5. IRL Podcast AUDIO
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[00:00:00]
Bethany: Hello, welcome to the Evolve Vets podcast.
Anna: I'm Anna.
Bethany: And I'm Bethany. And we're two vet school besties who took our passion for growth and innovation and turned it into a method for the modern vet to thrive.
Anna: After quickly rising into leadership roles, we dove deep into the world of self development. Along the way, we saw others dealing with anxiety, Perfectionism, imbalance, and burnout. So we took everything we learned and curated it into exactly what we wished we'd had earlier on in our careers, and now we're sharing it with you.
Together,
Bethany: let's stop revolving and start evolving.
Anna: Today is our first IRL episode, so IRL is In real life, and the point of these episodes is every few episodes , Bethany and I want to [00:01:00] get to know our audience a little bit better. We want our audience to get to know us, and so for this one, we're starting off with just what's new in our lives, how have we been applying the process, what's the feedback from the podcast that we've gotten so far, and just the topics that we've recently been talking about.
And then our hope is that for future episodes, we will get questions from our audience or maybe requests to speak about certain topics, and so we can touch on those things so that these episodes are a little bit more interactive and engaging with our audience.
Bethany: Anna, tell me a little bit about what you've been going through lately. You've officially made the transition from chief of staff to the CEO of Veterinary Emergency Group onto the floor as a clinical emergency doctor. Huge transition . How have you been holding up?
Anna: Yeah, huge transition. So I did my career a little bit backwards where I actually started out working mostly for different startups at their headquarters. And of course I've practiced along the way, but [00:02:00] most recently I was with Veterinary Emergency Group at their headquarters. I moved from Texas to New York to be part of it and was in like a headquarters job, meaning, I go to an office every day. There is an actual office there. I had an office, a desk, a computer. I was on Zooms all day, or in meetings with people, working on spreadsheets, working on Google Docs, doing emails, all of the things. Presentations, slide decks that sort of thing. So if anyone's curious what that looks like, happy to chat more about it, but I was not in the hospitals every day.
I was also on a lot of airplanes flying all over the country because we have hospitals all over and we just opened our hundredth hospital with VEG actually. Bethany and I started at VEG when there were 13 hospitals. Fort Worth. We worked that together I believe during COVID right in the middle of COVID. This was March 2020 Um, so, crazy times. I wasn't in a hospital normally. However, I went from doing general practice [00:03:00] initially to ER, and I learned ER over time with VEG . So I would practice maybe twice a month, sometimes up to four times a month, but was not regularly practicing.
So, fast forward to now, I am full time, traveling, emergency doctor, and I am doing shifts on the floor and it's been really, really exciting. I will not lie. I was nervous, right? It's just a big switch and how my days are structured and doing overnights and swing shifts and day shifts and all the things. And so my schedule has been wacky. Also add in travel.
So traveling to different places, being on airplanes, living out of a suitcase. I love it. It's not for everyone. I love it. But, practicing has been, it's been really good. It's been really meaningful to me because I show up to work and I have amazing teams wherever I work. Like, our veterinary nurses are second to none.
I couldn't do my job [00:04:00] without them. And the other doctors are amazing, our front desk, everyone. But what I love about VEG is that it's open concept and people are coming into the hospital and they get to stay with their pets the whole time. And I get to chat with them, it's like welcoming them into my living room.
Anna: And really some people come in for small things, but other people come in and they're really worried and panicked. And I get to help them in those moments and so does the rest of the team. And to get that instant gratification of like, "Oh, you have a problem, your pet has a problem, I can help fix it, and you know, you can leave happy, you can stay with your pet the whole time too." And then people are saying, "Thank you, and you guys are such heroes, and like, this place is, I've never been to anything like this place before, it's um, you know, it's so special that I can stay with my pet."
That is so touching in every interaction, so whether I'm seeing ten patients, twenty patients, it's just really fulfilling. Every single interaction, [00:05:00] versus when I was in more of my corporate job , like you just don't get those thank yous all the time, right, like you're working behind a screen, and you get thank yous, don't get me wrong, but it's very different, it's very emotional on the floor, and I like being in touch with those emotions, I always say doing an ER shift is like life, it's like you, at the end of the day, nothing is guaranteed , you can't, Like, hope that it's gonna be a certain way when you show up , like, "I hope I get a surgery, or I hope it's not busy."
