Bella In Your Business: Pet Sitting and Dog Walking Podcast

There is a plethora of dog-walking businesses displayed in the digital world. But why does your social media stand out from the rest? You don’t want to be just every other dog walking page, but rather stand out by showcasing unique and different content. Your social media page is most likely the first thing potential clients are going to see about you, do you think it is enough to make them hire you?Maybe you don't know what to post, and I understand it, there are no changes almost daily in the digital world and it can be hard to keep up on. Or maybe you are spending too much time reposting other companies' content.

Whether you have no clue where to begin or are stuck somewhere in the middle, I want to help you move your social media marketing to where it needs to be.

This week I am giving you tips on how to achieve uniqueness that sets your business apart from the rest.

Biggest Takeaways:

8:15 Plan out your buckets

9:35 What are their pain points?

11:50 Focus on one thing

13:15 Do not put all social pages on website

16:40 Consider investing in equipment

Recommendations:

Don't fall victim of the times and let your social pages become outdated. Doors for Better Marketing With Bella are open, and only for a short time. Twice a year doors open to the program to enroll new and existing members to the next semester. Social media is always changing, and we are keeping up on the changes to help you and your business succeed. Choose from two different programs to fit the needs you are looking for.

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Episode 231: 13 Biggest Mistakes Pet Sitters and Dog Walkers Make on Social Media

Blog: The Secret To Knowing What To Post On Social Media

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 313 of Bella in Your Business. Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. You guys, I love the feedback that you send me on Instagram or in my DMs or in my email. It's just awesome. I just want to give a big shout out right now to Paws Oasis, Ceela, who is in the mastermind and also a great podcast listener. She requested that we have longer episodes.

The thing is, she's training for a marathon. You go, girlfriend. That's amazing. And while I can't give you a very long episode because it's just not the format, I really appreciate that I get to be in your ears while you are training. And I don't take that lightly. And that's funny—my phone just binged on cue. I'm not going to record this again. But I'm also wondering if when that stuff goes off, if you have an iPhone or you have the similar tones, if that kind of makes your brain go like, “Is someone contacting me?” Because that happens with me. I don’t know about you guys.

Also, most recently, I saw Becky from Paws Around Motown post this incredible video and it was her and her husband, I think it is, dancing on their porch with the dog. And it was hilarious. I just shared it to my Instagram story with the caption just talking about how I'm just so amazed at how far Becky has come. I'll never forget when Becky first came into the Jump Consulting Orbit. She came in like she has arrived.

She came into Better Marketing with Bella, she joined the mastermind, and we did intensives and we restructured her business. And I always think back to August of 2021, when I was in Chicago, meeting with some other clients and Becky came in from Michigan and stayed the night and just did an intensive with me. And I brought like my selfie sticks and my setup, you know, just to kind of show her how to use Instagram. And it is just so amazing to me to see how far she's come.

If you want to see what I mean, go to @pawsaroundmotown and you guys can check her out. It's super amazing. At the time of the recording, it is October 2nd. As my daughter loves to tell me, "It's a new month, mom! It’s a new month! What are we going to do? Let’s decorate for Halloween." And she’s autistic and she’s very much into calendars and what day it is. I barely remember the whole “30 days hath September, April, June, and November” saying, but she always knows.

And it’s pretty funny because, you know, this weekend she’s all like, “Hey, let’s decorate for Halloween.” And I’m like, girlfriend, my brain’s already been there for a couple months because we have already created and approved and distributed all of the Halloween content. Our clients got it in the Better Marketing with Bella program back on September 15th, but we were working on that stuff back in March.

So I always have to kind of like stop my head into, what’s today’s date? What are we in? Right before I started this, I actually had just sent a message to the team about, “Hey, we need to get graphics concepts going for January through June for Better Marketing with Bella,” which, two points here—one leads me to remind you that, hey guys, by the time this is recording, everyone who is in the program has probably already told us that they're staying because our retention rate is usually between about 75 to 80 percent each semester.

I’m very, very proud of that. But we also probably have the doors open right now. So if Better Marketing with Bella is something that you want to get on, if it's something that you want to be like a Becky, where you're like, “I don't know what I'm doing with social media” or “Social media really annoys me,” or maybe you’re like Leia in Florida—who I hope Hurricane Ian didn’t disrupt too much; it doesn’t look like it from your IG—you know, she used to be sitting on Canva for an hour a day before she started Better Marketing with Bella.

And she’s also in the mastermind too. And she just hired her first two employees and things are going good. She also did Pet Care Team Training too. Like, that's the thing, you guys. We’re going to get into this episode in a second, but I’m on a roll. I just really want to celebrate and elevate those people who come in and take everything by storm—the ones that just really come into the Jump Consulting orbit, I don’t know what else to call it, the ecosystem—and just go all in.

And they’re like, “We want all the things.” It is so exciting for me to see them have so much success because I have basically created Jump Consulting especially for the people who are wanting to start with employees or maybe have started with employees but just feel like they’re prisoners in their own asylum. And they want to be that boss in control, that boss in charge.

We have basically created programs. My company's goal is to help you guys, right? We’ve helped you get the clients with Better Marketing with Bella and all the social media training. And then we’ve helped you get the employees by all of the training, like let’s say in the Mastermind or Pet Care Team Training, which is the online training system and under two hours videos that are exciting and peppy.

We get feedback on that all the time. Like when they actually go train somebody, they refer to the videos and they get excited about it because they’ve already been able to see what it’s like. So there are all of these elements that are going on, that everything that I create, I’m trying to help solve one of your problems.

And that’s something we’re talking about today. Today we’re talking about The Five Most Effective Social Media Tips for Dog Walking Business Owners. And I don’t want you to tune out because I know that isn’t the sexiest title, but I really am going to give you actionable things that you can think about.

Like everything I do, I want you to think about one of the five—what is one thing that stands out to you that you can go and get yourself that quick win today and focus on? Because I don’t want you to take all of it and listen to it and be like, “Yeah, Bella, that’s great, but Bella, you don’t understand. I just don’t have time for all of this.”

No, I do understand. Because guess what? You have the same 24 hours that I have, okay? So I do understand. It’s the way in which we all spend it that matters.

If we’re going to be together for the next few minutes here on this podcast, my homework for you is to be intentful while you’re listening. I want you to see which of these five gets you excited. And I want you to implement them. And then, of course, I want you to DM me, tag me, message me, email me—whatever you gotta do—and let me know that you did it and how it worked. Or if you get tripped up on it, message me, email me, DM me, and let me help you.

All right, so without further ado, we’re going to get right into it. Gosh, I love just being able to talk to you guys. This is so great.

All right, so the very first of the five is—this is obvious. We’ve dedicated entire podcast episodes to this before, and maybe Gillian can actually put it in the show notes—but the first one is plan out your buckets accordingly.

So really, truly think about what is your pillar content? What are the five major topics that you’re going to be talking about that you’re known for? These are things that eliminate you having to think, “My God, what do I post on social?” and instead shift your mindset to, “What do I already have to share?”

When you’re walking around, or you’re in life, or you’re walking dogs, or in a pet store, or scrolling on social media, you’re alert for those five major topics. And when those come across your desk, you’re saving them in a swipe file—that’s what I call it. You’re just saving them in whatever method that works for you: in a notepad on your iPhone, in Evernote, or in a saved folder on Facebook or Instagram,...

I am coming to you today with a special, secret episode to spill all the secrets about Better Marketing With Bella.I know a lot of you struggle with doing social media on your teams. Whether you have done it yourself or sourced out to pay someone else to do it. My goal is to help you with your own marketing production and shine a little light on why this program is so successful. When Better Marketing With Bella began in 2017, it was very different. Mostly, because social media was different. I completely understand why you feel like you might be falling behind of the trends of social media that will help you obtain more clients and staff members. That is where Better Marketing With Bella comes in, and why we have changed it almost every single semester. Because as social media evolves, we must also. I am here to build you and your team up with the hopes of eventually graduating you from the program and leveraging all the social media trends there are.

Listen in on some insight into how it all began and the evolution of Better Marketing With Bella. I'll tell you how and why this program is leading clients to their dream success and how it can for you too.

I'm putting it all out there today, just for YOU! If you are wanting better marketing then this is the podcast for you.

Biggest Takeaways:

2:55 How it started

6:30 Evolution

8:00 The process

12:40 New packages

16:30 The best you can ever get!

Recommendations:

If you are a doer, which by listening to this podcast, I know you are, then Better Marketing With Bella is for you. This program is designed to help business owners who are ready to succeed with their social media marketing. The doors are open for 2023 and I have changed the packages up with you in mind. Whether you are looking for it all or just need a little nudge to have better marking with your business, there is a right fit package for you. DM me and let me know you heard it on the podcast and I will have an extra surprise for you.

