#038 - We're ringing in 2024 with the incredible Dr Liv Oginska, emotional intelligence expert, one of the UK's newest Bright Minds Wellness Champions, and creator of Human Savvy.
In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of being a veterinary professional - how it is so much more than treating our patients; and just how important it is for us to commit to developing our emotional intelligence in order to perform to the best of our ability - both inside and out of the veterinary practice.
Dr Liv shares some details about the innovative Human Savvy League for Veterinary Leaders, the transformative power of intentional support and performance strategies that are reshaping veterinary leadership around the globe. We also chat candidly about New Year's resolutions, where Liv gives us a healthy reality check by reminding us that action and strategy are critical components to the success of achieving our goals.
Get ready to be uplifted as we share the magic of setting purposeful goals and the courage it takes to chase them. Dr. Liv's vibrancy is contagious, proving that positiVETy is not just an ideal but a practice we can embed in our daily lives. This conversation is an invitation to step boldly into the New Year, armed with joy, purpose, and a community that has your back, cheering you on. Here's to a year of cherished moments; living in alignment; and of course, veterinary happiness!
Join The Human Savvy League waitlist - the next cohort starts in April 2024.
Follow Dr Liv Oginska @humansavvy or find out more about Becoming Human Savvy
Get in touch with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and visit our website - platinumcpd.com
#038 - We're ringing in 2024 with the incredible Dr Liv Oginska, emotional intelligence expert, one of the UK's newest Bright Minds Wellness Champions, and creator of Human Savvy.
In this episode, we discuss the intricacies of being a veterinary professional - how it is so much more than treating our patients; and just how important it is for us to commit to developing our emotional intelligence in order to perform to the best of our ability - both inside and out of the veterinary practice.
Dr Liv shares some details about the innovative Human Savvy League for Veterinary Leaders, the transformative power of intentional support and performance strategies that are reshaping veterinary leadership around the globe. We also chat candidly about New Year's resolutions, where Liv gives us a healthy reality check by reminding us that action and strategy are critical components to the success of achieving our goals.
Get ready to be uplifted as we share the magic of setting purposeful goals and the courage it takes to chase them. Dr. Liv's vibrancy is contagious, proving that positiVETy is not just an ideal but a practice we can embed in our daily lives. This conversation is an invitation to step boldly into the New Year, armed with joy, purpose, and a community that has your back, cheering you on. Here's to a year of cherished moments; living in alignment; and of course, veterinary happiness!
Join The Human Savvy League waitlist - the next cohort starts in April 2024.
Follow Dr Liv Oginska @humansavvy or find out more about Becoming Human Savvy
Get in touch with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and visit our website - platinumcpd.com
Platinum CPD and the Positivity Podcast acknowledges the traditional owners of the land where we work, live and record the Nungar people of the Wajak region and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and elders, past and present.
Speaker 2:So that is one of the biggest proofs of us needing emotional intelligence in our practice, because even in those situations that are not as tragic as euthanasia, we still need to make sure that how we convey the information is very cognitive, very intellectual, very logical information. How we send it to the world really matters. We make it land a certain way and if it lands the bad way, it's useless that sort of information.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Positivity Podcast. I'm your host, emma McConnell, equine Veth company director, wife, mum to Daisy, chihuahua enthusiast and lover of miniature ponies. We are on a mission to bring happiness back into veterinary medicine by shining the brightest of spotlights on all the positive aspects of the veterinary industry. Through the sharing of stories, we will showcase the magic and joy that comes with being a veterinary professional, encouraging you to remain motivated about this special vocation and helping you become as mentally wealthy as possible, both at work and in life. Every one of us has a unique story that is worth sharing, and this is the perfect platform to share the extraordinary tales of our colleagues and community. So settle in and rediscover the joy of veterinary medicine, and get ready to feel inspired and energized about your chosen career. This is the Positivity Podcast. Hello, my dear colleagues, happy New Year and welcome back to the Positivity Podcast. Can you believe it?
