The Veterinary Leadership Success Show

Last week, I shared the 11 numbers I believe every veterinary practice should be tracking. But collecting numbers is only half the job. The real value comes from knowing what those numbers are trying to tell you. Because a dashboard isn't there to give you more data. It's there to help you spot problems earlier, ask better questions, and make better decisions. In this episode, I walk through how I...

When everything feels urgent, how do you know what to tackle first? It's something I've wrestled with throughout my career as a practice owner. There's always another problem demanding attention. A staffing issue. An unhappy client. A dip in revenue. A packed diary. A team disagreement. The temptation is to fight the loudest fire. But the loudest fire isn't always the most important one. In this e...

The best veterinary practices are not remembered because of their ultrasound machine. They are remembered because of how they make people feel . There’s an energy to remarkable practices. A personality. A story. A sense of identity that clients trust and teams rally behind. And yet most practices completely overlook one of the most powerful tools they have to shape that perception: design. In this...

This week’s episode is about something most practice owners avoid… until it starts keeping them awake at night. The numbers. I’m joined by Martin Traub-Werner, founder of VetBooks and VetSuccess, who has spent years helping practices understand what their financials are really saying. We get into a simple but uncomfortable truth. Most owners don’t really know their numbers. Not in a way that gives...

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Dr Andy Roark and he dropped a line that lit up the internet: “You, my friend, are a dick.” His point was simple and uncomfortable. In veterinary medicine, one of the biggest career killers is being someone others simply do not want to work with. You might be clinically excellent. You might work hard. But if you consistently damage relationships, you quietly lose o...

This week, we’re asking a question that’s been rumbling under the surface of vet med for far too long: Are clients really the problem, or have we lost our grip on what’s actually going wrong? To tackle this, I’m joined by Dr Seth Mathus Ganz, a board-certified small animal surgeon and founder of Agile Veterinary Surgery, who brings a rare perspective from working inside hundreds of practices. Seth...

In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show , I’m responding to the reaction . Specifically, the wave of comments that followed a recent episode and social posts about a new graduate’s early experience in practice. If you saw the Instagram reel or Facebook video, you’ll know the conversation struck a nerve. Some comments were thoughtful and supportive. Others were angry, frustrated,...

Part 1 laid bare what happens when well-meaning practices ask too much, too soon, without the systems to support it. In this second conversation, we deliberately turn the lens the other way. I’m joined by Dr. Moriah McCauley, a veterinarian now five years into practice, who shares what it looks like when graduate support is done well – thoughtfully, deliberately, and humanely. Moriah’s story matte...

The first year in practice should not decide whether someone stays in veterinary medicine. But too often, it does. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Hope Darnell, a recent graduate who shares a clear-eyed account of what her first year in practice was really like. Hope stepped into her first role with the things good graduates bring - commitment, curiosity, and a genuine desire to do the job well....

What happens when a seasoned vet with 30 years of experience decides to start again, but this time builds exactly the practice he wishes existed? In this week’s Veterinary Leadership Success Show, I sit down with my good friend, Dr. Jay Thrush, co-owner of Forty Creek Animal Hospital in Ontario. Jay is one of the calmest, kindest humans you’ll ever meet, the definition of still waters running deep...

Most leaders want change to be quick and clean. A few tweaks. A new policy. A better week. But meaningful change – the kind that transforms culture, steadies the ship, and creates a practice you actually love leading – follows a very different rhythm. In this episode, Oli and I dig into the truth about change. Why overwhelm is a diagnostic, not a character flaw. Why burnout often signals a system...

This week, we’re doing things a little differently. No written notes. No heavy leadership theory. Just me, Dr. Andy Roark, and a completely ridiculous idea involving visual art - on an audio podcast. (What could possibly go wrong?) If you don’t already know Andy, he’s a practicing veterinarian, international speaker, author, and media personality, and the founder of Uncharted Veterinary Conference...

