S1/E15: Mental Health, Business, and Personal Growth with Dr. Donita McCants

[00:00:00] Dr Donita: I mean it’s a hard conversation to have, I’m really open person Like I’ll talk about anything, but I just feel like some people still have a hard time Having those mental health conversations, so just having these conversations out loud for people to hear, you don’t realize that it’s probably helping someone maybe to look at something that’s going on with themselves.

[00:00:17] I feel like I don’t. I don’t have any interest or anything and I just don’t care. And I’m like, well, you don’t, you shouldn’t feel that way. You shouldn’t feel that way. Why did I not love the things that I love anymore? What, what could be going on? 

[00:00:30] Sometimes when we go in full force we’re not really paying attention to how we’re feeling and we’re just trying to, take care of things, get things done. But we have to be mindful. It’s really hard like when you’re a pusher and you’re like a type A personality, you don’t think that depression is something that can affect you. But the thing is when you’re in these higher level positions, you’re so used to just getting things done regardless. 

[00:00:54] Morgan: hey, everyone. Welcome to the Lucky Pup Podcast, where we’re taking big ideas and moving them together in a way that makes the big picture relatable and also hopefully inspirational and educational too. You’ll find candid and authentic conversations about the struggles we’ve encountered to live a more full and happy life.

[00:01:10] I’m your host, Morgan Weber, and I have Dr. Donita with me today. And She really epitomizes the goal of this podcast. She owns and operates Veterinary Concierge Services, which is her mobile vet clinic. Dr. Donita is so passionate about reducing the stigma around mental health.

[00:01:27] She herself has struggled with burnout throughout her career, and she knew that she needed to make a change. We talk about the struggles of starting a new business, of sticking with it, finding your people and the tightrope that business owners often walk between finding personal satisfaction in life and also having a successful business.

[00:01:46] Dr. Donita has so much wisdom to share with us, and I am so excited to share her with you today. So with that, here’s Dr. Donita.

[00:01:55] From Vet School to Mobile Clinic

[00:01:55] Morgan: Dr. Donita, thank you so much for joining us today. I was so excited to hear you speak at the Florida Pet Services summit, and you had such a wonderful chat about burnout. And I felt like a simpatico moment where I was like, yes, burnout, like more of us need to be talking about burnout.

[00:02:13] Do you want to just give folks a quick little intro to who you are and what you do?

[00:02:17] Dr Donita: Yes. So my name is Dr. Danita. I am in Florida. I am the owner of name change, veterinary concierge services. It was my full name, really long, Dr. Janita’s veterinary concierge services, but we cut it down a little bit. So in layman’s terms, I am a mobile veterinarian, and this is a newer venture.

[00:02:37] I’ve been a mobile vet for A little over two years now. I started out of a little teeny SUV and worked my way up to a large Mercedes Sprinter van, which I’m super excited and proud about. We do a little bit of everything. We do space neuters, dental cleanings, mash removals. I would say that’s where it ends, but it doesn’t.

[00:02:59] Recently I’ve also done a splenectomy on there and foreign body surgery. So we can do a good amount on there. We do some magical stuff on there, so we’re definitely proud of that. Surgery is definitely my first love, if you can’t already tell. I love surgery. I have dibbed and dabbed. I went to Tuskegee University for vet school. I graduated in 2015, and then I went to UGA for undergrad. Before that, graduated in 2011. Go Dawgs! Gotta put that in there. But other than that’s a little bit about me. I love to work out. And I have a 10 year old son and a fiance named Joe.

[00:03:34] By the way, was that guy. He’s the one who helped me start the business.

[00:03:38] Morgan: I think we always need somebody in our lives who can be the pusher behind the scenes to say no, I see this in you and I know that you can do this and like you just need to do it. So that’s really cool. So how did that all go? Because, being a mobile vet, I’m assuming is not like a course when you go to vet school and they’re like, Hey guys, you could be a mobile vet.

[00:03:56] Dr Donita: Yeah I, when I was in vet school, we had a conference. One time and I met a couple of alumni and that was the first time I heard about that, that was an option. And I met her when I was still in vet school and she told me what she did.

[00:04:13] And I was like, Oh my God, that’s so cool. So that was my first time hearing about, a mobile vet as an option. So it was always something that cool, different when, even when I was in vet school during one of our rotations, funny enough, we did have a house call rotation, which I don’t know if other vet schools do that.

[00:04:29] But we did have a house call rotation where we went out with Dr. Montgomery. She was great. And we would go to other facilities and help them out with different things and one of our one of our vans. So that was my other opportunity of actually seeing that too as a way to have access to care for people.

[00:04:47] So it’s a great way to provide access to care for those that can’t. Originally I always wanted to be a business owner, but I just wasn’t sure in what capacity I wanted to do it. But I was, always thought like brick and mortar was always my, decision I was going to make.

