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In this week’s episode:

• Define Your Core Values or Risk Losing Direction – A strong practice culture starts with clear, embedded values. Without them, leadership struggles, teams disconnect, and patient care can suffer.
• Keep Up with Learning Trends or Fall Behind – Veterinary education is evolving with AI, simulation tools, and digital platforms. Staying resistant to change can leave your team ill-equipped for modern challenges.
• Treat Communication as a Critical Skill, Not an Afterthought – Handling client expectations, team conflicts, and leadership challenges requires strong communication. Ignoring this can lead to misunderstandings, burnout, and inefficiency.
• Embrace Change Before It Forces Your Hand – The industry is shifting, and those who hesitate to update workflows, invest in training, and adopt new tech will struggle to keep up with evolving demands.

This week we are joined by Alyssa Mages, CVO of Empowering Veterinary Teams.

Additional Guest Spotlights

• Dan Tipney: Dan Tipney recommends AVTE (Association for Veterinary Technician Educators), a must-know resource that connects veterinary educators to cutting-edge training and collaboration opportunities.
• Next episode sneak peak: Next time, Massimiliano Melis, COO of AITEM, joins us to explore how cutting-edge veterinary technology is transforming care, streamlining workflows, and shaping the future of the profession.

Show Notes

• Out every other week on your favourite podcast platform.
• Presented by Jack Peploe: Veterinary IT Expert, Certified Ethical Hacker, CEO of Veterinary IT Services and dog Dad to the adorable Puffin.
• Alyssa is the Chief Visionary Officer (CVO) of EVT (Empowering Veterinary Teams®) where she oversees the content development, clinical skills training, and overall vision of the company. She co-founded EVT to provide training programs, RACE-approved CE, training materials & coaching/learning opportunities for veterinary practices, as well as content development and training directives for veterinary industry service providers. 
• Alyssa graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a BS in Marine Biology, leading her to the education/conservation track. Ultimately her desire to learn and do more led her to transition to the veterinary field where she attained an AS in Veterinary Technology from Manor College and added CVT to her credentials. She has 20 years of veterinary experience and has worked in numerous industry sectors. She has held multiple leadership roles throughout her tenure, including Lead Veterinary Technician, Adjunct Professor, and Education & Development Coordinator.
• As her career has shifted along with EVT Alyssa is also thrilled to be a member of the Board of Directors for GIVE, an advisor for BlendVet, and the Director of MentorVet Tech as well as a co-founder & the Director of Veterinary Strategy for Nûrtûr, and co-founder of the non-profit organization Project Sticker.
• Alyssa’s Recommended Resources: A Call to Life – Sonja Olson and Oops! I Became a Manager,
• Find out more about Alyssa and the EMP Vet team here and be sure to follow them on LinkedIn!

Transcription

Jack Peploe:

Coming up on modern veterinary practice.

Alyssa Mages:

What we’ve noticed in particular, our one shining jewel was about a seven doctor practice, and they were doing three surgeries a day and just running into walls with doing their exams and things. And so we took it, got especially their medical team, their technicians and assistants, and we’re like, all right, this is your role. This is your lane. This is how we do these things. This is daily task, weekly tasks, monthly tasks, and let’s go through it. And so we didn’t just work on clinical skills training, we’re doing workflow efficiency. And after four months together, we had them doing seven surgeries on their surgery days, and one doctor seeing 20 appointments and leaving on time.

Jack Peploe:

Welcome to the Modern Veterinary Practice Podcast. I’m your host and veterinary IT expert, Jack Peploe. In this episode, I’ll be welcoming Alyssa Mages, a certified veterinary technician, educator and co-founder of Empowering Veterinary Teams. Elisa has spent years revolutionising how veterinary professionals are trained, blending hands-on skills with deep focus on communication, mentorship, and team efficiency. Today we’ll explore the evolving landscape of veterinary education, the challenges of training within high pressure environments, and how fostering the right culture can transform your veterinary teams.

The interview.