You can't hope for anything, because you just don't know what you're gonna get - it's a mixed bag. And you deal with the good, and you deal with the bad. You deal with really hard cases, and you deal with cases that are, you know, maybe simple , or happier ones, you know , puppies, stuff like that. And then, there's also challenges to navigate with the people.
There's definitely more people who are very grateful for the help that they receive when they're at VEG, but there's also people who maybe are frustrated or panicked and don't know, and [00:06:00] just looking at all those as opportunities to navigate how to help them calm down, or to kind of lower the emotions, and it's really rewarding if you can get someone to the other side.
All of that to say, it has been an adventure and I'm still learning in so many different ways and it's really fulfilling that , we're seven years out of school, and you just never know where Vet Med's going to go. And so, it's been really fun doing the shifts and I'm very grateful.
Bethany: Awesome , I'm glad you're enjoying it . I I love the unpredictability of the emergency room too . That's kind of what makes it really fun. So it's, nice that you're able to also correlate that unexpectedness with a true flip of the mindset and reframing of like " Okay, I can't come into today with any expectations I just have to be really present With what shows up, what presents what surgery is next, what [00:07:00] internal medicine thing that happens , or like conflict amongst the team."
Anna: Yeah, and I mean, you as my Evolved Bestie, and for those of you who are new to listening, an Evolved Bestie is an accountability buddy. And, Bethany and I have been Evolved Besties for the past, I don't know, seven years. We got to know each other really well in fourth year during bucropsy.
Ever since then trauma bonded and now we share everything. You know that I am a planner, so getting used to emergency where there's no appointments and there's no predictability. I find is super uncomfortable for me, but a great challenge and I'm growing and I'm learning to just be like, " Oh , go with the flow. "
Bethany: That's a cool growth step in your journey. I'm sure it's going to teach you a lot of patience . I'm really excited to see you continue to grow as you not only improve and get really confident as an emergency doctor but also, how that's going to change your leadership style.
Anna: Yeah, every time I'm on the floor it makes me so much more empathetic and connected on such a deep level. And speaking [00:08:00] of flow, I would recommend for, most of the people listening are probably in vet med and fellow animal lovers.
But there's this really cute movie called "Flow". And it won an Oscar. It won all of these awards as like best animated movie of the year. And it's about a cat that like, goes on this journey because the waters are rising. It's this really cute cat and um, it meets like, all these other animals.
And, this story is really good, but it's basically about going with the flow of life.
Bethany: I haven't seen it , so I guess we should have a movie date sometime .
Anna: Yeah, exactly.
Bethany: Okay. Anna, I also have exciting news . A lot of people have actually downloaded our dreams journal. I've actually gotten some really amazing feedback. One of the people that works with me in the hospitals has actually come up and said what an impact it makes on her. She's been journaling about her experiences and she said that just writing it out actually helps her reflect and have a better perspective .
We're getting tons of stories like this , and we're continuing to get these really amazing loops of feedback surrounding people's [00:09:00] excitement and how much of an impact it's making already. And so I'm a little bit curious as we continue to dive into the Dreams Journal, Can you tell me how your morning journaling and magical mornings have been going on your own?
Anna: Yeah, absolutely. So I've been dedicated to this practice for over six years now. It's like what keeps me sane every single day. Like I said earlier, I'm traveling all the time I'm working shifts at all sorts of weird hours. I need to have an anchor, and my anchor is my morning routine.
Or, if I don't get to it in the morning, I do it at some other point through the day. And so, no matter where I am, maybe I'm on an airplane, I'm in Texas, I'm in New York, I'm in California, somewhere else, I'm doing the dreams journaling, to have a magical morning. And so, if you haven't downloaded that, you can go to EvolvedVets.com/dreams And you can download it there and it'll come right to your inbox and show you like the specific method that we use which is a combination of so many things that have been studied over time that have been [00:10:00] proven to create a really intentional day. And I think it's especially important for vets because we process so much every single shift.
