An associate veterinarian who always has an explanation, a reason, or someone else to point to when things go wrong can quietly erode team trust, frustrate leaders, and stall growth, especially when accountability never quite lands. In this episode, Uncharted Veterinary Podcast hosts Dr. Andy Roark and Stephanie Goss unpack what’s really driving excuse-based behavior and how leaders can shift the conversation toward ownership and improvement without creating shame or defensiveness. They explore how fear, confidence, and clinic culture shape accountability, and share practical strategies to stop the excuse spiral, set clear expectations, use curiosity to redirect conversations, and coach simple “repair language” that helps team members take ownership and move forward. If you’ve ever felt stuck in repetitive, frustrating conversations that go nowhere, this episode will help you lead with clarity, compassion, and a stronger path toward accountability. Let’s get into this episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

Office Hours

Inside the Uncharted Veterinary Community, Dr. Andy Roark hosts Office Hours where veterinary leaders can bring real-world challenges and get practical guidance from someone who understands the realities of practice life. These sessions give veterinarians, practice managers, and team leaders a chance to ask questions, workshop difficult situations, and gain perspective on issues like team dynamics, communication, burnout, and clinic operations. Instead of navigating leadership challenges alone, members get direct access to Andy’s insight along with the support of a community of veterinary professionals working through many of the same challenges.

Join Dr. Andy Roark for Office Hours at the Uncharted Veterinary Community!

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

Ron Sosa, CVPM and Executive Director of Uncharted Veterinary Conference, joins Maria Pirita to tackle the question every practice manager secretly wonders: Is getting your CVPM actually worth it? If you've heard mixed reviews about whether CVPM certification leads to better pay, opens career doors, or just adds letters after your name, this episode is your honest reality check. Maria and Ron dive into the compensation truth (spoiler: it depends on way more than you think), the actual learning value, the surprisingly emotional pinning ceremony, and why your why matters more than anything else. You'll walk away understanding the real commitment involved, how to have the money conversation with your boss, and whether this credential aligns with your career goals or if you're just climbing a ladder you never wanted to be on. Plus, Ron drops some wisdom about neurodivergent veterinary professionals that'll make you think differently about burnout. Gang, let's get into this episode.

Links:

1. VHMA (Veterinary Hospital Managers Association)
2. VHMA Compensation Study
3. Ron's LinkedIn

Mentioned in this episode:

Office Hours

Inside the Uncharted Veterinary Community, Dr. Andy Roark hosts Office Hours where veterinary leaders can bring real-world challenges and get practical guidance from someone who understands the realities of practice life. These sessions give veterinarians, practice managers, and team leaders a chance to ask questions, workshop difficult situations, and gain perspective on issues like team dynamics, communication, burnout, and clinic operations. Instead of navigating leadership challenges alone, members get direct access to Andy’s insight along with the support of a community of veterinary professionals working through many of the same challenges.

Join Dr. Andy Roark for Office Hours at the Uncharted Veterinary Community!

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

Can you be an effective practice manager of a veterinary hospital if you never scrub in? In this episode, Dr. Andy Roark and Maria Pirita, CVPM respond to a mailbag question from a new-ish practice manager whose team says she’s, “not helpful because she can’t draw blood or place IVs” even though she’s been fixing administrative problems that keep the hospital functioning. Andy and Maria frame the issue as a common tension between “medicine people” and “operations people,” and emphasize that the solution is not learning blood draws but getting clear on role expectations, success metrics, and KPIs with the person who evaluates the manager. They discuss resetting team expectations by narrating leadership, building transparency into weekly rhythms, tying administrative work to team pain points like schedules, supplies, breaks, and leaving on time, and seeking endorsement from medical leadership.

Join us for an event at the Uncharted Veterinary Community!

All Links: https://linktr.ee/UnchartedVet

Do you have something that you would love Andy and Maria to discuss on the podcast? If so, send us a message through the mailbag! Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag

Mentioned in this episode:

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

Veterinary leadership burnout can leave even the most dedicated practice managers wondering if life would be easier back at the front desk, free from the constant pressure of staffing decisions, client complaints, and carrying the emotional weight of the whole hospital. In this episode, Dr. Andy Roark and Stephanie Goss respond to a heartfelt mailbag question from a manager considering stepping down into a CSR role and unpack the realities of making that transition. They explore why these feelings are so common, the cultural and identity challenges of changing roles inside the same practice, and how to decide whether stepping down is truly the right move or simply a sign that boundaries and support need to change. Let's get into this episode!

Upcoming events: https://learn.unchartedvet.com/pages/events

All Links: https://linktr.ee/UnchartedVet

Do you have something that you would love Andy and Stephanie to discuss on the podcast? If so, send us a message through the mailbag! Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag

Mentioned in this episode:

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

Office Hours

Inside the Uncharted Veterinary Community, Dr. Andy Roark hosts Office Hours where veterinary leaders can bring real-world challenges and get practical guidance from someone who understands the realities of practice life. These sessions give veterinarians, practice managers, and team leaders a chance to ask questions, workshop difficult situations, and gain perspective on issues like team dynamics, communication, burnout, and clinic operations. Instead of navigating leadership challenges alone, members get direct access to Andy’s insight along with the support of a community of veterinary professionals working through many of the same challenges.