Speaker 1:2024 is upon us and I truly hope that you are entering this new year feeling motivated, inspired and ready to tackle whatever challenges might be in store. If not, that's also okay. There's no doubt that this time of year can be absolutely exhausting, emotionally draining and, not to mention, clinically crazily busy. So if that's the case. I wish you time to rest and recharge. Today we're welcoming back a very special guest and dear friend of the podcast, emotional intelligence expert and one of the UK's newest Bright Minds Wellness Champions, dr Liv from HumanSabbi. During the episode, liv will be sharing her thoughts on New Year's resolutions and how action and strategy is the key to your 2024 goal setting success. We'll also chat about self awareness and just how helpful it is to know exactly where we stand, and also why emotional intelligence is so critical in both a clinical and practical setting. So we're kicking 2024 off with a massive dose of positivity. Let's get into it Well. Hello Liv, and welcome back to the Positivity Podcast.
Speaker 2:Hi, am I so good to meet back. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:You are very welcome. I'm also thrilled to have you back on the show. You obviously you know we're on with us back in 2022. Actually, I think it was November, so just over a year ago. So absolutely wonderful to have you back and I'm sure a lot has happened in that time.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh goodness, so much has happened. Would you like me to tell you what happened?
Speaker 1:Oh, my God, I would love you to share with us what you've been up to for the last 12 months, because if I know you, I would say that you've been doing quite a lot of things. Yeah how much time do we have I?
Speaker 2:was just like give us the highlight reel.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness. Okay, let's try. Let's try Just to summarize that I feel like and it's going to sound a little bit weird maybe if someone asks you this question what happened, but I would like to boil it down to maybe one sentence, which is I feel like I am finally on the right path, that I am in a going in the right direction with the tools that I actually needed. I started my PhD since we last talked, so it's really nice to finally feel that I am approaching the topic really, really properly than I'm doing that with that discipline of the academia, the preparation, the research behind everything that I do. Now I feel like I'm very, very much ingrained in the world of academia and that really helps me to just stay focused and do my job properly Very important for me for everything to be deeply rooted in science. So that is a big thing that started and that gave me that really good direction. What also happened is a bit more academia in my life, because I became a lecturer at Merida University.
Speaker 2:I work with students and I helped them develop their emotional intelligence. Just to put it very simply, we work on the communication skills. I help them to master the art of feedback, because we know that's really, really hard to do it properly without traumatizing people and also staying assertive but also kind as we do it. So that is my job now. Very soon we are starting a new workshop for the students. It's all about eutanasia how to prepare ourselves, how to prepare the client for that very, very difficult moment, how to take care of everyone who is involved in that situation, which is the client, obviously, our patient, but also ourselves. So that was just the focus of my work as a lecturer.
Speaker 1:Those lucky students, like I have to say, because and it's so wonderful to see that topics like this are being integrated into the Venry curriculum because certainly when I went through vet school, I don't know what it was like when you went through, but we didn't have any of that and you sort of end up finding yourself in practice, kind of learning on the job, and not really sure like, oh gosh, am I doing this correctly? Are there sort of better ways that I could be doing that? So that's such a valuable tool that you are providing to the students, so they're well and truly going to be entering practice or being able to transition to practice, hopefully much more seamlessly than what it was like for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really hope so. And I was in the same position as you were. I didn't have any training around that. I feel like it sounds really ridiculous to say that, but at some point people were calling me when I was deeply ingrained in the general practice. People were calling me the eutanasia queen, which is a terrible, terrible term, I know, but it was just because the clients, they felt as comfortable as it's possible in that situation when I was taking care of them. And I don't want it to sound cocky in any way, but I think it was just those situations where those passionate around psychology, those skills that I was developing for myself and to support my colleagues, they were handy. They were handy as well.
Speaker 2:So that is one of the biggest proof of us needing emotional intelligence in our practice. Because even in those situations that are not as tragic as eutanasia, we still need to make sure that how we convey the information is very cognitive, very intellectual, very logical information. How we send it to the world, it really matters. We make it land certain way and if it lands the bad way, it's useless that sort of information. No one's going to absorb it, no one's going to utilize that. We'll never convince our clients to follow our recommendations of the treatment of the patient. We'll never encourage our colleagues to cooperate with us if we don't know how to say it, if we don't know how we make them feel. So that's just another proof of the importance of the EQ in our world.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, because I can think of so many times when, not that we're trying to sort of necessarily convince clients or owners to do certain things, but more to you know, when we are delivering the options you know for management or further to do some sort of treatment. And you know, you definitely have those conversations where it just seems really difficult to relay the information or to help those clients sort of really understand what you're saying. So, yeah, I can definitely see how, you know, those skills become even more valuable in helping us to be able to do our job to the best of our ability.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. And with clients, I feel like it's not only about taking them on board on that journey and making sure that they will follow our recommendation, but it's also making this whole experience as suitable and as comfortable as possible, again, to everyone involved. So there is now that framework of contextual medicine, of making sure that what we practice, the medicine that we practice, it is immersed in the specific, very individual context of every patient and every client that we have. It is something that the organizations who spread the awareness of the veterinary social work. They're deeply immersed, and I think it's very important to talk about those things.