And so to have that space for yourself to really let things go or reflect on things or be really intentional before shifts.
Bethany: Absolutely. That actually reminds me of a story. You and I had a friend reach out after downloading the Dreams Journal and she was actually telling us about this new role that she wants to take on as a result of doing the Dreams Journal process . And it's just so incredible.
Anna: Yeah. She's literally making a job pivot. But that's what happens because we're go, go, go, and you don't have time to just pause and reflect and be like, " What do I actually want to do? Or what's driving me? Is it fear? Is it, what is it? And so it's important to get quiet before those moments. I'd say one area that it's helped me out in particular is as I transitioned from working in an office to now working on the floor as a doctor, I can process what I'm feeling.
I can also like. [00:11:00] Pump myself up before shifts. I get pre shift anxiety. I don't know if anyone else gets this but because of the role I have I'm off for a good amount of time and then I'm practicing for several days in a row and before the streak of shifts I start to like notice myself getting a little bit anxious Maybe two or three days leading up to it.
I'm like, why am I like agitated why do I feel rushed? And So I journal it out and I'm like, uh, I'm just like nervous for my shifts. I still have like PTSD from shifts that were really hard or busy. And that's normal. We all do. We all do. But most of my shifts are fantastic. And so I have to just be really logical and remind myself of that.
But I write out, that's when I really rely on my affirmations. And I'm like, "I can do this! I'm a badass ER doctor! I, today I'm gonna help so many people and pets." And when I frame it that way, no matter how I wake up, With whatever nerves I have, I leave my magical morning just [00:12:00] new, refreshed, intentional.
I'm not bringing any of that nervous energy in. I'm like, okay, I've been able to do a reframe and I'm ready for the day. And I'm prepared and I'm gonna take all the things that come to me and just like hang on to the good and let go of the others. So, it's been really helpful with pre shift anxiety to just give me the little boost that I need.
And more recently, I'll share a story, this one's more sad, so, um, sorry y'all, but-
it's life. And, um, very recently, I had to put my family's dog down. I didn't actually do the euthanasia. My good friend did, who was my roommate in vet school, and I was so grateful that she was on shift that day . Thank you, Nicole. ,
I was out of town, it was my family's dog, which is basically, like, my dog. Her name is Kona. She's a boxer. She's only nine and a half years old, which I guess is like kind of old for boxers. We've always had boxers. And so long story short, she was like disoriented, fell in the pool.
We rushed her [00:13:00] to the ER and she probably had some sort of like brain tumor or something, um, that just overtook her and she started to decline really, really fast, to where she had to like be on ventilation. We had enough time for my dad and my brother to get there and be with her. But fortunately, my roommate from vet school, Nicole, was there and, like, it was like having Kona's sister there because she knows her so well and so her and the team took such good care of her and, like, it made me feel so much more secure that she was there with her in her final moments taking good care of her.
So all of this to say that, that was obviously a super emotional day, um, for me and for my family, and when I woke up and did my dreams journal the next morning, because I flew home, I was with my parents, and um, the house was just like so empty. I don't know if you guys have experienced that after you lost a pet, but like, the next day, like the, the house just feels so empty, and like my mom was like, oh, [00:14:00] I thought I heard Kona little paws like walking on the wooden floor and I'm like, it's so sad.
So, so you like wake up and there's that empty hole. And so, um, I started my journal practice as I do every morning and just like, journaled about everything that was coming up. And I was like, I just feel sad. Like I am sad today. Like I normally, I try to like list a positive emotion or something, but I'm like, no, I, today I'm sad.
I feel sad. I'm going to allow space . It's for sadness, and like, I should be sad today . It's so sad every time a pet dies, like, they're so innocent and loyal, and, like, it's always sad, and so, so, my journal practice really helped me to be able to process that and hold space for it, so that it's not like, eating away inside.
It's just like, no, it should be sad. And it was a good reflection for me when I, I obviously have to do a lot of euthanasias for my job as an emergency doctor. And [00:15:00] it will make me even more sensitive to the people who are coming in. And when they're going through something hard, it's like, like, if I can hold space for them and say, like, you are allowed to be sad.
