The Whole Veterinarian

Well-being Solutions for Veterinarians featuring the Get MotiVETed Team

May 06, 2021 Quincy Hawley, DVM and Renee Machel Season 2 Episode 27
The Whole Veterinarian
Well-being Solutions for Veterinarians featuring the Get MotiVETed Team
Show Notes Transcript

Well-being might be a word that is thrown around a lot lately, but Renee Machel and Dr. Quincy Hawley are dedicated to educating all veterinary professionals about ways to improve this aspect of their lives. They formed Get MotiVETed with the hopes of ending burnout and dissatisfaction in our vetmed world.

Make sure to check out their new E-book in collaboration with Empowering Veterinary Teams, which can be found here!

About the Get MotiVETed Team!
Visit their website! Check out their Instagram and Facebook!
Use code wholevet for 25% off anything from their website.

Renee Machel is a nationally recognized wellbeing speaker, certified life coach, CYT 200 yoga instructor, mindfulness, and meditation guide. As the co-founder of Get MotiVETed she aims to provide a positive impact on people’s wellbeing and enhance the culture within organizations. She has spent nearly 20 years in the veterinary industry as a hospital leader and technician. 

She now shares her personal story of overcoming wellbeing struggles and key teachings in managing personal and professional wellbeing and development. 

Renee speaks and trains on many topics of well-being. ● Mindfulness ● Leadership ● Gratitude ● Self-Care ● Balanced Living ● Stress Management ● Holistic Personal/Professional Development 

Additionally, she lives in NC with her blended family, welcoming their newest addition into the world this spring, and of course, her fur-kids Eli & Penelope. As a family, they spend much of their time racing motocross when she and her fiance are not wearing their ‘entrepreneur hats’. 

Dr. Quincy Hawley is a 2013 graduate of NC State’s CVM. Dr. Hawley has 6 years of working in small animal general practice. He is the co-founder of Get MotiVETed LLC, a company that provides wellbeing solutions for veterinary professionals and organizations. He is a Certified Professional Coach, self-published self-help and fitness author. Dr. Hawley has experience coaching a variety of veterinary professionals including but not limited to veterinarians, practice managers, and various veterinary hospital support staff. 

Dr. Hawley is also the president of the NC Association of Minority Veterinarians, a 501-3c non-profit organization with a purpose of improving diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency for the profession. Dr. Hawley volunteers his time as a member of NC State’s CVM admissions committee, and is currently serving his 3rd term doing so. 

He lives in NC with his wife, 2 daughters, along with their 8 dogs, 1 calico cat and a handful of chickens!
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Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
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Inspirational Speakers that led Dr. Hawley to become a well-being speaker include Les Brown, Eric Thomas, Jim Rohn, Earl Nightingale and Tony Robbins.
-The "Exploratory" podcast on GetMotiVETed University
-Dr. Hawley's book recc
-Renee's

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Stacey Cordivano:

Hey there, it's Dr. Stacey Cordivano. I want veterinarians to learn to be happier, healthier, wealthier and more grateful for the life that we've created. On this podcast I will speak with outside of the box thinkers to hear new ideas on ways to improve our day to day life. Welcome to The Whole Veterinarian. Hi there. My guests today are the founders of Get MotiVETed University. Get Motiveted is a company that provides wellbeing solutions for veterinary professionals and organizations. Renee Mahel is a nationally recognized well being speaker certified life coach and yoga instructor. She aims to provide a positive impact on people's well being and enhanced culture within organizations. Dr. Quincy Hawley is a 2013 graduate of NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine. He has six years of working in small animal general practice and is a Certified Professional coach, self published self help and fitness author. He's also the president of the North Carolina association of minority veterinarians. Both Renee and Dr. Hawley live in North Carolina with their families, and I'm so thankful that they took the time to speak with me about what they do at Get Motiveted. They'll be speaking at fetch DVM 360 on May 15. People can use the code faculty10 to save on registration for fetch DVM. They are also generously giving us a discount code wholevet for 25% off any purchase on Get Motiveted University. See the show notes for links and discount codes and everything there. I hope you enjoy our chat. Renee Machel and Dr. Quincy Hawley, thank you so much for joining me today.

