Shaping Future-Ready Veterinary Practices Through Strategic Planning, Culture, Retention, Financial Resilience, Marketing and Practice Continuity

Good evening and welcome to the Veterinary Business Institute's webinar series. You are joining the community dedicated to ensuring veterinary professionals don't just survive in that practice, but actually thrive within it. Tonight's discussion, shaping future ready veterinary practices addresses the silent crisis in our industry, the struggle to balance compassionate care with a profitable, sustainable business model. I'm your host, Ashton Rogers. Tonight I'm joined by four titans of the industry to give you the playbook on stopping the leaks, whether they are financial, operational, or emotional, so you can build a practice that serves you as well as you serve your patients.

This conversation does not have to end in an hour. It continues every week on the Veterinary Business Podcast. This search for the Veterinary Business Podcast on your favorite streaming platform to tune in New episode drops every Thursday. We'd like to give a massive thank you to our platinum sponsor and growth partner, eco Marketing. Founded by Naureen Raja, the very same founder of the Veterinary Business Institute. For nearly 20 years, Aqua has helped vets across the globe stop being the best kept secret in their town. They believe great care deserves great visibility. Before we dive in, here's a quick tip that matters for every veterinary practice.

Today. Many clinics want more booked visits, but end up with low quality leads or high marketing costs. With AI giving fast answers right on the screen, pet owners choose quickly. So ask yourself this, when someone searches dog, dental, cleaning, emergency vet, or cat vaccines near me, does your practice clearly show up as a trusted option? More practices deliver great care, but lose visibility online? The right digital setup, strong reviews, clear service pages, and simple calls to action helps you attract serious pet owners ready to book. Stay With Us. We have something at the end that will help you understand exactly where you are and what steps to take.

Next, tonight isn't about theory, it's about the ecosystem of your practice. We are going to connect the dots between staff engagement and profitability. We'll look at how financial resilience isn't just about math. It's about the freedom to make better clinical decisions. And finally, we'll discuss continuity, how to build systems that keep the practice running even when life happens. Let's meet the experts who will guide us here today. Our first expert knows the dark side of veterinary success intimately. After a decade in clinical practice, Dr. Amelia Knight Pinkston realized that the industry's badge of honor, hustle culture was actually a trap leading to exhaustion.

We pivoted from treating patients to treating the healers themselves through Life Boost with Amelia, she now guides professionals to reclaim their energy and health, proving you don't have to sacrifice your own wellbeing to be a world class veterinarian. Next we have the operational architect, Amy Ma. Amy has walked the flows of over 200 clinics seeing exactly where time, money, and moral leak out of a practice. As the co-founder of Vet Circle, she specializes in turning chaotic busyness into streamlined, scalable systems. She's here tonight to help us build the infrastructure that stops burnout before it even starts transforming your daily operations from headache into your competitive advantage.

Joining us to tackle the topic we often fear most money is Dr. Meredith Jones. For 12 years, she managed life and death stakes as emergency veterinarian only to realize the biggest stressor for her colleagues wast the medicine, but the finances. As the founder of financial, she translates terrifying spreadsheets into actionable freedom. She helps practice owners and associates move from financial anxiety to having concrete plans for wealth, proving that financial health is the foundation of clinical excellence. And finally, bringing a critical and rare perspective is Christie Layman with a unique background in social work and hospice care. Christie understands the emotional weight of this profession better than anyone.

As a district operations specialist at Blue River Pet Care, she doesn't just manage teams. She insulates them from compassion fatigue. She teaches us that in a future ready practice, the strongest retention strategy isn't a bonus check. It's a culture that supports the human heart. Now moving on to the main q and a. So the first question of tonight goes to Dr. Lio, right? So from what you are seeing with veterinarians today, what early cultural signals show up before burnout becomes visible or leads to exist exit, and which of those signals leaders mo most often underestimate? Hmm. All right. I love this question because burnout doesn't happen after one hard day, right?

There are a lot of warning signs before that point. It's just that we have normalized 'em. So often we are missing them. And so if we zoom out and look at things from a nervous system perspective, then burnout starts to make a lot more sense. Because burnout really is a result of being in survival mode for too long. It's like the nervous system saying, this has been like too much for too long, and it goes into more of a freezer shutdown state, which is, you see low energy, low motivation, feeling kind of numb, hopeless, or disconnected. So what we need to do is focus on what's happening before that point. And that's where it's helpful to recognize signs of the stress response, flight, fight, freeze shut down and fawn.

And so the most underestimated signals I would say are flight. It's like the gas pedal is on without a break. So this looks like the high performer, like they are the high achiever who doesn't slow down. They hold themselves to impossibly high standards. They're working through lunch, staying late, you can reach 'em on their day off. and they have a busy mind probably feeling anxious. And that's like the majority of us in vet med. And so if we attribute our success to that, then maybe even have pride associated with it, then it really makes it hard for us to notice that as a warning sign. And yet, if we're never pausing, it's and never putting that brake pedal on, it's really not sustainable.

