The Uncharted Veterinary Podcast

Maria Pirita hosts Ron Sosa to discuss how veterinary leaders and managers can choose the right continuing education amid overwhelming options like conferences, online CE, certifications, and coaching. They emphasize starting with the end in mind by defining the impact or legacy you want, then selecting CE that aligns with long-term goals rather than quick gratification. They compare conferences t...

Ever wondered what else you can do with your veterinary technician credentials? Whether you're feeling burned out, ready for a new challenge, or simply curious about your options, there's a whole world of opportunities beyond the exam room! Dr. Andy Roark is joined by four registered veterinary technicians from Hill's Pet Nutrition: Anna Springer, RVT, Jennifer Katchadourian, RVT, Erin Richmond, B...

Your independent veterinary practice is losing pharmacy sales to online retailers, telehealth apps, and corporate groups with budgets you can't match, and it is starting to feel like a fight you can't win. In this mailbag episode of the Uncharted Veterinary Podcast, Maria Pirita, CVPM, and Dr. Andy Roark answer a listener from a high-touch, privately owned clinic asking how to stay profitable as o...

Maria hosts Ron Sosa to address a mailbag from a practice manager who absorbed multiple roles during short-staffing and now struggles to delegate due to fears tasks won’t get done, won’t be done correctly, or the team is too busy. They discuss the mental barriers behind delegation, emphasizing vulnerability, values, and overcoming perfectionism. Ron recommends tracking all incoming tasks for two w...

Managing Up in a Hiring Freeze, Boosting Productivity Without Burning Out Host Maria Pirita and Dr. Andy Roark discuss a detailed mailbag from a corporate practice manager who is required to work on the floor 32 hours a week with only eight hours for management, is banned from hiring, and is told to raise a productivity score from 160 to 180. They unpack how to use clinic metrics and industry benc...

In this special, 420th episode of the Uncharted Veterinary Podcast, Maria Pirita, CVPM interviews Jo McGuire of the National Drug and Alcohol Screening Association about how veterinary practices should handle suspected marijuana impairment at work amid changing state laws. They discuss a mailbag case where a practice manager observed possible intoxication, sent an employee home, and questioned wha...

You love teaching your team and staying hands on with patients, but every veterinary career path in front of you seems to run straight through the practice manager's office, and you're not convinced that's where you belong. In this episode, Maria Pirita, CVPM sits down with Elizabeth Stark, CVT, FVTE, MBA, founder of Vet Raft Solutions, to answer a mailbag from a veterinary team lead facing exactl...

Should your veterinary clinic have an angel fund? That is the exact mailbag question that Maria Pirita brings to this episode, and she pulled in Uncharted member, Beth Mehaffey, co-founder of Pennridge Animal Hospital and founder of Harley's Haven Dog Rescue, to help answer it. Beth has run a 501(c)(3) since 2010 and has grown it from an informal rescue into a full nonprofit with a community fund...

Maria Pirita welcomes Ron Sosa to discuss a mailbag question from an associate DVM asking how much financial transparency a clinic should share with staff and non-owner veterinarians so the team can set goals, track progress, and understand decisions about staffing and equipment. They explore why owners may get “cagey,” including fears of misinterpretation, seasonal profit swings, debt exposure, e...

Dr. Andy Roark hosts Dan Blumenthal, CEO and co-founder of Blue River Pet Care, to discuss winding down veterinary careers through succession planning, legacy, and creating flexibility for practice owners. They contrast extremes from owners with no plan to those who have already transitioned leadership, and unpack common middle-ground challenges when the owner is the “glue” of the practice. Dan em...

A practice manager just acquired a second location with a loyal team and 26-year-old medicine. Dr. Andy Roark and Maria Pirita, CVPM, dig into how to modernize the care without making anyone feel outdated, covering symbolic transitions, building a high-standards identity, and getting skeptical doctors on board.

Their practice manager plays favorites and talks down to the team, and ownership already knows. So why hasn't anything changed? Maria Pirita, CVPM, and Ron Sosa, CVPM, break down what to do when you're dealing with a difficult practice manager and a silent owner, from swapping vague complaints for documented specifics to reading what your culture's real numbers are telling you. They close with the...