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

Ooh, shh, don't tell anyone. Welcome to the secret episode of Bella in Your Business. My gosh, you guys, what's going on? My name is Bella Vasta, your host and coach. It is October 2nd, and I actually just got done recording episode 312. I'm not sure when this one's going to come out, but my team doesn't even know I'm doing this. But I figured I know the boss, so I probably can get away with it, right?

You guys, this episode, I want to tell you all of the secrets behind Better Marketing with Bella in hopes that it helps you with your own social media production. Now, the reason why Better Marketing with Bella started back in January of 2017 was for a few reasons.

First of all, nobody in the industry was doing this for the pet sitting and dog walking industry. And many have tried to replicate it, but I’m not going to cast any judgment. I’m just going to say that we kind of—well, we kill it. We kill it. Our clients kill it. We have so many success stories. I don’t even have to tell you that we kill it—the success stories show that we kill it.

But did you know that I started it because, after I sold my own pet sitting company that I had since 2002—I sold it in 2016—I sincerely missed doing marketing. I didn’t realize that not only am I an entrepreneur, but I also love marketing. I love it. I love the creativity of it. I love thinking ahead and just really impressing the pants off my community. I love planning for the holidays or just kind of being a journalist.

I don’t necessarily like to write, but I definitely will personally. I really enjoyed seeing things or walking into people’s houses and being like, “Oh my God, there’s a bobcat on their back wall. Okay, let's talk about bobcats—like in a blog or make a graphic on it.”

When I sold my business, I didn’t have anyone to do that for. And I was told at the time that I needed to figure out a way to do a “one-to-many” model, which is how a lot of Jump Consulting that I do works. If you guys have been with Jump Consulting for a while, you know we've got the Mastermind, which is one-to-many. We've got Better Marketing with Bella, which is one-to-many. The podcast, which is one-to-many.

And then we do have those select things called intensives, either on Zoom or in person, for select people. But that’s not the majority of the way I spend my time because I want to impact the masses.

When we first started, there were only seven to eight people in the program. We were still doing six-month contracts, just like we do now. But at the time, all we gave them was a Facebook cover, some graphics, emails, and blog outlines. That was it.

As I started getting on the speaking circuit and speaking at some of the world’s largest social media conferences, like Social Media Marketing World, I became an expert on Facebook groups and got on some pretty big YouTube channels and started gaining a lot of notoriety. A lot of you guys don’t know that because I don’t talk about it a ton.

If you follow me, you might’ve seen me at conferences or in interviews and podcasts where I’ve been brought on as an expert to help other people grow their business in many different verticals. It sounds so pretentious, so excuse me, but I am a social media expert.

If you think about it, I’ve never had a storefront since 2002—20 years ago. I have built everything I have ever achieved online and on social media. So I know a thing or two about it.

We had this program, Better Marketing with Bella, and I would sit there and personally create the graphics, write the blogs, and do everything myself. Then I had one VA at the time, Lauren. For those of you who have been with me for a long time, you might remember her.

Her and I grew it together. I created everything from scratch, and she replicated it. And at the time, like I said, it was only seven or eight people. I would literally take blog titles, get a ton of them every single month, and divvy them up based on who I thought they would fit best. Everyone got a different blog title back then. That’s how unique it was.

But it wasn’t sustainable for a long time. So the program has gone through many changes—and I want to tell you about those because I’m sure your own social media has gone through a lot of changes too.

About three years ago, we added videos to the program because video was starting to perform better. This was before Reels. Stories weren’t much of a thing yet. I’ve always been adapting this program because my ear is to the ground.

One of my very best friends is Jenn Herman—she wrote and rewrote all the editions of Instagram for Dummies. My other best friend, Kelly, was the former trainer for ManyChat. All of us girls are very heavily involved in social media. We used to be called the Queenies. For those of you who know us, we used to fly around the country, put our tiaras on, and go live to really help influence women in the social media space.

COVID kind of stopped that, but still. That’s the thing about social media you have to remember—it’s always changing. Just because you learned something today or you think it works today doesn’t mean it’s going to work next month.

Last month alone, Adam, the CEO of Instagram, had 15 changes—15 updates in one month. I bet you don’t even know one of them. And that’s okay—you don’t need to. You need to know how to run a pet sitting and dog walking business. I need to stay up to date on the latest changes and strategies on social media, and then be that expert who helps you and consults you.

Over the years, the program has evolved. We’ve added videos, Reels, Reel outlines. Before that, we were doing Facebook cover videos—and then Facebook went away with that, so now we just do cover photos.

There’s so much that has evolved with the program. We’ve taught social media managers in our group coaching calls, or office managers, where business owners have said, “Bella, this is too much for me. Can my assistant come?” Absolutely. I want to educate the whole world.

We even took it a step further one semester, where we had members tell us how many times a week they were going to post organically. We held them accountable to it. My team checked in weekly, and two months later, gave the owner a report. Accountability in our social media marketing program? Yes, absolutely.

Too many people are doing social media wrong—throwing spaghetti up and seeing what sticks.

Now let me tell you what happens internally, because obviously I can’t produce all of this myself anymore—no way, no how. We have a huge team.

Here’s our process (and maybe you can replicate this in your own company, but it’s not as easy as it sounds—it’s very intense).

The very first thing we do is get out a spreadsheet. I create the buckets, and then we have a content creator come up with the concepts—10 graphic concepts, 4 video concepts, 2 Reel concepts, 2 blog concepts, and 2 emails. That’s a lot of content.

Then, we added a content calendar. We told everyone when to post it. That wasn’t something we started with—we just said, “Here’s your material. Post whenever you want.” But we realized people wanted structure. So we gave them a calendar—“Post graphic number two on October 15.” Then they said, “What do we say when we post it?” So we started writing captions too.

Now, we have someone create the concept, I approve it, then they write the copy and a blurb describing what the visual should look like. Then it goes to my visual team—they create the actual graphic or video. I approve it again. Then it goes to a copywriter for final review. Then to the replicators, who produce all the versions for clients.

Finally, our customer service person handles deliveries, payments, support, and gifts—because we send a thank-you gift every semester.

It’s an entire production—but the people behind it make it what it is....

So you say you want to attract more clients? What if I told you that you do not need to wait around for them to come to you? That you can actively be out there attracting the right clients for your business. Or train someone on your staff to proactively attract more clients.

Social media. You have heard me say it before and I will say it again. Social media works. It is how you are using social media to attract more clients, that is either working or not working for you.

Today I am giving you three easy ways you can be using your social media to attract more clients, that you probably aren't already doing. Along with success stories of clients who are doing it!

These are three high-level, strategic marketing moves that you can't afford to overlook.

Biggest Takeaways:

0:40 Create your content with a strategy and position yourself as an expert.

3:35 Always try to be tagging people and places when posting

5:40 Have an outreach strategy

Recommendations:

Social media does work. And sometimes we need to step out of ourselves and admit that maybe we need some inspiration and to learn something new. Doors for Better Marketing With Bella are opening soon and an awesome change is coming. As well we are rolling out a new feature because as the times have changed, so has social media and so has (and should) your strategy. When you are looking to attract more clients, social media is the place you need to place your focus. And when you are given the correct tools to utilize social media, the sky is the limit. Joining a community of business owners who know how to attract more clients, grow your business and find serious success puts you in a position to succeed as well. Doors are opening soon, join the waitlist today!

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 311 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, your coach and host, and I'm here today to tell you three easy ways to use social media marketing to get more clients. Who wants more clients? Maybe you just hired somebody and you want to get them going. But did you know that you don't just have to be a sitting duck? You don't have to sit there and wait for the phone to ring or your email to go off with a notification.

You can actually get out there and be a little proactive about it. And today I'm going to give you three different ways and methods that you can do right now—or you can train someone to go do for you. It might be one of the shorter episodes, so you're in for a treat, and you probably can listen to this driving between houses.

Actually, go ahead and send me a DM and let me know—how do you listen, or where are you listening? Are you walking dogs? Are you driving? Are you folding laundry, working out? What are you doing? I want to know, and I'll probably give you a shout-out too.

All right, the very first one is: Create your content with a strategy and position yourself as an expert.

This means to locally reference where you are and utilize local platforms to gather your information like Nextdoor. Present yourself as an expert, then ensure that your content is something that you can reuse every single year—and local to you and your clients. So let's unpack that for a minute. That was a lot.

When I say “become an expert,” I do not mean sending out tips about, “Did you know that a parakeet has 200 feathers?” I don't care. That is not what I mean. What I mean is things like—I'm going to use Arizona examples—like javelina, which are wild boar running around the desert, and they have tusks. When they have their babies with them, they can attack. And they love pumpkins. You don't really put pumpkins out front of your house here until Halloween day because javelinas most likely will come up from the washes and eat them.

And if they'll eat that, they'll also eat small dogs and cats. It happens. And also bobcats and coyotes. It's like the Wild Wild West out here. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's still a very good public service announcement.

As an example, one year around this time, I made some graphics of javelina and was like, “What you need to know about javelinas and your pets.” And it was because I was on Nextdoor and I saw everybody talking—“Oh my God, saw a javelina, what am I gonna do?”