Alyssa Mages:

Hi, my name’s Alyssa Mages. I have a bachelor’s in marine biology and I have my credential veterinary technician licensed. I’m a certified veterinary technician because we can’t agree on one license throughout the states. So I have been in Vet Med since oh 2004, 20 years this year. So long time I’ve been credentialed for half of that. So I was trained on the job and then went back to school. So I’ve worked in every sector from general practice to large animal and everything in between, predominantly and emergency critical care and anesthesia and academia. And I combined the two and launched Empowering Veterinary teams in 2019 with a good friend of mine officially launched in 2020. Not the best time perhaps to leave practice, but here we are. So we have grown beyond that. We have co-founded two additional companies. The most recent being a not-for-profit, we just got our 5 0 1 C3 status.

So we’re doing Project Sticker, which is around mental health and retention within the profession. And we also are co-founders of Nurture, which is veterinary Communication strategies. So trying to make sure we hit all angles and meet everybody where they are with what they need. So if it can’t be with EVT, then it’s with Nurture. And if it can’t be with Nurture, then we’re doing something. The project sticker, I hang out with the team at Mentor Vet. I’m the director of mentor vet Tech, and spend a lot of time growing and learning within the DEIB space throughout the profession because life’s never going to stop teaching, so I better not stop learning.

Jack Peploe:

That’s awesome, Alyssa. There is just so much to discuss there. And I have to say snap. I’ve also been in business for 20 years. Seems like a really long time, but yeah, literally 20 years the other day. So very exciting. But it’s super to have you on the One Veterinary Practice podcast. I was hoping that we could delve into obviously your extensive background today. And while we can’t cover everything in this episode, because there is literally so much to cover off, I’m particularly interested in exploring your deep involvement in veterinary education and practice improvement. Now, I initially wanted to understand what inspired you to co-found EBT and what gaps you saw in veterinary education that you wanted to initially address.

Alyssa Mages:

We don’t have enough time, do we? But no, thanks. That’s a really good question. And I like how you phrased it, the gaps that I saw. It’s really challenging to do teaching on the job, and I’ve worked in several teaching hospitals, and I say that in air quotes even though that’s one of my least favorite things to do. But you can’t really teach on the job, right? There’s too much involved in that process. So there’s the pedagogy, the terminology, the application, and the retention of it. You can train on the job and you can be coached on the job, which is excellent, but you miss a lot in there. So if you’re trying to do that and then call people technicians, it doesn’t land well. And it’s different internationally. I know that it’s RVs in the UK for you folks, and it’s RVs in Canada, they’re all RVs, and if you’re not registered, you’re an assistant.

And I think that’s where I saw the problem was people were not content with who they were, and it was all about the titles. And it’s like, but if you’re good at something, it doesn’t matter what you’re called, but if you’re going to get that title, then it needs to have things that are earned and you have to have a standardised approach to it. Everything in medicine is regulated. Our controlled drug substances, our standard operating procedures, everything has a plan and a tick box and all of those things, training and education not so much. And every practice is different, and every corporate group is different, and they want it to make it theirs. And it’s like, well, but why? So I’m definitely not an in the box thinker. And so after 17 years of being in a box, I was like, I love this, but I’m physically not able to do the 14 hours on my legs anymore. I’ve had seven knee surgeries, small, that’s another podcast for another time. And really just saw that the work, I had a vision in my brain, it really couldn’t be contained to one place anymore, and I wanted to see if I could take it out there and do it. And my dear friend and co-founder was like, well, I’m not really thrilled with what I’m doing either. She’s not in the veterinary space. She’s an engineer, computer engineer, which is brilliant because she can pivot table around an Excel sheet. And I’m like, you do that.

You do the data and make it make sense, and I’ll have all these grand ideas. So it was really just seeing that there was such a need for it and a lack of a resistance to that standardised approach while also customising it. So making sure that we’re not putting all of the onus on the individual. We don’t call someone, we don’t label them a beginner. We don’t say that you’re zero to five on this proficiency scale. We change that vernacular and make sure that it’s focused on the process itself and give people a way to progress forward. So they want to stay. And it’s a challenge to get people to change in any industry, but I feel like vet med’s like, oh, why it works, but does it though? So that’s really what it was. It was, it’s good, but it could be better. And I am really here to just make the world better place in how I found it, how I live in it. I want to keep making it better.

Jack Peploe:

No, that’s really cool. And how has EBT transformed the way veterinary teams approach training and continuing education, and what feedback have you received from practices that have implemented your programmes?

