Coaching Services

Ever find yourself feeling stuck or not sure the path you’re on is the right one?  Perhaps feeling discontent with your career or disconnected from your drive.  That is where life coaching comes in.

A life coach helps shine light in areas people might not be able to see for themselves, allowing for thoughts and ideas stored deep inside to surface.  A life coach does not provide advice, counseling, mentoring, or consultation.  They help to empower you to find that part of you in which you desire to connect with.   Life coaching can help when you’re going through transitions, wanting to reach specific goals, or to tap into your full potential.

You definitely helped me with life and career and I will always be grateful:)

I was going through the motions but I didn’t love my life anymore…I felt stuck. Was it my job, my house, my social life or lack thereof? I knew I wanted or needed a change but I didn’t know what part to change. Kimberly helped me evaluate each part of my life…work, house, family, friends, pets, everything. She helped me discover so much about myself that I was unaware of. We get so caught up in our daily lives that we don’t think about why we ended up somewhere or why we do the job we do. She worked with me by asking questions about me, discussing what makes me tick, and giving me projects/assignments to work on. After working with Kimberly, I made several big changes (moved states, new job) and have found what was missing. Kimberly is so talented in helping people discover themselves. I am very grateful for all of her help and continue to use the tools that she provided to help me stay on track with my own self discovery.

Ohio Veterinarian

Throughout our lives we often find ourselves at a fork in the road. Sometimes this can be related to a job change within our current field, or it could be related to an entire shift in our professional trajectory (ex: a transition from large to small animal medicine). Oftentimes people don’t recognize that the personal emotion transfer can be even more challenging to navigate than the knowledge transfer. Dr. Pope has made a number of transitions throughout her career, which allows her the unique ability to weather the storm with as little chaos as possible.

If you find yourself contemplating a switch from practice into pharma, or perhaps you are looking to step into a leadership role, Dr. Pope can help provide support during that emotional roller coaster.

I spent many years in a highly stressful job where I really suffered with burnout and mental health issues. My family were always pushing me to change jobs but being the breadwinner and providing health insurance for my family I just felt trapped. Other aspects of my life were also suffering as I struggled with self care.

Kim has been an inspiration to me and definitely helped give me motivation for career change. She has really taught me a lot not just by her words, lecturing in the hospital where I used to work, but by her actions. For example seeing her happier after de-cluttering, and seeing how she was always willing to switch careers, first into pharmaceuticals and then to her current business inspired me to make a career change.

I quit the stressful job and started my own business which has been the best thing I ever did. Definitely scary at the beginning but seeing others go through it successfully is a great encouragement. Kim is passionate about living your best life as you only have one, and can provide knowledge and resources from her own successful experience.

California Veterinarian

The interview is the most critical step when looking to transition into a new role or career and making the best first impression can be the difference between landing the job or not. Partnering with a knowledgeable industry coach to help you gather and best showcase your talents can truly help give you that edge over other candidates. Helping to familiarize and prepare for job specific skill requirement questions, while developing an understanding of how to navigate the reverse interview to better ensure that not only the position is a good fit, but what the company culture is. Dr. Pope has interviewed hundreds of candidates throughout her career. She can help relieve some of the stress involved with the interview process by preparing you ahead of time to ensure you’re best highlighting your capabilities and allowing you to put your best self forward on interview day.

Finding yourself on a stage in front of a group of your peers preparing to speak can be terrifying. It’s called “stage fright” for a reason.  Dr. Pope was once there too and is here to tell you this can be overcome!  She now has over 10 years of public speaking and is not only comfortable on stage, but can command her audiences attention.  She has successfully developed the ability to create presentations that touch and connect with an audience to leave a lasting impression.   It isn’t all about where you look or how you stand.  There is a framework to follow that will help keep your audience engaged.  If you’re looking to speak in front of people for the first time, or perhaps you want to fine tune your speaking skills to help take your connection to your audience to the next level, make the investment to work with a presentation coach.  It could make all the difference.