So it's the perfect time for me to come in as the pet expert to give some people some tips and tricks. What do you do if you see a javelina? What do you do with your dog if you see one? How to not attract the javelina—all of it, right? It's a good time to position yourself.

Same thing around here with bobcats. Bobcats are massive, and they look like little mini lions. They jump very high, so they can scale the brick walls that we have in our backyards. And again—the small pets, the toy Yorkies, all of them—the same thing with hawks.

That’s just one section: animal life. Maybe you have a Founder's Day coming up, maybe a small-town event, or a farmer’s market, or maybe there’s a new local dog park or outdoor patio that’s dog-friendly. It doesn’t have to just be about wildlife.

What I’m saying is: figure out a strategy and what makes your area unique. What kind of things can you add to people’s lives? When you can do that and post it in local groups, you’re adding value to people’s lives—or to the message boards. That’s how you establish yourself as an expert.

It’s not just about posting on your feed.

The other beautiful thing about this is that October comes around every year. Javelina season comes around every year. Snake season, hawk season—all of it. Most of it is evergreen, and you can keep using it over and over again.

Think about it—maybe you’ve already done this. What did you do last year? Is there anything you could reuse from last year? I love looking at my feed sometimes and seeing what I did a year ago. Because guess what? No one’s going to remember what you posted last year. They barely see what you post this year.

On that side note, I’m going to say this again because I keep trying to say it somewhere near the beginning:

Social media used to be about being seen in the feed—“Can I beat the algorithm?” But now, with the amount of content being pushed out every second, you can’t just beat that. Nobody cares about you. I’m sorry, but they don’t.

What they do care about is once they find your website or learn that your service exists—and they’re in the discovery stage of the sales process—they’ll go to your Facebook and Instagram (if you invite them on your homepage) and see if they can get to know, like, and trust you.

That, my friends, is exactly what social media is for.

It’s not about beating the algorithm or being seen in the feed. That should be secondary.

Number two: Always try to tag people and places when posting.

Start conversations. This is actually a loaded number two, so I’m kind of giving you more than three tips here.

Start conversations. How can you connect yourself with local groomers, vets, dog walkers, pet shops? Who’s active on social media in your area, and how can you create content that lets you shout them out or support them once or twice a month to strengthen your connection?

Keep conversations and relationships strong. Yeah, you might have to schedule this.

So, in the Better Marketing with Bella program (where our doors are opening very soon, and you need to get on the waitlist if you’re interested—or just shoot me an email at [email protected]), think about it like this:

When it’s World Veterinarian Day, you can start before you even post that post—two days before that, “Who’s your favorite vet? Tag them below!” Have people tag their vet. You tag the vet.

Then, when World Veterinarian Day comes along, tag the vets again. Make an excuse to talk about grooming, training, or whatever it might be.

Just make sure that whoever you’re shouting out on social media is also active on social media, because you don’t want to be the only one doing all the heavy lifting.

And sometimes, because they’re business owners and they’re busy, you might need to send them an email and say, “Hey, we mentioned you today.” Just like I do on this podcast to anyone that we mention.

Solicit after you post. Think about: how can we be tagging people?

Stephanie from Chicago Urban Pets has been doing this fantastically. She’s in the Mastermind and also doing intensives with me now. She did the sidewalk chalk thing and said, “Bella, we didn’t get any clients.” I was like, “Uh-huh.” She said, “But my gosh, the connections we made are amazing.”

She made so many connections from that guerrilla marketing campaign—relationships built, partnerships formed. She now has patios where she can host events easily because those businesses said, “Yeah, put the sidewalk chalk here.”

They shared it, there was collaboration, and you never know what can happen from these relationships. Really—the world is your oyster. Whatever you can cast as a vision and execute can really happen.

Why not gain relationships with points of influence in your community?

That right there—remember that sentence. If nothing else from this podcast, remember that.

Gain relationships with points of influence in your community.

Leverage it, guys. You got this. You can totally do this.

All right, and the last thing: Have an outreach strategy.

We talk about this in depth in the Better Marketing with Bella program. It’s how Becky went to a 400% engagement increase in one week—because she followed my scripts and did the tactics for ou

In this industry, we all have them. This hysterical, how the heck did this happen to me, funny pet stories. But these stories can be used for much more than a funny, casual conversation. You can be leveraging these funny pet stories.

Yes. Leverage these stories for your social media posts and content.

Take those funny pet stories and show your clients and potential clients your hustle. These stories can show your audience that you can handle the tough things, guarantee your business, and follow their exact direction. Even if it's the funniest thing you have ever done. It is a fun way to show your audience the times you had in your business that made an impact on your or your business.

This week I am bringing you 3 of my own funny pet stories and how they can be used to leverage social media content. So, get ready to laugh a little and learn how to batch a whole lot.

Biggest Takeaways:

3:50 Attack Kitty

9:45 Dog that was pushed in the stroller and fed McDonalds

14:15 Pet Sitter locked out

Recommendations:

Do you know how you can leverage your funny pet stories for your social media content? Well, in Better Marketing With Bella, we teach you how to be a marketer and ask you to meet us halfway. Of course, the custom content in those 6 months is created for you. However, we teach you how to bring the personality of your everyday social media. Doors are opening for 2023, if you are ready to take your content to the next level as well as learn all the marketing skills you need to excel in your business.

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 310 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today, we're going to have a little bit of fun. That's definitely off topic of the normal business building, but just to kind of make sure you guys understand, I totally understand what happens during the normal business day and all the funny things that come up.

Today, I'm going to actually share with you my funniest pet sitting stories and how to make them into a social media post. Because any time that we have anything going on in our company, it's always kind of newsworthy. It's kind of like putting on that journalistic hat. And it's not just reporting on the news, but it's understanding how to leverage it and make the storyline about something that our ideal client would want to know.

Something about trust, peace of mind, security, how we handle situations and backing up. There are all types of things that happen. And I want to encourage you, as you listen to my three stories today, to be thinking about your own stories and how you could leverage your own stories for your social media good.

Now, we're going to be opening the doors for Better Marketing with Bella soon. And a big part of that program is teaching you guys how to think like a marketer. We, of course, provide all the graphics, but we always say that the program works the best when you meet us halfway.

What do I mean by that? It means that we provide the awesome custom graphics, the ones that have your color, your font, your logo on it, that are doing National Daughter Day or National Hug Your Dog Day or whatever it might be. But then you bring the personality of the actual up-to-date, day-by-day kind of stories and operations that happen because obviously we can't do that for you.

That's what it means by meeting us halfway. So these stories and these things that might happen—stories that I'm not actually mentioning today—things like when I’ve pulled into a garage and there's a puddle of water in the garage, and we're in Arizona—it doesn't rain. Where's that water coming from? It's the upstairs bathroom, toilet that overflowed and the water is gushing and there are lights hanging off the ceiling—that kind of thing.

And it's like, my God, what do you do in that situation? Here I go again, going off script. I mean, in that situation, that is the most perfect social media story ever to tell people, to show them how you manage it and what you do and how you get the client on board—and not just about how you do it, but also how you are actually providing peace of mind for your client, how you're communicating with them and assuring them that you are taking on the situation and figuring it out.

Now in my company, we had a one-price, full-service guarantee. So when that kind of stuff happened and I had to keep going back and forth to meet with contractors or insurance adjusters or whatever it might be, I never charged for that time because we charged such a premium price for premium service. And I didn't care if things like that happened, or the sprinklers were springing a leak in the front lawn and going up like a geyser, or the dog got sick and needed to go to the vet. We never charged extra for that because that was part of how I ran my company.

It was the guarantee that I had, and it was a way that I backed up charging so much. Okay, I already just gave you a bonus at the beginning. No big surprise there. This is the Bella In Your Business podcast, and you guys are always getting extra stuff.

So I'm going to first start off with this first one—an attack kitty. That's what I'm calling it.

Have you guys ever experienced a cat that growls and springs on you and it's like this little eight-pound cat, but it feels like a 200-pound tiger? My God. This experience gave me nightmares, and I'm not kidding.

I was pet sitting for this one gal, Nicole, and her whole family was away. And they were a cat family. They had two or three cats. And I think they had a dog—I don't remember because this cat was really what just clawed my brain, no pun intended.

So I remember one day, I’m coming down the foyer and there's a hallway that leads to the kitchen, and this cat basically trapped me in this hallway. The front of her was crouched down, her butt was in the air, her tail was up in a big bush, like poofed out, and her teeth were showing, and she's growling at me. And I'm like, “What in the world is going on?”

I'm like, “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.” I had no idea. I had no idea that cats could be like this. It was because I walked in the house and the cat was not familiar with me—she went nuts. Every time I tried to take a step forward, she was like, “Back off, Bella, or I'm going to hurt you.” And she would swat at me and hiss.