And then if we look at the others, I'd say the most missed is Fawn, because this is gonna look like the perfect low maintenance employee who you can always rely on. They're gonna be like the calm, upbeat one, the one who immediately picks up extra shifts. They say everything is fine, one-on-ones because from the outside they look great because they're behaving in whatever way they think is going to make the other person happy and like them. and they tend to be very in tune with others' feelings, but maybe not as in tune with their own feelings. And so this is gonna be that team member who you don't think you have to worry about, and then suddenly they leave because they're avoiding difficult conversations.

but they may have been feeling really drained by the end of the day because they were performing or wearing a mask all day long. And then I think the most understood is fight or freeze and shut down because our society can be really quick to judge those. So fight can look like irritability or negativity and freeze can look like, laziness or being disengaged or not caring. And so we can label that as being difficult or toxic. But the reality is that people only act that way if they are feeling, overwhelmed by something, if their nervous system is feeling unsafe. And so, if it's met with judgment or pressure thinking you need to be adding discipline, then that is adding more stress to an already overwhelmed nervous system.

And so, especially in a profession where we are struggling with burnout and suicide, it's so important that we start talking about these and instead of normalizing these signs or attributing our success to them, that we can think about, okay, how can we make it more convenient to prioritize our own our own needs, knowing that we're conditioned to do the opposite? and how can we meet things with curiosity and compassion or judgment? Mm-hmm. And what do you say to leaders who worries that addressing feelings will make them look soft or hurt? Productivity? Mm. I mean, I would say that we aren't robots, right? Like feelings are very real reality. And the reason I like looking at things from a nervous system perspective is that it controls the way that we're behaving, whether we like it or not, right?

And so I think a big part of being professional is being able to tune into our bodies, recognizing when we ourselves are in like reaching capacity at an overwhelmed nervous system state. And then also being empowered with the tools to be able to regulate our nervous system to release stress, to know how to, prioritize what we need. Because if we do wanna be thriving, if we wanna be professionals and we wanna be in this, profession long term, it's, it's not optional. I learned that the hard way, Right? And a question from someone in the audience, what is the best way to handle a team who truly cares? But several of them are either in perimenopause or menopause, since we only go through it once, even they don't know what they need or what happens next.

Hmm. Yeah. So in this, it's just like, how do you support someone who's going through that stage? Is that what they're asking? Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. I think that in that stage, right, this is something that is probably adding stress. I like to think of our bodies are kind of like, air in a balloon, right? Stress in our bodies is like air in a balloon. It's like we are designed to experience, stress, just like a balloon's meant to have air, but only to a certain point. And then that can be the, the turning point. And so in this case, I would just think, okay, this is probably something that's adding stress to their balloon, knowing that, that is adding to their capacity.

And just thinking about, okay, what are ways to be supporting them physically, mentally, you know, emotionally, environmentally to, help them to feel more supported. So, you know, I think in terms of the work environment, just looking at what are the specific things in the day that are contributing to stress or overwhelm and what are specific ways that we can be supporting them. yeah, I'm not sure if that answers the question, but I think it did. I think it did. Right. Now moving on to Dr. Meredith. So with rising costs and uneven visit patterns, which financial stress indicators tend to show up first in veterinary practices even before leaders recognize there's a problem?

Okay. Yeah. And I, I have a one that's more related to, personal finance stresses. And so I'm not sure if that's exactly the same question that you have. but, a few things for, financial stress indicators. One would be avoidance. so, so not looking at the numbers. And so, whether that's looking at the practice numbers or whether that's looking at, the, your, just your bank account or bills or student loans, and just saying, okay, it's something that I'm gonna deal with later. and I see folks who just, you know, they're not logging into their accounts, they don't know exactly okay. Which, where, where do, where do the finances stand, you know, and so, and then resentment around compensation is something that I see come up in, you know, among veterinary professionals as well.

And so, so a few things to keep in mind would be to have, just some, some ways for ways for the team members to grow. so like having tiers, for example, for, pay increases, for mastering skills for technicians or, and assistants. So that's something that a lot of practices have incorporated. and helps, helps people to know, okay, there's, there's a place that I can go, you know, beyond, beyond where I am now. And then, production or sometimes like merit-based incentive pay for doctors, can also be a way to, a way to give them some resources to improve their compensation. comparison is something that comes up, whether it's among staff members or, or whether it's comparing yourself to another practice.

And so, so that's one way that can come up is okay, if, if someone's obsessing about their production numbers or if they seem like they're wondering if they're behind their peers from an income standpoint, that's something, something to take into account as well. And then, and then you don't always hear about it because personal finance is personal. And so, but if you do hear about those things, then you can provide some resources to help folks. so student loan consults can be something that, that you can make people aware of is that if that's a stressor or bringing in a financial planner or financial coach to talk to the team about personal finance basics, financial literacy can be part of overall professional development.

And so, that's something that leaders in practices can normalize talking about, you know, we can normalize talking about compensation and debt and financial planning so that it doesn't have a negative effect on the culture of the practice. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Many vets are afraid to look at the numbers when things are tied. So how do they overcome that paralysis? you mean from a pr from a practice finance standpoint or, Yeah, practice finance. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm, I'm really more of a personal finance, expert than a, than a practice finance expert. Mm-hmm. And so it may be something that, Amy or someone else can chime in on. I can jump into that. Mm-hmm.