Renee Machel:

We're happy to be here. Thanks for having us on Stacey.

Stacey Cordivano:

You guys are in the business of personal development and well-being and that is my jam lately. So I'm so excited to talk to you guys and find out more about what you're doing for the veterinary profession. Can you tell me a little bit about the company and what you're offering? And then we'll kind of jump into your personal stories and a little bit?

Renee Machel:

Yeah, absolutely. Dr. Hawley, do you want to be our ...do you want to tell the people?

Quincy Hawley:

Absolutely, absolutely. So Get Motiveted is a well being solutions company, specifically for the veterinary profession. One of our mottos is that we like to help veterinary professionals enjoy veterinary medicine, instead of just enduring through veterinary medicine, because there's a huge difference there, right? It's my firm belief that veterinary medicine is meant to be enjoyed and not endured. And I've had my own personal journey of struggle, and Renee had her own personal journey of struggle as well. We realized that we work together and thus Get Motiveted was born. Renee always tells the story of the book, and how that turned into the current get motivated.

Renee Machel:

Yeah, we originally when we got to talking, we just thought we'll write a book of almost like the Plumb's guide to well being. And very quickly, we recognized that, you know, we need more than that. And so we positioned ourselves to be able to help the humans in the profession. So we went on to receive life coaching certifications, and I did a yoga instructor certification and really just shaped up into our first thing was doing see seminars, and then it just transformed from there. And so now the current Get Motiveted offers consulting and coaching and online programs, in-hospital programs, university speeches. I think speaking is one of our largest ventures to where we really were able to serve the industry because we can serve hospitals or universities or VMAs or anything. And so that's a large part of what we do.

Stacey Cordivano:

Okay, perfect. I'm glad we, kind of, got a handle on what you guys are up to. And I'm curious, I know, you're both parents, your veterinary professionals, coaches, like you said, Give us a little bit of a background on how you got to where you are, and you know what led you guys to develop this company?

Quincy Hawley:

For me, I graduated veterinary school in 2013 from NC State's College veterinary medicine, and I went into a really, really, really, really busy practice. Okay, so I was literally seeing about 25 to 35 cases a day. Within the first about 30 days of graduating from veterinary school, I did an intestinal resection and anastomosis of 30 inches of intestine from a dog that ate a knee high sock. And I didn't have that many coping mechanisms, personally. So dealing with really busy busy caseload like that, and not having any coping mechanisms, I found that you're going to cope one way or the other. And for me, since I didn't have any healthy coping mechanisms, I turned to unhealthy things that just didn't serve me. They didn't serve my personal life, they didn't serve my professional life as a veterinarian. And it was from there that I just, it was the day after the 2016 presidential election, actually, that I just made a commitment to myself to go after the best life possible and to pursue my full potential, whatever that meant. And I discovered personal development and well-being and just all these other things started taking massive action towards that, and was able to completely transform my life. And that really inspired me to want to do the same thing for other people who were in the veterinary profession who may also be struggling. It was motivational speakers like Les Brown, and Eric Thomas and Jim Rohn. And Earl Nightingale. These guys, they really dropped the rope for me to come out of that rut. And so it's my hope and goal, through Get Motiveted to drop the rope for others to help them reach lives of their dreams to complete happiness. I know that sounds really fluffy, but that's what I like to shoot for.

Stacey Cordivano:

Nice. I like it. Yeah. I kind of got into this, I would say in 2018. And I like to say that I didn't know personal development existed. And then now that I know about, like, how? We're so disserved by not learning about these things in, I don't know, life or vet school, I don't know whose responsibility it is. But I think that's great.

