Veterinary Voices

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

Veterinary Voices episodes

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
August 18The Cake Problem: Why Your Best Recruitment Evidence Is the Stuff You Never Think to Mention - ep 285
"The Cake Problem": Why Your Best Recruitment Evidence Is the Stuff You Never Think to Mention
Every Thursday, one vet bakes a cake for the Large Animal team meeting. Nobody asked her to. It's not in her job description. And it's exactly the kind of thing that never makes it into a job ad — even though it's the realest proof of "great team culture" a clinic will ever have.
In episode two of the REAL+CULTURE+STORY series, Julie South unpacks the E — Everyday Evidence.
Episode notes
This episode covers:
What REAL+CULTURE+STORY actually stands for: REAL is the evidence, CULTURE is where it lives, STORY is how it gets told
Why job-seeking vets and nurses are now asking AI tools directly what it's really like to work somewhere — and what happens to a clinic's chances when there's no real evidence for the AI to find
The Decision Gap: the space between reading a job ad and hitting apply, and the questions vets and nurses want answered before they will
Why a repeated habit is stronger proof of culture than a single great day — one good day can be staged, a pattern can't
Three steps any clinic can run this week: Spot it, Source it, Share it
The episode closes by setting up next week's letter — A, for Actual People.
If you'd like to start using peer-to-peer culture stories to give your recruiting an edge, email [email protected].
Episode 284 - the first in this REAL CULTURE STORY series: https://veterinaryvoices.com/284
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 — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
Julie 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
12 min
August 11The Message vs The Moment: Why 'Small, Hardworking, Friendly Team' Doesn't Work - 284
The R in REAL+CULTURE+STORY: Why "Great Team" Job Ads Don't Work
One letter. One question every vet clinic job ad needs to answer: is what you're claiming real, or is it just window dressing?
In episode one of a new series, Julie South starts unpacking the REAL+CULTURE+STORY Framework — the 16-letter framework behind every Culture Story Centre her team builds — one letter at a time.
Episode notes
This episode covers:
Why vague job ad claims — "collaborative and values-led," "small, hardworking, friendly team," "no one gets left behind" — are interchangeable between clinics and give vets and nurses no reason to stop scrolling
The Decision Gap in action: if a clinic doesn't answer the questions vets and nurses ask before applying, AI will make something up, pull information from an unrelated clinic, or send them down a rabbit hole
R is for Real — the difference between the message (what a clinic says about itself) and the moment (something that actually happened and proves it's true)
A worked example turning "small, hardworking, friendly team" into a specific, peer-to-peer moment
Three homework steps for any clinic's job ad this week: Spot it, Source it, Share it
The episode closes by setting up next week's letter — E, for Everyday Evidence — the second letter in REAL.
If you want a second pair of eyes on how long your last job ad took to fill, or where your Decision Gap sits right now, 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 — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
Julie 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 04What Every "Vet Clinic Job Ad" Elephant Has In Common - ep 283
What Every "Vet Clinic Job Ad" Elephant Has In Common
Eight weeks. Seven elephants. One pattern.
In the series finale of The Elephant In The Room, Julie South brings it all together — and names the single thing every elephant in this series had in common. Plus something you absolutely need to know before the next series begins.
Episode notes
This episode recaps all seven elephants from the series:
The clinic with a reputation it hasn't found a way to publicly undo — and prove it's come a long way since
The Decision Gap — the gap between the views a job ad gets and the suitable applications it receives; not an exposure problem but a trust problem, where vets and nurses read vanilla, blah, identical-to-everyone-else wording and decide it's not enough to make the leap of changing jobs
The skills shortage — real, but it's the ceiling not the floor; two clinics in the same town, same shortage, wildly different outcomes
After-hours — two words in many job ads that almost never say what a vet or nurse needs to know
Competitive remuneration — the two words that signal a salary exists and nothing else; research from VetStaff and Unitec Te Pukenga (2023) shows salary is the number one thing vets and nurses want to know
The new graduate experience — mentoring programmes that drift from weekly to monthly to nothing, and the smaller group who leave the profession entirely because the job failed them
Corporate or independent — half the profession says it matters, almost no job ad says which one it is
The episode argues that every elephant is the same thing wearing different clothes: information that vets and nurses need before they apply that isn't in the job ad. And that in most cases, it doesn't need to be in the ad — the ad's job is to signal the vacancy. But clinics need somewhere vets and nurses can go to verify the claims. Because they're hiring critical thinkers. And critical thinkers check.
The episode closes by opening the door to the next series — the REAL+CULTURE+STORY framework — which is how that peer-to-peer culture evidence gets built.
If you'd like a copy of the VetStaff/Unitec Te Pukenga research, 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 — helping forward-thinking vet clinics build the kind of genuine, specific culture evidence that attracts Their Kind of People long before any job ad runs.
Julie 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
12 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…