I work with a lot of practice owners. we only work with independently owned practices, and that's so true. Like, they don't wanna look at their numbers 'cause they're scared. There's all these benchmarks out there, and they're like, what if I don't meet them? And most of these owners are perfectionists, like saying Dr. Amelia. and so if they see that they're not meeting those benchmarks, they like, it's like an ego thing. I think it's just about educating and showing them that if you do look at your numbers, you gotta have a starting ground at some point. And then you'll, if you're not meeting your benchmarks, you'll slowly be able to build it up, but at least you know, and because they're doctors, they're very scientific, and so that kind of helps 'em if it's like more of a data analysis versus like an emotional comparison to what the industry benchmarks are.

but it's just getting them familiar and just talking about it so that they're like, oh, this is a normal conversation, not something I should be shy about. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And Amy, when you assess practices today, where do you most often see me alignment between state of priorities and how time, money, and people are actually deployed? That's a really loaded question. mm-hmm. I'll, so again, I work with independently owned practices. So usually they're owned by a doctor. And during those practice help checkups where we go on site and we visit our members, I always speak to the owners or managers first about, two things. So their biggest challenges, and then also what do they hope to get out of the checkup.

And usually almost every time we hear kind of the same version of, you know, they have team members that are struggling, maybe they're fe feeling te like burnout in the team, there's lack of motivation. Staff are not meeting expectations. and just like a general feeling that something is not off or like it's not going well, but they just don't know what's going on. And then when we go into the clinic, it's always different from what we hear from the meeting. So there's usually actually a really big gap from what the owner thinks is happening and then what is actually happening on the floor. And I think this makes sense because as a doctor and owner, usually they're still working as a doctor, so they're very comfortable.

They know what happens in surgery and then in the exam rooms. But then when it comes to like front desk treatment, pharmacy and general workflow of things, since they don't actually get to see it, they're really just like listening to the rest of the team tell them what's going on, and they're trying to make decisions based on that. so really I think that big disconnect, is something that we need to address in the practice. And, I think I counted that around three out of the four practice checkups that we do. the true, true underlying issues of like anything that's happening in the practice, like whether it's burnout, whether it's workflow issues, whether it's, performance challenges, it's because the owner has goals and expectations in their head, but they haven't been clearly communicated with the team.

so it always comes down from the owners. I'm apologizing to some of the owners in the chat. I know that I have some of my members on this, chat. But it really comes down to the owners because the whole team is looking to you for direction. And I think that a lot of owners feel like these goals are, you know, common sense, something the team should already know, or maybe they're just like uncomfortable sharing those goals. 'cause they wanna make sure they have a good relationship with the team and they feel like they'll be bossy or something if they share them. But if those goals don't actually make it to the people who need to know about them, then there's always gonna be those challenges.

and that, I think that's kind of the biggest disconnect because, since like there's no expectations that are communicated, basically the team has to be in their fight or flight mode and figure out like what's going on and really just learn by trial and error. If they do something they're praised, that means it's a good thing, they do something and it's not right and they get corrected, then it's not. But honestly, because a lot of veterinarians are not confrontational too, I actually see that, these owners just let it slide instead of actually correcting it until they blow up because it's so frustrating for them. And the team members are super shocked because they're like, what?

I thought I was doing a good job. and so that's kind of the worst case scenario, but I, I actually see that a lot in practice is the owner's just so frustrated with the team, but when you speak to the team, they're like, yeah, like, I love this job. I'm doing a great job. We're all pulling our weight. not knowing that the owner's actually quite frustrated with what's happening or they're going through some financial troubles because, the team has really taken over and, you know, has started turning away appointments or blocking time off to, catch up on records and doing things like that. And at the end of the day, it's still a business, and you have to really take care of the business to be able to take care of your team.

If there are no clients, we can't pay our teams. There's gonna be layoffs that happen. And so, you have to do it compassionately, but the first thing the owners have to do is really just document and show those expectations so that the teams can be aligned to what they want, and then we can work together to meet those goals. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And Christie, in emotionally intensive veterinary settings, what cultural breakdowns most often precede compassion fatigue or disengagement among teams? Yeah, so I think this is such an important question because compassion fatigue doesn't come out of nowhere. like Dr. Amelia said, and I think of it as sort of the smoke and not the fire.

So, usually when we see things happening, we see other symptoms, we see disengagement or, you know, staff conflicts or absenteeism, and that's usually a symptom of deeper things happening and, and some compassion fatigue happening on a cultural level. So that's when we kind of, well, hopefully before that happens, but at least by then we are digging deep and trying to figure out, you know, where this is breaking down. One of the most common things that I see start to break down on like an organizational or team level is, like Dr. Amelia said, kind of this normalization of emotional suppression. There's an unspoken rule and sometimes it's definitely spoken, that you just kind of push through that you keep your head down, you keep doing the tasks, you keep hustling, you show up.

even if you're not feeling well, you answer your emails when you're not working. But really, you know, that's rewarded, that's, rewarded in a lot of different ways, both spoken and unspoken. But slowing down, processing emotions, communicating about your emotions, checking in with each other, that's not usually rewarded, you know, in an outwardly way. And so some, sometimes employees just don't feel like they have permission to process difficult appointments or difficult shifts, or talk about how a case made them feel. And they may not be seeing the leaders at the CLI clinic modeling this for them. Not only showing them that it's okay to feel things and talk about emotions, but also showing them how to effectively do that and, you know, professional ways to debrief cases.