Dr. Andy Roark joins host Maria Pirita to respond to a mailbag from a practice manager who is denied access to financials like P&Ls, payroll, and bill paying, yet is evaluated and compensated based on profitability. They discuss why owners may restrict financial transparency, including personal discomfort with money, fear of judgment, comparison, and common embezzlement concerns, and emphasize...

Dr. Andy Roark and Tyler Grogan, CVT, answer a mailbag question from a veterinary technician lead who feels like they’re failing because different doctors and leaders keep asking for conflicting changes, from exam room setup to whether to take a temperature on a fractious pet. They discuss separating personal preferences from practice-wide policies, recognizing patterns that signal a need for stan...

Asking for a Raise in a Tough Economy, How Practice Managers Can Advocate Without Burning Bridges Host Maria Pirita and Dr. Andy Roark discuss a mailbag from a practice manager who has not received a raise in three years and feels the impact of inflation while clinic revenue is down after closing boarding and grooming. They emphasize approaching raises as a relationship and business conversation,...

Today Maria Pirita sits down with Dr. Jon Younker, a small-animal GP turned practice owner and VetLaunch consultant, about a medical director whose desk has become the default for decisions ranging from protocol disagreements and client complaints to scheduling, staffing, and inventory, creating a bottleneck and cutting into clinical callbacks. They frame the issue as clarifying decision ownership...

When Friends Won’t Stop Asking for Vet Advice, Setting Boundaries Without the Guilt Maria Pirita hosts Dr. Andy Roark on the Uncharted Veterinary Podcast to tackle a common veterinary medicine frustration, friends, family, and random acquaintances constantly asking for free pet advice via texts and social media. They respond to a mailbag from a vet tech who feels guilty, worried about liability, a...

Maria Pirita, CVPM sits down with Ron Sosa, CVPM to tackle a mailbag question every practice runs into: how do you build veterinary technician decision-making skills without risking patient safety or liability? They dig into why technicians hesitate to act, the real difference between a training gap and a performance issue, and how psychological safety shapes whether a team member speaks up or sta...

Urgent care slots turning into a dumping ground for recheck visits? Maria sits down with Dr. Andy Roark to unpack why forward booking breaks down, how to get doctors comfortable handing recheck visits to trained technicians, and what it actually takes to build team accountability around the schedule. If your practice is drowning in progress checks, this one's for you. Mentioned in this episode: Ca...

Bring back smoke breaks! Well... kinda. Your team skips breaks, works through lunch, and pushes through stress because there's "too much to do." But what if that's actually hurting productivity, resilience, and patient care? In this episode, Maria Pirita, CVPM and Ron Sosa, CVPM discuss why veterinary medicine may have accidentally created a culture that discourages breaks, what we lost when "smok...

Is managing feelings just practice management life? Host Maria Pirita and Dr. Andy Roark tackle a mailbag from a practice leader exhausted by constant team “feelings,” passive-aggressive conflicts, and the sense that leadership must coddle and babysit instead of getting work done. They agree that emotions are part of leadership, but emphasize the goal is not endlessly mediating drama, it is buildi...

Host Maria Pirita and guest Ron Sosa, CVPM and author of Rewriting the Rules, tackle a mailbag question about what to tell a veterinary team when a well-liked employee must be fired for reasons that did not directly affect coworkers. They discuss the leader’s mindset, balancing empathy with business needs, and avoiding over-explaining, justifying, or revealing confidential details. Key goals are s...

Dr. Andy Roark joins Maria Pirita, CVPM, to tackle one of the most emotionally charged challenges in veterinary medicine: client financial conversations. How do you recommend the care a pet truly needs without judging a client's wallet, carrying the weight of their financial decisions, or compromising your standards? Together, they explore spectrum of care, pricing transparency, client communicati...

When veterinary leaders build a culture centered around support, flexibility, and growth, it can feel deeply personal when the team still says, “I don’t feel supported.” In this episode, Maria Pirita and Dr. Andy Roark unpack the tension between caring for your people and protecting the operational health of the practice, especially when multiple team members go back to school at the same time. Fr...

The veterinary clinic is fully staffed… so why does everyone still feel completely overwhelmed? In this episode, Dr. Andy Roark and Maria Pirita unpack the hidden systems, workflow bottlenecks, communication breakdowns, and leadership challenges that leave veterinary teams drowning despite having enough people on paper. If your practice struggles with burnout, operational chaos, client service pre...