As a veterinarian who loves this profession, I had a message to share with a wider audience. But I didn’t know how to do this. Lucky for me, I connected with Kim and received excellent coaching on how to break into the speaker’s circuit and effectively design and deliver a message. Supportive yet firm, she’s challenged me on multiple occasions to step outside my comfort zone and shown me how to take my speaking to the next level. I can say with 100% confidence that I would not be speaking at major conferences without Kim’s help. She continues to be a source of inspiration and guidance for me. I highly recommend retaining her as a speaking coach.
Florida Veterinarian

DISC is an awareness tool that has been utilized by many to help provide a better understanding of how people communicate. Although each person’s communication style is unique, there are 4 core sets of patterns; Dominant, Influence, Steady, and Conscientious. Hence the acronym DISC. Dr. Pope is a certified DISC facilitator and has supported numerous individuals and teams in improving their overall communication with each other and clients through DISC.

How does DISC work? Upon completion of an assessment, individuals are provided a report explaining their unique preferred communication style and behaviors. The report also provides information related to their strength and liabilities associated with this preferred style. In addition, it will have instructions and valuable resources on how to support others in their preferred style.

Communication is a skill set and having an awareness of our own patterns and that of others, helps us to develop our ability to adapt ourselves. However, it isn’t solely about adapting to others, this awareness will also allow for each individual to understand their own personal communication needs thereby allowing them to take ownership of their communication requirements for themselves.

Dr. Pope has found that improving communication within a team can greatly improve the mental well-being of everyone. She sees DISC as the life boats in the ocean of shame, helping us each to connect with our sinkers and balloons with more ease. When people feel heard and understood things just move smoother and the ocean is calmer.

Contact Dr. Pope today to learn more about how DISC can support you and your team.

DOWNLOADS (handouts related to DISC support):

DISC High Level Overview
High Level Overview
Communication Tips
Preference In Meetings

PDF: What Is A Life Coach?

Lectures

Well Being

We each come into this profession following and honoring the veterinary oath in our unique way.  Practicing and supporting the human animal bond in various aspects of veterinary medicine.  Along the way we often lose ourselves from the challenges and struggles of the space that is veterinary medicine. In this process many lose their drive to stay within the profession.  The goal to career sustainability is to provide a space that allows each individual to find their unique path to honor themselves while they honor the veterinary oath. To not be told what to do, more follow a framework to find longevity within the veterinary industry.

With this lecture, attendees will come away with an understanding of the four core principles that are the foundation to honoring themselves as veterinary professionals.   Allowing each individual to start the journey to connect once again to the passion they hold close to their heart, and in doing so find their sustainability within this amazing yet challenging industry.

5 Objectives

  • To review and understand the current struggle that faces veterinary professionals in living a sustainable career within the vet med space.
  • Provide a framework in which to allow focus in developing a unique path to sustainability.
  • Understand the 4 principles to follow in staying committed to stay connected within the veterinary industry.
  • Recognize that we are all normal and not alone in this struggle to find career contentment.
  • Become familiar with the individualized journey of the joined focus in honoring the veterinary oath and ourselves.

WORKSHEET

(This is a version of the signature talk to the 1 Life Connected message and is best shared in a 2 part series over 2-3 hours. It should not be placed in a lecture series with the signature talk as many concepts overlap.)

The objective of this lecture is to take the audience through the emotional journey of providing clarity of the struggle within the veterinary industry in finding career contentment.  Leading the audience into the concepts of creating the path for self-forgiveness, and begin the acknowledgment of the emotional barriers present for each of us.  With the first step of self-acceptance, this then leads each individual developing their own personal journey to career resiliency.  Finally taking the time to recognize that we are not alone and in fact 1 life connected.  The path to longevity  within this industry is finding the path back to living connected. It all starts with first allowing each of us to accept ourselves, and each other, as we are.

Objectives

  • To review and understand the current struggle that faces veterinary professionals in living a sustainable career within the vet med.
  • Provide a framework in which to allow focus in develop a unique path to sustainability.
  • Understand the 4 principles to follow in staying committed to stay connected within the veterinary industry.
  • Recognize that we are all normal and not alone in this struggle to find career contentment.
  • Become familiar with the individualized journey of the joined focus in honoring the veterinary oath and ourselves.