Join Dr. Andy Roark for Office Hours at the Uncharted Veterinary Community!

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

Dr. Andy Roark and Maria Pirita, CVPM, tackle one of the most emotionally charged realities in veterinary medicine, when corporate leadership changes clinic schedules without local input and leaders are left to deliver the news to frustrated teams. In this episode, they respond to a multi-site medical director caught between upper management directives and the trust they have worked hard to build with their doctors. They explore the leadership trap of managing up and down, how to communicate schedule changes without losing credibility, and practical strategies for protecting team morale, retention, and engagement during corporate veterinary practice transitions. If you have ever felt stuck translating decisions you did not make, this episode offers clarity, validation, and actionable veterinary leadership tools to help you navigate change effectively.

Upcoming events: https://learn.unchartedvet.com/pages/events

All Links: https://linktr.ee/UnchartedVet

Do you have something that you would love Andy and Stephanie to discuss on the podcast? If so, send us a message through the mailbag! Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag

Mentioned in this episode:

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

A former associate leaves your veterinary practice, opens their own clinic, and now your team members are getting recruited, leaving you worried about staff loss and wondering whether to fight back legally or double down on fixing things internally. This week, Dr. Andy Roark and Stephanie Goss tackle the emotional and practical reality of veterinary staff poaching, walking through how practice owners and managers can move past anger, stabilize their teams, and focus on culture, communication, and retention strategies that actually keep employees loyal long term. If you’re struggling with staff retention, leadership stress, or fear of losing great team members to competitors, this episode delivers practical, level-headed guidance to help you protect your practice and lead confidently through the challenge. Let’s get into this episode!

Do you have something that you would love Andy and Stephanie to discuss on the podcast? If so, send us a message through the mailbag! Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag

Mentioned in this episode:

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

What happens when the people meant to lead and support the team slowly become the emotional shock absorbers for the entire hospital? In clinics everywhere, practice managers and medical directors step in to help because they care. A team member is overwhelmed, conflict pops up, a client is upset, and leadership jumps in to fix it. At first, it feels supportive. But over time, every problem starts landing on the same shoulders. Team members stop solving issues themselves, accountability gets delayed, and leaders find themselves emotionally exhausted, constantly putting out fires instead of leading strategically. In this episode of the Uncharted Veterinary Podcast, Maria Pirita, CVPM sits down with Suzanne Thomas, LVTg, CVTg, regional leader and educator behind Leading Veterinary Teams, to unpack how good leaders unintentionally create systems where everything escalates to them, and how that cycle leads straight to burnout. Let's get into this episode!

Do you have something that you would to discuss on the podcast? If so, send us a message through the mailbag! Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag

Mentioned in this episode:

Zoetis - Simparica Trio

Learn more about Simparica-Trio!

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!

The veterinary clinic winter blues are real, and many practice leaders quietly struggle when team morale dips even though nothing seems obviously wrong. In this Uncharted Veterinary Podcast mailbag episode, Dr. Andy Roark and Stephanie Goss tackle what happens when teams feel heavy, drained, and stuck in what one manager brilliantly called “wet sock energy.” No drama, no major conflict, just collective exhaustion. In this episode, they explore how leaders can support veterinary teams through seasonal burnout without becoming the overly cheerful camp counselor everyone secretly wants to avoid. Let's get into this episode!

Do you have something that you would love to discuss on the podcast? If so, send us a message through the mailbag! Submit it here: unchartedvet.com/mailbag

Mentioned in this episode:

Office Hours

Inside the Uncharted Veterinary Community, Dr. Andy Roark hosts Office Hours where veterinary leaders can bring real-world challenges and get practical guidance from someone who understands the realities of practice life. These sessions give veterinarians, practice managers, and team leaders a chance to ask questions, workshop difficult situations, and gain perspective on issues like team dynamics, communication, burnout, and clinic operations. Instead of navigating leadership challenges alone, members get direct access to Andy’s insight along with the support of a community of veterinary professionals working through many of the same challenges.

Join Dr. Andy Roark for Office Hours at the Uncharted Veterinary Community!

Uncharted Practice Owner Summit at NAVC SkillShop

Owning a veterinary practice comes with challenges no one teaches you in school. The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit, hosted at NAVC SkillShop in Orlando, is a hands-on leadership workshop designed to help owners strengthen their teams, improve operations, and make confident business decisions. This small-group, working session focuses on real-world tools and honest conversations, not passive lectures. Spots are limited. Register now!

Register for The Uncharted Practice Owner Summit Today!