Quincy Hawley:

So for me, after I made my transformation, I had never given a speech before. And I wanted to be a world class motivational speaker, like the guys who helped me out. So I was the president of the North Carolina association of minority veterinarians back in 2017, I really wanted to share my story and my strategies and solutions that I discovered to the organization. Now, in the audience were my mentors, prevet students who were looking up to me, veterinary students that that looked up to me, also, some of my classmates from veterinary school and my colleagues. And so I asked my wife, I said, Do you think I should speak at the spring meeting and kind of tell them about my unhealthy coping mechanisms and things like that? And she said, if it's in your heart to do so, then you should absolutely go for it. And you should tell them. And so I decided to give that talk. And I was really scared because I never given a speech before. And at the end of the presentation, an 80 year old veterinarian came up to me and he was in Tuskegee's second class. He came up to me and he said, Dr. Hawley, now I thought he was about to give it to me, let me have it, like, don't share stuff like that. Don't share your struggle. It's gonna hurt the profession, and that, but he said, Dr. Hawley, I wish I had heard your talk 50 years ago. And it was really in that moment that I just decided, like, I have to do this. This is my newfound purpose of life. It allows me to remain in the veterinary profession, I don't have to leave. And I know it can transform lives. And so since that day, I've given probably over 70 talks personally, and Renee and I have probably given over 100 talks combined, and it's just been a really rewarding and fulfilling journey.

Stacey Cordivano:

That's amazing. That's such a good story. I like that.

Renee Machel:

So for me, my journey started when I was early in the field, and this was the early 2000s. I was in my 20s and I have been in the field for over 15 years, I grew up in the field, largely my career has been in as a technician and as a hospital leader. But early on, I really struggled with my mental health and well being I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, insomnia, chronic back pain, gi illnes; the diagnoses just kept on coming in my 20s. There was a point where I was still symptomatic, and I was doing all of the things that I was supposed to be doing. And they were ready to add another diagnosis and another treatment and I said okay, like this is enough is enough. And so I started to just really research on my own what all of these things individually and collectively meant for me, and then took a completely different approach. So coming off of the medications, you know, with help and guidance and really just moving toward an approach to my life that put it in my hands. So developing, like Dr. Hawley mentioned is the proper coping mechanisms, the proper resilience strategies that offered you know healthy boundaries. You know, being able to say no. And, and when, you know, to be able to say yes, and then I wasn't 100% sure what it was that I was looking for, in the beginning, the closest thing I could, you know, put my finger on was happiness. And so that was it. That was like the beginning journey to happiness for me. And then over 15 years, that's exactly what happened, I was able to sort of shed that identity to the anxiety and to the depression. And I was able to come to a place where I was emotionally balanced. Like that was what success look like, for me was emotionally balanced, was happy. And then once I met Dr. Hawley, I was at a point in my life where I was strong enough and able to, you know, share that story. And when I was able to share that story, people's jaws dropped, they're like, wait, you know, used to smoke, or you used to, you know, having anxiety or, you know, used to be an anger management? And I would say yes, to all those things, all those, it was a completely different person. And so, you know, that's where we said, okay, we've got to share this, because I've been able to sustain in the industry, right, not having to leave the industry thinking that it's just my job, that sucks, and I have to leave, or that's what's making, you know, the root of my problems, the root of my problems with stress and not being able to manage it. And then you know, that just really changing your core identity, right? You know, we have these vices that end up being our core identity. And we know from being veterinary professionals, we identify a lot with what we do. And that's not who we are necessarily, like, we're not just that, or just your diagnosis, or just your vise, we're so much more than that. And so just letting those things shine.

Stacey Cordivano:

Yeah, I think I've come to realize in this journey that so many of us have worked so hard to get to veterinary school, and we define ourselves so much. I feel like that is a big part of the problem. That when it's not going well, or you mess up a case, or you decide you're unhappy, and maybe you need to change direction, then it just is like soul crushing because there's been so much emphasis put on this. I'm curious, I know, you said that you started with the goal of just being happy and like that really resonates with me, I kind of feel like I was in the same position. But I'm curious how you guys define emotional well being.

Renee Machel:

