VetsOne Dr Mike Newall Large Animal Veterinarian Director - Employer of Choice Series - ep. 1012

Julie South [00:00:05]: Welcome to Veterinary Voices: Employer brand conversations that help veterinary clinics hire great people. I'm Julie South, and this is episode 1012. Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs.

Julie South [00:00:20]: Build your employer brand. Do your own recruitment better.

Julie South [00:00:25]: Continuing our VetsOne Employer of Choice series, last week you met Dana, a veterinary nurse who relocated from Central Otago in New Zealand's South Island to Hawke's Bay in its North Island, specifically for her position at VetsOne.

You heard her perspective on what it takes to feel valued as a person rather than just a number, the difference between privately owned and corporate clinic structures, and why she values working in a team that genuinely wants to know each other.

Today we're meeting Dr Mike Newall, another of VetsOne's three directors. Dr Mike is a large animal veterinarian who's been with the practice for over 25 years, apart from a brief OE to the UK.

In this chat, you'll hear what it's like being both an owner and a working veterinarian, why Dr Mike describes breaking himself the most through his mountain biking adventures, and how the three directors make decisions without the clunkiness of corporate structures.

You'll also discover what Dr Mike values most about his team—that caring, inclusive culture where personality differences become strengths rather than problems to manage. And critically, you'll hear why Dr Mike believes that hiring for attitude matters far more than hiring for skills alone.

Let's join that conversation.

Dr Mike Newall [00:01:58]: Hi, I'm Mike Newall and I'm one of the directors at VetsOne. There's three of us. I'm a large animal veterinarian. I started off here at this practice 25 years ago and went overseas for a couple of years and came back to the same practice and haven't worked anywhere else in New Zealand.

Julie South [00:02:15]: Mike, when you first started at the clinic, did you ever have dreams of being an owner one day?

Dr Mike Newall [00:02:22]: No, probably not in the first few years, but I suppose the opportunity came up with one of the previous directors retiring and there was only one director left at that time. Half the shares for the business came up and Sharon and myself at the time took the opportunity there. Jason's come on board since the other director resigned about 10 years ago and, yeah, so there's now three of us.

Julie South [00:02:45]: What's it like being an owner and a veterinarian all in one?

Dr Mike Newall [00:02:51]: Good question. I suppose there's aspects that are—I mean, you enjoy doing the veterinary work, but there's also the leadership side of things and there's decisions that we have to make that are obviously strategic and much bigger things.

Then I suppose you can go back and do the work outside that sort of strategic stuff and still enjoy doing that. So there's times where you have to wear one hat and not the other and vice versa. But it's challenging at times and I think it's really rewarding.

Julie South [00:03:23]: Do you each have sort of different areas of responsibility in your leadership roles? You'll bring different strengths, obviously.

Dr Mike Newall [00:03:31]: Yeah, definitely. Well, there's three of us, and Jason and myself are large animal, so I sort of focus on that side of it. Sharon is companion animals, so she focuses on that side of it. But she also does a lot more of the—not operational but more strategic stuff.

We have monthly meetings and she probably does a large part of that work, and Jason and myself still get out and do a lot of the field work. So we certainly do have different roles as far as the directors are concerned.

Julie South [00:04:01]: You mentioned earlier that, if I understood correctly, you've only ever worked in one clinic in New Zealand and it's VetsOne, right now. But you'd done an OE. Did you do the Australasian OE locum thing when you did that? Did you go overseas and work as a locum or was it purely holiday?

Dr Mike Newall [00:04:23]: No, I worked as a locum, yeah. But I only did nine months as a locum in the UK. I certainly got a taste of what it was like in the UK working.

Julie South [00:04:32]: And you are Hawke's Bay through and through—born and bred?

Dr Mike Newall [00:04:37]: Not born, but a lot of my family are from here and I didn't go to school here, but I came back here and my parents were farming here at the time when I graduated. That's the reason why I came back here—to be close to the family.

So yeah, that's the reason why I've stayed here, because a lot of my family are from here and extended family from here. So it's certainly home now, but it's probably always been home. But I got educated in other areas.

Julie South [00:05:01]: In the country? I realised that comparing Palmerston North to the Hawke's Bay is not—or even Hamilton is not a good comparison, because you're the sunny Hawke's Bay. What's it like? Have you brought up a family in the Hawke's Bay?

Julie South [00:05:19]: What's it like as a dad with kids? Because the reason I'm asking that question, it's probable that whoever joins your team will come from outside of the bay, of the region. So just tell us a little bit please about why you like living there. Why is it home?

Dr Mike Newall [00:05:41]: Well, there's the climate I suppose, which is great. There's a lot of outdoor activities. We're really close to the sea and really close to lots of walking and mountain biking and trails, and there's certainly lots of activities to do here.

