About The Veterinary Project
That’s why we started The Veterinary Project – a show made by vets featuring no pets! We wanted to build a community, centered around you, that gets people talking about a variety of topics, some educational, some light-hearted, but none that require you to have your “work” hat on.
Every two weeks on The Veterinary Project, you’ll find new podcasts on topics ranging from mental and emotional well-being to finding your niche in the veterinary community to personal finance and more. It’s a break from thinking about the day-to-day to help you focus on other areas, in and out of work, that are just as important as patient care. It’s a community of veterinary professionals who want to live more intentional, balanced lives and support one another along the way.
Come join the conversation!
About The Founders / Co-hosts
Dr. Michael Bugg
DVM
Michael graduated from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in 2008. He practiced as a mixed animal veterinarian for a couple of years before moving over to small animal general practice. Early in his career, he saw the importance of investing and having multiple streams of income as he witnessed other veterinarians struggle to retire. Having always had a keen interest in personal finance, investing, and business, Michael used this as motivation to begin investing with the goal of making working as a veterinarian optional! Michael and his wife Rosalie began investing in real estate in 2012. They continued building their real estate portfolio while working in their respective careers. Eventually this real estate portfolio allowed Michael to cut back his veterinary hours to part time, and, in 2018, stop working altogether as a clinical veterinarian.
During his final years in practice, Michael felt the weight of veterinary clinical practice, like many of his colleagues. So much so that the moniker “Miserable Mike” was born. This prompted Michael to dive into many different areas of personal development and get intentional around creating the life he wanted to live. In the midst of this, many conversations with many different veterinarians were had. The overwhelming reality was that Michael was not alone!! So many other veterinarians were feeling the exact same way. And from this, the idea for The Veterinary Project was formed.
Michael envisioned a community of veterinarians sharing their stories and all working together to navigate the various challenges in this career. Believing that you can go from struggling to living a life that you absolutely love inspired Michael to push forward with this idea. A few dozen conversation with Jonathan later, and here we are!
When the microphone and camera aren’t on, Michael can be found hunting down his next real estate deal, participating in personal development masterminds, or hanging out with his wife Rosalie, daughter Riley, and son Ethan. Most likely a beach bum in a former life, Michael loves getting away to hot and sandy destinations or to the mountains! Ultimately, he is obsessed with lifestyle design and removing the limits on what we believe is possible with our one wild and crazy life!
Dr. Jonathan Leicht
DVM
A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, Dr. Jonathan Leicht completed his Bachelor of Agriculture degree followed by his DVM degree at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, Canada in 2009. His career started in a very busy hybrid small animal practice before joining Novartis Animal Health in multiple sales and key account management positions. In 2015, Jonathan joined VCA Canada, where he quickly developed additional business acumen in ever-growing operational roles, including Senior Regional Operations Director Specialty, Western Canada. In October 2019, he made a leap back into practice, has started construction on a new small animal companion clinic in Calgary, Aberta, and joined Mosaic Veterinary Partners, a mixed animal group of veterinary clinics in Western Canada as Director of Operations.
He is the co-founder of The Veterinary Project, a veterinary community platform whose goal is to share conversations through podcast episodes exploring the successes, joys and struggles within veterinary medicine. Through the exploration and sharing of knowledge gained in this amazing industry, Jonathan and his co-founder Mike’s goal is to help facilitate growth and development opportunities that lead to people being able to live truly intentional lives in and out of the veterinary profession.
Jonathan also currently sits as a council member of the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association. In his spare time, you will find him outside playing and traveling (pre-covid) with his wife and two young kids, attempting to get into another great historical fiction book or playing any number of sports.