So that can kind of lead to this disconnect from the work or from the rest of the team. And it comes through as disengagement. It comes through as compassion fatigue or a lot of these symptoms that we sometimes see, with, you know, work ethic and that sort of thing. so I think the practices can really instead, you know, work to make those little moments count and build a culture where the emotional labor is acknowledged and is appreciated as a strength. This was one of the really stark differences I saw when I moved from, my first veterinary social work experience was at a, veterinary college. Then I came to, my current practice, which is an in-home euthanasia practice.

And the culture around discussing feelings and emotion was totally different. And I could see, you know, how the team was impacted and just how some of these habits were. It's totally normalized as opposed to other settings. and a lot of teams, you know, kind of related to that also tend to experience a disconnect from their purpose, you know, both on an individual level, but also on a team level. The work we do, you know, whether it's in home euthanasia or it's general practice or emergency work, it's so sacred, it's so meaningful, and sometimes that really gets buried under the stress and the logistics and the, you know, adrenaline of a busy shift.

And so when people stop feeling that impact of their work, when it's less, salient to them, the work starts to feel a little bit more transactional. And so when they don't see the gratitude from clients or from their team or from their leaders, when they don't stop to take in the stories that clients tell us or, you know, let themselves feel affected by those things, it starts to lead to that disconnect and that disengagement, that that disconnect from the purpose, the why, you know, that brought us all to this work. So it's really important, I think, for teams to lean into that shared processing and acknowledgement of the emotional labor and just really normalize those discussions and that acknowledgement and celebrate the purpose of the work.

And this can come through debriefing or, you know, building strong relationships on the team, as simple as, you know, sharing a highlight of the week at a meeting or posting thank you cards from clients, but really just stopping and feeling like this is a safe environment to discuss how we feel about our work or how we feel about a case. And then also just take in the joy and the meaning of this work. And sometimes our teams, I think, rely on leaders to be the first to take the step or be the first to name it. And so I think it's really important to be on the lookout for those little moments that sometimes our teams miss in the hustle and bustle.

And as the leader, be the one to stop and say, did you hear that story that client told us about their dog? That is amazing. Like I am. I can't believe we to be a part of this story and to really stop and have some of those conversations can make a big difference. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And now moving on to Dr. Amelia. So when a practice normalizes or overwork as commitment, how does that shape leadership behavior and decision making over time, even among well-intentioned leaders? Yeah, so I think that is important to acknowledge that this does happen with well-intentioned leaders. because the reality is that just in so many ways, we're selected and rewarded for overworking and overextension.

So we think that we are doing the right thing, but the reality is that overworking is survival mode, right? And survival mode is for surviving, but not for thriving and sustainable success and growth. And so in survival mode, we are gonna be more reactive and shortsighted and making more fear-based decisions instead of being proactive and strategic. And that survival mode or amygdala is in control, it's gonna be more impulsive instead of having that prefrontal cortex that is able to think things through more logically. And so then we start to prioritize the things that feel urgent instead of the things that are really important. And so examples of that could be, just feeling like you're always putting out fires, but never having time to address the root causes.

Kind of like Amy was saying, never actually getting to communicate the goals with the team. it could look like looking at daily numbers instead of long-term profitability, so maybe overextending everyone to have good numbers for that day, or because you don't wanna turn somebody away. But zooming out and looking at is that, leading to lower retention and being understaffed or more mistakes, or not having as much time to educate clients. And so there's a lower a CT or less positive experience for everybody. And so when leaders are overextended, feedback also can start to feel threatening or like a personal attack, whether that's from clients or staff.

And so instead of being able to take that as useful information that helps to understand their perspective and experience, and how they can, thinking about how can they support them better, that can turn into defensiveness or, or more of a shutdown. And then that can lead to decreased psychological safety where people aren't, they stop giving feedback or they're not sharing ideas or, coming to you when they have problems because, and ultimately that leads to just missing out on these opportunities to be more proactive. And so, mm-hmm. For leaders, I would say the pausing really is the power move, right? And if you're always overworked, then you are probably missing out on your best ideas and problem solving.

So if you think when you have your best ideas, it's probably not when you're totally overextended. It's like when you're in the shower or if you're going for a walk or when you're driving, right? And so seeing like those quiet moments are so crucial and, you're really holding back your potential if you aren't prioritizing space in your schedule. And with this current state where we are, and potentially being in this recessionary phase in vet med, you know, I think this is an opportunity to look at challenges and to really think, how can you use this as an opportunity to start thinking outside of the box and, rethinking things in a way that leads to better efficiency and, and supports everybody, the pet and the, the clients and the veterinary team.