I'm a really, really, really avid mountain biker so I get out probably once or twice a week. It's something to get out, get your head away from work and I love it. And now my sons—my children are only nine and seven but they come out with me as well. And it's very accessible—just to get out from work within 10 minutes and you're into it. So yeah, love it.

Julie South [00:06:15]: When you say mountain biking, are you talking root hopping, rock hopping or nice gentle cycle trails? You've got a reputation.

Dr Mike Newall [00:06:25]: For being the one that breaks himself the most in this business. So it's definitely rock hopping and jumping and I've been away on a few very epic trips to Tasmania and Queenstown and all the likes where we do stuff that I shouldn't be doing at my age, but I do—I love it.

Julie South [00:06:42]: Yeah, it's nice to get outside in the great outdoors. Why veterinary? Why did you choose to become a vet?

Dr Mike Newall [00:06:48]: Well, my parents have always been farmers and I got brought up on a farm so I had a love for farm animals but also all sorts of animals. But that was probably something I never really thought about right through from when I was young like some people do.

But when I got to high school, in the later part of my high school years I sort of went through the possibilities and I was really good at science—that was my best subject. The fact that I come from that sort of farming background and I love being outside and doing that type of work, it all seemed to point in that one direction.

Julie South [00:07:26]: Has it lived up to your expectations or your dreams?

Dr Mike Newall [00:07:29]: Yeah, it's been—I suppose you don't actually have, I mean I didn't have real expectations apart from the fact that I'd be working with animals. But there's always something new each day and there's challenges.

You meet heaps of really amazing people, especially from our aspect where I'm out dealing with people that are probably like-minded with myself and I've made really good friends with all of them. So there's certainly that aspect that's much better than what my expectations were as far as the type of people you meet.

Especially if you're in a place for a period of time, I can go most places around Hawke's Bay and I run into people I know which is a good or a bad thing. But I don't have a problem with it. It's great.

Julie South [00:08:12]: So talking about people that you bump into, what sort of person do you think would fit best into the culture in your clinic?

Dr Mike Newall [00:08:21]: Probably the most important thing is someone that gets along with the team. We do have a really good team now and they all have their challenges, but everyone can communicate well with each other and we have laughs.

I suppose the biggest thing is actually getting along with other people, being able to talk to your peers about certain cases and challenges, and we all help each other out. That team culture is really, really important.

Julie South [00:08:46]: What does helping each other out look like in real life?

Dr Mike Newall [00:08:50]: I suppose where you get day-to-day challenges and if you're under pressure time-wise, someone else can jump in and actually do some of the work to get you through that. Or give you advice when either clients or cases are difficult. So I suppose it's all individual type things, but these are probably some small examples.

Julie South [00:09:12]: What I'm hearing from the team is that when you three bought the clinic, took over the clinic, you've made some changes and you're still making changes. One of those being that you are now in a lovely purpose-built, huge building where you can no longer shout down the hallway to call someone. What's it like taking on those changes and asking the team to adopt them?

Dr Mike Newall [00:09:44]: I'll probably rewind you back there a little bit, because I've been here a lot longer than what some of the others have been. We worked down the road in this tiny little building and we were climbing over the top of each other.

Communication was probably quite easy because people were right next door to you. But then there were bigger challenges around actually finding room, or when people weren't getting on and all sorts of things like that—you couldn't go and hide away in your own little spot.

When we first moved in here, it was such a dramatic change that we actually had to come up with systems around communication. There were teams and there's—we've got quite a few different systems now that do help that. So that was quite a challenge.

But I think now that we've actually evolved and moved in here, it's a lovely space. You can almost feel like you can be down in the work area—I'm talking about with the companion animals—and be really, really busy. Then you can walk upstairs and there's a communal space where everyone's a bit more relaxed and you get to know your workmates and talk to them about stuff that's outside work.

We didn't really have that in the previous place. So that makes it fantastic in that respect. Socially, I think it's really, really good for that side of things.

Julie South [00:10:50]: I'm hearing that also the equipment you've got is pretty sophisticated and everything is still nice and new and clean and shiny. That must be a good thing to be able to present to the team as well.

Dr Mike Newall [00:11:08]: Yeah, for sure. And I suppose our whole mantra is—I was talking about teamwork, but also we try and hold ourselves as being the best advocates around here for animals and providing the best service we can. So with that you need the right diagnostic equipment and certain equipment to do that.

Julie South [00:11:26]: Talking about equipment, if you had to choose one piece of equipment or kit, what would be your favourite?

Dr Mike Newall [00:11:33]: Not favourite, but the thing that I use the most is an ultrasound scanner for the large animal work and we do a lot of that. But also we've got an equine Dr X-ray machine which is a digital X-ray machine which we take out in the field.

