I love men. I do. They’re great. But these days, women are more my thing. Women are smart, funny, kind, beautiful…and too often underappreciated, underpaid, under-respected, and under-represented.

The time for women to rise above old stereotypes and show what we are capable of has come. We aren’t the meek, tender, fragile little housewives who need our big, strong manly husbands to care for us. We don’t have to be the secretaries to our male bosses. We don’t have to be the flight attendants to our male pilots. We don’t have to be the associate veterinarians to our male veterinary practice owners.

We can be the boss. We can be the pilot. We can be the veterinary practice owner.

If we want it, we can have it.

A few years back, I read a book by Dan Abrams called Man Down: Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt That Women Are Better Cops, Drivers, Gamblers, Spies, World Leaders, Beer Tasters, Hedge Fund Managers, and Just about Everything Else....

Everyone has peaks and valleys in life.

Thirteen years ago, I was in a valley, and I was seeing a therapist to help me get through it. I remember sitting in my therapist’s office on a Friday afternoon feeling like my life was a complete failure. Tears were streaming down my face. I was grieving over the “bad” choices I had made in the past and wrestling with my current circumstances. As I was crying, my therapist said to me, “Tracy, you are not a failure. You have to be more loving and forgiving of yourself.”

The next day, I attended a church in my community, hoping to get some inspiration to lift my spirits. At the end of the service, a woman I had never met before approached me and said, “I believe God wants me to tell you something.”

Excuse me? No one had ever said anything like that to me before, especially a complete stranger.

While I was taken aback by this woman, I was also intrigued and curious about what she thought God wanted...

Let’s face it: Change is no fun. Most of us like to stay in our comfort zone. But, inevitably, something comes along to shake us out of it. Personally, I have been out of my comfort zone for so long that I can’t remember the last time I felt comfortable.

Over the last five years, I have bought and sold two veterinary practices, relocated my family from Texas to San Diego, created a new brand, and launched an online practice management training program. But the biggest change I’ve experienced is living in a foreign country.

I’ve been dreaming of living in another country since I traveled to Europe while in college. I imagined living in Tuscany or the South of France after retiring. Now, 20 years before retiring, I’m living my dream, but instead of Europe, I’ve found myself in Baja, California, Mexico. How? I embraced change and took risks.

How I realized my dreams

After meeting with our financial planner a few years ago, we came to the conclusion...

Do you know what your employees are thinking? What they’re reallythinking? How they really feel about working at your animal hospital? How they really feel about working with the rest of your staff? What they reallythink about you and your management team?

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, you must be sending anonymous surveys out to your team members regularly. Well done!

………………..

Wait… You aren’t regularly surveying your staff?

If you aren’t anonymously surveying your employees on a regular basis, you don’t truly know what they’re thinking. You don’t know how they’re feeling. You don’t know what they want. You simply don’t know.

But, don’t worry. Sending anonymous surveys to your team is easier than you might think, and it’ll provide insights that you can use to improve...