Episodes

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 share...

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...

What does a locum vet who's worked at five different clinics across New Zealand think when she walks into CareVets Gisborne? "I've actually loved it." Dr Camille Bonini is an English vet on a working holiday visa with absolutely no reason to sugarcoat anything. She's seen what good looks like and what doesn't. So when she talks about a nursing team that's always two steps ahead, surgical schedules that actually finish on time, and a head nurse who stays calm when things get chaotic, you know ...

The $5,000 professionally produced video gets 50 likes. The blurred photo of your team laughing at closing time gets 20 shares. Why? Most clinics think polish equals professionalism equals hires. They're wrong. Shares trump likes because shares reach extended networks - the thousands of vets and nurses you'll never reach from your clinic account alone. But getting shares requires something most clinics aren't doing. I'm Julie South. I run VetClinicJobs and help vet clinics across Australia, New ...

Dr Ross Milner has worked everywhere from Antarctica to Fiji — but chose Gisborne as the best place in New Zealand for a vet to settle. In this episode, he explains why, and what day-to-day life as a vet there actually looks like. Dr Ross talks about: what surprised him most about living on the East Coast the kind of caseload you can expect in a regional clinic how the nursing team works (and why he’d trust them with his own dog) what the after-hours roster really feels like the community moment...

When Sarah shares a Culture Story from her personal profile, her vet school friends believe her. When your clinic posts the same thing, it's marketing. Sarah has 338 Facebook friends, 500 LinkedIn connections, 264 Instagram followers. Jake and Emma have similar. That's thousands of vets and nurses you'll never reach from your clinic account alone. But most clinics haven't asked their team to share because you're worried about control, don't know what to give them, or don't know how to ask. Six m...

Dr Loren Cribb has been calling Gisborne home since 2014. She started as a nervous new grad from the South Island and stayed for the trauma cases, the hunting dogs, and a nursing team that's always "one step ahead." This is what it's actually like to work at CareVets Gisborne . The variety: "If you're only wanting to do vaccinations and dentals, it's not the clinic for you. If you like a little bit of a challenge and excitement, then you can definitely get it." The team: "You go to ask for somet...

You're posting about your team. Nothing's happening. That's because you're copying clinics who haven't figured it out either. This episode shows you what you're actually looking at when you see those bland team posts - and why the water cooler conversation you keep having is the actual problem. I'm Julie South. I run VetClinicJobs and help vet clinics across Australia, New Zealand and beyond build Culture Centres through Culture Storytelling - so vets and nurses think "They're My Kind of Peop...

Three-minute commute. One traffic light. Equipment that surprises people. And a team so competent that Emma doesn't get called when her team is on call at the weekends. Emma moved from Auckland four years ago and describes what it's like working somewhere that invests in building capability in-house - whether that's funding her Bachelor's degree or equipping the clinic to handle cases that would otherwise mean a four-hour drive for clients. If you're a small animal veterinarian looking to make y...