The other day I was out doing X-rays on a horse and the comment from the client was—these X-rays come up instantly and they said, "Geez, these are clearer than what we get at the medical facility." They couldn't believe how amazing the images were. So yeah, that's quite a neat piece of kit.

Julie South [00:12:05]: I've heard all sorts of things that are favourite pieces of kit so far. How do you support your team—because vets and nurses here, both are equally important—how do you support them management-wise when they come up with an idea or a special interest that they want to pursue?

Dr Mike Newall [00:12:28]: I suppose we give them the scope to actually have ideas. So we certainly listen to them for a start, which bigger corporates and other practices may not do. So I think that sets you apart initially—actually listening to them.

Then if they do come up with an idea, we'd actually take it back to the team leaders and ourselves and say, "Well, is this a good idea?" If we think it's a good idea, we'd actually let them—we wouldn't let them say, "Well, you guys come up with a plan." Whoever's actually decided with these thoughts, you come up with a plan and document it out and we can go from there.

We've done that in the past with certain things and often employees do have really good ideas. So we would let them have the freedom to actually come up with those ideas, listen to them and get them to plan. Some of them may not end up being anything, but we certainly let that process happen. There may be reasons why that may not happen and that might be outside their power, but generally speaking, we certainly let it happen.

Julie South [00:13:29]: So without giving away anything that's commercially sensitive, can you give me an example of an idea that's come from your team that has turned out to be a great thing to have?

Dr Mike Newall [00:13:41]: I'm not really involved in the companion animal stuff so much on the day-to-day, but the weight clinics are one thing. They also have palliative care clinics and weight loss clinics, and that's all come from the team.

What we do is they come up with the ideas and then they work out how we can make this work. That's some of the ideas that have come up recently.

Mia's—well, hers is probably a separate entity, but she came back to us. She was elsewhere and she came back to our clinic and she's really keen on the herbal medicine. She came to us and said, "Can I do this?" And we said, "Well, you work out how it's going to work." And she's gone ahead with it. It's probably in its earlier stages, but it's something she's doing on her own. So yeah, that's another example for you.

Julie South [00:14:21]: As a large animal vet, just to help listeners get an experience of the kind of work that you do, if you had to pick one client, one procedure, one outcome that you are so very proud of, what would that be?

Dr Mike Newall [00:14:35]: One particular case or outcome? I suppose it's more forming those relationships with clients that have got stronger and stronger over the years.

There's one example—one client that I go and pop in and see them all the time when I'm driving past. They're a big bull breeder. Back when I first started, they might have got just a vaccine from us and bits and pieces. It was always sort of questioning price and this and that.

But now, over the years, they get everything through us and they don't question those things so much because they trust my advice and all the stuff we do for them. It's more important than every dollar and cent on certain items.

Julie South [00:15:14]: So you have a—like, an advisory, consultative position with the farmers?

Dr Mike Newall [00:15:21]: Yep.

Julie South [00:15:23]: If I asked you, if you had to just pick one thing that you are most proud of your team for doing or being, what might that be?

Dr Mike Newall [00:15:30]: I just think just, you know, all being—just inclusion. There's always tricky moments, but everyone seems to, on the whole, get on really well. I think it's going back to that team culture again. But it's a nice place to work.

I go down there into the ICU—intensive care unit—and I only go in there infrequently because I'm out in the field doing large animal stuff. Every time I go in there, they tease me and we have a good laugh and they say that I should be in there more often. So it's just those moments.

Julie South [00:16:02]: How would you describe—you've got a pretty well-defined mission and ethos that you live by. How does that play out in real life?

Dr Mike Newall [00:16:12]: Yeah, every time we have these—because we have team meetings frequently—we go through these things all the time. So it's probably just reminding them around the trust between each other and we make the accountability with individuals between themselves. So it's probably just checking in all the time and actually doing these things and talking about them and communicating.

Julie South [00:16:31]: I don't want to turn this into a Lincoln Institute advertorial, but that's a huge investment to make—not just the financial outlay, but the time involved as well. What have you seen change, the before and the after with the team, because of your investment in Lincoln?

Dr Mike Newall [00:16:55]: Well, I think the biggest thing is actually having the right team for a start. So we've certainly identified that some individuals who were not on board with what we were doing have since moved on.

Getting the right people in your team, for a start, I think is really critical. Going through all those things that we've learned with them around some of the things I just spoke about—accountability and communication and trusting each other—and the ones that are left here, we've found if there's been any issue and actually bringing it up straight away and going through some of those issues, it's been resolved immediately. Well, maybe not immediately, but it's certainly helped with our processes.

Julie South [00:17:35]: Talking about fit and people moving on, what sort of person, what sort of veterinarian do you think would fit best in your team? How would they know? How will you know the fit is good?