It was terrifying. I was afraid of this eight-pound cat because I was like, “My God, what is she going to do to me?”

I had this whole superwoman complex when I first started. This was in the beginning stages of my business. I'm sure you've never experienced this superwoman complex where you think you can just overcome everything—“It's all right, the dog's not going to bite me,” or “the cat's not going to scratch me.”

So I slowly backed out and I called Nicole. Nicole was horrified. She said, “That damn cat.” She was annoyed with the cat. She said, “Do you have an umbrella? Go back with an umbrella.” She was helping me problem-solve it because I really was a rookie at the time.

I also had a mentor and I called her and said, “What in the world is going on?” And she said, “That’s an attack kitty.” I said, “An attack what?” I had no idea that cats could actually do this.

So I came back and I did that—I opened up a can of tuna. Long story short, after doing many things, I put on yoga pants, jeans over it, came in with an umbrella, also had a broom with me. It was just nuts. My main goal was to get this cat corralled into their bedroom.

Before I did that, I got a litter pan and water in there and put it right next to the door. I did eventually get the cat in there, but it was terrifying. I’m so glad I went through it because then I actually knew that that could happen. I knew that if my staff was ever in a situation like that, I had the knowledge to get through it.

It’s funny now, but I actually had to sleep in that house. I was doing overnights and day visits. When I was doing overnights, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like the cat was on the top of my bed frame, hunched over me, ready to claw my face out.

Fun little side fact: I always sleep with the door open—unless I’m in a hotel. I always leave my door open. So their bedroom door was closed, my bedroom door was closed, and I did not sleep well.

You guys—tell me, have you ever had a situation with a cat like that before? They ended up making other accommodations for this cat in the future. Luckily, I was still able to take care of the rest of their fur kids.

If that ever happened today, I’d take a picture of that cat in full puffy tail, hunched over, ready to kill me—for a couple of reasons. One, everyone would stop scrolling on social media like, “What in the world is that?” Two, it’s a great teaching moment—because everyone thinks our job is all cute puppies and kittens, and it’s not. And three, you can explain the communication and problem-solving of what happened.

There are so many ways to do this—you could do an Instagram story, an Instagram live, or a reel showing how you slipped food under the door with the cat swatting. It’s unique, interesting content that shows you handle tough situations—and you can position it however you want.

All right, moving on. The next story I have for you is the dog that was always pushed in a stroller and got McDonald's every morning.

We don’t just walk dogs and scoop litter boxes—there was also this little Yorkie who every morning at 10:30 (that’s when McDonald’s switches over to lunch menu) would

You might be looking to increase your business, or take on more clients. Maybe trying to grow your business and increase your revenue. Whatever it is you are looking to do, you need to stand out from the competition.

What are you doing differently that will stand out from your competition? What if I told you there are things you can be doing right now that will make sure you are the one to stand out from the competition and take on the clients?

Today I am giving you three tips to start doing today, that will make all the difference. 80-90% of people are not doing the first tip, so it is up to you to stand out from the competition. Solidify the business you want for the holiday season now so you can enjoy your time with family and friends.

Biggest Takeaways:

3:10 answer emails and phone calls immediately

6:10 Always Be Closing

8:35 Anticipate client’s questions

Recommendations:

As a business owner, there are many HR situations and questions you run into. In my Mastermind group, there are over four years of HR questions answered and monthly calls where an HR expert comes in to answer all your questions. It is a community of business owners keeping each other accountable for goals and leaning in for help when it is needed. If you feel like you might be alone in your business, the Mastermind group is something to explore. They know how to set and crush goals and stand out from the competition. Don't be shy, I am always a reply away to answer any questions you might have!

Links:

Episode 274: 3 Reasons Why Sales Is Super Important In Your Pet Business In 2022

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 309 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta, and today we're going to talk about beating your competition at their own game. Yeah. I know that some of you are like, “No, they're not my competition. We're all friends, we're colleagues, we all offer different things.” And that is a very healthy mindset.

So if you want to switch the word “competition” with something like “the other service provider,” go ahead and do that. But for the sake of this podcast, I am totally talking about ways to beat your competition.

I wanted to give a shout-out to Michelle, Leia, and Kathy for always listening to the podcast. You ladies, every single week, are always sharing on your Instagram stories, and it just delights me. It makes me so happy to hear what your biggest takeaways are. It fuels me for this podcast, so thank you.

There are a lot of reasons why we might want to beat the competition. Maybe you just hired somebody and need to get your midday dog walks up. Maybe you need to increase pet sitting during the holidays. The holidays are coming up, and maybe you have some staff members coming back from college during fall or winter break. If you do, reach out to them now and find out what their plans are.

But for whatever reason, you're probably looking to increase your revenue and grow your business. One of the best ways to do this is by standing out from the competition—so that when someone lands on your website, they just can’t help but sign up or call you right away. Or email you. Or whatever your call to action is (which, by the way, should only be one).

You want them to do this one thing, and I'm going to give you three tactics today that will help make sure you land the client instead of someone else. And by someone else, I mean friends, family, neighbors, Rover, Wag, the kid next door, or another company.

The first thing—and this is one of the easiest things you can do, but 80 to 90% of people don’t—is this: answer emails and phone calls immediately.

When people reach out to you, they’re not looking to leave a message. They’re looking to check an item off their to-do list and feel confident that they’ve taken care of it. They want to feel good about the price, the service, and most importantly, that they can trust you.

What better way to build that trust than to respond as soon as humanly possible? It gets you in front of them—and that’s the biggest part of the game. You’ve got to get in front of people, start building that relationship, and understand their pain points.

Hardly anyone answers the phone anymore. But if I’m calling you, I want to connect with you. A phone call is more personal than an email. If I were less serious, I might just fill out a form on your website.

Speaking of forms, let’s take a quick detour—if you have a form on your website, make sure it’s the one that integrates with your software. Don’t have a separate form that doesn’t automatically sync. And please make sure that form is short and simple. Remember, most people are using their thumbs on mobile.

So yes, answer your emails and phones immediately. Even if it’s just a quick message or video saying, “Hi, I’m Bella. My hands are full of leashes and litter boxes right now, but I’ll call you back between two and three. Let me know if there’s a better time.”

That quick acknowledgment matters. Ideally, that’s the exception, not the rule. But it works—because it shows you care. In fact, one of our listeners used this exact tactic after hearing it in a previous episode—and she landed the client right away.

That’s how powerful responsiveness is.

Now let’s move to number two: Always Be Closing.

If you’ve listened to episode 274, “Three Reasons Why Sales Is Super Important in Your Business,” you’ll know what I mean. You should always be closing—getting small yeses that move the client closer to the big yes.

Ask things like, “Can I tell you who we are and what we’re about?” or “What’s the most important thing you’re looking for in a dog walker?” or “Have you ever used a dog walker before?”

These small questions give you the information you need for your grand finale: “All I need is your email so I can send you everything in writing. Here’s the link to sign up. When can I expect your registration—tonight? Fantastic. I’ll check tomorrow morning to confirm it went through. Once it does, X, Y, and Z will happen.”

If tomorrow comes and they haven’t signed up, you now have a reason to follow up.

People are busy. Sometimes they mean to sign up and just don’t get to it. When you follow up, it shows that you genuinely want their business—and that effort goes a long way.

Now, number three—and this one’s big: Anticipate your clients’ questions and answer them before they even ask.

Have you ever talked to someone who feels like they’re reading your mind? You think, “Oh my gosh, that’s exactly what I was going to ask.” When that happens, the person has you hooked—they understand you. And when people feel understood, they trust you.

So think about your clients’ questions. What might they be wondering? Anticipate them. Answer them before they even say them out loud.

One of my favorite lines I use (and you can steal it) is: “Our clients love knowing that we work as a team to back each other up.”

It’s a subtle psychological thing—it invites them to already imagine themselves as one of your clients. It’s like saying, “Pull up a seat, you belong here.”

Let’s recap:

Answer emails and phone calls immediately.

Always be closing—keep moving toward the yes.

Anticipate questions and answer them before they’re asked.

If you do these three things, you’ll feel (and be) much more attractive to potential clients than your competition.

These small things make a huge difference: being responsive, moving toward solutions, and anticipating needs.

And please—if you’re one of those people who says “Let me know,” stop. Eliminate it from your vocabulary today. “Let me know” kills the conversation. You’re giving away control. Replace it with action steps and confident next moves.

When you show up quickly, stay proactive, and understand what your clients are thinking before they say it—you’ll win every time.

That’s how you beat your competition at their own game.

So step up your game, take action, and keep jumping.

Hey guys, this has been another episode of Bella in Your Business. Thanks so much for listening. Go ahead and keep bingeing on Bella—I’m not going to stop you.

And I’ll see you again on the next episode, number 310. Bye now.

So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you.

The best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leaving a review. I just might read it on the next episode.

I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping.

Thanks for listening.