Speaker 2:So, just like we need a bit of a help when we work with people, our clients, who are not maybe in the best financial situation or health situation, we also need, as a team, a bit of support from coming from one another and some training to make sure that we ourselves we know that we're still doing a good job, that we take into account all the conditions, all the factors, and in order to take them into account, we need to find out what they are, and this is where the empathy steps in.
Speaker 2:How can we find out from the client what their true situation is? We need to make them feel safe before we can find out what is actually happening in their world. Those skills are tricky. We're not taught that at school, like primary school, high school. In our families thankfully now a bit more in some of the vet schools like Murdoch and many of us, the graduates we try to do it. We are not sure if we're doing it all right. This can be very sensitive topics, so I just feel like we all need a bit of support there to just do our job really well and feel comfortable as we do it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I guess it's about raising awareness around these things as well, because something that's quite close to my heart and is a research interest of mine is looking into caregiver burden, because I think that's also something that, as a veterinary professional, sometimes we maybe don't consider the effects on our clients, the requests that we make of them, especially dealing with a cat or a dog or a horse with a chronic illness. We obviously expect them to medicate them daily, give specific feeding instructions, etc. And sometimes we forget to think about what kind of burden is that placing on this client and are they capable and do they have the sort of mental capacity or capacity within their own busy life to actually be able to do all of those things that we expect and ask of them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. And if we find out before we implement some sort of treatment with the client, if we find out about all the obstacles that are there, if we very gently inquire about them, when we give them space to share with us that this actually will be an obstacle, then we will avoid that gigantic, really heavy feeling of guilt. Yes, very often our clients, when we tell them, okay, so you need to give them medication twice a day in the morning, in the evening, they will feel like, oh gosh, I cannot tell that that that's actually in the evenings. I'm mentally so exhausted that maybe there's no specific reason why I shouldn't be able to give that medication, but I might just forget because the stress gets to me all day. So they will forget, they will fail in their own eyes, they will feel guilty that they are hurting their beloved pet. We need to find out those things first before we set them up for failure very soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so kind of, I mean, our job. It just goes to show how complex our job is really, doesn't it? Like, not only are, we focusing on like it's almost exhausting just talking about it. But you know, we're not only just focusing on diagnosing and treating, we're sort of treating the client as well. And well, I guess it's just thinking of the client as a human right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And that is very complex and that is really difficult, and we are humans as well. That doesn't help.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, oh my gosh. So lots more has been happening. So you made a pretty big move this year too, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh yeah, actually I forgot that that happened. I did move to Australia. I moved to PATH, western Australia, and I found a true home in here. I'm very grateful to everyone for welcoming me so beautifully, yourself included. You made it so, so beautiful for me and easy for me to feel like at home, and many other people here in PATH locally and in Australia in general.
Speaker 2:So it was a fantastic move and I basically started my life in here with speaking at a congress at ABA congress so that was very intense, but also such a great start to feel that this community is ready for that a little bit different angle to supporting our teams and the performance of those teams, which is making sure that we utilize our humanity in the most comfortable way, the more successful way. I was a little bit worried about that, because that angle is very Bizarre. It's usual. It's something that took me, I think, two years in the United Kingdom for that to be noticed and then and then taken into account. So I was really relieved to see that Australia is actually a ground where people are open to those quite valuable innovations that I was so great.
Speaker 1:Oh no, that's wonderful. And tell me, how was your first Aussie Christmas what I was saying? Probably quite different to a Polish Christmas.