Alyssa Mages:

Yes, we’re still very small. It’s funny, I didn’t investigate the entrepreneurial journey until I was like, I’m just going to quit and do this, which I tend to learn the hard way pretty well. We’ve made a small impact, I would say educationally and locally with the team and the overall, we’ve done about three EV training programmes and one was in Vancouver and a few in the states here. We’ve done piecemeal parts where they want to just start and do a la carte. Again, it’s a resistance. It’s a taking on too much. It’s a one more thing. So the other part of what I do within the company is I speak on the national circuit. So talking about why communication matters, why mentorship is important, how do you have to train your trainers and you have to train your trainees to be trained and understand the difference between training and coaching and teaching and what the methodologies are, what are your learning styles?

So that’s been the past three years is really where we’ve gotten that. Oh, this is a different concept. Yes, call us. No one likes to be able to found anymore either. So what we’ve noticed in particular, our one shining jewel was about a seven doctor practice, and they were doing three surgeries a day and just running into walls with doing their exams and things. And so we took it and really got, especially their medical team, their technicians and assistants, and we’re like, all right, this is your role. This is your lane. This is how we do these things. This is daily task, weekly monthly tasks, and let’s go through it. And so we didn’t just work on clinical skills training, we’re doing workflow efficiency. And after four months together, we had them doing seven surgeries on their surgery days, and one doctor seeing 20 appointments and leaving on time.

So we don’t have multiple practices that have done that, but I’m like, but that one did, so that means we have a right. And then the other practice, what we did in Canada, they were moving, so they were building a new practice and they were trying to revamp everything at the same time, so they didn’t have to do multiple changes and that we can’t really fly you out here from Philadelphia to Vancouver. I’m like, no, I know what that plane ticket costs. So we had them FaceTime or put on a GoPro, and we did it virtually. So we were able to see what their workflow was like and how their skills were aligning with each other and be able to tailor it in live time, 3000 miles apart. It’s really just making sure that you don’t have to do it a certain way. You have to meet people where they are with what they need and give them just a different perspective. So it’s for your sake, Jack is like, if you give me information about it that I’ve never heard before, it’s like, oh, well that makes sense because it’s your area of expertise and it’s not from within the practice. And that’s what we’re trying to do is you can do it internally, absolutely. But you’re going to have that bias of this is what we do instead of seeing what chaos can be done.

Jack Peploe:

No, I love that. And honestly, you’ve just triggered me on something else, but I’m going to hold back because I’ve got so many ideas that are literally rushing through my head, but that was really cool. But I’m going to control myself because I’m always aware of this time now, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered in veterinary education and how have you innovated to overcome them?

Alyssa Mages:

Oh, that’s a very multifaceted question. So I’ll start from the external. So when you’re broaching the topic with the leadership of the practice, it’s having them grasp the concept of understanding that, and that’s a tricky word too, of understand, because unless you have a shared lived experience, you can’t really understand. And that word gets thrown around a lot, like, oh, I understand. So it’s ensuring that they’re on board and the team is also invested because it’s, oh, it’s more people coming and telling us what to do, but we’re not coming in and evaluating your practice and giving you a 30 page printout and say, go have fun. This is what we found. Oh, that’s self-assessment. This is how we can do it together. And we’re there, we’re boots on the ground or clogs or whatever you’re wearing on your feet these days. So we have to do large animal work. I will put on the wellies, it’ll be fine.

But that is one of the biggest challenges is buy-in from a leadership perspective and also from the team engagement and then follow through is the second part. So you can give them all the information in the world, but are they actually going to keep it going? And so to make sure that you do exit interviews with every person that you worked with and following up with a completion survey about six months later, and then to find out that they’re still doing it and they’ve actually taken what we did and evolved beyond that. And that was the goal is to not be that you need us, it’s to just get you kickstarted and then you’re going to take it and go with it. So that’s what I would say the biggest challenges are our buy-in and then follow through, but we have tools in place to make those work, so we just need more people to sign on.

Jack Peploe:

That’s very cool. If we talk about diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, obviously critical in all sectors, can you discuss how these principles are integrated into your training programmes and the impact that they’ve had?