It may be September, but the best thing you can do to save yourself time (and sanity) is to plan ahead for the holidays. Plan what business will look like, and how much or how little you are wanting to take on. Then prioritize everything. Right now you may be so swamped that the thought of planning for the holidays sends you into overdrive, but stick with me. Are you wanting to take a holiday trip to the cabin? Maybe a tropical vacation to the Bahamas. Spend more time with those who are most important. Prioritize what is important first and plan accordingly. This week I am breaking it down for you, giving you the exact tips you will need to plan for the holidays . After all, it is the season to be jolly, not stressed.

Biggest Takeaways:

1:22 Big rocks first

2:20 Batch social media content

4:10 Set goals

6:30 Down time for yourself

Recommendations:

Are you stuck in your marketing? Tripping up on the newest changes and trends? Maybe doing better in marketing is one of your goals. While you plan for the holidays, plan that your content will be the driving force of your business. And potential clients will want to see trendy, professional, content that stands out from the others. Doors are opening for Better Marketing With Bella, where we have professional content branded for you and your business for 6 months. You can't afford to miss out on great marketing.

Links:

A Valuable Lesson For A Happier Life

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 308 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and jingle bells, here they come. Ready or not, get prepared. Today, we're going to talk about planning ahead in your business for the holiday season and things I want you to consider that will save you time and your sanity because I want to make sure that you're ready to go.

So here's the thing, and this is something I do in my life and it's very helpful. Sometimes I even tell certain people in my life, “You’re my big rock.” And what that means is—if we had a mason jar and wanted to fit as much stuff as we could in there, we’d start by putting the biggest things in first, like the big rocks. Then the next biggest, and then the next, all the way down to the sand.

And then when we’re done with the sand, you can actually fill it up with water. That’s how full you can get that jar. But most of our jars are overflowing and spilling out, right?

Well, I want you to put your big rocks in first—which means look at your priorities. That could be events, people, or even you.

I’ll have Jillian put a video in the show notes on the website—there’s a really cool video that demonstrates that mason jar “big rock” concept. It’s one of my favorite mindset videos. It teaches you to put the big rocks in your life first—figure out what the most important things are that you want to do or spend time on.

Do you have a holiday experience planned for you and your family? A trip up to the cabin or maybe the Bahamas? Put your priorities first.

Maybe there’s a certain person that you want to make sure you spend quality time with. Put your big rocks first.

The next thing I want you to consider is that by the beginning of October, figure out how to batch social media content.

What are you going to talk about? What are your buckets? What types of blogs and emails are you going to write? What about posts, carousels, or reels? When are you going live—and what will it be about?

Do as much as you can ahead of time.

Social media can be scheduled. And if you do that, all that’s left is replying to people and doing outreach each day. How great would it feel to know your marketing is done for you? Then all you’d have to do is post on the fly during the day—whenever you’re excited, motivated, or have something interesting to show.

That’s what we do in the Better Marketing with Bella program, which is opening its doors right now. If you go to jumpconsulting.net/marketing, you’ll see it there. And this year, we’re doing something extra special—but you’ll have to go to the website to check it out.

This can be life-changing if you sit down and think about how you can schedule as much as possible. Make a planning day, as if you were a teacher creating lesson plans, and plan and schedule it out. Make sure your copy has hooks.

Make sure your social media is built for engagement—and by engagement, I don’t necessarily mean likes or comments. I mean things like swiping left on a carousel or copy that’s so good people press “see more.” Sit down and do it. And if you can’t do it, reach out to me.

I also want you to set goals. How much do you really want to grow?

Do you want to be overstaffed so you can say yes to everyone? Or do you want to know the schedule for the entire month and stop at a certain capacity?

Or do you have stretch goals where you want to go pedal to the metal and celebrate the holidays in January?

What do you want? Maybe you’re a dog walking company and you just want to shut down for the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s. If I had a dog walking company, I’d do that—I’d tell everyone they get that week off. Because guess what? No one’s really working during that time anyway. And if they are, they’re not really working—at least in the United States.

What are your goals? What do you want? Yes, I’m passing the mic to you today and asking, what do you want?

I feel like The Notebook—you know that part where he asks her, “What do you want?” and she says, “I don’t know.” And he says, “What do you want?” That’s one of my favorite movies.

You have the power. This is your business. This business works for you. How do you want to go into the holidays this year?

What is something you’ve always wanted to do but never happens because you didn’t make it a big rock first? What are your goals? How do you want to show up this holiday season?

How do you want your family to feel about you? “Mom’s always working.” “My wife or my husband’s always working.” “There goes their phone again—it’s more important than me.”

How do you want to show up?

I’m telling you right now—it’s only September. You’ve got time to plan this out. Your family deserves to have you.

You started this business so you could have freedom—time and money freedom to choose what you want. But somewhere along the way, a lot of you got off that path. I’m trying to bring you back to it.

The last thing: build downtime for yourself.

I can’t express to you how good it is, not only for your mental health but also for your business, when you completely shut off and walk away.

You’ll be amazed, after you get over the initial “I thought I heard my phone buzz,” or “I have to check my email,” or all those impulses we have. Once you get past that, you’ll be amazed at the thoughts and ideas that come to your head—because the clouds clear, and it’s bright and sunny in your mind.

You have to set time aside for yourself to recharge, rethink, and redo. And I don’t mean going to get your nails done or a pedicure while you’re sitting there on your laptop. That doesn’t count. I mean legitimately turning off and quieting your mind.

Every dog sitter needs to know this for the holidays:

Put in your big rocks first.

By the beginning of October, have your social media figured out.

Set your goals.

Build downtime for yourself.

The way you show up will directly impact your first quarter.

I want you to really consider this. I’m putting this out in September for a reason—because I want you to have time to prepare.

We also have the doors open for Better Marketing with Bella. You can join us at jumpconsulting.net/marketing.

If you don’t know what you’re doing with your marketing, if you don’t know the latest changes, or if you feel like you don’t want to be on camera for Reels—yeah, I know you don’t. That’s why the Reels I give you in the program don’t require you to be on camera.

And my clients are getting 5,000 to 10,000 views on them—because I know what I’m doing.

They have professional graphics—your logo, your colors, your font—so when people consider using you for the holidays, they see not only cute pet photos or videos, but also professional content that looks like it came from a legit, organized business.

If you’re not proud of your marketing, you’re probably doing it wrong—and we can help.

So, we’ll be back next week to talk about three ways to beat your competition at their own game.

Ooh, I’ve got some juicy ones for you! It’s not as competitive as you think—many of you are “collaboration over competition,” and that’s great—but let’s be real: there are still people you want to win out on.

And I’ve got three things for you—things you might already know, but I’m going to remind you because you need to be doing them.

There’s a big difference between knowing and taking action. And we’ll talk about that next episode.

I hope you enjoyed this. I hope you loved it. And we’ll be back again next week. Remember to always keep jumping. Bye now.

So, what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you.

The best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leaving a review.

I just might read it on the next episode.

I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping.

Thanks for listening.

Sometimes we think we know all the right things to do to have a successful business.

But the truth is, we are not always at our best. Certain things we think or do are causing us to drive our businesses into the ground.

This week I want to make you aware of these things. Because if you are aware, you then can see what you are doing wrong and adjust correctly to get your business where you want to be.

All the stress you feel and hold from your business will show in your business and attribute to a downfall. This week I give you 3 things you may be doing every day that is running your business into the ground. And how to change it to have a successful business.

Biggest Takeaways:

1:54 Generic website

3:45 If you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself

5:08 DIY everything

6:22 Place of scarceness

Recommendations:

Can you remember the 5 year goals you set for yourself back in 2017? What about even the 1 year go you set this time last year? Chances are, you may not even remember what they are, let alone if you obtained them! 90 days goals are what we practice in the Mastermind group. It allows you to fully emerge yourself in your goal and visualize yourself there. Thinking about where you will be in December versus 3 Septembers' from now, gives you a realistic timeline to achieve t successful business Join a community of doers ready to help you achieve the goals you are working so hard towards!

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 307 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. Today is episode 307, and we're going to talk about the three things you need to do every day to drive your business into the ground.

Bella, why are you talking about this today? Well, you know, I'm in every single pet sitting group out there—you just don't know it. And I see things. I hear things. And they astonish me.

Although I know my Jumpers are the elite—they’re the big thinkers, the doers, the visionaries—I know that sometimes we’re not always at our best. And sometimes there are things that we do, or thought processes that we have, that actually end up driving us into the ground.

I want you to be aware of those because by being aware of them, it’s going to help you understand where you’re going wrong. All of those “My God, I’m so busy. I’m so stressed out. I have no time,” all of that contributes to driving your business into the ground.

Unfortunately, I see people doing things every single day that contribute to this—and I want you to avoid them. I want you to be successful.

As always, this might be a short episode, but I really want to drop the knowledge for you guys while you’re walking dogs, driving in the car, at school pickup, doing laundry, working out—whatever it might be—and then move on. So here we go with the quick and dirty.

