I'm a veterinarian, wife, mama, consultant, and coach who believes you've gotta build your dreams from the inside out.
hey, I'm Kelley!
I slowly started showing up to work every day feeling like I was going to battle. Let's be real, depending on the patient or day sometimes it be like that, but this was my norm even on "easy" days. My personality had shifted to someone who was impatient, inconsistent, easily frustrated, and negative. I decided it was time for a new venture and maybe I had just reached a ceiling where I was. For sure there was still plenty of medicine to practice - I was only 2 years out - but I needed that next goal or something more than what I was doing. A new environment with new possibilities was the solution!
AT THE SAME TIME...
From the outside, things were good. I was a veterinarian outside of the big city. I had the career as a small animal medicine and emergency clinician that I'd always wanted and worked so hard for. I had bought a house in the suburbs with my then long-time boyfriend, turned fiance, and now husband. I was in the best shape of my life (aside from my stint of college basketball) and still had room to grow in my career, finances, family, and overall life. The possibilities were endless and I felt so stinking blessed but,
This part of the story really began the moment I finally said no more.
Emotionally and mentally I was miserable. There were so many things I could point a figurative finger at that, in my mind, needed to change, but I had no power to effect, or much less manage the things around me. I LOVED veterinary medicine, but felt let down, angry, and helpless. I had become the victim to a circumstance I once thought would be a huge source of joy in my life.
AND as I looked around, it wasn't just me. I saw colleagues and staff struggling too, due to what looked like "just the nature of the job." By that time I had been in many hospitals all over the city as a full-time, ER, or relief doc and had noticed a pattern.
New place, new opportunities, new me! ... for a while. It wasn't long until, like Groundhog's Day, things started repeating. Even with a different hospital, different staff, different schedule, different clients and patients, etc., I found myself frustrated and fighting reality yet again. Plus this time there was an added layer. Even though I looked healthy and fit, I didn't always feel good - headaches, GI issues, generalized myalgia, energy drain by mid-afternoon. I even nearly passed out in the exam room in front of a client but managed to find my way to the pharmacy floor to wait it out. I took really good care of myself physically and couldn't understand why it never felt like I did!
OR SO I THOUGHT...
The more I learned from my journey, the more I wanted to find solutions to "the injustices" that were affecting so many, but at that point I was only 5 years into my career and the education I had consisted of "science" - an AS in Physical Therapy, BS in Biology, and my DVM degree. Needless to say, I hit several dead ends and heard a lot of "no's" in my search for a place in organization or industry where I could effect change.
At one point, a veterinary consultant who a friend introduced me to asked if I knew what EBITDA was, to which I replied "um, no sir". I was really thinking "I have tons of acronyms in my vocab, but Mister that ain't one of them!" Clueless. And yet, it's funny how that would soon be my area of expertise.
I used whatever lifelines (aka network) I had and started focusing all my efforts on finding something different, while also searching like mad for anything to help me feel better until I could get "over there".
Thankfully, I chose mostly positive coping tactics - therapy, life coaching, and more praying, reading, and podcast listening than I thought humanly possible. By overall investing in myself and my mindset, I started to find steady ground to stand on. In hindsight I saw that in all my effort to "fix" things and strong-arm results outside of me, I had lost myself and come very close to burning out. I had also been, "taking me with me" where ever I went - to every next appointment, shift, and practice. Which meant things might be good for a while but the old patterns would come out.
I REACHED A POINT WHERE I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT I KNEW I COULDN'T STAY WHERE I WAS.
I also got to see up close and personal through consulting that my story was not an anomaly. THANK GOODNESS I wasn't crazy! From practice owners to associates, recent grads to late career doctors, those in large companies in our industry and in virtually every area of medicine, nearly everyone had a story of struggle they had come through OR it was clear with my new found lens that they were still in the thick of it and didn't know it.
Twelve months later I left full-time practice and stepped into a partial roll while piecemealing relief with my hustle, to do practice coaching and student program development. That first "official" year, I grew my role to executive level overseeing a division of the company, and had the honor of being an educator and mentor to vet students and recent graduates. I was able to teach what I had learned the hard way, in hopes that the next generation would better set for success (and more resilient) than I and many others had been.
I finally found opportunity in a long-term friend and connection I'd met in vet school (one of the reasons why I'll preach networking and relationships to my grave). Over the next year while still holding my day job, I worked for free learning about course creation, public speaking (pretty much torture at that time for an inexperienced introvert), business operations, management, and practice ownership.
NEW CHAPTERS AND NEW INSIGHTS
Good news! Veterinary medicine is a career that can be CELEBRATED, not endured, and you are never stuck, unless you allow yourself to be. But, we have to be stewards of our own lives. We get to (and have to) constantly evolve to next levels of ourselves so we can better serve and impact others. Change is inevitable. Progress is not. We have to be intentional if we want the results and life we desire. Said easy, does hard...but I'm proof it's true and I can help you get there too.
And now i'm going to help you own yours.
I've seen businesses thrive only to plateau or regress into old habits because of the invisible self-limitations possessed by it's leaders. I've listened to countless stories similar to mine of clinicians who considered leaving (or did leave) the career they worked so hard for. What most don't realize and what I've learned, slowly and uncomfortably, is that we have more control than we realize. My circumstances, my level of fulfillment in practice and out, my finances and well-being - ALL OF IT - only started to change when I changed myself. When I found the principles, practices, tools, and strategies to help me own my story.
Over the next few years, more dots started to connect and I realized that if we are to change any greater story of frustration, uncertainty, and disappointment in the profession, then we have to start changing the individual stories.
IT HAS TO BE AN INSIDE JOB.
"Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see." - PE
Always up for
DEEP CONVOS
PASSIONATE ABOUT
SAVING THE WORLD
GO-TO OUTFIT
JEANS, TEE, and a BALL CAP
A FEW OF THE NAMES I answer to
MAMA, BABE, COACH, DOC, KEL
ON THE DAILY
MUSIC & MATCHA
Allie and Cade
MY furry sidekicks - they've seen it all
Bandaid fixes,
inauthenticity,
aimlessness,
squander,
seeing special people play small
WHAT BURNS ME UP
Straight talk,
big ideas,
quality over quantity,
stewardship,
helping others play big
WHAT LIGHTS ME UP
WORdS TO LIVE BY
— Dr. wayne dyer
"When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change."
I would be no where without some really great people in my life so networking (yes, even for this introvert) is where it's at! If you'd like to chat over virtual coffee and see how that leads to greater clarity, fulfillment, and impact, click the link!
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Real honest advice and insight (mostly learned the hard way so you don't have to) from a half hot mess-half amazing mama, vet, consultant, and coach.
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