But that's, if you are already feeling overextended, then this time may feel extra stressful and overwhelming so that you're not able to be using this time as a really awesome, opportunity to make some exciting changes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And now, Dr. Meredith, so how does ongoing financial stress influence workplace behaviors like overworking, difficulty setting boundaries or taking on more risk, and how does that affect team retention and long-term practice stability? Yeah, so ongoing financial stress, it changes how people behave at work. And so, some of this is, related to what Amelia just said about overwork. And so some people they will overwork themselves because it feels safer financially.

And so those are signs of that would be picking up more shifts, saying yes to every emergency, for doctors potentially even changing recommendations to increase production. I don't think that, I don't personally think that happens very often, but I have heard some stories and then, delaying vacations. So I see that a lot, folks who, who just don't feel like they can take a vacation, or maybe they avoid it, especially doctors in practices who, where they have the compensation structure set up so that their income decreases when they go on vacation. so that's something that I see as well. And you know, sometimes we praise people for overworking themselves.

You know, you'll hear, oh, you're such a trooper, or you'll hear, oh, thanks so much for being flexible, which is a nice thing to say. But that can be a trigger that, you know, if you're saying that to someone, are they overworking themselves? You know, and, and what's behind that? And so, some people will struggle to set boundaries because they're worried about their finances, and yeah, they might become overly risk averse or potentially more risk tolerant than perhaps they should be. And so, so risk aversions may be more relevant to practice leaders who might be reluctant to invest in staff training, you know, if they're worried about the numbers for the practice, or, sometimes practice owners will try to expand too fast or they'll take on more debt, and so they could, they could actually take on more risk as a result of that.

And so with overwork, of course, that leads to exhaustion. That can lead to burnout. You can see, people lose their patients more easily, or, mistakes will increase. sometimes team members have to absorb the sort of emotional spillover that happens from someone being overworked, and financial stress. It can, it can lead to decreased retention because maybe an associate or, or a team member would be more likely to leave for small salary differences. So, so that's that retention piece. And then, if, if leaders are communicating more reactively, because they have financial stress, then they can become more transactional. They're maybe less likely to have a mindset where they're developing their people the way that they should be.

And so financial stress, it changes behavior, and then behavior shapes culture. And so if we want to have stable practices, it makes sense to treat financial wellness as part of overall professional development, and that can help with long-term practice stability. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. So I want to pause here for just a minute to share a short message from tonight's platinum sponsor Echo Marketing. So Echo Marketing wants to remove uncertainty for you. They are offering a complimentary one-on-one marketing strategy meeting designed specifically for veterinary practice owners. So when it comes to this, this session is built to answer one key question.

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So I'll leave that with you, but truly I encourage you to grab this opportunity, book your session with equa, it'll be time well spent. Now moving back to the q and a. So the next question goes to Amy. So Amy, given our ongoing staffing shortages, how should leaders rethink what growth means? So strategic plans to unintentionally increase burnout or execution failure, I think, I think we talked about the economy. so in Canada mm-hmm. It's very interesting. Our city hubs, we're basing that recession. We're seeing that clients are not coming in proactively for, wellness, but they're coming in for more urgent care and emergencies. But in our rural practices, they're still booking out like crazy.

They're short staffed for sure, and, they're still, they are kind of sheltered. I, I focus a lot on workflow, and I actually found that if you can fix the workflow at a practice, you can actually help a lot of those burnout symptoms from the, team because they feel more valued, they actually feel like they're being utilized, they feel more important at the practice. and then everyone kind of has like their own responsibilities and roles. And so, like I think Dr. Amelia had said, take this time where we're a little bit slower to review your workflow and look at strategies to improve it. Most of the times when leaders tell me they're short staffed and then I go into the clinic, they're never short staffed.

It's a workflow issue. So they're actually short staffed with those, you know, two to three amazing team members that actually know what they're doing. But there's a lot of other team members standing around kind of just waiting for someone to tell them what to do, or hiding in the laundry room. You guys know that. and actually I like financially that 20% or that 16 to 20% benchmark for staffing, that's the one, benchmark I've seen that's pretty much consistent over every single GP practice we've seen. And so if you think you need to hire another staff member, but your, staff costs are actually over that 20% of revenue, there's really two things you have to look at.

So the first one's gonna be your workflow efficiency, and the second one's your pricing. So, and it might be both actually. So if you're like, let's say 30% for support staff, it's probably both, like, your workflow's not great, it couldn't be improved, and also your pricing. and that goes back to, you know, being scared to look your financials, because every month you're like, my staff costs keep going up. And, but you have to look at it because otherwise, you don't have any action or you don't know what to do to fix it. So when it comes to short staffing, look at your workflow and look at ways to kind of reduce things. If you're a practice manager, the best thing you could do is just try to block off a full day shadow and reception for an hour shadow and surgery for an hour shadow and treatment shadow in the exam rooms and see where people are, there's like redundant roles being done by different roles.

And then, see what else you can do to just improve your workflow. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And Christie, so how should leaders think differently about culture when they are teams regular navigate grief boundary setting with clients and ethical complexity? Yeah, I love this. question because it asks leaders to zoom out, which is very hard to do. And I mean, the truth is that our settings are unique. We can't ignore the emotional labor involved in the work that we do in within our culture. So I also notice that we often are much more reactive when it comes to culture than being proactive. And it's a lot harder to fix a difficult culture than it is to build one.