Many of us have heard the information related to compassion fatigue and the effects it is having on the profession. Although compassion fatigue does exist in the vet industry, there is much more at play and it is not all compassion fatigue. The struggle of vet med is not black and white and navigating this space starts with an awareness to the various barriers and concepts that present themselves within the struggle for career sustainability in the industry.

To begin that journey we will take a look at these various areas to help provide vet professionals with their own individualized awareness. After which attendees will dive into being provided a framework to help them uniquely move through these various areas of the profession. In recognizing and embracing the unique space in this industry, it will allow vet professionals to stay connected to the reasons why they entered this profession in the first place.

There are multiple factors that need to be determined and shared during a conversation with a client when their pet is suffering with a difficult or complex medical situation.  These conversations can elicit a number of emotions from the veterinarian and their staff when attempting to support the client through a decision. This presentation covers the traps that a team can fall into due to their own emotions not being recognized and addressed during these conversations.  It will provide direction on how to partner with the client and shares ideas and tools with the audience to help manage their personal emotions related to these conversations. While there is no right answer on how to have these conversations, this presentation helps to define the situation and allows the audience to recognize that we are all normal in our struggle and that true connection and acceptance of our own emotions is in fact the answer.

5 Objectives

  • Understand the dynamic that causes the emotions related to difficult conversations within veterinary medicine.
  • Provide knowledge to the traps individuals fall into in avoiding the emotions of difficult conversations.
  • Recognize the framework related to embracing the partnership relationship in navigating these conversations.
  • Embracing and connecting with the emotions related to the stress and frustration in having hard conversations with clients.
  • Realization that there is no one fix in this space, yet instead provide a path to start from as each conversation is unique.

WORKSHEET

When planning to undertake a marathon, the logical approach would be to train and prepare for the goal of finishing the 26.2 miles successfully and without injury. This training would include both a physical training plan, along with developing the mental development to withstand the stress of hours of running. In taking a look at the life style we call a career, finding that path to our individual authentic sustainable career really requires planning and training as well. Although there is never an “end” to the marathon, thinking we can just go out and jump in and withstand the damages both physically and mentally is dangerous. This career, as a marathoner, requires both physical and mental training. We have much support for the scientific approach to the medicine we practice, but not much to our wellbeing as we run this marathon of a career. This lecture walks through the 5 key steps needed in everyone’s approach to their training to be a veterinary professional marathoner.

WORKSHEET

Perfectionism, or high-achievement syndrome, is a common trait of those that enter into the medical field, and the speaker has found this to be especially true in the veterinary industry.  This is a great personality trait to drive the individual through their schooling and training, however it is often not so great in providing them with a sustainable authentic and fulfilling career.   This talk takes the audience through one veterinary professional’s personal journey of finding a way to accept her perfectionism tendencies. This journey brought her to recognizing her personal shame and how to then develop shame resiliency.  The tips on how to become a recovering perfectionist literally saved her life and she wants to share them with the profession.

 5 Objectives

  • Understand the definition of perfectionism.
  • Become familiar with the concept of the positive aspects of being a perfectionist.
  • Become familiar with the concept of the negative aspect of being a perfectionist.
  • Recognize the path in helping to embrace all aspect of our individual space of perfectionism.
  • Finding that balance to connect to forgiving ourselves and others in our journey to embracing our perfectionism.

WORKSHEET

Fear is imaginary, where as danger is a reality. Somewhere along the way we start to switch in seeing fear as the reality, when in fact it is something our mind produces. Perceived threats are something common in the profession, and can feel as real as a true threat. We enter this profession with a passion that drives us to sustain many sacrifices and struggles, and at some point the resiliency to move forward becomes extremely challenging. The fear of not doing enough, not being enough, not knowing enough, not working enough, not caring enough becomes our reality of appearing to be no longer our fear of failing, but replaced with our confirmation of a danger of failing. This lecture takes a look at fear and danger and how it presents in the profession and teaches the audience how to recognize the difference and direct our minds towards the reality of fear versus true danger.