You’ve heard me say this one before, but I have to say it again: If I can literally copy and paste your website and put it on someone else’s, you’re doing it wrong.

If your website is generic—it’s like that classic white t-shirt that you can put on anybody—you’re doing it wrong. You need a custom t-shirt that only fits your body, and if I were to wear your custom t-shirt, it would look hideous on me.

What does that mean? It means truly knowing who you are and what you stand for, and then talking about it on your website. It means knowing who your avatar is, what their problems are, and addressing that on your website and social media.

It’s not about being generic.

When you’re generic, people won’t choose you. When you’re generic, people will keep calling down the line because there’s nothing that stops them or holds them on your company. So stop making generic websites.

I don’t mean that you can’t use templates—but I want your own pictures, your professional photos that a photographer took and edited for you. I want your language on there. I want to feel you in your social media marketing and your website.

If you don’t, that’s going to be one of the things that makes your business obsolete and not that interesting—which means clients and employees will think, “It’s just another company. They don’t really care.” That’s what people are thinking: “It’s just another dog walker. It’s just another pet sitter.”

The other way that you can definitely drive your business into the ground—more so drive yourself into the ground—is having the “If you want it done right, then you gotta do it yourself” mentality.

How many of you guys have felt that way before? I know I have. But that’s not going to get you anywhere because you only have 24 hours in a day.

And like I said in one of the past episodes, if you want to increase your business and have more time to do things, the way to do that is by bringing people onto your team.

Because your business only has 24 of your hours, but when you bring someone on, now your business has 48 hours. Bring on another? 72 hours. And it keeps going.

Think about it that way. Quantify it that way in your head.

“If you want it done right, then you gotta do it yourself”—no. If you want it done right, then you need to hire an expert, like Better Marketing with Bella, where we give you marketing for super duper cheap.

Seriously, Better Marketing with Bella—if you were to go out and get someone to do what we do, it would cost you upwards of $3,000. That’s how much content and how many assets we give you.

If you’re interested, the doors are open right now—but only for a limited time. Go to jumpconsulting.net/marketing to join us. And this year we have something extra special for you, so definitely check that out.

The next thing is trying to DIY everything.

So it’s a little different from the one I just said—“If you want it done right, do it yourself”—but it’s kind of the same. You cannot sit there and do Canva all day long. You can’t sit there and try to do your books and be a bookkeeper. You can’t sit there and try to write all your blogs.

That’s a lot of creative energy.

You use up all that energy doing those things, and guess what? Burnout is in the back seat. Because then you have no creative energy left to figure out what’s for dinner tonight. Yeah—that’s creative energy.

Or where do you want to go get dinner? And then you don’t eat. And then you feel worse because you don’t have the fuel or proper nutrition in your body.

Y’all, don’t drive yourself and your business into the ground.

The other thing is not coming from a place of abundance.

Things like affirmations—and we do business affirmations in the Mastermind in January—are about setting intentions. Don’t come from a place of scarcity. You want to have a growth mindset. You want to feel like you can conquer the world and do anything you put your mind to.

Because if you can dream it, you can do it. You just reverse-engineer it and make goals. I suggest 90-day goals—that’s why we do that in the Mastermind—and we track our progress.

The more you start setting goals, the easier it is to achieve them because you start lifting those “muscles.” It’s like when you first start lifting weights—your muscles hurt for a few days. But then what happens? You get stronger. You can increase the weight.

It’s the same thing with goals.

And don’t be setting one- and five-year goals right now. You have no business doing that. Your brain can’t comprehend it.

What was the goal you set last September of 2021? Or better yet—did you achieve your five-year goal from 2017? What was it? Who knows? That’s why five-year goals are just silly.

Get in the Mastermind and learn what it means to fall on your face and get better at setting 90-day goals.

Ninety-day goals are something I learned from Todd Herman—he wrote The Alter Ego Effect, a book I love. He’s an amazing entrepreneur. He talks about 90-day goals, and I believe in it completely.

That’s why it’s one of the pillars of the Mastermind—because our brains can actually understand where we’ll be three months from now.

September, October, November, December—we can picture December. But a year from now? Who knows. Five years? Forget it.

I’m not the same person I was five years ago. You’re not either.

By setting 90-day goals, you get four times a year to really flush those out, especially in the Mastermind, and you get better and better at it.

Why does that matter? Because the better you get at setting goals and realizing what’s achievable—and how to define them—the better you get at planning and predicting your future.

That’s powerful.

Where do you want to be? Do you want to be on a beach in Maui for two weeks every summer?

I’ll tell you one of my goals. I want to rent a beach house right in Santa Monica, where the waves crash in the backyard. That’s one of my big goals.

I know that’s going to cost me probably $10,000 to $20,000 for the month. I’ve got to figure out the schedule with my daughter, since I have her 50/50.

That’s a big, maybe even ridiculous goal—but I want to do it. Because she’s only going to be eight years old for one year. Nine years old for one year. Ten years old for one year.

What do you want your business to do for you?

Don’t drive yourself into the ground. Don’t drive your business into the ground by trying to do everything yourself, by not being unique in your offerings, by not having a growth mindset.

There is so little we know about the human brain—and it’s fascinating. Our brain is one of the most powerful tools we have. Don’t neglect it. Build it.

Keep good people around you....

20 years of experience in the industry comes with a whole bunch of advice and some ideas of what not to do. If you are looking to build a thriving business you not only need to know the correct steps but the right mindset to get you there. Today, I hope you don't take this lightly, and learn from my mistakes and triumphs. Building a thriving business begins and ends with you, your mindset, and your willingness to make it happen.

Today I am bringing to you 3 ways you can build a thriving business that you may not have thought of, or may be afraid to try. Either way, if this episode resonates with you, it was meant for you. I thrive from seeing my clients thrive in their business and today I am sharing with you how I achieved the success I have today, so you can too.

Biggest Takeaways:

4:13 Become best friends with fear

7:15 Build your team

10:05 Surround yourself with good people

16:36 DM Me!

Recommendations:

Negative energy surrounding you and your business will only hold you back from being able to build a thriving business. There are people right now in the Mastermind group that are doing the things you are truly dreaming of. If you feel alone in your business, I urge you to check it out and find the positivity that you have been missing. Years of questions answered a community of strength and positivity and a place where you are always surrounded by good like-minded people. To build a thriving business, you need to surround yourself with an energy that matches that.

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 306 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and, you know guys, I've been in this industry for a very long time. In fact, it’s actually 20 years this year. Back in 2002, I had transferred from the University of Arizona to Arizona State University. And when I did that, it meant that I moved back home. There were a couple of instances that made that happen.

But while I was moving back home and I was the eldest, I have a younger brother who’s four years younger than me. So he was still in high school, and my parents were terrified. I don’t know if any of you guys out there had parents that ruled out of fear—sheer fear. They literally have told me in my adult life, “We didn’t want you to get hooked on drugs and we didn’t want you to get HIV.” Like, that was the time. So my parents were extremely strict. I lovingly just say that, you know, my dad’s Sicilian and that kind of explains it all.

But when I moved back in, I was a junior in college and I had a boyfriend—a very steady boyfriend, like my first love. And we liked to go karaoke. We used to go karaoke multiple times a week. And I liked to stay out until the bars closed, but my parents didn’t like that.

The reason I’m telling you this story is because I had a lady across the street, Sherry, and I used to babysit for her in high school and part of college. And she had a friend, Julie, who had two white dogs—Pomeranians, I would soon learn. And she traveled for work. She traveled almost every week—like Thursday or Tuesday to Friday, or Monday to Wednesday, practically every week. She wanted someone to sleep overnight with her dogs. She had a hot tub, she had a nice, cute little patio home here in Arizona.

It was amazing. At the time, she paid me $25 a night to sleep over with her dogs. And at that point, I would have paid her. That’s how I got into the industry, you guys.

Well, fast forward 20 years and national awards and selling that business in 2016 with 10 employees and then starting coaching in 2007. Now we’re here, and there’s a lot of lessons that I’ve learned—both personally during it all and now.

There was a gal locally, Angela, who used to do things like—I used to always say, “Bella’s is the best.” And then she started to use the thing, “Angela is the best.” And I was like, “No, no, Angela is awesome.” We had gotten nationally and locally award-winning, and she would literally put on her website, “We’re not going to brag that we’re nationally and locally award-winning.”

There were a lot of tough lessons that I learned in my younger years that I definitely would have handled a lot differently today. So today’s podcast episode is all about—in my 20 years of experience in the pet industry, here are three things that I’ve learned to cultivate your business.

And guys, this is the epitome of—we’re walking down a road, and I’m saying, “Don’t step there. I twisted my ankle or broke my leg and it hurt. Don’t do that.”

So I’ve got three things, and I would honestly say a lot of this is mindset. The first one is definitely mindset. The other two are things that you can do, but you can only do them if you’re in the right mindset. And I want you guys to take this heavily, not lightly, right?