So I like to think of it as if we were doing a clinic build out or a renovation, if you've ever done this before at your practice, you know that, you know, you kind of start with the end in mind. You think of the planning, what you need, what the ROI will be, figure out who to contact, who to bring in, what professionals to work with. You have a budget, you get a timeline going. There's just so many levels of planning at the beginning stages to get you to this end result that you're looking for. and I think we can kind of approach culture with the same mindset. So sometimes we treat it as an afterthought or we think that our culture is just how things kind of magically fall in place with this group of people that we have on our team.

But it should be so much more intentional than that. So if your ideal practice culture is, you know, resilient and transparent and supportive, I would say, you know, we don't just cross our fingers and hope that culture emerges. We plan it from the beginning with the end in mind. So from your job adds to your hiring, to your team meeting agenda and format to the environment that the team works in. All of these things play a role in building that end result culture that you're looking for. and I think most importantly, as leaders, we need to kind of model the culture that we wanna see very intentionally and, and very visibly. so in VetMed where we face these really difficult things every day, I think we really have to design our culture with the emotional reality in mind of the work that we do.

So basically, I want us to stop being surprised that the work we do is heavy, and instead just kind of plan for that. So when leaders acknowledge upfront this, this work is emotionally intensive, we're gonna build support around that, it really changes everything. So one of the ways to be proactive, I think, is to plan in some debriefing. This can be, you know, regular supportive one-on-one check-ins with your direct reports or a part of your check-ins that you might already have with your direct reports. making sure your team has outlets and opportunities to talk about the impact of a case and, and how they're feeling about it. Specifically, it can include something as small as, you know, modeling, just taking a deep breath before you walk into an exam room, or having a team moment of silence maybe for a pet that you lost that day, where it really could be as big as blocking time after a euthanasia appointment so that staff don't have to back to back visits or appointments.

so there are different levels and they, you know, the amount of investment is different. Some changes are really free and, and easy if we're intentional about it. And some might be larger investments or changing kind of the infrastructure of parts of our practice. but if we start, thinking about these cultural investments as being just as important as a new exam table or a new, you know, credit card terminal, then we're showing our team that this is just as important and we will see a different kind of ROI, but the ROA that we'll see is, you know, more resilient teams, stronger relationship on the teams, less turnover, higher quality patient care.

So we will see that investment come through in our end result of our culture, rather than just kind of waiting and, and hoping that things fall into place or hoping that, you know, the mixture of personalities that we have on our team will just kind of magically build this culture. We build the culture, the culture doesn't build itself. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. And Dr. Amelia, so what are three specific cultural level commitments a leader could make in the next 30 to 90 days to reduce chronic stress and restore capacity? And how would they know those changes are working? Yeah, so I'd say think about the three C's, compassion, curiosity, and connection.

So practically speaking, with compassion, really starting with, leaders having compassion for themselves and putting their oxygen mask on first, because when they are able to lead from a regulated state, everyone is really benefiting. And as a hospital, adopting really a nervous system approach, having that compassion for our bodies, recognizing subtle signs of a stress response so that everyone's able to use that as valuable information. For example, if you're ending the day feeling irritable or totally numb, then you're in that fight or freeze. And if you pause and think, okay, what specific things in the day contributed to that, then you can identify what's one little doable adjustment I can make so that the same exact thing doesn't happen tomorrow.

And for curiosity, really creating a culture where you choose curiosity over judgment, it's such a simple but powerful shift because judgment really just leads to dead ends. It feels training and curiosity just feels so much better, and it opens the door to growth. So for example, for any mistake, rather than individual blame, just thinking, okay, what did we learn from this? How can the system be adjusted so that it's less convenient to make that mistake? Like, how can we turn this actually into a success and growth? And then connection, you know, remembering that in survival mode, we're focused just in the moment or in the day and not forgetting to zoom out and to look at the big picture.

But this can also mean staying connected to our values. And so really powerful exercise that a practice can do is thinking about their values, but then thinking about the most challenging situations you encounter and talking as a team about how you can still stay true to your values in those cases. So for example, if you say, we treat every pet like our own, what specifically does that look like when you have a puppy coming in with parvo and the client has no money? How can you be talking as a team about how you're going to navigate that? So you are still feeling like you made a difference at the end of the day? And, and then how do you know these things are working?

I mean, certainly you're gonna see a shift in, less negativity. Maybe staff are sharing more ideas and more about proactive problem solving culture. maybe less, less last minute, six days, increased acts more, positive reviews. and I think it can help to track numbers, you know, or to be doing surveys. And so I have a, a free workplace satisfaction and wellbeing survey for practices so that leaders who are feeling overextended have a simple way to kind of take the pulse of their team so that you do have a baseline, you know, where you're starting, you can make a change, and then you can repeat it so that you are always just collecting data and growing and moving forward.