Speaker 2:no, Very different and, in full honesty, I didn't feel it for a long time. I didn't feel Christmasy and in Europe, both in Poland, in the United Kingdom gets cold and gets cozy and you're sitting in front of the fire and you're sitting in a pop packed with decorations, christmas trees. So it's very different as, obviously, family there and I didn't have my family here apart from my husband. Thank God he was with me. So I didn't feel it for a very long time, up until the Christmas Eve, which in Polish tradition, christmas Eve, so 24th of December, is the most important one. And then we cracked on with making traditional dishes, some traditional food, and we started filling it. We also bought some native plant that very much looks like Christmas tree and we decorated it. So it also made it more Christmasy for us. Before our kittens started attacking the tree and it fell down within the five minutes, but otherwise it was very Christmasy.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's good. I know it is always an interesting thing, I think, especially when you've come from Europe, you know you've come from winter. Then having a Christmas when it's summer just seems really bizarre. But yeah, but it's good and I'm glad that you had a good time. So there was probably a couple more exciting things that happened for you, but one thing I did just want to really congratulate you on, and that's becoming one of the UK Bright Minds wellness champions, which is absolutely incredible. So congratulations on that award. It's very well deserved.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. That was such a surprise. I still don't know who nominated me. Oh really, maybe one of my savvy and the members of the human savvy league, which now we are running the second cohort, so even more. I don't know who that was, but it was such a beautiful surprise and I keep saying that. But it's actually what I mean. This reward is not for me. This reward is for the topic of emotion, intelligence in the vet world, coming from none existing place, basically in here, and sounding like something fluffy and a bit woo woo. Now be appreciated by. It was nearly 2000 people and I was shocked when I heard that is such a success of this topic and people think that is important and needed. So thank you everyone who voted, who appreciated it.
Speaker 1:It's such a joy to see it happen. But I think it just goes to show, like you said, that people are really realizing the power of this topic and, and really, I guess, when people are starting to utilize these skills and seeing the transformation that does occur both within their sort of professional and personal life, you know, it just adds weight to that, doesn't it? And the more people we can get this, you know, in front of, the better.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is very funny what you said about the person life, because this is a lot of situations where I will hear my coach Easton talking about her person life and how that changed because of the leadership training that we do or the professional training that we do. I had a husband of one of my coach is messaging me saying that I saved their marriage. Oh, wow, that is mental. So it's really fascinating to watch how it spreads on different areas of life and I'm again grateful for that. And those people really need to trust me with a lot of personal stories, a lot of their insecurities, fears. I feel like I'm very, very privileged to be part of it, because people don't have to tell me those things. So I would like to use this opportunity to say huge, huge thank you to everyone who decided to trust me. It's a big deal. I don't take it lightly. Thank you so much, guys. You are amazing. Oh, my coaches are just amazing.
Speaker 1:I was going to say, well, I guess they're, you know, putting themselves in a very vulnerable position, but it's certainly, you know, for their own growth though, right. So it's probably like a difficult thing to do, but absolutely worthwhile.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really hope, so I'm trying to do my best.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna say perhaps you could just tell us a little bit more about the human savvy league. And one thing in particular I did want to ask you is that as part of this particular coaching program, you do something called the mini EQ 360. Which, yeah, I just wanted. If you could maybe just quickly share a little bit about what that is and why it is such an important tool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. So humans have a league is a group of leaders, veteran leaders. It's usually maximum 14 of them in one cohort, so it's very private, it's very intimate, if you can say, that group of people who meet every month, sometimes twice a month if they want to, and we work through many different topics that are all. So in order to be a good leader, we need to know ourselves. There's no way we're gonna be able to handle other people if we don't know enough about our own humanity, our own limitations, things that stop us from being actually an excellent leader.
Speaker 2:So what you mentioned, that mean inversion of the of the full we perform at the beginning of every cohort, which means that I reach out to a lot of people who work or live with the savvy, so with the member of the league, and I asked them a lot of questions and those questions are very Honest, very open.
Speaker 2:The responses can be quite brutal, but what we want to find out from the people who surrounds so that 360 kind of means people above, below and on the same level we want to find out more about other people's opinion on savvy's emotion, intelligence. So how does that pass and how does the savvy show up to others, how do others perceive that person? And that is called the external self awareness, and it's something that most people never had an opportunity to do. And because it's, first of all, very scary to ask others what do you think about me? Am I impatient, am I nice or am I actually pretty horrible? It's really difficult thing to do. And also, the other hand, even if we ourselves ask others about their opinion, there is a lot of research that shows that the responses still might be not as honest as they would be when a completely external person asks about your opinion on someone.
