Veterinary Voices

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 ...

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 o...

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 wh...

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 work...

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, an...

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 ope...

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 com...

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, a...

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 directl...

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 ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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&ap...

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 do...

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&apos...

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 o...