For me, it's a state of being that's an energy. And what I mean by that is, when you think about being depressed, there's a persona that takes place, you know, your body mimics it, right? You're slouched over, you're sluggish, your voice, your actions, what you crave to eat, your responses, your thoughts, everything is wrapped up in that energy of sadness, or depression or overwhelm, right? If you're overwhelmed, or frantic or anxious. You're shallow breathing. You're, you know, flighty. You're like this little Labrador, like Pantene running around, you know. And with that, you know, you have ruminating thoughts. And so, for me, emotional well being is a state of stability, it's balance, it's having spaces between stimulus and response, so that you can choose how to thoughtfully respond rather than reacting. And just chasing the day and chasing your life, you know, always been in this reactive mode, where, literally what's running your body is this cascade of stress hormones. And what happens then unfolds into your reality, right, because your actions and your speech, everything happens after what's going on inside of you. And so if I'm calm, if I am clear, if I have balance, or if I have peace, then the way that I speak to people, the way that I communicate with whether it's, you know, my spouse, or a client or a dog, everything changes, right. But if we're coming at our lives, if we're leading through our own individual lives from this state of stress, and chronic stress is even tougher, right? We're not just talking acute moments of stress, but chronic buildup of stress, you're just in this state. And so when you're operating from this point of pain, that's just with you all of the time, that's not well being and when you begin to have that mindset, you can start to make choices. You can choose happiness, and it seems impossible to someone who's maybe new to this and just listening to this discussion for the first time. But when you really start to wrap your mind around these concepts, choosing happiness is available, and you're really just reaching for the next best feeling right? You're choosing not to walk And it's not to say that feelings shouldn't be processed for what they are worth, I think it's really important to process what's we're, you know, experiencing in our life, but how long we stay in that. And what we do next is is where the opportunity lies.

Stacey Cordivano:

That's a great point.

Quincy Hawley:

And I actually define well being true well being and pseudo well being are two definitions that I've kind of created for myself. And true well being, to me is an intentionally created state of being happy, of being healthy and prosperous. And here's the big thing, as the result of combining and practicing well thought out, frequent and deliberate personal development and self care. Okay. I honestly believe that it's imperative that we as veterinary professionals, and as humans, intentionally go after this thing called well being, whatever that happens to be. So Google's definition was actually the state of being happy, healthy and prosperous. That's all Google's gonna give you as it relates to well being. And I think more practically, in this is the biggest thing that's really helped me to have well being no matter where I go, no matter what circumstances, conditions in life events that I'm facing at any point in time is this. Well-being to me is it's a way of life. It's a set of tools and skills and strategies and tactics, that allows you to enjoy most moments, but more importantly, it allows you to take something away from each and every single moment. Alright, so are you getting bitter? Are you getting better from the challenges that you face in life in veterinary medicine? Are you just going through the day? Or are you getting something from the day? Do you see advantages and disadvantages? Can you see the opportunity that's in all chaos that we face in life, and I think Tony Robbins says it really well, when he says that life's always happening for us, and not to us. And if you can make that simple perspective shift, I honestly believe that your entire existence as a human being, whether you're a professional, when you're in military, no matter your field of expertise, your profession, that you will be able to find that happiness, or the well being or the inner peace with whatever it is that you're looking for, through those simple perspective shifts.

Stacey Cordivano:

No, that's important, I think we can't expect our lives or this profession to be easy. But we can, like you said, have a mindset shift to find something to either learn or gain from all of those experiences, that's great. Can we give listeners some of your best advice on actionable ways to improve your self care or things that people could start to look into?

Renee Machel:

I think, looking into like Dr. Hawley said, as far as defining wellbeing for yourself, I think that's a really good place to start. For me, reflecting was a large practice for many years. When you come to these moments, you know, and you don't have the right strategies, not to get down on yourself about it. But to take the time to reflect want better answers, ask better questions, right? So ask yourself, what would my best self look like if I were to handle this? This way, when that time comes up, again, because we know it's going to right, whether it's in med or in life? How would you handle it, and then just begin to write that out. So just you know, starting with a little self inventory, that's where you can start. Because if you're really hitting your career hard, but your social life is suffering, or maybe your intimate life or your financial life or your physical body, whatever the case is that suffering, then you know that you have to redirect some energy and some resources because really just allocating these finite resources. And so for people, when they start to recognize that their work life balance is off, they say, Okay, well, how do I choose? Well, let's look at your values. What do you value in life, you know, for a 20 year old and a 30 year old and a 40 year old, your values are gonna be really different. And so it's necessary to kind of check back in with yourself to see where you stand, so that you can prioritize what's most important to you, because we put out a lot of fires, and we're sort of conditioned that way to handle what's urgent. But I think that unlearning to really put forth what's most important in our life, then very organically, you're going to start to see that unfold for you.