Speaker 2:Basically, what I'm doing is I'm serving as a like a collector of those opinions for my series and according to those results, people know where they stand. Is kind of like putting them on a map and then they know how they should even use the league, because league cover so many topics. All the emotional competencies that we learn, and then the leadership skills that we learn, like conflict mediation, like motivating the team, bringing innovation, making sure that we nurture psychological safety, all of those tools. They can be used in many different ways. So we look at the whole league through the lens of that assessment, because we can't do everything. You can do everything but not everything in the same time. So we take it step by step with prioritize needs to very Be quite strategic in its to make sense, how we approach the league.
Speaker 2:So in that group we meet for 12 months. With the first cohort we are actually finishing next month and that is really exciting and sad. I know that they requested to keep meeting, so we will keep meeting. It won't be within the league anymore, but there is a special kind of like a stream of the human savvy that I will create for them and we just want to support one another and those people they create friendships. They feel supported by one another, because being a leader can be very lonely and they know that they are in a very similar situation, even though some of them are clinical directors, some of them are head nurses, some of them are the owners of the practice, so everyone is a little bit different situation, but they share the challenges and they feel understood. Some of them offer jobs to one another. Amazing, it's just fantastic. So much practical advice that they share with one another. Absolutely amazing that is the league.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, it sounds absolutely amazing and certainly, I guess, having that insight where you are, I guess being identified your blind spots effectively, albeit probably a little bit or a lot scary. And I guess sometimes we sort of put our heads in the sand and maybe we sort of just want to think that we are doing a good job and we maybe don't really want to hear what people truly think about us. I can just only imagine how valuable that information is. As hard as it may be to hear just how valuable that is, but what a gift as well. It's absolutely terrifying.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of tears when we get the results, but no one said it's going to be easy. No one said it's going to be easy and we need to be ready to take some things on a chin and no one is alone with that. That is the most important thing. We get that information and I am there to help them to make a strategy to come out of the situation and might not be the best, and they have one another. So there's such a support network.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love that. And then I guess, ultimately you're building this wonderful community of you know, veterinary leaders and people that have you know, have this shared experience. They have now this shared knowledge and level of knowledge that, yeah, moving forward, then they've got this amazing group of people that they can remain in touch with, you know, ongoing and you know, lean on when they need to. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And next year I would like to, or in 2024, I'm organizing the very first human-savvy reunion where we can meet face to face. We will start with the United Kingdom, but then in the following years we'll do Australia as well. Amazing, we have like 50, 50 Australia and United Kingdom, so we can spend the whole day, kind of retreat style, together.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, that sounds absolutely wonderful. Well, speaking of 2024, it's pretty much here and I think it's really shaping up to be a pretty special and exciting year. I know you and I have a lot of collaborations lined up and you know things are looking very bright for us in 2024. I did just want to ask you those. So obviously, you know, first of January, everyone's really excited. You know, new Year it's a new start or a fresh start. Everyone always has these I won't say wild and crazy resolutions, but you know we're all very optimistic about what we can achieve and some goal-setting things like that. What are your thoughts on New Year's resolutions?
Speaker 2:Tricky question, oh gosh, and you're asking of like a very practical, quite used to be very cynical human being. I'm not a big fan. I'm not a big fan when it's the same way that I'm not a big fan of affirmations, for example. But a big caveat in there If an affirmation or the New Year's resolution is not followed by action, to me they don't make sense. But if we have either affirmation or the New Year's resolution, we write it down somewhere and we choose a goal for ourselves. But that is followed by very specific strategy and we look at that from many different angles. We think about the worst-case scenario. What if that fails? What if that fails when we create the support network that will help us make it happen? When we also look into our own resources to even have the resources to put that into life if not, what is missing, then how can I get that?