Alyssa Mages:

Absolutely. It’s definitely something that I’m quite passionate about. Those of you that are listening won’t be able to see, but I have my hoodie from Blend Vet that says, we are vet met. It’s a rainbow with all of the shades of brown and tan because, and I do that actually a lot of our CE that we bring with us for a training programme has that all filtered in. It’s in our email signatures. It’s at the base of our website. This is our stance on DEI and B. And it also lists the native tribe of the lens that all of my team work on. So we’re all virtual. So I’m in Pennsylvania, I have team members in New York, Oklahoma, they’re all over. And so at the end of our email signatures is what tribal lands are we living and working on to recognise that? So it’s small, but it’s there.

And then in everything that we approach with is, okay, how do you learn? How do you communicate? We always list our pronouns and we couch everything with this is our lived experience, what is yours? So to have that always sense of openness and willingness to learn and never calling ourselves allies because that’s something you have to earn, that is something that if someone’s going to call me that from within those communities, then I’m honoured. But I’m not going to go around tooting my own horn like, oh yeah, I buy the things that’s optical allyship. We’re not doing this for the likes, right? It’s because it’s integral and it matters. And that’s the organisations we are aligned with Blend and possibilities, VetMed and Pride, BMC. And there’s so many organisations that people don’t know about DVMC. There’s a lot of great work being done, and I know that there’s affinity and things of that regard in the UK and vet moms and everything like that.

So knowing Liz Barton and Claire from liking on her last name, but just brilliant people. And that’s the other part of it too, is it’s not something that’s isolationist, right? It’s not a US issue, it’s not a UK thing. It’s a global awareness. And just making sure that that’s how you approach it is when I’m going into a practice, I make sure that I’m talking to everyone from the person that comes in twice a week to clean the facility. What is this like for you? Do you need any support and making sure leadership is very aware of that and that this is our language, this is how we approach it. We will not tolerate any type of discrimination or exclusivity, and that’s written into our company structure. That’s part of our mission, vision, and values. And if there is a potential client that says they don’t want to learn about that and that has no place in their practice, we won’t work with them.

Jack Peploe:

That’s really refreshing to hear. It’s a weird one because obviously you come across values to an organisation. Not as many times as I’d like to see. In fact, I was speaking to a practice the other day and they were surprised that we had values. They were like, but you are out me, you don’t have values. Not being that in an insulting way, but I was surprised to kind of go, okay, well, we can kind of understand it within the veterinary field, but it’s a weird one for you to have those kind of values. So I find it really, really interesting. And the other thing I find quite interesting is the fact that it does seem like the values have only become prominent within the last couple of years. And maybe that’s just the organisations that I’ve come across or I suppose understand the importance of the values. Would that be a better way of putting it?

Alyssa Mages:

I would think so. And to your point that people are surprised that your organisation is full of people. So we all have our own core values, and then how is that reflected in what we stand for? And that was a big part before we even launched EVT, was what do we stand for? And they’ve changed. They were initially inspire, I can inspire, instruct impact for the first three, and now they’ve changed to educate, empower, evolve. Because if you’re not looking at yourself constantly and seeing is the work that we’re doing reflecting who we are and is your mission statement, that’s how you’re going to do this every day, and your vision is what you’re hoping to achieve. If the people in your organisation aren’t a part of that, if they haven’t had a voice to that, then you’re spit balling and throwing into the wind and it doesn’t go anywhere.

And I say that inve metal all the time. It’s like 80% of our job is people oriented and the 20% of animals, they don’t talk. So they come with, and they also don’t have posable thumbs who’s going to drive them here. So there’s going to be people, you’re going to have to talk to people. I’m so sorry to tell you. So that’s really something that gets lost is the human skills. And so bringing that, and they’re not soft communication and EQ and all of those things. People are like, oh, those are soft skills. Have you tried talking to an angry client and think that that’s easy? So I think it’s vital and every organisation, regardless of the industry that you’re in, needs them.

Jack Peploe:

Yeah, no, I couldn’t agree more. So looking ahead, how do you see the landscape of NY education evolving over say the next decade? And are there any sort of, I’m going to pick on my field, new technologies or maybe methodologies that you’re particularly excited about integrating?

