Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Calderon.
Hi Anna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have wanted to be a vet since as long as I can remember: according to my parents, when I was around 6 years old I announced I would be a vet when I grew up. They didn’t think much of it, being that this is a dream of many 6-year olds, but I never grew out of that dream and so they did their best to push me to be the first in our family to go onto college. Interestingly, I had no pets at home (my Mum didn’t like animals) until I was around 8 when we got rabbits and guinea pigs. Through secondary (high) school, I helped out at a lot of farms near my home in Essex, spent time in boarding kennels learning about cats and dogs and then finally after much hard work I was accepted into vet school and moved to Edinburgh in Scotland in 2007. I met my wife, who had come from undergrad at EMU in Ypsilanti, Michigan in my 4th year. We graduated in 2012 and I started my career in a small animal and exotic specialist practice in Buckinghamshire, England.
Since graduating, I enjoyed seeing how different clinics functioned and did some relief work for a few years to prepare for working in different places prior to making the huge move to Michigan in 2015. I met Jen Azofeifa, a passionate Doctor with a very similar ethos to me, at my first job in the US. We bonded over feeling passionate about helping clients regardless of their means, and ensuring that we could help people make the best decisions for their pets. After a few years of dreaming and talking about the ideal vet clinic while walking our puppies over lunch, we decided to try and branch out together. After a long road looking at practice acquisition (the most common route for vets to become owners), we eventually branched out on our own and started MiVet Animal Clinic in 2019. Our business has grown now to a 5-Doctor companion animal hospital – with urgent care services, surgery, first opinion dentistry and an exotic service.
I love living near the Ann Arbor area and enjoy spending time with my wife, Lindsay (an Emergency Veterinarian), three small human children, a tortoise, two cats and two dogs.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was difficult moving from the UK to the US and navigating starting a new life here away from my family, particularly because my mother had been sick for a long time and it was hard to leave not knowing what was going to happen. Thankfully, I have been very lucky to be able to travel back regularly and modern technology has made keeping in touch so much more visceral – it feels like even my young children now have good connections with our friends and family members in the UK. My wife is a great support and, though she’s from Ann Arbor, she lived in the UK for 7 years and so is great about throwing in English terms here and there (car park, trousers, rubbish!) to help me feel at home and to help us feel like our children will grow up at least a little English!
Of course, for everyone the pandemic was a huge exercise in patience, flexilibity and resistance. For my business partner and I, the pandemic started around 9 months after we opened, and so we were new business owners (vets with no business knowledge or formal leadership training) trying to learn how to steer our ship while continually changing protocols and updating the public while – early on – not knowing whether COVID-19 was going to affected dogs and cats (thankfully, no!).
Lots of people in veterinary medicine suffer from anxiety and depression and our profession has one of the highest rates of suicide. Our jobs are hard – with clients worried about their pets and often concerned about the financial burden, long working hours, high mental and emotional burdens and often very limited off time. Everyone in our clinic has to work out how to deal with their own stressors. Helping our team (now 30 people!) deal with that has been a challenge, but also gives me such a great sense of fulfillment knowing that we’re working to make our clinic, and this profession, the best it can be. After this time and all the struggles, I still love vet med so much!
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our team is a great group of people who really care about the patients that we provide services for. I am so proud of everyone and how well they pull together when things are hard. Dr. Jen Azofeifa and I started the clinic together in 2019 with the aim to provide “Personalized and practical veterinary care in a trusting environment”.
Our services include:
SURGERY AND DENTISTRY
Our Doctors are highly-skilled surgeons with experience in routine as well as emergency surgery in many species. We have a huge passion for preventive dentistry, which is essential to help keep pets mouths pain-free as well as reducing dental-associated conditions such as abscesses, bone infections, and heart valve disease – and of course improving their breath and our willingness to snuggle with them!
URGENT CARE
Our veterinarians are emergency doctors as well as primary care veterinarians and our highly-skilled team is ready for your call.
Out of hours, when care isn’t available, or when round-the-clock care is needed, we will refer you to one of our surrounding 24-hour care facilities.
PREVENTIVE CARE / VACCINES
We like to be proactive about medical care and advocate for preventive care for our pets. Personalized preventive plans help keep your companion happy and healthy for as long as possible, at every stage of life.
When we started out business plan, we were inspired but a core set of goals for our business, and we still live by these today:
– Our goal for our patients is to have relaxed fear-free visits wherever possible, through adjusting and fine-tuning our approach to each individual animal. We will advocate for our patients first and foremost.
– Our goal for our clients is to develop a working relationship based on trust for the whole life of their companions – leading to higher compliance with preventive care, diagnostic recommendations and treatment plans. We aim to be their Family Veterinarian.
– Our goal for our staff is to foster a genuine sense of pride within the MiVet team. We will promote dedication to our shared mission: to continually improve patient wellness while maintaining exceptional client care.
– Our goal for our hospital is to be respected within the Dexter community as a forward-thinking and neighbourly hospital with an excellent and compassionate team.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I really enjoyed reading the E-myth books by Michael E. Gerber (including the E-myth Veterinarian) to help think of myself as a Vet, and a Manager, and an Owner/Entrepreneur and to think of those three people separately. I recommend these to anyone starting a new business, or to any vet or medical professional who is trying to wear multiple “hats” through the day!
I have recently been introducted to Ryan Leak and have been enjoying his motivational speeches and messages on giving others grace.
Thankfully, we have great resources with the Veterinary Hospital Medical Association (VHMA), American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) and Not One More Vet (NOMV) to help us navigate struggles within our profession.
Finally, I also enjoy yoga at my local yoga studio (Verapose in Dexter, Michigan) which really helps manage the physical and emotional stresses of my job and help keep my body primed to continue for as long as I can!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://MiVet.us
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MiVetAnimalClinic/