WORKSHEET

It has always been called the “practice of medicine” for a reason, yet when things do not go as we foresee or plan, the feeling of failure can be overwhelming. We each float on our ocean of shame with sinkers that can pull us into the depth of our fear of failure. As we drown we struggle to grab onto anything, looking for the lifeguard to save us, when in fact we alone can create our own path to staying afloat. This lecture dives into the struggle of failure and how it shows up in veterinary medicine, while then giving tools and approaches on how to manage the sinking feeling of failure that can consume us.

Every day our teams navigate through difficult conversations and work to explain intense and detailed treatment plans. They utilize their knowledge and education to find ways to share this with pet owners to help in making decisions for their pets. Often the owners may not recognize the severity of a situation or even the urgency required in order to have a positive outcome for their pet. This place can be frustrating for the team, watching a pet suffer while trying to communicate this to their owner who does not understand or truly grasp the situation. This lecture takes the audience through this emotion, and how to recognize it, embrace it and then provide tools to help connect with it. Instead of the team falling into the trap of naming it, blaming it, and then judging it. Which that path although easy, can lead to vilifying the owner and ultimately career discontentment.

WORKSHEET

Learn the myths and truths related to suicide.  What are warning signs and common suicidal behaviors to watch for. Ideas on how to create an environment to prevent suicide.  Resources on how to get help for yourself or how to help someone in crisis.  This will just be an introduction into this space and provide ideas on where to find more support and tools to grow your personal education around suicide.

Objectives

  • Provide an understanding to the myths related to suicide.
  • Learn how to create an environment to develop a space for prevention and discussion related to suicide.
  • Provide resources of additional training and education to help expand this topic within our teams.
  • Grow your personal education around suicide.

Exploring The Concept of Mindfulness
Explore mindfulness concepts including perception and what role it plays in our “stories”, myths and facts in living our lives. Resources will be provided in helping to understand the practice of mindfulness including meditation. This will be interactive style event and there will be tools you can take away for yourself and to share with others within your hospital. This is not a Meditation Practice event.

Finding A Balance With Stress
Stress reactions are a common occurrence in veterinary medicine and life. This workshop will examine stress and discuss the positive and negative aspects it can provide to individuals. Attendees will learn of the resources to help understand and reduce stress in our daily lives. This is an interactive event and will have activities to allow attendees to participate in.

Explore Self Compassion
To Be Developed

Helping to Understand The Practice of Yoga
One known stress reduction technique is the practice of Yoga. Learn some history surrounding yoga and have a discussion/practice on other various approaches that help in the space of stress, anxiety, insomnia and provide support to improve overall health. This will be workshop style and there will be tools you can take away for yourself and to share with others within your hospital. This is not a Yoga Practice event.

Practicing Gratitude And Setting Boundaries
Learn ideas around setting boundaries and the value in practicing gratitude. This workshop will utilize crafts and imagery work to help create affirmation statements and develop vision/purpose for our careers and lives. This will be a workshop style and there will be tools you can take away for yourself and to share with others within your hospital.

Leadership

Entering into the veterinary industry does not always comes from a place of wanting to be a leader. Yet there we are, immediately thrust into the leadership role. We realize early on that you do not have to be labeled the owner or manager to be expected to lead. As patient care requires individuals to take control and step up to direct others to help execute various treatment plans. We also begin to find how others look to us for guidance and direction, all the while we feel inadequate to lead, often lost and quite possibly feel like an imposter.

Imposter syndrome is a common scenario that plays out for many in the field of veterinary medicine. Yet how do we navigate feeling confident and worthy of being present without losing our vulnerability. Without falling into that space of hiding behind a mask of security and strength, when really, we are scared and feel isolated and alone. This lecture takes a look at imposter syndrome from the approach of understanding our own personal vulnerability and how to stay connected to it as we embrace our feeling of worthiness and value. Breaking the cycle of the “suck it up approach” will require us to be vulnerable and embrace all of ourselves. In the end allowing us to show up as the leaders required to practice and support the field of veterinary medicine.

Many veterinarians and their support staff enter the profession of veterinary medicine from an internal drive to help pets and the strong connection related to the human animal bond. What they find is themselves having to lead and manage others in order to live their passion. Often an area of training in which many have not taken the time to develop. This presentation takes the audience through a high-level overview of what it means to be a leader. It covers the 6 basic steps allowing each of us to become the desirable leader in which is required in order to live out and connect with our passion.

