belong to almost any vet clinic?
Vets and nurses want to understand what it would feel like to spend their working week with your people. Phrases such as “close-knit team” and “supportive and collaborative environment” don’t give them that answer. Your team’s real words, humour, warmth, directness and energy can.
Episode 291 is the eighth episode in the 16-part REAL•CULTURE•STORY series.
This week, Julie South explores T for TEAM VOICE: how the genuine language used inside your clinic helps vets and nurses recognise whether these could be Their Kind of People—and why polishing that language out of a job ad can cost you applications.
Previously in this series:
Episode 284: R for REAL STORIES
Episode 285: E for EVERYDAY EVIDENCE
Episode 286: A for ACTUAL PEOPLE
Episode 287: L for LIVED VALUES
Episode 288: C for CLARITY
Episode 289: U for UNDERSTANDING
Episode 290: L for LIVED VALUES
This episode covers:
Why so many veterinary job ads sound like every other clinic’s ad
What Team Voice tells vets and nurses about the people behind a clinic name
How real phrases such as “Who’s got five minutes and two free hands?” show what support means inside a team
How job-ad templates and professional-sounding language polish away a clinic’s personality
The difference between Team Voice and Brand Voice—and how they work together
Why hearing the real team can help turn interest in a job ad into an application
The Spot it. Source it. Share it. process for capturing Team Voice without translating it into vanilla recruitment language
Next week, Julie moves to U for UNIQUENESS: what makes your clinic different in a way that the vets and nurses you’d love to hire genuinely care about.
If you’d like help telling your clinic’s Culture Stories—even when you’re not currently advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and the United States who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
14 min
September 21What Your Clinic Lets Slide: Why Vets See Your Job Ad and Still Don’t Apply - 290
Your clinic says it values learning. Then a new grad asks a senior vet for help and gets a sigh, an eye roll and: “Didn’t they teach you that at vet school?”
What management does next shows that new grad—and everyone watching—which standards your clinic genuinely protects and which behaviours it’s prepared to let slide.
Episode 290 is the seventh episode in the 16-part REAL•CULTURE•STORY series. This week, Julie South returns to L for LIVED VALUES, this time within the CULTURE—or understood—part of the framework: what your clinic’s behaviours help vets and nurses understand about the standards they’d be expected to work by.
Previously in this series:
Episode 284: R for REAL STORIES
Episode 285: E for EVERYDAY EVIDENCE
Episode 286: A for ACTUAL PEOPLE
Episode 287: L for LIVED VALUES
Episode 288: C for CLARITY
Episode 289: U for UNDERSTANDING
This episode covers:
How ignored or tolerated behaviour becomes part of your clinic’s culture
What “That’s just how they are” teaches the rest of the team
How experience, seniority, clinical skill or financial value can earn someone a separate set of behavioural rules
Why your clinic’s response shows people which standards are real
What a new grad understands when someone steps in—or stays silent
How an imperfect moment can become a credible Culture Story
The Spot it. Source it. Share it. process for showing how your clinic’s values work when they’re tested
Next week, Julie explores T for TEAM VOICE: whether your Culture Stories genuinely sound like your people—or could belong to almost any clinic.
If you’d like help telling your clinic’s Culture Stories—even when you’re not currently advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and the United States who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
14 min
September 14Why "We Work as a Team” Tells Vets and Nurses Almost Diddly Squat - ep. 289
Almost every veterinary clinic says, “We work as a team.” But that tells vets and nurses almost diddly squat about how the team actually works.
What they need to understand is what happens when someone asks for help, disagrees, challenges a decision or finds themselves left holding the fort.
Episode 289 is the sixth episode in the 16-part REAL•CULTURE•STORY series. This week, Julie South explores U for UNDERSTANDING: how culture stories help vets and nurses outside your clinic understand the people, behaviours and unwritten rules inside it.
Previously in this series:
Episode 284: R for REAL STORIES
Episode 285: E for EVERYDAY EVIDENCE
Episode 286: A for ACTUAL PEOPLE
Episode 287: L for LIVED VALUES
Episode 288: C for CLARITY
This episode covers:
Why “collaborative” can truthfully describe two clinics that work in completely different ways
The practical questions vets and nurses need answered before they can understand how your team operates
How unwritten rules shape someone’s experience after they join
What turns an unresolved cultural problem into a credible culture story
Why an outdated reputation can keep travelling after a clinic has changed
How to test whether your clinic’s culture claims have a shared meaning
The Spot it. Source it. Share it. process for turning broad claims into understandable culture stories
Next week, Julie returns to L for LIVED VALUES, this time within the CULTURE section of the framework: what your clinic’s behaviours help an outsider understand about who gets encouraged, protected and challenged—and what gets tolerated.
If you’d like help telling your clinic’s culture stories—even when you’re not currently advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and the United States who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
13 min
September 08The Harder Your Clinic Is to Understand, the Easier It Is to Keep Scrolling — 288
A vet or nurse may begin researching your clinic months before you advertise a vacancy. They’re not necessarily ready to apply—but they may already be deciding whether yours is a clinic worth remembering.
If the answers they need are scattered across job ads, client-facing webpages and old social posts, they may simply move on before finding a reason to keep your clinic on their watchlist.
In episode five of the REAL•CULTURE•STORY series, Julie South unpacks the first letter in CULTURE: C — Clarity.
Previously in this series:
Real Stories → veterinaryvoices.com/284
Everyday Evidence → veterinaryvoices.com/285
Actual People → veterinaryvoices.com/286
Lived Values → veterinaryvoices.com/287
This episode covers:
Why vets’ and nurses’ due diligence may begin long before a clinic starts recruiting
How AI tools are changing what prospective jobseekers can discover about working at a clinic
Why an AI-generated answer does not necessarily give someone clarity
The two jobs of clarity: making answers easy to find and making them unmistakably yours
Why familiar claims such as “supportive”, “close-knit” and “collaborative” need real culture evidence behind them
How scattered information makes prospective jobseekers work too hard to understand your clinic
The one-question Clarity Test you can run on your own clinic
Three steps for making an important answer clearer: Spot it, Source it, Share it
The episode closes by setting up next week’s letter—U, for Understanding. Finding an answer is one thing; understanding what it could mean for someone’s working life is something else.
If you’d like Your Kind of vets and nurses to understand and remember your clinic—even before you’re advertising a vacancy—email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
14 min
September 01Your Clinic Says “Respect.” What Happens When a Client Starts Shouting? - ep 287
A client begins shouting at someone on reception. A colleague steps between them, and the clinic leader backs the team by respectfully ending the client–clinic relationship.
The value on the wall may say “respect”—but what happens in that moment reveals whether the clinic truly lives it.
In episode four of the REAL•CULTURE•STORY series, Julie South unpacks the L — Lived Values.
Previously in this series:
Real Stories → veterinaryvoices.com/284
Everyday Evidence → veterinaryvoices.com/285
Actual People → veterinaryvoices.com/286
This episode covers:
Why values displayed on a wall are promises—not proof of what working at a clinic is really like
How values become believable through the decisions people make when those values are tested
What a clinic’s response to an abusive client tells vets and nurses about whether their wellbeing will genuinely be protected
Why living a value is most revealing when doing so costs the clinic something
The difference between describing a value and telling a real story that allows jobseekers to see it in action
Three steps any clinic can run this week: Spot it, Source it, Share it
The episode closes by setting up next week’s letter—C, for Clarity, the first diagnostic in CULTURE. If you’d like to give Your Kind of vets and nurses credible evidence of what your clinic stands for when it matters, email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings—for all the right reasons.
Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
11 min
August 25Your Job Ad Says 'Supportive Team.' But Who Are They? - ep 286
Your Job Ad Says "Supportive Team." But Who Are They?