Speaker 2:So it's kind of like really preparing yourself to actually have some sort of New Year's resolutions. Do I have the resources that are needed? So we need to be very smart and wise about it, because otherwise we're just going to disappoint ourselves and it's not great for our self-esteem. We need to be very smart about it. This is why it's so great to have somebody's help when we do it. It can be your friend, someone who shakes it a little bit and shakes you when you say something that absolutely makes no sense. Give you a bit of a loving slap on the face that I'm a big fan of. Doing that with a coach absolutely great thing to do. Or with your therapist, if that is what your therapy focus is on. Because we need action, yes, and if you have action, that's great. I'm a big fan of that. Planning at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1:No, I absolutely love it and I definitely agree, because I think we've all probably been there, you know where. We've all made these sort of like resolutions like, oh, you know, like I'm I don't know, I've got to drink three litres of water every day, and you know, you sort of get to day four and you're like, oh, I only did two and a half, like I've already failed. You know, I think sometimes, you know, that can get a little bit demoralising. I really love that thought and it's certainly how I approach sort of my new year is that I do set some fairly specific goals, both personally and professionally, but then I also have a plan as to how I'm going to achieve those. And because I am like a super nerd, I even, you know, put in some milestones as well to sort of keep me on track and accountable along the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing that I would like to add in here. It just made me think, because some people don't even know what they're doing. They don't even set up the goals for themselves or they don't dare to have new year's resolutions. And that is very interesting because for some of us, maybe they had some difficult experience in the past, maybe they tried and never worked, so they kind of like said, okay, that makes no sense for me to try again. That is a very important thing to detect.
Speaker 2:Is there a reason why you don't even dare to set up big goals for yourself? What are those self limiting thoughts that you have, those automatic, very negative thoughts that come to mind or mind? And what a beautiful new year's resolution could it be to observe our way of thinking and see what those inner obstacles that we create are? That as a start, before we step into any action taking. So I would like to encourage everyone who listens to this podcast to ask yourself is there something in my head that pops up the moment when I'm thinking about something great I would like to achieve? Is my brain actually helping me to do it or not? And then we work on that thinking, because thinking is changeable.
Speaker 1:That's the best news absolutely, yeah, I guess we sort of want to, you know, try and abolish those sort of limiting beliefs, don't we? And some of those, I guess, are really deeply ingrained in us. I think, especially when we're, you know, maybe thinking about sort of financial goals, I think a lot of us probably have a lot of sort of self limitations around. You know, what could actually be possible for us and yeah, I mean, I think a big one for me was around, I guess, sort of fitness and cardio and being able to run 10 kilometers, for example. You know that was always a massive barrier for me, but this year, you know, I did my first triathlon.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, congratulations. It was only a little baby one, but still, you know, I take it as a win and and, yeah, and I guess sort of just getting over that hurdle, and I was lucky because my PT was incredibly supportive and he really showed me what was actually possible, because he believed in me, even though I perhaps at the time didn't. So he really helped me to show what was possible. And I think that's sort of what you were alluding to earlier. Is that sometimes just having someone by your side, you know, someone that's there to, you know, give you that slap in the face if you like to just say, you know, like come on, like no excuses, like let's just do it and, and then you sort of see what's possible. So 100%.
Speaker 2:I feel like my job is to give my coachies a sense that there's someone who believes in them, and I really do. I sometimes wish they could see themselves from my eyes and I know how capable they are. And also that's that's such a beautiful part of the, the human Savileague that we talk about, that people really cheer on on one another to say, like, come on, like you can do it. Of course you can, and we need someone to believe in us.
Speaker 2:And another thing that is big if there's a big plan for 2024 you asked me about, you know the, the goals for 2024 and how to start this year one of my big goals this year is to bring the signs of emotion, intelligence to people who are in the medical world, who are not necessarily the leaders, because I realized that there's those things that we go through, that we teach in a league. That is something that could benefit anyone in those high-pace, very stressful frontline jobs and that comes with a big dose again of self-awareness. We'll be doing a key assessments as well to find out where we are, but anyone can step on that ecu journey, gain some more self-awareness external and internal one and also feel that there are people behind me kind of holding my back and supporting me in this.
Speaker 1:So that is a big new direction for myself that sounds incredible, and is there somewhere where you maybe be sharing more information about that, like sort of social media, or yes?