[00:05:02] But as I got through the works, definitely getting tired, overworked. I did a little bit of everything. I worked in corporate, I’ve worked in specialty medicine, I’ve worked emergency medicine. I’ve done a little bit of everything. So after all of that build up and getting tired eventually, that’s where it led me to in a way where I could still practice medicine the way I wanted to, but fight burnout, not be as exhausted, have more control of my schedule. And I went mobile specifically because I had even more control versus if I went to a brick and mortar location, then that was putting me back into that box of. You have to be here a certain amount of hours, a certain amount of days to pay these bills, pay this rent, to pay this light bill, and all those expenses that weren’t really changing the problem that I was having. So I’m like, well, let me try something, a smaller model with a vehicle where I could still get that quality life that I wanted.

[00:05:58] Morgan: So when you were practicing in the specialty, the ER, the relief work did you ever miss the, like the general practice side where it’s like, cool, like I can do specialty surgeries and I can dig deeper in, but did you ever miss the general practice, like the day to day vetting that I think so many of us think about when we think about our own vet, we think about that that relationship that we build.

[00:06:20] Dr Donita: that’s pretty much what I do now. I’m pretty much a GP that does other things, but when I started right out of vet school, I definitely was, strictly a GP at corporate facility. So that’s what I did. Depending on the facility I was at, I will get a little bit more experience, but I did struggle in the beginning. With getting the experiences that I wanted and needed to further myself versus just being, right here as a doctor versus, the quality care that I really wanted to give.

[00:06:51] It was good that I had those different experiences, I got a taste of everything So I want to make it I don’t want to sound like I did all these things at different times Sometimes I did them at the same time I guess would make sense because a lot of times when I did emergency medicine, it was on a relief basis So I didn’t work like At an emergency hospital I worked doing a relief shift as emergency or if I worked like well as an intern I would, rotate amongst all the specialty. So that was my one Experience where I got to do the specialty medicine. And then I took those skills and then formulated into, general practice, but doing higher quality  medicine. So a fusion of, general practice, but, just it’s levels to how much you can do and how much you’re willing to do, which is weird.

[00:07:33] Addressing Mental Health and Burnout in Veterinary Medicine

[00:07:33] Dr Donita: Now I heard that. Some vets don’t even do spays and neuters now. So I guess it just depends on where you are and who’s comfort level.

[00:07:40] Morgan: I know that’s a conversation I’ve had with my personal vet is, she does she’s like a mobile farm vet, so she’ll go to farms, and so she has a mobile x ray machine and things like that, and I made a comment once because she has two clinics, she’s got her clinic on a farm, and then she’s got a clinic, what I call, in the big city, where she comes to visit once a week, and she brought her mobile x ray machine. I was like, oh, that’s really cool. She’s yep, it was 40, 000. I was like, say what?

[00:08:03] Dr Donita: the one I have. I have a mobile x ray unit too. It’s probably the same one. The one I have, it doubles for equine too. So I know exactly the equipment that she’s talking about. 

[00:08:13] Morgan: And I just made a comment, like, how can you as a business to afford these big things? And she says, well, the hard part is in people medicine, if you need an MRI, you don’t go to your general practice, doctor to get your MRI or to get your ultrasound, like you’re going off to specialists and when you’re in the vet med world you have to do all of it because there is not, a vet in town who only does x rays and a vet in town who only does ultrasounds and MRIs and things like that. And I would think that’s adds to the stress of being a 

[00:08:40] Dr Donita: Yeah, you went right into it right there. As soon as you said that, I was like, that is the reason! why we are so stressed. It’s crazy because some people still don’t understand or don’t really see it from this side of it. They’re just like, Oh, you’re just playing with puppies and kitties, my veterinarian doc McStuffins, and that’s. It’s so much more than just that little cutesy little moment. Granted, we have those beautiful, cute moments too, but we have to realize that there’s so much more that we do. For our community. Sometimes we’re therapists. I’m, I feel like I’m more of a therapist now being mobile because I’m at their home, so it’s definitely more personal. We talk a lot longer. My appointments are much longer than what it was when I was working in a practice. So it was a very different kind of experience. So I definitely get to see more. I get to have definitely a lot more client communication. It’s funny when some people say, Oh my gosh, I want to be a vet.

[00:09:39] Cause I loved animals, but I’m like, you have to love people too. You have to be able to communicate and things like that. So it, all of those things start to weigh on. on me, on us, as a profession, and we have to learn ways to work through that. And that’s what a lot of different organizations are trying to do, to work through the things that are making it, difficult for us to practice, or that are having a lot of professionals leave, or they burn out to the point where they don’t want to do it anymore, they have compassion fatigue. They just are at the point where they want to give up and I definitely had that experience more than once where I Gave up or I was like, oh my god. I’m at my wits end. I think I you know, I can’t do this anymore So that’s definitely why I was trying to find creative ways to practice where I could still give the best To them give the best of myself and not, you know fall apart.

