Blunt Dissection: The Best Minds In Veterinary Medicine, Academia & Business Profiled So You Can Learn From Their Experience.

On today’s episode, it’s a pleasure to be joined by Dr Mia Cary. When I ask for guest recommendations from you guys, Mia’s is a name that comes up frequently, and here’s why. She has seen animal care from multiple different and interesting vantage points. And she’s excelled in them all. She began her career as a marine biologist before trading dolphins for dogs and completed her veterinary degree at the University of Florida. After graduation, she had a short spell in general practice before moving into her first industry role with Novartis where she spent many years rising to the level of national sales trainer and brand manager. She then moved to the snappily titled Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica where she held the roles of Marketing Manager for the Companion Animal Section and Director of Professional Services for the mid-Atlantic area. Her career then took a new direction when she traded a life in pharma for a role as the head of training and innovation for the North American Veterinary Community.

On today’s show, I am delighted to be joined by Squadron Leader Tim Davies, a qualified fast jet instructor for the Royal Air Force. Over his 20 year career, Tim has been a frontline Tornado GR4 low-level strike attack pilot, before becoming a fast jet flying instructor. He served all over the world and clocked up over 2,500 flight hours. As an instructor he flew the Hawk T2 in an advanced flying training role teaching students and instructors how to use the aircraft as a weapons system. If that doesn't mean a lot then think Jester or Viper in the film Top Gun. Tim has been responsible for training every frontline pilot in the RAF since 2007. At the last count that’s over 350 highly skilled operators. So, I hope you’re starting to get a sense of why I am so thrilled to have him on the podcast. Anyone who has successfully flown military aircraft for 20 years and says "I'm just into studying failure, that's kinda my thing” certainly gets my attention. Though at first glance war and healthcare seem unli

On today’s show, we welcome Dr Gerardo Poli, author of the minivet guide, Emergency Veterinarian and Director at Animal Emergency Service, a business with four hospitals based in Queensland, Australia. He completed his Vet Degree at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008 - graduating with first class honours. He was awarded the Australian Veterinary Association Student Award and Gerardo was also selected as valedictorian of his year. Following graduation, he spent almost three years in a busy small animal general practice finding his feet but in 2010 discovered his passion in the high octane field of emergency and critical care. Gerardo achieved his Membership with the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in the field of Emergency and Critical Care in 2012. Completing his decade-long education binge with his Masters of Veterinary Studies through Murdoch University two years later in 2014. When he straps on his Superman outfit at work, Gerardo gets most excited about snatc

On the podcast today I’m joined by Dr Peter Weinstein. Peter has had a rich, varied and successful career based in Southern California. He is a graduate of Cornell University and got his veterinary degree from the University of Illinois. After graduation, he worked as an associate for three years before opening his own practice. While running his practice he, like many of us, learnt the hard way that it takes way more than just a love of animals to run a successful hospital and so undertook his MBA. This was a decision that made a major positive impact on his trajectory and his practice subsequently took off, resulting in its eventual sale to a corporate consolidator. At which point Peter "segway-ed" out of clinical practice and into the land of politics and business consulting. In part 2 of his career, he served as President and Executive Director of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association, President of the California Veterinary Medical Association and he is a Past-President for VetPartners

This month’s episode is a mash up from all ten of my guests from around the world in 2017. I’ve cut five of the most powerful minutes from each interview into one episode so you can distill a huge amount of value. Also if you’ve never listened in to the Blunt Dissection Podcast before then this episode is a great starting point. Ep 1: Diederik Gelderman: Leadership - What is it and why we are all leaders? Ep 2: Garret Turley discusses dealing with your inner trash talk and making decisions. Ep 3: RVC Graduates of 2017 talk about the things graduates want to see from their future employers - this is dynamite if you are looking to hire a millennial vet. Ep 4: Dr Sue Ettinger busts some pet cancer myths that abound in the industry. Ep 5: Dr Karen Bradley & Kim Therrian discuss their own unique angles on women in veterinary leadership. Ep 6: John Sheridan paints a picture of what Future Vet Clinic Inc might look like. Ep 7: Dr John Dooley & Dr Nadine Hamilton open their hearts and share their stories of

