Episodes

When veterinary clinics begin recognising the reactive recruitment cycle, certain phrases often start appearing. They sound practical — but they’re often the cycle defending itself. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South begins a new series exploring the objections that surface when clinics start considering a different way to approach recruitment. The first phrase she hears most often is: “Julie, we need someone now — not in six months’ time.” When a clinic has been covering a va...

Head Vet Nurse Nicky Smith on Team Support, Community, and Life in Taranaki In this REAL+STORY episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South speaks with Nicky Smith, Head Vet Nurse at Energy Vets in Taranaki. Nicky has worked in veterinary clinics in New Zealand and overseas, including time living in Auckland and abroad. But when the time came to settle and raise her family, she made the deliberate decision to return to Taranaki — the place she calls home. In this chat, Nicky shares with Julie wh...

By month five of job advertising, most vet clinics and their teams are exhausted. Posting everywhere didn’t work. Rewriting didn’t work. Spending more didn’t work. But the vacancy hasn’t just stayed a vacancy — it’s started affecting the people who are still there. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores what happens when a role has been open for four to six months and the pressure inside the clinic starts to build. Teams have been covering the extra work. The goodwill that...

Energy Vets, Taranaki | Starting Out as a New Grad In this REAL+STORY episode, Julie South speaks with Dr Sieara Claytor, a 2025 graduate working in her very first full-time veterinary role at Energy Vets in Taranaki. Sieara moved from the United States to study in Australia and has now started her career in rural New Zealand. Six months in, she’s already managing emergencies, assisting in surgeries beyond routine desexings, handling after-hours responsibilities, and working across two clini...

By month four of advertising, most vet clinics and their teams are exhausted. Posting everywhere didn’t work. Rewriting didn’t work. Spending more didn’t work. So you start trying random things. A Facebook post. Asking your team to share. Updating your careers page. Boosting something for $50… maybe $100. Because something has to (read: needs to!) stick. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South unpacks what really happens around week fourteen of the re...

Energy Vets, Taranaki | Why Alana Came Back In this REAL+STORY episode, Julie South speaks with vet nurse Alana Howard about why she returned to Energy Vets after starting her nursing career there 20 years ago and then spending years working in Australia. Alana talks about what made coming back feel like the right decision — not just professionally, but personally. She compares different clinic environments and explains what stands out at Energy Vets: how nurses are trusted to use their skil...

Why Spending More on Job Ads Doesn’t Work By month three of advertising, most vet clinics assume the problem is reach. Not enough applications? Then not enough visibility. Not enough visibility? Spend more. Premium placement. Featured listings. Boosted posts. Maybe even a recruitment agency. But the real problem isn’t reach. It’s recognition. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South unpacks what actually happens around week ten of the recruitment cycle—when rewriting ha...

Energy Vets, Taranaki | Growing a Career That Grows With You In this REAL+STORY episode, Julie South speaks with Dr Michelle Gosling about what it looks like to build a long-term veterinary career in one place — and why she never felt the need to leave Energy Vets after joining as a new graduate in 2013. Michelle reflects on her journey from new grad to senior large animal vet, working parent, farm services manager and, most recently, shareholder in the business. Rather than focusing on titles,...

When a job ad doesn’t deliver suitable applicants, most clinics assume the problem is the wording. So they rewrite it. Add more detail. Highlight mentoring. Emphasise work-life balance. Polish the benefits. And wait. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores what’s really happening in month two of the recruitment cycle—when “posting everywhere” hasn’t worked, and rewriting feels like the logical next step. But vets and nurses aren’t analysing your headline. They’re pattern-ma...

Energy Vets | What Makes the Job Work Long-Term (Part 2) Settling into a role is one thing. Staying in it — sustainably — is another. In this episode, Julie South continues her conversation with Dr Sam Armstrong, a mixed animal vet at Energy Vets in Taranaki, looking at what work feels like once the initial settling-in period has passed. Sam talks candidly about after-hours, workload, seasonal pressure points, and how the structure around him makes the job feel manageable over time. He also r...

This episode begins a new series looking at why the familiar recruitment playbook keeps failing veterinary clinics. Julie South starts with the first and most common response to a vacancy: posting job ads everywhere and hoping one platform will finally deliver a different outcome. Using current data from across Australia and New Zealand, Julie explains how rotating job boards and increasing spend doesn’t change what vets and nurses experience when they scroll. The problem isn’t effort or intent...

Energy Vets | Finding Your Feet as a New Grad (Part 1) Starting your veterinary career isn’t just about clinical skills. It’s about how support shows up when you’re new, how questions are handled, and how safe it feels to keep learning — especially when you’re doing it in a new country. In this episode, Julie South speaks with Dr Sam Armstrong, a mixed animal vet at Energy Vets in Taranaki, about arriving in New Zealand straight out of university and starting his first job without knowing any...

