How to Show Up at Your Best, with Jen Quammen

**Dave Stachowiak** (0:06)
Hey, it's Dave from Coaching for Leaders. Today I'm bringing you a quick chat about managing your energy during a big change. I sat down recently with one of our recent Academy graduates, Jen Quammen, to talk about how she got intentional about handling energy well. Here's our chat.
I'm talking today with Jen Quammen. Jen is a licensed veterinarian, coach, executive, speaker and volunteer leader. She is currently serving as the president of the American Veterinary Medical Association and is a recent graduate of the Coaching for Leaders Academy. Jen, what a pleasure to talk to you here on the podcast.

**Jen Quammen** (0:43)
Thanks, Dave. It's so great to connect with you again and hopefully the audience will find some valuable tidbits out of our conversation here today.

**Dave Stachowiak** (0:51)
I know folks will and maybe we should start just by saying a little bit about you and who you are and also a little bit about AVMA, because I know some people will be familiar with the association, but others won't.

**Jen Quammen** (1:05)
Perfect. So yes, so you've already shared with folks. I'm a veterinarian. I was brought to veterinary medicine in a slightly unconventional way. So I was originally a credentialed veterinary technician before and during veterinary school, which is sort of equivalent to our nurses.
And I have had the opportunity to sort of experience veterinary medicine in a lot of different ways. And in my real world of working world, I do relief veterinary work, which means that I'm sort of stepping into different hospitals and caring for patients when I'm needed. And so I rarely have the same hospital, the same team that I'm working with day in and day out.
And I work remotely with a technology startup that's based in Texas. And so I could be literally in a veterinary clinic somewhere in Pica State or I could be behind a computer screen and talking to software engineers in Texas or wherever they may happen to be on behalf of the veterinary world. And although I am doing those things as my work throughout this year, serving as president, that is taking a grand majority of my time. And we can talk about what that looks like if folks are interested. But our AVMA is about a 163 year old organization. And we represent over 111,000 veterinarians in the US and some outside of the US as well. But within the US we have about 70, I think we're at 74, 76% of the market share of veterinarians in this country are members of that organization. And so I have the great opportunity and obligation over this next year to really be representing veterinary medicine domestically, internationally, on the very general media page. I know if we're talking about general audience education, there's lots and lots of pieces that go into being the president. And there are a ton of people who help be on the AVMA staff and volunteer side, so that I get to make us all look good.

**Dave Stachowiak** (3:01)
And you were very kind recently to invite me to spend a few hours with you at the annual convention in Anaheim and walking around with you. I am now convinced you know every veterinarian in the United States, personally.
Because it was quite an experience.

**Jen Quammen** (3:17)
Yeah, it's quite funny. I was like, I think I said to you, we should probably go somewhere where I can't be spotted, because if I'm spotted, we're never going to actually get our discussion done. And so it still took us 20 minutes or so to escape one room and find a place to be able to go have a conversation. So it's an interesting challenge and it's great. I mean, it's wonderful to have so many people being so positive along with me on this ride. But if you need to get from location A to B, sometimes I need an extractor.

**Dave Stachowiak** (3:45)
Yeah, it's... And I think this...
I mentioned that because that is the reality for a lot of leaders in some capacity of like a lot of times we are getting pulled into the time, the resource, the relationships, because a lot of folks in our community have power or position in some way. And I think that kind of leads in a bit to our conversation today too. But before we even go there, how did you come across the podcast originally? Do you recall?

**Jen Quammen** (4:11)
I actually don't recall initially when I started listening. I've been listening for years, and I over the years have collected a number of podcasts that I listen to on the regular.
And as I shared with you, I travel a good bit for my sort of regular work. And I think of podcasts a little bit as my own little university. And so if I have a windshield time when I'm driving or if I have some of that uninterrupted plane time, I am definitely the person that puts the AirPods or the headphones on and kind of tries to zone in. And so I think what has drawn me back to the podcast over time, is that it didn't just feel like this trick of like, oh, here's the quick tip for how you make all leadership work, right? Peak behind the curtain, if you will. I think there is a connection and there are so many teams and people who have spoken about, they needed to learn something, they're continuing to learn. And although these were mostly and almost probably exclusively folks outside of my industry, they shared something that I always found a little nugget to take away, whether that be psychological safety or helping teams to flourish in a recent episode. Those are things that I keep coming back to.