Communicating Through the Noise

Strategies for improving internal communication using a multi-modal approach. What are the tools and techniques we can use to communicate with our teams?
What do we want or need to communicate? When should we communicate? How do we communicate? What boundaries should we observe with communication tools and what are the written and unwritten rules of communication etiquette?
In this talk, Mike Falconer will answer these questions and more including the advantages and drawbacks of multiple different types of communication and how to break through the everyday noise and distraction of our world.

Numbers for Vets who Don’t like Numbers

A basic introduction to the numbers behind practice management for students, technicians, and doctors. Learn why certain numbers are important, what they are, and which ones to ignore. How to interpret numbers, and make numbers work for you. Demystify terms like gross, net, EBITDA, profit, loss, average transaction, markup, and understand their relationship to what you do every day. Use actual practice examples to decode what prices should be and why. Use basic math skills (addition, subtraction, and a little multiplication) to get a grip on the financial side of any veterinary practice. Have actual understanding of the basic metrics that all veterinary hospitals use.

Mike Falconer

What’s the Worst that could Happen? – Disaster Preparedness

Planning for every type of disaster or emergency is almost impossible. But creating strong policies to allow management and staff to adapt can allow organizations to adapt and respond to unforeseen events. Walk through on how to run disaster preparedness exercises. Learn how to make strong protocols to deal with internal and external disasters and how to test them.

The Myth of Time Management

“They say time is a fire in which we burn.” Time management can seem like a mythical creature, we think we know what it looks like but actually finding it can seem impossible. In this hands on and practical workshop, we will take your actual list of jobs, tasks, and responsibilities and use real world practical strategies to turn them into a workable, and achievable, daily plan. We will also look at the role of delegation, structure, and routine, in personal time management. Touch on the new generation of computer tools, and why SEPs are important. There will also be lots of geeky references.

Weaponized Reviews

Reviews are here to stay, and that’s a good thing. But how do businesses defend themselves from those who would abuse the review system for their own ends? I offer practical advice on how to handle Yelp bombing campaigns and how to mitigate their effects. We look at how to prevent, and initially respond, to weaponized reviews. We look at preventing and then handling a weaponized review campaign going viral. And we look at other tactics undertaken by Yelp bombers, other than just posting reviews, and coming to a resolution. Strategize about how to tackle and respond to situations using a set of customized guidelines customized for your individual practice. Actual strategies for replying to and mitigating the effects of adverse reviews, online attacks, and abuse of the review system.

Belonging for Groups and Teams

How can we help make teams feel like teams? How can we use language, belonging cues, and hive mind switches to help? And what does Star Wars, Star Trek, superhero movies, and sports have to do with running a veterinary hospital?
Attendees will take away an understanding of these principles, how they unknowing probably already use some of these principles, and how they can add to their team’s and / or their sense of belonging in practice.
Strife between departments, strife between clients and your practice, and a lack of your team feeling like a team or you a leader feeling dislocated from your team can all be addressed by through understanding of group dynamics. By using belonging cues and hive mind switches, which are already preprogrammed into your brain, to reinforce the valuing of individuals, energy in the relationship exchange, and signaling that relationship will sustain, we can show how these tools work and are used all around us every day and how they can be used inside our hospitals while avoiding the pitfalls of this kind of thinking.

Getting the Job you Want

How do you impress an employer? What do employers care about? What is the employment process like?
Attendees we take away a deeper understanding of what the interviewing and externship process is all about from the employer’s perspective so they can better prepare themselves for the job of getting a job. More importantly, attendees will learn how to get the job that they want rather than just one they are offered.

Pricing Strategies

How and why do we price products and services? What makes a service different from a product and why should we care? In this talk on how to think about pricing in veterinary medicine, we explore the ideas and concepts behind the setting of prices and all the things to keep in mind when deciding how to charge. Attendees we leave the presentation with an understanding of what a pricing strategy looks like and how to evaluate their own practice circumstances to best match being the veterinarian they want to be with the realities of their business and market.  

Speaker Bio

Originally hailing from Scotland, and after a career in the entertainment lighting business, Mike is the Hospital Administrator for a 15-doctor veterinary practice, and two satellite practices in Las Vegas. He is also the Recruitment and Externship Director for an alliance of independently owned veterinary practices – V.O.S.

A Hospital Administrator for 18 years, Mike also writes, speaks, and consults on management, human resources, marketing, and social media. A Top Writer on Quora, winner of the Founders Award from the Uncharted Veterinary Conference, and frequent poster to his own blog, Mike is also involved in various veterinary management, human resources, and marketing organizations.  

In his spare time, Mike is a voracious reader, consumer of film, theater patron, renovates his house, watches hockey games, and dabbles in Yoga and climbing; both of which he does badly. He has a rescue dog called Miles who is slowly destroying his house and a retired racing greyhound called Ella.