This is sad that your pet is passing away . And you're doing the right thing because you know, we are here to prevent animal suffering. I can be a better doctor to them and a better guide as their pet passes. Doing the journaling helped me reflect on that because when it's all swirling in my mind, like I can't process it.
I'm just like, I feel Sad, I feel guilty, I feel worried, whatever, but I can really just get it all out when I journal, and so for me that was really healing, and I encourage anyone who's just struggling or overthinking or feeling sad or whatever it may be to, to try it and see if that's a good release for them.
Bethany: Yeah, Kona was such a good girl.
Ashley: Hey, it's Ashley Foster, CFP, and founder of [00:16:00] NextGen Financial Planning. I work with veterinarians who are ready to get intentional about their money and design a life they actually love. Through financial life planning, we look at your values, your goals, and build a strategy that supports what matters most to you, not just your career, but your whole life.
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Anna: So what's new with you, Bethany? Can you tell me about maybe something personal with you? Like what's new in your personal life? Because, you have a really fun personal life and, I've enjoyed watching you grow and get more connections and get more involved in Austin, Texas. So, can you tell me what's new there?
Bethany: Absolutely. So, I now live in Austin, I moved there a little bit over a year ago. It's been a really [00:17:00] incredible process, with an incredible journey, Anna's been there for it all, and I've been able to do really intentional things throughout the year to live aligned and really practice building my community in Austin.
We've actually got Sunday Supper going, building my community with intention, the goal has been to set up something on Sunday evenings where not only people from around the community of Austin , but maybe people from work, or people from my hometown, or people that live in my building , all come down and we connect with other people.
Bethany: And so that's been something that's going strong that I'm still really proud of and it's brought me a lot of really amazing connections both inside and outside of Vet Med. Just one to highlight that that's thriving and that is me showing up , being the person who's a little bit nervous or afraid to start that , event every Sunday and maybe it was just me or one other person showing up and now it's a group of 10 to 12 people that, sometimes they can even do it without me. And I'm not even there. For example, this last weekend, we were out on a trip , and [00:18:00] I wasn't there, and they had Sunday Supper anyway . And so that's a beautiful thing that I think progress is really exciting in.
Trying to be intentional with building friendships and communities since that's a core value. And then, the other thing that I'm currently living through is the dating scene. Like I told y'all last, what was it, two episodes ago that, you know, finding my soulmate is something that I'm actually manifesting and trying to put intentional, aligned action behind and ultimately , it's just been a really exciting time to go in and get to know people in a different way. Maybe meet people that I never would have met before . And, yeah, it's just been a really fun and exciting opportunity to meet new people .
Anna: I'm so proud of you. And as your Evolved Bestie, , I'll share with everyone, because these conversations are meant to share some of the things that Bethany and I talk about together that we're processing. I remember before you moved to Austin. You were super nervous because you're moving into a new building that was a little bit above, like, a [00:19:00] price range that you were used to paying.
And you're like, "Oh, should I do it? Should I not?" You had this really strong gut feeling that like, " This is the place for me." And community was the number one thing you wanted to create there, because when you moved there, you didn't necessarily have a community.
, I remember you taking that leap, and leaps of faith are always rewarded. They're always rewarded. And so, you took that leap of faith, you went into this building, and spent a little bit more in a healthy way, and it's paid off so much. Especially the work that you've put into building Sunday Suppers, this was just an idea, it was just an idea. " I'll just try it. It's gonna be really awkward, but I'll just try it-" and you had one or two people show up a few times like maybe the first three or four times which some people would get really discouraged and be like "I quit. What's the point? " But you persisted and now it's its own self sustaining thing that makes so many people in your building happy. Every time I come to your building and we're going up and down the elevator , you [00:20:00] know everybody , everyone knows you and you get invited to all of these other things.
Anna: And I'm just really proud of you for carving out time because you've always been so dedicated to your work and your work was life. And, it's still really important to you, but you've recognized that you need to make space for other things in your life, like community and dating and you're prioritizing that now.
So It's it's really cool fast forward two or three years later to see how much you've grown and changed.