[00:10:38] Morgan: Yeah. And vet school, I think is probably pretty comparable in price to like human doctor school. you’re still racking up, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt. And then at the same time, you’re also the least paid medical professional. A vet makes significantly less money than a general practice human doctor.

[00:10:59] And then you’ve got all this expensive equipment, and, people always say, if you loved the pets so much, you wouldn’t charge me a hundred dollars for an appointment, 

[00:11:09] Dr Donita: It’s just unfortunate that are even happening, but it’s so true though, because it does happen. It happens a lot. And it’s hurtful when people say that, because why would we be doing it? Of course we’re doing it because we love the animals. We would, like I tell people that are interested in coming into the profession, like if you have to really love it, it has to be a passion. Because if you’re getting it for the money, you’re don’t even waste your time because that’s, this isn’t a profession that comes from a a place of wealth, it comes from a place of. Compassion and love and, you just really want to do it. So I think that’s what drives a lot of us to move forward, even when we are exhausted or tired or, we go through those rough days, but then we think about Hey, is there anything else I would want to do?

[00:11:54] And I’m like, if the answer is always no, then, you have to find ways to love it, which is, it’s a struggle when a lot of people are leaving the profession and they’re not finding ways to work around their feelings or they just give up or. Unfortunate things that are happening on like suicide, which is still pretty rampant, but it’s just really unfortunate that we have to have those conversations, but I’m glad that there are resources now that are out for. So that we can at least have ways to cope a little bit better and not feel like we’re alone.

[00:12:30] Morgan: I can imagine on when you are having those really hard days where, you have especially if you’re working in a clinic, like a corporate clinic, like you’re talking about where you don’t have any say over your schedule. And that’s Oh, we’re so squeeze in this last minute appointment. And then that appointment, something is seriously wrong. And then they’re yelling at you because you’re not doing enough or it’s going to cost too much. And then at the end of the day, it’s what Like you said, what is the point of this? And, I think vets have like the highest suicide rate of any medical professional in comparison to  the whole. And, you add all these things up together, and it’s one of those moments of I can imagine people all the time saying like, why? Why do I continue to put myself in this position to, to do this? And so I think it’s so interesting that you said, well, I’m not going to, and I still love vet med, so I’m still going to be a vet, but I’m going to do it differently.

 So was there a catalyst moment that made you say I’m not doing it like this anymore? Or was it a slow build over time where it just continued to become more and more evident that you needed to make a change?

[00:13:29] Dr Donita: I go through dips. I go through, I said it a few days ago, actually. I’ll go through waves where I’ll be good, and then when I’m not good, it’ll just go away. Go like this and then sometimes it goes too deep and too far down And that’s when you have to catch yourself like, okay, we’re getting a little you know out of that range and then if you’re, most people are pretty emotionally intelligent that are in the veterinary space. So if you’re emotionally intelligent enough you’ll know if you feel off or you feel like something needs to be adjusted. So usually those things will come and I’ll just make that adjustment. But I think the last straw at that time was that I just felt, not valued and, I was interested in. Potentially partnering in at that particular practice and, things didn’t go the way they were supposed to. And it just, it just was like, you know what, I’m just going to figure it out on my own. I’m just going to find another way. And I think that was what’s was the draw that I had to make because I was already thinking about the idea in like 2020, but.

[00:14:33] The pandemic happened. So then I was like, well, let me take a break. Let me wait on that. I had to wait a little bit longer, which was good. So I had more time to figure out what I wanted to do. And then eventually I just hit that stop okay, it’s time to go ahead and make the change. Let’s do this. Let’s figure it out. And luckily I had my beautiful boyfriend at the time to help me With that final decision because by myself, at the time I’m a single mother and I’m like, oh, I don’t know if I want to do this and this might put too much strain on our life. I’m already trying to do so much. So it was really helpful that he was there to help and step in with my son with that particular situation and help us get to the point where we could successfully, move things and get things into motion. So that was how things were. And then it’s funny because once I started the business, people think, oh, it’s beautiful and rainbows once you start.

[00:15:21] But of course, no, as a business owner, it’s still Really hard. So when I started the business, I’m like, Oh my God, what did I get myself into? So it wasn’t an immediate gratification. It was like, Oh, this is cool. Like I can make my own schedule, but then you have all these tasks to do now that you’re an owner. So I’m like, okay, this is harder. But in the beginning, it wasn’t too bad because we were still new. We didn’t have many clients. But as we continued to grow quickly over that year and a half, two year mark it went right back to that, I was starting to hit that hill again and I’m like, okay, this is starting to feel like when I worked for other people okay, let’s readjust, I’m in control of this situation.

[00:16:01] So whatever’s happening to me right now, I’m causing it. So let me take a back seat and figure out what needs to be done. Sometimes when we go in full force we’re not really paying attention to how we’re feeling and we’re just trying to, take care of things, get things done. 