Alyssa Mages:

My gosh, there’s so much. That’s what’s exciting. And then people are like, oh, VetMed ISS broken. It’s like, have you heard of the Japanese pottery Kintsugi? It’s broken too, but then you fill it with gold and it’s even better. So there’s a tonne out there, and there’s actually a whole organisation that a lot of folks aren’t aware of, especially for veterinary technician education is a VTE Association for Veterinary Technician Educators, and there’s a new programme for the fellows of that. So it’s once you’ve done this work for 10 plus years, you can join a group of folks that are doing the same kind of work and learn from each other, which is fabulous. That just launched this past summer in technology space. There’s dictation software, there’s AI technology, which scares some people, but I love it. I’m think the possibilities are endless. The 3D printing technology, we actually utilise that because we build training mannequins, so artificial veins and things like that.

So anything that’s involving robotics and surgical advancements and what types of different catheterization techniques. There’s so much out there. But I think at the core root of it, we have to come back to again, Jack, are those people skills. So communication, how can we communicate better? That’s always going to be there because it’s always going to change. I have a 16-year-old daughter phone calls, that’s not a thing. It’s texts, it’s Snapchat. It’s all of those things. And it’s like I’m the generation of, I remember when Facebook came out. Yes, I do. I remember, and I don’t even like using it anymore. I prefer Instagram and LinkedIn. So it’s really kind of keeping your finger on the pulse, and that’s how I try to relate it to the teams we work with is medically speaking, they’re resistant to change. Well, we don’t use the same induction protocols that we did 20 years ago. So you don’t train people the same way, and you keep your finger on the pulse of what’s happening outside of your practice because we don’t operate in a vacuum pulse points. They understand that, right? That’s where we’re testing where their heart rate is coming from. So if you can bring all of these new things, these advancements, innovations and stuff that scares people into a relatable sense, you can achieve something together.

Jack Peploe:

Oh, that’s awesome. Well, listen, I mean, I hate to say it, but I’ve looked at the time and we’ve hit the milestone, which is just typical. I literally have another sort of 20 questions I could ask you, but obviously your insight step been incredibly enlightening, and thank you so much for sharing your expertise and for your ongoing effort to enhance the veterinary profession through education and mentorship. But can I ask you one more question? If people want to get in touch with you, how can they go about doing it?

Alyssa Mages:

Easy to find us. Website is our company name empowering veterinary teams or EMT team. You can find us on Instagram, and we still are on Facebook and LinkedIn. We avoid x, and I’m not on TikTok, just we’re focused on doing the work, not necessarily dancing about it. I leave that to the professionals. There’s some really amazing content out there. So all of our handles, we’ll make sure that you have them to put it on, to post them, but if you search EVT empowering veterinary teams, our SEO is pretty strong. You should find us.

Jack Peploe:

Amazing. Alyssa, thank you so much.

Alyssa Mages:

Well, thank you, Jack. It’s been an absolute delight. I appreciate you

Recommended resources.

Jack Peploe:

Every week we ask professionals and experts to suggest a best business resource for our listeners. This week’s recommendation is from Dan Tipney.

Dan Tipney:

I suppose the one thing I think is the best resource that I would generally, if it’s a signposting exercise, I would signpost something called it. It’s actually an online blog website that’s mostly made up of articles and blogs, and it’s called Humanistic Systems. It’s run by someone called Steve Schork, who’s a psychologist. He’s a human factors specialist. He actually works in safety with an air traffic control primarily, but has worked as a consultant, as a trainer in lots of safety critical professions. And for me in the UK at least, we’ve been really lucky to work with him quite a lot. He’s actually going to be involved in some of the conference this year. So yeah, I definitely would, and it’s all free and all his material. He does it all for free for the benefits of everyone.

Jack Peploe:

Coming up next week, we welcome Massimiliano Melis, the founder and CEO of AITEM, a company at the forefront of AI development in veterinary care. In this episode, we’ll explore how AI is reshaping the way veterinary professionals diagnose, treat, and manage patient care. Mass. Milano shares his journey from working in autonomous driving and AI in human healthcare to creating Laker the first veterinary AI copilot. We discussed the challenges of AI adoption in clinical settings, the ethical considerations of integrating AI into veterinary decision-making, and how technology can support rather than replace veterinary professionals. That’s it for this episode. All links and recommendations we talked about are in the show notes. Don’t forget to subscribe and share the podcast if you found it useful. In the meantime, thanks for listening and see you next time.