Bethany: Oh, thanks sister Yeah, I love that. It's so true, stepping through that fear taking those bold moves even when, it feels a little bit uncomfortable to you know, raise your cost of rent or do something that, that feels a little bit risky when you take on that challenge , like being able to move forward and see the results on the other side like you said, I feel like it always pays off . I think that's one of the reasons that my word for 2025, when we set New Year's resolutions together in Hawaii, was actually be daring. It's fear and I don't want to be [00:21:00] ignorant about surrounding things that might cause me to have that feeling.
I really think. the beauty comes from saying like, "Yeah, this is scary and I want to do it anyway, because it feels aligned and it's headed in the direction of the life that I want to lead ." It's been really cool to see how every time I stepped through that fear, more amazing things come through.
And so the year of 2025 for me is about being daring and taking risks, like starting this podcast was the first thing on the list.
So, on one of our recent Evolved Bestie walks, I got a phone call from one of my medical leaders . I'm currently a market owner at Veterinary Emergency Group, where I oversee seven of our hospitals throughout Houston , Austin , and San Antonio, and we had a call from a medical doctor.
Bethany: I was actually very impressed , because he is relatively new to the role but like such a badass and so just very proud of him because he had already handled this situation for a good amount of time and then finally called and reached out for some advice and I'm really proud of how he handled it.
Essentially the situation was that there was a dog that had a foreign body , [00:22:00] suspect and there were, multiple situations that we came up with, multiple things were declined by the customer, multiple things were declined by the client, and ultimately we got in a situation where the customer was upset at the end of the visit.
The total visit for this dog staying in the hospital for an extreme amount of time was very, very high, and our team had discounted a very significant amount of the bill. Ultimately, the medical director called to ask for like, what do we do next ? And this is how I'm thinking about it. You know, where is the point where they're being mean to the staff?
So there's definitely a line, and me as a leader I take the approach of , you own your hospital, you need to make it on these decisions, so if your decision is to give the full refund, then I absolutely support you in that, and let's figure out a way to make it work. ,
Bethany: If they feel strongly that, That is not the right decision to make and that is not the right call to make that I have their full support and whether that decision is " [00:23:00] I don't want to discount anymore. We've already discounted, then I support you. And whatever happens next I'll be with you and we'll make those decisions as we go."
And ultimately that's where we ended up in the conversation and I think it just reminds me of these moments when you're in veterinary medicine or any clinical practice, ultimately, there are going to be people that are upset for one reason or another.
And how do you handle that in a way that is protective of your staff, your team, and still values the services that you provide, while also doing this dance of understanding where people are coming from and when they're upset and hurt, like you were talking about earlier, and balancing that with when does that cross the line of aggression and unsafety, for the team?
, That was a big situation that came up this week that we kind of worked through. Really proud of how he handled it. He did a great job.
Anna: I think when you were telling me what stood out when this stuff happens often and it's, it's what we're [00:24:00] most scared of as vets. It's like, "Oh, am I going to be sued? Is someone going to yell at me? Are they going to be unhappy when every single case I have I'm doing the best that I can with what I have and what the owners are able to reasonably do?":
And I get it not like it's it's You know, it's people's disposable incomes and that's not an unlimited fund and so you do have to be respectful of people's finances and it's a really delicate and really hard balance. But when people start to yell at you and you're like "I did the best I could we did all the right things by your pet but sometimes you can't save a pet, or, or sometimes there's just gonna be, you know, a bad outcome."
You can't control everything, we're not God, we can't, save a pet from everything. And so, when people get upset about that, it can be understandable, I can understand it. Like, it's a scary moment, and it's a lot of money, especially at the ER. But you have to be resourced as a doctor to be able to understand that that is [00:25:00] going to happen to you, and how do you navigate it?
Bethany: Yeah, there was a book that our friend Brie recommended to us recently and I don't remember the name, but we can plug in the show notes and essentially it talks about what we were talking about this week was life is like poker and you're dealt a set of hands So you never know what the outcome or the clinical outcome of any case will be.
The only thing you can do is do the best with the hand that you have and try to win with that and what do you do in those cases where you did everything right and you made the right decisions for that hand, but it still doesn't work out?