Closing the Attraction Gap: Why Knowing Isn't the Same as Doing Most veterinary clinic managers know they should attract people before they need them—but knowing doesn't close the gap between understanding what needs to happen and actually making it happen. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores the attraction gap: the space between knowing you should build recognition and actually being able to do it while running a busy clinic. Through the predictable five-month recruitm...

Energy Vets - Taranaki - New Zealand | REAL+STORY A recent graduate’s view of support, mentoring, and staying in the profession When new graduates talk about support, they’re not talking about slogans. They’re talking about what happens in the moments that matter. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South continues the Energy Vets REAL+STORY series with Jade, a recent graduate mixed animal veterinarian who has been working at Energy Vets in Taranaki for just over two years. Jade shares...

When Big Numbers Don’t Matter When a clinic needs to advertise, the decision often feels obvious. Choose the platform with the biggest database. The most traffic. The largest audience. But what if those numbers aren’t measuring what actually matters? In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores why big numbers can feel reassuring — yet still leave clinics stuck advertising for months. Database size, website hits, and subscriber counts might look impressive on paper, but th...

Energy Vets | Culture Stories in Action (Part 2) Staying in a clinic long-term isn’t just about the work you do. It’s about how you’re supported, how leadership shows up, and what happens when things don’t go to plan. In this episode, Julie South continues her conversation with Greg Hall, Managing Director at Energy Vets in Taranaki, shifting the focus from day-to-day life to what it takes to build a team that lasts. They talk openly about leadership, succession planning, ageing vet teams, an...

Recruitment Momentum: Why Starting From Cold Keeps You Trapped Most veterinary clinics don’t realise they’re stuck in a recruitment cycle — they just feel the exhaustion of it. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores recruitment momentum and why starting from cold every time you need to advertise keeps clinics trapped in an expensive, effort-heavy loop that never really gets easier. Through a simple but familiar comparison, Julie shows the difference between recruiting from...

Energy Vets Taranaki NZ | Culture Stories in Action (Part 1) Most vets and nurses know within a few minutes whether a clinic feels like their kind of place — long before they ever see a job ad. In this episode, Julie South is joined by Dr Greg Hall, Managing Director at Energy Vets in Taranaki, for a grounded conversation about what day-to-day veterinary life there actually looks like. They talk about the work, the people, the pace, and the place — from small animal caseloads across two clini...

Network Expansion: How Culture Stories Amplify Beyond Your Reach Most vet clinics don’t struggle to hire because their roles aren’t appealing. They struggle because the right vets and nurses never see them. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores network expansion — and why job ads keep clinics trapped under their own follower-count ceiling, while Culture Stories travel through networks clinics can’t access directly. Julie breaks down how culture stories move differently th...

CareVets Gisborne | REAL+STORY When vets and nurses think about changing clinics, they’re not just choosing a role. They’re choosing the people they’ll work with — and the support around them when things get busy or unpredictable. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South continues the CareVets Gisborne REAL+STORY series with a different perspective — stepping back from day-to-day clinical roles to hear from the Regional Manager who supports the clinic. Julie is joined by Alice Dawso...

Vets and nurses scroll past job ads — not because they think vet clinics are lying, but because they’ve seen the same claims repeated over and over again. “Great team. Supportive environment. Work-life balance.” The words didn’t become untrue. They lost meaning through overuse and under-delivery. In this episode, Julie South unpacks why claiming culture through job ads keeps clinics invisible — and why vets and nurses now decide which clinics feel like their kind of place long before a vacancy ...

A vet in Melbourne is scrolling job ads, actively looking to relocate. She sees a position in Hamilton, New Zealand. Good clinic. Competitive salary. Sounds fine. She clicks through, reads the job description, then keeps scrolling. Three weeks later, she accepts a position in Melbourne. Not better. Just known. What happened? The decision didn't happen at the job ad stage. It happened earlier — at a moment most clinics never see. In this episode, we're looking at why relocating vets and nurses...

CareVets Gisborne's Clinic Coordinator Rhonda moved from London to Gisborne five years ago. In London, her commute was 90 minutes. In Auckland, she never got out of second gear in traffic. In Gisborne? Five minutes. Through "5 o'clock traffic" means waiting for half a dozen cars at a roundabout instead of going straight through. "I go home for lunch," she says. Like it's nothing. But here's what made me want to record this conversation: Rhonda isn't a vet or a nurse. She came from corporate b...

You list protected meal breaks, no weekend work, and flexible hours in your job ad. So does every other clinic in your city. How do vets and nurses decide? They can't tell you apart. So they don't apply. Or they apply everywhere and mean nowhere. Meanwhile, down the road, another clinic fills their position in three weeks. Same benefits. Same salary. Same city. But vets and nurses already knew their team actually gets lunch breaks - because they've been watching it happen for months before th...