Most practice owners think they have a vision. A sentence written years ago. A vague idea. A gut feeling. But a real vision, one that energises your team and shapes culture, is something very different. In this episode, Oliver and I break down the most common mistakes owners make when creating their vision – why many end up with fluffy statements that change nothing, why some practices have no vis...

You care deeply about your practice. The vision, the medicine, the values, the clients - it all matters to you. Maybe a bit too much sometimes. But unfortunately, just because you care, it doesn’t mean your team automatically will. So how do you get them on board? How do you turn that personal passion into something your whole team believes in and wants to be part of? In this episode, Oliver and I...

Why do veterinarians keep burning out? In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show , I’m unpacking why so many great people in our profession are burning out, and what we can learn from elite athletes about how to fix it. Because in sport, training hard every day is a fast track to injury. Yet in vet med, we do exactly that - long hours, relentless pressure, and no real recovery. The...

This week, we’re asking the big question - what happened to mentorship in vet med? To help me figure it out, I’m joined by Dr. Robin Hargreaves - former BVA President, lifelong mixed practitioner, and a man who’s spent nearly 40 years mentoring vets, leading teams, and keeping his sense of humour intact (which, frankly, might be his greatest achievement). Robin grew up on a hill farm in the Yorksh...

What do you do when most of your team walks out? Pour a stiff drink? Hide under the desk?  In this week’s Veterinary Leadership Success Show , I’m joined by Dr. Molly Husman , owner of Brinker Veterinary Hospital up in Lake Orion, Michigan, and a woman who has lived through the leadership nightmare most of us secretly dread. Within a year of buying her clinic, she made the brave decision to l...

Generational battles are raging in vet med. Older vets roll their eyes at “snowflakes” and their boundaries. Younger vets look at the “dinosaurs” and wonder why on earth burnout is worn like a badge of honour. So who’s right? In this episode, I dig into why these clashes happen, what both sides are actually getting right, and why the finger-pointing is making things worse, not better. We’ll talk a...

Hiring is one of the hardest jobs in veterinary leadership right now. Everyone’s fishing in the same tiny pond, and most practices look and sound exactly the same.  In this episode, I break down why veterinary recruitment feels like such a nightmare, and more importantly, what you can do to fix it. Spoiler alert: it’s not just about throwing more money at the problem. We’ll dig into what empl...

In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show, I’m joined by the brilliant Jenni George, CVPM . Jenni is a practice manager, co-owner of Deerfield Veterinary Clinic, and living proof that building a practice is never boring. Her story? Well, let’s just say it starts with a fold-up table in the living room, a flannel blanket for style, and a husband with big dreams but questionable bill...

In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show , I’m joined by my copilot, Oliver Loveday, Head of Community here at the Veterinary Leadership Academy. We’re digging into one of the most overlooked but absolutely critical parts of running a successful veterinary practice: your vision . And I don’t mean some fluffy slogan you stick on a wall and then ignore. I’m talking about the hard gr...

In this solo episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show, I’m diving into a topic that’s been bothering me for a while: trust. Now, on paper, the public still ranks vets among the most trusted professionals out there – second only to nurses in most surveys. But out in the real world, I keep seeing behaviours that chip away at that trust. Slowly. Quietly. Consistently. And if we’re not carefu...

In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show, I’m addressing yet another wave of bad press, this time from none other than the BBC, whose front-page headline accused rising vet fees of driving more pets to be euthanised. The article tries to point the finger at corporate practices, but let’s be honest, most readers won’t see that nuance. To the public, it’s not “corporates”, it’s “vet...

In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show, we’re pulling back the curtain on something that’s quietly sabotaging teams across the veterinary profession: disengagement. I’m joined by Oliver Loveday, our Head of Community, to talk about the early findings from our Veterinary Employee Engagement Benchmark Study (VEEBS) . We’ve had over 80 practices take part already, and the results a...

In this episode of the Veterinary Leadership Success Show, I’m tackling a topic that’s going to shape the future of our profession, whether we’re ready or not, I’m talking about AI. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Another shiny tool, another thing to learn. But this one’s different. Used right, AI can help you cut through the chaos, free up your time, and finally start making real progress on th...