Colourful CPD evolved from Brian giving his first Colourful Consultation talk ‘on the spot’ as a last-minute substitute during a CPD event in 2011 when the scheduled speaker was stuck in traffic and unable to attend. This talk led to further talks and so it all began. At the time, Brian had just finished his Masters in Applied Positive Psychology during which he studied the psychology behind how various stakeholders related to and within veterinary practice define “What is a good vet?” as well as “What criteria are they are using when making this evaluation?’
In short, when all of the data collected from interviews with all of the various stakeholders was distilled, it was apparent that in order to satisfy all of their various wants and needs, veterinary surgeons, and indeed the entire veterinary practice, need to know how to achieve four outcomes; clinical resolution, client satisfaction, financial resolution and colleague satisfaction.
In other words, clinical skills alone are necessary but not sufficient to be a good vet.
Brian adapted these findings into a model of communication that combined the purposeful pursuit of his 4 ‘colourful outcomes’ with the psychology and the behaviours needed to achieve them during veterinary consultations. This model became known as The Colourful Consultation. In fact, the model was named by a practice manager who quipped that “The Veterinary Consultation” was too boring a title for his talk and she introduced it as “The Colourful Consultation”. Despite Brian’s efforts to shake it, the name stuck as people referred to him as ‘That Colourful Consultation’ guy! In 2016, Brian recorded his talks as webinars, which have now been watched in over 25 countries around the world. Some of them have been translated into subtitles in Spanish and Brazilian-Portuguese.
In 2015, whilst delivering his Colourful Consultation talk at a practice, one of the vets asked Brian whether he would ‘say a few words to the receptionist team’ to help strengthen the connection between the consulting vets and the front of house staff. Sticking with a theme, Brian called the talk ‘The Colourful Receptionist’. The Colourful Receptionist talk became the seed that evolved into Colourful CPD’s popular Accredited Veterinary Receptionist Award today.
In 2019 Colourful CPD invested heavily in its website functionality in response to the demand for its online courses. This has allowed Colourful CPD to offer an ever-expanding portfolio of courses to assist all roles within veterinary practice develop their non-clinical skills.
In 2020 Colourful CPD launched its first Non-Clinical Skills Certificates, denoted by the post-nominals CertNCS. Our range of CertNCS’s include Veterinary Consulting, Nurse Consulting, Practice Management, and Coaching Veterinary Consultations.
Colourful CPD has now evolved into a company whose products are used all around the world. In 2019 alone, Colourful CPD spoke and / or exhibited in conferences and events in Singapore, St Petersburg, Sao Paulo as well as within the UK and Europe.
In 2022, due to popular demand, we launched our sister company Colorful CE in the US.