Do you blame yourself or pivot? Or is there just naturally going to be a percentage that is going to have a negative clinical outcome , and that is going to be hard , but do you have to change your behavior based on that thing happening? Maybe if there was actually something at fault, but most of the time, it is, the outcome that happens isn't something that you caused , it's just something that happens.
Not that there was a negative outcome for this pet, the pet is actually doing great in my [00:26:00] story, but that was a different side tangent that reminded me of exactly what you were talking about, where there is this pivotal decision part that comes in, and all you can do is make the best decision at that time, and you can't control the outcome, and as much as we can be perfectionists and want to control those outcomes, unfortunately, we can do every antibiotic the right way or give the fluids the right way and sometimes they still don't make it . And, you know, that's definitely an emotional toll that we have to deal with sometimes. But, it's part of the job.
Anna: So I thought that was a great lesson this week, because the veterinarians at your hospital, I think you've trained them really well, and you hired really amazing people, and they were able to navigate that situation.
But, as the doctors who are affected by that, it's still, no matter how prepared you are, or how many emotional boundaries you put in place, it [00:27:00] still affects you because, one, you want the pet to do well, and two, you want the people who own the pets to be happy and leave with a good experience. So, it's always tough if they're not, and that can weigh on you, and so that's one of the reasons that Bethany and I have created so many resources for veterinarians is to help us better deal with that.
How do you let that go? How do you improve the communication style? How do you kind of lower those emotions ? How do you come to some compromise where, you feel good as a veterinarian, you're doing the right thing for the pet, and the owner feels good as well?
It's skills that do take practice to navigate. And, there's a lot in there, that we have created resources for to be able to help veterinarians be better prepared for situations like that.
Bethany: And the n in vet school you're not going to learn the nuances of each individual ethical decision that you make; each individual financial conversation that you have to have, or conflict resolution, or crucial conversation. You know, all these things come up to us [00:28:00] daily, whether it's in a market owner role or on the floor as an emergency room doctor. It's spread and sprinkled throughout veterinary medicine. It's the reason that we've created the Evolved Vets.
We have a super exciting announcement that we want to share with everybody. We're going to be launching our very first membership, and we're really pumped.
Bethany: It's going to hit on emotional intelligence , empowered leadership , and it's also going to hit on some business acumen.
Anna: The reason that we're creating a membership for you guys is we've got such amazing feedback from the podcast and the topics that we're talking about and we realized that vet school and then your job, they're well equipped to teach the medicine part and if you want to be an amazing, excellent , well rounded veterinarian who is thriving in practice, staying in their jobs, not getting burnt out and actually being happy, having it be a really fulfilling career that you've always wanted- you have to be good at four things.
You have to be clinically excellent, always striving to do the best medicine possible, and that journey [00:29:00] is never-ending. You're always learning that as a doctor.
The next thing is emotional intelligence. So that's communication skills, it's how you interact with clients, how you interact with your team, how you personally manage your own emotions.
Anna: And then the next one is empowered leadership . So that's how you're showing up on the floor to lead yourself first, right? You are a leader on the floor. As veterinarians, we are all leaders. People are looking to us to be decision makers. We are the final decision makers on all of the cases that we work up.
And so we're leaders on the floor. We have to be able to lead ourselves, lead the team, and be a guide for the people who come in with their pets.
And then lastly is business acumen. So, you are working for a healthcare service business, and you need to know the basics of a business, and so you need to understand how you're paid. Do you pay on production? How is that calculated? What's included in your production? What's not included in your [00:30:00] production?
How do you negotiate, not just your salary, you should be able to advocate for yourself for sure and understand what's fair, and what your earning potential is, but also being able to negotiate with clients about a treatment plan for their pet.
Negotiation is not a bad word. It's a good word. It actually is very counterintuitive, but when you're negotiating you want to be friendly with a person, that actually ends in a better negotiation.
Anna: So I know it comes off as a little bit of an aggressive word, but it's actually "How are you coming to a compromise with someone?"
So those are the things that we're going to teach. We're going to teach those things because schools will teach you about the medicine and they are starting to touch on different business aspects , especially if you are in the VBMA.