Stacey Cordivano:

I heard recently someone suggested write it down your top five priorities, and then comparing it to your past two weeks schedule and seeing if they line up and I was like, Oh, that's ugh, cause I can talk the talk, but I'm not walking the walk in all those categories. Okay, Dr. Hawley, how about you? How about some sort of starter tips for people.

Quincy Hawley:

Yeah, so I just want to emphasize so much that starter tips are really, really, really awesome. But there is no substitute for what Renee said when she said introspection, and really giving yourself the time and the space to say, what is it that I want for myself like to idealize and Renee and I, we have two podcast episodes on our podcast called Exploratory, where we talk about idealization if you had a magic wand, or if you had a genie lamp, what do you think your ideal life of well being would look like? And maybe you have no idea. But that's even more of a reason to sit down and think about it. Right? Yeah, now, because you may already have it right here, you may already be in your what is a called? your own acre of diamonds already, all you have to do is just start digging, right where you are. But there are two things that I would like to emphasize here. And the first one is just immersing yourself in all things well being. So if you want to want to go to veterinary school, you're going to start just taking all the different actions, you'll Google how to get into vet school, right? You would do simple things like that. And then you would get a laundry list of things that you need to do. And you would start doing that. And you would go to veterinary school, and you would sit in veterinary school classes for eight hours a day like we did as veterinary students, right? You do that for four years, you would also pay six figures for that degree that you want it. And I think it's absolute Same for for well being and for being burnout free, if you will. are you investing time? are you investing money, and are you investing energy into your well being are you going all in for your well being because if you do, here's a promise, you get it, that persistence, and that perseverance and the effort, that massive action towards your well being it cannot fail. But most people who are suffering from burnout, and this is what I call innocent ignorance, they just don't know that they need to put that same level of energy into their well being that same level of effort. And one of our student representatives, her name is Juliana fernet, she's a current third year at Purdue's College of Veterinary medicine. But she says that she works as hard for her well being, as she does for an A on an exam. And that is the level of effort that is required. Beyond that, I would say more practically finding a community where you're going to be hearing things like what we're talking about right here, Stacey, on your podcast. Find Stacey's podcast, and listen to it on the way to work, and on the way home and on the way to work, and on the way home, if she's dropping knowledge that we're talking about, because then it will become a part of your existence and a part of your life. Just like going to vet school classes every single day, it becomes a part of your existence and a part of your life. And that will lead you to every tool in strategy and thing that you need in your life. You know, it may be yoga that you find and maybe meditation and maybe mindfulness and maybe diet and exercise, it may be perspective in mind. So you're going to find these things naturally. And intrinsically through that commitment to wellbeing.

Stacey Cordivano:

No, that's perfect. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. I don't think that we can list off things. I think that's a perfect answer that people need to a find the space and then be put in the work. And then also that the work is continuous, right? Like I struggle with that too. Even last week, I probably said yes to a few too many things. And I, for me, mindfulness meditation and gratitude practice are very important. And they fell off and I noticed it, you know, so

Renee Machel:

Oh, yeah, that's powerful, though, to be able to, you know, that's something we talked about is like, we're not just teaching, we're living it to last week, I had what I call like an emotional hangover, right is when I had this eruption of emotions. And then the next day, I felt like really depleted. But that ability, that awareness to recognize the difference in your life when those practices aren't in place, that means you can just repeat the method, and then those things will be in place, right?

Stacey Cordivano:

Yeah. But yeah, but it's good to know, right? That like, yeah, you don't just like, Oh, I meditate now. So like, I'm fixed.

Renee Machel:

I'm happy for life, right? Just like, exactly. You can't shower once and be clean. Right? So you can't just like meditate once and be happy for life. Right.