On today’s show I am joined by my good friend Dr Andy Roark. Andy is one of the hottest properties in veterinary medicine with good reason. He’s a tireless networker, innovator and one of the best presenters on the vet speaking circuit. His accolades to date include winning NAVC speaker of the year three times over, creating and presenting the “Cone of Shame" Youtube show and founding the Uncharted Vet Conference. Much of this being possible because he has built one of the largest personal brands in vet industry, amassing well over 200,000 fans on Facebook on the way to becoming a social media personality. A phenomenon that makes it truely a pain in the backside trying to have a quiet drink at the bar with him at any vet conference, such is the omni-present demand for selfies with Andy or “Roarkies” as I now decided to call them. We had a great chat and got stuck into some great topics including: 1. What inspired Dr Roark into becoming a vet. 2. Why networking is an essential part of having a great car

On today’s show I am joined by Dr Dani McVety. Dani is the CEO and co-founder of Lap of Love, a business that delivers end of life hospice care to pets across America. She started the business immediately after graduation with nothing more than a website and cellphone and over the ten years since, it has grown into a multimillion dollar business employing more then 100 vets across the US. Performance that has won multiple awards and marks her out as one of the best entrepreneurs in veterinary medicine. Dani is a quick thinker, great raconteur and is in possession of one of the sharpest minds in veterinary medicine. This was a conversation on rocket fuel and is rich in lessons on leadership, life and running a successful business. So sit back and enjoy my chat with Dr Dani McVety. 1. How failure as a student spurred her on to greater things. 2. How her parents were such a positive influence 3. Why she started Lap Of Love. 4. What hospice care and why it matters. 5. Some insights into how we might better e

Today’s podcast guest is one of the UK’s finest, Professor Stuart Carmichael. Stuart is one of the few people on earth to have headed up the clinical services team of not one, but two of the best Vet Schools here in Britain - the Royal Veterinary College in London and Glasgow Vet School in Scotland. During his tenure, both locations successfully underwent rapid business growth and transformational cultural change. Prof Carmichael also seems to have a masochistic streak having overseen three, that’s right, three large-scale construction hospital construction projects across the UK, the last of which was the Fitzpatrick Oncology and Soft Tissue Referral Hospital in 2016. Prof Carmichael, I call him Stuart since I've been annoying him since he taught me as an undergraduate, has a list of qualifications and publications that would take days to read out. I’m going to spare us all the sense of crushing disappointment that our careers didn't go like this by not doing that. What I will tell you is that the cherry

Normally on Blunt Dissection, I put a person under the spotlight. But in this episode, I decided to place a subject there instead. And since you can’t ask a subject questions I’ve invited two experts onto the show to share their stories.  The people are Dr. John Dooley & Dr. Nadine Hamilton and the subject is suicide in veterinary professionals.  John and Nadine have two contrasting perspectives on this morbid issue and together they share their personal and professional insight into the depressive state that leads to suicide. Plus they have some fantastic advice on what can be done to prevent veterinary professionals from falling into this overwhelming mental chasm. In today’s show we learn: The story of how one Aussie vet let past traumas in his life lie dormant for years until one day the emotions boiled up into his conscious and created “serpents in his mind” leading to a complete mental breakdown, depression and a very near miss with suicide.  How he managed to pull through and was able to build a m