Shout out to VBMA. VBMA changed my life, and you get to learn a lot of these great skills there. Then you graduate and your job is going to help teach you the medicine. That's the main thing, right? Those are the basics. You have to know the medicine, but if that's all, you know, and you graduate, and then you're hit with all of these realities [00:31:00] of vet med, of, the hardest decisions being financial, or ethical, or not understanding your pay, or getting burnt out because you don't know how to ask for a certain schedule that you need, or you don't know how to take breaks instead of writing medical records during your lunch break.
Or you can't handle the client interactions, because that's really getting you down. Maybe someone leaves you a bad review, something like that. That, these things all happen. And if you're not prepared, for those things, you will get burnt out. You will think, "Oh dear God, what did I sign up for? This is not the veterinary medicine that I imagined when I was five years old! This isn't the career that I thought it would be."
And that's really sad because it's an amazing career. It's an incredible career, but if you don't have the other skills, then you won't be prepared for practice. And so, Bethany and I are here to teach all of those skills from the inside out.
And we're going to start really, really basic, but [00:32:00] it's whatever your mindset is, your attitude, the way that you show up and you take care of yourself is gonna reflect everything else in your life. Like you're not just someone who shows up to work and then a different person at home.
You are a whole entire person. And so we take a whole person approach with our model when we're teaching you guys our method.
So, Bethany, you want to share a little bit more about what's going to be included in the membership?
Bethany: Of course. We have so many amazing things coming in the membership.
When we launch the membership the most exciting part is we're going to be laying a foundation.
We've briefly highlighted the three core parts of our method. And we really want to go deep on those with you. So we're going to be walking you through the basics of our meditations, our elevations, and our integrations.
Bethany: And those three things will be the foundation for all the things to come. Our goal is to slowly walk you through Anna and I hand in hand with you, doing it with you. As you can tell from our IRL episode, we're sharing the same [00:33:00] struggles, we're sharing the same challenges, and we're with you in this.
And we are your guides. You are going to be the executor. You have to show up and decide that you want to do this work. And we are here to guide you. We are experts at this. We've been doing it for seven years. We've created this process because we know it works. And we want to bring you along on our journey so you can have the amazing success that both Anna and I have had- not only in our careers, but in our personal lives as well.
We're so excited for what this journey can look like for you. So we're first starting off with our method and actually doing a deep dive on our foundations. And then essentially from there, we're going to be leaning into really cool, exciting things like our Summer Challenge, where we're going to be walking you through, how do you understand your core values and what does that look like and how do you show up in a way that is authentic so you can honor that whole person that you are instead of trying to be what somebody expects of you at work, and then not be that person at home. How do you show up as one whole being in those moments to really have that fulfilled life, prevent burnout? You have so much more energy to do [00:34:00] things when you love what you do, and we want to help you find and live an aligned life.
Anna: So we have a suite of masterclasses and these masterclasses range in length from four weeks where you learn the foundations like Bethany was talking about and they go up to eight weeks, which will be the challenge that we do for our Summer Evolution, where we all are going week by week we just will release it one week at a time and we're doing the work each week.
These master classes? One they're a big commitment. So we're asking that you dedicate 30 minutes a day five days a week. You choose which days those are, and, you know, if you need to catch up or do a little bit more in one week, that's, that's fine. You don't have to be perfect or stick to it to a T, but, we are going to ask that you dedicate and set aside 20 to 30 minutes a day, five days a week, while you do these challenges, and again, we'll be, your guides will be with you the whole time, and the important part is that you find an evolved bestie to do it with you, because that's all the difference.
[00:35:00]
So we have the masterclasses they're also going to be RACE approved , and we will have up to 30 hours that you can earn of non- medical RACE approved CE. These masterclasses will be released throughout the year as we, as your guides, do the work together with you and along with the entire community.
Anna: So, really exciting things to come there, and eventually in person offerings too!
Retreat's coming soon!
Bethany: Join the waitlist on the website. We'd love for you to join our waitlist, so we can know who's interested in joining us for our very first retreat.
Anna: The other things we'll have, we will have live coaching calls. So these will be calls with the women in the community who want to have live coaching with myself and Bethany.