Quincy Hawley:

Right. Right. Right. Right. And then, you know, the other thing too, is I think that oftentimes, as it relates to well being is that I mess up all the time. It's not the perfect life. You can't get rid of bad or good, right? These are things that happen throughout life. But well being is a lane of life that you remain in and so there are going to be good things that happen, there'll be things that feel bad that happened within that lane of well being. But again, it's that perspective of being able to get something from both the good and the bad. So enjoy all the good as best you can. And when the bad comes, cry if you need to totally fine, be upset, be angry, but realize that life is happening for you, and not to you. And I think that the other part of it too, is that, you know, I lost one friend, two neighbors to suicide in 2020. And I had to, I spoke to a mental health professional, you know, I spoke to Dr. Feldman, he's on our team, but I was I was torn apart by by such an incident like that. And things like that are sometimes going to happen, we can't remove negative things like that from our lives. And to somewhat not not be okay with that. But kind of realize that life's gonna keep happening. It's like a wave. You can't have a wave that's all crest and no trough. You can't have a wave that's all trough and oak crest, the two simply go together. And in veterinary medicine, they're going to be things right? That don't feel good. Sometimes you're going to have two veterinary assistants who call out sometimes you're going to have three euthanizes in a day, maybe, you know, one of the electric procedures go south, maybe a client complains, so these things are going to happen. But it's your ability to respond in healthy ways that really makes the difference, in my opinion,

Stacey Cordivano:

just being slightly more prepared for this.

Quincy Hawley:

Absolutely.

Stacey Cordivano:

What do you guys, what would be your like, ultimate hope for the future for veterinary medicine and your company, and kind of how it all plays together?

Renee Machel:

I think ultimately, you know, we've, we've talked about this a lot recently. But I think ultimately, we want to see professionals have the resources, and be engaging with the resources regularly to where get motivated, morphs into really a proactive company to where, you know, we've met the needs of the individuals currently in the profession. And we're able to move toward better preparing the individuals who are going to come into the profession, right, while continuing being a resource for those that are in it. And so, we want to provide the resources.

Stacey Cordivano:

Hi! I just want to say Renee is doing double duty and is a rock star.

Renee Machel:

Thanks, you guys see, or Gavin, that's Gavin in the background. But um, yeah, we want to be able to provide the resources and ultimately achieve our mission, which is to remove burnout, to remove poor well being to the state of you know, preventing suicides to preventing the lowest and the darkest corners of people's lives. You know, if we can even to whatever degree reduce that, then our mission will be accomplished.

Quincy Hawley:

The thing I would like to see the profession move towards is just a completely different perspective shift as an industry and as a profession. So one of my favorite mentors of all time, Wallace Wattles, he's the author of the science of being great, and the science of getting rich and the science of Being Well, and you can get all those books like $12 total, okay? But he has a part in there, he says that the world is perfect, but it's not yet complete. Behold, it is all very good. And I like to extrapolate that over to the veterinary profession. And I think that the veterinary profession is perfect the way that it is now for the stage of development that we have reached as an industry and as individuals, but it's not yet completed. It's not yet the masterpiece, that it will one day become with complete, harmoniousness. And our job as individuals and as organizations and as professionals, is to help the profession get closer to greater completeness, to reach that masterpiece. And I like to think of it like a Bob Ross painting, y'all remember Bob Ross. So at the very big, easy, happy clouds right at the very beginning of his painting, like it wasn't until the last stroke that you can even tell what the picture was like, What the heck is he painting, but it was perfect. On the very first brushstroke. It was perfect as a blank slate. It was perfect when the painting was in his mind, right? It just wasn't complete yet. And so my job as an individual as a veterinary professional, is to help the profession get towards a greater completeness and we can only do that if we realize that we're not renovating a decaying and a declining profession that's going to hell. But no, the profession is getting better each and every single day. And when we have this perspective shift on a massive scale, then and only then will we be able to achieve what I call meta morphic growth, not linear growth like, like a line, right where it like an a line on the incline. But this is metamorphic like going from an egg to a worm from a worm to a fly, right. And so when I look at the fitness profession now, we could be in our egg phase, there's nothing wrong with the egg, it's just an egg is not supposed to fly. But through metamorphosis, it eventually becomes a worm. And now the worm can crawl it can do more than the egg could do. Right? And then through metamorphosis, or whatever warmed us to become a fly. Alright, like eat dead stuff. Maybe Yeah, exactly. We think about a butterfly maybe is a better analogy. But my goal through Get MotiVETed, and in through the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that I do as well, is to help the profession reached that butterfly form where we can go in and just fly and really do more things. And so it just gives me so much hope, knowing that we will reach that phase at some point in the future.