[00:16:16] Finding Balance and Coping with Stress as a Vet

[00:16:16] Dr Donita: But we have to be mindful because I don’t know if I mentioned it yet, but I. I talk a lot about mental health. It’s like my favorite subject, but I do have diagnosed generalized anxiety and an attention deficit. So I’ve always been really cautious about my mental health and how I’m feeling because I don’t want to get too low into that depressive state. But unfortunately I have pushed myself into that depressive state. More recently where now it’s like a knowledgeable thing that I didn’t know. It’s really hard like when you’re a pusher and you’re like a type A personality, you don’t think that depression is something that can affect you.

[00:16:50] But the thing is when you have anxiety and ADHD, depression is always right there lingering as a, in the background, that could be a problem. 

[00:16:58] Reflecting on Personal Experiences with Depression

[00:16:58] Dr Donita: But I just didn’t think about it being an issue until more recently where I’m like, I don’t like the things I like to do. I’m, feeling really like bleh. But the thing is when you’re in these higher level positions, you’re so used to just getting things done regardless. And Have attention deficit task. So it was, it’s not a good thing. Cause I’m like the attention deficit kept me getting things done. But it was still pushing me into a deeper depression without me knowing it  Because I was still being productive ish. now that it’s a newer thing for myself, now I’m like, I have to make this known. Because, I advocate for it, but then I felt a little bit like guilty because I’m like, I’m always advocating for mental health.

[00:17:38] And I’m like, how did I miss that? I was low grade depressed. That’s just crazy. I would think we, I have lost, we, well, we lost two of our dogs within 18 months of each other and both in very sad circumstances and both way too young and after that second one, I was like, maybe I need to go talk to somebody. Cause I don’t, this is like you said, I just, all of a sudden I looked around and I was like, I don’t enjoy anything.

[00:18:03] Morgan: Like my work is no fun. Like my world kind of sucks. And and it’s Is this being depressed? Do I need, is this a 

[00:18:10] problem that I should go deal with? Because it is, especially, like you said, if you’re a pusher and most business owners are pushers of saying well, here’s my to do list and I’ve got to work my way through and it doesn’t matter because these things still have to get done and what’s my option, not doing it, and then things fall even further apart? I think that can be a really big fear point for a lot of people. How do you work through that, I guess? When you know that you’ve got a lot of stuff that needs to be done, you’re the, the sole practitioner, the sole vet at your practice, so how do you find that balance between making sure things are getting done, and you’re still paying your bills and all these things that need to be done, but yet you’re still taking care of you?

[00:18:49] Dr Donita: That is always the best question because I still have been working through the best way to do that. But honestly, even in the last two to three weeks of my life, I feel. Like I’ve the cloud has been a little bit better. It’s been lifted compared to, maybe four or five weeks ago where I felt like I was drowning a little bit. But the change I made was acknowledging. That something’s off, it took me a minute to Hey, maybe I need to ask somebody about it. I always keep therapy in the back of my, roster as something that I do, but I was going to therapy, but I wasn’t, I was walking through and, talking through things, but it wasn’t helping me improve the things that I wanted to improve.

[00:19:36] Like I love therapy so much, but in that moment, therapy wasn’t working. And I don’t know if it was just. truthful to myself or I was just trying to focus on one thing or not looking at the big picture. But then in the last few weeks, I took a back seat and I looked at the picture a little bit.

[00:19:52] I did get acupuncture for the first time, so that was new and I don’t know what it did, but I’m a true believer of Eastern and Western fusion. I love integrative medicine. So I was like, okay, acupuncture. So I don’t know, but I just felt like a little bit more clarity. I don’t know what happened, but I felt clarity and I felt like I started to think about the bigger picture of okay, what is really happening? Why am I not going to the gym? Why am I making excuses? Why am I, I’m like, before I started this business I was getting it all done.

[00:20:23] Why am I having a hard time now? Because that’s literally the same type of schedule that I had then. 

[00:20:28] Opening Up About Mental Health

[00:20:28] Dr Donita: So why am I having such a difficult time? And now I’m like, Oh, I want less work. Let me do less days. Let me do, and I’m still not feeling better. So I’m like, okay. And in a minute, I’m not going to be working at all if I keep reducing from five days to four days to three days to two days, I’m like, what am I going to do? So I’m like, let me figure out what needs to change. And that was what happened. I literally was like, you know what, I use this app that you can talk with the provider because I have used medications in the past for anxiety, so I’m like, well, maybe I need to have a new conversation about some type of medication that I need to be on, just to help me through the hump, of whatever this is. And I did the little assessment, and then when I did the assessment, anxiety and depression were, like, almost off the chart. And I’m like, Oh, no. How did I miss that?

[00:21:15] Morgan: when you’re in it, 

[00:21:17] Dr Donita: Yeah.