And we will talk through different topics. You guys can submit questions beforehand. And we'll be able to chat live on the call and do coaching calls all together. And it's really powerful when multiple women show up together in these types of situations. So we're very excited to offer that.
Bethany: Our goal with those [00:36:00] live coaching calls is for you to learn with Anna and I as your guides on how to actually apply the work that you're learning.
What revelations are you understanding from the meditations, from the elevations, from the integrations? It is a lot of internal work. We believe that the people who do the internal work end up rising through the ranks and being these incredible leaders. Not for any reason other than you have more self-awareness. You have more empathy to show up. You understand where you need to pivot and do things a little bit differently. And having that deep understanding of self is actually what creates that great leader on the other side.
Anna: Absolutely, and it's one thing to read about something, learn about it, watch it in a video, but it's a whole other thing to have real life accountability with other people who can mirror back to you.
Bethany: I think that that's a great call out. So, your call to action is going to be , seek out your Evolved Bestie. Go ahead, bring them up, let them know that you've heard about the Evolved Vets and you need somebody to partner with you.
I think the [00:37:00] reason Anna and I show so much progress is because we have these accountability conversations where we're able to partner with each other, hold each other accountable, and really just someone who can love you unconditionally through all of it. Who's gonna be that person that you can call and be like, "Oh man, I totally messed up on this, you know, I need them to help me."
Pick out your accountability bestie; go ahead and pick out your Evolved Bestie, so that way you have somebody to connect with, be open and vulnerable with, and to help you process all the things that veterinary medicine throws at you, and it's going to be a magical journey.
Anna: And the last thing I want to share, and this is, going to be a really powerful tool for everyone in the community, is that we're going to have an entire library of audios that Bethany and I have spent so much time writing and recording. And it's going to include our meditations, it's going to include our elevations, which are like visualizations, and it will include our integrations, which are walking meditations- [00:38:00] you can like walk your dog, or go on a walk around the block, and listen to these.
Bethany: And in case you're not sure what that means, that means Anna and I have literally sat down, and as a veterinarian, made our own version of meditations for the exact scenarios that you're living through. And it's deep to the soul because it's what has helped us process and evolve throughout time. And we want to bring you along our evolution journey as well.
Anna: One that we're really excited about that we're actually going to share with all of our listeners on this podcast, everyone for free is called Shift Shedding. So this meditation is really, really powerful. So Bethany got this pain to create this the other day and it is for, we all know we go into our jobs and working as veterinarians, by the end of the day, you're like, "Oh god, I've done all these euthanasias, I've done puppy appointments, maybe I've done vaccines, maybe I had some DOAs, maybe I had some interesting clients that I had to talk to" or certain team dynamics, [00:39:00] and maybe you have personal stuff in, in your life going on as well.
So by the end of the shift, you're just like, "Oh god, I'm carrying a lot, I'm frazzled, like, maybe I need to finish my records, or did I put that right thing in the records?" So we created a shift shedding meditation for you. This is something that after your shift, whether you're walking out the door, you can go on a little walk, you listen to it on the car ride home, or you get home, you do it on the couch first thing.
But you listen to this, and it's going to help you shed everything that happened to you on your shift, all those emotions, you're gonna allow them to just come up, process them. And let them go. Give them space. Honor all the feelings that came up during your shift because there's a lot and you're switching back and forth, multitasking, so just allow space for it.
You don't need to go home and take it out on your husband or, you know, whatever you normally do that maybe is not the most healthy coping mechanism.
So instead, put on this Shift Shedding [00:40:00] meditation. It is for you. It's for veterinarians. I've been using it after my shifts and it's so helpful. And you'll put that on, you'll be able to release those feelings, and then feel refreshed moving forward. So, this is for you guys, and we're really excited to be able to offer it to all of our listeners, so that you can get a little taste of what these audios are all about.
So you can access the shift shedding meditation by going to EvolvedVets.com/shiftshedding. Slash Shift Shedding. One word.
Anna: You can go to our website EvolvedVets.com and click start your journey.
Bethany: We can't wait for you to evolve with us.
Together,
Let's stop revolving and start evolving.