A new grad dreading her first large bitch spay asks a senior vet to be on hand. The senior vet watches quietly, steps in only when it gets tricky, then trusts her to finish the surgery herself. Nobody wrote that moment into a job ad. But it's exactly the kind of proof that turns "supportive team" from a claim into something a vet or nurse can believe. In episode three of the REAL+CULTURE+STORY series, Julie South unpacks the A — Actual People.
Previously in this series:
Real Stories → veterinaryvoices.com/284
Everyday Evidence → veterinaryvoices.com/285
This episode covers:
Why putting a name beside a generic claim — "everyone's so supportive," said Jane — doesn't make it evidence
The difference between content written for clients and content written for prospective colleagues, and why clinics so often mix the two up
The "actual people" test: how to tell whether a story is real proof, or just decoration
Why vets and nurses don't apply to work for a clinic name or a logo — they apply to work with the people they believe are waiting on the other side
Three steps any clinic can run this week: Spot it, Source it, Share it
The episode closes by setting up next week's letter — L, for Lived Values. If you'd like to start using peer-to-peer culture stories to give your recruiting an edge, email [email protected].
About your host
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and the host of Veterinary Voices. She has been in veterinary recruitment since 2019 and is known for her work in culture storytelling.
Julie helps forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
She has spoken on culture storytelling and employer branding at VetEXPO in Melbourne and works with clinics across Australasia and beyond who want vets and nurses to be excited about going to work on Monday mornings — for all the right reasons.

Could Your Kind of People recognise Their Kind of Clinic?
A job ad may catch a vet’s or nurse’s eye. But it’s their own due diligence that determines whether they apply—or keep in touch.
Culture Story Centres turn real experiences from inside your team into credible, discoverable recruitment evidence, giving vets and nurses meaningful reasons to choose your clinic.
Explore Culture Story Centres for veterinary clinics
13 min

About Veterinary Voices

From the publisher's feed

Veterinary Voices is for veterinary clinic owners who want to hire Their Kind of People—and want vets and nurses to recognise them as Their Kind of Clinic.

For years, hiring gave…