[00:21:17] I couldn’t. I really couldn’t believe it. Like, when I did it, I started crying because I’m just like, Oh, my God, what is wrong? And I’m like, Oh, my God, that’s what’s wrong. I’m like, Jesus, how did I miss that? So then I started crying. But then I started googling and looking up because that’s my personality. I’m like, well, maybe it’s not and then I’m like, well, yeah I’m just like a high functioning depressed person. That’s just okay, so I mean it’s a hard conversation to have, I’m really open person Like I’ll talk about anything, but I just feel like some people still have a hard time Having those mental health conversations even like my mom and their generation My

[00:21:52] mom to me about mental health conversations because I’m so comfortable about it Like she’s oh, I listen to her and she has like depressive things that she says that I it sounds like depression But I’m not gonna push that on you. But then she’s asking me in the silence like okay What was the medication like what do you want? So she gets comfort and and confidence from me to help herself and take better care of herself. So just having these conversations out loud for people To hear, you don’t realize that it’s probably helping someone maybe to look at something that’s going on with themselves.

[00:22:25] Like I wouldn’t think about it like that, but she asked me a few days ago what was the medication? Okay. I might try that because I feel like I don’t. I don’t have any interest or anything and I just I just don’t care. And I’m like, well, you don’t, you shouldn’t feel that way. You shouldn’t feel that way. And if you do feel that way for too long, too, too many days at a time, then that’s a problem. It shouldn’t be, you have these really high highs and these really low lows and you never get any regularity in your life. That’s not normal.

[00:22:52] So I Need to make a decision on okay, if I’m having these really. Big, mood shifts like something’s probably off that needs to be adjusted And that’s literally what I’ve been doing just taking it one day at a time You know being consistent going back to the gym because that’s the thing that I love it. It brings me joy It helps me, you know get the stress from the day But I’m like, this is the thing that I use for my stress and I couldn’t I wasn’t even interested in doing anymore I’m like, what is wrong with me? so that was Think a little bit deeper into Why did I not love the things that I love anymore? What, what could be going on? Honestly, I think I’ve been really good at keeping it under control. But realizing like I’ve been dealing with this for a really long time. I just didn’t know that’s what was going on because I’ve been keeping it under control just until now where it’s like, Whoa, Something’s really wrong with me. And from everything that I looked up, like usually if you’ve been having these low grade symptoms for over a year or two, then it’s, that’s probably what it is. It’s wild everything about it. 

[00:23:51] Morgan: Well, I’m glad that we’re talking about this because one of my passions that I came to while we were making the decision that we had to choose behavioral euthanasia for our two and a half year old dog, I was really looking at her quality of life and looking at, like, all of her favorite things and she got to the point where she was paranoid and she was so  sick and all of these things and, she had no I’m Quality of life left and then so I was trying to build my own quality of life assessment for her because Most quality of life assessments you find her for like old pets or pets who are on like that  slow decline It was like this does not apply to a two and a half year old dog who has all these other issues And so as I was creating kind of my own little quality of life assessment for her.

[00:24:35] I was like well How often do we actually assess our own quality of life? And that people joke a lot of  times, like my dog gets better care than I do. Like my dog gets acupuncture and Cairo work and all of these supplements and all of this stuff. And I was 

[00:24:52] Dr Donita: What about you? 

[00:24:53] Morgan: It’s like it’s not a joke, like it shouldn’t be a joke that my dog is getting  better quality of life care than I am, and I feel like that’s what you’re talking about here too, you’re like, my quality of life was going down and I realized This is not right anymore.

[00:25:06] I need to make a change. And then you went out and you made it happen. So I feel like so many people don’t go through all of those steps. They might think oh, this is not great right now, but they don’t have the maybe they don’t even have the capacity or like the bandwidth at that moment to say, well, I want to make a change. And this is what I want to do to make it better.

[00:25:26] Dr Donita: Yeah, no I totally agree. Totally agree.

[00:25:29] The Journey of Starting a Mobile Vet Practice

[00:25:29] Morgan: Was it hard for you as you were starting your practice because like we talked about the x ray machines are 40, 000 and you need If you’re gonna create a surgical suite in a van, you know You need a lot of stuff to make that happen So when you were first starting out were you starting out more like the quote unquote like basic general practice things? You’re like you’re well health visits and things like that. And then how did you build to incorporate a whole surgical suite in a van. 

[00:25:56] Dr Donita: Yes. So I started just out of my SUV. So I only got like basic supplies that, I want to. Lows. I got a little rolly cart where I put like my whites and things like that.

[00:26:10] And then I got a small cooler just to put a few vaccines to keep on me at a time. It was very basic, but I had a little bit of everything just in the back of my SUV just a little set, a scale and just kind of basic equipment to listen and do full exams and vaccines, things like that.

[00:26:27] Blood work. Eventually I did get the X-ray unit with, through like a. With a vendor and then eventually that’s where I was able to start doing x rays with my SUV too, but we would, at that time, we would have to haul everything into the house because it was mobile, so hair, it was a little difficult because that, the generator is pretty heavy, so trying to get x rays in the house wasn’t always the easiest, but that’s what we had in the beginning, so definitely humble beginnings out of the SUV, and eventually we partnered with a company to Get the van outfitted for the conversion.

