Amelie McAndrews 0:00 I think another misconception about equine practices I think being alone or that we don’t want to collaborate, and I think that equine solo practitioners today, or at least all my friends who I know here, we all are very collaborative, even in our own little practices. Obviously, I’m someone who sees a lot of referral cases as my dentistry only practice. So I’m used to collaborating all the time with my colleagues answering the phones and emails and helping my colleagues out all the time. But I have other friends who are solo practitioners and have developed call shares and I have one friend, I was talking to her yesterday, I’m really proud, they developed a call share with, I think it’s four or five solo practitioners in the area of various different generations. And some have, you know, two vet practices, others are solo practitioners. So I think it’s really cool moving forward, how solo practice doesn’t necessarily mean alone, by yourself on call all the time, I think it’s really cool how collaborative it can be to with whether it’s working with an uncle share, or working with other colleagues. it might be some I know, Caitlin does chiro and acupuncture and and she has practitioner in her area, who will send that work to her and vice versa with other interests. So I think it is really cool how even as a solo practitioner, you can still collaborate with your colleagues and have good relationships without your colleagues in that way, too. Stacey Cordivano 1:21 For sure, I definitely experienced that for the 10 years that I was solo and of course still do today, the collaborations, whether it’s someone’s better at something, or we’re both just needing time off, totally, totally agree with that as kind of a perk of solo, right, you can kind of do your own thing, but then you still have all these great resources around you. And there just are always enough horses, like there’s always enough work. It doesn’t have to be mine, mine mine, which I think, I think is a shift, right? Caitlin Daly 1:50 100% Stacey Cordivano 1:51 Potentially older practitioners kind of felt differently, but I think our generation is definitely moving more towards collaboration, even as solo practitioners. So yeah, that’s a great point. Caitlin Daly 2:01 I think too, it’s not just call coverage. The practitioner in my area that I work closely with that, I guess in old ways you would say is my direct competition, we have a very strong relationship between the two of us and our relationship professionally, is more important than client relationships. Because if I don’t have her, I can’t go out of town. And vice versa for her in some situations. And so, you know, we just call and catch up. How are you doing? What’s going on? What’s the latest horse drama for you? Or if somebody calls me from a barn that I don’t normally hear from that’s hers. Like this happened last week? I called her and I was like, what’s the story here? Well, they owe her $2,000. Yeah. So I know that so I’m going into this emergency being like, Sir, I need your credit card charged before I do anything else. So it’s just having somebody else to bounce ideas off of and just to talk? Yeah, I think it’s nice. Stacey Cordivano 3:01 Yeah, I’m trying to think in the 10 years that I was solo with the, she’s like one of my best friends now, Actually. I don’t even know that anyone’s really like, tried to switch between us. It’s just never has gotten weird. We obviously communicate a lot about the, you know, bad pay clients that neither one of us want, but it’s never gotten awkward. I guess we’re just always so open about everything that it just never even become an issue, I don’t think. Caitlin Daly 3:25 the more you understand yourself and your brand and them and their brand. And you just step back and observe the actions… like clients move, not necessarily because they don’t like you, or you did something wrong. But like their personality just works better with that veterinarians personality has nothing to do with you. So I think that that spent most of the shift in our area is like, I’m going to try this one person. I’m not quite feeling it, and then they go somewhere else. And yeah, like her client base has definitely a different energy to it than mine does. And I see it every time I call her an emergency and it’s like, oh, this makes so much sense why they’re her client. Stacey Cordivano 4:03 I’m happy to give them back next week. Caitlin Daly 4:06 Exactly! She will be back on Monday. Like there you go. It’s best relationship ever. Stacey Cordivano 4:11 Yeah. Perfect.