Dr Mike Newall [00:17:49]: I suppose it's someone that can listen to others. They can not talk about other people behind their backs and actually work in an environment where they're not either talking about management or talking about other people and dismissing people.

So I suppose being positive in that respect. We've found that the people that have since gone—you didn't know actually when they first started, but when they were here, they caused issues around some of that talk behind the scenes, forming little cliques and groups.

Rather than doing that and forming little groups and actually having people they either liked or disliked on the team, we talk about it and say, "Well, everyone has differences of opinions and everyone's got slightly different personalities, but making it all work together."

Everyone's got different faults or different personality types and it's actually a strength rather than trying to control people, thinking that you're more important or better than someone else. That's something we don't want in our team. We want to be inclusive.

Julie South [00:18:54]: You can improve skills, but changing attitude takes much more energy and effort.

Dr Mike Newall [00:19:03]: Sounds like straight from the Lincoln!

Julie South [00:19:05]: I did not—I haven't done Lincoln.

Dr Mike Newall [00:19:08]: No, no, no, but I mean—which is exactly what we're saying. Yeah, the skills you can certainly teach people and it's more around that attitude when it comes. So we've certainly learnt—that question you asked before, what we've learned from them—I think that's probably the biggest thing we've learned, actually. Hiring and knowing what traits we're looking for in respect of their attitude is the most important thing.

Julie South [00:19:32]: Sometimes someone is not better than no one.

Dr Mike Newall [00:19:35]: Yep.

Julie South [00:19:36]: If I asked you to describe your team in three words, what would those words be?

Dr Mike Newall [00:19:46]: Caring. Inclusive.

Julie South [00:19:48]: Is there anything else, Mike, that you would like a prospective team member to know that I haven't asked you specifically?

Dr Mike Newall [00:19:58]: The fact that it's been brought up from a few employees in the past—what makes us a bit different is that it is three directors that have come from, and still work within, on a daily basis, within the building, in the environment. And those decisions come from us entirely.

So decisions can be made—they're not clunky, so they can be made pretty quickly. And also we do listen. We're heavily invested in it because it's us and no other businesses. It's a sole entity, if that makes sense. So there's that aspect which I think sets us apart from a lot of other businesses and practices.

Julie South [00:20:37]: What I am hearing is that you see people, not employee numbers.

Julie South [00:20:46]: You've just heard Dr Mike Newall describe what sets VetsOne apart from a director's perspective. Three owner-operators who work daily within the clinic, make decisions without corporate clunkiness, and see people rather than employee numbers.

So far in this VetsOne Employer of Choice series, you've heard from Dr Jason Clark about collaborative programme and protocol development and advocacy for animals. From Amanda about 34 years of evolution and what generosity of thought actually means in practice. From Dr Mia about feeling emotionally safe and professionally supported, even with a complimentary side hustle. And from Dana about relocating 1,300 kilometres for a nursing role where she's valued as a person, not just a number.

Five very different voices, five very different roles, but one constant message. VetsOne has built something genuinely special. A place where attitude matters more than perfection, where diverse clinical interests are celebrated, where team members become friends, and where three working directors remain deeply invested because it's theirs, not owned by some distant corporate entity.

A quick note about what you're hearing in this series. This depth of employer brand storytelling—multiple team members, genuine stories, cultural specifics beyond just job requirements—this is what makes recruitment actually work.

When clinics struggle to get suitable applicants despite advertising for months, it's because they're posting job ads without showing who they really are. Veterinary professionals can't choose you if they can't see whether they'd actually fit.

VetsOne isn't just posting a job ad hoping the right person sees it. They're showing veterinary professionals what working there genuinely looks like through real veterinary voices sharing real veterinary stories. That's employer brand marketing in action. And that's why they attract people who actually want to be there—people who, as you've heard through this series, are genuinely proud to work at VetsOne.

If you're responsible for recruitment at your clinic, listening and thinking "we have stories like this but don't know how to capture them," then please email me directly at julie@vetclinicjobs.com. I'd be happy to chat about how we help clinics build this kind of genuine employer brand story through our REAL+STORY programme.

And if you're a small animal veterinarian with leadership potential or experience and you're thinking about making your next career move, you owe it to yourself to consider VetsOne. For the position details, including the salary range, the leadership development support that you'll receive, and the team structure, head on over to vetclinicjobs.com/vetsone. The information is all there.

Until next time, this is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self. Because, as Dr Mike reminded us, the right team isn't about finding people who are perfect. It's about finding people whose attitude makes everyone around them better. And that might be just the difference between a workplace and a home.

Until next time.

Referenced URLs:

• https://vetclinicjobs.com/vetsone
• https://veterinaryvoices.com
• mailto:tania@vetclinicjobs.com
• mailto:lizzie@vetclinicjobs.com
• mailto:julie@vetclinicjobs.com