Speaker 2:100%. So people could find me before on Instagram under that gone real, and that is still kind of my old handle. But now I'm starting a very new profile and kind of like a stream of information I'll be sending to the world which is human savvy. So that's the Instagram handle and through that profile I'll be sharing loads and loads and loads of information for every single individual who would like to just get better at making their life, their own life, very authentically, getting the best out of this life and also improving their relationships and, just in working with people, gaining more skills, those interpersonal skills. So that is the Instagram account and there will be loads of information that.
Speaker 2:So if anyone wants to follow human savvy on Instagram, that's a great place. And what will be happening later this year? There will be a proper structured training course for anyone who would like to work really hard on it and get the best results, and that will be for any medical professionals out there doctors, nurses, chiropractors, physios and obviously our veterinary professionals as well, who are not leaders. Leaders can join us well by can be any vet, nurse, reception is anyone in a team who would like to get the best out of their career make it sustainable, because we know that we all suffer and we're short staffed.
Speaker 1:We need to empower people to feel comfortable to stay and choose the right workplace for themselves, so that's the goal of it oh goodness, okay, well, that sounds like an absolutely incredible goal and absolutely, as more information comes through about that, we'll definitely, you know, share that on our platform as well. So that sounds absolutely wonderful and what a beautiful gift you are giving to both the medical and veterinary professions. Now I'm blushing. Speaking of, you know, new Year's resolutions, etc. Is there any? Do you have any sort of New Year's traditions or rituals that maybe you do at the start of every year to get you set up for, you know, the 365 days ahead?
Speaker 2:Not really, to be honest, not really. I never had for anything specific and I think my brain works the way that I'm always thinking about the future. Some of you listening to it might that might bring a bell that we're always thinking about what's next, what's next, what's?
Speaker 1:next.
Speaker 2:So I don't necessarily think about that only at the beginning of the year. I think about it every week, to be honest. But definitely stepping into New Year it's kind of like a motivation to think about maybe a theme or a specific direction. So for me this year's direction is to open human savvy to more people, so not only veteran leaders but anyone out there in the vet or a human medicine world, so kind of like a theme of the year and that might be a nice thing for anyone to do.
Speaker 2:So, what is the theme of this year? Is it my fitness? Is it my motherhood or fatherhood? Is it my relationship in my romantic world? What is the theme and focus? And again, we can't be everything and we can't be perfect ever, ever. We need to focus, channel our focus somewhere and give ourselves that permission, nearly that. Yeah, I'm not going to be amazing at everything. This year I'm going to make one area of my life, one area of my work, one area of my consultancy if someone has this as an entrepreneur I'm going to make that part of my world work and I will invest myself there, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So I, yeah, I really love that and something that I like to do. It's a little bit like your sort of theme, but at the start of every year I sort of tend to choose a specific word. You know that's going to mean a lot for me that particular year. So for me, 2024 is the year of intention. So obviously last year was a massive year for me, obviously entering that phase of motherhood where, you know, your world really does get flipped on its head and there's obviously a lot of new challenges that come with us. But I'm so incredibly blessed in that, you know, I've been able to fairly successfully, I would say in my mind juggle, you know, motherhood with a professional life while still maintaining a personal life as well. I have an incredibly supportive husband who really shares the workload with me, so very, very lucky in that regard. So, again, 2024 is going to be a massive year, both personally and professionally.
Speaker 1:For Platinum CPD, we have a number of new products and services that we're working on, so we're releasing. There's also a PhD on the cards. There's some massive projects, you know, clinically at work as well. So, yeah, it's going to be a lot, but you know, alongside that, it just means that anything and everything that I do I want to do with intention, because what I don't want to do is obviously do so much that I'm then missing out on time with Daisy, who obviously we wanted and worked so hard for. You know that I don't want to waste any of those sort of precious moments, so I just want to make sure that anything I say yes to, like I said, it's with intention and it has a reason and a focus behind it.
Speaker 2:I love it, that intention, the way behind it, basically, so we can feel comfortable, right, and you need to align with your values. Discovering your values and how to do that. It's such a big challenge for people. It's not something that we're again taught. Again, some a bit of help around that. This is what I want to give through that Instagram part, but I know that you very much are aware of your values and it's such a beautiful strength that you have. I don't know how you do it, emma, that you come the day being a mom working at the university and having platinum sepiti.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you do it, but you're just amazing. So that is very inspiring. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1:I don't know about that, but thank you very much. Well, I think it's. I mean, it's always easy when it's something that you're really passionate about. You know like I mean I know it's a real cliche, but you know like you do something you love and you never work a day in your life. I mean, obviously, you know it definitely feels like work a lot of the time, but it's really enjoyable work. So, again, I think I'm just incredibly lucky and again, just why I love the veterinary profession so much is because you can have this diversification and you can really contribute to other people's lives. You know, you can do so many different things. Yeah, I just it's just amazing that we have those opportunities. So, you know, I just want to take it with both hands and just really run with it.