Stacey Cordivano:

That is very hopeful. I like that I get a little discouraged sometimes with our profession. But I am going to remember that because I think that's amazing.

Quincy Hawley:

And that all came from The Science of Being Great is totally, totally Walalce and not Quincy. I did extrapolate that but it was such an amazing perspective. And since reading that in that book, I have given that as a recommendation to students in every single presentation that I do, because it's a perspective and a way of thinking that is foreign to most of us as human beings.

Stacey Cordivano:

Well, that's a good transition into my little fire round of questions for you guys. So you answered your favorite while being a personal development book. How about you Renee, do you have one, one?

Renee Machel:

Brendon Burchard, is my dude, Brendon Burchard and Tim Ferriss. Like they're, they're right there with each other because that they're a little bit different and what they tackle but

Stacey Cordivano:

high performance habits, then

Unknown:

High Performance Habits for Brendon Burchard. But he talks a lot about you know, I love the psychology and things like that, that he does the work that he does in there, but also States of Energy and, and then Tim Ferriss, I don't know if you're familiar with him. Okay. Yep. So he's, you know, you're all around experimenter on everything in life of just optimal living. So he Yeah, he's fantastic. But I think especially if, if you have ever struggled with mental health and well being like,

Stacey Cordivano:

he's very open. Yeah, yeah.

Renee Machel:

I mean, you know, he's, he's had his own struggles. And I think that that's where life can look differently, like me and my fiance, like, our entrepreneurial efforts look very differently, like the effort that I put forth. And, you know, my work day, it looks very differently than his classic day, which might look more like a baby boomers work day, you know, and that's okay.

Stacey Cordivano:

Yeah. Okay. So well, that kind of merges into my other question, which was going to be Who's your favorite sort of like guru/speaker? So Dr. Hawley, how about you on that one?

Quincy Hawley:

you're gonna do this to me. And

Stacey Cordivano:

I know, it's like picking a favorite child

Quincy Hawley:

and make me pick one. So, um, since I already mentioned Wallace, I will go with, I will go with ...jeez... Jim Rohn. Let's go Jim Rohn. One of his quotes that I really like is that you're not a goose, you don't have to fly south, you're not a tree, you don't have to stay. And I think that applies to well being. And that if you're in a state of burnout, or if you're really enjoying life and veterinary medicine, that you have the power because you're not using because you're not a tree to change that. And so that's just one of his quotes. And yeah, I'll just leave it at that.

Stacey Cordivano:

Great. I love it. What is one thing that you guys have to do every day or it's a bad day?

Renee Machel:

Be mindful. And the beauty of that is that, you know, with mindfulness meditation while they go hand in hand, you can be mindful in every moment, but since you know, we're often not because we're humans, and we have egos and things like that. That's when things start to get away from me is when I'm not being mindful. And by being mindful, I mean, paying attention in a systematic way without judgment. So can I witness Can I observe without getting caught up and swept away and my thoughts and emotions?

Stacey Cordivano:

Amazing. Yeah, the without judgment part is always so hard. Okay, Quincy, how about you?

Quincy Hawley:

For me, it's simply remembering. And you're probably like, remembering what? And for me, it's the things, remembering my dreams, remembering my commitment to well being, remembering that, as I believe so shall be done unto me. And remembering my perspective, remembering to use my imagination to create in my mind, and remembering to take actions through small steps every single day towards that amazing life. And when I remember to do that, life's good.

Stacey Cordivano:

I love it.

Renee Machel:

What about you, Stacey?

Stacey Cordivano:

I think it's 10 minutes in the morning, whether it's proper meditation or just quiet. Yeah, if I start my day, that way, it's a much better day.

Quincy Hawley:

Yeah, I was gonna say that to Stacey. Like my mornings mean the world to me. So more practically, it would be my mornings. Yeah, I get up, sometimes three, four in the morning, because I realized how powerful my mornings are and how much they mean to me to read, write, meditate, Workout, pray, be introspective, just all those different things. And so, like ditto on that detail.

Stacey Cordivano:

Yeah, it's just that that whole, like giving yourself just a little space to get some intentional plans for the day.