[00:27:02] So the conversion, it was all in a package form where they would do everything. They would put the surgical suite in there, all of the things that I wanted. You can pick and choose what you wanted on it and how much or how little you wanted to have included. 

[00:27:15] Morgan: It’s one of those things where, it’s amazing what people can get paid for and that there’s like enough mobile vets needing mobile surgical suites and sprinter vans that somebody’s I got you, I know what you need, and here you go, and here are all of the things, because I can imagine, like, all of that is fairly You know, it’s fairly detailed equipment that you need. And to get that all packed onto a van would take some coordination.

[00:27:39] Dr Donita: it did for sure. Yeah, I did get the microscope. I got a little bit of everything, got an autoplane unit on there too. So we could sterilize the instruments. So yeah, we, it was like a little mini setup.

[00:27:49] Morgan: That’s awesome. So as you were first starting out too, was it hard for you to balance the vet work with the business work where you’ve got to be messaging with clients, you’ve got to be keeping the records, you’ve got to be making sure you get yourself paid and you’re, invoicing and all of these things.

[00:28:06] Cause I would think, When you’re vetting in a clinic or in some other type of location, you don’t have to worry about all of that other stuff and when people want to use their insurance and all these things, and so was it a struggle to find that balance between now the different, the different parts of work you had to do?

[00:28:23] Dr Donita: Yeah. So a lot of times some people will go straight and get a practice manager to help them with that, but everything that I had from the beginning was from my personal money. So that’s why I started out really small because I, I had a certain time that I could use for, vaccines and equipment, supplies like that. So I just used what I could afford. And then I worked my way up. But I did most of it by myself. Like I did all the calls. I did all the answering. I answered all the emails. I did all the scheduling. For in the beginning, the first year and a half or so, I did all of the money.

[00:28:57] I know some mobile vets that still don’t even answer their phones, like they don’t even have a receptionist, but some of them do. It just depends on the setup that you prefer. But now we’ve expanded to the point where now we have a lot of virtual help.

[00:29:10] So we have a virtual receptionist who also have a virtual assistant, which is amazing, now who helps go through the emails, get all the documents uploaded, And I still don’t necessarily have a practice manager, which is good because I can get things done. But I still have an accountant and people in the background help me with HR and things like that. So that, people get paid on time and, books are still getting taken care of.

[00:29:33] Morgan: I think that’s a key thing for folks to Remember is that by growing your team, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to bring all those people in house and you can, contract out some of those parts of the work to get done. I don’t think I’ve heard of many vets who have virtual assistants or, like virtual receptionists.

[00:29:50] And I would think that would really make a difference, especially as you’re growing to say I don’t need a full time receptionist, But I do need help doing this part of the work. So I can keep doing the thing that I’m good at because your receptionist cannot be a vet, like the vet needs to be the vet.

[00:30:06] And I would think especially as you’re growing, you don’t necessarily need to pay somebody full time to do that work, but you still have that work that needs to be done.

[00:30:14] Dr Donita: Right. It definitely, and it takes some of the strain and pressure off of us because we are busier now. The way the phones have been ringing, even the last. a few days, I wouldn’t be able to get to the calls at this point. And it definitely makes a big difference that she can answer.

[00:30:29] And then my virtual assistant can also help and tag team. done. So I they are definitely the dream team, 

[00:30:34] Morgan: And you said your fiance helps out with the clinic as well, right?

[00:30:38] So he wasn’t just the one who helped push to get it started, but he does more than that. He’s not just your cheerleader, right? He does, he has a little bit more of a hands on role. 

[00:30:45] Dr Donita: No, he quit his job actually to help me with the business. He quit his job because he believed in the vision, he quit his job and he became like my vet assistant with no training.

[00:30:58] And so he pretty much learned everything on the spot, as we, navigated through day one. I’m teaching him how to hold and restrain and everything from beginning to end. So he learned how to become a manager and. the tech guy, make sure things when they go broken or get broken, he fixes it.

[00:31:19] So he functions as our, handyman all around guy to make sure things, flow smoothly, but he also helps me handle pets. And he’s always the backup, with staffing or. People call out or something like that. He, luckily now he works from home where he can still help out when needed, which is a really special thing to do because, it’s really scary sometimes where you only have one or two staff members working part time.

[00:31:46] It can be a little difficult in this setting because you don’t want to put that much pressure on them to always be available. People get sick, things happen. But him being able to help always is a good feeling to have. 

[00:31:58] Morgan: And was that a struggle too for you as you’re growing to balance that especially when you know that you’ve had those, kind of those burnout struggles yourself.

[00:32:07] And it sounds like you’re trying to create a work environment where you can not only protect you against burnout, but also protecting your team against burnout too. 

[00:32:15] Creating a Positive Work Culture and Clientele

[00:32:15] Morgan: And did you have a struggle there on trying to, because I think it’s really easy to say, I want to create a work where people aren’t getting burnt out.