So the first thing is this: you’re always going to have fear, but where it lives in your head matters. And what you do with that fear matters—it determines how fast you will or will not scale your business. I want you to become best friends with fear.

If you say that you have none, you’re lying to yourself, to me, and to everybody else. It’s something that every single human on this earth deals with. But the way in which we choose to deal with it drastically changes our outcome.

I’ve had people in my life over these 20 years who have wanted to do things but haven’t, out of fear—things like buy investment properties or start a business or change their jobs. They’re fearful of what’s on the other side of that decision. So therefore, they don’t do it. Or they get trapped in anxiety, which is worrying about the future, right? And they worry so much about it that it traps them like a cage that they’re locked in and the key is thrown away.

I want you to ask yourself right now: what fear do you have in your business, and what role is it playing in achieving your hopes and your dreams and your goals and your why? What you do with that fear—does it paralyze you or motivate you?

Think about it, you guys, because this totally is the difference between you staying in the same spot in your business year after year and you being like a random Matt Clark of Tail Chasers, who had a dog walking business and then bought and moved into a dog boarding facility where they live on-premises. There’s this whole facility where they also do grooming, training, and then opened up another high-end daycare location—and then opened a pet food franchise.

They did all of this during COVID. Were they scared? Hell yeah, they were scared. But stay tuned for tip number three, because that’s also something that helped move their business.

This episode isn’t just about me—it’s about you. These are things I’ve learned that your colleagues are actively doing. And I want to encourage you to get out of fear mode, to get out of paralyzation, and leverage fear to help move you forward.

Now, as you’re doing that, clearly you can’t do it all by yourself. You’re only one person and you only have 24 hours. So how do you get more hours in the day? You bring people onto your team. You bring another person on—you now have 48 possible hours in one day. Isn’t that amazing?

Think about it that way. Your business and you are like, “Oh my God, I don’t have enough time.” Well, if you bring someone onto your team, now you’ve just expanded the capacity of hours that your business gets attention per day.

Stop doing it yourself. Stop spending an hour like Leia was doing in Florida, in Canva every morning, using up all of her creative energy by trying to make her own graphics. Then she joined Better Marketing with Bella, and now she’s got it all taken care of for her.

You can’t stay being the visionary of the ship—the captain of the ship—seeing what’s ahead if you’re down on the deck mopping the floor. If you’re involved in all the little tasks, it literally takes your eye off of the 30,000-foot view.

It’s why your business isn’t moving forward—because you haven’t hired and trusted the team that you’ve hired. Everybody says they want to delegate. Everybody says they need more time. This is the way to do it—it’s building the right team.

And you know what? You might kiss a few toads before you find the right one. That’s a fact of life, especially as a leader. And if you’re doing this for the first time, it’s not always going to work out the best.

I can’t tell you how many project managers I’ve been through until I found the dream team that exists today. If you follow me on IG, you recently saw our team meeting in my story—all the faces on there. I am ridiculously blessed. I’ve got a team that has bought into Jump Consulting, and it didn’t happen overnight.

So guys, stop DIY-ing it. Start building that team. I mean an office manager, someone to help you out with human resources and onboarding. If you need someone, join the Mastermind—we have a resident HR person in there every month. Hire someone like Better Marketing with Bella to take care of your professional marketing efforts so that you show up looking like a professional, not just a photo book of random pictures with text and copy that you don’t even know works.

You have to build a team.

Now the third one—and it ties into something I said earlier—is to surround yourself with good people that will help you succeed.

I know this sounds so remedial, but stay with me. Limit the energy-sucking vampires in your life.

I heard it—I said that and you thought about someone in your life....

Your hope as a business owner is to stand out from the competition and entice clients to choose you to work with, right? But you need to do just that, stand out! When there is a plethora of pet sitting or dog walking businesses to choose from, what sets yours apart from the rest?

But do you know the right things you should be doing to stand out from the competition? Do you know what your website should look like and include? Or how about the type of relationships you should build that your competition probably isn't doing.

When you know the right things to do to stand out from the competition, business will grow and succeed. This week I fill you in on 7 ways to stand out from your pet competition, with a bonus tip!

Biggest Takeaways:

1:58 Beautiful Website

3:58 Show and Tell website

5:35 Anticipate questions

7:07 Do as you say and say what you mean

9:52 Genuinely figure out how to follow up

11:56 Be real on social media

13:17 Real face-to-face relationships with community leaders

13:56 Bonus! Veterinarian endorsements

16:45 Doors opening up soon...

Recommendations:

Planning ahead is the biggest strength when it comes to running a successful business. In Better Marketing With Bella, planning ahead has never been easier. With 6 months' worth of marketing content created for you, you get to focus on growing and scaling your business. Better Marketing With Bella stands out from the competition while keeping you on track with your marketing needs. Doors are opening soon for 2023!

Links:

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Mastermind Group

Transcript

This is episode 305 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump!

Here we go. Welcome everybody to episode 305 of Bella in Your Business. Today we're going to talk about something where we really want to make sure that you stand out. It's not just a matter of being the first person who answers the phone when people call around looking for your service. It's not a question of whether your website worked. I want your customers to fall over themselves to sign up for you.

They should be the kind of customers who plan their vacations around you if you're a pet sitter, or who completely trust you to come at whatever time of day to walk their dog because you are the best and there’s no one else they’d ever want to trust with their baby.

Today, we're going to talk about seven ways that you can stand out from the competition. These are intangible feelings—things you can’t touch. These are emotions that we get to evoke in people that turn them into raving fans who tell others about us and who truly love our brand.

I want you to think about a company or a restaurant that you absolutely love—one where it doesn’t matter how much it costs or what they require of you; your answer is yes. You just love the way they do business so much that you get excited to give them money.

Wow, what a concept. Imagine if your clients were excited to give you money every week or month.

1. Have a Beautiful, Intentional Website

Your website needs to be beautiful—and that means hiring someone with a design eye. Templates are a good start, but you can always elevate beyond them. Most people are used to seeing a standard look and feel online, so when you change it up and give them something different, it grabs their attention.

There’s also something called user experience (UX). I once wrote a blog about why Rover is beating professional pet sitters—and it’s because of their user experience. You can get on Rover, much like Uber, book what you need, and be done in minutes.

Many pet sitting and dog walking businesses make the process so convoluted that it stops the sales flow multiple times. The user experience should be fast, simple, and satisfying—like, “Yes! I did it. I finally have a pet sitter, and it only took me three minutes!”

Your website isn’t just about what it says—it’s about how it looks, how it feels, and the experience it provides.

2. Create a Show-and-Tell Website That Evokes Emotion

Don’t make your site boring or all about you. Make it about your clients—their problems, their pets, their needs.

Have fun, interactive visuals—videos that are aesthetically pleasing and immersive. For instance, when you show how you communicate with clients through visit notes, display it inside a mock phone screen as if the viewer were scrolling through a conversation.

You could also include top-performing Reels on your services page—something like a fun dog walk reel embedded right into your website. Everyone knows video works, but hardly anyone is doing it right.

3. Anticipate Their Questions and Answer Them Before They Ask

This builds massive trust. When people interact with your brand, they naturally start wondering, “What if this happens?” or “How do they handle that?”

One of my favorite phrases was, “Our clients love to know that we work as a team and back each other up.” If their primary sitter is ever sick or on vacation, the team jumps in to help.

Phrases like that reassure clients that you’ve already thought of everything—and that they don’t have to go into panic mode over the “what ifs.”

4. Do What You Say and Say What You Mean

This goes hand in hand with the previous point.

When I used to take client calls, I’d always close with, “What’s your email? I’ll send all of this to you in writing.” Then I had an email template ready to go that started with, “Hi [Name], as promised, here’s the email I said I’d send you.”

When they get that email right after the call, they think, Wow, she said she’d do it—and she did.

Building this reliability into your process earns trust. Too many competitors don’t answer their phones, take 24 hours to respond, or make clients beg for information. Doing what you say sets you apart.

5. Genuinely Follow Up and Personalize Client Experience

Follow-up is not just about thank-you notes.

Think about the first 100 days of the client experience—based on Joey Coleman’s Never Lose a Customer Again. New clients often go through buyer’s remorse. They second-guess their decision.

You need intentional touch points after onboarding—ways to make them feel appreciated and confident about choosing you. It doesn’t always mean gifts; it means showing up meaningfully and consistently.

6. Be Real on Social Media

Show behind-the-scenes moments. Be human. Talk directly to your avatar—your ideal client.

For example: “Hey guys, one of the questions I always get asked is…”

That’s how you connect one-on-one. Social media is H2H—human to human. Not business to consumer. Show your quirks, your face, your personality.

People don’t expect you to be perfect—they admire your confidence and authenticity.

7. Build Face-to-Face Relationships in Your Community

Make real, intentional connections with pet store owners, vets, office managers, and local business leaders.