General Management

Many of us would agree that each day working in a hospital brings a level of uncertainty, which is often unwelcome. The appointment book can be described as a “guestimate” to how the day is going to proceed. Each day provides challenges and each day there is a team that works to come together to approach these challenges in the hopes of a positive outcome for all involved. Those individuals show up from their own purpose, yet everyone has the same overarching theme in being part of the team. Wanting to support the power of the human animal bond and the positive value it impacts with all lives involved. Tackling a 10-12 mile military obstacle course provides a unique view into the daily journey of a veterinary team. Having visibility to this journey from the mud runners perspective, can help us all find value in each other. More importantly help value ourselves as we navigate through this difficult and unpredictable profession.

WORKSHEET

Many of us dread those words to come from a client when they bring their pet into a hospital, “So I was looking it up on Google and I found…”.  This presentation breaks down the emotional toll Google has placed onto the medical profession. In addition, it takes the audience through the journey of google searching and defining the new “expert” being brought to the exam.  In the end Dr. Google is not going away, and this presentation takes the audience down a path in starting to understand how to accept, work with, and ultimately partner with Dr. Google.

Objectives

  • Understand the dynamics behind why people go to Dr. Google for answers.
  • Where does the feeling of distrust between client and vet professional truly exist.
  • Provide clarity on the emotional toll Dr. Google plays on a team.
  • Provide ideas on how to partner and accept Dr. Google now being in the exam room.

To Be Developed

Finding qualified candidates that will fit into your team’s culture is not an easy task.

Whether you are a new manager or one looking to sharpen your interview skills, this lecture will provide ideas and tools to help conduct a strong and solid interview.  Taking a look at the approaches that truly allow you to learn about your applicants. While also understanding some of what not to ask, legally and ethically. Provide education around the traps of our own emotions getting in the way of interviewing others.  Ideas and resources on how to approach the interview in a professional, yet personal way.

Objectives

  • Provide an understanding of approaches to interview styles.
  • Educate on things to avoid during interviews with potential candidates.
  • Develop skills related to conducting a professional yet personal interview.

It probably goes without saying, an engaged work place helps to promote our personal well-being. Disengagement is found in all industries, including veterinary medicine. Studies consistently show that the largest cost a company can have to their success is directly related to the level of engagement in their staff. This presentation breaks down the principle of engagement within the veterinary industries and provides tools and ideas on how to promote a positive engaging staff within the veterinary hospital.

Career Path

We enter the profession with an idea of what our career will be.  Maybe that is fueled by the vision created from reading the James Harriot books.  In reality there are so many areas in which we can utilize our veterinary degree and it is not limited to practicing medicine in the standard hospital setting.  This lecture will look at the various areas outside of practice that we can follow as a career path.

Often there are emotions in leaving the ideal belief on what becoming a “veterinarian” meant.  This may also mean coming to grip with societies vision of what a veterinarian is defined as. Helping to create the space to embrace that we are still valuable to the profession even if we do not practice medicine in a hospital setting is crucial in taking that first step to leave the practice setting.  Taking the time to provide a framework on how to start the process at looking at the various opportunities available to veterinary professionals.

Objective

  • The emotions present with changing career paths in which take veterinarians outside the practice setting.
  • Understand the many areas in which a veterinary degree can be utilized.
  • Embrace the fact that different career paths outside the practice setting, is still honoring our education.

Change is ever present in this industry and that includes our career paths.  There are many reasons why we may be in a situation where we are looking for a new position.  Relocation, career shifts due to personal reasons, recognizing a lack of opportunity in our current position, and adjustments in our company that open unexpected opportunities are a few of those situations you may find yourself in.

Preparing ourselves for the interview process provides us with the tools to truly showcase our value to our potential new managers.  Taking the time to practice and develop these resources can be valuable at any time throughout our journey in this profession. This lecture will look at some best practices to help provide us with the skill of having an amazing interview.  Where the question becomes clear that you are the best fit for the position.