Mm-hmm. Right Now, Dr. Meredith, so for the next 30 to 90 days, what two specific financial actions should veterinary professionals prioritize to reduce stress, improve clarity, and build long-term stability, supporting stronger leadership and a healthier workplace? All right, so I'm gonna answer this from a personal finance perspective. And so, so the first one is gonna be to create a personal financial baseline. And then the second one is going to be to pick one strategy and automate it. And so, so when we're talking about two things and we're talking about personal finance, there are a lot of different places in the financial journey, right?

And so veterinary professionals, you know, we're thinking of everyone from a vet assistant who just is just starting out to a practice owner who has been out for 20 years. And so, so there are a lot of different things. And so when we're, when we're trying to narrow that down to two actions, these are the ones that are the most general, but then you can make them specific for you. And so the first one is to create a personal financial baseline. And so in the next 30 days, figure out what your actual monthly spending looks like. and I mean, you can extrapolate this into to, practice finance as well, but, I use, a tool called Monarch Money with a lot of my clients, and it's available to anyone.

And so you can connect your bank accounts and credit cards to it. You can connect your, your investment and retirement accounts to it and figure out what you're actually spending month to month, and quarter to quarter for folks who have, irregular income, which is almost every veterinarian. And so knowing where your debt balances are, knowing how much you have in savings, knowing, okay, if we have a three to six month emergency fund, what should that emergency fund be based on your actual spending? And then also just figuring out, okay, what's your net income after taxes? 'cause a lot of people, you know, don't, don't necessarily think about that on a daily basis.

And so the reason this matters for leadership is that uncertainty drives anxiety, and anxiety is gonna drive reactivity. And so when you know, okay, this is how much my household expenses are, you know, it's $8,000 a month or whatever it is for you. And if you know, okay, this is how much I have in reserves, I've got, you know, th three months of expenses and savings, for example, or my student loans are on a 25 year forgiveness track and that's what my strategy's going to be, then your nervous system settles down and leaders who feel like they're financially grounded are gonna communicate better, they're gonna communicate differently, they're gonna negotiate differently, they're gonna make staffing decisions more calmly if they're, you know, settled in, in their own lives and with their own finances.

And then number two is picking one strategy and automating it. And so I'm big on automating things. So within 90 days, choose one of these things and, and lock it in. You're either going to automate something with your savings or your debt pay down or your bill pay. And so you can set up an automatic deposit to either an emergency fund, and it can be every couple of weeks, it can be every month, but, but setting it up so that your, your saving more, whether it's to your emergency fund, a travel fund and opportunity fund, I like talking about those because, opportunity fund might be a business that's like a, you know, some, a side hustle that you have always wanted to do, right?

or a house fund. A lot of people wanna buy a house, right? or you can automate contributions if you're not already doing that to your employer retirement account or to a retirement account that's outside of your employer. I see a lot of folks who have some consumer debt, so like, not student debt, but like consumer debt or practice debt and they want to pay it off sooner, but they're not automating it. And so they're gonna be a lot more successful if they commit to amount to an amount that they're gonna pay extra and then automate that. And then, and then of course, one of the easiest things that a lot of people have, have already done, but but maybe they don't have all of their bills signed up for it, is auto pay.

and I do see some of the most stressed folks that I see are folks who, who don't have anything automated and they, they sit down and they, they worry about paying each one of their bills every month when it could be something that's automated. so I'd encourage you when we're talking about automation, just like don't dabble in five different things. Just commit to one thing to do in the next, 30 to 90 days. And, if you automate things and you make those plans up front, that's gonna reduce decision fatigue and decision fatigue reduces, you know, if you have that, it reduces your bandwidth, then it's going to affect your wellness and it's gonna affect your resilience.

And financial resilience is really built through systems, not motivation. 'cause a lot of people, if they wait till they feel like doing something with their finances, they're never gonna do it. And so, so it can be just really important. so next 90 days don't try to optimize everything 'cause that's probably gonna be impossible, but if you get clear on your numbers and automate one core strategy for yourself, then you'll be, on, on your way and you can pick the next thing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. And Amy going on this whole 30 to 90 day plan situation. So what three focus strategic commitments should a practice make in the next 30 to 90 days to stabilize operations and regain momentum?

And who should own each one? I think, I'm just gonna pick one thing just 'cause I think it, it's a lot to ask an owner to do three things in 30 to 90 days. but if I could just choose the one thing it would be, like I love all this finance stuff because I think that really does stress 'em out. Like there's so much going on with the economy and I a I, now that I'm thinking back on it, I'm like, oh yeah, I'm actually having a lot more stressful conversations with owners. They're not outright saying like, oh, I'm stressed financially, but they're just more agitated about things. So this is very interesting. but I, I think, you know, again, going back to how it is a little bit slower, let's take this time to really just clarify what we're doing and I'd really want them to just clarify leadership and decision owning, between the practice owner and the manager.

'cause I find that a lot of these decisions, they don't move forward because either the owner's like, oh, the manager's got it. Or manager's like owner's got it. Or both of them are like, oh, I don't wanna step on the manager's toes 'cause I have a differing opinion, I don't want conflict. but if you just like have a chart, you just put all your responsibilities down for management, don't overthink it, just get it on paper and then put, your name and then your practice manager's name, put a little check mark for who owns what responsibility. And just understanding that doesn't mean you have to actually complete it, but it means that you're responsible for delegating and getting it done.

