FlightPlan: Quick Consults
Helping you navigate the turbulence of Veterinary Practice Ownership in 25 minutes or less. After all, your practice didn't come with an owner's manual!
Episodes
41 episodes
AI in Veterinary Medicine: What Should We Hand Over, and What Should We Hold Onto?
AI is everywhere right now, but where is it actually making a difference in the practice? Today's conversation skips the product pitches and focuses on what matters: reducing friction around the work your team is already doing. From AI scribes ...
Less Stress, Better Care: The Enduring Legacy of Dr. Sophia Yin
Twelve years after losing Dr. Sophia Yin, her push to take patient fear and stress seriously still shapes veterinary medicine. Today's panelists talk about how far we've come from labeling patients "difficult" or "dominant."They also dig...
Your Veterinary Career is a Marathon, NOT a Sprint!
Melissa Mauldin and Brenda Medina both started at the front desk, and 40+ combined years in veterinary medicine later, neither path looked like a straight line. Melissa worked her way from CSR to bookkeeping, practice and regional management, a...
The Cost of Care: Why Veterinary Medicine Needs to Stop Apologizing - PART 2
If we want vet professionals to have sustainable careers and real, livable wages, that has to come from somewhere: the care we provide. In Part 2, practice owners, Dr. Brianna Armstrong and Dr. Marie Maher dig into what that means on the busine...
The Cost of Care: Why Veterinary Medicine Needs to Stop Apologizing - PART 1
"It's just so expensive" is one of the most common things veterinary teams hear, and one of the hardest to answer without feeling defensive. In Part 1 of a 2-part episode, two practice owners get honest about affordability for pet owners and su...
Future-Proofing the Practice: New Services, New Opportunities
Where's the real opportunity for your practice in 2027 and beyond? Brenda sits down with Dr. Marty Greer of Veterinary Village, Maggie Holcomb of Reynolda Veterinary Hospital, and Michelle Winter of Encore Vet Group to talk about the services r...
From Control to Confidence: A Better Way to Lead Your Team
Have you accidentally trained your team to wait for you? If a vacation brings decisions to a halt until you're back, this episode is for you. Brenda sits down with a panel consisting of a veterinary consultant, a practice manager, and a practic...
Dear Brenda: Asking for a Friend | Real Questions. Practical Advice. Better Veterinary Practices.
This episode, Brenda's flying solo — answering the questions listeners have been quietly wondering about but haven't known who to ask!Is your team busier than ever, but the financials still aren't adding up — and you're not sure if it's ...
The Leadership Trap: Managing Everyone the Same Way
Why does one leadership style never work for every employee? Brenda sits down with Debbie Hill, Brandon Hess, and Amy Tipton to make the case that "treat people the way THEY want to be treated" beats the golden rule when it comes to leadership ...
Why Good Teams Still Miscommunicate
If your team cares about doing right by clients and each other, why does communication still go sideways so often? Our panelists dig into that question this episode, and the answer isn't a lack of effort — it's that we all show up wired differe...
The Cost of Hiding Our Humanity
Every day, veterinary teams move from a euthanasia appointment straight into a new puppy visit — and are expected to just switch gears. But what does that emotional whiplash actually cost us, and do we have permission to feel it?In this ...
People Aren't Difficult, They're Different
Why do so many good people struggle to work together? Often it's not a personality clash — it's that high performers don't understand what actually drives their own behavior, let alone anyone else's. In this episode, we break down what the Pred...
7 Recipes For Unreasonable Hospitality in Veterinary Medicine
Brenda flies solo this episode to unpack the book, Unreasonable Hospitality through a veterinary lens, breaking down 7 recipes for creating standout experiences for your team and clients. From mise-en-place-style p...
Beyond Burnout 3-Part Series // Part 3: Beyond Resilience - Building Practices That Support Leaders Instead of Draining Them
We've talked about what burnout looks like and why managers feel stuck in the middle. Part 3 is where we get to the part that actually matters: what do we do about it? Backed by the same
Beyond Burnout 3-Part Series // Part 2: Caught in the Middle - Why Veterinary Managers Feel Trapped Between Teams & Leadership
Practice managers are accountable for results they don't always have authority to control, caught between what their team needs and what leadership is asking for. It's a setup that breeds burnout — and according to a
Beyond Burnout 3-Part Series // Part 1: The Hidden Reality of Veterinary Leadership Burnout
A recent VHMA study found that 48% of veterinary practice managers are considering leaving th...
Mentorship Isn't Training
Handing someone a skills checklist isn't mentorship. It's a starting point! In this episode, our panelists dig into why the veterinary profession has long conflated training with mentoring, and what it actually looks like to invest in someone's...
AI in Veterinary Medicine: Hype or Help?
AI is everywhere — but what does it actually look like in a veterinary clinic? In this episode, we get practical: where AI is genuinely saving time (we're talking hours per vet), how it's transforming medical records and reducing cognitive load...
The Case for Standardization: Why Your PIMS Codes Matter More Than You Think
Inconsistent PIMS codes don't just create an organizational headache — they undermine every financial, clinical, and operational decision that flows from your data. In this episode, we dig into what it actually costs your practice when everyone...
Culture Isn't a Perk, It's a Performance Driver
In this episode, our panelists unpack the leadership behaviors that can quietly erode trust, even when intentions are good, from inconsistency in communication and accountability to the impact of favoritism and the importance of leaders admitti...
The Middle Manager Gap: Why Your Leaders Feel Stuck
Veterinary practices often promote their best people and then wonder why things aren't working. Sound familiar?In this episode, Brenda Tassava Medina, Amy Brauns, Melissa Mauldin and Angela Gainey dig into one of the most overlooked pro...
What We Keep Hearing: The Patterns Behind High-Functioning Veterinary Practices
Months of conversations. Dozens of perspectives. And some very clear patterns!In this solo episode, Brenda Tassava Medina shares the themes she keeps hearing from high-functioning veterinary practices and what struggling ones consistent...
You Can't Pour from an Empty Cup, But No One Slows Down
We say it all the time...you can't pour from an empty cup. So why does everyone in veterinary medicine keep pouring anyway?!In this episode, we get honest about burnout: what the early warning signs actually look like (cynicism, apathy,...
Work-Life Balance is a Myth, So What Actually Works?
"Work-life balance" might be the most overused phrase in veterinary medicine, so if balance isn't the goal, what is? In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Tate, a veterinarian and practice owner who has never fully bought into the myth, and Ron ...
When Good Medicine Feels Financially Impossible
In this episode, two veterinarians and a practice manager share how teams can balance high standards of care with the financial realities clients face.The conversation highlights the importance of reading client cues, offering cle...