Objectives

  • Understand what people generally are looking for when they interview job candidates.
  • Review key types of questions that often show up in an interview and the general approaches to take when answering them.
  • Some things to avoid saying and sharing while being interviewed.
  • Provide a framework in how to answer key questions to truly showcase your talent and skills.

There are those moments where we ask ourselves;

  • “Should I look for a new job?”
  • “Do I look for a shift in my career?”
  • “Maybe I am not truly hitting my full potential and need to move on?”

Change is never easy, and often is scary.  Sometimes we are looking to grow and need a new path to allow those opportunities to present themselves.  Other times we recognize that the culture of where we are is not where we want to work. During this lecture we will dive into the key things to consider while pondering making a change in your current position. Taking the time to look both introspectively as well as evaluate the external factors, will allow us the space to go into this decision with eyes wide open. With that awareness in hand, we can then begin the steps on where to start looking when we know it is time to move on to the next stage in our career.

Objectives

  • Learn Key things to evaluate in determining if it is time for looking for a new position.
  • Understand the introspective pieces to become aware of in determining if a new position is the right move.
  • Provide a framework on how to help embrace the idea of change.

Topics for Lectures/Workshops

Somewhere in the path of our career in veterinary medicine many of us question why we entered this profession.  Finding ourselves in a place of burn out, compassion fatigue, ethical fatigue, distress, or just plain tired. Call it whatever you want, if you have found yourself in this space, you are not alone.  We each enter this profession with high hopes and dreams. We have this idealistic vision of what we can accomplish, knowing that it won’t be all puppies and kittens. We are fully aware there will be death and heart ache, and with that knowledge we enter into the field with much excitement and  a strong vision.

Along the way we start to lose our steam and many find ourselves wishing we didn’t enter this field.  Yet we don’t want to leave due to that inner pull that brought us here in the first place. At this point we look for our resilience, or our BOUNCE. That direction that helps us reconnect with ourselves and find our direction again.  We each have our own direction in this journey, our personal BOUNCE. Learning the BOUCNE framework will help us each find our own resiliency.

B – Become Aware
O – Our Choice
U – Unique Journey
N – Navigate the Pain
C – Connected as One
E – Embrace All.

With the framework of BOUNCE in our awareness, we can each then find our unique path to career sustainability.

Objectives

  • Understand the idea behind how we bounce into resiliency within our careers of vet med.
  • Define the idealistic vision of what many of us carry into beginning a career in vet med.
  • Begin the path in helping to understand our personal bounce within our career.
  • Provide clarity in helping us each reconnect to our passion as we navigate the challenges of the vet industry.

We each come into this profession following and honoring the veterinary oath in our unique way.  Practicing and supporting the human animal bond in various aspects of veterinary medicine.  Along the way we often lose ourselves from the challenges and struggles of the space that is veterinary medicine. In this process many lose their drive to stay within the profession.  The goal to career sustainability is to provide a space that allows each individual to find their unique path to honor themselves while they honor the veterinary oath. To not be told what to do, more follow a framework to find longevity within the veterinary industry.

With this lecture, attendees will come away with an understanding of the four core principles that are the foundation to honoring themselves as veterinary professionals.   Allowing each individual to start the journey to connect once again to the passion they hold close to their heart, and in doing so find their sustainability within this amazing yet challenging industry.

5 Objectives

  • To review and understand the current struggle that faces veterinary professionals in living a sustainable career within the vet med space.
  • Provide a framework in which to allow focus in developing a unique path to sustainability.
  • Understand the 4 principles to follow in staying committed to stay connected within the veterinary industry.
  • Recognize that we are all normal and not alone in this struggle to find career contentment.
  • Become familiar with the individualized journey of the joined focus in honoring the veterinary oath and ourselves.

Veterinary professionals are looking for that place of sustainability and resilience within the profession.  Knowing that the pieces that bring the struggle to the industry are not black and white is important in understanding that the path to our own sustainability will also not be clear cut.  There is a culture and status quo we are working against and it is going to take a unique approach and perspective to help us each find that path. This path works to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, or relationships, which by definition is what it means to be creative.   Therefore, if being creative is the path to sustainability, let’s take that first step in helping us move forward.