[00:32:21] But also, it can be much harder to actually implement that in the day to day as you’re growing and as you’re getting busier.

[00:32:28] Dr Donita: I think the biggest thing for me was I want people to be treated the same way I want to be treated. And that goes for clients. I’m a big advocate. I have zero tolerance. policy for, rude and nasty, attitudes or people, it doesn’t matter if you’re talking to a staff nurse or assistant or me or a technician, whoever it is, I just don’t have any tolerance for that.

[00:32:52] So they know that as well. So it really helps when they know that you always have their back and what, they’re always going to be protected. I’m not going to let anyone walk over them or treat them badly because that’s the easiest way to burn out yourself and your staff because people sometimes they’ll keep pushing, keep pushing and it’s not fair.

[00:33:12] So I really focused in the beginning on, the client. And, patient culture and what we wanted and the type of clientele we wanted to have. And, sometimes we have to go back and have these conversations just to make sure that everyone’s still on the same page about the clientele that we accept.

[00:33:32] And, we don’t have to just take everybody. We can be a little bit more selective about what we allow and don’t allow. So I think. That makes a big difference as far as, the other positions that I’ve had in the past where, I, I didn’t always feel like I, my voice was being heard, like I didn’t have any control over, someone was rude to me or.

[00:33:54] If they were rude, I don’t know if the manager talked to them once or, fired them or, had to give this person ever again. So sometimes, it’s better now. I feel like a lot of places are doing a better job of paying attention to work culture a little bit more so that they know that you have their back and that you are going to protect them and you are going to look out for them.

[00:34:18] And that’s a big. thing for, you have to go on to do something else. I always want to take on that piece of it. So even if we grow, expand or become something else, like work culture is where it starts because, if you let people teach you one way, then that’s how they’re always gonna treat you.

[00:34:35] And if everyone is on the same page in the beginning, like this relationship that we’re building And, for the most part, we’ve had really good success and that kind of keeps my mental health in check and I do have those rough days with people that aren’t so nice and it reminds me and oh, this is why I don’t deal with that.

[00:34:52] So it’s just, it’s a good reminder sometimes. 

[00:34:54] 

[00:34:54] Morgan: And very empowering for you to realize I can change this I have agency, I have power over my situation, and if I don’t want you to be a client anymore, you don’t have to be a client anymore.

[00:35:04] I get to say no. I get to wish you well and send you back into the universe. 

[00:35:07] Do you ever think that you’ll continue expanding or maybe like you’ll bring another vet on and continue to grow or are you feeling pretty good about the size and the scale that you’ve built to at the moment?

[00:35:18] Dr Donita: I like. The current size and scale right now. I don’t I like the pace, so I’m keeping an eye on, if I want more or less, I’m just, being mindful of that. 

[00:35:29] five, But I’ve noticed that. People are going to take advantage of the time that you give them. And, just because I’m open five days a week doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m using all of those blocks.

[00:35:41] That’s just making me more exhausted, but I’m not using up all that time. But I’ve gotten used to, and I’ve paid attention to the trends of how people call anyway. And since we’re mobile, we have more flexibility on how we can, change our schedule. To fit how people call us anyway, so it works out in a way where I can have the beginning of the a little light and then it gets a little bit heavier at the end of the week because that’s the flow of how people call and how, emergencies and sick things start to come up.

[00:36:12] I can pay attention to those trends and since I’ve been noticing those trends, it’s been helping us still keep our, our business afloat in a comfortable way. still doing okay without, hurting the business. So right now I would say I like it the way it is. 

[00:36:30] Morgan: I think it’s a trap that a lot of people get into where they think they have to grow. And it’s I think refreshing for people to say no, like I’m really content with where we’re at right now, and , like you said, if I feel like maybe we need to grow at some point I’m open to that, but you don’t have to grow merely to find success, and I think some of us maybe get stuck in that belief, and I gets us more into that burnout phase because we think Oh, I need more clients.

[00:36:53] I need to do more. I got to pack my days more full. As opposed to saying no, I can, make some adjustments and scale back a little bit and we’re still going to be okay.

[00:37:02] Have you found people’s attitudes towards the work that you do has changed, since you’ve been open, has that like that client side changed at all over the last few years?

[00:37:13] Dr Donita: Yes, the clientele has shifted pretty drastically, but I feel like we’re starting to get a better place. 

[00:37:22] But I like the fact that everyone is coming together as a whole and not letting people be rude to businesses, especially if you have no reason going on Google or going off in the rant rave pages on Facebook and all of the drama or telling you to your face that you’re horrible, but I realize now. That everyone is doing a better job of banding together to protect each other.

[00:37:48] Even if I see someone that tries to talk bad about another band, I’m just like I don’t like that. I’m not gonna get into all of that.

[00:37:55] You caught me at the right time for this podcast. Like you said, it’s this little therapy sessions, right? You’re the first person like I usually always talk about mental health on everybody’s podcasts and everything but you’re the first person that actually Get to have this conversation with big, this is this is tea.