Speaker 2:I love it, love it and I love it. And for anyone who's listening to that and thinking that, oh my goodness, they've got such amazing lines and they talk about those beautiful things, you know what it really takes a bit of of sussiness, I think to take the first step Like, do we need to believe in ourselves at least a little bit and sometimes fake it till you make it? Yes, so if there is something that someone would like to do, maybe the current job is not the right thing for them. This is just not the right way of working. This is not fulfilling, this is not satisfying. The first step is to really think about those, those limiting thoughts. What is stopping me from actually even considering what I truly, truly want? And then it's freaking hard work.
Speaker 2:It's really not easy there, but as long as you see that it gives you the satisfaction, then it means that is the right path that goes back to that intention. If your why behind it also aligns, if that makes sense to you individually, it doesn't need to make any sense to anyone out there. Please don't care about anyone else 100%. If you're alive, if you put your efforts into it and there's going to be a lot of stumbling a lot of obstacles on that path. Just keep going, put yourself into it and if you fail, at the end, if that wasn't the right thing, turns out that maybe it wasn't the best direction. So what you learn so much and that helps me to make the next decision that will be a better informed decision.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we need to try out many different things, many different workplaces, to see that, okay, this is not for me, this is not for me kind of like exclusion diet. We were looking for a reason for the allergy, yeah, and then we'll finally find something, but at the beginning things would be that very sassy decision. Do you know what I'm going to do with my way? So I really wish that everyone who's listening to this be brave. Just take it in your own hands and see what comes out of it?
Speaker 1:Yes, because you definitely won't regret it and, like you said, it's going to be hard, for sure. But then anything worthwhile is never easy, right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:But I think this is also incredibly good advice for our new graduates too. So many of our graduates they're just starting their first jobs now, which is absolutely amazing and welcome to the profession. It's wonderful to have you all, but I think the other thing is to really trust your intuition.
Speaker 1:If something doesn't feel right. It's probably not, and be brave and make a change, because there's nothing worse than feeling like you're stuck in a situation that just doesn't serve you. But again, it's easy for us to sit here and say, oh, just change, we appreciate it. We know that it's hard, because we've both done it. We know that it's hard, but certainly there's no regrets and life really is too short to be in a place where you're feeling undervalued, underappreciated or it's just not serving you.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more. And yeah, we all carry our bruises, our scars, and it's okay to talk about them. I burned myself here, I burned myself there, I was smacked on the face. There was a lot of, to be honest, in my career there was a lot of door that was slammed closed in front of me, and now I'm grateful for them, because that was just like. Every no is a yes In a different direction. So I'm very much agree with you on this one.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I absolutely love it. Well, on that note, obviously, we want to wish all of you a very happy new year. May 2024 be the most incredible year. Please know that Liv and I are here for you. The reason why we're here is to support you, our colleagues, to really achieve the career that you want. We're here to support your professional development and, yeah, just basically we're here to be your number one cheerleader. So if you need us, then you know where to find us. Thank you so much. Have a great year.
Speaker 1:I always love having conversations with Liv, and I don't know what it is about her, but she always just makes you feel like you want to be the best version of yourself. So I really hope that you got a lot out of this episode and are now motivated to really start 2024 with the best of intentions. Liv is such a shining light and truly is such a valuable asset to our profession. If you don't already follow her on social media, I strongly recommend that you do. If you're needing a little pick me up throughout the day, just watching her on her stories is definitely going to do that for you. She's such a ray of sunshine and she'll definitely make your day just that little bit brighter. So I'll be sure to pop the links to her social media platforms in the show notes.
Speaker 1:As we said before, I really hope that you start this year in a really positive way. I hope this year brings you all of the things that you're really wanting and, most importantly, I hope the year is full of memory, happiness. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead. Bye for now.