Let’s open the understanding of where we currently stand through creative expression, while also building with the creative mind at heart in finding where it takes us towards our personal resiliency. A path that allows us to find our authentic journey into sustainability within the veterinary profession.  Fun and interactive, yet soul searching and healing, that is what creativity brings to our wellbeing.

Objectives

  • Understand the relationship between resilience and creativity.
  • Recognize the value of exercising our creative muscle in career sustainability.
  • Provide direction and exercise to begin the process of reconnecting with our creative self.
  • Develop an awareness as to the struggle in being creative in our daily lives.

As we navigate life there are many sinkers working to pull us into the depth of our ocean of shame. That space where we feel unworthy of acceptance and belonging. They show up in many places, clients having no money, pets having no medical options, never having enough time in the day, Dr. Google, Yelp reviews, malpractice anxiety, all the journals you receive in the mail that you haven’t read-yet can’t throw away, and the ever pressing one of debt-whether it’s from school loans or practice ownership. These can be heavy and pull us deeper and deeper into that place of disconnect. Our balloons are what lift us up, they are what keep us from drowning and allow us to stay connected to ourselves and the world. Our balloons are related to our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of connection.

In working to float in this ocean of shame we have the weight of the sinkers and the air in the balloons, which are strongly related to our personal values. Knowing what our values are allows us to recognize how we are being pulled from them, call this the weight in the sinker. In addition, it allows us to find the path to lift us back up, being the air in our balloons. This workshop will take the audience on a journey of how to find our values and work to make connection to both our sinkers and balloons. Allowing us to better prepare ourselves to navigate the ocean of shame and find sustainability and wellbeing within our career related to veterinary medicine.

In 2007 Gene Weingarten shared the article “Pearls before Breakfast” in the Washington Post. This article earned a Pulitzer Prize for the author and the Washington Post. What was shared was results from an experiment where the author had Joshua Bell, a well accomplished violinist, play some of the most beautiful pieces composed by Bach on a violin worth 3.5 million dollar in a metro station in Washington DC one cold early January morning during rush hour. He then observed the people in the station when presented with such a beautiful experience and shared those observations in the article. From this he opened up the idea of how society perceives beauty and value.

This workshop takes a look at the results from this article and experiment and discusses how this applies to working in a veterinary hospital. The goal of this workshop is to provide thought provoking perception of value and beauty in the everyday world. What can we learn from this experiment in helping to find our own sustainability within a demanding industry. Come prepared to learn how to recognize the beauty and value in what you do, when others may not.

WORKSHEET

It can easily be said that self-forgiveness is the foundation to a sustainable career in the veterinary profession. Yet our inner critic often works against us in finding that path to acceptance. Our inner critics tell us we can’t, or shouldn’t, or aren’t good enough, or even sometimes lets us know that we don’t belonged in this career.

Taking us to a path where we hate our inner critic, fighting them on a daily basis if not an hourly battle. In finding how to partner with our inner critic this allows us to step out and find our unique path to our authentic sustainable career while still connecting with our life’s passion. Finding a partner in our inner critic can change our lives. Come learn how this journey can help revitalize you and learn how to develop the path to a mutual partnership for you and your inner critic.

To Be Developed

Cost is variable and dependent on the size of the event and selected workshop.  Typically, workshop are shared over 3-4 hours.  Additional topics are available.

Check on the current on-demand courses available today.

Speaking Engagements

Dr. Pope has spoken at a number of large national conferences VMX and other NAVC related events, WVC, AVMA related events, AAHA, and the Fetch series (previously CVC).  In addition she has supported a number of local VMA events as well as providing individual team support.  She welcomes any and all inquires.

Cost is variable and dependent on the size of the event, amount of time requested to speak, and topic(s). Please note additional topics are available and Webinar sharing options are available.

Please feel free to contact Dr. Pope to discuss opportunities to partner with her in helping to Connect Careers with Life’s Passion!

Services are individualized and prices are based on an estimate between the individual/team and Dr. Pope.

Travel costs, which are in addition to the service fees, will be determined from Dr. Pope’s home base of Maryland and to be included in the estimate at time of booking.