Quincy Hawley:

But yeah, I heard Kobe Bryant say that this morning, too. He said, Give yourself at least five to 10 minutes. It's so important and that's coming from one of the greatest basketball players of all times.

Stacey Cordivano:

Okay, last question. I asked all my guests this what is one small thing that has brought you joy this past week? And for me, it's watching Gavin eat the cords.

Renee Machel:

Parenting Win.

Stacey Cordivano:

I don't think they're plugged in. Don't worry.

Renee Machel:

They definitely not. For me, it's sunshine. So I got outside yesterday. I got outside once last week in the sunshine on the the day that it was not pouring rain. You guys. It's been raining nonstop here for weeks. And today, I have plans to get outside and to go hiking. And so I need the outdoor nature sunshine. That brings me a ton of joy and a lot of like, standard best.

Stacey Cordivano:

So good. Great.

Unknown:

I'm gonna be weird here.

Stacey Cordivano:

I like weird.

Quincy Hawley:

That's me. So the biggest thing that brought me joy was this morning, my daughter fell down the stairs. Half a flight of stairs. Now you may be asking me like, are you a jerk of a dad? She's okay. She's totally fine. That was so scary. And I was like, are you okay? And you could tell she was so shaken up. It's never happened before. And so she stood up and I said walk to the door, and she didn't have a lamp and I picked her up, took it to the bedroom, passed my other daughter off to my wife and I sat down and just had a conversation with her. He was like, I'm so glad you're okay. It's okay to cry. I just care about you and love you so much. And and then I got my belt and I went and beat the stairs up that made her and that made her laugh. And I took her to daycare like normal. And that's a part of the well being in the perspective that we're talking about, is being able to truly see the good in everything. I don't care what it is. If you train your mind and your brain to be explicitly biased, towards the positive of everything. It just makes the greatest difference. Because today I feel like the luckiest man on the face of the planet. And that my daughter is totally fine.

Stacey Cordivano:

And connecting over booboos is one of the best, like fixing, fixing hurt feelings is one of the best super parenting skills I think. Okay, guys, we probably could talk forever. I feel like this is really fun. And I'm so thankful that you guys shared some time with me and my listeners, where is the best way to connect with you find more information?

Renee Machel:

We are on all of your favorite social media platforms. But we do the most work on I'd say Facebook then Instagram. And of course we have the website getmotiveted.com where you can find our emails and talk to us directly.

Quincy Hawley:

And I would say to Get MotiVETed University is that community. it's one of the communities you can go to. the world's first school wellbeing specifically for veterinary professionals. And like all of our content is there. Some race approved courses, we have communities there, and I do live classes every Friday at 7pm. Eastern Standard Time. So definitely go there and check that out. If you've enjoyed some of what you've heard here today in terms of finding where I'll be.

Stacey Cordivano:

and I know there's like some free content and then there's a paid membership and that gets us sort of the community

Renee Machel:

and there's even race approved stuff but There is the Facebook group, that is the well being community as well. So you can, you can access that too, right and getmotiveteduniversity.com. You've got free resources, paid resources, non race approved courses, race approved courses, we've got a plethora of resources for you guys.

Stacey Cordivano:

Amazing. Thank you so much for all the work that you do for us veterinarians.

Renee Machel:

Thank you for having us.

Stacey Cordivano:

I want to thank Dr. Quincy Hawley and Renee Machel so much for spending some time chatting with me, I really enjoyed our conversation, I thought they had a ton of really insightful knowledge to share. And they are such a support system for our veterinary industry. If you need anything, I would highly suggest checking out their website, I'll make sure to link it in the show notes. Also, don't forget that they are very generously giving us 25% off that website. So make sure to use the code wholevet and check out some of their awesome courses. There are people in this industry who are really supportive of your well being. And I hope this is a good example of a place that you can find some of that support. I think Quincy and Renee would agree with me in that 10 minutes in the morning to plan your day can make amazing change in your outlook. So I would challenge you to take 10 minutes every morning this week and see how differently your day might turn out. tag us on Instagram and let us know if you try it. And also if you have a few minutes and you love this episode, please share it with a friend or go to Apple podcasts and leave a review. I really appreciate all the feedback and support. Thanks guys. I'll talk to you again soon.