Aim to meet or reconnect at least once every two weeks. Drive over, shake hands, build relationships. The bigger your network, the more referrals and brand recognition you’ll get.

8. Get Veterinarian Endorsements (Bonus Tip!)

If you already have vets recommending you, take it up a notch. Get them on camera or in writing.

Imagine being able to say, “The only company in Scottsdale that’s veterinarian endorsed.” That’s powerful social proof.

And yes, I actually did this—and it worked.

You want to stand out so clients want to pick you and stay with you for years.

If I can copy and paste your website onto another company’s site and it still fits, you haven’t done enough to differentiate yourself.

Your competition should never be your focus—if you’re doing your job and being authentically unique, they won’t even matter.

Next week, I’ll share what I’ve learned from 20 years in this industry and how to cultivate a thriving business that lasts.

Until then, go binge on Bella! If you’re looking for a specific topic, go to jumpconsulting.net and search keywords like “pricing,” “employees,” or “ICs.”

And just a heads up—we’ll soon be opening the doors for Better Marketing with Bella for the first semester next year (January–June).

If everything I’ve said today sounds foreign to you, we need to talk. Email me at [email protected] or DM me on Instagram or Facebook.

If you’re not killing it on social media—someone else is. And I want you to rise as the cream of the crop I know you are.

Hey guys, it’s been another episode of Bella in Your Business. Thanks so much for listening. Go ahead and listen to another episode too, and I’ll see you again next week. Bye!

So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you.

The best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts and leaving a review.

I just might read it on the next episode.

And remember—when life gets you down, always keep jumping.

Thanks for listening.

What if you knew the right questions to ask that would separate the good, from the great employees? Asking the right hiring questions when searching for employees can weed out ones who may not be the right fit for you or your business. But how do you know what questions to ask?

The hiring process shouldn't be a stressful situation that ultimately leaves you empty-handed a few months down the road. You are spending your time and resources trying to find those great employees who will help you grow and scale your business.

This week I am speaking from my many years of expertise and giving you the four hiring questions to ask that will separate the good from the great employees you are looking to hire. What would it mean to you and your business if you found the right employees from the start, rather than wasting time training those who aren't going to work out? If hiring the hiring process has left you frustrated or starting over multiple times, this episode will help you head in the right direction.

Biggest Takeaways:

4:16 Did you ask the right questions?

6:38 What would they do in a sticky situation?

8:47 The “drink test”

9:57 What does this job mean to you?

12:20 How long can they predict their current availability

14:55 How much do they need to make a month?

16:37 Free Avatar class

9:08 Jazz HR

Recommendations:

Imagine easily knowing how to find and hire the right candidates. If you are looking for help writing a killer job posting or even how to attract the right candidates, I have put together a three-part training series that helps you ask the right hiring questions and get the employees you are looking for. Head over to joinjumpconsulting.com to see if this is the answer you have been looking for.

Links:

FREE Jump and Scale Class

Jazz HR

Better Marketing With Bella

Bella Vasta Instagram

Transcript

This is episode 304 of Bella in Your Business.

Hi there, I'm Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you've seen me speak on stage or read my book The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you're about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin' in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.

So what do you say? Let's get ready and jump.

Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta. And today, my gosh, we're going to continue on this train of hiring great employees because it's pretty tough, right? I think every single small business deals with this. It doesn't matter if you're in the pet sitting business or not. You could be in the housekeeping industry where I've just recently started to gain a lot of friends and followers.

But these are tried and true things that we're going to be talking about today—about basically how to separate your interview questions to get from the good people to the great people. And I'm really curious if you guys have any feedback or have found anything while you're interviewing that has been really great.

Now, before I get into this, I want to stress that asking the right questions is pivotal in finding someone. A lot of times people say, “I don’t want to hire,” or “I keep hiring bad people,” or “Nobody wants to work.”

And my first question is: what is your responsibility in that? Did you ask the right questions? Did you think ahead of time about the exact kind of person you're looking for and then pinpoint situational questions you needed to ask them?

The tricky part about this is you can’t just come out and ask a question because it’s kind of like—think about if you’re a lawyer—it’s like a leading question. People start to understand that there’s a “right” answer, and they’ll just give you lip service.

When you give more thought-provoking questions that don’t necessarily have a definite yes or no answer, it makes it a little bit more abstract and gets the person talking themselves up on a pedestal—or into a hole.

Questions, especially if you’re hiring employees, might sound like this:

What would you do if you walked in and a dog was panting on the floor?

My question to you would be, “I don’t know what the handbook says. You’re going to train me on that.”

There’s a difference, too, in questions depending on whether you’re hiring an employee versus an independent contractor (IC). An IC should come to you already knowing what to do. They should have their own business, their own methods, and the knowledge.

An employee, on the other hand, is someone you’re molding—training and coaching in your way.

I’m a big proponent of employees. I actually think employees cost less than ICs because most people are paying ICs way too much. And the liability with ICs, if they don’t have their own independent insurance, is astronomical. Who wants to sleep with one eye open at night wondering if they’re going to have a lawsuit or a huge bill to pay?

Workman’s compensation helps so much when you have employees.

So, let’s get back into it: four hiring questions to separate the good from the great.

First, ask “what would you do” questions—yes, even though I just said not to—but make sure they’re sticky situations with no obvious answer. For example:

You’re on your way to a doctor’s appointment that you’ve waited nine weeks for. You see a loose dog in your neighborhood. What do you do?

This is a moral dilemma, and I want to see how you think. Do you pick up the dog and take it with you? Do you stop and find its home? Or do you keep driving, thinking someone else will handle it?

There’s no perfect answer here. What I want to know is your critical thinking and problem-solving skills—how you prioritize and what your decision-making process looks like.

Now, one of the best hiring tips I ever learned came from my dad. He was a district manager for toy companies and called it the drink test.

When you ask a question—start drinking. Literally. Take a sip of your coffee, your water—whatever. The point is: shut up.

Interviewers often get nervous and fill the silence by talking. But you don’t want to lead the candidate anywhere. Ask the question and be quiet.

You can follow up with things like, “That’s interesting, tell me more.” Or, “Why do you think that?”

Use the Socratic method. If they say, “I’d put the dog in my car,” respond with, “You’d put the dog in your car?” It invites them to elaborate—and that’s when you really start learning who they are.

The second question is: What does this job mean for your life?

Jobs like pet sitting, dog walking, and housekeeping are lifestyles—they’re not clock-in, clock-out jobs. You have to love it.

Ask them what this job means for them. Are they in transition? Are they just looking for any paycheck? Are they stable and ready to stay long-term?

You want to know if they’re with you for a season, a reason, or a lifetime.

The third question is: How long can they predict their current availability?

You could ask, “Your availability says Monday through Friday, 10–4. Do you see that changing anytime soon?”

Or, “How long can you predict that schedule will stay the same?”

That helps you avoid surprises later when someone suddenly can’t work the same hours.

In my own company, I used to ask candidates to commit to six months. It wasn’t legally binding—it just made them stop and think. Some would realize they couldn’t commit and bow out before I spent time and money training them.

Finally, the fourth question: How much do they need to make a month?

Yes, even if you already asked it on the application. Ask again.

You want to know why they need that amount. What’s their motivation? What role does this job play in their financial picture?

If they say they need $2,500 a month but your job only provides $1,000, that’s a red flag. It means they’ll need another job—and their availability will change.

If they don’t even know how much they need to make, that’s also concerning.

This ties back to knowing your avatar—your ideal hire. For example, if the position only offers $1,000 a month, your ideal candidate isn’t someone supporting an entire family. Maybe it’s a retiree, a stay-at-home parent, or someone supplementing income.

You’re not just hiring one person—you’re hiring their whole household dynamic.

When you understand how much they need to make, where they are in life, and how long they can commit, you’ll confidently know whether they’re the right fit.

You can use these questions at different phases of your hiring process. Personally, I love JazzHR for managing all of this. They post on 15 job boards, handle onboarding, and allow you to create knockout questions.

Knockout questions save you from sifting through hundreds of applications. They automatically filter out people who don’t meet your non-negotiables.

You can also create phases—like customer service, communication, or work ethic—and build your questions for each stage. With the click of a button, you move applicants through your process.

If you want to try it, go to jumpconsulting.net/jazzhr. Signing up through me gives you 50% off plus a job ad and knockout question templates.

And if you want to learn about avatars for hiring, go to joinjumpconsulting.com for my free three-hour webinar.

So let’s recap:

Ask sticky “what would you do” questions.

Ask what this job means for their life.

Ask how long they can predict their availability.

Ask how much they need to make each month—and why.

These four questions will help you separate the good from the great.

Next week, I’ll share seven ways to stand out from your competition. Whether you’re a pet sitter, house cleaner, or any service-based business, you’ll want to hear it—I’m going to knock your socks off.

Please remember, when life gets you down, always keep jumping.

So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did, because I put a lot of love into this for you.

...