Today’s guest is the global high priest of veterinary business John Sheridan. John, one of the profession's true trail blazers and his journey stretches back to a wartime education during The Blitz and early clinical experience in the Herriot Era of practice. He stood at ground zero for veterinary corporatisation in the UK when he set up Veterinary Practice Initiatives back in 1998. And he reaches into the future and remains on the cutting edge of thought leadership and content production publishing weekly on his blog and also the vet business video show - currently approaching episode 200. Now did I mention that in addition to his veterinary degree from the RVC, John was president of both the British Small Animal Veterinary Association and the Veterinary Practice Management Association? Plus he holds a diploma in practice management, the CVPM and just because he’s showing off, the CVPA. He jointly authored the 'Business of Veterinary Practice' Book and recently received a Pioneer Professional Member Awar

The first of my guests on episode five of the Blunt Dissection podcast is Dr Karen Bradley. Karen has been a vet for over twenty years and, having been inspired while working alongside a group of very strong female leaders early in her career, is now the solo owner of a successful 5 vet practice in Vermont (USA). She has also been super-active within the realm of US vet politics during her career with numerous influential roles and currently sits on the board of directors of The American Veterinary Medical Association. During her career Karen observed that there many women in vet med but not many women in leadership positions—and so she decided that she should be doing something about that. She is one of the founding members of NFP Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative (WVLDI). Karen is joined by my second guest Dr Kim Therrien. Kim graduated from the University of Montreal and has somewhat different career path to normal starting out as a Canadian customs officer before heading to vet sch

On the podcast today I talk with Dr Sue Ettinger aka “ The Cancer Vet”. Dr Sue is a boarded oncologist and heads up the Oncology Department at the Animal Specialty & Emergency Center in the Hudson Valley, NY. She is the co-author of the best-selling book "The Dog Cancer Survival Guide”, co-hosts The Pet Cancer Vet podcast and if that wasn’t enough, is a Certified Veterinary Journalist contributing content to Clinician’s Brief, Today’s Veterinary Practice, Veterinary Team Brief, and DVM360. Dr Sue is super-passionate about raising cancer awareness and developed the awesome “See Something, Do Something. Why Wait? Aspirate" program, more on that in the episode. This might be my favourite episode yet, the energy was insane, please enjoy this awesome conversation and get to know Dr Sue.

In today’s podcast, I visit the Royal Vet College, London to talk with five final year vet students ready to start their careers. We talk vet school life, student debt, job expectations & get the student view on corporate vs independent practice. This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in how the next generation of vets thinks. So sit back and enjoy the conversation with the class of 2017.

In today's episode we talk to veterinary entrepreneur turned private equity financier Garret Turley. Garret was one of the founders of Pet Doctors which he grew in 1995 from one site clinic to a 30 hospital behemoth, stretching across the south coast of England. He successfully sold the business to CVS in a multimillion pound deal in 2011. Garret now manages a London-based, private equity investment fund focussed on the healthcare and education spaces. In addition to his veterinary degree which he gained at Cambridge University, he holds and MBA from Henley. Our conversation is wide ranging and covers a lot of ground including how an upbringing immersed in the sectarian violence of Northern Ireland helped motivate him to become a high performer and where he sees the opportunities/threats to the veterinary industry from areas as diverse as technology, corporate influence and the long overdue impact of female leadership. Garret is a high octane but great fun person so sit back and enjoy some awesome insight a

The guest on episode one of Blunt Dissection is Dr Diederik Gelderman Australian veterinary business legend, former veterinary hospital owner, current Australian Veterinary business Association (AVBA) President and creator of the Turbo Charge Your Veterinary Practice series of business development products. Diederik graduated from the University of Sydney with First Class Honours in 1977, established Greenhills Veterinary Hospital in 1977 and transformed it from a struggling 1-man practice into a burgeoning regional Veterinary Hospital servicing the wider Hunter Valley. This business won many Australian Veterinary as well as non-Veterinary (customer service) awards from 1996 till 2005. He began coaching veterinary professionals with my Turbo Charge Your Veterinary Practice seminar, in 2004, to a small group of associates. Rapidly, these events became key opportunities on the Australian Veterinary calendar. In 2009, his seminars expanding internationally to Hong Kong, NZ, Europe and the US. Since then he