I think that is going to help you guys make faster decisions at the practice and also helps with the team because a lot of times I find at staff meetings, the team's like, well, why should I share anything? Nothing ever gets done. And usually it's because leadership can't make that decision because there isn't that clear. delegations and decision ownership. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. And now for the final question of the evening, Christie. So what three culture focused actions could leaders implement in the next 30 to 90 days? We don't have to talk about three. You can maybe just talk about one, like Amy said, to better support emotional labor and how should success be assessed?

Yeah, so I think the first action I would recommend is building in debriefing touchpoints in whatever way fits your practice workflow or schedule. So it could be in your one-on-ones, it could be, your team meetings, it could be during, you know, quick morning rounds or you know, Monday rounds. even just asking your team what was hard this week, what was meaningful, and just kind of having a short discussion together. It is so important. The ultimate goal here with debriefing is normalization. So it shows that we expect emotions here and, you know, we've built a supportive space to navigate them, but it's a safe space to say, Hey, this didn't go the way that I had planned.

Can I talk it through with you? Which you need a psychol, a psychologically emotional or safe space to, to kind of talk through those things. so when those touchpoints are routine and they're really normalized in your practice, then they're more likely to be organically happening or even team led. So, you know, it's just part of the culture. So it's like little tidbits throughout the day, little micro connections. the other thing I would recommend is kind of depending on your practice and your space, it building in some intentional visible connections to the why of your work. I've been in a lot of veterinary clinics who do such a good job with this.

You know, many people listening probably have this at their clinic, but I mentioned earlier, you know, the gratitude from clients and making sure to share that and celebrate that. So maybe having a gratitude wall with notes from clients or sharing a story each week or maybe ending an all staff meeting by reading out loud a, a card or a letter from a client, or even a, just a positive review or a positive survey result. even things like having that moment of silence after a euthanasia or as a group making a, a donation from the practice to a meaningful local organization. Anything that kind of connects your team as a, as a whole to the greater why of why we're here is so important.

the third thing is that I would really encourage leaders to take a moment to truly assess yourself as a leader in terms of how you embody the things that you want your team culture to include. It doesn't mean that we have to be perfect, none of us are. and I know that probably feels like a lot of pressure to embody all of these things, but I think the more important thing is to be intentional about it and to notice where is an area you maybe struggle with? Is there something that you can lean on a co-leader or someone else in your practice to kind of help with that area or, you know, learn more about it from other people, learn from members of your team even.

but really kind of being honest with ourselves and making sure that we're walking the walk and not just talking the talk. we want to be able to show our team not only is it normal to, you know, support each other and to debrief and to acknowledge the emotional labor, but how to do that. Because most of us in Vet Med maybe haven't been taught how to do that. Those weren't conversations, or processing that we had as students or early in our career. So that's really important for us to be a mentor to them in that way. and I think, you know, it doesn't mean that we have to do it perfectly. It's a journey for all of us, but starting that process, you know, sends the message that it's important and it shows them that it's okay not to be perfect at having these conversations.

We're all learning it together. And the beauty of it is that we're doing it and we're having these conversations. And I think when we implement some of these things, we'll know we're successful because we'll notice our team starting to self lead those conversations and having those moments kind of happen organically without us intentionally designing them for the team. There will be many small moments in a day that just kind of infuse our work and that hopefully will lead to, you know, happier teams, lower turnover, a safer culture, higher quality care so that things are being talked about and not just kind of festering. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right.

So we are almost at time now, so I want to ask each panelist for a 15 second golden nugget. One sentence. You want everyone here to write on a sticky note and put on their monitor. So starting with Amelia, Say, let's break the norm and stop normalizing survival mode. Put your oxygen mask On first. All right. Amazing. Meredith. predictable finances create predictable behavior. And so when veterinary professionals know their numbers and have a debt strategy and they can build savings, they can feel more confident and lead with clarity and clarity stabilizes teams. Mm-hmm. Amazing. Amy. I think for leaders to just look within, before they start complaining about the rest of the team, and it all starts with the leader.

So just keep that in mind. Mm-hmm. Christie? I would say as leaders, we are kind of the architect of our team culture, so I would encourage everyone to design that work culture with the emotional reality of the work that we do in mind, and make sure that we're acknowledging it and treating it as equally important to, you know, the clinical work that we do. Mm-hmm. Right. Thank you so much. All right. So now we have reached the end of this session. Thank you to our incredible panel. You've given us a roadmap from Burnout to Business Resilience. One last reminder, action meets intention. Echo Marketing is offering a complimentary strategy meeting for attendees.

If pet owners in your city are searching for the services you offer, make sure your clinic is the one they find first. Links in the chat, book your session before it fills up. Please fill up the feedback survey that will pop up as you exit this webinar. It'll help us create even better events for you. Thank you for investing your evening with the Veterinary Business Institute. We will see you at the next panel. Have a restful night and thank you for the work you do for our pets. Goodnight.