[00:38:13] You just got tea. 

[00:38:14] Morgan: I love, that thing you just shared is that it’s so easy for our identity to get wrapped up in things that are actually outside of ourselves. And we aren’t our work. And I know I, you heard me talk about this a little bit in Florida. It’s our work is not our hobby.

[00:38:27] And we are not defined by anything that we choose to do or whatever that thing is . And instead it’s well, what do I just enjoy doing? And how can I do it in a way that makes my life better? And if it’s not making my life better, well, how can I do it differently?

[00:38:42] And I love that part of your story. You mentioned, too, that sometimes it’s hard to know that pivot point of, like, when to pivot and when to adjust and when to keep going. And I think that’s something that we all struggle with, of a moment of am I being resilient by continuing or am I doing myself a favor by making a pivot and doing something else?

[00:39:01] And I, there’s always that winners never quit and quitters never win. And it’s no, sometimes you got to quit something and do something else that’s.

[00:39:09] Dr Donita: I’m right there with you I totally agree. Because, you you always want to have that great resilient personality, that’s, my middle name is resiliency, but sometimes we have to Take a step back and assess.

[00:39:21] Morgan: Did you ever have a moment like as you were transitioning into being a mobile vet or deciding to, leave your Quote unquote, normal vet job and do something different. Did you have those fears of people are going to be judging me? People are going to think I’m, fill in the blank for quitting this job and starting something new.

[00:39:38] Or were you at the point where you just didn’t care and you were committed enough to the new thing that you weren’t really bothered by what kind of those outside voices?

[00:39:49] Dr Donita: I was scared to fail, but I was just so driven to not fail that I’m like, I’m just gonna figure it out.

[00:39:55] Morgan: I think we’ve probably all had something like that in our lives where we’re just like I won’t fail, and again, is it A toxic resiliency or is it a good idea for us to keep going? And I think that’s such a struggle to, to figure out. We all, it’s going to be different for all of us, but I’m so glad that you did make this pivot and you have found that something works better for you.

[00:40:15] And And is there anything that you’re proud of or most proud of that you’ve, that’s stuck with you through this transition? 

[00:40:23] Dr Donita: I guess you never know who’s watching. I think it’s the probably the most exciting thing Because in my mind, I’m just trying to go forward just trying to be successful try not to fail trying to Forward but you know in the background people are watching and you know they’re rooting for you, or they’re not rooting for you who knows but people are still watching regardless and people are looking up to you and, more opportunities come from those moments where you’re just yourself and you’re just putting your best foot forward and just love that, I’m just continuing to just be authentically myself. And I think that’s the main thing, just continue to be humble, be open, honest, and give the most of myself. And I think that’s why doors open and being a good Samaritan, giving back to the community, so I just, I’m a big advocate for that. I just, I’m excited that people are recognizing that, we’re making an impact in different ways and people are. 

[00:41:23] Advice for Those on the Edge of Burnout

[00:41:23] Morgan: Do you have any words of advice for folks who maybe feel like they’re in that position where they are on that edge of burnout and they do need to make a change, but they’re not quite sure maybe what that needs to be, or maybe they do know what it needs to be, but they don’t feel like they’re in a place where they can actually make that shift yet.

[00:41:39] Dr Donita: I would say talk it out with somebody. First, it doesn’t have to be a therapist, it can be a friend, it can be somebody, just have a conversation and kind of work through that. It may not happen right away, but for me, just working through those things in your head and then saying it out loud, you may come to an answer of what to do next once you just start having a conversation.

[00:42:01] Morgan: Yeah, and again, you never know who’s going to be that big cheerleader for you too, and if you don’t share with those safe people, not everyone’s an encourager, but when you share that with somebody who you know is going to be an encourager, you never know what their assistance might help you achieve.

[00:42:18] Dr Donita: Yeah, no, I totally agree. I do. 

[00:42:21] Closing Remarks and Contact Information

[00:42:21] Morgan: Well, Dr. Danita, thank you so much for joining us today, and why don’t you tell people like, where do they find you at? 

[00:42:27] Dr Donita: I am at AskDrDanita, the socials, Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn, wherever you prefer.

[00:42:34] Morgan: Fantastic. You guys are showing up on social media and I think, which also just shows that passion that you have for the business and the industry and for your clients as well.

[00:42:42] So yeah, you are definitely making an impact both in your client’s world and in the industry. I’m so grateful that I got to meet you and thank you so much for sharing with me. the folks who are listening today. I really appreciate it. 

[00:42:54] Dr Donita: No problem. Thank you for having me.

[00:42:57] Morgan: Thank you so much for listening today, you can find show notes. Transcripts and more on our website. Lucky Pup pod.com. Don’t forget. Review comment, like share this conversation with your friends. Then don’t forget to reach out. You can find us on Instagram at lucky pup pod or lucky pup podcast on Facebook. Or send us an email [email protected] until then don’t forget to live a more full and happy life. We’ll talk to you soon.